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LIFE AND WEITINGS 
 
 OP 
 
 JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
LONDON 
 PHIKTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. 
 
 NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
LIFE AND WEITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 JUAN DE YALDES, 
 
 SPAl^ISH EEFOEMER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN B?^'^FFEN. 
 
 WITH 
 
 ^ 'translation from tfte Italian 
 
 OF HIS 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T. BETTS. 
 
 TAUJESIO HISPANTTS SCarPTORE SUPEKBIAT ORBIS. 
 
 Daniel Rogers. 
 NON 'MoBTruBA.~&iulia Oomaga's Motto, p. 112. 
 
 ^ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BEENAED QUAEITCH, 15 PICCADILLY. 
 
 1865. 
 
 [_T/te Hghf of Tramlation and npprodiiHiov ix reserved^ 
 
*®6cse JWeUitatfons \xitxt UEStpeB to txtxtt tn tje 
 goul t^E lobe ana fear of C&oii; anti tSeg ougfit to 6e 
 realr, not in tfic Surrg of iustness, ftut in rettwmtnt; 
 in fragments, get smtessiklB ; tje reaUer laging tjbem 
 at once astfte loSen fie is foearg.' 
 
 ANSELM. 
 
 /]^36f;f 
 
 I .^^^^- T!.3 "'^ 
 "^^ Pre:i:lonc White 
 Library 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The book entitled The Hundred and Ten Considera- 
 tions OF SiSNiOK John Valdesso, printed at Oxford 
 in 1638, 4to., has become scarce. It is shut up in 
 libraries, and should a stray copy come abroad, it is 
 rarely to be obtained by him who seeks for it. This is 
 not so much because the work is sought for by many, 
 and largely known; for the principles it teaches are 
 almost as much in advance of the present times as they 
 were in the days of the 'sainted George Herbert' and 
 Nicholas Ferrar, who first published it in English. In 
 their day it was perhaps read as much for their sakes 
 as for the Author's. It was thought that a book sanctioned 
 by their approval must be good ; and down to the present 
 time there has not been a reader of their interesting bio- 
 graphy who has not been arrested by the name of John 
 Valdesso, whom they did so much love. Of him, how- 
 ever, George Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar knew nothing 
 more with any certainty than what was put on the- title- 
 page of the ' Considerations.' In the pages of their own 
 biography he appears as a mythic personage, surrounded 
 by a nimbus of mingled light and obscurity. The fertile 
 fancy, however, of Isaac Walton was brought into exercise 
 in his Life of George Herbert, to sketch the mysterious 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 person who, it was dimly apprehended, had exercised a 
 surprising influence in Italy about the period of the Ee- 
 formation. It pourtrayed John Valdesso, a Spaniard, as 
 a grave, pensive old mystic, who so wrought upon the 
 superstitious bias of Charles V. that he resolved to withdraw 
 with his adviser from the world of public life. Of this, 
 Isaac Walton supplies the following imaginative account : — 
 ' This John Valdesso was for his learning and virtue 
 much valued and loved by the great Emperor Charles V., 
 whom Valdesso had followed as a Cavalier all the 
 time of his long and dangerous wars ; and when Valdesso 
 grew old and weary of the world, he took a fair 
 opportunity to declare to the Emperor that his reso- 
 lution was to decline his Majesty's service and betake 
 himself to a quiet and contemplative life, because there 
 ought to be a time between fighting and dying. The 
 Emperor had himself, for the same or other reasons, 
 taken the like resolution; but Grod and himself only 
 knew them, and he desires Valdesso to consider well of 
 what he had said, but keep his purpose within his own 
 breast, till they two had another opportunity of a friendly 
 discourse, which Valdesso promised. In the meantime 
 the Emperor appoints privately a day for him and 
 Valdesso to receive the sacrament publicly, and appointed 
 an eloquent friar to preach a sermon on contempt of the 
 world, and of the happiness and benefit of a quiet and 
 contemplative life, which the friar did most affection- 
 ately. After which sermon the Emperor declared openly: 
 That the preacher had begot in him a resolution to lay 
 down his dignities, to forsake the world, and to betake 
 himself to a more monastic life. And he pretended he 
 had persuaded John Valdesso to do the like ; but this is 
 most certain, that after the Emperor had called his son 
 Philip out of England, and resigned to him all his king- 
 doms, that then the Emperor and John Valdesso did per- 
 
PHEFAOE. Vil 
 
 form their resolution. This account,' he goes on to say, 
 ' I received from a friend that had it from the mouth of 
 Mr. Ferrar ; and the reader may note that in this retire- 
 ment John Valdesso writ his CX. Considerations and many 
 other treatises of worth, which want a second Mr. Ferrar 
 to procure and translate them.' 
 
 The whole of this story is a pure fiction, which it is 
 the ungracious duty of Truth to negative, though the 
 lively imagination of Isaac Walton has adorned it with 
 his own graceful colouring of romance. If it be now my 
 part, by unsought necessity, to destroy his pleasant episode 
 about Jufin de Valdes — this ' John Valdesso,' as he calls 
 him — and the Emperor, it is agreeable to me to be able 
 to supply its place by another episode in his life more 
 true and graceful, — more graceful because more true, — 
 that of his acquaintance with Griulia Gronzaga, Duchess of 
 Trajetto and Countess of Fondi; for whom he prepared 
 his ]\ISS., and who took her part in the conception and 
 production of at least one of them.* 
 
 And if so little was truly known of this John Valdesso 
 by his English translator, the Spaniards, his countrymen, 
 who had seen him with their bodily eyes a century earlier, 
 were scarcely wiser, for they viewed in him not one but 
 two persons ; and if some few of them escaped this illusion, 
 and could have told us something about him with accuracy, 
 the fires of the Inquisition dried up the iak of their pens 
 with terror. As in Spain, so in Italy, where he lived and 
 died at last, it was the same. Authors, who one after 
 another record his name, all moved to curiosity about it, 
 yet possessiag little except this one book, can tell us 
 scarcely more than his countrymen have done. His name, 
 cast out by the bigots of his own nation, banned in Italy, 
 and rejected amongst the dogmatic Switzers, found at 
 length, a hundred years later, a quiet asylum in England, 
 
 * The Alfabeto Chiistiano. 
 
yiii PREFACE. 
 
 the Ark of freedom. It appears incumbent, therefore, 
 upon us to unveil the ' true efBgies ' of him whom George 
 Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar yearned to know, and whom 
 a number of more recent writers have been anxious to 
 pourtray, yet could not. 
 
 Having now obtained a larger number of his books 
 than it had been the good fortune of others previously 
 to possess, I have been enabled, by comparing the style 
 and thoughts of one with another, to determine the author- 
 ship of those which were at first anonymous, and also to 
 ascertain from his own words many of the circumstances 
 of his life that had been but dimly apprehended before. 
 In order to lighten the labour of others who may be 
 inclined to carry on their researches in this direction to 
 a greater length than myself, I have been careful to mark 
 the successive stages of progress by references placed at 
 the foot of the page. And as a limited number of copies 
 of the Author's works have recently been reprinted, and 
 those not intended for public sale, in a series entitled 
 Reformistas antiguos Espanoles, if these sources of in- 
 formation are not readily to be obtained, they are now to 
 be found at least in several of our public libraries by those 
 who may be inclined to study them. For the advantage 
 of the general reader, I have thought it well to extend 
 the extracts from them to a length that, but for this rea- 
 son, might seem disproportionate to the shortness of the 
 narrative, and these I hope will not be found in them- 
 selves tedious or uninstructive. 
 
 For the particular view given in the Introductory chapter 
 of Spanish national affairs during the early part of the 
 sixteenth century, and of the policy of what we call the 
 ' Country party,' or ' Commons,' comparing it to that dis- 
 tinguished by the same term in the contest for freedom 
 in our own country in the times of Charles the First and 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Cromwell, I am indebted to gleanings from the Epistles 
 of Pedro Martir de Angleria, in the Spanish Appendix to 
 the Ziento i diez Gonsideraziones por Juan de Valdes. 
 Londres, 1863. This Appendix, containing also the cor- 
 respondence of Erasmus with the brothers Valdes, trans- 
 lated into Spanish, and other very valuable information 
 respecting them, occupies 255 pages, with an Index to it. 
 
 Many notices about Valdes, the erroneous as well as 
 the true, scattered over the pages of various writers, Dr. 
 Edward Boehmer of Halle has, with his truly G-erman 
 characteristic of industrious research, collected in the notes 
 to an elaborate Appendix to his reprinted edition of 1550 
 of ' Le Cento e died divine Consider azioni di Giovanni 
 Valdesso. Halle in Sassonia, I860.' The Appendix is 
 entitled ' Cenni Biografici sui Fratelli Giovanni e Alfonso 
 di Valdesso, 1861,' — 127 pages. Of this volume 306 
 copies were printed — only 200 of them for sale. It is to 
 be regretted that Dr. Boehmer did not supply an Index 
 to his valuable Appendix. This would have rendered its 
 instructive materials, in the notes especially, much more 
 accessible to the enquiring student. Dr. Boehmer is also 
 author of the article 'Valdes,' in Herzog's Real-Encyclo- 
 poidie fiir protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Gotha, 
 1863-1865. 
 
 The Dialogo de la Lengua (tenido azia el A. 1533), i 
 publicado por primera vez el ano de 1737. Ahora reim- 
 preso conforme at MS. de la Bihlioteca Nazional, unico 
 que el Editor conoze. For Apendize va una Carta de 
 A. ValdSs. Madrid: Ano de 1860, with its interesting Pre- 
 face and Appendix, has furnished various particulars about 
 the manner of Jud.n de Valdes' Sunday readings with his 
 friends at Naples ; and the letters of Alfonso Valdes and 
 Castiglione are given in the Appendix, derived from Se- 
 rassi's Lettere di B. Castiglione, t. ii. pp. 169-202. 4to. 
 
 The notice of Giulia Gonzaga and the circumstances of 
 
-J PKEFACE. 
 
 her relation with Juan de Valdes are taken from the 
 sketch prefixed to the English translation of the Alfor 
 beto Christiano con Vaggiunta di due traduzione, Vuna 
 in Castigliano, Vcdtra in Inglese. Londra, Vanno 1860 
 {non publicato) : a hundred and fifty copies were printed. 
 Only one hundred copies, of the English part alone, were 
 printed for publication. 
 
 The Report of the Trial and Martyrdom of Pietro 
 Garnesecchi, by Richard Gibbings, B.D. Dublin, 1856; 
 a pamphlet of xxiii. and 63 pp. full of information, has 
 furnished the particulars about Garnesecchi and the pre- 
 servation of the MS. writings of Valdes by him and 
 Giulia Gonzaga. 
 
 When the volume was far advanced, there came into my 
 hands, from Dr. Edward Boehmer of Halle, a Latin tract 
 entitled Lac Spirituale. Institidio Puerorum Chnstian- 
 orum Vergeriana, edit. F. Koldeivey. Brunsvigae, surrup- 
 tibus Alfredi Bruhn, 1864, pp. 1-17 and 19-32. 12mo. 
 At the end of p. 17 is Ex Italico Versus est etiam Oer- 
 manice et Polonice. It is a reprint of Vergerio's Latin 
 version of the Italian tract by Valdes, which stands in 
 the List of his works at page 166, number 6. Qual ma- 
 nieri, etc. Not discovered. 'What method should be used 
 to train up Children of Christian parents in the Christian 
 religion ? ' This Latin tract teaches the acknowledged prin- 
 ciples of the ' ex. Considerations ' and the ' Alfabeto Chris- 
 tiano,' and uses, even in the Latin, the form and manner 
 of his peculiar expressions ; and there can remain no 
 doubt that it was essentially written by the same author. 
 I regret that I became acquainted with it in the Latin 
 too late to make use of it in the following ' Life.' At 
 the note at page 166 to the List of his writings, I have 
 given rather an adverse opinion as to its being the 
 genuine work of Valdes, which better acquaintance enables 
 
PKEFACE.- XI 
 
 me here to correct. I then knew it only by the German 
 version, which is a translation of a translation — a trans- 
 lation indeed thrice repeated, passing successively from 
 the Spanish MS. under what Dr. Boehmer calls the triple 
 mantle of Italian, Latin, and German, and which in 
 that form appeared too theologically dressed to be alto^ 
 gether genuine. 
 
 At page 86 of the 'Life' following, Francisco Dilfo is 
 called an Andalusian; he was a Fleming or German by 
 birth, an Andalusian in temperament. 
 
 Eecently, and while the latest sheets of this volume were 
 passing through the press, died Don Luis de Usdz i Eio, 
 Editor of the Refokmistas antiguos EspaSoles, to the pages 
 of which I have been so much indebted. He was, like 
 Valdes, by birth, uno Gaballero, a gentleman ; and like 
 him, a person of sound and exact learning, of great sim- 
 plicity and modesty, — of genuine truthfulness both in his 
 life and in his writings. He loved his country, lamented 
 its historical decline, and disinterestedly sought its highest 
 welfare. With the exception of two of them, the twenty 
 volumes of the Refokmistas, besides others not included 
 in the series, were edited by his own labour during five 
 and twenty years; and with the exception of a single 
 small volume, they were printed entirely at his sole cost 
 and charges, without connection with any Society or Asso- 
 ciation, religious or literary; and one private friend alone 
 aided him to procure the recondite materials. Although 
 he could not see the completion of this present work, 
 it is satisfactory to know that he read the whole of the 
 first part, that is the Life &c., as the sheets were printed 
 off, and that, with the best knowledge of any man on 
 the subject, he on several occasions expressed his estimate 
 of it, in terms it might seem presuming upon the judg- 
 ment of others, for me at least, to produce here. 
 
xii PKEFACE. 
 
 In drawing up this Life of Jvln de Vald^s, my 
 view has been to reduce the events now authenticated 
 to chronological order, dismissing the errors of previous 
 conjectures;— to prove the personal distinction between 
 him a;nd his brother Alfonso, the Latin Secretary of Charles 
 v., and yet their unity by twinship, training and edu- 
 cation, affection, and similarity of genius ; — to show by 
 quotation the consistency there is in his writings, from 
 the apparently political, yet really reformatory ones of 
 his earlier years, to the more exclusively religious senti- 
 ments of his later life. It has also been my wish to 
 represent that breadth and depth of his Christian profes- 
 sion, exalted to the simplicity of the Gospels, grounded 
 and settled in the faith of the heart, which Valdes endea- 
 voured to practise himself and to teach to others; and 
 which gave to his teaching such rare acceptance and 
 efficacy. 
 
 It remains for me only now to add, that these Consideea- 
 TIONS were the fruits of the ripest thoughts of the Author's 
 mind ; and though the volume may not gain the approval 
 of all readers, — for some will not accept its propositions; 
 others will think it tedious ; others, mystical ; others, 
 ascetic, — yet there will doubtless be some who, like his 
 early friends of ancient days, will be found to relish its 
 pages, and to love the Author with an entire and grateful 
 affection. 
 
 BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN. 
 
 Neab Wobuen ; 
 lOi;^ month 1866. 
 
 ^ 
 
Lac Spirituale. — See page 166, wofe. xiii 
 
 In a letter to the Editor of the Lac Spintuale, Dr. 
 Ed. Boehmer of Halle has pointed out the coincidence of 
 its sentiments and peculiar expressions with the ' CX. Con- 
 siderations,' the ' Alfabeto Christiano/ and ' Commentary 
 on Eomans and Corinthians : ' the following are some 
 examples : 
 
 In the first place and before all other things, let Christian parents give 
 their children to understand that God, through human generation (from 
 Adam) is the parent of all mankind, and that He is propitiated and re- 
 conciled to us Dy our re-generation through Christ. See Considerations 
 LXXI. and LXiXV. 
 
 Let them know that God is the Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus 
 
 Christ, and that the Son of God, who at the appointed time took upon 
 
 Himself the nature of man in order to redeem mankind, is co-eternal with 
 
 . the Father ; and that the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and 
 
 the Son, is also co-etemal -with them. 
 
 That this God is invisible, universal, and immortal, in whom dwell 
 omnipotence, wisdom, goodness, mercy, truth, and faithfulness — who is 
 indeed Simself wisdom, goodness, mercy, etc. Consideration XLIX. 
 
 Let them understand that after the creation of all other things, God 
 made man, higher and more excellent than every creature on the face of 
 the earth ; even in the image and likeness of God, seeing that man was 
 made immortal, wise, just, true, and faithful, and that he was placed, 
 adorned with so many and such great gifts, in a terrestrial Paradise. 
 
 That man by his disobedience lost the image and likeness of God 
 in which he had been created, and being driven from Paradise, became 
 like the beasts, passible and mortal ; his spirit, impm-e, unrighteous, 
 sinful, and wicked. For this reason he was driven out of Paradise. 
 Considerations L and TiXXTT. 
 
 The wickedness of mankind having become great on the earth, God 
 sent a flood which destroyed both man and beast ; Noah alone, with his 
 wife, his sons, and his sons' wives, vrith a certain number of all kinds of 
 beasts, were saved. Not because the ark might preserve them were they 
 saved, but because Noah, believing God would fulfil His promises, and 
 having faith in His word, entered with his family into the ark. Hence 
 Noah was not saved by the ark but by his faith, sustained by which he 
 risked himself, his household, and the animals in the ark. Consideration 
 CIV. 
 
 Now, true Christian faith which is divinely inspired and revealed pro- 
 duces these four efiecta in believers : it incites them to love God and 
 those things which are of God ; and to love Christ and all things that 
 are of Ohnst. In addition to these effects it brings peace to the con- 
 science when it knows that it is reconciled with God. Besides, it teaches 
 us to deserve well of aU men, but especially of them who are of the 
 household of faith. Lastly, it mortifies and slays the desire of sin in 
 believers. Therefore the love of God and of Christ, peace of conscience, 
 Christian charity, and mortification of the fiesh, are the sweet fruits of 
 Christian faith divinely inspired. Just as it is the property of the sun to 
 give light and heat, and that ought not to be called the sun which does not 
 give light and heat — so faith ought not to be considered as, or called, 
 Christian faith which does not incite the mind to the love of God and of 
 Christ — which does not give peace of conscience, which does not mortify 
 the desire of sin. Considerations XXIX. LXVII. LXX. LXXXV. 
 XCIX. Commentary 1 Corinthians i. 
 
LIFE OF JUAN DE YALDES. 
 
 C H APTEE I. 
 
 INTEODUCTOET. 
 
 In the second quarter of the 16th century, a person ap- 
 peared in Italy, whose residence there, for only a few years, 
 left an impression on the age and on his adopted country. 
 The influence extended to other lands, and in our own, an 
 almost unconscious reflection of it may even yet be traced. 
 His mind was a prime mover of other minds ; he stirred 
 them from the surface to their inmost depths. It was like a 
 stone cast into the current of their thoughts, that lay deep 
 iu the secrecy of the bottom, whilst the circles on the top 
 undulated fainter and fainter indeed away from the moving 
 impulse, but expanded larger and larger to the shore. 
 
 \ " So the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake : 
 
 The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 
 Another stUl, and still another spreads." 
 
 He came a stranger to his adopted country, and died in 
 peace, almost without observation. Men scarcely knew his 
 native place or his proper name. He may be said to have 
 been bom double, for he was one of Twins. At first he was 
 confounded with his brother ; in later life the public features 
 of both were drawn almost exclusively from his original. He 
 was noble and rich, yet he laid wealth and honours aside — 
 not, however, as despising them, for he lived cheerfully with 
 others, and principally amongst persons of rank and letters ; 
 he was in pursuit of riches beyond rank, and a wisdom above 
 that of the schools, always preferring the good of the future 
 to the advantages of the present. He was deeply versed in 
 the doctrines of the Bible, but not a theologian, in an age 
 when theology was considered to be less the experimental 
 knowledge, than the science of religion; he was poor in spirit, 
 but not a monk. He was not an ascetic, for he sought the 
 brotherhood of human life ; and although himself but one- 
 half of a birth, he had a heart as large in its sympathies as 
 humanity itself. He was loved much, and was hated much ; 
 
 B 
 
2 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 yet he loved all again, and from tlie depths of his bosom he 
 abhorred persecation. To attempt to serve the cause of 
 Christ by persecution or compulsion was indeed to persecute 
 him. He formed no sect, yet was he followed by so influen- 
 tial and increasing a class, that Eome, to root them out, 
 thought it worth while to enlarge the searching code of her 
 Inquisition. 
 
 He wrote much, for others rather than for himself, and 
 himself printed little or nothing ; his few books were all 
 written in his own Spanish tongue, yet became most read 
 and known in the languages of the foreigner. The trans- 
 lators, French, Dutch, German, and English, knew little 
 with certainty of him who had composed the books they 
 admired, and to which they gave their labour. Com- 
 pilers of large Biographical Dictionaries actually knew 
 scarcely any of his writings, yet they kept his name in their 
 pages, mixing the few acknowledged facts known about him 
 with much that was fabulous. 
 
 It remains for us who have recovered more of our author's 
 works than it was the good fortune of our predecessors to 
 know, to attempt to exhibit in the best manner we may, yet, 
 after all, incompletely, a truer " efiigy ■" of this remarkable 
 man than the critical care of Bayle could construct, the 
 judgment of Hallam could measure, or the translator 
 Nicholas Ferrar could discover in the John Valdesso 
 whom his friend, the sainted George Herbert, did " so much 
 love."i 
 
 According to the inconvenient practice of rendering proper : 
 names of persons and places into the form of the language ! 
 in which the translations- were made, rather than retaining ' 
 them in their native orthography, the name of Juan de I 
 Valdes has been variously written. Thus the variations 
 Johannes Valdesius, in Latin ; Giovanni Valdesso, in Italian ; 
 Jan de Val d'Esso, in French; and John Yaldesso, in 
 English, were originally derived from the Spanish Juan de 
 Valdes. 
 
 The house of Valdes was one of the most ancient and 
 distinguished of the kingdom of Leon.^ One noted member 
 
 I See George Herbert's letter to apellido y familia Uamado Hernando de 
 
 Nicholas Ferrar. Valdfe vino a poblar a la oiudad da 
 
 -LJuan Pablo MartirRizo,"Historiarte Cuenca mas ha de trezientos y oinquenta 
 
 la Cmdad do Cuenca." Madrid, 1629, afios, donde dex6 casas suntuosaa, Ca- 
 
 loi. p. ^»4 ; Ija Oasa de Valdes es de pillay mayorazgo : tuTO muchos hiios, y 
 
 la mas antiguasy principales del Eeyno deeUosmuy noble desoendenoia.quepor 
 
 dfoHnli^ilv, ^A ''^^K}">'™S na-ned some su notoria nobleza asoendifi uno a ser Ca- 
 
 »™Z^^/ if "'sml'ers of the family, marerodelPontifloe, yotrofu^Seoretario 
 
 prnall''de°vX?'A'^'"?;?,^l°^'^'fS^' ^"^ ^mperador : y iZ der^as descSdi- 
 xernanao de Vald«s, Archbishop of Se- entes desta Casa han sido RsD-idoras v 
 ville,he contmues : " Un Cavallero deste Procuradores de Cortes por la Sudad! y 
 
THE AJS^CESTKY OP VALD:6s. 3 
 
 of the family was the Grand Inquisitor^ Fernando de Vald(?s, 
 Archbishop of Seville, who in 1561 made a revisal of the 
 whole code of the Spanish Inquisitionj which continues, with 
 the exception of a few slight alterations, to be the law to this 
 day.i The ancestor of the family, Hernando de V'aldes, 
 began to found the city of Ouenca, in New Oastille, about 
 the close of the 12th century : he left magnificent houses, a 
 chapel, and an entailed estate. He had a noble posterity. 
 Under these proprietors, the people enjoyed the blessings of 
 a genealogy of virtues ; liberty and the rule of justice were 
 followed by improvement and wealth ; and this condition con- 
 tinued until the blight of a tyrannous superstition feU upon 
 them, reversing that prosperous condition into that which is 
 there shown at the present day. The family was represented 
 in the latter half of the 15th century by another Hernando 
 Valdes, who thus became by inheritance perpetual Begidor 
 of Cuenca.^ 
 
 estado de la nobleza de Cuenca, eon 
 otras grandes dignidades, que ocuparon 
 otros en Iglesias destos Reynos, y en 
 servicio de sus Reyes." 
 
 " The house of Valdfe is one of the most 
 ancient and distinguished of the king- 
 dom of Leon, &c. A gentleman of this 
 name and family, called Hernando de 
 Vfild^s, came, somewhat more than 
 three hundred and fifty years ago, to 
 found the city of Cuenca, where he left 
 magnificent houses, a chapel, and en- 
 tailed estates; he had many children, 
 and from them many noble descendants. 
 So great was their reputation for nobi- 
 lity, that one of them attained the 
 appointment of Chamberlain to the 
 Pope, and the other [doubtless Alfonso 
 de Valdfe] secretary to the Emperor ; 
 besides, other descendants of this family 
 have been Regidores and Procuradores 
 de Cortes for the city, and nobles of 
 Cuenca, whilst they have filled other 
 dignities in the churches of these king- 
 doms, and in the service of their kings." 
 
 The notice which Martir Rizo gives of 
 the Valdfe, slight and indistinct as it 
 seems, is important because he was 
 grandson of Pedro Martir de Angleria ; 
 and if his papers could be discovered, 
 they would most likely famish many 
 more particulars about them than he 
 dared to publish in his "History of 
 Cuenca ;" for had he done so, he would 
 have been persecuted alike by the In- 
 quisition and by the relations of the 
 Vald& themselves, whom they would 
 esteem as no Catholics. 
 
 * ''Copilacion de las Instrucciones del 
 Officio de la santa Inquisicion, hechas 
 en Toledo, afio de mil y quinlentos y 
 
 B 
 
 sesenta y uno." — McCrie, "History of 
 Reformation in Spain," 1829, p. 91. 
 
 ' Cuenca is the capital of a moun- 
 tainous district, being about 3,400 feet 
 above the level of the sea. It is one of 
 the most picturesque cities of Spain, ro- 
 mantically situated at the confluence of 
 the Juoar and Hueear, on a peak between 
 the heights San CristoialsLnd El Socorro, 
 nearly halfway between Madrid and 
 Valencia. In the 1 5th and 1 6th centuries 
 [the period of which we have to speak] 
 this district was densely peopled with 
 traders, busy in its staple manufacture of 
 woollens, whilst the city was celebrated 
 alike for arts and literature, and for 
 splendid silver-work. Now the country 
 is so poverty-stricken that scarcely 300 
 souls to the square league are to be num- 
 bered, and the capital barely contains 
 6,000 inhabitants. Its picturesque po- 
 sition, however, remains ; the beautiful 
 Hueear and Jucar (sucro, the sweet 
 waters, aguas dulces) still flow down, 
 through defiles spanned with bridges, 
 and planted with charming walks, where 
 the waters irrigate gardens filled with 
 fine vegetables and fruit-trees, and feed 
 the creepers which mantle luxuriously 
 around the overhanging rocks ; above 
 topples the pyramidical eagles' nest town, 
 with its old walls and towers, and 
 houses hanging over the precipices and 
 barren rocks, enhancing the charms of 
 the fertile valleys. From the suburb, 
 the town rises in terraces, as it were, 
 tier above tier, roof above roof, up to 
 the square and cathedral, which occupy 
 almost the only level space ; for the 
 streets are steep and tortuous, and the 
 little A lameda looks like a shelf squeezed 
 
 2 
 
4 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Thus he was not a Cor-regidor, as he has been generally 
 called, but he was a Mayorazgo, Begidor, or hereditary pro- 
 prietor ; and if not a personage of the highest degree, he was 
 an HicUlgo of liberal fortune and independent cu-cumstances. 
 There is good reason to believe that he took sides with the 
 Gomuniclacles, or popular party, when they rose to assert the 
 liberties of the people, but lost them with Padilla on the fatal 
 field of Villalar ;i and that the following Gopla was his com- 
 position in reference to the independent position he then held 
 and continued to maintain through life : — 
 
 " Diez marooa tengo de Oro 
 
 " i de plata, zient' i ochenta, 
 
 " buenaa casas en que moro, 
 
 " i un largo cuento de renta : 
 
 " diez escuderos de ouenta : 
 
 " de linaje, bien contento : 
 
 " de Seiior, no acostamiento ; 
 
 " que es lo que mas me oontenta." ' 
 
 Ten marks of gold for the telling, 
 And of silver I have nine score ; 
 Good houses are mine to dwell in, 
 And I have a rent-roU more. 
 My line and lineage please me — 
 Ten squires I count at my call — 
 And no lord vrho flatters or fees me, 
 Which pleases me more than they aU. 
 
 Hernando de Valdes had several sons, and two of them, 
 born about the end of the century, rose to great distinction. 
 One, Alfonso de Yaldes,' was Latin secretary to the Emperor 
 Charles V., in the Chancery under Mercurino Gatinara; 
 
 in at the angle of the town, from whence sillas He was the husband 
 
 is a striking view of the lovely valleys of Maria Paoheoo, of whom there is such 
 
 below. — See Ford's "Handbook of a fine portrait by ifi JfMfZo at Bowood, 
 
 Spain." and to whom, before his execution he 
 
 Such was the birthplace of the brothers wrote that most touching and manly let- 
 Vald€s, and such the evidences of the ter preserved by Sandoval, and trans- 
 good government of the family and the lated by Bobertson." 
 liberty and prosperity of the people The reader who wishes to have an un- 
 under their rule. prejudiced opinion of the views and aims 
 
 ' Mr. Ford, in his " Handbook of of the popular party, may consult in the 
 
 Spain," ed. 1855, p. 561, speaking of the British Museum a small printed doou- 
 
 situationof the field of Villalar, says — ment of tbe Articles of the Constitution 
 
 " Leaving Toro, and continuing on the proposed by the Junta. It will be found 
 
 right bank of the Duero . . .to Villalar, under the head " Castile," press-mark 
 
 where (April 23rd, 1521) the Conde de 1389 b, with the title Proyecto de la Con- 
 
 Haro defeated the Comv.neros, led by stitudoti de la Junta de las Comunidades 
 
 Juande Fadilla, and crushed thispopu- deCastilla. Valladolid, imp.de D.Manuel 
 
 lar msurreotion— one raised in reality Aparicio, 1842. 8vo. pp. 8 and 13. 
 
 Z?w/»V f ''™"?«™ Si'^d the foreignfa- »" Dialogo de la LengSa, " ed. 1860, p. 
 
 vountesof Charles V., not against the 153. 6 , " . xo , i- 
 
 wTf (.Cw^TlTif''-^- P'^diUa 3 Petri Martyris Anglerii Eoist 
 
 was beheaded the next day at Torde- DCLXXXIX. pf 380, writTng to ihe 
 
THE TWIN" BROTHERS. 5 
 
 tlie other, Juan de Valdes, our author, was for a short 
 time Chamberlaiu, Omnaroro, to Pope Adrian VI. They 
 were twin brothers, and the identity of their personal ap- 
 pearance, manners, and mental qualifications, was so perfect 
 that they were at all times liable to be mistaken one for the 
 other. This may have been one cause why later writers have 
 been led to combine then' distinctive names into one — by this 
 means confounding the persons and the circumstances of 
 the twin brothers.' 
 
 The distinct personality and twinship of the brothers are 
 proved beyond all doubt by letters both of Erasmus and 
 Juan Gines de Sepulveda, who knew them both personally. 
 Erasmus, writing to Juan de Vald^s in 1528, expresses 
 himself thus : — 
 
 Desidekiits Erasmus to Juan de Vald^s. 
 
 Most Accomplislied Youtli — Your brother, Alfonso Vald^s, has con- 
 ferred such ohligations upon me, that I ought to love whoever in any way 
 belongs to him. But [besides this] you, as I hear, are so like him, both in 
 personal appearance and readiness of mind, that you might seem to be not 
 TWINS, but one individual. I think it very proper, therefore, to love you 
 BOTH alike. I hear that you are given to liberal studies, in order 
 that you may embellish your naturally virtuous disposition with every 
 sort of adornment. Why, then, should any one exhort you to study, 
 when of your own accord you follow this excellent pursuit ? It is more 
 to the purpose to congratulate and praise you. Rest assured that I 
 am no one's more than your brother's, and not less yours than his. 
 Farewell. 
 
 Basle, 1st March, 1528.^ 
 
 Sepulveda, historiographer to Charles V.,^ after the 
 retirement of Juan de Valdes from Spain to Italy, where 
 he passed the remainder of his days, thus writes from Rome, 
 September 7th (1531?), in reply to a letter from Alfonso, 
 
 Marquis de los Velez y Mondejar in tonio Serassi, in his letters of the Conte 
 
 1520, mentions " Alfpnso Valdeaio, B. Castiglione, Padova, 1769-71, 4to. 
 
 magnse spei juvene, cujus patrem Fer- vol. ii. p. 169, is also misled, although 
 
 nandum deVald&rectorem conchensem he might have corrected it, having 
 
 nostris." — "Alfonso Vald&, a youth of before him the copy of a letter written 
 
 great promise, whose father, Her- by Alfonso, signed simply "muy certo 
 
 nando de Vaid^s, was Governor of Serv. Alonso de Valdes." 
 
 Cuenoa." ^ Erasmus, Opera, Lugd. Bat. Epist. 
 
 ' Llorente speaks doubtfully (" His- 1030, Col. 1165. 
 
 toria de la Inquisioion de Espafia," ed. ^ Juan Gines de Sepulveda, a Spanish 
 
 Barcelona, 1835, cap. xxv. Art. I. p. historian, bom about 1490 at Pozo- 
 
 311) : — "Ihave mentioned him (Juan de Blanco, near Cordova,^ of a noble family, 
 
 Vald&)a3aseparateperson,beoausemy whom Erasmus in his " Cioeronianus " 
 
 notes call him Alonso ; but if Era Do- cites as one of the best Latin writers of 
 
 mingo Rojas spoke the truth, he was his time ; and this judgment is confirmed 
 
 called Juan Alonso de Valdfe. Nicolas by posterity.— See "Biographie Uni- 
 
 Antonio, in his ' Biblioteca,' took him for verselle." 
 a distinct person." The Abate Pieran- 
 
6 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 recommending Ms brother Juan to his notice and good 
 offices : — 
 
 You ask me to receive your brother, should he come to me, in the same 
 mamier as yourself. Can I receive him otherwise, when, as I look at 
 him— whether he is standing or sitting, whether he is speaking or silent, 
 ill short, whether he is in action or doing nothing— I fancy that I am 
 looking upon yourself? And, what is no less remarkable, he so closely 
 represents you, not in features alone, but also in talents, learning, manners, 
 and even in his pursuits, that again and again he appears to be your very 
 self, and not your brother.' 
 
 The twin brothers received a liberal education, according 
 to that period, when learning was still struggling with her 
 fetters; and to judge from their writings, and from the 
 duties that occupied them, Alfonso directed his studies to 
 jurisprudence and Latin composition; Juan, to his native 
 language, and the originals of the sacred Scriptures, 
 Hebrew and Greek. 
 
 They were not trained in these by the Commentaries of 
 the schools ; and in this respect the brother reformers had 
 this advantage, that they were not theologians, and hence 
 they had not afterwards, in the self-taught progress of 
 their minds, to unlearn the doubts and reasonings of so- 
 phistical formulas. They regarded religion not as a system 
 or a science, but rather as practical morality, divinely exalted 
 and enlightened; as inspired doctrine, having its manifes- 
 tation in the daily conduct of life by faith. 
 
 To apprehend fully the characters of these brothers, it is 
 necessary to give a short account of the distinguished in- 
 dividuals who mainly influenced the direction of their minds, 
 and determined the course of their career. We gain some 
 glimpses in the distance of past ages of their early training 
 and their teachers, and we are anxious to establish in the 
 mind of the reader the idea that the career of Juan de 
 Valdes must necessarily be connected with that of his 
 brother Alfonso. The brothers being twins, undistinguish- 
 able by every one, and inseparable in their youth, followed, 
 for their introduction into life, the active, animated, and 
 roving court of the sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 The education they received there was of the same kind as 
 what they had received under the paternal roof in Cuenca, 
 which it served to complete. 
 
 ' "-In. GonoBius Sepulvedw Orera." Madrid, vol. iii. Epist. XIV. jip. 107-8. 
 
MATBENAL GllAJ^DMOTHEE OP VALDliS. 7 
 
 It is believed that Juan de Valdes did not imagine the 
 character of a wise and virtuous woman, but really portrayed 
 the personal disposition of his maternal grandmother in the 
 subjoined extract from pages 315 — 323 of his Bialogo de 
 Merciirio i Caron J She is represented as a wife and mother, 
 and her daughter, the mother of Alfonso and Juan de 
 Valdfe, had for her husband the Regidor Don Fernando 
 de Valdes, probably one of the four sons-in-law mentioned. 
 The mother, then, of the twins is portrayed as a companion 
 worthy of that noble patrician, and would naturally have 
 educated her sons as she herself had been educated. The 
 passage quoted runs as follows : — 
 
 Mercury : What soul is this, which comes along singing ? 
 
 Charojj : It seems to be a woman. 
 
 Merctjrt : So it is. 
 
 Charon : I do not know whether she will avoid us. 
 
 Soul ; Sometimes, those who are the readiest to flee are they who 
 yield themselves with the least difficulty to be conquered. Since, when 
 alive, I did not shun men whom I might fear, holding in my mind the 
 firm resolution to live chastely, why should I now avoid you, from whom 
 I cannot expect any afiront t 
 
 Mercury : soul, not of woman, but rather of high-spirited man ! are 
 you willing to tell us how you lived when upon earth ? 
 
 Soul : Yes, most willingly. That which my parents left me of greatest 
 value was the ability to read, and some little knowledge of Latin. Such 
 pleasure did I feel in reading sacred Scripture, that I learnt much of it 
 by heart ; and not satisfied with the mere knowledge of it, I endeavoured 
 to conform my life and conduct to it, losing no opportunity of instructing 
 those of my female friends and companions who conversed with me in 
 what God had taught me ; but with so much modesty and moderation, 
 that I could not be blamed, knowing what peril attached to my age and 
 sex, and what caution I had to exercise in my personal carriage — for 
 doubtless we women are constrained much more than men to hold any 
 opinion we may favour with distrust, until it previously has been very 
 strictly examiaed and discussed. And because silence ia women, and 
 especially in young women, is becoming and praiseworthy, as excessive 
 talkativeness is unbecoming and disreputable, I ever strove that my 
 actions should speak louder than my tongue. Thus I lived many years, 
 without the desire to be a nun, or to marry ; contemplating one style of 
 hfe as most alien to my condition, and the dangers and labours incident to 
 the other. My great fear was, lest they should give me a husband so 
 estranged from my views that he should pervert me from my own line of 
 duty, or that I might have to lead a weary hfe with him. For this cause 
 I determined not to marry ; but, at last, everything having been well 
 weighed, and recalling all the advantages of which I had read in con- 
 nection with marriage, and it appearing to me to be difficult to guard 
 virginity as it ought to be guarded, although that state be higher and 
 excellent, commended by Jesus Christ both by example and by precept, 
 and afterwards by St. Paul, and carried out by many saints, I held it to 
 
 ' "Beformistas Anti^oa Espafioles," tomo iv. : "Dos Dialogos ecritos por 
 Juan de Valdds, Afio 1550." 
 
8 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDl'g. 
 
 be safer for me to marry. But as it is neither allowed nor held reputable 
 in women to select the husband whom they like, but they seem obliged to 
 take the man whom their fathers, brothers, or relatives are pleased to 
 give them, I repeatedly asked them that they would not look to either 
 family or wealth, but to the qualities of the soul, for it was with the soul's 
 virtues that I contemplated marriage. At length they gave me a husband, 
 with whom God only knows what I suffered at the beginning ; never- 
 theless, I suffered patiently, trusting in the goodness of God that I should 
 rather lead him to adopt my views than he lead me to adopt his. And I 
 availed myself of opportunity so carefully, countermining his vices by 
 virtues, his pride by meekness, his rudeness by caresses, his extravagance 
 by moderation, his diversions and luxuries by my chaste and holy exer- 
 cises, and his anger by patience ; ever regulating myself with profound 
 and perfect humility in all my relations with him ; at times dissimulating 
 certain things, at times tolerating and permitting others, and at times 
 softly reprehending those things which appeared to me to be clearly 
 deserving of rebuke ; that by degrees I tamed him. In this manner I 
 led him to lay aside aU his vicious and evil habits, and embrace virtue 
 with such earnestness, that within a short interval I learned of him what 
 I had taught him. And thus getting used to each other's ways, and 
 striviug to please each other, we lived in such peace, love, and concord, 
 that all marvelled at seeing him so altered, and at the change that I had 
 wrought in him, as also at our mutual sympathy. 
 
 Mercury : Had you children ? 
 
 SoTJL : We lived many years without any. 
 
 Mercury : Did it not grieve you to find yourself childless ? 
 
 Soul : Those persons grieve, when childless, who desire children for 
 their own gratification ; but I, who neither lived nor desired anythiag 
 for myself, felt nothing that should cause pain. Whilst God withheld 
 children from me, I gave Him unbounded thanks, being persuaded that 
 such a disposition was to my benefit and to His service. When He gave ■ 
 me them, I rendered Him the same thanks, entreating Him that he should 
 direct and teach them for His service, striving as much as in me lay to 
 instruct them to accomplish this end. 
 
 Mercury : I wonder at what you say, for women are wont to impor- 
 tmie God, with great persistence, that He would give them children. 
 
 Soul : My opinion was most opposed to this ; not that I did not hold 
 children to be a special gift of God, but, being uncertain how they might 
 turn out, I did not dare to desire them, but that God would accomplish 
 His purpose, being assured that His appointment would be the best. 
 And women who share my opinion escape God knows how many super- 
 stitious practices that they fall into at every step, in order to have children, 
 to the no small dishonour of God, and injury to the Christian religion. 
 
 Mercury : Had yon sons or daughters ? 
 
 Soul : Daughters. 
 
 Mercury : What trouble ? 
 
 Soul : Trouble ? Nay, rather a very great comfort for mothers to have 
 daughters, with whom they can relax, and whom they can indoctrinate 
 with right principles. Good mothers are solaced with greater ease in 
 daughters than in sons ; for the daughters associate with, and serve them, 
 until death, and never lose their love ; but sons, almost as soon as they are 
 born, run hither and thither, and neither know nor reciprocate tlieir 
 lathers and mothers' love. On the other hand, it is a marvel if you see a 
 msobedient daughter, whilst obedient sons are exceedingly rare. It is 
 out seldom that we see daughters who differ from their parents, whilst we 
 constantly encounter sons who persecute their mother. 
 
MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER OF VALDES. 9 
 
 Mercury : But mothers have a sore trouble in guarding their 
 daughters 1 
 
 Soul : You speak of had mothers ; for the mother stamps the daughter 
 witliher own character, and this is the reason wliy it is as difficult and 
 wearisome for the bad to prevent their daughters from being so likewise, 
 as it is easy for the good to make their daughters to resemble them. 
 
 Mercury : What anxieties mothers endure with their daughters ! 
 
 Soul : Many more with their sons ; for from their birth they are sub- 
 ject to a thousand perils : when children, of hurting or maiming them- 
 selves ; and when grown up, of losing life ; and finally, there is the distant 
 journey upon which, or in the battle-field, they die, giving their parents 
 mortal agony. 
 
 Mercury : It is a sore labour to fiLnd husbands and provide marriage 
 portions for the daughters. 
 
 Soul : I was wholly freed from this trouble ; for I educated my 
 daughters so virtuously, and had so many suitors who sought them as 
 wives, that I had numbers from amongst whom to select. True it is, that 
 the dowry is not raised by the father without trouble ; but as I disregarded 
 mere worldly vainglory, and was more disposed to marry my daughters 
 to virtuous men than to either rich or influential ones, I easUy, and with- 
 out effort, married them all, and, moreover, much to my own satisfaction. 
 And with four daughters I gained the esteem of four sons-in-law, whom I 
 ever held as sons, and who held me as their mother — ^whioh is never the 
 case when sons marry, for you bring home as many enemies as you bring 
 daughters-in-law. 
 
 Mercury : How did you get on with your men and maid-servants ? 
 
 Soul : As with my sons — inoculating them with principles and 
 guiding them in that which they owed as service to God. 
 
 Mercury : Did you make them fast, pray, and discipline themselves ? 
 
 Soul : I will teU you. The things which are good both in themselves 
 and in all places, and which cannot be left undone without sin, I 
 encouraged them beyond everything to do, striving that they should not 
 deviate a hair's breadth from them. As to other things, which are good 
 and adapted to some, but not so to others — to which a person feels dis- 
 posed at one time, and indisposed at another — which heal some, and kill 
 others — ^which some approve, and others condemn, — I recommended them 
 to be used with much discretion, banishing and expelling from my house 
 every form of superstition and hypocrisy ; seeking that there should be 
 much more inwardly than was shown outwardly. 
 
 Mercury : At what age did you die ? 
 
 SotJL : At fifty years of age. 
 
 Mercury : Did you make your will ? ' 
 
 Soul : All that, I leave commended to my husband ; and I am now 
 about to enjoy that consummate and perfect good so intensely desired by 
 me. 
 
 Charon ; Let her go. Mercury ; and remember that it is late. 
 
 The opinion expressed at tte beginning of this long 
 extractj that the character portrayed for the grandmother 
 of the Valdes^ tended^ through the disposition impressed 
 upon the mother^ to fashion the nature of their infant minds, 
 may not appear to be far-fetched when we continually see, 
 
 ' By Spanish law, the wife's property is held independently of the husband. 
 
10 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 in numberless instances^ tliat the very forms and genius of 
 the grandparents are reproduced as a natural efi'ect^ with 
 increased similarity, in the second generation. 
 
 He who carried forward this domestic training of the 
 affections and manners of the brothers was Pedro Martir' de 
 Angleria. From the year 1492, he held in the Court the 
 royal title of Maestro de los Gaballeros, Master of the Horse, 
 whose office thus exercised we can scarcely exaggerate if 
 we affirm that, during the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 there was scarcely a well-born youth, inclined by the natural 
 bent of his mind to liberal studies, who had not, for a longer 
 or shorter period, Angleria for his master. 
 
 Towards the close of the 15th century, there arose in 
 various countries, individuals who, impressed with a strong 
 sense of ecclesiastical abuses, cherished a desire to reform 
 them, and to advance the improvement of society both in 
 Church and State. In Spain we have but to instance the 
 names of Cardinal Ximenes, Don liiigo Lopez de Mendoza, 
 and especially Pedro Martir de Anghiera or Angleria. 
 With regard to Cardinal Ximenes, we may refer the reader 
 to Prescott's "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella."^ Of Don liiigo Lopez de Mendoza, Conde de 
 Tendilla, we may quote the short summary of his charac- 
 teristics in the words of Ticknor : — 
 
 On whatever side we regard the character of Mendoza, we feel sure 
 that he was an extraordinary man ; but the combination of his powers is, 
 after all, what is most to be wondered at. In all of them, however, and 
 especially in the union of a life of military adventure and active interest 
 in affairs with a sincere love of learning and elegant letters, he showed 
 himself to be a genuine Spaniard ; the elements of greatness which his 
 various fortunes had thus unfolded within him being all among the 
 elements of Spanish national poetry and eloquence, in their best age and 
 most generous development.^ 
 
 But his most remarkable genius may be said to have con- 
 sisted in a quick and intimate perception of the talents and 
 characters of other persons,* even of foreigners, which led 
 
 ' There were two historical persons of ^ Vol. li. p. 492, ed. 1838. 
 
 the name of Peter Martyr — one dis- ' " History of Spanish Literature," 
 
 tinguished by the epithet of Angleria, vol. i. p. 486, ed. 1863. 
 
 Angliera, or Anghiera, a word latinized * Possibly to this same Mendoza, 
 
 by himself; and the other by that of Conde de Tendilla, Spain is indebted 
 
 Vermiglio. They were both Italians, for the writer sumamed her Tully for 
 
 The former derived his name from his his eloquence. While resident in the 
 
 family, which belonged to the town of palace of the Alhambra, as Governor or 
 
 Anghiera, situated on Lake Maggiore, Viceroy of Granada, he beheld from 
 
 and was born in 1459, at Arena, on the the window a child struggling with 
 
 same lake. The latter, Vermiglio, was another boy of his own age : looking on, 
 
 bom m 1,500, at Florence, and was called he saw them come to blows, maltreating 
 
 also by his family name. each other. The Count sent to separate 
 
TEDRO MAETIR DE ANGLEEIA. 11 
 
 him to bring forward their services, recommending them to 
 appropriate offices in the Government, always leading them 
 into a course of Spanish policy and interest strictly national. 
 As he lived at a period when society was in a state of tran- 
 sition, his mind was directed, as all truly great minds are, 
 to its progress in advance of its present position ; and by 
 this means he became a teacher of his own age, and a 
 master of those eminent persons who should lead on the 
 progress of society in the generation after he had himself 
 passed away. 
 
 The Conde de Tendilla was indeed an extraordinary man, 
 a vMster of masters, and by his example eminently surpass- 
 ing, in moralityj intelligence, and knowledge, all other 
 persons of his time who were dignified by the title of 
 nobility and gentry.* A proof of his discriminating mind 
 may be instanced in his selection of the Italian, Pedro 
 Martir de Angleria. 
 
 Pedro Martir de Angleria came to Spain in the year 
 1488, at the age of 29, being brought in the train of 
 Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Conde de Tendilla, when 
 he returned from Rome, where he had been sent as 
 Ambassador Extraordinary to the Pope Innocent VIII. 
 from Ferdinand and Isabella. Mendoza presented him to 
 his sovereigns avowedly with the exalted purpose that he 
 should educate the young nobility of Spain, teaching them 
 to love good studies and good books ; imbuing them 
 with the persuasion that true knighthood and gentility 
 consists, not in robbing and fighting, in gallantry, idle- 
 ness, or intrigue, but in surpassing other men in know- 
 ledge, justice, truth, and good manners ; and good manners 
 
 them, and the child coining up to the his name, it has been raised throughout 
 
 C!ount offered an apology for his quarrel, the world. 
 
 justifying his conduct with arguments ' The celebrated . Dona Maria de 
 
 so pertinent and so well digested, setting Pacheco, who married that highly dis- 
 
 them forth with such vivacity and grace, tinguished nobleman, Don Juan de 
 
 that the Count instantly admired and Padilla, was his' daughter. She was a 
 
 loved him. It appeared to him that woman of the highest range of thought, 
 
 there was something great about that and, though ambitious, endowed with 
 
 child. He desired that he should be that frankness and magnanimity which 
 
 informed who he was ; he ascertained intense love of liberty alone imparts to 
 
 his humble station and poverty ; he the soul, together with an abhorrence of 
 
 desired one of his dependents that he the tyranny of man no less intense. 
 
 should, at his expense, train the child The successful issue of the war in 
 
 and educate him ; and this child proved Granada was, to a great extent, due to 
 
 subsequently to be the great Spanish the Count's sagacious counsel and won- 
 
 writer who, as says the Licentiate derful stratagems, exerted — 
 
 Mufloz, relating this incident, corrobo- " Until the last chains were broken, 
 
 rated by Fra L. Sousa, in calling him- And the Arabs, already conquered, 
 
 self Father Luis de Granada, highly Saw trembling in the breeze, 
 
 favoured the city of his birth, because. From the battlements of the Alhambra, 
 
 by adorning it with the association of The cross-marked banners of Isdbella." 
 
12 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 » 
 
 consist in a graoefal respect to all persons. Mendoza 
 brought Angleria into the strictest intimacy with 
 Hernando de Talavera, Queen Isabella's confessor, and 
 afterwards Archbishop of Granada, when Don Inigo 
 Lopez de Mendoza resided as first GoYernor and Alcaide 
 in the Alhambra. Thus Angleria became the educator 
 of most of the yomig nobles of Spain in that gene- 
 ration, whose talents were afterwards displayed throughout 
 the almost European sway of the Emperor Charles V. 
 This is shown in his delightful volume of Epistles, first 
 printed at Alcala, in 1530, by Miguel de Eguia.^ 
 
 No work written in Latin, and printed in Spain by 
 Spaniards contemporary with Angleria, can equal in 
 attractive interest this volume of his 813 Epistles, written 
 during the thirty-seven years which intervened between 
 1488 and 1525. They embrace the history of Spain, and 
 even, it may be said, of Europe during that period; so much 
 so, that they have been the rich mine from which the 
 most celebrated writers have drawn their materials. In 
 the Epistles of Angleria were found those notices of Spain 
 which Geddes gave in the last century, in the once very 
 popular volumes of his Miscellaneous Essays.^ Gibbon 
 also used them as his authority.' These Epistles furnish 
 the subjects and colouring from which Washington Irving 
 derived the most lively combinations of his animated 
 descriptions, and Prescott, the historian, his charming 
 narratives. If Hallam, in his " History of the Literature of 
 Southern Europe, ■'■' tells us- that we ought to mistrust 
 Angleria's dates of facts, it should be understood that 
 the remark applies solely to the work " De Rebus Oceanicis 
 et Novo Orbe, " where he had to fix the dates by references 
 received from others. But Hallam's doubts do not apply 
 
 ' "Opus epistolaru Petri Martyris torise superiorum temponim. Cui 
 
 Anglerij Mediolanesis Protonotarij aooesserunt Epistolse Fernandi de 
 
 Aplici atqqj aoosilijs rerulndicara. nuo Pulgar Goetansei Latinse pariter atque 
 
 pmu et natu et medioori eura exousumj Hispanicse cum Tractatu HispaniEe de 
 
 quod qde preter stili Tenustate nostroru Viris Castellse Dlustribus Editio Pos- 
 
 qqs tepor Mstorife loco esse poterit. trema. Atnstelodami, Typis Elzevi- 
 
 " Copluti anno Dni M.DXXX Cu rianis. Veneunt Parisiis, apud Fredri- 
 
 priuilegio Cesareo. In ^dibus Michaelis cum Leonard, Typograplium Regium, 
 
 de Eguia." Folio. do loo Lxx." Folio; printed in two 
 
 12 leaves not numbered, and fo. I. — columns, containing 813 letters.* Pulgar 
 
 CXCIX. containing 816 letters. 32 letters ; and Los claros varones de 
 
 . EspaiSa, 32 letters; these last are in 
 
 " Opus Epistolarum Petri Martyris Spanish. 
 
 Anglerii ^ Mediolanensis Protonotarii * This is the edition used. 
 
 Apostolioi Prioris Archiepiscopatus ^ Miscellaneous Tracts, by Michael 
 
 Granatensis, atque S, Consiliis Eerum Geddes. D.L. 1709-14. Svo. 3 vols. 
 
 Indicarum Hispanicis, tanta cura ex- 3 Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works, vol. 
 
 cusum, ut prteter styli venustatem v. ed. 1814, p. 160, et sea. 
 quoque fungi possit vice luminis His- 
 
POPE ADRIAN YI. 13 
 
 to the dates wMch are found in the Epistles^ where Angleria 
 alludes to events which passed under his own eyes, or in 
 which he acted in an official manner, or knew by reason of 
 his situation and duties. Juan de Vergara, treating of the 
 fidelity of Angleria in his letters to Florian de Ocampo, re- 
 marks — " Tour Honour knows that of all the events of those 
 times in the whole empire of the Catholic sovereigns 
 [Ferdinand and Isabella] , and afterwards to the end of the 
 war of the Comunidades, I think we can have no memorials 
 more clear and certain than the Epistles of Pedro Martir ; 
 and of almost all that can be found in them, I was an eye- 
 witness of the diligence with which he put down in writing, 
 on the instant^ every event that occurred. " How grateful, 
 then, should be the memory of such a writer to those who 
 make use of him as an authority !' 
 
 Angleria, being a quick discerner of talent and character, 
 nominated the most fitting men for the most appropriate 
 stations. He held the first link of a chain which united 
 them in one line of policy. He selected Mercurino de Gati- 
 nara, a Piedmontese, a man whose abilities are proved by 
 the success of all his measures, for the Grand Chancellor- 
 ship ; and near him, in an almost independent position, he 
 nominated Alfonso de Valdes, as Latin Secretary to the 
 Emperor. One of Angleria's intimate political friends was 
 the Cardinal GovernorAdrian, Charleses tutor; and when the 
 latter became Pope, Juan de Yaldes was placed near his 
 person, filHng the position of Cmnarero, Chamberlain (?), at 
 the Vatican. 
 
 Adrian of Utrecht, tutor to Charles V. under Chievres, 
 was afterwards Cardinal Tortosa, and Pope, under the title of 
 Adrian VI. Adrian was a man of unblemished reputation, 
 upright^ pious, active, very serious, fall of benevolence 
 and pure intentions, a lover of Flemish art and polite 
 learning, and a friend and protector of Erasmus from 
 the attacks of the bigots of the schools and " saints of the 
 worldj"^ as Juan afterwards called them. He sought to 
 bring about peace and concord between the nations of 
 Europe. He was a decided advocate for the reformation of 
 the Church, in which abominable practices, abuses in spiritual 
 things, and an exorbitant straining of prerogative, had found 
 a place near the " Holy Chair." Adrian set to work with 
 scrupulous conscientiousness, yet he disappointed innumer- 
 able expectations ; for his pontificate lasted but about a year, 
 
 ' See an interesting note on Pedro ' The Hundred and Ten Considera- 
 Martir Angleria, by Prescott, " History tions. Consid. LXXVI. — liXXXI. 
 of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," 
 vol. ii. pp. 155-158. 
 
14 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 SO ttathe had time to do little more tHan disturb abuses and 
 excite opposition ;i Juan de Valdes could baYe remained but 
 a short time in his service and confidence. He refers, in all 
 probabibty, to this circumstance in his fifty-first " Considera- 
 tion," in which he endeavours to explain in what manner 
 God makes Himself to he felt, by a parable of the order and 
 dependence of the Pontiffs housej where all that dwell in 
 it are dependent upon him, are sustained by him ; and the 
 Pontiff dying, the whole household breaks up, "^'so that he 
 who was secretary is secretary no longer, and the same of 
 all the other officers of the household, who, on the Pontiff's 
 death, lose the being which his life gave them.^ Short as 
 this connection with Adrian must necessarily have been, it 
 would be long enough for an intelligent and observant 
 youth to become, under such a man, well acquainted with 
 the state of things at Rome ; to have had his mind directed 
 to the reformation of morals and manners while in the very 
 field of corruption ; and to learn the features of those special 
 evils which are drawn with so much clearness of outhne in 
 the two Dialogues which he subsequently wrote, especially 
 in the Dialogo : en que particularmente se tratan las cosas 
 acaecidas en Roma, el am de 1527 — a dialogue in which the 
 circumstances are particularly discussed which occurred 
 at Rome in 1527, arranged by Juan de Valdes, although 
 circulated and acknowledged, for sufficient reasons, as a work 
 by his brother.-^ 
 
 We will now present to the reader some of Angleria's 
 sentiments, which must naturally have influenced the minds 
 of his friends, and especially of his youthful disciples— those 
 with whom he held familiar intercourse. Among such friends 
 and pupils we may name Don Hernando de Yaldes, the 
 Regidor of Cuenca, and these his two sons, Alfonso and 
 Juan. In Letter CXCI., written from Alcala to Mendoza, the 
 31st May, 1498, he thus speaks of the martyrdom of 
 Girolamo Savonarola : — 
 
 You already know that a certain friar of Ferrara, of the order of 
 Preachers (as they are called), went on a long time condemning from 
 pulpits in the city of Florence the bad life and evil manners of the Car- 
 dinals and Pope. This good man so irritated the Pontiff [Alexander VI.] 
 that he caused him to be burnt alive as a heretic by the Apostolic judges. 
 Notice, in this occurrence, the artifices with which he weaves his scheme 
 
 ' Eanke's " History of the Popes." later, gave them correctly in Ms edition, 
 
 Consideration LI. Oxford, 1638, Oxford, 1638. 
 
 ^R% }S *^^ edition of Cambridge, ^ "Carta del Seoretario Valdds al 
 
 tr. iiT™."'' editor has changed Conde Baltasar Castiglione, Nunzio en 
 
 tne author s words, I>apa, nella cam di EspaCa" [1528], in " Dialogo de la 
 
 hnT^hM^i " tS'^u ?"°^®' ^'^^ Princes Lengua," ed. Madrid, 1860, pp. 9-15, 
 
 household. Nicholas Ferrar, the trans- Apgndice. 
 
DEATH OF POPE. ALEXANDER VI. 15 
 
 when he wishes to eflfect a man's destruction, and be on your guard 
 accordingly. 
 
 In Letter CCLXY., from Segovia, where tlie court then 
 was, dated Nov. 11, 1503, he tells Mendoza and his friend 
 Fra Hernando de Talavera, first Archbishop of Granada, 
 himself one of the first victims of the Spanish Inquisition : — 
 
 Information has reached us that the Chief Pontiff, Alexander VI., has 
 breathed his last. This is what they write from Eome. The Duke 
 Valentino, the Pope's son, invited certain wealthy cardinals ; and in order 
 that these should not suspect any treachery, he also invited his beloved 
 Pontiff to meet them. He ordered two silver flagons to be filled with the 
 most exquisite wine, putting a mortal poison into one of them. He charged 
 a familiar servant of his, acquainted with the fact, that he should pour 
 out from the poisoned vessel to the guests, and should fill the goblets for 
 himself and the Pontiff from the other flagon. But the Ruler of all 
 things, who is a just Judge, turned the craft against the contriver. 
 
 The Pontiff sent the servant, the accomplice, on an errand which obliged 
 him to leave the sideboard. Valentino entreated the Pope to send another 
 servant on the message. The Pope insisted that the above-mentioned 
 servant should go. Valentino, in order to escape suspicion, remamed 
 silent. The other servant, who was left in charge of the flagons, and who 
 was ignorant of the wicked design, when they called for wine, poured out 
 to the Pope and Valentino from the poisoned vessel ; and from the pure 
 one to the cardinals, whose death had been plotted. Alexander, who, as 
 an aged man, had not strength to resist the violence of the poison, died ; 
 but Valentino, the contriver of the infamous transaction, conscious of the 
 cfrcumstances, succeeded in arresting the poison by the aid of clever 
 medical men. His youth likewise contributed to render the treatment 
 efficacious ; yet he lost his hair, his skin peeled oif, and his flesh wasted, 
 through the virulence of the poison. It is even reported that they kept 
 him swaddled in the viscera of freshly-slaughtered mules. It is in everj'- 
 body's mouth how this Pope Alexander VI. lived. Our reigning queen, 
 a good CathoKc, does not appear to have been much affected by the intel- 
 ligence of the Pontiff's death, though her consort was absent, he being 
 at that time on the French frontier. 
 
 In an earlier Letter, No. OXVIL, dated from Saragossa, 
 September 18, 1492, Angleria, upon learning Alexander's 
 election, wrote to Valenziano Franzisco de Prado, a member 
 of the household of the recently-made Pope, in the fol- 
 lowing terms : — 
 
 It is said that thy patron has, upon the death of Innocent VIII., been 
 elevated to the tiara, and that he assumes the title of Alexander VI. To 
 thee, I, as one of thy friends, owe congratulations, since I think that, if 
 thou hast not gathered more from his table than a bare subsistence, he 
 wiU now assign thee a better table from the iinest of the wheat which he 
 possesses. But as to ourselves and the Christian religion, I do not yet 
 know whether I should rejoice or not ; for a report has reached my ears 
 of intrigues base, sacrilegious, and infamous, which have served as steps, 
 by means of which thy patron has just succeeded in attaining this emi- 
 nence — that is, he owes his elevation rather to the agency of gold, silver, 
 and great promises, than to learning, chastity, and the fervour of charity. 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 If this be so, then he has attempted to scale the waUs of paradise for the 
 purpose of dethroning Christ and glorifying himself ; not to do Him 
 honour, &c. 
 
 And tMs is not tlie strongest part of the letter against 
 the Pope Alexander tlie Sixth. In Letter CXVIII., which 
 follows, addressed to the Oonde de Tendilla, who had, when 
 at Eome, been upon intimate terms with Pope Alexander 
 Borgia, Angleria shows himself astonished at his election, 
 " sought much more by Alexander for self-glorification, and 
 for the enrichment of his sacrilegiously-begotten son's— ^ 
 begotten whilst he was a Cardinal — and because, from his 
 licentiousness, the absolute plunder of the patrimony of St. 
 Peter would necessarily be accomplished during his Papacy." 
 Thus did the tutor of the brothers Valdes express himself 
 in a letter to a Spanish nobleman respecting a Spanish 
 Pope. It was his policy which suggested the Instructions ' 
 which the sub-Prior of Santa Cruz received when sent, in 
 1498, on a secret mission to Henry VII., King of England, 
 in order to sohcit his co-operation with Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, and some other influential Catholic princes, for the 
 correction of the flagitious conduct of Alexander VI. 
 
 This extensive design of ecclesiastical reformation ante- 
 
 ' These Insfcnictions could not be 
 found by Mr. Bergenroth for his "Ca- 
 lendar of State Papers," either in our 
 English archives or in those of Siman- 
 cas. From a document of later date, Mr. 
 Bergenroth supposes the mission of the 
 sub-Prior of Santa Cruz to have had 
 reference to the suppression of heresy ; 
 but the reader will perceive that they 
 embrace a much wider scope of policy — • 
 even the correction of the Papacy itself. 
 
 See the Instructions at the end of the 
 chapter. See also the printed documents 
 in the^3ritish Museum, where they may be 
 foundunder the press-mark "Garcilasso, 
 1445 g.," bearing the title of " Carta S, 
 los Reyes. D. Fernando y D*. Isabel, de 
 Su Kmbajador en Roma en 1498, inedita. 
 Van Adjuntos Otros Dooumentos Di- 
 plomatioos de Aquella Epoca, tambien 
 ineditos. San Sebastian, imprenta de 
 Ignacio Ramon Baroja, 1842." 
 
 The same small tract which contains 
 the Instructions, comprises also a letter 
 of scarcely less importance than the 
 preceding document, from Garcilasso, 
 the father of the poet, while am- 
 bassador at Rome, so early as the year 
 1498. This letter, amongst other 
 conclusions it supplies, shows that cer- 
 tain persons of note (who are named), 
 professmgheretioalorreformedopinions, 
 had fled from Spain and sought re- 
 
 fuge in Rome during the pontificate of 
 Alexander VI. ; that the Inquisition 
 then existing in Spain desired the 
 sanction and support of the Pope's 
 authority for its establishment, which 
 he was slow to give, though soMeited for 
 that purpose by Garcilasso; that Gar- 
 cilasso, finding the Pope to purpose 
 arresting Peter of Aranda, Bishop of 
 Calahorra, on some pretext of charges of 
 irregularities, &c., but in reality,^ as 
 Garcilasso thought, from an avaricious 
 desire to secure the revenues of his 
 bishopric, availed himself of the occa- 
 sion to suggest that the Pope should at 
 the same time arrest the refngee reform- 
 ers, thereby giving to hoih proceedings 
 the colour of zeal Jor the Church, and 
 that this was accordingly done. The 
 expressions of Garcilasso in reference to 
 " this infection," as then stiU reigning, 
 to be purged from Spain to wipe away 
 an opprobrium to the Spanish name, 
 are also remarkable as indicating a 
 greater diffusion of the principles of 
 reformation than may hitherto have 
 been discerned in the history of Spain- 
 at that period. The letter refers, be- 
 sides, to the English marriage — that of 
 Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, to Arthur, the then Prince of 
 Wales, who was married Nov. 14th, 
 1601, and died April 2ad, 1502. 
 
POPES JULIUS II. AND LEO X. 11 
 
 cedent to LutHer was suggested by the genius of Pedro 
 Martir Angleria^ wlio was himself selected and advanced to 
 his position by the still more comprehensive mind of Men- 
 doza. These efforts for reformation of the Churchy within 
 the Church, were consistent with the truly national policy of 
 Spain at that period, and tend to elucidate the moderate 
 poUcy of Charles V., in the succeeding generation, in his 
 contests with the Pope, and his forbearance towards the 
 German Reformation. 
 
 We shall refraiu from quoting here the energetic language 
 with which Angleria describes the deeds, the fortunes, and 
 the incidents of other Popes, his contemporaries. In his 
 letters he paiuts to the life Pope Julius II., personally 
 engaged in the siege of Mirandola, during an inclement 
 winter, looking imperturbably upon the deaths of numbers 
 of his clerical dependents, who were struck down at his 
 side: he subsequently represents him as dying suddenly, 
 ia his 69th year, having amassed great treasure for the 
 Church. He portrays Leo X., elected Pope contrary to 
 custom, when but 38 years old — for Cardinals ever take 
 pleasiure in electing the decrepit, cherishing both the desire 
 and hope of witnessing their early removal. He then tells 
 us that Leo X. was not so loving a husband to his spouse, 
 the Church, as Julius II. ; for the latter called hep his 
 spouse, and as such covered her with jewels and wealth ; 
 but Leo treated her with neglect, and was solely intent 
 upon enriching his relatives. He states that Leo took the 
 duchy of Urbiuo from the nephew of Pope Julius, who at 
 high noonday, and in the middle of the market-place of 
 Urbino, had run his sword through the body of the Cardinal 
 of Pavia; but that Leo had not done this to punish the 
 murderer of the Cardinal, but that he might make his sister's 
 son Duke of Urbino. Angleria then paints the cruel, loath- 
 some, and disgusting manner in which the Cardinal of 
 Sienna sought to poison the above-mentioned Leo X., whom 
 he called a cruel tyrant ; and how the Pope avenged himself 
 of his swinish adversary ; and that Angleria, in contem- 
 plating such examples of avarice and ambition in popes and 
 cardinals, astonished, knows not what to think, and remits 
 the whole to the incomprehensible judgments of God, as is 
 shown by his admirable Letter DLXXXVII. 
 
 Ever consistently opposing himself to acts of pontifical cu- 
 pidity, in Letter DXCVI. he dexterously puts them to shame. 
 As Valdes has done at page 1 40 of the " Dialogo delaLengua," 
 " a Mar in a sermon introduces the Church, who [complains 
 of God that her husband maltreats her, and makes her say : 
 
18 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 'And, Lord, if you do not believe me, look at tlie cardinals 
 who have just been made for me'"]'; so in this letter 
 Angleria condemns the simoniacal creation of 31 cardinals 
 by Leo X., in the year 1517, saying that the old cardinals 
 bit their lips with rage at seeing their office so degraded. 
 [" Labia mordent omnes prae rabie. Vilescit jam gradus ille 
 purpuratus."] But the principal topic in this letter is the 
 advice which he gives in it to his friends and pupils, the 
 Marquises de Velez, and Mondejar, of the General Synod of 
 the Spanish clergy assembled at Madrid in September, 
 1517, to oppose themselves to the papal pretensions of Leo, 
 who challenged the tenth part of the income of the Spanish 
 clergy, upon the pretext of an invasion of the Turks. 
 Angleria represented in the synod the chapter of the 
 canons of Granada, whose prior and dean he was. Al 
 the clergy agreed to petition, and if the Pope insisted, to 
 disobey him. They said that this was a burden that had 
 been discontinued, and was oppressive to Spain, and in 
 violation of the laws established by councils. 
 
 But Angleria especially shows his knowledge and opinions 
 of popes and cardinals when he reports the death of 
 Leo X., and the elevation of his friend the Cardinal of Tortosa 
 to the Papacy, under the title of Adrian VI. He was a 
 friend of Adrian from the time that the latter began to 
 make any figure, or from the cradle of his fortune — a suis 
 fortuncB cimabulis, as Angleria himself says ; that is, from 
 the time when Adrian came as envoy to King Ferdinand 
 the Catholic, from his grandson Charles of Ghent, whose 
 tutor he had been. 
 
 The terms of acquaintance between Adrian and Angleria 
 were converted, during the last five years of Adrian's stay 
 in Spain, into those of intimate friendship — from the year 
 1617 to 1522. And when Angleria saw Adrian chosen Pope, 
 he ceased to consider his fortune enviable, and began to 
 compassionate and commiserate him. He contemplated him, 
 when invested with the tiara, as a wretched slave ; and so 
 much the more wretched, as his adulators proclaimed him 
 " blessed Father." And this is but a feeble translation of the 
 animated expressions which Angleria employs in setting forth 
 his feelings : " Calamitosior erit," says he, " Hcet populo pro- 
 deat phaleratus, Beatumque esse inclamitent vociferatores 
 
 ' What is put between brackets is but in other copies probably intended 
 
 t^F^n-""? ^ Mayans in his edition of for presents ho inserts it. Don Usoy y 
 
 " Oriffinfi« £°1 t"' '^^g",?-" See his Rio had one of these copies without Bup- 
 
 ungmes de las Lenguas," tomo ii. in pression. 
 all those copies intended for general sale. 
 
INTERVIEW OF ABEIAN VI. AND ANGLERIA. 19 
 
 idulandi causa. Majoro igitur miseratione dignus, quando- 
 ^^uidem in hac lusoriatabulasenionem integrum est aasecutus.^' 
 WTiile just before he had written : " To tell the truth, I 
 reverenced the man whilst he was free, and envied his spirit. 
 Now he is a slave ; and as I despise a slave, my envy is 
 changed to pity." — Ut venom fatear, observabam viruin dum 
 liber erat, et virtuti ejus invidebam. Servus effectus est; uti 
 servum minoris facio, estque in miserationem invidia commu- 
 tata. Angleria did not purpose to take leave in person, 
 when Adrian set out for Rome ; but the fear of being dis- 
 courteous, and the letters of the new Pope and those of his 
 clerical dependents, in which they pressed him to do so, 
 compelled him to go. " Pudor, tandem, et Pontijids fami- 
 liarmm et amicorum literce me impulerunt." Angleria left 
 Valladohd on the 14th of February, 1522, where he had 
 passed sixteen months, tranquil and happy days, in the 
 charming house of the Commendatore Ribera. Free from all 
 constraint, he devoted himself to letters, and found recrea- 
 tion in cultivating flowers and aromatic plants in the gardens 
 attached to the house. He arrived late at night of the 11th 
 of March, at Vittoria, and presented himself to the Pontiff 
 early next day, the 12th, at the convent of San Francisco, 
 where the Pope was staying. The Pontiff left his room at 
 break of day, and said Mass according to custom ; afterwards 
 Angleria prostrated himself before him, while he presented 
 his foot, adorned with the cross ; he then raised and caressed 
 Pedro Martir, recalling their old friendship. Angleria asks 
 what commands he has for his master j the Pope replies 
 that he would, from Logrono, to which place he was going, 
 give him orders as to what he should do. Pedro Martir 
 collects from the Pope's reply that it was his desire that he 
 should accompany him to Rome, and says to him that " he 
 had spent his best years and energies in the kingdoms 
 of CastiUe ; that he had devoted himself to authorship, 
 writing upon the new worlds discovered by the Spaniards, 
 which would cause him to hve in future generations ; and 
 that for him, now aged, it would be a hard thing to change 
 climate." The Pope repKed that " he would think about 
 it." Angleria remained silent, but did not think of going. 
 The Pope left, giving all present his benediction; and 
 Angleria, looking at him, turned roimd, and leaving without 
 any further salutation, blessed him, esteeming him, how- 
 ever, an object of pity. 
 
 Angleria reports this interview in Letter DCOLVII. ; and 
 in DCCLXVIII., reporting the Pope's silent entrance into 
 the palace of the Vatican, and his exciting coronation in 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIPi; OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 the Lateran, wHch took place within three days afterwards, 
 exclaims thus: "Behold him, then, who previously, and with- 
 out anxiety of any kind, lived most happily, drank fpom a 
 rill, not only to satiety, but with satisfaction, more and better 
 ihan if he had drunk from rivers of mighty volume, such as 
 the Ganges or the Danube. He who but a short time ago was 
 simply a dean of Louvaine, now seated upon a lofty throne, 
 finds himself overwhelmed with most oppressive cares. I 
 regret it, for he is a man of kind disposition, but wants that 
 experience which was required in a leader of the Papal 
 government, much more in a time hke the present, when 
 everything is hurried on by the turbulent spirit of princes. 
 He will either do nothing, or he will be tossed like a ball 
 by his crafty cardinals, whose habit it is either to hate the 
 pontiffs, who but a while since were their equals, or to treat 
 them with scorn and torment them, in the hope of seeing 
 them leave for another world as soon as possible." 
 
 We must omit here what Angleria says as to the motive 
 for the proceeding and persecution set on foot by the Inqui- 
 sitors against the first Archbishop of Granada, Father 
 Hernando de Talavera, his sister, and nephews. She and 
 they were for a long while imprisoned by the Inquisition, 
 where they were stripped of all their property and brought 
 to the deepest indigence. His most indefatigable per- 
 secutor was the Inquisitor Luzero, whom Angleria styled 
 Tenebrero^ 
 
 The most important rights of man are practically, though 
 not ostensibly, defended by Angleria in his interesting col- 
 lection of letters, and whatever was opposed to them is com- 
 bated with the energy of his powerful talents. For instance, 
 he defends eeligious libeety when he comes to treat of that 
 subject, at page 186, in the following manner : — "No one, 
 in my opinion, has been united by God in such inUmate 
 relationship with Himself, as that He has granted him the 
 faculty of searching the hearts of other men; for He has 
 reserved this His peculiar prerogative to Himself alone. Let 
 no mortal encroach upon this, for we never learn that He ever 
 allowed any other being to share it — no, not one of the a/ngels. 
 It has not been given to any man to penetrate the inwa/ri '' 
 secrets of another." 
 
 At page 117, where we read, " Thou wilt find but few pure 
 men in the world,'^ &o., it appears to us as though we were 
 reading a "Consideration" of Vald^s. At page 193 he 
 
 sici6ti. 
 
 See L^rente, " Historia de la luqui- x. art. iv. pp. 166-8, where he quotes 
 On. Barcelona, 1835, tomo il. cap. the strongest language against Luzero. 
 
THE VALD^S' AND ERASMUS. 21 
 
 jortrays the state of Spain at that time, as we see it de- 
 icribed in Vald^s' "Dialogues." At page 338 he concurs with 
 what is stated in the " Dialogo de la Lengua/' that the great- 
 less of the Emperor had been prejudicial to the prosperity 
 md liberty of Castille. The unprecedented rapacity of the 
 ninisters who came with Charles from Flanders, and the 
 ictions of Charles's mother. Queen Juana ; the insurrection of 
 ;he patriots ; the public and religious occurrences in Spain ; 
 — Angleria presents and judges these subjects under many 
 ispects, just as Juan de Vald^s afterwards treated them 
 in his " Dialogues." 
 
 Angleria's opinions and ideas, as presented in his collec- 
 bion of Letters, serve as a key to ascertain those of Alfonso 
 and Juan de Valdes ; and they likewise explain the differ- 
 ence or harmony there was between the ideas of these his 
 pupils and those of Erasmus and other foreigners. 
 
 Hence it appears to us that the Valdes, before they knew 
 Erasmus's writings, or corresponded with him, were already 
 mentally prepared, by Angleria's peculiar instruction and 
 personal method, for the promotion of reform in religion and 
 pohtics. But they fortified themselves in those ideas by 
 seeing them confirmed to some extent in the works of 
 Erasmus. Hence they enjoyed his books, eagerly sought 
 the acquaintance of their author, and then became his useful, 
 trusty, and disinterested friends.* 
 
 We may likewise say that Juan and Alfonso de Valdes 
 reciprocated the instruction and proofs of friendship which 
 Angleria gave them. For their father, Don Fernando de 
 Valdes, perpetual Governor of Cuenca by right of inhe- 
 ritance, and Don Diego Ramirez de Villaescusa de Haro, 
 father, as we think, of Don Fernando de Valdes' wife, were 
 the persons who gave Pedro Martir those lucid notices, 
 which are found in his Letters, with reference to the 
 interests, condition, and wants of Spain in the just and 
 painful struggles of the patriotic Comunidades. Without 
 the acquaintance of Don Fernando Valdes and Don Diego 
 Ramirez, Angleria would not have been so valuable a 
 councillor for the Cardinal Governor Adrian, and for the 
 Chancellor Mercurino de Gattinara, on the occasions of those 
 gloomy funerals of pohtical and civil Uberty in impoverished 
 and exhausted Spain. 
 
 From what has been stated, it will be inferred that there 
 
 ' See the whole of the priuted letters Eapafloles," being the " Ciento i diez 
 
 which passed'between Erasmus and the Considerazioues de Juan de Valdes." 
 
 Vald^V, translated into Spanish in 1863. Ap&dize, 493-554. 
 vol. xTii of " Eeformistas Aatiguos 
 
22 Lli'E OJ? JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 was a community of purpose between those who have been 
 mentioned here^ not only of eympathyj but likewise of actiorij 
 for the welfa/re of 8pain, "para bien de Espaiia;" and tMs 
 reciprocity brought about the entrance of Alfonso de Valdes 
 into public life in 1520. 
 
 In the month of September, 1517, there came to Spain, 
 in Charles's suite, amongst other Frenchmen and Flemings, 
 a Flemish jurisconsult named Sauvage^ with the rank of 
 Grand Chancellor.' 
 
 This personage was, in May, 1618, at his master's side in 
 Saragossa, having, with disgraceful rapacity, and within eight 
 months only, extorted from Castillo and remitted to Flanders 
 more than a million ducats.'^ Flanders, afflicted years after- 
 wards by the devastating sword of the ruthless Duke of 
 Alba, wept over these flagitious transactions. However ill 
 the Spaniards behaved, the Flemings were punished. 
 
 " Quidquid delirant Reges, plectimtui Achivi." 
 
 Whilst at Saragossa, the grand Chancellor Sauvage was 
 making his arrangements to plunder Arragon of a greater 
 amount than he had taken from Castille ; three Blastuses . 
 (Acts xii. 20), or chamberlains, his intimate dependents, 
 slept always near him. It is remarkable that he and they 
 died about the same time — two of them within a few days of 
 one another, whilst the third was drowned bathing in the 
 Ebro. They preceded their master, the Chancellor, who was 
 already sick, and died very shortly after. 
 
 As the plan, conceived by the deceased Chancellor whilst 
 
 ' The following statement will faoili- It will readily be perceived how tho 
 
 tate the distinction between the different venal nominations to inferior offices of 
 
 Spanish chanceries and chancellor- a mercenary chancellor would spread 
 
 ships. The Imperial Chancery is pre- a system of mercenary oppression over 
 
 sided over by an individual, the Chan- the whole country, 
 
 cellor or Grand Chancellor, he being After the death of Ximenes, Charles 
 
 the prime-minister of the monarch ; V. had imprudently appointed Sauvage 
 
 then the Chancellor of Castille, the Chancellor, and he, with G-uillermo do 
 
 Chancellor of Arragon, &c., were digni- Croy, SefiordeChievres, Charles's former 
 
 taries, certain grandees who got money tutor and subsequent prime-minister, 
 
 by the right and privilege of signing and his wife, vied with each other in 
 
 documents, warrants, and patents, all the refinements of extortion and 
 
 principally upon nominations to ofBces venality. One fact may be mentioned 
 
 and station in Castille, Arragon, &c. from Letter DCXX. of Angleria; the 
 
 The Chanceries of VaUadolid, Granada, Orati Camiller, who died at Saragossa, 
 
 &o., were something quite different ; among the bribes or extortions that he 
 
 they are courts of justice or supreme gathered in Spain, counts one of 10,000 
 
 tribunals at those places, and are so ducats which the Jews gave him, of tho 
 
 called because it likewise pertains to 20,000 that they had promised him, in 
 
 them to sign the warrants for holding order that he should suppress the secret 
 
 certain of&ces within the district of the accusations in the causes against them 
 
 particular Court of Chancery. There by the Inquisition. Angleria calls him 
 
 are likewise chancellors at the univer- a Barpy. 
 
 sities whose business is conducted in 2 See Anglerias Letter DCXXII. 
 tho Canzelario, or Chancery Court. 
 
ALFONSO DE VALDES. 23 
 
 yet in Flanders, was to sell everything, lie surrounded him- 
 self with coadjutors, introducing into the Chancery forty of 
 his evil retainers, ]paniaguados, whom he styled secretaries, 
 but who really were nothing better than thieves and bullies. 
 
 Death, in carrying off the Chancellor, cut off the chief 
 head of this hydi-a ; but the Spanish patriots, fearing lest 
 seven other heads should sprout forth from the severed trunk, 
 studied to prevent such a result to the best of their ability. 
 One of the things they did to check this corruption was to 
 introduce Alfonso Valdes into the General Chancery as Latin 
 Secretary, which they accomplished through the influence of 
 Don Diego Ramirez and of Angleria. By this arrangement 
 all the subjects that mainly affected the interest of Spain had 
 to pass under the notice of Valdes. The newly-appointed 
 Chancellor was Mercurino de Gattinara,'' a man of information 
 and experience in affairs, who, being desirous to act rightly 
 in the government, and being a foreigner, naturally confided 
 Spanish matters almost wholly to a Spaniard in whom he at 
 once recognized abihty and honesty, who had been presented 
 to him by his countryman Pedro Martir de Angleria, and by 
 his friend, the noble Don Diego Ramirez de Yillaescusa, one 
 who had so much influence with his pupil, the Queen Doiia 
 Juana, the mother of Charles V. 
 
 We thus see the means by which Alfonso de Yaldes was 
 introduced into the Cabinet or Imperial Chancery. He 
 entered, upon his office of Latin Secretary in the beginning 
 of the year 1520, and retained it permanently until the close 
 of the year 1530. It was from the same pohcy, we assume, 
 that Juan de Valdes was placed near the person of Adrian 
 of Utrecht, and that when Adrian was elected Pope in 
 the year 1522, Juan de Valdes accompanied the Pontiff to 
 Rome. 
 
 > Mercurino Gattinara di Arborio, Soon after, he was raised to the dignity 
 
 near VeroeUi, in Piedmont, bom 1465, of Cardinal. In that same year he 
 
 died 1530, was an eminent jurisconsult, arranged the terms of a treaty for the 
 
 and an honourable and enlightened defence of Italy, which was considered 
 
 man, favourable to the Reformation, by Cardinal Granvelle a political capo 
 
 He was of a noble family of VerceUi, lavoro. He died at Innspruck in June, 
 
 and successively CounciUor of the Duke 1530.— Gerdes, "Hist. Reform.," vol.i. 
 
 ofSavoy, and President of the Parliament pp. 195-204 Gerdes, "ItaUaj Re- 
 
 of Franche-Comt6. In 1518, Charles form." p. 267. See also M. Youn^, 
 
 v. appointed him his Chancellor. He "Life and Times of Aomo Paleano, 
 
 drew up the Articles of Conciliation be- vol. i. p. 222, n. 2. 
 tween the Emperor smd the Pope inl529. 
 
24 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDI^S. 
 
 SECRET INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 GIVEN TO THE SUB-PrIOB OF SaNTA OeUZ, BENT TO ENGLAND IN 1498. 
 
 [Document referred to at page 16, note.] 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Bemcn-lcable. 
 
 A.D. 1498.— The King and the Queen. 
 
 [As to the correction of Alexander VI.] 
 
 The following is what the sub-Prior of Santa Cruz is to say to the King 
 of England in a private interview. 
 
 That which you, the sub-Prior of Santa Cruz, have to say to the King 
 of England upon our part, when you pass through it, upon the journey 
 which you now make by our command to Flanders, is as follows : — 
 
 That knowing his great goodwill, and how much he is a most Christian 
 and CathoUo kmg, and what zeal he has in diviue things, and the wel- 
 fare of the Church ; it appeared to us that we ought to 
 
 England. communicate with him very secretly, and not in the presence 
 
 Friar °^ ^^^ other person, upon this highly important matter. 
 
 That he already must know what love and attachment we 
 
 have to our very Holy Father, and how much we desire to do for him. 
 
 And that we are more constrained than other princes to this, not only by 
 
 his being the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but because he is our countryman.' 
 
 And of the love we cherish towards him : and of what we desire to do 
 for him : our past acts, and especially all that has transpired in the war,^ 
 which was on account of the Church and for its defence, may well witness. 
 And many say, that from this it comes to pass that the Pope, holding us to 
 be so favouralDle and so stanch to his interests, dares to do things more 
 exorbitant than he otherwise would : — and even recently they teU us that 
 he is now intent upon withdrawing the Cardinal of Valencia from being 
 of the clergy, in order to raise him in station both in the estimation of the 
 laity and of the clergy ; and this supervening upon the plan he adopted 
 when he made him a cardinal, and upon his having stripped the Church 
 of Benevento in order to give it to the Duke of Gandia f and seeing that 
 he sells aU the benefices that fall vacant, in order to purchase position for 
 his son : and obstructs the reformation of monasteries within our realms, 
 and still more so, all reformation of the Church of Rome, by proceedings 
 so contrary to what the Vicar of Jesus Christ ought to do, and so scan- 
 dalous, and of such evil example for aU Christians. 
 
 It grieves us much, and we feel it to the soul, and both for the cause of 
 God and for the welfare and honour of the Church, and even as far as 
 His Holiness is concerned, we heartily desire a remedy for it, and that it 
 may be without damage and without inconvenience to the person of His 
 Holiness. For if it be not remedied, it might bring much damage to the 
 whole Universal Church. 
 
 And that we, moreover, have abeady endeavoured privately to remedy 
 this with His Holiness ; and with relation to it have taken every step we 
 could devise. We see not only that we have not succeeded, but it seems 
 that the excesses and disorderly practices of His Holiness are on the in- 
 crease, and are so aggravated that it requires prompt measures to ward off 
 geatermjury which might happen to the Church. And that he (the 
 Kmg) already knows it to be peculiarly the duty of Christian princes, to 
 whom God has given greater power upon earth, to provide the remedy for 
 Alexander VI. was a Valenoian. ^ of Granada. s Town of Valencia. 
 
SEOEET INSTRUCTIONS FOE THE KINO OP ENGLAND. 25 
 
 this. That it does not appear to us to be desirable to attain this by means 
 of a council, as well on account of the scandal and schism which might 
 spring from it to the Church, as from the damage that it might bring to 
 the person of His Holiness. But it does appear to us that we ought to 
 attain it by admonitions and memorials, presented to His Holiness by us 
 all through our ambassadors. 
 
 That although our entreaties have not up to this time moved him, we 
 believe that His Holiness, seeing that we, a body of Christian princes, act 
 unitedly against him, wOl, from fear, come to do that which he ought : — 
 that to this end certain kings will follow our example, and because we 
 believe that he (Henry VII.) as a Catholic prince, zealous for the service 
 of God, and for the welfare and honour of the Church, would wilUngly 
 concur in this ; we affectionately ask that he be pleased so to act : and 
 that he may send his ambassadors to Eome upon this subject, in order 
 that his, and ours, and those of the princes who shall to this end combine 
 with us, may labour with admonitions and entreaties to remedy this evU 
 with His Holiness. 
 
 That our ambassadors shall be those who shall propound the matter, and 
 shall carry it forward, and shall expose themselves to the affronts which 
 will be consequent thereto. 
 
 That his ambassadors have only to agree with ours, and with those 
 of others who shall combine against him, and to pursue the same 
 course. 
 
 And in this manner we hope in God that it may be remedied ; and 
 those evils be avoided which might happen to the Church were it not 
 done. 
 
 If there be peace with Prance ; 
 
 If there be neither peace nor war ; 
 
 If there should be war. 
 
 Should there be war with the Archduke.' 
 
 ' This appears to ask what the King of England would do ia any of these four 
 
 ROMA. 
 
 Notable. 
 Ano 1498.— El Key b la Retna. 
 
 [Sohre la correccidn de Ahxandro VP 
 
 Lo que el Sopridr ha de dezir al Rey de Inglaterra, il solo aparte, es lo 
 siguiente. 
 
 Lo que, vos, el padre Sopri6r de Santa Cruz, habeis de dezir de nuestra 
 parte al Rey de Inglaterra, cuando por alii passdredes, en este camino que 
 agora vais por nuestro mandado & Flandes, es lo siguiente : — 
 
 Que conociendo su mucha voluntdd, y cudn cristianissi mo y catolico 
 Rey es : y cuanto zelo tiene a las cosas de Dios, y al bien de la Iglesia ; 
 nos parecid que debiamos comunicar con ^1 este caso de tanta 
 Inglaterra. importancia, con vos muy secretamente, y no con otra per- 
 sona ; paia sab& sobre 61 su parecdr. Que ya A debe sab^r, 
 cuanto amor y acatamiento tenemos nosotros a nuestro muy 
 Santo Padre, y cuanto deseamos fazfo por ^1 :— y a esto somos obligados 
 nosotros mas que otros principes, no solamente por ser el Vicario de Ihu. 
 Xsto., Nuestro Sen6r, mas por ser nuestro natural.^ „ , , 
 
 Y del am6r que le tenemos ; y de lo que por &. deseamos fazer ; buen 
 2 Alejandro VI. era Valenciano. 
 
26 LIFE OP JUAN DB VALDBS. 
 
 testigo son nuestras obras passadas hechas en su fav6r, y sefialadamente 
 todo lo pasado en la guerra, que U& principalmente por la Iglesia, j por 
 su defensidn ddl :-y d&to viene, que muchos nos dizen, que temendonos 
 el Papa por tan favorables y tan oiertos para las cosas suyas, se atreve 
 A faz^r cosas muy exorbitantes, que de otra manera no las faria :— que 
 ao-ora de nuevo nos dicen, que se pone en quer& sacdr de la Iglesia al 
 Cardenal de Valencia, siendo de EvanjeUo, para hazerlo grande con lo 
 aieno, y con lo de la Iglesia ; y viniendo esto sobre la manera que turo 
 en fazerlo Cardenal, y sobre haber quitado a Benavento la Iglesia, para 
 darla el Duque de Gandia : y yiendo que vende todos los benefioios que 
 vacan, para compriir estado para su fijo r y estorba que no se hagan las 
 reformaciones, de los monesterios de nuestros reynos ; ymuoho menos la 
 refomiaci(3n de la Iglesia de Roma, en obras, tan contrarias, A. lo que debe 
 faz6r el Vicario de Ihft. Xsto. y tan esoandalosas, y de tan mal enjemplo 
 para todos los cristianos. 
 
 Nos pesa mucho, y lo sentimos en el alma, y por lo de Dios y por el 
 bien y honra de la Iglesia ; y ahiin por lo que tooa i, Su San.' deseamos 
 mucho el remedio deUo ; y que fuese sin daiio, y sin iuconveniente de la 
 persona de Su Santidad. Porque si no se remediasse, podria trah^r mucho 
 dafio a toda la universal Iglesia. 
 
 Y que nosotros, ya habemos procurado secretamente el remedio dfflo 
 con Su San'. ; y habemos fecho sobrello todas las dilijenoias que habemos 
 podido : y vemos que no solamente no han aprovechado ; mas parece 
 que cuanto mas va, mas crecen los excesses y desordenes de Su Santidad. 
 Y son en tanto grade, que para escusar el maydr dano, que dfflo se 
 podria seguir & la Iglesia, se requiere presta provision. Y que ya sahe 
 que procurer el remedio de esto, toca i, los prinoipes cristianos, a quien 
 mas poder di6 Dios en la tierra. Que proouiarlo por yia de conoiho, no 
 nos pareze bien ; assi por el esodndalo y cisma, que dfflo se podria seguir 
 en la Iglesia ; como por el dano que se podria seguir A la persona de Su 
 Santiddd. Mas par&enos que lo debemos procurer con amonestaoiones 
 y suplicaciones, enviando todos, nuestros embajadores sobrello i Su 
 Santiddd. 
 
 Que ahimque nuestras suplicaciones no hayan fasta aqui aprovechado en 
 ello ; creemos que viendo Su San.' que nos jimtamos para ello algimos 
 Principes cristianos ; de miedo, vernd a faz& lo que debe. Que paia esto 
 nos seguiran algunos Reyes y por jue creemos que ^1, como cat61ico 
 Principe, zeladiir del servicio de Dios, y del bien y honra de la Iglesia, 
 querrd entend^r en esto con buena voluntad ; le rogamos afectuosamente, 
 que assi lo quiera faz^r : y quiera envidr sobre eUo sus embajadores i Roma, 
 para que ellos y los nuestros, y los de los Principes, que para esto se juntaran 
 con nosotros, con amonestaoiones, y suplicaciones trabaien de remediar esto 
 con Su San'. 
 
 Que_ nuestros embajadores seran las que proposaran el negocio y lo 
 llevaran adelante, y se pornan i las afruentas que sobreUo se hubieren d^ 
 fazdr. 
 
 Que, los suyos, no es menester sino que se conformen con los nuestros, y 
 con los otros que para ello se conformaren, y sigan lo mismo que ellos. 
 
 Y desta manera esperamos en Dios que se podria aqueUo remedidi ; y 
 escusarse los males que dello se podrian seguir i la Iglesia no se faziendo. 
 
 Si hay paz con Francia ; 
 Si no hay paz ni guerra ; 
 Si hubiesse guerra. 
 Si fuesse lo del Archiduque.' 
 
 ' PareceproguntSr, qu« haria el Ray de Inglaterra en uno do estoa ouatro casoa. 
 
27 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Alfonso de Valdbs was introduced into the Chancery as 
 Latin Secretary to the Emperor in the beginning of the 
 year 1520. Many concurring circumstances kept the atten- 
 tion of Charles's councillors absorbed in the affairs of 
 Germany, where his presence was required for his formal 
 coronation as King of the Romans.^ The heresy of Luther 
 was now making rapid advances, which demanded his most 
 serious consideration, as did also the growing alliance be- 
 tween Francis I. and Henry VIII. 
 
 Charles and Francis had entered the lists as candidates 
 for the Imperial dignity, but conducted their rivalship with 
 courteous professions of regard for each other. " We both 
 court the same mistress/' said Francis, with his usual 
 vivacity ; " each ought to urge his suit with all the address 
 of which he is master ; the most fortunate will prevail, and 
 the other must rest contented." The preference, however, 
 given to Charles in the sight of all Europe mortified Francis, 
 and inspired him with all the passions natural to disappointed 
 ambition. To this was owing the personal antagonism 
 which existed between the two monarchs during the re- 
 mainder of their reigns, which was aggravated by the 
 difference between their natural disposition. At this 
 juncture the chief attention both of Charles and Francis was 
 directed to gain over the King of England, from whom each 
 of them expected effectual assistance. 
 
 We must not judge the administration of Henry VIII. 
 wholly by the defects of his own character ; many of his 
 impolitic proceedings are to be attributed to the passions 
 
 ' The Emperors of Germany, in order elect. Tiough historiana have not 
 
 that their eldest sons might be chosen attended to that distinction, neither the 
 
 their successors in their own lifetime, Italian nor German Chancery bestowed 
 
 politically obtained them the title of any other title upon him than that of 
 
 King of the Romans.— Haydn's " Die- King of the Eomans ; and no example 
 
 tionary of Dates," ed. 1861. occurrmgin history of any persons being 
 
 The Emperor Maximilian, Charles's chosen a successor to a king of the 
 
 grandfather, had discovered before his Komans, the Germans, always tenacious 
 
 death gi-eat solicitude to preserve the of their forms, and unwilling to confer 
 
 imperial dignity in the Austrian family, upon Charies an office for which their 
 
 and to procure the King of Spain to be constitution knew no name, obstinately 
 
 chosen his successor. Btft he himself refused to gratify Maximilian in that 
 
 having never been crovmed by the Pope point. By his death this difficulty 
 
 -a ceremony deemed essential in that was at once removed. -Robertson s 
 
 age-was considered only as Emperor " Charles V.," vol. i. p. 384, ed. 1827. 
 
28 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 and insatiable ambition of Cardinal Wolsey. Great talents, 
 and of very different kinds, fitted the Cardinal to sustain the 
 two opposite characters of an ecclesiastic and a courtier. His 
 judgment, his industry, his acquaintance with the state of 
 the kingdom, his extensive knowledge of the policy and 
 interests of foreign courts, qualified him for the uncontrolled 
 direction of affairs. His elegant manners, gay conversation, 
 insinuating address, love of magnificence, and proficiency ia 
 those branches of Hterature of which Henry was fond, 
 gained him the confidence and affection of the young 
 monarch. Wolsey, far from employing his vast and almost 
 regal power to promote either the trae interests of the 
 nation or the real greatness of his master, was at the same 
 time rapacious and profuse. Boundless ia his ambition, he 
 aspired after new honours with an eagerness unabated by 
 his former success. Rendered presumptuous by his rapid 
 elevation as well as by the influence he had gained over a 
 prince who scarcely submitted to advice from any otter 
 person, he displayed in his whole conduct the most over- 
 bearing pride and haughtiness. To these passions he sacri- 
 ficed every other consideration j and whoever endeavoured to 
 obtain his favour, or that of his master, found it necessary 
 to soothe and to gratify them. This character was quickly 
 perceived and well understood by the Spanish statesmen, 
 whose national disposition tended too much in the same 
 direction. 
 
 Charles soon became aware of the growing friendship of 
 Francis and Henry, and regarded it with the utmost jealousy 
 and concern. His near affinity to the King of England, 
 through his relationship to Catherine of Arragon, as well as 
 the traditionary policy of his grandfather, Ferdinand, gave 
 him a title to his friendship. Early after his accession to 
 the throne of Castille, he strove to ingratiate himself with 
 Wolsey, by settling on him a pension of 3,000 livres. His 
 chief anxiety at this time was to prevent .the intended 
 interview of Francis and Henry ; but in this he was unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Charles sailed from Coruiia, May 26, 1520, steering his 
 course directly towards England; he landed at Dover, relying 
 upon Henry's generosity for his own safety. Wolsey was 
 well acquainted with the Emperor's intention in this unex- 
 pected visit, which had in fact been concerted between them. 
 Henry, who was then at Canterbury, o.n his way to France 
 for the interview of the Cloth of Gold, immediately dis- 
 patched Wolsey to Dover to welcome the Emperor Highly 
 pleased with an event so soothing to his vanity Wolsey 
 
COBONATION OF CHARLES V. 29 
 
 hastened to receive him with suitable respect, and Charles 
 granted the Cardinal, whom he called his most dea/r friend, 
 an additional pension of 7,000 ducats. 
 
 Time was of the utmost consequence to Charles. He 
 stayed only four days in England, and during that short 
 space he had the ability to impress Henry favourably, and 
 to detach Wolsey entirely from the interests of Francis. The 
 papal dignity had long been the object of Wolsey's aspira- 
 tions ; and Francis, as the most effectual method of securing 
 his friendship, had promised to support his pretensions on 
 the first vacancy. But as the Emperor's influence in the 
 College of Cardinals was greatly superior to that of the French 
 king, Wolsey grasped eagerly at the offer which Charles 
 made him of exerting it on his behalf ; he therefore entered 
 with warmth into all the Emperor's schemes. Charles 
 passed onward to the Netherlands, and, notwithstanding 
 his fondness for the place of his nativity, made but a short 
 stay there to receive the homage and congratulations of his 
 countrymen ; he then hastened for his coronation to Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, the city in which, since Charlemagne, the German 
 Emperors have been successively crowned. There, in 
 presence of an assembly more numerous, august, and splen- 
 did than had ever been convened there upon any previous 
 occasion, the crown of Charlemagne was placed upon his 
 head on the 23rd of October, 1520.i 
 
 Only two days afterwards, while the gorgeous ceremony 
 was yet glowing in his remembrance, Alfonso Valdes, who 
 had accompanied the Emperor from Brussels to Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, sent a description of it to his friend and master, 
 Pedro Martir de Angleria. On the 20th of November, 
 Angleria transmitted a copy of it to his pupils, the Mar- 
 quises de Velez, and Mondejar, with whom he corresponded 
 on terms of confidential friendship. " Listen," says he, " to 
 a charming narrative. I send you the copy of a letter from 
 [Alfonso] Valdes, in which he describes the whole order of 
 the Emperor's coronation."* 
 
 The earliest correspondence, however, of Alfonso de Valdes 
 with Angleria dates from his arrival at Brussels. It was 
 upon the state of society in Germany, agitated by the re- 
 ligious revolution stirred up by Luther — a movement that 
 had just lately commenced. It was of importance that 
 Angleria, who now chiefly directed the internal poUcy of 
 Spain, should be perfectly informed respecting the germs 
 of those stupendous events which the sagacity of Alfonso 
 
 ' See Eobertson'a" History of Charles = See tbe letter at the close of this 
 v.," vol. ii. book 2, ed. 1827. chapter. 
 
30 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Valdes, at this early period of his official service, clearly 
 foresaw would follow. At the same time, this correspond- 
 ence shows that Valdes himself, while he was one of the 
 most ardent reformers of the Papacy itself, was no favourer 
 of Luther. 
 
 From Pedro Martir de Angleria to his Pupils, the Marquises de Velez, 
 and Mondejar, 18th September, 1520. 
 
 The events that transpire in these kingdoms are not hidden from you. 
 Of those which occur abroad, and which are come to our knowledge, read 
 the fearful occurrence which Alfonso Valdes, a youth of great promise, 
 describes to me with no less fidelity than elegance. You already know 
 his father, Fernando de Valdi5s, the Eegidor de Cuenca. 
 
 Alfonso Vald& greets his friend Pedro Martir. 
 
 That which you would fain learn from me, as to the origin and progress 
 of the Lutheran sect, which has recently sprung up among the Grermans, 
 I am now about to write to you, if without elegance, at least with 
 accuracy, relatiug things conscientiously, as I have heard them from 
 persons worthy of credit. 
 
 I think you are already aware that Pope Julius II. had begun to erect, 
 in the city of Rome, a temple dedicated to the Priuce of the Apostles, at 
 incredible expense, and exceeding in the vastness of its proportions all 
 similar structures, with good reason thinking it indecorous that the Prince 
 of the Apostles should be meanly lodged, particularly since men, from 
 religious motives, repair thither from all parts of the world. And this 
 greatest and most magnanimous of men would have finished the mighty 
 work had he not been taken off by death during the process of its erection. 
 
 Leo X. succeeded him, who, not having adequate funds to defray the 
 large outlay, sent throughout Christendom the amplest absolutions, or 
 pardons, commonly called indulgences, for those who should contribute 
 offerings for the erection of the temple ; he thought that by such means he 
 should clear an immense sum of money, getting it especially from the 
 Germans, whose veneration for the Church of Rome was singularly loyal. 
 But as there is nothing firm and stable in human affairs — nothing that is 
 not destroyed either by the damage brought by time or by the maHce of 
 men — so it is a fact, that these indulgences have brought it to pass that 
 Germany, which surpasses in religion every other Christian nation, may 
 now actually see itself left behind by them all. 
 
 For as a certain Dominican was preaching in Wittemberg, a city in 
 Saxony, and urging the people to purchase these pontifical indulgences, 
 from which this friar himself netted no mean profits, an Augustinian 
 monk, of the name of Martin Luther, and the author of this tragedy, came 
 forward, possibly moved by envy of the Dominican, and published certain 
 piinted propositions, in which he affirmed that the Dominican attributed 
 to his indulgences effects much greater than the Roman Pontiff either did 
 or could concede. The Dominican having read the propositions, was m- 
 flamed with wrath against the Augustinian, and the dispute between the 
 monks was exasperated both by injvu'ious expressions and by arguments— 
 the one defending his sermon, and the other defending his propositions ; 
 so that the Augustinian, with the characteristic audacity of the wicked, 
 began to disparage the papal indulgences, and to say that they had been 
 devised, not for the welfare of the Christian body, but to satisfy sacerdotal 
 avarice ; and from this pomt the monk proceeded to discuss 'the powers 
 ol the Roman Pontiff. ^ 
 
 Here you have the first scene of this tragedy, which we owe to monkish 
 
LETTER OF ALFONSO DE VALDES. 31 
 
 animosity ; for since tho Augiistinian envies the Dominican, and the 
 Dominican, in his turn, the Augiistinian, and both of them the Fran- 
 ciscan, what else shall we expect but the gravest dissensions ? And now 
 let us come to scene the second. 
 
 Frederick the Duke of Saxony, and Albert the Cardinal Archbishop 
 of Mentz, were, as Electors, coUeagu.es in the election of Roman Emperors ; 
 the former, who was not on the best of terms with the latter, had heard 
 that Albert made much money by these indulgences, the Prelate and the 
 Pope having agreed to share the money thus obtained between them. In 
 the meanwhile, the Duke, who sought an opportunity to deprive the Arch- 
 bishop of these gains, did not let slip that presented by an audacious 
 monk, who, ready for any bad action, had stood forward to declare war 
 against the pontifical indulgences. Accordingly, the Duke seized upon all 
 the money in the hands of the so-called commissaries, which had been 
 collected in his duchy, saying that " he intended to appoint a man, one of 
 his subjects, in Home, to present that money to the fabric of St. Peter, who 
 should, at the same time, see to the proper expenditure of the other sums 
 which had been collected for that purpose in other parts of Germany." 
 But the Pontiif, on whom it devolves to guard the liberties of the Church, 
 and not to permit profane princes to intermeddle in things solely within 
 the province of the Roman Pontiff, warned the Duke once and again, both 
 by letters couched in the most affectionate terms, and by nuncios specially 
 sent to Germany, that he should not act so injuriously to the Apostolic 
 seat, but should refund the confiscated moneys, which the Duke obstinately 
 refused to do ; whereupon the Pontiff, going to the other exti-eme, 
 declared him excommunicated. Then the Augustinian, having gained the 
 Duke's favour, assured him, with great hardihood, that such a sentence 
 was invalid, because iniquitous, for the Roman Pontiff could excommuni- 
 cate no one unjustly ; and he began, through printed circulars, which were 
 spread with facility and rapidity throughout aU Germany, to publish many 
 and grave things against the Roman Pontiff and the Romanists. Luther, 
 moreover, exhorted the Duke of Saxony not to be driven, by dread of the 
 Papal anathema, from the determination he had once formed. Further- 
 more, he declared that the temper of the Germans was getting irritated by 
 long contemplation of the worse than profane habits of the Romanists, 
 and that they had secretly begun to devise how to loosen and shake off 
 the yoke of the Roman Pontiff, which was accomplished when Luther's 
 writings were first published, and received with general admiration and 
 applause. Then the Germans, showing their contempt for the Romanists, 
 evinced at the same time their intense desire, and they demanded it too, 
 that there should be convened a General Council of all Cliristians, in 
 which, those things being condemned, against which Luther had written, 
 better order might be established in the Church. Would to God that 
 this had been realized ! In the meanwhile, the Pontiff obstinately guards 
 his rights, and fears lest Christians should hold a meeting ; for (to speak 
 freely) his particular interests, which might possibly be endangered by a 
 General Council, weigh more with him than the welfare of Christendom. 
 He is also anxious to have Luther's writings suppressed without discussion, 
 and has sent a Legate k latere to Maximilian, to procure, amongst other 
 things, that silence be imposed on Luther by the Emperor's authority and 
 that of the whole Roman empire. They then convened a General Diet, 
 an Imperial Parliament, at Augsburg, a celebrated city of Germany, where 
 Luther appeared, having been summoned by an Imperial decree, and 
 where he defended his writings with great power ; whereupon Cajetan had 
 to enter upon the arena. Cajetan — for such was the Legate's name — alleged 
 that " a monk ought not to have a hearing, who had written so many 
 blasphemies against the Roman Pontiff." And the Estates of the Empire, 
 
32 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 in their turn, declared " that U was an imiquitous thing to condemn a man 
 unheard, or without hoAiing previously convinced him, and compelled him 
 to retract those very v/ritings which he decla/red himself ready to defend. 
 That if this Cajetan (a man, as you know, profoundly yersed in polemics) 
 could convince Luther, they were ready (both the Emperor and the Estates 
 of the Empire) to pass sentence on him." Thus Oajetan, seeing that he 
 should make no progress unless he combated Luther face to face, -which 
 he had attempted once, but came off unsuccessfully, departed, leaving the 
 affair unsettled. Luther was dismissed with greater glory than that with 
 which he had been received — with a victor's joy. Alas ! that human re- 
 lations are so prone to 01 : relying upon the Duke of Saxony's protection, 
 he wrote and published, with fresh vigour, new dogmas opposed to the 
 Apostolic institutions. 
 
 The Pope, seeing that he could, neither by caresses nor by warnings, 
 cause the deserved punishment to be imposed upon the blasphemous monk, 
 in order that he might not diffuse the poison which he scattered on every 
 side with impunity, and that aU might flee the man declared a heretic and 
 schismatic, launched a most severe BuU, as they call it, against Luther 
 and Luther's partisans. 
 
 Luther, much more irritated than dismayed by this proceeding (oh, 
 shame !), proclaimed the Pontiff himself a heretic and schismatic, and 
 issued a pamphlet, entitled " De Gaptivitate Babylonica Ecclesiw," " The 
 Babylonian Captivity of the Church," in which — ^Eternal God ! — he combats 
 the decrees and statutes of councils and popes, and with what artifices ! 
 In it he affirms that John Huss was iniquitously condemned by the 
 Council of Constance, and that he, Luther, would defend as orthodox all 
 those propositions of his which had been condemned. And not content 
 with this, he pubhcly burnt all the books on Eoman law that he could 
 find in Wittemberg, saying that " they perverted and contaminated the 
 Christian religion, and that for this reason they ought to be destroyed." 
 
 The report of these events, spread throughout all Germany, excites to such 
 an extent the minds of the Germans against the Apostolic seat, that if the 
 prudence and piety of the Pontiff, or the good star of our Emperor, ia 
 conjunction with a General Council, do not come to the relief of these 
 evils, I fear, and I do very much fear, that this evil will spread so widely 
 as to be absolutely incurable. It has appeared to me to be my duty to 
 describe these things, writing them here on the spot, and I hope by so 
 doing to gratify you. Farewell. — Brussels, 31st August, 1520. 
 
 "■"^ngleria, in transmitting the above, adds, by way of 
 postscript : — 
 
 Enough of the disloyal monk, in refutation of whom many grave and 
 learned men have written much that you can readily get and read. 
 FareweE — VaUadolid, 18th Sept., 1520. Anqlbeia.' 
 
 Wben Charles arrived in Germany, in 1520, the opinions 
 ,of Luther had made only a partial progress. No secular 
 prince had embraced them. No change in the established 
 forms of worship had been introduced. No encroachments 
 had been made upon the possessions or jurisdiction of the 
 clergy. A deep impression, however, had been made upon 
 the minds of the people. Their reverence for ancient insti- 
 tutions and doctrine was shaken, and Valdes sagaciously 
 
 ' Letter DCLXXXIX. [page 380 of Elzevir, edit. 1670]. 
 
LETTER OF ALFONSO VALDES ON LUTHEE. 33 
 
 perceived and prophesied that the materials already scattered 
 would kindle into combustion, and soon spread over all 
 Germany. Students crowded from every province of the 
 empire to Wittenberg ; under Luther himself, Melancthon, 
 and other masters then reckoned eminent, they imbibed 
 opinions which, on their return, they propagated among their 
 countrymen. Had Leo checked the vices and excesses of 
 the friars — had he restrained the discussion of controverted 
 points, such as indulgences — had he been careful not to risk 
 the credit of the Church by defining its Articles, Luther 
 might have stopped short at his first exposure of abuses, and 
 not been provoked to self-defence, and the controversy might 
 probably have been confined to the gladiatorial displays of 
 the schools. Luther was exasperated by an improper ex- 
 ertion of authority on the part of Rome, but not restrained. 
 Leo, by an exercise of lenity, gave time for his opinions to 
 spread. The cause of Luther made rapid progress, arising 
 from the nature of the Church-reforms demanded, and not 
 less so from the juncture at which they were proposed. 
 
 The Emperor's appearance in Germany at this period 
 gave him an opportunity to interfere for its religious pacifi- 
 cation. The Diet at Worms was assembled to regulate the 
 internal police of the empire, to define the jurisdiction of 
 the Imperial Chamber, and to fix the forms of its proceed- 
 ings. A Council of Regency was appointed to assist Ferdi- 
 nand in the government of the empire during the absence 
 of the Emperor. The state of religion was then taken into 
 consideration. Luther was summoned under the Emperor's 
 safe-conduct to appear before the Diet. Prom the scene of 
 the Diet, on the 13th of May, 1521, Alfonso de Yaldes 
 addressed the following letter to Pedro Martir de Angleria 
 on this subject. Angleria sent a copy as a portion of his 
 letter to his pupU, the Marquis de los Velez. 
 
 Pedko Martir Angleria to the Marquis de los Velez. 
 
 After notifying to him the tumults in Italy, and the 
 ravages of the plague in Germany, and in the members of 
 the Emperor's court itself, he writes : — 
 
 Listen to something else of greater importance. The Emperor has 
 given letters of safe-conduct to the heretic Luther. He came to the court 
 well attended. If princes favour those who promote novelties, such persons 
 will never want followers, provided there be a glimpse of hope suggested 
 by ambition or avarice. 
 
 Alas for the Emperor's proceedings in this affair; they 
 are thus decribed by Vald^s : — 
 
 D 
 
34 LIFE OP JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 Alfonso Valdfe greets his friend Pedro Martir. _ _ 
 Prom Brussels I have already written to you as to the origin of the 
 Lutheran party and its progress up to that time. I will describe in this 
 letter the events which have since transpired. The Electors and other 
 Orders of the Roman Empire, having been convened at this city of Worms, 
 the Emperor, desirous that this affair of Luther's should be treated before 
 every other, proposed that this man's folly should be repressed by the 
 authority of the whole Roman Empire, that others might be prevented 
 from becoming his followers. Well, notwithstanding that he obtained this 
 only by persevering effort, nothing more resulted from it, but that Luther 
 was summoned, under a safe-conduct and the Emperor's pledged faith, 
 that he would hear him prior to any adverse decision against Mm. For 
 they said that it was iniquitous to condemn a man without hearuig him, 
 and that the Emperor's dignity and piety were engaged that, should 
 Luther retract his errors, those other subjects should be recognized, upon 
 which he had written so learnedly and in such a Christian manner, and 
 that Germany should, by the authority of the Emperor, be relieved from the 
 burdens and tyrannies of the ApostoKc seat. The lEmperor, finding his 
 power thus restricted, commanded that Luther should come and appear in 
 person before him and the other Orders of the Empire. Being asked there 
 " If those were his books which were everywhere published under his name, 
 and whether he would retract what he had written in them, or not ? " — he 
 replied, " that all of them were his books," the titles of which at his 
 request they read, " and that he was unwilling to deny them, and that 
 he never had denied them. But that as to the second part of the question 
 which had been addressed to him, to know whether he was wiUing to re- 
 tract what he had written, he begged the Emperor would grant him time 
 to deliberate ;" which was conceded him by the Emperor until the following 
 day. Upon that very day, the Emperor, and the Electors of the Roman 
 Empire, and the other Orders being present, Martin Luther being com- 
 manded to appear to answer to the second part of the question which had 
 been addressed to him on the previous day, after a long and diffuse oration 
 in Latin and in German, Luther said that " he could retract nothing con- 
 tained in his books, unless it were proved by the New Testament, or by 
 the testimony of the Old Testament, that he had erred and written im- 
 piously." Aid when he was again pressed that he should respond without 
 paraphrase with a categoric Yes or No, " whether he would abide by the 
 decrees and constitutions of the Councils ? " he replied that " he would re- 
 tract nothing, nor could he abide by the decrees of the Councils, since ikose 
 Councils occasionally contradicted each other." Whereupon the Emperor 
 commanded him to retire, and having dissolved the assembly for that day, 
 summoned the Prince Electors for the following day, and showed them a 
 rescript, in his own handwritmg, in which he declared what seemed to him 
 right to be done in this affair. He asked them if they were all of his opinion, 
 to wit that the severest edicts should be issued against Luther and the 
 Lutherans, and that the books of that madman should be burned ? But the 
 Electors, and other Orders of the Empire, some of whom had imbibed 
 Luther's poison, and others who declared that Luther should by no means 
 be condemned before the Germans were hberated from the burdens and 
 tyrannies of the Romanists, as they called them, begged the Emperor, with 
 ^eat importunity, that at the least Luther should be privately admonishd 
 that he should retract what he had written against the constitutions of the 
 Church. As the Emperor conceded this point to them, they during three 
 days adniomshed the hardened Luther, but in vain ; and seeing their utter 
 lailure, they subscribed the Emperor's decree. This done, the Emperor, 
 
 wT£!?T'^t'i"'^v,*°^''^^^,'''''^°^'^P^^'''=lypl«%«d f<"- his safe conduct, 
 warned Luther by a published document, " that he should leave Worms on 
 
EEASMUS. 35 
 
 the day following, and that he should flee, within twenty days, to some 
 place that might serve him as a refuge." Luther obeyed. The Emperor, 
 then, as well by his own authority as by that of the Prince Electors, and 
 of all the Orders of the Roman Empu'e, having published an awful edict 
 against Luther and the Lutherans, and against his writings, commanded 
 that all the writings of Luther, that could be found should be solemnly 
 burned, and that, following his example, the same should be done tlirough- 
 out the other cities of Germany. 
 
 Here you have, as sanu imagine, the end of this Tragedy, but I a/in 
 persuaded that it is not the end, but the beginning of it. For I perceive that 
 the minds of the Gtermans are greatly exasperated against the Romish See ; 
 and they do not seem to attach great importance to the Emperor's edicts ; 
 for since their publication Luther's books are sold with impunity at every 
 step and corner of the streets and market-places. From this you may 
 easily conjecture what will happen when the Emperor leaves. 
 
 This evil might have been cured, with the greatest advantage to the 
 Christian republic, had not the Pontiff refused a General Council, had 
 he preferred the public weal to his own private interests. But whilst he 
 obstinately stands upon his right, though possibly from a pious motive, or 
 stopping his ears, he is anxious that Luther be condemned and burned at j^ ' jLf 
 the stake, I see the whole Christian republic hurried to destruction, unless Z'^'' ■'♦ -y 
 God Himself succour us. Farewell. j«^««-^^ » 
 
 Worms, the 13th May, a.d. 1521. Vald^s." c^n^J^ .ITL 
 
 We have already stown the training wWch the young ^' ^z- ^jj ^ 
 Valdes' had received from the Maestro de los Gahalleros, 
 Pedro Martir Angleria. It had given then* minds the 
 direction towards reform, and the hberal principles he had 
 indoctrinated them with would, as a natural consequence, 
 lead them into union with eminent men of similar views, 
 especially as regards the improvement of morals and 
 manners. 
 
 Erasmus, the man of greatest learning and estimation of 
 his age, as early as the year 1521, had expressed himself in 
 his letters, in the strongest terms, against the iniquity of 
 the Papacy and the necessity of reformation. The Lutherans 
 naturally rejoiced in him as a partisan of their cause, but 
 the thorough-going work which their leaders were inclined 
 to make alarmed and disgusted him. The bias of his dis- 
 position was clearly expresed in his own words: "There is 
 a certain pious ceajt, an innocent time-serving, which how- 
 ever we must so use as not to betray the cause of reUgion." 
 And again : " If the behaviour of those who govern human 
 affairs shocks and grieves us, I believe we must leave them 
 to the Lord. If they command things reasonable, it is just 
 to obey them ; if they require things unreasonable, it is an 
 act of piety to suffer it, lest something worse ensue. If the 
 present age is not capable of receiving the whole (rospel ot 
 Jesus Christ, yet it is something to preach it m part, and 
 
 ' Letter DCCXXII. p. 411 of the Elzevir ed. 
 D 2 
 
36 LTi'E or jtjan de vald^s. 
 
 as far as we can. Above all things we should avoid a schism, 
 which is of pernicious consequence to all good men/ * This 
 short passage serves as a key to interpret the conduct of 
 Erasmus throughout his whole life. Erasmus had been 
 stimulated by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, to write 
 against Luther. In 1523 (?) he produced his " Hyperaspistes" 
 in answer to Luther's " De Libero Arbitrio." 
 
 Erasmus was patronized in Spain, as a defender of the 
 Catholic Church, by the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, 
 Don Alonzo Fonseca, elevated, in the year 1521, to the 
 archbishopric of Toledo, primate of Spain, and Don Alonzo 
 Manrique, Cardinal Archbishop of Seville, Inquisitor General, 
 as well as by the Emperor himself. In 1517 he received 
 the appointment of Honorary Councillor for Brabant to 
 Charles, then Archduke, with an annual pension of 200 
 florins, which it appears, however, was but irregularly paid. 
 To Alfonso Yaldes he was mainly indebted for the combined 
 favour of these friends, and for the payment of his pension 
 which the Latin Secretary facilitated with the Chancellor 
 Gattinara. The few letters we have, written by Erasmus 
 to him, abound in acknowledgments of his obligations and 
 gratitude ; the earliest is as follows : 
 
 Erasmus of Rotterdam to Alfonso Vald^s. 
 
 After some accidental delay, I received with other letters those of 
 His Majesty the Emperor, couched in very loving terms, and that, no less 
 kind, of Mercurino de Gattinara, whose counsel, both trusty and prudent, 
 it wiU be safe to follow. The extraordinary favour and love which you, 
 most worthy young man, evince towards me, and of which I previously 
 had so much experience, is again confirmed by such proofs, that, did 
 my ability correspond with my desire, you should Imow that these 
 favours had not been shown to an ungrateful man. I cannot now 
 enlarge upon this subject. I affectionately request you to thank all my 
 patrons in my name yourself. Farewell. 
 
 Erasmus. 
 
 Dated Basle, 31st March, 1527. 
 
 In the same year Alfonso writes to Erasmus : — 
 
 On the 28th August your letters at length arrived, as well those you 
 sent for the Emperor and the Chancellor Gattinara, and those for the two 
 Archbishops [Fonseca and Manrique], as also those which you wrote to 
 me and thy other friends. The Emperor read your Latin letter, hut in 
 Spanish, translated by me, and will answer it by the first post. 
 
 Letter from Erasmus to the Emperor, translated from Latin 
 INTO Spanish. 2nd Skptbmbbr, 1527. 
 
 Just as I confess, most invincible Emperor, my great obligation to 
 your Majesty, as well individually on my own behalf, as generally on 
 
 ' Jortin's " Life of Erasmus," vol. i. p. 260. 
 
LETTER OF OHAELES V. TO ERASMUS. 37 
 
 behalf of the schools, in that you have so benignly deigned to uphold me 
 with your favour ; so likewise I greatly desire, that that might which 
 conquers and subdues powerful kings, may with equal authority and 
 success put down the seditions of certain bad men. Confiding ia the 
 protection of the Pontiflfs and Princes, and principally in that of your 
 Majesty, I have, to my great personal peril, provoked the whole 
 Lutheran sect against me, and would to God that it were less widely 
 spread ! And should any requu-e evidence of this fact, Luther's work, 
 " De Servo Arbitrio," " The Enslaved Will," which he wrote against me, 
 and the two_ works which I have published in reply, will prove it. Now that 
 the aflfair with Luther begins to settle down, and this partly by my labours 
 and at my peril, there are persons, who, instigated by their private 
 interests, but pretending religious motives, disturb Spain, from various 
 causes the happiest of countries, by disorderly seditions. Assuredly, I fight 
 for Christ, and not in the interest of men. We have frequently seen very 
 heavy storms arise which began thus ; indeed this afiair of Luther's sprung 
 from more slender causes. But as for myself, I shall never cease to defend 
 Christian piety whilst life lasts. Your Majesty will ever hold it to be 
 your duty steadily to favour those who defend God's Church with sincerity 
 and energy. I fight under the banners of Jesus Christ and your Majesty, 
 and under them will I die. But I shall die the more cheerfully if I first 
 see peace and concord restored, both to the Church and to Christendom, 
 by your power, wisdom, and tact, which I never cease to supplicate of 
 Jesus Christ the Ahuighty, that He may grant us through your Majesty's 
 instrumentality. May He be pleased to guard your Majesty, and to 
 heighten your prosperity still more. 
 
 Erasmxts. 
 Dated Basle, 2nd September, 1527. 
 
 Addressed, To the most invincible monarch Charles, Catholic King and 
 elect Emperor of the Romans. 
 
 The Emperor's reply to Erasmus, IStli December, 1527: — 
 
 Charles, by the Divine clemency, Emperor elect of the Romans, 
 Augustus, &c. 
 
 Honoured, devout, and beloved, your letter gave us pleasure of two 
 kinds : the one through its being yours, and the other because we learned 
 by it that the insanity of the Lutherans is on the wane. You are indebted 
 for the former to the singular goodwill which we entertain towards you ; 
 and as to the latter, not only we ourselves, but the whole Christian world, 
 is indebted to you, for that you alone have achieved that which Emperors, 
 Pontiffs, and Princes, aided by so many of the most learned men, have 
 hitherto failed to attaio. Whence we see, and with the greatest delight, 
 that you cannot fail of obtaining immortal honour amongst men, and 
 eternal glory amongst those in bUss above, and from our soul we con- 
 gratulate you upon this your felicity. It remains for you to put forth 
 every energy in that field you have so successfully occupied, in order 
 finally to subdue it. Nor wall our assistance and favour ever cease to 
 further your most pious efibrts. But we have read with much pain, what 
 you write concerning those things which have transpired amongst us with 
 reference to your works, for it appears that you somehow distrust our love 
 and goodwill towards you, as though any resolution adverse to Erasmus, 
 whose Christian tone of mind we have so well proved, should be passed in 
 our presence. For there is no danger from that inquisition which we have 
 authorized with reference to your books, in which should any human lapse 
 be found, you being lovingly notified, may either correct it, or so explain 
 
38 LIFE OP JUAN UE VALDES. 
 
 it, as to leave no scandal to the weak ; and thus you will immortalize 
 your works, and stop the mouths of your detractors. But if indeed there 
 should he nothing worthy of reprehension, you see what glory awaits both 
 you and your works. "We wish you therefore to keep .up your spirits, and 
 to rest assured that your honour and reputation will never cease to give 
 us the greatest concern. As to the maintenance of the public peace, for- 
 asmuch as we have hitherto done aU that lay in our power, there is no 
 reason why any one should call it in question. What we may have to do 
 now, or what hereafter, we prefer to declare by deeds. This one thing we 
 do ask of you, that you in your prayers to Christ, the best and the 
 greatest, ever commend all our actions to Him. Farewell. From our, 
 city of Burgos, the 13th of December, 1527, and of our empire the 9th, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Addressed To the honoured, devout, and of us beloved Desiderius 
 Erasmus of Eoterdam, our Councillor. 
 
 Alfonso ValdjSs. 
 
 The Spanish friends of Erasmus, who certainly belonged 
 to the party of moral progress, although one of them 
 occupied the high position of Inquisitor- General, seem to 
 have promoted, by something like a concerted scheme, 
 the translation and spread of his treatises in Spain, in the 
 common language of the people. These treatises appear 
 to have followed each other in successive order, and were 
 printed in a handsome style, and with the insignia of 
 authority, by the highest literary press of the country. ' It 
 is true there had been in Spain^ from the year 1521, some 
 few scholastic theologians, ignorant of Hebrew and Greek 
 languages, who were opposed to him, — Diego Lopez de 
 Zufiiiga, and Sancho de Carranzs;, Professors of Theology 
 in the University of Alcala de Henares ; the Friar Luis de 
 Carvajal, a Franciscan ; Edward Lee,*^ the ambassador of the 
 King of England ; and Pedro de Victoria, a theologian of 
 Salamanca. 
 
 ' The works of Erasmus, in Spanish, de Henares per Miguel de 
 
 of whlct we have knowledge as still Eguia 4to 1529 
 
 existing, are the following : — Exposicion y sermon sobre los 
 
 Tractado de como se quexa la Psalmos s.l. 4to 1531 
 
 Paz. Compuesto por Erasmo Colloquies de Erasmo ... s.l. 4to 1532 
 
 varon dootissimo. Ysaoadode La Legua de Erasmo ... s.l. 4to 1533 
 
 latin en romance por el arce- Preparacion y aparejo para bien 
 
 diano de Seuilla don Diego morir. Seuilla. 4to 1551 
 
 Lopez. Seuilla por Jaoobo All these were printed by authoiity 
 
 Cromberger. Aleman. .,.4to 1520 in Spain. Some of them were after- 
 
 %* For a notice of the trans- wards printed in a smaller form at 
 
 lator, see Pellioer's " Ensayo de Antwerp. 
 
 Tra,ductores," pp. 45—51. 2 Edward Lee, a distinguished classic, 
 
 Enquiridio o manual del Cavallero but still more distinguished as an op- 
 
 Christiano, etc. impresso en ponent of Erasmus, whose annotations 
 
 la Universidad de Alcala de on the Gospel of Matthew Lee de- 
 
 Henares. De segOdo ImpressiS. nounoed in a work of 2 vols. He was 
 
 rp f 1 J ^t° ^^27 a zealous instrument of Henry VIII., 
 
 iraccaclodecomosequexalaPaz. and by him appointed Archbishop of 
 
 [begundo Impresion.] Alcala York. 
 
LETTER OF ALFONSO FERNANDEZ. 39 
 
 So long as the circulation of his writings had bean con- 
 fined to the editions in Latin, and consequently limited to 
 the use of the learned, the ignorant fraternity of friars 
 dissembled their hatred to his enhghtened wit and satire 
 against their corrupt lives and conduct j but when they 
 were presented to the Spanish people in their own 
 language, their exasperation broke out beyond restraint. 
 
 At the season of Lent, in the year 1527, a circumstance 
 occiu-red in the city of Palencia which brought the whole 
 question into discussion, in such a manner that it could 
 not longer be deferred by the ecclesiastical authorities 
 and the Liquisitor- General. An extant letter, written in 
 Spanish, in 1526, by the hand of the Spanish translator 
 of the " Enchiridion," Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of 
 Alcor, to Dr. Coronel, secretary of the Inquisitor General, 
 Alfonso Manrique, the Archbishop of Seville, sufficiently 
 explains the affair. Dr. Coronel transmitted the Arch- 
 deacon's autograph letter to Erasmus, and hence it is now 
 found preserved at Leipzig, although addressed to a cor- 
 respondent in Spain. 
 
 The letter runs thus : — 
 
 Very Reverend and most Noble Sir, 
 
 Since that Erasmus's Enchiridion has been printed in Spanish, a 
 wort which you promoted much to your great merit, I have requested 
 the printer at Alcala to send two well-bound copies, together with my 
 letter, one to the Archbishop [of Seville] and the other to yourself. I 
 believe this order has been executed. Now, it is well you should know 
 that Father Juan de San Vincent, a Franciscan, resident in this city, a 
 man of words rather than letters, has endeavoured to excite the people 
 here, as he previously did on another occasion, that of the insurrection of 
 the Comunidades ; and publicly preaching upon the Feast of St. Antolin, 
 when the clergy and people and the provincial tribunal met in the 
 cathedral church, he uttered two thousand blasphemies agauist the 
 Enchiridion, in stating that it contained a thousand heresies. And more 
 than this, he drew forth a written Resolution from his bosom and attached 
 it with pins to the pulpit-cloth. I beheve that they wiU have already 
 sent you a copy of it from Alcala, nevertheless I send one too, in order 
 that you may see it. The next day I attended the schools where they 
 argue, but no one came forward to discuss it, for they are all monks (that 
 is to say, theologians who had graduated as Bachelors, Licentiates, and 
 Doctors), and besides, the Resolution offered no distinct subject of discus- 
 sion for them. Then he brought out a paper with as many as XXX arti- 
 cles which he had collected from the Enchiridion, and from an epistle of 
 Erasmus usually appended to it ; and from Paraclesis [a tract attached to 
 his New Testament], and others. And indeed, as I hope to be saved, of 
 all the thirty the Father did not understand ten ; nor does Erasmus state 
 that which provokes him, nay, in some places, he says the contrary. 
 Therefore, to bring the matter to an end, I resolved to oppose hun in per- 
 son with sound arguments and without sophisms. And when aU under- 
 stood me, and heard what passed, and were informed of the Archbishop's 
 carefulness evinced by his command to have the book examined, and saw 
 
40 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 ' his " imprimatur " appended with his armorial hearings [on the reverse of 
 the title] to the puhlished hook, Sec— then he left the theatre hooted at and 
 ridiculed by all : tandem, ab omnibus exsibilatus irrisusque, e theatro di^- 
 cessit ; my cause heing more aided by truth, than his hy Ul-hreeding and 
 slander. But he has not ceased to bark yet, nor does he desist from 
 forcing his way into the houses of influential laymen, publicly exciting 
 everybody against Erasmus, and secretly against the authority of the Arch- 
 bishop, and of the Lords of the Council, concerning whom he has dared 
 to say that they erred in their approval of the book and in their order to 
 have it printed. True it is that as we all enjoy forbidden fruit, the Father 
 has succeeded to such an extent, that those who had never heard of 
 Erasmus before, are seen with his books constantly in their hands now, 
 and nothing else is read but the " Enchiridion," since it has been thu3 
 condemned and defamed by the reverend father. Although I am here on 
 the spot, this affair does not chiefly aflfect me ; it concerns, beyond all, 
 God and His Church, who is injured in the defamation of a doctrine cal- 
 culated greatly to benefit all Christians ; and it concerns the learned and 
 pious author, a man who has so greatly promoted the Christian religion 
 and all good letters ; it likewise affects his Grace and the Lords of the 
 Council, that a half idiot fraterculus has dared to condemn as a heretic 
 one of whom the Protectors of the Church approve as a good man ; it 
 affects yourself no less, for it was upon your evidence and commendation 
 that the book was approved of and printed. And assuredly, if this fellow 
 shall calumniate the Moria (the praise of folly, the Laus Morice) of some of 
 the youthful Colloquies, though this would have been great hardihood on 
 his part, stUl it might have been borne -, but to have spoken so vehe- 
 mently against the Enchiridion, never before attached hy any one up to this 
 day, (nunquam usque hunc diem, ab aliquo lacessito,) is unpardonable. 
 
 I write to ask you to apprise the Archbishop, and these Lords, in order 
 that his Grace may order him to be chastised ; so that at the least, recantai 
 palinodiam, he may be made to retract in that very pulpit, and honourably 
 reinstate those whom he has defamed. I think he will do our Lord good 
 service in the repression of such idle babblers, so that true doctrine be not 
 defamed and vilified. For the Lord's sake, pardon my bluntness and im- 
 portunity. May our Lord preserve your Reverence as I desire. 
 
 From Palenoia, the 10th of September, [1527. 
 
 Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of Alcor.] ' 
 
 The " Bnchiridioa," in SpanisTij was a book worthy to 
 be readj not only for the value of its Christian doctrine, 
 
 ' The original autograph of the letter there- is written under the letter, but 
 from Alfonso Fernandez of Madrid, in a different handwriting, " The Arch- 
 Archdeacon of Alcor, to Dr. (Luis deacon of Alcor to Dr. Coronel upon 
 Nuflez ?) Coronel, is, together with a Erasmus ;" he adds, that a more recent 
 Latin version of it, preserved in the hand has embodied the date, 10th Sep- 
 library of the University of Leipzig, tember, 1535, both in the Spanish letter 
 Dr. Edward Bcehmer, of Halle, in and in the Latin copy of it. Dr. Boehmer 
 Saxony, made it known in a German judiciously observes, the supposed mis- 
 review, in the year following that in chief of such addition is corrected Ijy 
 which he reprinted the " CX. Consi- comparing the dates of the editions of 
 derations" in Italian. Dr. Bcehmer the "Enchiridion" in Spanish [1527] 
 has printed the letter word for word, with the letters of Erasmus, Fernandez, 
 without variation, save the addition of and Coronel, on the subject. He fur- 
 that punctuation which was desirable ther obseiTes that the letter was written 
 to render its meaning more perspicuous, only a week after the Feast of St. An- 
 iie lurmshes notes upon the letter tolin, which ought to be A.D. 1626 
 Itself, Its author, and Dr. Coronel, to [15271. 
 whom It was written, and says that 
 
LETTER OF FERNANDEZ TO ERASMUS. 41 
 
 but for the excellence of its language as a translation 
 into tlie vulgar tongue. Juan de Valdes, one of the best 
 judges on this subject^ some years later, in a discussion 
 which he had at a country-house on the shore of the Bay 
 of Naples with some of his friends upon the Spanish 
 language, thus expresses his opinion of its merits : — His 
 friend Marcio asks him, ''What is the other translation 
 from the Latin [besides Boethius De Gonsolatione] which 
 pleased you?" Valdes replies, "The Enchiridion, by 
 Erasmus, which the Archdeacon of Alcor [Alfonso 
 Fernandez] turned into Spanish, which I think might, in 
 point of style, compete with the Latin." ' The beauty of the 
 language doubtless aided the circulation, and the popular 
 curiosity was further stimulated by the public opposition 
 of the friars. To what degree this was carried, making 
 some allowance for the exaggeration of the writer in com- 
 pliment to Erasmus, and we may say indirectly to the 
 translator himself, is well expressed in a letter frpm 
 Fernandez to Erasmus, dated 27th November, 1527 : — 
 
 To the most distinguished man Desiderius Erasmus, of Rotterdam, Alfonso 
 Fernandez sends his cordial salutations. 
 
 Most excellent Erasmus : When the Emperor passed through Palenoia 
 last month, -which was in October, I sent you two letters, the one by 
 Valdds, and the other by Martiu Transylvanus, in which I expressed my 
 steadfast love and goodwill to you. I think you must have received them. 
 I saw your letter to Ooronel, of the 1st of September, which they handed 
 to him whilst, as it happened, he was a guest under my roof. I read it 
 over and over again, and with great pleasure. There was nothing in it 
 from its very commencement tiiat did not savour of Erasmus, nor was 
 there anything in it that did not serve to manifest your piety and learning ; 
 but I especially noted the passages that affected me, where you say, " I do 
 not know whether they who translate my books into Spanish do it from 
 love of me ; but this I do know, they excite much ill-will against me." 
 Up to this time I have seen no book of yours done into Spanish, save 
 only the Enchiridion Militis Christiani, by myself, which all conciir in 
 saying has not been translated discreditably. This work has gained such 
 applause, brought such credit to your name, and has proved so useful to 
 our Christian people, that there is no other booh of our time which may be 
 compared with the Enchiridion" for the extent of its circulation, since it is 
 to be found in the hands of all. There is scarcely an individual in the 
 Court of the Emperor, an inhahitant of our cities, a member of our Churches 
 or Convents, nay, nor even an hotel or country inn, that has not a copy of the 
 Enchiridion op Erasmus in Spanish. The Latin version was read 
 previously by a few who understand the Latin language ; but its fuU 
 merit was not perfectly perceived even by these, but the Spanish is now 
 read by aU without distinction, and this short work has made the name of 
 Erasmus a household word in circles where previously it was unknown and 
 had been imheard 
 
 ' " Dialogo de la LeBgua " (tenido Madrid Afio de 1860, p. 178, which is 
 azia el A. 1533). the ed. I have used. 
 
42 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 But enough of this. Now, for the love I bear you, I judge it right to 
 suggest that you introduce into your little book, entitled the Exomologesu, 
 at least some small compliment to auricular confession, and that you should 
 commend it with somewhat more earnestness, in order that as the above- 
 mentioned work, which is now agreeably received by aU good and learned 
 men, so with the suggested addition it may satisfy the unlearned who 
 now speak evil of it. Farewell. You personally reflect honour on letters. 
 
 Palencia, 27 November, 1527. Erasmus, I am, with much jealousy for 
 your reputation, Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of Aloor. 
 
 Sucli being tlie notoriety thus given to the writings of 
 Erasmus^ and sucli tlie clamour of tlie friars in opposition 
 to their circulation among the people in their own language, 
 Don Alfonso Manrique, the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville 
 and Inquisitor- General, could not do less than have them 
 examined. But, as he was a friend of Erasmus, he sought 
 to get men appointed as censors who as theologians were 
 then reputed the wisest in Spain. Retaining the president's 
 seat in the commission, he appointed the Archbishop of 
 the Canary Islands, domiciled in the Peninsula, vice- 
 president, and he assembled numerous theologians, who 
 resided in various districts, summoning them by a circular 
 letter, dated the 14th April, to meet on Ascension-day. 
 Sandoval says that there were thirty-two convoked, but 
 Llorente says : " I find only eleven worthy of notice — 
 viz., Alonzo de Cordoba, D.D., an Augustine of the 
 Sorbonne in Paris, a surrogate professor at Salamanca, 
 the author of various works ; Francisco de Victoria, 
 a Dominican monk, a doctor of the Sorbonne, pro- 
 fessor at Salamanca, author of various works, and 
 brother of Pedro de Victoria, the opponent of Erasmus ; 
 Alfonso de Oropesa, professor at Salamanca, author of 
 various works, and afterwards Inquisitor; Juan Martinez 
 Silicco, a famous theologian of Salamanca, a scholar of the 
 Upper College of St. Bartholomew, author of various works, 
 and subsequently Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo ; Pedro 
 de Lerma, Doctor of the Sorbonne, author of various works, 
 first Chancellor of the University of Alcala, and after- 
 wards professor at Paris, to which he returned in order to 
 escape the dungeons of the Inquisition, persecuted by 
 certain scholastic theologians, who did not know Hebrew 
 or Greek ; Peter Ciruelo, Doctor of the Sorbonne, scholar 
 of the Upper College of St. Ildefonso of Alcala, author 
 of various works, a Prebendary of Segovia, and Canon- 
 magistral of Salamanca ; Alonzo Virues, a Benedictine monk, 
 the author of va-rious works, who came to be Bishop of 
 the Canary Islands, much persecuted by. the Inquisition, 
 with reference to which he wrote that which will be 
 
CENSOES OF THE WEITINGS OF ERASMUS. 43 
 
 read when we treat of his case; Dionisio Vazquez, an 
 Augustine friar, Doctor of the Sorbonne, professor at the 
 University of Alcala, chaplain to the Pope, and so humble 
 that he declined the appointments of Archbishop of Mexico 
 and of Bishop of Palencia ; Nicholas Castillo, a Franciscan 
 friar, author of a volume of sermons ; Luis Nunez Ooronel, 
 a scholar of the Montaigu College at Paris, professor at the 
 Sorbonne, chaplain to Charles V., and, in the opinion of 
 Erasmus, a consummate theologian — an opinion enunciated 
 prior to this period, in his work, " A Paraphrase upon the 
 Gospel of St. Matthew;" Miguel Carrasco, a Doctor of 
 Alcala, a scholar of the Upper College of San Ildefonso, 
 at that time confessor of the Archbishop of Toledo ; and 
 Luis Cabeza de Vaca, formerly tutor to Charles V., and 
 actually Bishop of the Canary Islands, Vice-president of 
 the Junta, and successively Bishop of Salamanca and of 
 Palencia, who, whilst in this diocese, declined his nomination 
 as Archbishop of Santiago."^ The following members of 
 the commission were also personal friends of Alfonso Vald^s, 
 whom, he himself constdted respecting the " Dialogo de 
 Lactancio" : — Dr. Coronel, Pedro de Lerma, Chancellor of 
 the University of Alcala, and Dr. Carrasco. 
 
 No exertion was spared to induce the Pope to silence 
 the clamf)ur of the friars against Erasmus. The Grand 
 Chancellor, Gattinara, in all likelihood by the hand of 
 Alfonso Valdes, wrote to Juan Perez,* the Emperor's 
 Charge d' Affaires at Rome, to procure a brief from the 
 Pope for this purpose. In a dispatch, dated the 26th of 
 June, 1527, Juan Perez writes: — 
 
 I asked the Pope for a brief to the Archbishop of Seville [Don Alonzo 
 Manrique, Cardinal Inquisitor-General] that should impose sUenoe on 
 
 ' Llorente'a " Historia de la Inqui- commentaries by Juan de Valdfe, vising 
 
 sioion," vol. iii. chap. xiii. art. i. pp. 5-9. the author's own MS. All the above 
 
 Ed. Barcelona, 1835. works bear the imprint of Venena. 
 
 " Juan Perez de Pineda was an Anda- Beza, in his " loones," praises him for 
 lusian, bom about the year 1500, at his numerous writings. From Greneva 
 MontiUa, a town famous for its wines, he removed to Basle. When Casiodoro 
 He was secretary to the Spanish em- de Eeyna was printing his translation 
 bassy at Rome in 1527, residing there of the Bible there — 1567-9 — falling Ul of 
 during the memorable sack of the city, fever, he owed his life, as he says, under 
 He had to ransom himself from the Providence, to his countryman, Juan 
 soldiery. Ketuming to his country, he Perez, who received him, his wife, and 
 was placed over the College of Doctrine four children, into his own house, and 
 at Seville, an endowed school for the nursed him into health, enabling him to 
 education of the nobility. It is con- finish the labour upon which his heart 
 jectured that he left Spain about the was set. Juan Perez removed later in 
 year 1551, and went to Geneva, where, lite to Montargis, where he died at an 
 in 1556 and 1557, he printed a Spanish advanced age. MoCrie, "History of 
 Catechism, a translation of the New the Progress and Suppression of the 
 Testament, and the Psalms ; he also Keformation in Spain." " Bpistola Con- 
 printed there the Epistle to the Ro- solatoria," by Juan Perez. Notice pre- 
 mans and the First of Corinthians, with fixed, ed. 1848. 
 
44 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 those who attacked the works of Erasmus ; for the Grand Chancellor, 
 Mercuric de Gattinara, had written to me to do so at the time ot Ms ae- 
 parture, and his Holiness instructed me that I should ask it by torm ot a 
 memorial to Cardinal Santicuatro, which I did. I shall press for it and 
 if the brief he obtained, I shall send it to Secretary [AlonzoJ Valdfe, to 
 whom the Grand Chancellor desired that I should transmit it. 
 
 And in another letter of tlie 1st of August in the same 
 year, 1527, he writes : — 
 
 Herewith I transmit to the Secretary Vald&, the Brief which I ad- 
 vised your Majesty should be sent to the Archbishop of Seville, imposing 
 silence, under pain of excommunication, upon those who should speak 
 against the works of Erasmus, forasmuch as they contradict those of 
 Luther.' 
 
 The Board held its sittings during two months, and 
 was then dissolved by the plague, before the censors had 
 succeeded in arriving at that harmony of views neces- 
 sary to concur in a judgment. Erasmus wrote various letters 
 expressing his hopes that he should come well out of it.' 
 The Council (of Inquisition) subsequently had the works 
 called the " Colloquies," the "Laus Morise," and the "Para- 
 phrase," examined, which resulted in their prohibition. In 
 more recent times some other works of Erasmus have been 
 prohibited, and the Inquisition have decreed that all this 
 author's works are to be read with caution, which censure 
 involved the supposition that they favoured Lutheranism, 
 though he combats it frequently in the most direct manner. 
 " Whose lot so unfortunate as mine ? " he was wont to say. 
 " The Lutherans persecute me as a Papist, and the Catholics 
 as a Lutheran ! so that a dispassionate person can scarcely 
 fail of truth which lies between them, but which the athletes 
 on either side, in the heat of opposition, fail to see. I seek 
 truth, and find it at times in Catholic propositions, and at 
 times in those of the Protestants. Is a heretic one who is 
 always in the wrong?" ''What frenzy!" exclaimed his 
 friend Juan Luis Vives, the Valencian. " We hve in 
 difficult times, in which we can neither speak nor be silent 
 without danger." 
 
 ' Llorente, vol. iv. cap. xxi. art. ii. ' Epist. DCCCXXXIV. DCCCCVII. 
 paragraph 6, pp. 82-83. Ed. Barce- DCCCCX. 
 lona, 1835. 
 
OOEONATION OF CHAELES V. 45 
 
 Letter of Alfonso de Yald^s to Pedro Martir Anglbeia, on the 
 
 Coronation of Charles V. as Emperor of Germany. 
 
 [Referred to in page 29, and the note.] 
 
 Alfonso Valdfe greets his friend Pedro Martir. 
 
 God grant it may be to our welfare and prosperity, our Emperor has 
 just been crowned King of the Eomans, with such pomp and with such 
 universal applause, that you may believe me when I state that he alone 
 has far outdone all the triumphal processions of the Romans. Were I to 
 attempt to describe to you, in detail, the legions of soldiers and knights 
 with whom the Emperor made his entry into Aix-la-Chapelle, the 
 magnificent retinue of courtiers of all ranks, the armed German hosts, the 
 sound of the clarions, the beating of drums and other warlike instruments, 
 the decorations in gold, silver, and precious stones, and the personal 
 carriage of the Emperor himself, — not only would it be difficult to me, but 
 possibly wearisome to you. For which reason, I shall only communicate 
 to you in this letter those things which I judge worthy of being known. 
 
 At first it was rumoured that the plague was ravaging Aix-la-ChapeUe, 
 where similar solemnities are wont to be celebrated, and on this account it 
 was proposed to fix upon some other site for them. But the Emperor, like 
 a brave spirit, making light of all suspicion of the plague, would not be 
 crowned elsewhere than at Aix-larChapelle, in order that he might not seem 
 to treat this most ancient city injuriously, and taking leave of the Infant 
 Fernando at Louvaine, he proceeded directly to Aix-la-Ohapelle himself. 
 But the Electors, who awaited the Emperor's arrival at Cologne, when they 
 heard of his coming, came also to Aix-la-Chapelle to treat of the ceremonies 
 and other necessary things in connection with the coronation, which had 
 been proclaimed for the 23rd of October, although some opposed, saying 
 that the Emperor neither ought, nor could be crowned, save on a feast day. 
 This scruple, however, was disposed of by the authority of the Bishop of 
 Liege, within whose diocese that city is situate. For he gave orders that 
 the day upon which the solemnity should be celebrated, should ever hence- 
 forth be observed within that province as the feast day of St. Severino. 
 Finally, things having been duly arranged, the three Archbishops Electors 
 of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, presented, according to usage, the decree 
 of election to the municipal authorities, that they might know that the 
 king, who was about to come, had been duly elected. 
 
 Then, at mid-day, the Archbishops Electors, together with the Elector 
 of the Palatinate, set forth with great pomp to meet the Emperor ; but the 
 other Electors, to wit, the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Saxony, as 
 also the Marquis of Brandenburg, although they did not assist at the 
 coronation, sent their representatives, with the amplest powers. Saluting 
 the Emperor with due reverence, they introduced themselves according to 
 their order, so that the Archbishop of Cologne, as conservator, went at the 
 Emperor's right, and the Archbishop of Mentz at his left, whilst the Arch- 
 bishop of Treves, together with the Palatine and the Orator of Branden- 
 burg, preceded the Emperor. 
 
 Zodo Papense, the Vice-Marshal of the Empire, likewise bore the sword 
 of state. I'he Orator of Bohemia was the only one who walked in order 
 behind the Emperor ; behind him went the Cardinal of Sedan, the Arch- 
 bishop of Saltzburg, and the Archbishop of Toledo. For the Orators of 
 the other princes would not assist, saying that their places were already 
 filled by the Electors. Whilst the precedence of the assistants was dis- 
 posed of by the Lord of Iselstein, the Senators of the city received the 
 usual oath from the Emperor. 
 
46 LIPE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Then, a difference having arisen heWeen the Archbishop of Juliers and 
 the Saxons, it was settled in this manner : that the Archbishop of Juhers, 
 as advocate of the province, should enter the city and pass directly through 
 it to the other side ; and that the Saxon, as Marshal of the Empire, should 
 remain within the city at the head of the army. At the gate of the city, 
 the Emperor in armour worshipped the cross, and kissed the head of 
 Charlemagne, and dismounted from his horse, which the guards of the gate 
 kept as their due perquisite. From thence the Emperor was led to the 
 celebrated and ancient church of St. Mary. The Emperor mounted 
 another horse, which he gave, according to custom, to the Marshal of 
 Cologne, but not without dispute upon the part of the clergy, who chal- 
 lenged this horse as belonging to them. 
 
 The coronation was celebrated next day in the following order. The 
 Emperor was introduced into the temple by the Archbishops Electors, he 
 of Cologne going first as Consecrator, and singing, with the choir, the Te 
 Dewm laudamus. He likewise began the Mass as they call it. Before 
 the Deacon chanted the Gospel, all prostrate, the choir implored the in- 
 tercessions of the Saints. The Archbishop of Cologne then addressed the 
 Emperor in these terms. " Vis sanctam fidem Catholicis viris traditam 
 tenere et operibus justis servare?" " WiU you hold the holy Faith, 
 delivered to Catholics, and maintain it by righteous works T' 
 
 To which the Emperor replied, " Volo." " I will." 
 
 " Vis Sanctis Ecclesiis Bcclesiarumque ministris fidelis esse tutor et 
 defensor ? " " WlU you be the faithful guardian and defender of the holy 
 churches, and of their ministers ? " 
 
 He answered, " Volo." " I wiU." 
 
 " Vis regnum tibi k Deo concessum secundum justitiam prsedecessorum 
 tuorum regere et efflcaoiter defendere ? " " WiU you govern and effectively 
 defend the kingdom which God grants to you, conformably to the justice 
 of your predecessors ? " 
 
 He answered, " Volo." " I will." 
 
 " Vis jura Regni, Imperiique, ac bona ejus dispersa injuste, conservare 
 et recuperare, ac fideliter in usus Regni, Imperiique dispensare?" "Will 
 you conserve and recover the rights of the Kingdom and Empire, together 
 with its unjustly dissipated property, and administer them faithfully for 
 the use of the Kingdom and Empire ? " 
 
 He replied, " Volo." " I wiU." 
 
 " Vis pauperum et divitum, viduarum et orphanorum sequus esse judex 
 et pins defensor ? " " WiU you be a just jndge and pious defender of the 
 poor and of the rich, of the widow and of the orphan 1 " 
 
 He answered, " Volo." " I will." 
 
 " Vis sanctissimo in Christo Patri Domino Eomano Pontifici, et sacrae 
 Eomanae Ecclesife subjectionem debitam et fidem reverenter exhibere 1 " 
 " Will you reverently exhibit the due subjection and faith to the most 
 holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Roman Pontiff, and to the holy 
 Roman Church 1 " 
 
 He answered, " Volo." « I will." 
 
 These affirmations haviag been made, the Archbishops of Mentz and of 
 Treves led the Emperor to the high altar, where the Emperor promised, 
 taking his oath, that he woiild execute, to the utmost of his ability, all 
 that he had asseverated. 
 
 Then the Archbishop of Cologne, with his face to the people, said, first 
 in Latin and then in German : " Vultis tali Principi ac Rectori vos 
 subjicere, ipsiusque Kegnmn firmare, fide stabilire, ac jussionibus illius 
 obtemperaxe 1 " " Will you subject yourselves to such a Prince and Ruler, 
 strengthen his kingdom, stablish it by fidelity, and obey his oommaTid^i 1 " 
 To which aU shout, " Fiat, Fiat, Fiat ! " " Be it so. Be it so ! " 
 
CORONATION OP CHARLES V. 47 
 
 Tlien the Archbishop of Cologne anointed the Emperor, saying, " Ungo 
 te, in Eegem, oleo sanctifioato, in nomine Ptitris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. 
 Amen." " I anoint thee, as King, with consecrated oil, in the name of the 
 Father, of the Son, aiid of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 
 The Archbishops of Mentz and of Treves conduct the anointed King to 
 the Sacristy, and having invested him with the Imperial ornaments of 
 Charlemagne, they reconduct him from the Sacristy. To him, already 
 seated, the three Archbishops unitedly deliver the sword of Charlemagne, 
 saying to him, "Accipe gladium per manus Episcoporum, ut per eum 
 sequitatem exerceas, iniquitatem destmas, Ecclesiam protegas, ac falsos 
 Christianos oppugnes." " Receive, by the hands of the Bishops, the 
 sword, that with it thou mayst exercise justice, destroy injustice, protect 
 the Church, and assail false Christians." 
 
 _ Then the Archbishop of Cologne alone gave the Emperor the golden 
 ring, and Eegal vestments, and sceptre, saying, " Accipe virgam virtutis 
 atque sequitatis, qua inteUigas diligere pios et terrere reprobos." " Eeceive 
 the wand of virtue and equity, wherewith thou mayst learn how to love 
 the pious, and to terrify the wicked." 
 
 Which things done, the three Archbishops conjointly placed the royal 
 crown upon his head, the golden one, and not the iron one as is vulgarly 
 imagined, saying, " Accipe ooronam regiam." "Accept the royal crown." 
 
 And finally they conduct the King, anointed and crowned, to the stone 
 seat of Charlemagne, preserved with the greatest care, seated on which 
 the Archbishops Electors offer the Emperor their felicitations upon his 
 Eegal dignity. 
 
 The Emperor conferred upon all the secular princes and nobles, who 
 were round about him, the insignia of the order of knighthood. 
 
 Whilst these things were doing, and during the solemnity, the Imperial 
 insignia were in the keeping of the following personages. The Count of 
 Limburg, the great Cupbearer, had the Crown ; the Count Palatine, the 
 Grand Marshal, the Orb ; Zodo Papense, the Vice-Marshal of the Empire, 
 the Sword ; and the Count of Zorn, the Imperial Chamberlain, the Sceptre. 
 
 The religious ceremony terminated, they conducted the Emperor, clad 
 in his imperial robes, to the Senate-house, to the Hotel de ViHe, where 
 there were separate tables prepared, one for each of the electors, even for 
 those who were absent, and others for other German princes ; and likewise 
 other tables for the Senators of Cologne, Frankfort, Nuremberg, and 
 Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 Each of the Electors discharged his peculiar functions at the banquet. 
 The Count of Limburg, the Imperial Cupbearer, poured out the first glass 
 to the Emperor. The Count Palatine, or Grand Marshal of the Empire, 
 served the first dish at the imperial table. And Zodo Papense, the Vice- 
 Marsha,l, staff in hand,' preceded the Grand Marshal. This magnificent 
 and most sumptuous banquet being over, the Emperor returned to the 
 Church of St. Mary, and from thence they reconducted him to his 
 palace. 
 
 Thus you have the Emperor anointed and crowned. Should you, in 
 your turn, have anything good happen amongst you, do not feel it tedious 
 to communicate it to us. — Farewell. j , / 
 
 Alfonso de Vald^s.' 1 ^l,*^ '"^ . 
 
 Aix-LvChapeUe, 25th October, A.D. 1520. j ^^T^"^/ ^ 
 
 1 Letter DCXCIX [page 3S9 of the Elzevir edition.] ^ ''^ Tt^i 
 
48 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALD:fis. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Alfonso be Valdes returned from Germany with tlie Em- 
 peror^in 1522, to Spain ; his twin-brotlier Juan also retarned 
 from Rome after the death of Adrian VI., 1523^ and hence- 
 forth became attached to the Spanish court as a gentleman 
 or knight in the Emperor's train. This allowed of the con- 
 stant intercourse of the two brothers, whose dispositions were 
 as much assimilated by their moral qualities, as their 
 physical frames were by their natural birth. 
 
 The most important events were startling Europe with 
 astonishment. The battle of Pavia, in 1521, had delivered 
 the French king an unconditional captive into the power of 
 his rival. New combinations in Italy arose in consequence ; 
 the Pope, heretofore an ally of the Emperor, with his ac- 
 customed tergiversation, formed a new alliance among the 
 ItaUan states as well as with France and England, to check 
 the increasing ascendancy of the Spanish power in Italy. 
 This combination led eventually to advance the very object 
 which it was designed to prevent. In vain Castiglione, the 
 Pope's nuncio at the court of Madrid, endeavoured to im- 
 press his counsels on the advisers of Charles ; the Pope's 
 tortuous policy came to a fatal issue for himself in the 
 disastrous capture and sack of the Eternal City. The rigorous 
 captivity of Francis I. at Madrid, and the severe conditions 
 of his ransom, had agitated the whole European mind against 
 Charles, and a paroxysm of scandal was called forth by the 
 captivity of the so-called Vicar of Jesus Christ. The Em- 
 peror's Council, led by Mercurino Gattinara, the most accom- 
 plished statesman of that period in Europe, issued a series of 
 official documents, chiefly relating to recent events, in vin- 
 dication of the character of Charles and the Spanish policy. 
 Alfonso de Valdes, being Latin Secretary to the Emperor, 
 under the direction of the Chancellor prepared the docu- 
 ments for general publication, and caused them to be printed 
 under official authority. This is clearly shown by the follow- 
 ing title of one of them : — 
 
 "A narrativeof the news from Italy, extracted from letters which the Em- 
 peror s Generals and Commissioners have written to His Maiesty, relating 
 to the victory over the King of France, and to other events which there 
 occurred (alia acaecidas). Seen and corrected by His Highness, the Grand 
 Chancellor and His Majesty's Council." It concludes thus • The Lords of 
 
DOCUMENTS IN VINDICATION OF CHAELES V. 49 
 
 his Majesty's CouneU directed me, Alfonso de Valdfe, Secretary to his 
 Highness the Grand Chancellor, to cause the present narration to be 
 printed.' 
 
 Alfonso db Vald^s. 
 
 Another of these official publications is deserving of 
 notice : — " A short Eeply from the most invincible Emperor 
 of the Eomans, Charles the Fifth, and Catholic king of the 
 Spains, to two letters of Clement VII., the Eoman Pontiff, 
 in which he appeals from the Pontiff himself, and demands 
 the convocation of a general and universal council, with 
 some other letters and public documents. Of which a 
 catalogue will be found on the next sheet. With the 
 Imperial Privilege. Colophon : Printed at Alcala de 
 Henares by Michael de Eguia. In the year M.D.XXVII. 
 and on the 10th day of April." Thirty-six folio leaves. ^ 
 
 The Pope^s nuncio at Madrid, Castiglione, endeavoured, 
 but in vain, to prevent their publication. " The Lord Chan- 
 cellor Gattiuara," writes Castiglione to Rome, " has caused 
 the Apology of the King of France, and his reply [to it] to 
 be priated with a thousand other things, which occurred and 
 were referred to ; they have printed likewise the conditions 
 of the confederacy, and I beUeve also the answer to the Brief 
 wherein his Holiness alleged the reason of the war; also 
 certain letters from the most Christian King [Francis I.] to 
 the Electors of the Empire, and the answer, together with 
 some other similar things, which I wished to prevent being 
 puhlished, hut ivas unable to do so,"^ 
 
 ' "Relaciou de las nuevas de Italia norvm omniv Concilii oongregationem 
 
 sacadas de las cartas que los capitanes y cvm nonnvUis aliia litteris, atqve actis 
 
 comisario del Emperador y Rey nuestro publicis. Qvorvm catalogvm in proxi- 
 
 seftor han esoripto 5, su Majestad : ass£ ma pagina invenies. Cvm privilegio 
 
 de la victoria contra el Eey de Francia imperiali. Colophon ; Impressum est 
 
 como de otras cosas aM acaeoidas : vista Compluti, per Miohaelem De EguJa. 
 
 y oorregida por el senor gran Chanciller Anno MDXXVII. die decimo Mensis 
 
 6 consejo de su Majestad Los Aprilis, 36 leaves in folio. 
 
 Seflores del consejo de su Majestad, In the British Museum and Bodleian 
 
 mandaron & mi, Alonso de Valdfe, secre- Libraries are various editions, with 
 
 tario del illustre seflor gran Chanciller, titles slightly varied from the above, 
 
 que ficiese imprimir la presente rela- which was the first and official edition 
 
 cion." for Spain. Compluti, 1527. Basil s. a. 
 
 Alfohso de Vaid^b. Antwerp, 1527, 8vo. Dresden, in Ger- 
 man, 1529, 4to. In French, in MS. 
 
 A tract of 8 leaves 4to., without date (British Museum). And Moguntia, 1527, 
 
 or place of printing. Note 1, p. 18, in 4to., with an imperial licence, signed 
 
 an Article by the Marques P. J. Pidal, AlphonsusValdesius,probablyth6 official 
 
 de Jium de ValdH y de si es el autor edition for Germany. 
 
 delDi&logo de Iocs Lenguxis, in "Eevista ^ II sig. Cancelliero .... ha fatto 
 
 Hispauo- Americana." Entrega 1, 1848. stampare 1' Apologia del Re di Francia e 
 
 ' Inviotissimi Romanorvm Impera- la sua Eisposta con miUe altre delle cose 
 
 toris Caroll hvivs nominis qvmti, ac passate e trattate ; medesimamente si 
 
 Hispaniarvm Eegis Catholioi, ad Dto stampano i Capitoli della Lega, e credo 
 
 dementis septimi Pontificis Eomani ancora la risposta del Breve, dove S. 
 
 breviaresponsiOjinqvaabipsoPontiBce SantitS, allegava le cause della guerra ; 
 
 appellat : petitqve generalia ohristia- medesimamente certe lettere del Chns- 
 
 E 
 
50 LIFE OF JTJAN DB VALDES. 
 
 Besides these publications, wMcli were strictly political, 
 and put forth under the Chancellor by official authority of the 
 Government, in opposition to the endeavours of the Pope's 
 nuncio to suppress them, Alfonso and Juan afterwards drew 
 up, on their own account, two treatises, rather religious than 
 political, yet having the same object in view — ^namely, the 
 justification of the Emperor's course of poUcy. One of them 
 related to the detention of the King of France, the other to 
 the Pope, his ally ; both of them combining with the narrative 
 of political events the inculcation of the highest sentiments 
 of moraUty, designed to promote a thorough reformation of 
 religion in the Catholic Church. In these the hand of Juan 
 may be clearly traced in the reUgious parts, by their coinci- 
 dence with the sentiments and style of his later and ex- 
 clusively religious writings. We cannot doubt that both 
 the brothers were concerned in the plan and compo- 
 sition of these tracts. The primary aim and pohtical 
 purpose would be Alfonso's, for which he would furnish the 
 documentary proofs and supply the arguments ; while Juan, 
 more at leisure, and with a mind more devoted to sacred 
 subjects, arranged the materials and made the rehgious 
 application of the whole. They are therefore to be attri- 
 buted to him as literary productions, although, from 
 Alfonso's more prominent position, they were at the time 
 assigned exclusively to his pen. He felt it honourable and 
 convenient not to fisavow the authorship in order to shield 
 his brother, his own high official position being security for 
 himself, as was shown in the attack made upon him by the 
 Pope's nuncio; and this proved sufficient so long as the 
 Grand Chancellor lived. These two treatises, cast into 
 the form of dialogues, are no less remarkable for their 
 truthful illustration of contemporary history, than for 
 their chaste elegance of style and graceful turns of wit 
 and argument ; and, being written in the purest Spanish of 
 the age, are regarded as classical by well-informed scholars 
 of the present day. One writer goes so far as to say that 
 they ought to be reckoned amongst the best in Spanish 
 literature, not merely for their scope and object, but for 
 their purity, wit, and elegance of language, the pecuharities 
 of which appear to have been attentively studied by Cer- 
 vantes, and to have been transferred into his writings. In 
 this study Cervantes had Garcilaso de la Vega, the poet, 
 
 tianissimo agli Blettori del Imperio e Di Valledolit alii XVIII di Marzo 
 
 la risposta, e aloun' altre tai cose, alle MDXXVII.—Serassi Lettere del B 
 
 quail 10 averei Toluto rimidiare, «/ar cA« Castigliono. Pad ova' 1769 71 vnl ii n' 
 
 non si puhlicassero, ma non ho potuto. 144. ' '""'■'> '"i- "■ F' 
 
DIALOGUE OF MBECUEY AND GHAEON. 51 
 
 for his forerunner, who enjoyed the additional advantage 
 of personal intercourse with Juan de Vald^s at Naples. 
 The dialogues are entitled — 
 
 I. — ^Dialogue of Mercury and Charon; in which, besides much that 
 is pleasing, and at the same time edifying, are related incidents that 
 occvu-red in the war from the year 1521 up to the time that the cartels of 
 defiance of the kings of France and England were sent to the Emperor in 
 the year 1528. 
 
 II. — Dialogue which especially treats of the events that happened at 
 Rome in the year 1527. To the glory of God and the welfare of all 
 Christendom.^ 
 
 Although actually second in the order of compositionj we 
 may, in the first place, direct attention to the Dialogue 
 between Mercury and Charon, being that which treats 
 of affairs relative to France and England between 1521 and 
 ] 528. We cannot help remarking that in all the writings 
 of Juan de Vald^s, in which he deals with historical events, 
 and deduces moral lessons from them, there are not only 
 the veracity and good sense which characterize every work 
 of a sterling author, but elucidations which clearly manifest 
 his diligence and fidehty in the investigation and verification 
 of facts. In proof of this, let it suffice to allude to the 
 manner in which he judges Cardinal Wolsey in this dia- 
 logue," from which it appears that the Cardinal had first 
 deceived the Emperor in money matters, and after that his 
 sovereign Henry VIII., he himself being the only guilty 
 party in framing a forged cartel of defiance. Wolsey was 
 weU known in England, but throughout the rest of Europe, 
 Valdes' judgment against Wolsey, doubtless, to most people 
 appeared utterly groundless ; for it would not be believed 
 that a minister would have dared to send a cartel of defiance 
 to the Emperor Charles V. by the public and chivalrous 
 agency of a king-at-arms without his sovereign's command. 
 The fact, however, that Wolsey carried out, in his foreign 
 relations of the country, his own arrogant and self-interested 
 schemes rather than the wishes of his king and his coun- 
 
 ' I.— Dialogo de Mercurio y Caron : Dos Dialogos esoritos por Juan de 
 
 enqueaUendedemuchascosaagraoiosaa Valdbs, ahora cuidadosamente reim- 
 
 y de buena doctrina : se ouenta lo que presos. " Valdessio Hispanus Soriptore 
 
 ha aoaeacido en la guerra desdel aQo de superbiat orbis." 8. 1. 1850, 8to. pp. xx. 
 
 mill y Quinjentos y veynte y vno hasta & 484. . 
 
 los desafios de los Reyes de Franoia y See "Life and Timea of Paleario, by 
 
 Ynglaterra hecboa al Emperador en el M. Young, vol. i. p. 204--21S, ISbU, lor 
 
 aflo de 1528, 4to. and 8vo. Gothic letter, an excellent analysis of the "Dialogo de 
 
 3 editions, a. 1. et a. Mercurio y Caron," dra,wn up with great 
 
 II.— Dialogo: en que partioularmente judgment and disonmmation; for while 
 
 setratan: las cosas acaecidas en Eoma it gives a sufficient view of the whole, 
 
 el afio de MDSXVII. A gloria de Dios there is nothing m i* P/oli^ i"" *:^f°^„ 
 y bien vniueraal de la EepubUoa chris- = Pages 29, 99, 124, 152, 179, 180, 
 
 tiana. 4to. Gothic letter, s. 1. et a. 181-9. 
 
 Both Dialogues have been reprinted : 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 ciUors, was certain ; and Vald^s, by recording his macMna- 
 tions in the Dialogue at the very time of the occurrences, 
 and at the risk of being disbelieved, shows the strength of 
 his attachment to truth, and his resolution m assertmg 
 it, even when opposed to popular opinion. 
 
 In the preface to this Dialogue, Valdes declares that 
 he wrote it to show that the Emperor was not the cause of 
 the war ; and to enliven the tedium of the political narration, 
 he had introduced Charon, the boatman of the Styx, and 
 Mercury, the messenger of the gods, holding a conver- 
 sation on the current affairs of the world, and questioning 
 the souls of some of the actors in them as to their 
 own part in those transactions. Mercury is introduced 
 narrating the train of events. After the sack of Eome by 
 the army of Charles V., in 1527, under the Constable 
 Bourbon, the Emperor immediately sent a circular letter to 
 all the European courts, one of them especially addressed 
 to Henry VIII., which is given hteraUy in the text of the 
 Dialogue by Valdfej his brother Alfonso, in his official 
 capacity as Latin secretary to the Emperor, was its writer, 
 and by him he was most probably supplied with all the 
 other historical information. 
 
 The conversation continues with the appearance of the 
 Soul of a Councillor of the King of England. Charon puts 
 the question: — 
 
 Chaeon : What has this spirit to communicate ? Let us learn who it is, 
 and what news it brings. 
 
 Soul : I know what you want. I was Councillor to the King of Eng- 
 land, and the news I bear is, that there our king has concerted with the 
 King of Prance to make war miitedly against the Emperor ; and they 
 have already sent to defy him. I deserve to be wall paid by you for the 
 communication. 
 
 Charon : You woiild — ^had we not known it before you. 
 
 Soul : How is it possible that you can have known it before me, for I 
 was present when it was determined ? 
 
 Charon : As you were present, you will not object to tell us what 
 motives induced your king to make war upon the Emperor, to whom he 
 was bound so closely by services and friendship, and had no cause for enmity. 
 
 Soul: He had but one motive. 
 
 Charon : Only one ? 
 
 Soul : I say that he had but one. 
 
 Charon : What was that ? 
 
 Soul : The avarice and ambition of a Cardinal whom he has about his 
 person, and by whom he allows himseK to be swayed. 
 
 Charon : The rascal ! A pretty cardinal, indeed ! Let us see what 
 moved him to act thus. Was it love to the King of Prance ? or was it a 
 grudge that he had against the Emperor 1 
 
 Soul : A curse for the love he has to the King of Prance, or anv mortal 
 on earth, beyond what he thinks will benefit himself ' 
 
 Charon : What do you say ? 
 
DIALOGUJO ABOUT WOLSBY. 53 
 
 Soul : It is so. 
 
 Ohaeon : According to that, he must entertain some hostile feeling 
 against the Emperor, which leads him to promote this war. 
 
 Soul : Now, I tell you, you have hit the maik. 
 
 Chaeon : Has he any motive for it ? 
 
 Soul : Only one. 
 
 Charon : What is that ? 
 
 Soul : The Emperor is good and virtuous, and he himseKia the reverse; 
 and, as you know, the wicked hate the good. Yet there is still one thing 
 more : he never could prevail on the Emperor to get him made Pope by force. 
 
 Charon : What ! did the Cardinal ever dare contemplate anything so 
 infamous and abominable as that 1 
 
 Soul : Did he ever dare .' — I wonder what that is that he would not 
 dare to perpetrate ! 
 
 Charon : Well, tell us under what pretext does he seek to excite this 
 hostile feeling and war. 
 
 Mercury : Leave that point, Charon, for the present ; I will explain it 
 to you in due order. Tell me, sinful Soul, did you give your voice in 
 favour of undertaking and carrying on a war so unjust as this ? 
 
 Soul : God knows how it grieved me to do so ; but I could not do 
 otherwise, vmless I wanted to be turned out of the Council. 
 
 Mercury : How so ? 
 
 Soul : Because the man who contradicted the Cardinal's will would 
 cease that very day to be member of the Council. 
 
 Mercury : Would it not have been better for you to have been put out 
 from it, and saved, than to come to hell, to be lost ? 
 
 Soul : Yes ! but one's honour ! 
 
 Mercury : As you preferred worldly honour to eternal life, you will 
 have to pay here for making such an unlucky choice. 
 
 Charon : Let the poor Soul go, Mercury ; and now tell me about the 
 King of England. 
 
 Mercury : I have abeady told you that in the year 1522, when the 
 Emperor went to Spain, he made a treaty with the King of England. 
 
 Charon : Well ! Go on ! 
 
 Mercury : This treaty was carried out, until that English cardinal, on 
 the death of Pope Adrian, earnestly pressed the Emperor that he would 
 send his army to the walls of Rome, to compel and force the cardinals to 
 elect him Pope. 
 
 Charon : Is it possible ? 
 
 Mercury : It was so. 
 
 Charon : Again I say, the Vicars of Christ act outrageously if they 
 cause themselves to be elected by dint of arms. 
 
 Mercury : The Emperor never would consent to do it. 
 
 Charon : God bless him ! 
 
 Mercury : Mark what happened. Because the Emperor would not do 
 it, aU kindly feelings upon the part of the Cardinal towards the Emperor 
 were annihilated, and he conceived a deadly enmity against him, saying 
 that he would make the Emperor repent of not havmg done it, though it 
 should involve the downfall of England. 
 
 Charon • What is it you teU me ? Was there ever such a thmg heard 
 of ? And is not this King of England ashamed to aUow hmiself to be ruled 
 by such a man as this 1 
 
 Mercury : He cannot know him. 
 
 Charon : And does not the whole kingdom cry out ? 
 
 Mercury : No one dare open his mouth. 
 
 Charon : The King and the kingdom are very unfortunate ! 
 
 Mercury : Then the Cardinal began to plot with the French to break 
 
54 LIFE OF JTJAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 off friendly relations with the Emperor. And haying broken them on 
 various occasions, finaUy, in the year 1525, he negotiated a treaty with the 
 King of France, whilst he was a prisoner in Spam. Then subsequently, 
 when the King of France was liberated, he comnaenced war with the 
 Emperor, and ia carrying it on was aided by the King of Jingland with 
 money, both publicly and privately.' 
 
 Wolsey sent, as in the name and by order of tlie King Ms 
 master, thougli sucli an order had never been given, Thomas 
 Bennett Clarenoieux, to bear a cartel of defiance to the 
 Emperor, in conjunction with the French herald, teUiag the 
 King at the same time that Clarencienx had gone of his own 
 mind, without any instructions, to give the defiance. By 
 way of apology to Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador ia 
 London, Wolsey had the effrontery to afiBrm that the King 
 was informed by the French ambassador that the envoys of 
 both sovereigns had been put in prison at Madrid. When 
 this was denied, he added, with most cruel audacity, that 
 Clarencieux had made the defiance to the Emperor without 
 the Kiag's commandment, only by the motion of the French 
 ambassador to accompany the French herald, and for this 
 presumptuous act he should suffer death at Calais upon his 
 return. All this Mendoza wrote down and dispatched. His 
 letters, providentially for Clarencieux, were opened and 
 copied at Bayonne, as the post passed that way. "When 
 Clarencieux was returning homeward, the captain of 
 Bayonne," says Halle, " quietly showed to him the copy 
 
 ' See "DosDialogos," 1850, p. 99 — 103. expressions complained of by Chajies V,, 
 
 It was known at Madrid that Woleey which Wolsey had used to his ambas- 
 
 openedtheSpanishambassador's letters; sadors. The Emperor himself was a 
 
 and Dr. Sampson, the English ambas- "liar," who observed no manner of 
 
 sador at Madrid, was obliged to apologize faith or promise; my Lady Margaret 
 
 on behalf of Wolsey for his having done was ribald ; Don Fernando, his brother, 
 
 BO. a child, and so governed; and the Duke 
 
 For the Emperor's view of Wolsey, of Bom-bon, a "creature." The English 
 
 see Letter CXXXIL of Ellis's "Third ambassadors endeavoined to extenuate 
 
 Series of Original Letters,"' vol. ii. p. 12, the matter, but could not deny the 
 
 written conjointly by the three ambas- words, 
 
 sadors at Madrid. In addition to this general letter, whiohit 
 
 The three ambassadors in Spain, was presumed the King of England would 
 
 Bishop Tunstall, Sir Richard Wingfleld, read, two private ones preserved in the 
 
 and Master Sampson, to Cardinal Wol- same vol. (fol. 58—60), one from Tunstall, 
 
 sey, reporting their first audience with the other from Sir Eiohard Wingfield, 
 
 the Emperor, who expresses his great both written in their own hands, and 
 
 dissatisfaction at Wolsey's general de- bearing the same date as the general 
 
 meanour. [MS._ Cotton, Vespasian, letter of June 2nd— entreating Wolsey, 
 
 (^■^}\-^<^-°o,Ong.] _ "for the establishing of their master's 
 
 Wolsey's occasional coarseness in his aflfair and the same of ours," to write to 
 
 expressions, eyentowardsforeigaprinces, Charles V. Tunstall says, "YourGraoe's 
 
 13 smgularly illustrated m this letter ; plainUness is not so well taken as it is 
 
 whence it would seem that negotiations w;orthy; wherefore it were as good to 
 
 ^»?f.$'T' f^°'^-^ "lianoe of being im- give them good words for good words, 
 
 peded by the violence of his temper, and keeping secret voiir thnno-Vits aa 
 
 Tunstall, Wingfield, and Sampsonf in they do.'' ^ ^°" thoughts as 
 the present letter, tell jointly the harsh 
 
HENM VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY. 55 
 
 of the letters that the Emperor's ambassador had written." 
 Dismayed, he went on, however, to Boulogne, when hearing 
 again of his danger, instead of going to Calais, he stopped 
 short at Boulogne, and immediately sailing from thence to 
 Rye, arrived secretly at Hampton Court. Through Sir 
 Nicholas Carew, Master of the Horse, he obtained an 
 audience of Henry before Wolsey could be aware of his 
 return. When he showed the three letters of instructions 
 which the Cardinal had sent him, charging him to make the 
 defiance, he then declared how courteously he had been 
 treated by the Emperor, who already was well informed 
 of the true circumstances ; and when he exhibited his chain 
 of gold, valued at five hundred ducats, given him by the 
 Emperor, the King exclaimed, as Foxe relates,^ " 0, Lord 
 Jesus, he that I trusted most told me all these things 
 contrary. Well, Clarentius, I will no more be so light 
 of credence hereafter ; for now I clearly see that I have 
 been made to believe the thing that was never done ; " and 
 from that time forward the King never put any more con- 
 fidence or trust in the Cardinal, although he continued 
 near the person of the King for nearly eighteen months 
 longer. 
 
 From the preceding quotations, we find that Vald^s was 
 well informed on the subject, and did not transgress the 
 bounds of propriety when he inculpated Wolsey. It was 
 both opportune and needful to condemn such perfidious 
 proceedings when he composed a work of such a nature as 
 the Dialogue of Mercury and Charon. 
 
 Having shown the manner in which he deals with poli- 
 tical character, to illustrate one purpose of this Dialogue, 
 we here proceed to exhibit the tone of his moral and 
 religious opinions repecting the various features of Spanish 
 life, as they appeared before him in his own experience 
 and from his personal knowledge. It is believed that in 
 this way he portrays his own and his brother's individual 
 ' sentiments in these his earliest writings ; and his later ones 
 most consistently evince the same mental qualities. 
 
 With the exception of the fact of marriage — for he lived 
 unmarried — ^he here appears to give us a description of the 
 circumstances of bis own Hfe : — 
 
 Charon : Turn hither, soul ! wtere are you going ? . . . 
 Soul : To heaven. 
 
 Charon : 111 luck attend you, since you will pass over without my 
 boat. 
 
 I Foxe, vol, ii. p. 24S, ed. 1641. 
 
oG LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Soul : It seema to me I shall do so. 
 
 Charon : How, and why 1 
 
 Soul : Because Jesus Christ has so willed it. 
 
 Ohaeon : Since I can get nothing else from you, at least I ask you to 
 tell me how you lived on earth, now that you are about to enjoy boundless 
 bliss. 
 
 Soul : Although I would fain not have been detained at this time, yet 
 I shall willingly satisfy your desire. You must know that when a youth, 
 although I naturally loathed the vices, yet through bad companions I was 
 held enslaved by them for many years. When I attained twenty years of 
 age, I began to know myself, and to learn what it is to be a Christian ; and 
 knowing that ambition is exceedingly opposed to the teachings of the New 
 Testament, I then determined to renounce many vain thoughts that I had 
 held as to the acquisition of great wealth, and I began to deride certain 
 superstitions that I saw were rife among Christians ; &it I did not, on this 
 account, lay aside vices that had become habitualj/*\A.t twenty-five years 
 of age I began seriously to reflect on my manner of life, and on my abuse 
 of the knowledge God had given me.^ And I reasoned thus : Either the 
 doctrines of the New Testament are true, or they are not ; if they are true, 
 is it not gross foUy for me to live as I am doing, in opposition to them ? 
 If they are false, why do I impose on myself the numerous ceremonies and 
 regulations observed by Christians ? Then God enlightened my mind ; 
 and knowing the doctrines of the New Testament to be true, I determiaed 
 to lay aside superstitions and vices in aU their forms, and to occupy myseH 
 in foUovring out the former to the best of my poor ability, although friends 
 and relatives placed immense obstacles in the way of my doing so. Some 
 said that I was going mad, and others that I was about to turn monk, 
 whilst I made sport for them aU. But, from love to Jesus Christ, I borp- 
 it all patiently. ^ 
 
 Charon : Did you not then enter the cloister ? 
 
 Soul : No. 
 
 Charon : And why ? 
 
 Soul : Because I knew that the way in which monks live was not likely 
 to suit me. I was told that the monks had seldom opportunity to sin, as 
 compared with men living in the world, to which I replied, that sinful 
 desire developed itself as fully inside a monastery as outside, and more- 
 over, that sinJful man never wanted, let him be where he may, time and 
 opportunities for being so, and that those persons who hold themselves far 
 above all temptation frequently fall more heinously and more disgracefully. 
 True it is that I was once inclined to turn monk to escape the indulgence 
 of ambition ; but on going to confess myself to a monk, my personal friend, 
 he told me that ambition was as prevalent among them as amongst men 
 outside ; whereupon I determined not to change my garb. 
 
 Charon : Did you converse with them ? 
 
 Soul : Yes, with those in whom the image of Jesus Christ was seen to 
 shme forth. 
 
 Charon : Then yoix took orders ? 
 
 Soul : Neither did I do that. 
 
 Charon : And why did you not ? 
 
 > Speaking: of books of ohivaliy, at that I ate my food with the books in 
 rhf^l^i "ni^irsally and almost ex- my hand. And notice what a thing it 
 
 " Ton ir^ fi^" l^T'f ^^''^vf ^^^V^ ^ ^. ''*™ ^ depraved taste ; for if I tSok 
 
 Ten years the best of my hfe, which m hand a work translated from the 
 
 I spent in palaces and courts, I did not Latin that was true Srv or aUea^t 
 
 employ myself in more virtuous exer- whatwasheldas^n^Wwi^r ?«„„„» 
 
 oises than in reading these lying ro- to read it''-^D^fln;n^» , ? f 
 
 mances, in which I to?k so much relish, ed. Madrid 1860 plil ^ ^™^" ' 
 
DIALOGUE OP A SOUL AND CHARON. 57 
 
 SoTJL : Because I felt unwortliy to administer the most holy sacrament 
 so frequently, and it pained me to have daily to pray siich long hours ; it 
 appeared to me that my time would be better spent in trying to under- 
 stand what others repeat as prayers, without understanding them, than to 
 string psalms and prayei-s together, never heeding the sense of the one, or 
 comprehending the others. Moreover, they told me that it was not weU 
 to grant orders to a man who had not a benefice ; and knowing the strata- 
 gems and lawsuits incident to ecclesiastical benefices, I wished to escape 
 that labyrinth. 
 
 Charon : What condition of life did you adopt ? 
 
 Soul : I married. 
 
 Charon : You brought endless troubles on yourself? 
 
 Soul : They bring themselves into trouble who marry for outward 
 beauty or for wealth ; but I disregarded these, and chose- a young woman 
 of my own condition, with whom I lived very happily. If I desired 
 anything, she expressed herself perfectly happy at my having it, and I did 
 the same whenever she desired anything. 
 
 Charon : Were there no diff'erences between you 1 
 
 SotTL : Occasionally, when, from a reciprocal desire to please each other, 
 we were at a loss as to the best way of carrying it out. 
 
 Charon : Such strife was but the maintenance of peace. 
 
 Soul : Just so. 
 
 Charon : Did you ever go on pilgrimage ? 
 
 Soul : No ; because it seems to me that Jesus Christ manifests Himself 
 everywhere to those who truly seek Him ; and because I saw many who 
 returned from pilgrimage worse than when they set out. And it likewise 
 appeared to me to be an act of foUy to seek at Jerusalem what I had within 
 me. 
 
 Charon : Then you did not think favourably of pilgrimages ? 
 
 Soul : Though I did not think them profitable to myself, I commended 
 and approved the holy purpose of some who were prompted to make 
 them 
 
 Charon : Did you hear Mass ? 
 
 Soul : Without fail on Saints' days, and likewise on other days when 
 disengaged. 
 
 Charon : Did you fast ? 
 
 Soul : When in health, I kept all the fasts appointed by the Church ; 
 and I did so whenever I thought fasting conducive to the health of body 
 or soul. 
 
 Charon : And fasting voluntarily, did you eat meat ? 
 
 Soul : Yes. 
 
 Charon : How, whilst eating meat, did you fast ? 
 
 Sorri,: Why not? since to attain the end I had in view meat was better 
 than fish. 
 
 Charon : Did you pray ? 
 
 Soul : Constantly. 
 
 Charon : How was that possible ? 
 
 Soul : In aU places, and at aU times, I endeavoured to glorify Jesus 
 Christ, both by works and words. And I held that to be prayer. 
 
 Charon : Did you never ask anything of God ? 
 
 Soul: I asked the pardon of my sins, and grace to persevere in His 
 service, ever recognizing myself to be the greatest sinner in the world. 
 
 Charon : Look now : was it not wrong to lie ? Did you not know 
 that there were many others in the world who lived worse than you ? 
 
 Soul : Yes ; but I likewise knew that had not God, of His infinite 
 mercy, held me up by His hand, I should have done works far worse than 
 any other man ; and for this reason I knew myself to be a greater sinner 
 
58 LIFE OF JTTAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 than others, attributing to God only whatever good there was in me, if 
 indeed there was any. 
 
 Charon : Did you never ask of God wealth or personal advantages ? 
 
 Soul : No ; I only asked of Him that He should give me them, or 
 deprive me of them, as He knew best, for His service, and the salvation 
 of my souL 
 
 Charon : Did you found either church or monastery 1 
 
 Soul : No ; for it appeared to me that, in the greater number of 
 instances, this was done at the suggestion of ambition ; and what money 
 I had to spend I preferred to distribute privately amongst the poor, where 
 I saw evident need, rather than elsewhere. 
 
 Charoit : In this manner the monks got but little out of you ? 
 
 Soul : Quite true as to those whom I saw beyond want, and as to those 
 who appeared to me to" beg for objects of luxury ; but I never failed to 
 give of my substance to those whom I saw in need. 
 
 Charon : Were you ever attached to the court of any prince ? 
 
 Soul : Yes ; up to the time of my marriage. 
 
 Charon : And could you whilst at court live virtuously 1 
 
 Soul: Why not? 
 
 Charon : Because at the courts of princes the virtuous are ever 
 maltreated and persecuted. 
 
 Soul : Quite true as a general rule ; but it was my lot to live with a 
 prince so virtuous, that he was ever ready to favour those who Uved 
 virtuously ; and so it came to pass, that while in the courts of other 
 princes there are many vicious and bad, in his there were many virtuous 
 and good. For it is a well-established fact, that as is the prince so are 
 the courtiers ; and as are the courtiers, so is the prince. 
 
 Charon : See now : whilst at court, did you not encounter opposition 
 to your designs ? 
 
 Soul : Very often ; but I knew how to convert such incidents into 
 opportunities for pushing on in the good way with greater determination. 
 
 Charon : How so ? 
 
 Soul : Suppose, for instance, that I saw an individual whose course in 
 life was marked by hankering after riches, in contemplating him I learned 
 to abhor riches. If I saw another amassing wealth, by fair means or foul, 
 I felt inclined to renounce the possession of what I had. If I occasion- 
 ally found myseK in company with dissolute women, I was seized with 
 such a loathing to them, that what acted as poison on others, acted as a 
 remedy on me. I discharged the duties of my office as a man should who 
 felt himself placed in it, not to benefit himself, but for the welfare of 
 society ; and in this way I seemed to have a certain influence on all who 
 were about the court, and even on the prince himself. 
 
 Chakon : How did you pass your time ? 
 
 Soul : What leisure I had, after the discharge of my official duties, I 
 occupied in reading good books, or in writing things which might benefit 
 me whilst writing them, and benefit others whilst reading them. My 
 relations and friends were not on this account less social, so that they 
 could not think me a hypocrite, nor could they think it belonged to a 
 good Christian to be a gloomy man. 
 
 Charon : Did you not fear death ? 
 
 Soul : The troubles and trials of life gave me much greater concern. 
 
 Charon : Did you ever desire to die f 
 
 Soul : I was always prepared to die when God should be pleased to 
 summon me ; however, it was only on one occasion that I longed for it, 
 and that was when I saw a Franciscan monk die with such iov and satis- 
 laction that I would fain have followed him. 
 
DIALOGUE OP A SOUL AND CHAEON. 59 
 
 Charon : How did you bear the infirmities and trials that befell you ? 
 
 SoTJL : I willingly accepted them, knowing that they came from the 
 Lord's hand, and that He sent me them but for my greater weMkre. 
 
 Charon : What remedy had you against pride? 
 
 Soul : The recollection that I was mortal. 
 
 Charon : And what against ambition 1 
 
 Soul : The recoUeetion of the trials they have to pass through who are 
 in the highest stations, and how much more liable they are to fall. 
 
 Charon : Did you never desire to be rich, iu order that you might, for 
 Grod's sake, do good to many ? 
 
 Soul: No. 
 
 Charon : Why not ? 
 
 Soul : I knew that God amply provides for the maintenance of His 
 poor, and that He would never call me to account for that which He had 
 not given me. Besides which, I knew the danger to which they expose 
 themselves who seek riches 
 
 Charon : Did you confess t 
 
 Soul : I confessed myself to God daily ; and when I wished to take the 
 most holy sacrament, if I felt my conscience burdened with any ofience 
 against God, I confessed myself to a priest. Besides which, I confessed 
 myself once a year, in order to comply with the requirements of the 
 Church. 
 
 Charon : Did you get many jubilees and indulgences ? 
 
 Soul : Yes ; but I ever preferred to travel by the high road rather 
 than by short cuts [or byways]. And such beiug my aim, my jubUeea 
 and indulgences were resolutions to follow Jesus Christ's teachings, which 
 appeared to me so truly a king's highway that a man could not err 
 therein. 
 
 Charon : Were you never reproved for this ? 
 
 Soul : Frequently ; but I repKed, " Brethren ! take that way which 
 appears to you the best, and let me take that which I prefer, since you see 
 that it is not a bad one." 
 
 Charon : I know that you could well take both. 
 
 Soul : What you say is true ; but I kept my eye firmly fixed on Jesus 
 Christ only. 
 
 Charon : How did you die ? 
 
 Soul: One day I found myself very iU, and, inwardly conscious that the 
 hour had arrived in which I was to be liberated from the prison of this 
 gross body, I sent for the curate of my parish, that he might confess me 
 and give me the sacrament. Having done this, he asked me if I wished 
 to make my will I told him that I had already made it. He asked me 
 whether I would leave anything to his church, or to be distributed between 
 the poor, and friars, and nuns. I replied that I had, when living, distri- 
 buted what it appeared to me I had to dispose of, leaving my wife and 
 children provided for, and that I would not pretend to ofi'er in service to 
 God that of which I had already lost the enjoyment. He asked me how 
 many double passing bells' I would have tolled, when I said that bells 
 
 ' Matthew Paris observes that an- to bespeak the prayers of all good 
 ciently the use of bells was prohibited Christians for a soul just depari^ing ; the 
 in time of mourning ; at present, how- other, to drive away the evil spirits 
 ever, the tolling of these forms one of which are supposed to stand near the 
 the principal ceremonies of interment, bed of the dying, or about the house, 
 Mabillon adds, that it was an ancient ready to seize their prey, or at least to 
 custom to ring bells for persons about molest and terrify the soul in its pas- 
 te expire, to advertise the people to sage. By the ringing of the bell — for 
 pray for them. The passing bell, in- Durandus informs us that evil spirits 
 deed, was rung for two purposes : one, are greatly afraid of bells — they were 
 
60 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 could not take me to heaven, and that the sexton, or bell-ringer, might do 
 as he pleased. He asked me where I would be buried. I replied that I 
 was conoemed that my soul should go to Jesus Christ, and that I cared 
 but little for the body, and that they might bury it, if desired, in a ceme- 
 tery. He asked me how many hired mourners I wished to attend my 
 body, and how many wax tapers and cierges I wished to burn at my 
 burial, and how many masses shoxdd be said on the day of my interment ; 
 what ceremonies should be observed, and how many monthly masses should 
 be said for my soul. I said to him, " Father, for God's sake, don't weary 
 me with these things ; I leave the whole management of the affair to you ; 
 do as you think best. As for myself, I fix my trust upon Jesus Christ 
 alone. All I ask of you is to give me extreme unction." He said that 
 had he not confessed me, he should have thought me a heathen or a pagan, 
 because I attached so little importance to that which others held to be 
 paramount. I satisfied him to the best of my ability, and at last he went 
 away grumbliag. When the disease began to distress me, I east myself on 
 the bed, begghig of all not to grieve, for I was only too happy to throw off 
 this mortal body, and that I could in nowise consent that they should 
 weep for me; and caUing my wife aside, I commended my children 
 earnestly to her, and enjoined on them ever to be obedient to her, and 
 earnestly pressed npon them all to persevere in that Christian charity and 
 kindness of which I had set them an example. And knowing that my last 
 hour was at hand, I asked them to bring me the extreme unction ; and 
 having received that, they wanted to know whether they should send for 
 two fnars who should help me to die properly. I begged that they might 
 not be troubled on my account, for that as I had never given them aught 
 to do for me when living, so neither would I when dying. They asked me 
 whether I wished to die in the habit of St. Francis ; I replied, " Brethren, you 
 know how careful I have ever been to deceive no one : why do you wish me 
 now to seek to deceive God ? If I have lived like St. Francis, I am quite 
 certain that Jesus Christ will receive me into heaven as He did St. Francis; 
 and if my life has been unlike his, what shall it profit me to let this body 
 be covered here with a garb like his 1 " It was then late, and I asked them 
 aU to go to bed, save a friend, whom they might leave there to read to 
 me such passages of Scripture as I might select, and especially the discourse 
 which Jesus Christ addressed to His disciples at " the Last Supper," every 
 word of which excited and inflamed within me a burning desire to reach 
 His presence who had uttered them. On the morrow they placed a lighted 
 candle in my hand, and I, having the psalm rehearsed which Jesus Christ 
 recited when on the cross, and whilst hstening attentively to it, felt that 
 my soul had begun to leave my body ; and exclaiming, " Jesus Christ, 
 receive my sinful soul !" I escaped from the dungeon of the flesh. And I 
 am now journeying to that place where Jesus Christ has promised His 
 people that they shall enjoy His glory. Understand in this the recital of 
 my manner of life and of death, and excuse me as unable to tarry longer.' 
 
 But it was the Dialogue especially treating of tlie events 
 that happened at Eome in the year 1527 (which is placed m 
 the volume second in order^ though the first in composition) 
 
 kept aloof ; and the soul, like a hunted rongeu when it thondreth, and when 
 
 hare, gained the start, or had what grete tempeste and outrages of wether 
 
 sportsmen call law. This dislike of happen, to the ende that the feinds 
 
 spirits to bells is mentioned in the and wyoked spirytes shold be abashed 
 
 "Golden Legend," by Wynkyn de and flee, and cease of the morynge of: 
 
 Worde. " It is said the evil spirytes tempeste." 
 
 thatbenintheregyonofthayre, doubte 'See " Dos Dialogos," por Juan de 
 
 moche when they here the belles rongen : Vald«s, edition 1850, pp. 158-173. 
 
 and this is the cause why the belles ben ' ^^ 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OP ROME. Gl 
 
 that had the most important influence on the future fortunes 
 of the brothers. It was composed about August of the 
 year in which the sacking of Rome took place^ of which it 
 treats, while the events were fresh upon everybody's tongue, 
 and when the Chancellor Gattinara had just arrived at 
 the Emperor's court at VaUadolid from Italy, full of the 
 details of what had transpired there.* It was intended for 
 private circulation only. The manuscript of it was care- 
 fully considered. It was submitted to the judgment and 
 revision of several members of the Emperor's Council — 
 Matteo Aleman, his secretary ; Don Juan Manuel, who had 
 been his resident at Eome j the Grand Chancellor, Mercu- 
 rino de Gattinara; also to some of the most eminent 
 theologians and professors — Pedro de Lerma, High Chan- 
 cellor of the University of Alcala, uncle of Francisco de 
 Enzinas, translator of the Spanish New Testament; Dr. 
 Coronel, Secretary to the Inquisitor- General; and others 
 distinguished for their learniag and enlightened sentiments, 
 being chiefly those who favoured the writings of Erasmus. 
 The scene of the Dialogue opens in the market-place of 
 VaUadolid, between a young knight of the Emperor's 
 court, named Lactancio, and his friend, the Archdeacon of 
 Viso, just escaped from Home in the disguise of a soldier. 
 They retire together to the church of San Francisco, to 
 converse upon the stupendous events which had just taken 
 place at Rome. The first part of the Dialogue ia directed 
 to the vindication of the conduct and policy of the Emperor, 
 showing the sacking of Rome to have been but a natural 
 consequence of the vicious vacillating diplomacy of the 
 Pope himself. In the second part Juan de Valdes endeavours 
 to prove, by the mouth of his speaker, Lactancio, that the 
 particular calamities which befell the Eternal City and the 
 pontifical hierarchy were of a kind designed by Providence 
 to be direct punishments and corrections of their pecuhar 
 vices, ambition, avarice, superstition, idolatry, hypocrisy, 
 and recklessness of the souls of men. To bring out the 
 proof that the Pope and not the Emperor was to blame for 
 the sacking of Rome, Lactancio thus draws out the arch- 
 deacon to define what he considers to be properly the office 
 of Pope : — 
 
 Lactancio : In order that we may better understand each other as to 
 the differences between the Pope and the Emperor, I beg you in the first 
 place to tell me what are the functions of a Pope, and what are those of 
 an Emperor, and to what end these dignities were instituted ? 
 
 Archdeacon : To my mind the functions of the Emperor are to defend 
 
 ' This shows that Valdes received from the highest and moat direct 
 the particulars of what he wrote about, source. 
 
62 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALD:fiS. 
 
 his subjects, to preserve to them the greatest enjoyment of peace and 
 justice, administering favour to the good and chastisement to the bad. 
 
 Lact. : Well defined ; and what are those of the Pope 1 
 
 Arch. : It is very difficult to say ; for, if we regard the days of St. Peter, 
 they would differ from those of the present time. 
 
 Lact. : When I ask you for what end this dignity was instituted, be it 
 understood that you have to express the will and intention of Him who 
 instituted it. 
 
 Arch. : To my mind it was instituted in order that the Chief Pontiff 
 might expound sacred Scripture authoritatively; and that he might teach the 
 people Christian doctrine, not only by words, but as a living exemplar ; and 
 that he might continuously intercede for his Christian people with tears 
 and prayers, and that he might have the supreme power of absolving 
 those that had sinned upon their seeking conversion, and to declare those 
 condemned who obstinately persevered in evil courses ; and that he should 
 strive with sustained effort to uphold the greatest peace and concord 
 amongst Christians; and finally, that we might yet have one here upon 
 earth who should truly represent the life and holy habits of Jesus Christ 
 our Redeemer, because the human heart is more readily attracted by 
 deeds than by words. This is what I can gather from holy Scripture; if 
 you know anything more, teU it. 
 
 Lact. : This suffices for the present; only see to it that you do not forget 
 it, for we shall occasionally need it hereafter. 
 
 Arch. : It shall not be forgotten. 
 
 Lact. : Then, if I clearly show you that the destruction of Rome has 
 been brought about through the Emperor's performance of aU that to 
 which you say yourself he is obliged, and through the non-performance 
 upon the part of the Pope of that which he ought to have done, upon 
 whom will you lay the blame ? 
 
 Arch. : If you do this — which I do not believe you can — it is clear that 
 it wUl attach to the Pope. 
 
 Lact. : Tell me, then, since you say that the Pope was instituted in 
 order that he should imitate Jesus Christ, which, think you, did Jesus 
 Christ prefer — to maintain peace amongst His people, or to cause them to 
 rise and embroil themselves in war ? 
 
 Arch. : It is clear that the Author of Peace has nothing in greater 
 abhorrence than war. 
 
 Lact. : WeU, then, let us see. How can he be an imitator of Jesus 
 Christ who foments war and dissolves peace ? 
 
 Arch. : Such an one would be very far from imitating Him. But, 
 with a view to what do you suggest this ? 
 
 Lact. : That is for you to tell me; for, whilst the Emperor was engaged 
 in defending his subjects, which it is his duty to do, the Pope took up 
 arms against him, doing that which he ought not to do, and broke the 
 peace, and excited fresh war in Christendom. The Emperor cannot be 
 blamed for the iUs that followed, since he did what he ought to do; nor 
 can the Pope be exculpated, since he did what he ought not to do, m 
 breaking the peace and exciting war in Christendom. 
 
 Arch. : What peace did the Pope break, or what war did he excite in 
 Christendom ? 
 
 Lact. : He broke the peace which the Emperor had made with the 
 King of France, and he fomented the war in which we are now involved; 
 whence, by the just judgment of God, the evH that has come upon him. 
 
 Arch. : A fair narration; but where do you find that the Pope excited 
 and stirred up war against the Emperor, after peace had been made with 
 the King of France ? 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OP EOMB. 63 
 
 Lact. : Because that, immediately upon the King's liberation from 
 prison, the Pope sent him a Brief, iu which he absolved him from the 
 oath he made to the Emperor, in order that he might not be obliged to 
 fulfi l what he had promised, and that he might more freely make war 
 against the Emperor. 
 
 Arch. : How do you know this ? You say this just as if you had been 
 a privy conncillor of the Pope. 
 
 Lact. : It is known in various ways; and, not to lose time, look at the 
 beginning of the league which the Pope made with the King of France, 
 and you will clearly see that the Pope was the promoter of it; and so true 
 is it, that even the Pope himself confesses it. Now, does it appear to 
 you that this was what a Vicar of Jesus Christ ought to have done ? You 
 say that it was his duty to introduce peace where there was discord, 
 whilst he sowed war amongst those who were agreed. You say it was his 
 duty, by words and dee^, to teach the people the doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ, and he taught them eve^hing at variance with it. You say it 
 was his duty to intercede with God for his people, whilst he strove to 
 destroy them. You say it was his duty to imitate Jesus Christ, whilst he 
 laboured in everything to be unlike Him. Jesus Christ was poor and 
 humble, whilst he, to increase a temporal rule which I know not how to 
 characterize, set all Christendom in a blaze. Jesus Christ returned good 
 for evil, whilst he returned evil for good in forming a league against the 
 Emperor, from whom he had received so many benefits. I do not say 
 this to injure the Pope, for I know well that it did not proceed from him, 
 but that he was instigated to do so by evil councillors. 
 
 Arch. : It being so, who is to blame for it ? 
 
 Lact. : They who led bim to do so, and he Kkewise for having such 
 bad people about him. Do you believe that, before God, a prince wiU be 
 excused by casting the blame upon his councillors ? No, no ! Since God 
 has endowed him with judgment, let him select worthy men to be 
 members of his council, who shall rightly advise him; and if he take or 
 desire to have unworthy ones, let him bear the blame; and if he have not 
 judgment adequate to enable him to select suitable men, let him abdicate. 
 
 Arch. : It is difficult to do what you require. 
 
 Lact. : Difficult ! — how so 1 Is so great judgment needed 1 Tell me, 
 what war is there so just that a Vicar of Jesus Christ ought to take it up 
 against Christians, members of the same body of which Christ is the 
 head, and he the Vicar ? 
 
 Arch. : The Pope was perfectly justified in taking up this war against 
 the Emperor — in the first place, because the Emperor had not sought his 
 friendship ; and in the second place, because he had taken and usurped 
 the duchy of Milan, despoiling the Duke Francisco Sforza of it;— seeing 
 which the Pope feared lest some other day he should do the same to him, 
 and strip bim of the territories of the Church. Therefore it was quite 
 right and reasonable that the Pope took up arms against the Emperor, 
 both to compel bim to reinstate the Duke of Milan in his dominions, and 
 to secure the rule of the territories of the Church. 
 
 Lact. : I am astonished that a man of such good judgment as yourself 
 should have given utterance to anything so unreasonable as this. Let us 
 see whether the Pope did so as the vicar of Christ or as Giulio de' 
 Medici ? 
 
 Arch. : Clearly he did it as Christ's Vicar. 
 
 Lact. : Well, I say, even had the Emperor, against all right and reason, 
 sought to deprive the Duke of Milan of aU his dominions, the Pope had 
 nothing to do with it. Why should he interfere when he was not called 
 in, and in a matter that was foreign to his office ? As though Jesus 
 
04 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Christ had not set him an example to do the opposite, who, when 
 requested that He should amicably divide an inheritance between two 
 brethren, refused to do it ; setting His people an example that they should 
 not interfere in matters so vile and base. And would you now_ have His 
 Vicar interpose with arms between them, without having been invited by 
 them to do so ? Where do you find that Jesus Christ appointed His 
 Vicar to be a judge between secular princes; and, still further, the executive 
 agent and stirrer up of war amongst Christians ? Would you see how 
 far the man is from being the Vicar of Christ who excites war, see its 
 fruits, and how contrary they are, not only to Christian doctrine, but 
 even to human nature. AH animals are naturally provided with defensive 
 and offensive arms ; but to man, as a creature come down from heaven, 
 impersonating perfect concord, as an object that should here represent the 
 image of God, He left him disarmed. It was His will there should 
 prevail amongst men a harmony rivaUing that amongst the angels in 
 heaven. Alas ! that we should now have become so excessively blind 
 that, more brutish than the brutes themselves, we should kill each other. 
 The beasts live at peace; we, worse than beasts, live at war. And if it be 
 made a matter of research how men Kve in different countries, you shall 
 find that in Christendom, which is [or rather, in the year 1530, was] but 
 a nook upon the face of the earth, there is more war there than through- 
 out the rest of the world. And we are not ashamed to call ourselves 
 Christians ! And most frequently you vrill find that those persons excite 
 it who ought to allay it. The Eoman Pontiff was bound, since he 
 esteemed himself to be the Vicar of Christ ; the Cardinals were bound, as 
 piEars of the Church ; the Bishops were bound, as pastors, to lay down 
 their lives for their sheep, which Jesus Christ both practised and taught, 
 saying, " Bonus pastor animam suam ponit pro ovibus suis," — " the good 
 shepherd lays down his life for his sheep," — and especially since the 
 revenues paid to the Pope and these other prelates are given in order that 
 they may protect and defend their subjects to the best of their ability in 
 the exercise of their pastoral office. And now, not to lose a scrap of 
 reputation, they raise all Christendom in arms. Pretty charity, indeed ! 
 Do I supply you with money to defend me, and do you therewith hire men 
 to kOl, rob, and destroy me ? Where do you find that Jesus Christ com- 
 manded His people to go to war ? Peruse all the gospels, peruse all the 
 apostolic (canonical) epistles, you wiU find nothing but peace, concord, 
 and unity, love and charity. When Jesus Christ was bom, the angels did 
 not sound an alarm, but they sang " Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra 
 pax, hominibus bona voluntas." (Luke, ii. 14.) " Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace and goodwUl unto men." He gave us peace 
 when He was born, and peace when He suffered martyrdom on the cross, 
 How frequently did He enjoin peace and love upon His people! and, not 
 even satisfied with this, He besought His Father that His people should 
 be at one amongst themselves, as He with His Father. Could He seek 
 greater conformity ? He moreover willed that those who should follow 
 His doctrine should not dress differently from each other— that they should 
 neither eat nor fast differently, nor have any outward difference, unless it 
 were in their works of love. Now, how can he be a CMstian that does 
 not observe this ? And if he be not a Christian, how shall he be the Vicar 
 of Christ ? Where there is war, how can there be love ? And this being 
 the principal token of our faith, are you satisfied for its head to go so wide 
 of It ? It is no wonder if secular princes make war, since they as sheep 
 follow their shepherd. If the head goes to war, the members must needs 
 fight. I marvel that the Pope, who should be a mirror of all Christian 
 virtues, and the pattern upon which we should all look— that having to 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OP ROME. 65 
 
 engage and maintain all in peace and concord, though at the peril of his 
 own life, should seek to make war, to get and uphold things which Jesus 
 Christ has commanded us to despise ; and that there should be found 
 amongst Christians any one to help hira in a work so nefarious, execrable, 
 and prejudicial to the honour of Christ. "What blindness is this ! We 
 call ourselves Christians, and w>e live worae than Turks and brute beasts. 
 If the Christian doctrine appear to us to be a farce, why do we not whoUy 
 give it up ? that so, at least, we might not so frequently and deeply insult 
 Him, from whom we have received so many benefits. But, since we know it 
 to be true, and pride ourselves on being called Christians, and treat with 
 contempt those who are not so, why do we not seek to be such in reality ? 
 why do we Kve as if there were neither faith nor law amongst us ? The 
 philosophers and wise men among the ancients, being Gentiles, despised 
 riches ; and do you now wish that the Vicar of Christ make war for that 
 which those blind pagans set at naught ? What wUl the people say, who 
 know no more of Jesus Christ, save what they see in His Vicar ? But that 
 those philosophers, who, to attain the highest good which they placed in 
 virtue, despised worldly things, were much better than Jesus Christ, 
 since they see His Vicar hungering after, and making war to acquire that 
 which the former despised. You here see what honour is done to Jesus 
 Christ by His Vicars ! you here see what honour' His ministers do Him — 
 those who live by His blood. Oh blood of Jestis Christ ! so abused by 
 Thy Vicars that this present one avails himseK of Thee to extort moneys, 
 in order to slay men, to murder Christians, to destroy cities, to burn 
 towns, to dishonour maidens, to mate so many widows, so many orphans, 
 and such an accumulation of iUs as war brings in its train ! He that saw 
 Lombardy, and even all Christendom, in former years in such great 
 prosperity — such important and beautiful cities, such fine villas in their 
 vicinity, such gaidens, such merry-makings, such pleasures, such pastimes! 
 The peasants got in their harvests, pastured their flocks, and buUt them- 
 selves dweUiugs ; citizens and nobles, every one in his sphere, freely 
 enjoyed his property, his inheritance, increased his rents, and many 
 shared them amongst the poor. And after this accursed war began, how 
 many cities do we see destroyed, how many towns and buildings burnt 
 and depopulated, ho'w many vineyards and orchards cut down, how many 
 nobles, citizens, and peasants brought to squalid poverty ! How many 
 wives will have lost their husbands, how many fathers and mothers their 
 beloved children, how many girls their lovers, how many virgins their 
 virginity, how many wives have been violated in theif husbands' presence, 
 how many husbands killed in the presence of their wives, how many nuns 
 have been dishonoured, and what multitudes of men have fallen through- 
 out Christendom ! And, what is worse, what numbers of souls have been 
 hurried to helL And we put up with it, as though it were a joke ! And 
 the Vicar of Jesus Christ, not yet content with all this, when we were at 
 peace, comes to excite us to a new war at the time that we had the 
 enemies of our faith at the door, in order that we should lose, as we have 
 lost, the kingdom of Hungary, in order that he might utterly destroy 
 what remained of Christendom! And his agents, not content with 
 making war like others, devise new kinds of cruelty. They have outdone 
 Nero ; for neither Dionysius of Syracuse nor any subsequent tyrants, how- 
 ever cruel they may have been, who up to this time have swayed the 
 world, ever invented such cruelties as the papal army perpetrated on 
 the partisans of the Colonna family, after the breach of the truce made 
 with Don Hugo de Moncada; that two Christians should take a young 
 lady of noble birth, a virgin, by the legs, and hold her naked, head down- 
 wards, whilst a third should come with a halberd and cut her in halves 
 
GG LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 whilst living. Oh craelty ! oh impiety ! oh execrable flagitiousness ! What 
 had that poor maiden done ? And what had those pregnant women done, 
 whose bellies they ripped up with their cruel swords, taking the babe yet 
 warm from the womb, they spitted it and roasted it before the unhappy 
 mother's eyes ? Oh God, how wondrous that Thou shouldest suffer such 
 horrors ! Oh, mortal ears, that ye should hear of them ! Oh, Chief 
 Pontiff, that allowest such things to be done in thy name! Those innocent 
 creatures, how could they have merited such treatment ? We curse 
 Herod, who killed babes but newly born, but thou killest them before 
 they are born. Let them at least be bom! Let them at least be baptized; 
 surely thou wouldst not send their souls to perdition as weU as take away 
 their lives ! What had those women done to deserve to die in such 
 agonies, to see themselves disembowelled, and hear their children groan 
 whilst roasting spitted at the fire 1 What had those unhappy fathers done, 
 who died of grief at witnessing the sufferings of their children thus brought 
 to an untimely end, and of their wretched mothers 1 What Jew, Turk, 
 Moor, or Infidel will now ever wish to come to the faith of Jesus Christ, 
 since our experience of His Vicar's works is such ? Which of them will 
 ever serve or honour him ? And the Christians who know not Christian 
 doctrine, what can they do but follow their pastor 1 And if every one 
 should follow him, who wiU live amongst Christians ? Does it appear to 
 you, sir, that this is the mode of imitating Jesus Christ? Does 
 it appear to you that this is the mode of teaohuig Christian people! 
 Does it appear to you that this is the proper mode of interpreting sacred 
 Scripture ? Does it appear to you that this is the way of interceding 
 by the Shepherd for his sheep ? Does it appear to you that these are 
 the works of Jesus Christ 1 Does it appear to you that this dignity 
 was instituted to the end that the Christian body should be destroyed 
 by it ? 1 
 
 This portion of the apology for the Emperor concludes 
 vsrith the inculpation of the Pope as the cause of that awful 
 calamity. 
 
 Archdeacon : I cannot answer you, for certainly on this head you have 
 fulfilled your promise. I confess to you that I was greatly deceived with 
 reference to it. Now I could wish that you would declare the causes why 
 God has permitted the evils that have been perpetrated in Rome, for you 
 say that they have redounded to the greater welfare of Christianity. 
 
 Lactancio : Since I have been able to satisfy you on the first head, I 
 think, with God's help, that I shall be better able to satisfy you on the 
 second. 
 
 The second part of the Dialogue, which treats of religious 
 topicSj commences thus : — 
 
 Lactancio :_ By way of accomplishing what I promised, you will in the 
 first place admit that all the vices and all the wiles that the mahce of man 
 could devise, were congregated in that city of Rome which you with great 
 propriety call holy, because it ought to be so. 
 
 Archdeacon : Certainly in that you are quite right. And God knows 
 what I have always thought of it ; and what my heart felt to see that 
 city, which in all reason should have been a virtuous model to the whole 
 world, so full of vices, dishonest dealing, frauds, and flagrant knavery; to 
 see that unblushing sale of offices, benefices, bulls, indulgences, and dis- 
 
 ' See "Dos Difilogos," 1850, pp. 344-355. 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OP EOME. C7 
 
 pensations, that it seemed to be a mockery of the Christian faith ; and 
 that the ministers of the Church had no care, save that of inventmg modes 
 to extort money. The Pope had certain figures of the Apostles, which 
 had been cast in gold : these he pawned, and then made an imposition to 
 be paid by the issue of Bulls "pro redemfione Apostolorum," for the 
 redemption of the Apostles ! I cannot imderstand how they can act in 
 a manner so derogatory and prejudicial to their honour, without being 
 ashamed of tliemselves. 
 
 Lactanoio : All who return thence say the same. I was aware of this 
 very thing myself when I was there. Now come, were your children. . . . 
 
 Archdeacon : Don't insult me ! 
 
 Lactancio : Pardon me ! for I had forgotten that you were a clergyman ; 
 though there are many clergymen who do not reproach themselves because 
 they have cMldren. But this was not said, save by way of example. 
 
 Archdeacon : Well ; go on then. 
 
 Lactancio : If your children had a very vicious master, and you saw 
 that they were infected with his vices and evil habits, what would you do ? 
 
 Archdeacon : I should frequently admonish him to amend ; and were 
 he to refuse to do so, and had I authority or rule over him, I should 
 correct him gently to make him amend, and afterwards by harsh means, 
 if he would not do so by soft ones. 
 
 Lactancio : Well, see, God is the father of us all, and He gave us the 
 Eoman Pontiffs as masters, in order that we should learn from them, a,nd 
 those who are attached to them, to live like Christians. And as the vices 
 of the Eoman court were such that by them the children of God were 
 infected with the same, for from the Eoman court they not only did not 
 learn Christian doctrine, but a style of life most opposed to it, God, seeing 
 that neither the Prophets, nor the Evangelists, nor the numbers of holy 
 doctors who wrote in past ages reprehending the vices and commending 
 the virtues, succeeded in inducing those who lived ill to be converted and to 
 live like Christians, — God, I say, devised new modes of leading them to do 
 that which they ought to have done. And in addition to many good 
 teachers and preachers whom He sent in days gone by, He sent, in our 
 time, that excellent man Erasmus of Rotterdam, who has written various 
 works, exposing the vices and frauds of the Eoman court and of the whole 
 ecclesiastical body with great eloquence, prudence, and modesty. It seems 
 that what was said of them at Eome would at least have sufficed to have 
 made those who lived tliere dissolutely amend. As this did not improve 
 them at all, but on the contrary their vices and evil habits waxed worse 
 daily, God deigned to employ another mode for their conversion, and per- 
 mitted that mojik Martin Luther to rise up, who not only lost all shame 
 with reference to them by publishing their vices in the most unsparing 
 manner, but drew away many nations from obedi-ence to their prelates, so 
 that if you would not be converted from a sense of shame, you might at 
 least by the fear lest you should lose the revenues which you derived from 
 Germany ; or from ambition, lest your sway should be so limited were Ger- 
 many to remain, as it well-^iigh is now, beyond the pale of your authority. 
 
 Archdeacon : Well, but this monk not only spoke iU of us, but he 
 blasphemed God in a thousand written heresies. 
 
 Lactancio : What you say is true ; but had you remedied what he at 
 first most justly complained of, and had you not provoked him with your 
 excommunications, possibly he might never have gone the length of writing 
 the heresies which lie has written, and still writes ; nor would there have 
 been that loss of bodies and souls in Germany which, owing to this, has 
 been incurred. 
 
 Archdeacon : Look, sir, this remedy could not have been obtained 
 
 F 2 
 
G8 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 without a general Council, and it is said that it would not have done to 
 hare it convoked at that time, because it would have ruined the whole 
 ecclesiastical body ; so much so, that if the Council had been held at that 
 time, we might all of us have gone directly to the poor-house, and the Pope 
 himself along with us. 
 
 Lactancio : How so ? 
 
 Archdeacon : AU the States of the Empire presented a hundred 
 grievances, which they say they suffered from the Apostolic See, and from 
 many ecclesiastics, and they sought remedy in every instance. 
 
 Lactancio : Then why did you not remedy them ? 
 
 Archdeacon: We never intended tTiai. They said that the revenues of 
 the Church, which had been given and instituted for the relief of the poor, 
 should be so expended, and not in wars, nor upon vices, nor in pageants, 
 as they are for the most part now expended. And they required that the 
 people, and not the clergy, should have the administration of them. 
 Moreover, they required that dispensations should not be granted for 
 money, saying that the poor are the children of God as well as the rich, 
 and that in granting dispensations for money, the poor, who, of right, 
 ought to be the more privileged, are the more oppressed ; whilst the rich, 
 on the contrary, are the privileged. 
 
 Lactancio : Is it not so ? Indeed, I have been, and frequently am, so 
 astonished tiiat I cannot express it. I see on the one hand that Christ 
 commands poverty, and herein invites us to foUow His own most perfect 
 example ; and, on the other hand, I see that from the majority of His min- 
 isters we can obtain nothing without money. At baptism, money ! at 
 confirmation, money ! at marriage, money ! for holy orders, money ! at 
 confession, money ! at the sacrament, money ! They will not give extreme 
 unction, unless for money ; they will not toU the bells, except for money; 
 they will not bury you within the church, except for money ; you shall not 
 hear mass during interdict, except for money ! So that Paradise appears 
 to be closed to those who have no money. How is this, that the rich man 
 is buried within the precincts of the church whilst the poor is buried in 
 the churchyard ? that the rich is admitted into the church, whilst they 
 slam the door in the faces of the poor ? that they make pubKc prayeis for 
 the rich, whilst not a thought is entertained of the like on behalf of the 
 poor ? If Jesus Christ willed that His Church should be more partial to 
 the rich than to the poor, why did He counsel us to follow poverty ? Then, 
 besides this, the rich man marries his first cousin or female relative, which 
 the poor man cannot do, though it break his heart not to do it ; the rich 
 man eats meat in Lent, the poor man does not, though fish is so dear 
 that he can only look at it, and long for it ; the rich man gets indulgences 
 by eight cart-loads at a time, which the poor man cannot do for want of 
 money to pay for them. And you may find an infinite number of things 
 of this sort. There are many who will tell you that to sei-ve God you must 
 make a fortune wherewith to found churches and monasteries, to have many 
 masses and many trentenaries said, to buy many wax tapers to bum upon 
 your catafalque. Jesus Christ counsels me to despise and neglect all 
 earthly things to follow Him, and you counsel me to seek them. You will 
 render me very great service by teUing me what reason they have for 
 acting as they do ; for may God so save me, as I neither know nor can 
 attain to do so.' 
 
 What, however, after all, were the vices of politicians,— 
 fraud— treachery— lying— perjury— murder— crimes against 
 ' See " Dos Didlogos," 1850, pp. 385-393. 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OF HOME. GO 
 
 the property and persons of individuals, to the vices of the 
 religious teachers, the theologians and clergy, from the 
 heads of the Sacred College down to the humbler parish 
 priests ! The vices of the body were augmented by the 
 powers of a refined and spu-itual intellect. With them, the 
 souls of men were the prizes played for, and their acquaint- 
 ance with the game was inspired to higlier issues of evil by 
 a knowledge of what was holy and good, which their hypo- 
 crisy transformed into a science of moral tyranny, which 
 brought a blight over the fairest flowers of paradise. What 
 the state-craft of the age carried out upon the persons, the 
 corruption of the hierarchy apphed to the souls of mankind. 
 Tell me, says Vald^s, by the mouth of — 
 
 Lactancio : Tell me, wMcli do you hold to be of greater value, a soul or 
 a body ( 
 
 Archdeacon : Beyond comparison — ^the soul. 
 
 Lactancio : How many souls, then, have you sold in this world ? 
 
 Archdeacon : How is it possible to sell souls ? 
 
 Lactancio : Have you not read in the Apocalypse that, amongst other 
 kinds of merchandise, souls are enumerated f He that sells a bishopric — 
 he that sells a benefice with cure of souls — does not such a man sell the 
 souls of his subjects 1 
 
 Archdeacon : What you say is most true. Certainly, these things 
 never appeared to me to be correct ; nor that of collation to benefices, 
 reserving a yearly charge, with a power of redemption upon the payment of 
 so much per cent., which is a mere attempt to overreach God. 
 
 Lactancio : In good sooth, an attempted self-deception. But how 
 many souls have you seen disposed of in this mode, staked upon a throw 
 of the dice ? 
 
 Archdeacon : Innumerable. 
 
 Lactancio : Now, you see, and from this day forth you wiU better 
 perceive, your error, and you will not wonder that those soldiers who live 
 by plunder should seU [ecclesiastical] officials, since you sold benefices ; 
 nor bishops, since you sold bishoprics. And the one is by so much the 
 graver offence than the other, as a soul is of more value than a body. On 
 the contrary, you ought to be glad that they did not sell a cardinal. 
 
 Archdeacon : Surely it sufficed that they were ransomed, and that their 
 houses were compounded for, not one in Home escaping free. 
 
 Lactaucio : You are unwfllingly reminded of the purses which you 
 have emptied with your compositions ; but let it be no cause of wonderment 
 to you if they now empty yours. Have you not read in Eev. xviii. 6, 7, 8 : 
 "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double 
 according to her works ; in the cup which she hath fiUed, fill to her double. 
 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much 
 torment and sorrow give her ; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her." 
 What think you ? in very truth, these are God's judgments. 
 
 Archdeacon : My flesh quakes whilst I listen to you. But teU me, to 
 what end, or why, the loss of so much money? — for it is af&rmed that fifteen 
 miUioiis of ducats barely represent the amount raised by ransoms and 
 compositions during the sack of Rome. 
 
 Lactancio : And do you call this loss 1 By my troth, I call it gain ! 
 
 Archdeacon : Gain ! How so ? 
 
70 LIFE OF JUAN DE YALDES. 
 
 Lactancio : Because all the wealth of Christendom has for many years 
 found its way to Rome, and has been consumed there ; and now the tide 
 begins to turn. 
 
 Aechdeacon : How is that ? 
 
 Lactancio : The money that was got by suits, by commutations, by 
 intrigues, by benefices, by reserved charges, by corruption, by first-fruits, 
 by BuUs and by the dispatch of Bulls, by indulgences, by the confes- 
 sionals, by compositions, by dispensations, by excommunications, by ana- 
 thematizations, by fulminations, by aggravations and by re-aggravations, 
 and even by canonizations and other similar exactions : these funds are now 
 taken by the soldiers, as labourers, to spread them over the whole earth. 
 
 Archdeacon : And what black labourers they are ! Just look : what 
 profit could be incident to such destruction of that city, that Rome cannot 
 be restored in fi.ve centuries ? 
 
 Lactancio : God be pleased so to order it. 
 
 Archdeacon : What ? 
 
 Lactancio ; That Rome may never again become the seat of the vices 
 that enslaved it, and that there never hereafter may reign there so little 
 charity, love, and fear of God ! 
 
 Archdeacon : Well, but the sacred palace, with those painted cham- 
 bers and halls, how could they deserve to have suffered, what moved the 
 greatest pity ? — for they were first turned into stables for horses, and then 
 burnt. 
 
 Lactancio : Assuredly so. Would it have been right that, the whole 
 city being made to suffer, that part of it should have escaped where all 
 the evU was devised 1 
 
 Archdeacon : But who shall tell how the church of the Prince of the 
 Apostles, and aU the other temples and churches and monasteries of Rome, 
 were treated and sacked — so that neither gold or silver, nor indeed any- 
 thing else of value, was left them from the plunder and destruction of 
 . those soldiers. And can it be possible that God should be pleased to have 
 His own churches thus treated and sacked ? and that objects dedicated to 
 His service should be plundered thus ? 
 
 Lactancio : Now, look you, sir : this is a transaction so ugly and so 
 bad that it necessarily appears evil to every one ; but if you will study it, 
 there is such superstition in connection with these objects devoted to God, 
 whereby the people are prejudiced, that it causes me no surprise that God 
 permits this, and much more, in order that there be some limit set with 
 reference to them. The merchant thinks that^ after he has amassed great 
 riches, he shall be pardoned all the ills that he has done, and yet will 
 do, if he build a church or a monastery, or if he should give a lamp, or a 
 cup, or something of the sort, to some church or monastery ; and not only 
 does he deceive himself in this, imagining that he does so for God, but in 
 believing that to be done in His service, which is more frequently done out 
 of ostentation, or from vain worldly glory, as is proved by the engraving 
 of the arms of each giver upon the objects given, or upon the buildiag 
 erected ; relying upon which, it appears to him no longer necessary that 
 he should live like a Christian ; and though this be excessively wrong, 
 they do not blush to countenance it who profit by it, never considering 
 the injury thereby done to the Christian religion. 
 
 Archdeacon : And how so an injury ? 
 
 Lactancio : Does it not appear to you an injury, and a very great one 
 too, that what many of the heathen attained to know of God by the mere 
 light of nature, we Christians, taught by the same God, should remain 
 Ignorant of ? They attained to know that it was not true service to God 
 to offer Him anything in its nature perishable ; they attained to know that 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OF XiOME. 71 
 
 to God", as incorporeal, nothing could be presented as a principal offering, 
 or as an object very grateful to Him, tliat was material. They held that 
 he did not know what God is who thought that God delighted in possess- 
 in;;; that which good and wise men did not wish to have, such, for instance, 
 sui jewels and riches ; whilst we Christians are now so blind that we think 
 God is greatly served by things corporeal and perishable. 
 
 Archdeacon : Then you mean to say, that no service is rendered to 
 God by erecting churches, nor the presentation of chalices and simUar 
 articles ? 
 
 Lactancio : I say that he more truly renders service to God who adorns 
 his soul with the virtues He has commanded, in order that He may come 
 and dwell in it — than he who builds a church, although it be made of gold 
 and as large as that of Toledo, for God to dwell in, keeping Him by his vices 
 banished from his soul, although his intentions were the best in the world. 
 And I say that it is very wrong to suppose that God is pleased by my 
 offering gold or silver, if I do so to get praise, or from any other vain 
 motive. I say that we should render God better service were that which 
 we give to HLs chiu?ches. His dead temples, diverted to the use of the poor, 
 to relieve their wants, since we know that they are God's living temples. 
 
 Archdeacon : Thus there would be neither churches nor ornaments for 
 God's service. 
 
 Lactancio: Would there be no churches? On the contrary, I think 
 there would be many more ; for there being many good Christians, wherever 
 any two or three of them were assembled in His name, then there would 
 be a church. And, moreover, though the wicked should budd neither 
 churches nor monasteries, do you think there would be no good men who 
 would do so ? And let us note it, what is this world but a very beautiful 
 church wherein God dwells ? What is the sun but a lighted taper for the 
 illumination of the ministers of the Church ? What is the moon, what are 
 the stars, but candles which burn in God's church ? Do you want any other 
 church ? Does not the Apostle say, " the temple of God is holy, which 
 temple are ye"? Do you want candles to light up this church? You 
 have the Spirit, you have understanding, you have reason. Does it not 
 occur to you that these candles are excellent ones ? 
 
 Archdeacon : Yes ; but no one sees this. 
 
 Lactancio : And you, have you seen God ? Mark, brother, since God is 
 invisible, it is His wiU that He be chiefly honoured with things invisible. 
 He does not accept heavy payments, nor is God satisfied with gold or 
 silver ; He does not need such things, since He is Lord of all. He desires 
 the heart. And would you see this ? Is not God almighty ? Were He to 
 will it, could He not in one moment make a hundred thousand temples, 
 richer and more sumptuous than that of Solomon ? '■ 
 
 Valdes goes on to show in what manner, by the rapacity 
 of the soldiery, avarice prepared its own punishment in the 
 plunder of the clergy, the almost exclusive possessors of 
 the wealth of Eome, and in the spoliation by the Germans 
 of the relics and sacred treasures of the churches, by which 
 the simple and superstitious people had been so long 
 deluded and drained of their money. The Archdeacon, 
 enumerating the horrors incident to the sacking of Rome, 
 complains to Lactancio that the soldiers, having opened 
 the sepulchres within the churches in order to plunder 
 
 I Heo "Dos Diiiloyos," 1850, pp. 419-J2S. 
 
72 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 them, tlie stencli was such that nobody could enter the 
 churches, to which his friend replies : — 
 
 Lactancio : Considering what sums the clergy had received as burial 
 fees, the stench ought not to be intolerable to them. 
 
 Archdeacon : You jest ! 
 
 Lactancio: Upon my life, I do not ; and to speak the truth, as the clergy 
 are not ashamed to levy tribute on the dead, conduct held by the heathen 
 to be most degrading, so neither do they blush to enter the churches to 
 pray for them. 
 
 Arohdbaoon : Well, you thought that you had disposed of all ; but, as 
 the proverb runs, that which is the harder to justify yre defend last, and I 
 have kept the gravest charge for the last. 
 
 Lactancio : Well, bring it forward. 
 
 Archdeacon: There were no relics they did not plunder, to tear away 
 with sacrilegious hands the gold and silver in which they were enshrined. 
 The most abominable spectacle that the world ever witnessed was to see 
 those shameless wretches enter places which bishops, cardinals, nay, 
 popes themselves, scarce presume to tread, and carry forth those heads 
 and arms of the apostles and canonized saints. I know not what conse- 
 quences may be brought upon Christendom by audacity and irreverence 
 so abominable ! * 
 
 Lactancio : This was rude ; but tell me, having got off the silver and 
 gold, what did they do with the bones ? 
 
 Archdeacon ; The Germans threw some of them into the cemeteries or 
 burial-grounds ; they carried some to the palace of the Prince of Orange 
 and of the other generals. But the Spaniards, as a nation more religious, 
 carried aU to the palace of Giovanni d'Urbino. 
 
 Lactancio : Were they thus despoiled ? 
 
 Archdeacon : You scarce believe it ! I myself saw a basket-fuU of 
 them in the residence of Giovanni d'Urbino. 
 
 Lactancio : Let us see ; do you hold that to be the gravest fact ? 
 
 Archdeacon : Clearly it is so. 
 
 Lactancio : Come now: is not a living man of greater value than a 
 hundred dead ones 1 
 
 Archdeacon : Yes. 
 
 Lactancio : Then the death of the four thousand men of which you 
 spoke was a matter much more grave than plundering the relics. 
 
 Archdeacon : And how so ? 
 
 Lactancio : For the relics are dead bodies, and the men were alive ; 
 and you have admitted that one of these was worth a hundred of the other. 
 
 Archdeacon : You are right ; but these bodies were holy, and those 
 others not. 
 
 Lactancio : So much the worse ; the souls of these saints feel nothing 
 of the ill-treatment done to theu' bodies, for they are actually in bliss ; whilst 
 these others experience the reverse ; for, dying in sin, they go to hel^ where 
 both soul and body shall die together. 
 
 Archdeacon : It is so ; but, nevertheless, it is shocking to witness 
 in our days an audacity and an irreverence so great. 
 
 Lactancio : What you say is most true. But mark you : God has not 
 permitted this without cause, on account of the frauds that are practised 
 with these relics to get money out of the simple; for many rehcs are to be 
 found, which they wiU show you at two or three different places. At 
 Dura, m Germany, they wiU show you the head of St. Anne, our Lord's 
 grandmother, and they will show you the very same at Lyons, in France: 
 It IS clear that they he either at one place or at the other, unless they 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OF EOME. 73 
 
 mean to say that our Lady had two mothers, or St. Anne two heads. 
 And, it being a lie, is it not a great evil that they seek to delude the 
 people, ajid present to their veneration the dead body of one who possibly 
 died as a criminal on the gallows ? Now let us see : which do you hold 
 to be the greater inconvenience, that the body of St. Anne be not 
 discovered, or that they cause you to worship the body of some vulgar 
 woman ? 
 
 Archdeacon: I had rather that they found neither the one nor the 
 other, than that they cause me to adore a sinner instead of a saint. 
 
 Lactancio : Would you not prefer that the body of St. Anne, which they 
 represent as being both at Dura and at Lyons, should be buried together 
 in one vault, and should never be shown, than that they should deceive so 
 many with one of them ? 
 
 Archdeacon : Yes, most certainly. 
 
 Lactancio : Well, you will find that there are numberless relics 
 throughout the world in this predicament; and the loss would not be great 
 were they not in existence. Would to God that He might remedy this 
 Himself ! I have seen Our Lord's foreskin at Rome, at Burgos, and hke- 
 wise at the church of Our Lady at Antwerp ; and the head of St. John 
 the Baptist, at Rome, and at Amiens, in France. Then, as to the Apostles, 
 were we to reckon them up, although they were but twelve, and that one 
 of them has not been discovered, whilst another is in the Indies, yet we 
 shall find more than twenty-four of them in different parts of the world. 
 Eusebius writes, that the nails of the cross were three ; that St. Helena, 
 the Emperor Constantine's mother, threw one into the Adriatic to allay a 
 tempest ; that she had the second made into a helmet for her son ; and that 
 of the third she made a bit for her horse : and now there is one at Rome, 
 another at Milan, another at Cologne, another at Paris, another at Lyons, 
 with numberless others. Again, were I to say, that if all the pieces of the 
 cross which they pretend to show you throughcmt Christendom as parts of 
 it, were collected together, they would make a cart-load, I should speak the 
 truth. The teeth which Our Lord shed when a child exceed five hundred, 
 reckoning only those which are shown in France as such ! Then, the 
 Virgin Mother's milk, Mary Magdalen's hair, and St. Christopher's teeth, 
 form relics innumerable. Now, beyond the uncertainty incident to these 
 objects, it makes you blush to see what is pahned upon the people. I was 
 shown the other day, in a very ancient monastery, the catalogue of the 
 relics which they possessed, and saw represented there, amongst other 
 things, "a bit of the brook Kedron .'" I asked whether it was water, or one 
 of the pebbles of that stream, v/hich they had ; and they answered me, 
 that relics were not to be a subject for jokes. There was another item : 
 "eaith from the spot where the angel appeared to the shepherds;" and I 
 dared not inquire what they imderstood by it. It would make you die of 
 laughing were I to enumerate the other things, each rivaUing the other in 
 absurdity and impiety which they are wont to represent themselves as 
 possessing : as, for instance, a part of the Angel Gabriel's wing ; such as 
 some of Magdalen's penitence ; the breath of the mule and of the ox ; the 
 shadow of St. James's staff; of the feathers of the Holy Spirit ; of the robe 
 of the Trinity; and of others similar to these more than can be reckoned. 
 I will only add, that they showed me, a few days since, in a coUegiate 
 church, one of St. Saviour's ribs. Whether there have been any Saviour 
 save Jesus Christ, and whether He left any rib here or not, let them see 
 to it. 
 
 Archdeacon : It is, as you say, rather a subject for laughter than for 
 tears. 
 
 Lactancio ; Yau are right. But I come to other things which, whether 
 
74 LIFE OF JUAN 13E VALDES. 
 
 uncertain, or even if certain, are stum'bling-'bloo'ka to cause men to fall into 
 idolatry, and to hold them in such veneration that even in Aix-la-Chapelle 
 there are some old breeches which they say belonged to St. Joseph. They 
 are only exhibited once in five years, when multitudes go to see them, as 
 something divine. And we make them of such account, and hold them in 
 such veneration, that if there are exhibited, within the same church, the 
 slippers of St. Christopher in a golden recess on the one side, and the Holy 
 Sacrament on the other, in comparison with which all relics are less than 
 nothing, the people prostrate themselves preferentially before the slippers, 
 rather than before the Holy Sacrament ; and though this be a great impiety, 
 they who ought to rebuke it do not rebuke, but look on with much com- 
 plaisance, because of the profit they make by the very subtle devices they 
 have to that end invented. Now, what think you ? Which involves the 
 greater inconvenience : — the total absence of relics upon earth, or that the 
 public be thus befooled with them 1 ' 
 
 Valdes tlius expresses his sentiments about the heathenish, 
 abuse of the worship of images : — 
 
 Archdeacon : May God so help me, as you have satisfactorily settled 
 all my doubts. And it surprises me to see how blind we are in all these 
 things that transpire outwardly, and how regardless, too, of what transpires 
 inwardly. 
 
 Laotancio : And, indeed, you have great cause for astonishment; for, in 
 truth, there is the greatest reason to regret the erroneous notions which 
 the people are led to entertain. How far we are from being Christians ! how 
 opposed are our works to the doctrine of Jesus Christ ! how laden are we 
 with superstitions ! And, according to my views, the whole proceeds from 
 the pestilential avarice and pestiferous ambition which now reign among 
 Christians more absolutely Jihan they ever previously did. Why, think you, 
 is it stated that a wooden image goes on an expedition to liberate captives, 
 and that when it returns it is all of a sweat, imless it be to allure simple- 
 tons to make offerings to that image, which ofi'erings they who make that 
 statement presently convert to their own use. They who thus practise 
 delusions upon the people have not the fear of God before their 
 eyes. As though the Virgin Mary were obliged, in order to liberate 
 a captive, to take a wooden figure with her. The thing, being in 
 itself absurd, is believed by the vulgar, upon the authority of those 
 who declare it. And thus, others would have you believe that if you 
 cause so many masses to be said, with so many candles, at the time 
 of the second anguish, you shall find what you have lost. Sinful man 
 that I am ! can you fail to see that some devilish machination is com- 
 bined with that superstition ? Well, then, since there is such a com- 
 bination, would it not be better that you should lose all you have 
 in the world rather than allow anything so sacred to be blended with 
 something so baleful? Of the same character are the names which 
 you wear round your necks as charms attached to either man or beast, 
 to avert death by fire or water, by the arms of adversaries, by enchant- 
 ments, or by philters, as they are ordinarily called. I know not whence 
 this excessive blindness has been introduced into Christendom, so 
 that we have well-nigh fallen into heathenism. He that would honour a 
 saint, let him labour to follow his sainWike virtues. We, nowadays, 
 instead of doing so, hold buU-fights on his feast-day, and practise other 
 levities. We say that we hold it devout to Idll four bulls upon St. Bai-. 
 tholoniew's day, and that were we not to kill them we should have cause 
 to fear that he would lay our vines waste with haU ! What greater 
 
 ' See " Dos DiiClogos," 1850, pp. dil-iiS. 
 
DIALOGUE ON THE SACK OP HOME. 75 
 
 heathenism than this coiild you adduce ? AYhat different emotion do I expe- 
 rience whether I kill four bulls as a devout act upon St. Bartholomew's day, 
 or that I sacrifice four bulls to St. Bartholomew? I am not scandalized by the 
 public recreation of the bull-fight, but to me it does appear pernicious that 
 the public sho\ild think that they thereby rendered service either to God 
 or His saints. Would you see another similar heathenism no less glaring 
 than this ? Look how we have distributed amongst our saints the offices 
 held by the gods of the heathen. The god Mars has been superseded by 
 St. James and St. George, Neptune by St. Ehno, Bacchus by St. Martin, 
 jEoIus by St. Barbara, Venus by the Magdalen. The duties of ^sculapius 
 have been distributed amongst many : St. Cosmo and St. Damianus are 
 put in charge of conmion diseases ; St. Roch and St. Sebastian of the 
 plague ; St. Lucy of the eyes ; St. Apollonia of the teeth ; St. Agatha of 
 teats ; whilst St. Anthony and St. Aloy patronize beasts ; SS. Simon and 
 Judas perjurers ; St. Blasius those who sneeze. I know not to what these 
 inventions and this repartition of offices tend, unless it be to give us a 
 wholly Pagan character, to divert lis from that love to Jesus Christ which 
 we ought to cherish for Him alone, by giving us the habit of asking that of 
 others which, in truth. He alone can give us ; and hence it comes to pass 
 that some think because they rehearse a mass of psalms, or handfuls of 
 rosaries ; some because they don the habit of a Franciscan, or that of a 
 Merced (which is a royal and military order for the liberation of captives) ; 
 some because they do not eat meat on Wednesdays ; some because they 
 dress in blue or orange, that they, forsooth, come short in nothing of being 
 very good Christians : retaining, on the other hand, their envy, rancour, 
 avarice, ambition, and other similar vices, as fully as though they had 
 never heard tell what it is to be a Christian.' 
 
 These extracts sufficiently express the nature of the 
 Vidlogo de Lactancio. The precautions taken to fence it 
 round with the pale of Romish orthodoxy were not suffi- 
 cient for its protection. While only circulated privately^ 
 in manuscriptj amongst the author^s friends^ the apostolic 
 nuncio to the court of Spain^ Baldessar Castiglione, pro- 
 cured a copy of itj after much diligence, through his 
 secretary, as we may infer from Alfonso de Yaldes' own 
 words. Having read it, he immediately denounced it, to- 
 gether with the writer, to the Emperor, as at once hbellous 
 to the person of the Pontiff, and profane and impious 
 towards the Church. The Nuncio without doubt was angry 
 at not having obtained previous notice of the departure 
 of the imperial army to Rome, to give timely notice to his 
 master, the Pope ; whereupon he plotted the ruin of the 
 secretary Yaldes, of whom, as may well be imagined, he 
 had requested information in a friendly and familiar manner, 
 on account of their mutual affection, and prosecuting the 
 same studies. But duty imposed silence upon the one in 
 reference to that which the other unreasonably desired to 
 learn from him. The Nuncio's denunciation coming to the 
 ears of Alfonso, he hastened to avow himself the author of 
 
 ' See " Dos Diaogos," 1850, pp. 460^64. 
 
76 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 the Dialogue^ because he had been informed that the 
 Inquisition was about to proceed immediately against the 
 person of his brother Juan, who held no public office; 
 and thus the process was begun against them both. 
 Alfonso, as a generous brother and co-operator in the 
 object, did not deny the charge, knowing that Juan, being 
 a private gentleman of the court, would be exposed to 
 persecution, whilst he believed himself protected by his 
 high official position, and hence desired to attract all the 
 odium on himself rather than on his brother. 
 
 Letter from the Secretary [Alfonso] Vaih^s to the Count 
 Baldbssar Castiglionb, Nuncio in Spain. 
 
 Most Eeverend and Illustrious Seijor, — Before I left this city 
 for Valencia, your Reverence sent M. Gabriel, your secretary, to speak 
 to me about a little work wbicb I wrote last year. I reported frankly 
 to him what had occurred in the matter. This answer he afterwards 
 told me had satisfied your Eeverence. It is indfcd true that I have 
 not since read it, nor added to, nor erased anything in it, for my 
 intention was not to publish it. Notwithstandiiig, from the want of 
 fidelity which friends usually observe in similar cases, those to whom 
 I have communicated it have practised so Kttle reserve about it, that 
 more copies have been taken of it than I wished. Within these few 
 days past, on the one hand M. Gabriel, and on the other Oliverjo, 
 have with much pains sought to procure this Dialogue. In seeking to 
 know their object, I have discovered what your Reverence is doing 
 against me on account of this book, and that you have informed his 
 Majesty that there are many things in it against the Christian 
 rehgion, and against the decisions of councils approved by the Church ; 
 and especially, that it asserts that it is right to take away, and to break, 
 the images in the churches, and destroy the relics, and that your Reverence 
 had spoken .to me about this, but that I would not retract. 
 
 As in this and other things I feel my conscience quite clear, I cannot 
 but complain of your Reverence, that you treat a thing of this kind with 
 so much prejudice to my honour, while at the same time you profess to 
 acknowledge me as your servant, a thing I should never have believed of 
 your Reverence ; and that you say, besides, that you have often remon- 
 strated with me, and that I stUl persist. 
 
 Your Reverence knows very well that you have never spoken to me on 
 this subject, but that of which you sent word byM. Gabriel. Indeed 
 I do not know what perseverance or obstinacy your Reverence has seen 
 in me ; but this is of Little moment. In saying that I speak against the 
 decisions of the Church to the injury of images and relics, it is evident 
 you have not seen the book ; for if you had seen it, I cannot believe that 
 you would have said such a thing ; and I cannot but complain of your 
 Eeverence for accusing a man by hearsay of being a heretic, whom you 
 appear to consider as your servant. 
 
 Not to waste many words, I am certain that your Eeverence has been 
 very ill-informed; and for this reason I say that, if your Lordship complain 
 of me because I speak against the Pope, I answer that the subject obliged 
 me to do so. Desirmg to excuse the Emperor, I could not avoid accusing 
 the Pope, of whose dignity, however, I speak as every good and faitliful 
 Christian ought to speak; and the guilt which might be personally brought 
 
REPLY OF CASTIGLIONB TO VALDES. 77 
 
 home to him, I try as much as possible to wai'd off from liimsclf, and to 
 cast it on his ministers. 
 
 And if all this be not satisfactory, I confess to have gone somewhat too 
 far; and to please your Lordship I am prepared to correct it, since, indeed, 
 it caimot be suppressed. But if your Reverence mean to say that in this 
 Dialogue there is anything contr.iry to the Christian religion and to the 
 decisions of the Church, this would touch my honour too closely, and I 
 entreat you to consider it well first, because I am ready to maintain that 
 which I have written; and that your Lordship may not think me so pre- 
 sumptuous as, perhaps, I have been described to you, it is well you should 
 know'that, before I showed this Dialogue to others, Senor Juan Aleman 
 saw it, then Don Juan Manuel, and afterwards the Chancellor, in order 
 that, as prudent and sagacious men of business, they might correct and 
 improve what they thought wrong. By the advice of Don Juan I altered 
 two things. Not content with this, because it contained points relating to 
 religion — and I neither am, nor presume to be, a theologian — I showed it to 
 Dr. Coronel, who, after having read it twice, advised me to alter some 
 things which, though not irreligious, might give rise to calumny. 
 
 I showed it afterwards to the Chancellor of the University of Alcalsi, to 
 the Master Miranda, to Dr. Carasco, and other distinguished theologians 
 of that university, who praised it, and all desired to have a copy of it. 
 Afterwards it was seen by Master Fray Alfonso de Vives, Fray Diego de 
 Li Cadena, Fray Jn. Carillo, and finally by the Bishop Cabrero. They all 
 praised and approved, and with one voice entreated me to print it, with 
 offers to defend me against any one who ventured to blame it. But this I 
 never wished to do, because I did not look at it in the same light as they 
 did. Thus your Reverence may see that he who has so many and such 
 distinguished sponsors might venture to assert that there are no errors in 
 the work. I have given your Reverence this long account in order that, 
 knowing all that has passed in this matter, you may proceed with more 
 wariness and consideration. If, nevertheless, you determine to persist ia 
 this action, I beg only one thing of your Reverence, that ypu will not on 
 this account cease to consider me as your servant ; for, indeed, I should 
 feel the contrary to be a great loss. For the rest, I have confidence in 
 God and in my innocence that I shall in the end come out of it with more 
 honour than disgrace. — I am your Reverence's very faithful servant, 
 
 AiFOlfSO DE VAiD:fis.' 
 
 This letter was written towards tlie end of August, 1528, 
 at Madrid, before the court moved to Valencia. 
 The reply of the Papal Nuncio : — 
 
 Count Baldessae Castiglione to Secrbtaet Vald:6s. 
 
 Senor Vald^s, — It appears right to me, being desirous of replying 
 to your letter, to begin by discoursing of other matter, and to tell you of 
 all that has occurred to me with reference to the subject upon which you 
 address me. Hence I say that, whilst the court was at Burgos (from 
 20th October, 1527, until 20th February, 1528), friends of mine, and 
 gentlemen, told me that you had composed a Dialogue, in which were 
 many things derogatory to the Pope, and not very Christian. And 
 because it appeared to me to be my duty to investigate the matter and to 
 remedy it to the best of my abibty, I endeavoured to get a sight of the 
 book containing this Dialogue, but could not. Afterwards I sought to do 
 so at Valencia and at Monzon ; but with aU these efforts I could not get to 
 see a copy of it, of which I felt glad; for, being unable to see it, I thought 
 that it had been suppressed by your own orders, tha,t no one had a copy of 
 ' "DiSlogo da la Lengua," Madrid, ano de 1860, pp. 9-15, 
 
78 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 it, and that you had withdrawn it from publication. But it has veiy 
 recently been intimated to me here in Madrid, and that by ma,uy, that 
 numerous copies of such a work had been taken, and that it was intended 
 to print it for transmission to Italy, Germany, and various other countries; 
 whilst aU who have spoken to me respecting it concur as to its bemg of 
 the worst character, and th;it I have been culpably lukewarm in not 
 denouncing a paper so scandalous to the Church and to the Pope, written, 
 as it were, under my eye, and more especially as I hold office under h^ 
 Holiness. The book at length fell into my hands, and I read it through. 
 I have criticaUy examined it more than once, and it has excited that dis- 
 pleasure which, in my opinion, all good men ought to feel, and especially 
 those who profess to be true Christians, servants of the Pope and of the 
 Emperor. And this I say yd. order to quash one of the two complaints 
 against me in your letter, to wit, that I speak evil of your book upon 
 hearsay, without having seen it. Then your other complaint against me 
 is that I have informed the Emperor, and have said that there are many 
 things in your book against the Christian religion and against the ratified 
 decrees of CouncUs, and that I have said that I have spoken to you upon 
 the subject, and that you would not retract. You also say that you 
 cannot refrain from complaining of me, and say you never could have 
 believed that, whilst I continued to treat you as an intimate personal 
 friend, I could bring forward a matter so greatly to the prejudice of your 
 honour. To this I reply that you ought to have believed that, if the 
 respect which you owe me has not diverted you from an evil course, 
 respect for you ought not to have diverted me from a good one, which I 
 am impelled to take, both by office and duty ; moreover, I avow that I 
 never intend to hold friendly relations with those who are not good men. 
 But I discharged all the claims of friendship, and possibly more than I 
 owed, when, as observed in your letter, I sent my secretary Gabriel to 
 admonish you and to let you know that it had come to my ears that you 
 were engaged in writing something not good, and degrading to the Pope; 
 and that I begged you to consider it well, and not to do anything that 
 would entail inconvenience on yourself. But, whether you relinquished 
 your design or persevered in it, is to be seen by the work itself. Now, 
 coming to your statement that, if I am prepared to affirm that there is 
 aught in that Dialogue opposed to the Christian religion or to ecclesiastical 
 decrees, forasmuch as this would touch your honour, I should fiist look 
 well to it, for that you are ready to maintain all you have written, I 
 answer and say that I have looked at it, and, after having well considered 
 it, have told the Emperor that there are many sentiments in it utterly 
 impious and opposed to the decrees of the Church, and that, beyond the 
 prejudice thereby done to the Christian religion, you are specially injurious 
 to the person of the Pope, for that you most unjustly seek to inculpate 
 Mm falsely, for which you deserve severe chastisement. I have, moreover, 
 suppUcated his Majesty to deign to read it, that he may know the truth 
 of my statement. If this, therefore, be with you a ground of complaint, it 
 gives me little concern ; for I know that aU good men who shall read your 
 book win see that I am quite right, and wiU recognize in it your great 
 malice and little prudence, combined with such confusion, that you your- 
 self, not to say others, do not know what is intended to be conveyed by it, 
 unless it be that, impelled by peculiar malignitv, you desired to spit forth 
 venomous slanders mwardly cherished by you, thinking that the spirit of 
 the times was such that even worse would be acceptable. And, because 
 the mam object of your book is to speak evil of the Pope, which is 
 apparent to every one, and you yourself confess it in your letter when you 
 say that you exceeded the bounds of discretion in defamino- his Holiness, 
 
REPLY OP CASTIGLIONE TO VALDES. 79 
 
 being constrained to do so by the subject; I think that this alone may 
 suffice to apprise any one that I had a legitimate cause to notify to the 
 Emperor this fact and the character of the rest of -your book. And 
 because evils never before heard of ■were practised in this sacking of 
 Rome, among other modes of calumniating his Holiness employed by 
 you, it appeared good to you to 'Say that the iUs wrought by the Pope 
 and the Roman clergy greatly exceeded those done by the soldiery, and to 
 insist upon it that they proceeded from papal guilt and by divine per- 
 feiission, whilst you never suggest what might have been said in reproba- 
 tion of the misconduct of the soldiers, unless it be that such is customary 
 in warfare and a judgment of God, whilst the misconduct of the clergy 
 was still worse. Thus, by your inordinate desire to aggravate the latter, 
 which you would falsely attribute to the Pope and the Roman court, you 
 commit yourself to the extent of impugning Divine worship. Christian 
 rites and ceremonies, and of slandering all who reverence crucifixes, 
 images of Christ and of our Lady, and the relics of Saints, and to excuse 
 those who have laid waste Rome and have outraged the Church and the 
 Pope; you praise incendiarism, havoc, torture, sacrilege, murder, bar- 
 barity, and impiety. But, forasmuch as your purpose is so abhorrent to 
 reason and opposed to God and nature, I think you never can have 
 persuaded one good man, though you plume yourself highly upon your 
 great eloquence, and glory in your faculty of distinguishing and recog- 
 nizing every diversity of argument, notwithstanding you are but a youth. — 
 " Didlogo de la Lengua," ed. 1860, pp. 17 -21. 
 
 P.37.But assumingthatthe soldiers are impious and perfidious, lawless and 
 without the fear of God, that many of them are heretics and Jews, and that 
 men must bear this misfortune as they are able — yet that in the very palace 
 of the Emperor, a prince so much the Christian, so very just and virtuous, 
 there should be found a secretary who should dare to excuse acts of impiety 
 so heinous, and to show^ himself so open an enemy of Christian rites and 
 ceremonies, appeals to me a monstrosity so intolerable, that even when 
 contemplatiog it I dare not credit it. And yet it is true that you are 
 that monster, for you not only excuse it, but even praise it 
 
 P. 39. If with reference to the sentiments expressed in the Dialogue you say 
 that you do not commend the arguments employed by the disputants, I 
 reply that the academical mode of treating a subject in dialogue is not 
 unknown to us, and that we know that it was ever the habit of the 
 Platonists to contradict, and not to affirm anything. But your style of 
 writitig has not been so cautious, but that it is palpable which of the 
 disputants' sentiments you adopt, and which that is in whose mouth you 
 put a thousand foolish utterances, in order that they may be the more 
 easily refuted ; and it appears that Laotancio's sentiments are yours, and 
 that yours are Laotancio's ; and there will henceforth be no impropriety in 
 changing youi name, and in calling you Laotancio. 
 
 P. 42. For this reason I hold your argument to be analogous to the 
 former ones, and to the doctrine you manifest a desire to follow, in which, 
 indeed, there is, so to speak, a great odour of Lutheranism recognizable, 
 and of the opinions of other heretics, who indeed were more lettered than 
 you, but whose wills, probably, were not more depraved than yours. True 
 it is, that you seek to cover and adorn your sentiments by writing the 
 Dialogue in Spanish, and in disguised terms ; but, unable to sustain your 
 dissimulation to the end, you say that God permitted Luther to act his 
 part, softening down your malignant hypocrisy by the term "permission ;" 
 and it would seem that you assign the blame attaching to Luther's works to 
 God, whilst you are so incensed against the Pope for having excommuni- 
 cated him, that you censure both the Pope and the prelates for it; &c. &c. 
 
80 LIFE OF JUAX DE VALDES. 
 
 P. 53. I hold myself greatly wronged by your supposing that I could 
 tolerate either you, or any one else, in speaking so irreverently of the Pope 
 as you have done, I being a Christian, and peculiarly his Holiness's servant; 
 and marvel that you should ever have believed that I ought to hold yonr 
 honour— which, as you were bom of Jewish parents, was lost before you 
 were bom — in higher estimation than that of the Pope, than that of the 
 Christian religion, and than my own personal honour. You say, likewise, 
 you know not what obstinacy I can have seen in you, admitting that I sent 
 my secretary Grabriel to request you to desist from following the cour^ 
 upon which you had entered, which, whether you have done so, the hook 
 itself testifies, concerning which (you state) I camiot be well informed. 
 There is nothing in it that is not bad ; but truly I can be informed of 
 your malevolence, of your attempt to deceive in this matter, and of your 
 telling lies, which is your habit ; for, after having published the book, and 
 having sent it into Gtermany, Portugal, and various other countries, you 
 say you are willing to correct it ; and, combining ignorance with malignity, 
 say, that you are prepared to do so, for my £ke, as if you would do me 
 thjs pleasure from personal courtesy and kindness, and not because reason 
 or duty demands it. Then, presently, you add, that yon will abide by 
 what you have written. Now, see how well your abiding by what you have 
 written agrees with your correction of it. But I wiD. not deceive you : I 
 tell you that I shall again speak to the Emperor, and I am certain that his 
 Majesty wiU so publicly rebuke you that every one will know that your 
 sacrilegious pamphlet — for you style it a pamphlet — is published without 
 his consent ; and we shall see whether the excuses you make will stand 
 you in good stead ; and you will see that they who chastise you (the 
 Inquisitors) will be better able, and with greater warrant, to say that 
 justice has compelled them to expose that haughty arrogance which 
 prompted you to declare that the subject of the work compelled yon 
 mendaciously to calumniate hirn whom, as head of the Church, you, had 
 you been a Christian, would have been obliged to honour and ob^ iis 
 such. And were you bom under such evil stars, and were you formed by 
 nature of a constitution so perverse that you camiot refraia from slander- 
 ing and lying, from yielding to your instinct, declaring the fixed malignity 
 of your heart, but which without utterance is visibly legible in the pale- 
 ness of yonr pestilent countenance, and in those venomous eyes and forced 
 smiles which ever seem to breathe treachery, you ought to take some 
 less important person as your mark, and to do as they are wont who, 
 exercising themselves for their amusement in archery, place their target 
 in an unfrequented spot ; but you have placed yours where it seemed yon 
 could do the greatest possible injury : all the arrows were aimed at the 
 heart, which, probably glancirig off, will recoil on yourself. I hope this 
 may suffice by way of reply to that part of your letter wherein yon state 
 that the subject of the book compelled you to speak evil of the Pope. By 
 way of conclusion to what I have said, I assert that it was wrong to take 
 such a subject ; nor shonld you marvel if I have been unable to write 
 without great irritation and vexation ; for it appears to me intolerable that 
 such a vile worm as you should hare venom enough to presume to frustrate 
 all the eflForts of those who aim at the pacification of Christendom, an 
 object I desire beyond everything else on earth. 
 
 P. 61. And since it has been your purpose to accuse and speak ill of the 
 Pope, that intention can have proceeded from nothing else than the hatred 
 you bear to the Christian religion ; but concerning this I shall cease to 
 reason further, leaving you to justify yourself to God, and to those whose 
 province it is to compel you to do so (viz., to the Inquisition). 
 
 P. C2. I fear you are one of those who woiild not wish to see the 
 
REPLY OF OASTIGLIONE TO VALDES. 81 
 
 troubles of Christendom brought to a close ; and I .am at a loss to know- 
 to what to attribute this, unless it be to your native bias. Truly, I do not 
 think that God has permitted you to be what you are, that any good 
 should spring from your malevolence, as you say He did in the instance 
 of Lutlier. I trust you will be unable to accomplish your evil designs, 
 and that as the Emperor has begun to raise Christianity from its ruins by 
 the liberation of the Pope, so he wiU go on to serve Him, as an acknow- 
 Jpdgment of the many favours he has received from Him ; and that his 
 conduct will be such, that he shall be worthy to receive yet many greater 
 ones, associated with such earthly glory as has never yet been attained by 
 any prince. AYhUst you, with other malignant spirits, ministers of the 
 devil, shall stajid by gnawing yourselves from hatred and envy at witness- 
 ing aught good in the world. And forasmuch as you, having in your 
 letter previously said that you do not know what doggedness or 
 obstinacy I can have seen in you, affirm that you are prepared to maintain 
 what you have written, it excites in me no wonder, that in addition to 
 your other virtues you should stiU be most obstinate and determined ever 
 to persist in evil, your actions corresponding with your utterances ; nor 
 do I know the need of further witness with reference to the life of the 
 person who excuses sacrileges, homicides, incendiarisms, and devastation ; 
 who states that the destruction of Eome and of the Church is for the 
 interest of Christianity, and commends those who have held the Pope and 
 Cardinals so ignominiously imprisoned, that, it having at one time been 
 feared that the Turks might do so, the minds of aU good Christians quaked. 
 And since you are determined to maintain what you have written, my 
 imagination attempts to realize who are to be the judges before whom you 
 would fain prove that he who holds the Pope and Cardinals imprisoned 
 is not only not exposed to excommunication, but merits high praise, and 
 renders God great service, to whom aU Christendom owes a debt of obli- 
 gation ; and that the canonist who does not acquiesce in it, shows but little 
 judgment ; and that for this reason it is much better that the Pope remain 
 in the Emperor's custody rather than elsewhere ; and that great evils will 
 follow upon his liberation ; and that, in holding him prisoner, the prudent 
 and wise, knowing that it is for the welfare of Christendom, will regard it 
 as an act of consummate wisdom, and wiU praise his Majesty's prudence 
 and virtue ; and that only the simple and ignorant, whose false judgment 
 it is impossible to satisfy, will be they who will censure it ; so that, accord- 
 ing to you, aU those persons who have petitioned the Emperor to liberate 
 the Pope, and those who have been displeased at his imprisonment, and at 
 the desolation of Eome and Italy, are all foolish and ignorant, judging 
 falsely ; whilst the Emperor himself, who has listened to their prayer and 
 felt displeasure, wiU be an ignoramus likewise. Do you not see, perfidious 
 and impudent fellow that you are, that your blame attaches to all good 
 men ? For I myself can swear that in this instance I have witnessed the 
 tears of all the prelates and of all the distinguished men, and that indeed 
 throughout Spain there has been public sadness and universal grief. 
 And although I have received such honour and such acts of courtesy 
 at the hands of this most excellent nation that I can never forget 
 them, so that I shall ever hold myself to be as much a Spaniard as 
 an Italian, nevertheless that which has brought me under greater 
 obligation than all the rest, has been to witness the universal grief 
 and compassion which high and low, men and women, nobles and 
 peasants, poor and rich, and all classes have felt at the sacking of 
 Rome and the calamities of the Pope ; whilst you, and some others 
 like you, in a persecution so fierce that brutes without discourse of 
 reason, wild beasts and the stones evinced sorrow, you alone, instead 
 
82 LIFE OF JtlAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 of compassion, which is the sole relief of the -WTetched, have with fresh 
 cruelty desired to awaken hatred against the poor survivors of the de- 
 struction hy fire of Rome and of the Church, and have repeated the 
 guilty exclamation of those perfidious Jews who said to Pilate, in order 
 to induce him to condemn our Saviour to death, " If thou let this man go, 
 thou art not Cesar's friend," not only by saying, but by writing, that if 
 the Emperor liberate the Pope he will be unable to justify himself, but 
 that a very bad impression wxU be permanently wrought upon the minds 
 of the people against him ; and that you know not what they wiU say of 
 him, nor what account he will have to give to God himself, iu not having 
 known how to avail himself of so good an opportunity of rendering 
 service to G-od, and so memorable a benefit to Christianity. Do you 
 not see yourself what injury is done the world by yoiu: being left upon 
 the face of the earth ? What more atrocious words were ever uttered ? 
 What more abominable counsel was ever given to a secular prince ? AVhat 
 pestiferous tongue ever dared utter an expression so inhuman and brutish ? 
 You, a new reformer of orders and Christian ceremonies, a new Lycurgus, 
 a corrector of approved Holy Councils, and a new censor of men's morals, 
 you say, let the Emperor reform the Church by keeping the Pope and 
 Cardinals imprisoned, and that in so doing, he will not only do God 
 service, but will also gain on earth immortal glory — do you 2 And you 
 would induce him to do such an impious and heinous act — would you ? 
 Comparing him to Jesus Christ, and saying that if he do so, men will ever 
 afterwards say, Jesus Christ founded the faith and the Emperor Charles V. 
 restored it ! Oh impudent blasphemer and hellish fiend ! have you 
 dared to raise your eyes ? have you dared to present yourself to men ? are 
 you not afraid that God should send down fire from heaven and consume 
 you ? Do you not fear, lest the gloomiest spirits that people the abyss of 
 hell should bear you away from earth ? Prepare yourself, then ; for divine 
 justice does not leave such abominable crimes unpunished ; and beKeve 
 that ravens wiU tear your malignant eyes out of your head, rather than for 
 them ever to see such huge mischief as you desire ; and the accursed 
 tongue, which you exercise as a firebrand on earth, shall rather be torn by 
 dogs than that it ever induce the Emperor to do that which is not God's 
 service. 
 
 P. 68. I indeed beKeve that the clemency of the Pope and of the 
 Emperor is such that, possibly, they will pardon you, as far as they are 
 personally concerned, for the injury you have done them both in endea- 
 vouring to cause them, and that without their fault, to be esteemed two 
 of the most irreligious and cruel tyrants that ever existed ; but it is not 
 right that the injury done to Christ and our religion be pardoned you by 
 either of them. And even if they were wiUing to pass over your error 
 without punishment, without consideration of a thing so vile as you are, 
 believe that the people would not : the very stones wUl rise to stone you 
 and" expel you from Spain; for this most Christian nation' hates and 
 persecutes heretics, and there would be great inconsistency in discovering 
 and chastising those who are so secretly, and then in tolerating those 
 who are so publicly. Go, then, and carry this plague elsewhere ; go to 
 Germany, where your Dialogue is gone before you to be your harbinger, 
 where you will be heartOy welcomed by Luther and his followers ; and do 
 not thrnk of infecting, like a scabby sheep, this whole flock of Christ, 
 whose health is so well cared for by its Shepherd. And if you have 
 hitherto been so cautious that your hypocritical devices have deceived 
 those who might have suspected that the root of your ancestors' errors 
 yet lived iu you, do not believe that, after your personal avowal, the 
 ofScers of the INQUISITION will, by failure in their duty, show favour or 
 
DEATH OF OASTIGLIONE. 83 
 
 affection for you, who have in the beginning of your Dialogue called them 
 Pharisees and bigots, saying you were well aware what false judgments 
 they would form on this subject ; for I can tell you that they will form a 
 correct judgment concerning you, and there will be manifested the 
 revelation of your designs, and not the protection of Jesus Christ, of which 
 you speak, for He does not protect His enemies, nor does He by His 
 grace supply shortcomings where there is no rectitude of purpose ; nay, He 
 smites them with the sword of justice. 
 
 P. 70. And since you, moreover, say that the Spaniards to whom you 
 write are so able and judicious that they can fathom anything, however 
 difficult it may be, I believe that they wiU readily discover your 
 malignity, and chastise it accordingly. And, since towards the close of 
 your Dialogue you say to the Archdeacon that you wiU go to St. Benito to 
 furnish you with religious arguments, I hold it to be significant of a San 
 Benito that awaits you, garbed in which your life's tragedy wiU end. 
 
 Madrid, October, 1528. (Signed) Baldessar Castiglione. 
 
 Some palliation for the intemperate character of Casti- 
 ghone^s Philippic may be found in the consciousness of the 
 disastrous position to which he felt that his diplomatic 
 affairs had arrived. He had seen his acknowledged talents, 
 his diplomacy and counsel disconcerted iu Spain ; his credit 
 with the Consistory of Rome ruined ; the Pope, his master, 
 brought to the verge of dishonour in the sight of the 
 Catholic world, and to ridicule among the German powers : 
 and to his unsuccessful negotiations, rather than to the 
 crooked ambition of the Church of Rome, Clement attri- 
 buted the sacking of the metropolis of Christendom. 
 "Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen," a disheartened 
 and baffled ambassador, under the irritation of declining 
 health, the suavity of the man of fine manners, the model 
 "courtier" was no longer under the control of his better 
 judgment; whilst death, he saw, was fast advancing to 
 cover his bright and flattered career with undisguised 
 disgrace. He died a few months afterwards, at Toledo, on 
 the 13th of February, 1529, the year of the fall of Wolsey. 
 
 From the first, Juan de Vald^s trusted less than his 
 brother in the power of government to improve and reform 
 Spain, the object which both brothers always yearned 
 after, and for which they laboured. On this account Juan 
 did not fetter himself with the pursuit of pubHc affairs of 
 any kiad. Without the responsibihty of office, he found 
 himself more at hberty than Alfonso to labour, speak, and 
 write without restraint] and hence in the absence of his 
 brother was entirely exposed to attack. This circumstance 
 obHged him to leave his country; and, by directing his 
 course to Naples, led to his acquaiutance with his well- 
 known Italian friends, and subsequently to the production 
 of the whole series of his strictly religious writings. 
 
 a 2 
 
84 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The death of Oastiglione, wMch took place at Toledo, by 
 no means freed the brothers Valdes from their impending 
 danger. The anger of the friars and Romish party was 
 fully aroused. Fortunately for them, the Emperor had fixed 
 at this period to visit Bologna, to meet the Pope, arrange 
 the affairs of Italy, and be crowned with the iron crown of 
 Lombardy, and thence proceed to attend to the pacification 
 of Germany. Alfonso, as his secretary, went with him ; and 
 as he is now separated from his brother Juan, whom we 
 shall hereafter find in Italy, it will be convenient to foUoW 
 Alfonso's course until he disappears entirely from our view. 
 
 On the 27th of July, 1529, the Emperor embarked' from 
 Barcelona, and touching at Palamos, where he remained 
 four days, he landed on the 5th of August at ViLlafranca, 
 near Nice. At Genoa he was received with the acclamations 
 due to the protector of its liberties. He honoured Doria 
 with many marks of distinction, and bestowed on the 
 RepubUc several new privileges. He was welcomed in the 
 name of the Pope by four cardinals, with Parnese at their 
 head, Continuiug his journey, he arrived at Piacenza on 
 the 6th of September. 
 
 The Protestant cities had begun to combine together. 
 They resolved to send ambassadors to the Emperor, with the 
 statement of their grievances embodied in a formal remon- 
 strance, founded upon the resolutions of the Diet of Spires ; 
 and appealed to a council or synod in Germany. At 
 Piacenza they were introduced into Charles's presence 
 by Mercurino Gattinara, Henry of Nassau, Alexander 
 Schweisse, and Alfonso Valdes, on the 9th of September. 
 Charles appointed the 12th for the audience, and requested 
 them to draw up their demands in writing, and to be 
 as short as possible. These demands he answered in 
 writing with no little severity, and the ambassadors having 
 their Remonstrance ready, gave it for presentation into the 
 hands of Alexander Schweisse, the Emperor's interpreter, 
 in presence of witnesses. 
 
 At first he refused to take it ; at length he was induced 
 
 • For the progress and- for the dates denoe of the Emperor Charles V.," 1852, 
 of the Emperor's journey, we follow the pp. 494-6. 
 Itinerary " in Bradford's " Corrospon- 
 
IXTEEVIEW OP CHAELES V. WITH THE POPE. 85 
 
 to carry it to the Emperor ; but^ returning in the afternoon, 
 he brought word that the Emperor confined them to their 
 lodgings under pain of life and goods. Michael Caden, 
 of Nuremberg, one of the ambassadors, being accidentally- 
 absent, was informed of the news by his servant, and imme- 
 diately wrote an account of aU that transpired to the Senate 
 of Nuremberg. 
 
 The ambassadors were constrained to follow the court to 
 Parma, where Grattinara received his nomination of cardinal, 
 and where he was taken sick, not without doubts of the 
 cause of his disorder, his duties pro tempore being trans- 
 ferred to Granvelle, who there set them at liberty to return 
 home, with the exception of Caden, who was commanded 
 to stay, upon pain of death. Learning, however, from 
 Granvelle's discourse, the danger he was in, he secretly 
 hired horses, and posting first to Eerrara and then to 
 Venice, reached his home in safety. The Senate of Nurem- 
 berg gave notice to the Duke of Saxony, the Landgrave, 
 and their associates, who, having consulted together, re- 
 solved to hold a convention at Smalcalde about the latter 
 end of November, which issued in the league for their 
 common defence.' 
 
 The Emperor proceeded to Bologna, the place fixed upon 
 for his interview with the Pope. Clement was now on good 
 terms with Charles ; his own favoured nuncio, CastigHone, 
 had sunk to the grave, disgraced and dishonoured, under 
 Clement's former policy, and he showed himself in haste to 
 propitiate the Grand Chancellor, the successful adviser of 
 Charles, his former enemy. At Parma, while yet on the way 
 to Bologna, Gattinara had received his nomination of car- 
 dinal — an elevation, however, which he enjoyed but for a very 
 few months. How acceptable to Alfonso de Valdes had been 
 the inclination of the scales of fortune ! The nuncio, his 
 former Mend, through mutual love and admiration of polite 
 letters, and lately his most exasperated enemy, disappointed 
 and baflBled in his state craft, had been removed by death 
 from the scene ! His patron, on the other hand, suc- 
 cessful in all his views, into which he himself heartily 
 entered, he saw elevated to the highest dignity which 
 their opponent the Pope had in his power to confer. The 
 humbled Pontiff awaited the Emperor at Bologna. Charles 
 affected to unite in his public entry into that city the 
 majesty which suited the imperial dignity with the humihty 
 becoming an obedient son of the Church ; while at the head 
 
 ' Sleidan's "History, of Beformation," translated by Bohun, 1689, book vii. 
 
86 LIFE OP JUAN DB VALD^S. 
 
 of twenty thousand veteran soldiers^ able to give law to all 
 Italy, he knelt down to kisa the foot of that very Pope 
 whom he had so lately detained a prisoner, and who now, 
 with his own hands, placed the iron crown on his head at 
 the festival of St. Matthias, February 24th, 1530.1 Qn the 
 21st of January the Emperor had sent letters into Germany 
 to summon a Diet of the States, to meet at Augsburg the 
 8th of April, there to consult on the affairs of religion and 
 the Turkish war. The Emperor remaiued at Bologna until 
 the 22nd of March, 1530, during which time his father- 
 confessor, Loaysa, the Bishop of Osma,^ received a cardinal's 
 hat. 
 
 While staying at Bologna, Alfonso received letters from 
 Erasmus by the hands of Erancisco DUfo, an Andalusian, 
 with whom he had been intimate at Ereiburg, and who was 
 returning by way of Bologna into Spain. Dilfo at the same 
 time was the bearer of a letter from Erasmus to another 
 Valdes,^ one of Alfonso's brothers, with whose name we are 
 yet unacquainted, whom Erasmus solicited to exercise the 
 good offices towards him which the twin-brothers, owing to 
 their absence from Spain, could no longer execute there : — 
 
 Erasmus to Vald^s. 
 
 There is nothing, my dear Vald&, that I do not owe to your hrother 
 [Alfonso], who never ceases to love, benefit, and defend me in eveiythiag. 
 Since your brother, whom I hope to see amongst us next spring, is absent 
 [from Spain], it is right that you should there do the same for me as he 
 did. I easily excuse you for not answering to my letters, provided that 
 your love corresponds to mine, as I doubt not that it does, unless I am 
 deceived in everything. I will not trouble you with any more, since the 
 rest you will hear from Francisco Dilfo, who does not know how to 
 separate himself from Spain, which is become so dear to him. Farewell. 
 
 From Freiburg, in Brisgavia, on 13th January, 1530.^ 
 
 Proceeding to Germany by way of Peschiera, Botzen, and 
 Brixen, over the Brenner pass, the Emperor arrived the 4th 
 of May, 1530, at Innspruck. Here Alfonso was suddenly 
 deprived of his immediate friend and patron. The Grand 
 Chancellor Gattinara, who had sickened at Parma, became 
 
 ' Charles V. was the last of the ancient confesor [Garcia de Loaysa, Cardenal 
 
 sovereigns crowned with the iron crown; Obispo de Osma.] Berlin: Wilhelm 
 
 it remained as a relic at Milan until Besser, 1848." Smo. p. 226. 
 
 Napoleon, anxious to connect bis dignity ° See " OX. Consideraziones de Juan 
 
 with the recollections of the past, placed de Vald& por Luis de Usoz i Eio," 1863, 
 
 it with his own hands upon his head, Apendize, p. 526. 
 
 disdaining to receive it from the bishop. ' Erasmus, Epistolse, No. MXC. col. 
 
 ^ Letters of Garcia Loaysa, Bishop of 1262, where it is addressed as to Alfonso 
 
 Osma. "Cartas al Emperador Carlos V., de Valdfe, which from the sense is evi- 
 
 escritas en los afios de 1530-32 por su dently an error. 
 
LETTER OF EEASMUS TO ALFONSO VALDES. 87 
 
 fatally ill^ and shortly after died, leaving vacant the presi- 
 dency of the Coxincil and the Imperial seal. The conduct of 
 aflfairs was committed to Nicholas Perrenot de Granvelle, 
 who had studied at the University of Dole, where the late 
 chancellor had been his instructor, who, early recognizing 
 his talents, had introduced him into the Emperor's employ. 
 This circumstance deeply affected Alfonso, combined as it 
 was with the news of the death of his venerable father, Don 
 Fernando de Valdes, Eejidor of Cuenca, in the same month 
 of May, 1530. Erasmus, in his efforts to console him under 
 his affliction, unites his consolations for both bereavements 
 in the same letter : — 
 
 Erasmus of Eotterdam to Alfonso Valdes. 
 
 I caimot be otherwise than sympathetically affected at your lot, iny 
 dear Valdfe, that you should at the same time suffer the double loss of 
 your excellent father, and of Mercurino Gattinara, your patron, who loved 
 you as a father does his son. But a man ought to maintain his mind un- 
 disturbed by aught that can happen to it. The Lord has seen fit to lay 
 His hand upon me too, and I am recovering but gradually ; for whilst 
 the abscess was still suppurating, the surgeon applied strong plasters to 
 the wound, which healed it, leaving, however, a certain hardness, which 
 leads me to fear lest the evil should return. When my suffering was at 
 its height, the only servant I had, for the other had been recalled to his 
 own country, and who ever assisted me in my chamber and at meals, fell 
 sick with the sweatiug sickness. But " it is the Lord, let Him do that 
 which seemeth Him good." Faie ye well, my dear Valdfe, and after this 
 tempest may you have a cabir. Indeed, nothing new has befallen you. 
 You have lost your father ; yet this circumstance is of daily occurrence ; 
 neither could Gattinara live for ever. In them you leant upon " a totter- 
 ing wall" You know well that he who writes this is whoUy yours to 
 command both actnaUy and prospectively ; I repeat it, fare you well.' 
 
 Dated Friburg, July 9, 1530. 
 
 Alfonso, notwithstanding the loss of his friend Gattinara, 
 continued some time longer in the service of the Emperor; 
 for he would be of equal use to the successor of the Chan- 
 cellor as he had been to Gattinara, whom he directed, with 
 respect to the internal affairs of Spain, not merely from his 
 own intimate acquaintance with every circumstance, but also 
 from information furnished through him to the Chancellor 
 by his father, one of the principal movers of the party of 
 progress which had been formed under the training of 
 Angleria. 
 
 From Innspruck, Charles proceeded by way of Munich to 
 Augsburg, where a second Diet had been convened by him. 
 Arriving on the evening of the 15th of June, he was occu- 
 pied until the 23rd of November in the most important and 
 memorable endeavours to adjust the demands of the Protest- 
 
 ' Epist. MCXXII. col. 1298. 
 
88 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDKS. 
 
 ant princes, who had determined to give precedence to the 
 question of the settlement of religious differences, whilst he 
 sought in some degree by these means to induce the G-erman 
 powers effectually to oppose the progress of the Tiirks, who 
 had taken Rhodes, then considered the bulwark of Christen- 
 dom. Almost one-half of the Germanic body had revolted 
 from the Romish see ; and eyen the provinces, that had not 
 hitherto thrown off the papal yoke, were considerably 
 weakened. Charles, now on good terms with the Pope, who 
 dreaded and abhorred the thought of a General Council, 
 and wished to crush the Protestants by force of arms, think- 
 ing that their contumacy would also lessen the Imperial 
 authority in Germany, was disposed to lay a less resolute hand 
 upon them. The Protestants, however, would not recede 
 from their demand for a General Council, which Charles 
 himself was not unwilling to grant. His views were dif- 
 ferent from those of the Pope, for he was becoming daily 
 more sensible how obstinate and deep-rooted the existing 
 evils were ; he had no objection to reconcile the Protestants, 
 if possible, by less violent means, and considered the calling 
 of a council as no improper expedient for that purpose. 
 
 Alfonso de Valdes now proved himself an active promoter 
 of peace and reconciliation. Upon the court's arrival at 
 Augsburg, he took occasion, with Cornelius Schepper, his 
 co-secretary, to seek a private interview with Melancthon, 
 thinking that it would promote these objects to know 
 exactly the points of controversy, and what the Protestants 
 especially demanded. It was a memorable day in the 
 history of Christian progress! "Alfonso [de Valdes], 
 Spanish Chancellor [secretary] of his Imperial Majesty, as 
 also Cornelius [Schepper] ," writes Spalatin, "have had some 
 friendly conversations with Philip [Melancthon]. Valdes 
 told him that the Spaniards had been given to understand 
 that the Lutherans believed neither in God nor the Trinity, 
 nor held Christ and the Virgin Mary in any estimation, so 
 that they esteemed it a greater service to God to slay a 
 Lutheran than to kill a Turk." " Melancthon," he writes, 
 " spoke for along time with them, and explained the princi- 
 ples of his party; but they came to no coaclusion, and maia- 
 tained their own opinions." On Saturday, the 18th of June, 
 " Alfonso told Melancthon that he had been in the morning 
 with the Emperor, and that no opportunity so favourable to 
 speak to his Majesty about him having occurred for a long 
 time, he reported to him all the Lutheran articles, and how 
 they believed there was nothing whatever in thom contrary 
 to the Church. The Emperor had asked. What do they 
 
ALFONSO VALD^S AND MELANCTHON. 89 
 
 wisH about the monks'? and had charged him, Alfonso, to 
 request of Melancthon that he should transmit to his Majesty 
 a brief summary, drawn up without any prolixity, which 
 Melancthon has done.* At the same time, he charged 
 Alfonso to go to the Legate Oampeggio to talk the sub- 
 ject over with him. This he has done, and the greatest 
 obstacle to agreement more than anything else is the Mass; 
 It appears, then, thanks to God, that affairs present some 
 degree of hopefulness. The Emperor would willingly assist ; 
 God has touched him." 
 
 Another report, sent on the 21st of the same month, by 
 the Nuremberg deputies at Augsburg, to their Burgomaster 
 and Senate, serves to confirm and complete Spalatin's. 
 It details, amongst other things, the following : — 
 
 It is reported to us that Alfonso Valdiis, one of the principal secretaries 
 of His Imperial Majesty, has summoned Philip Melancthon to him several 
 times, and after having conversed with him on Lutheran matters, finally 
 asked him to explain what the Lutherans really desire, and how the affair 
 may be adjusted. That Melancthon had at once given him the informa- 
 tion as well as he could in an offhand discourse, and as near as may be in 
 the foUowing terms : that the Lutheran question was not so perplexed and 
 unreasonable as might possibly have been represented to His Majesty, and 
 that the chief existing differences were comprehended in the following 
 articles : the Sacrament under two forms ; the marriage of the clergy and 
 regulars ; the Mass ; and that the Lutherans could not approve of private 
 Masses. If these points were conceded, he believed that aneans might be 
 found to arrange all the others satisfactorily. That Alfonso [de Vald^s] had 
 undertaken to report this information to His Imperial Majesty, and that he 
 had sent an intimation to Melancthon on Saturday, the 18th June ; that 
 His Majesty had graciously heard that report, which had not displeased him, 
 and that he had charged Alfonso to communicate it to the Papal Legate. 
 That having done this, the Legate likewise was not displeased nor shocked 
 by the Sacrament in two kinds, nor by the marriage of priests and monks, 
 but that he could not bring himself to allow the suppression of private 
 Masses. That Alfonso had finally told Melancthon His Imperial Majesty 
 required him to note in writing in the briefest manner possible the articles 
 which the Lutherans desired, and to send them to Alfonso, and that then 
 His Majesty would receive and weigh them. But His Majesty particu- 
 larly desired that such summary should be couched in modest terms, 
 concise yet comprehensive, so that he might hence derive a fresh and 
 more powerful reason for treating about the terms of agreement and 
 settlement of this dissension. That His Majesty besides thought it would 
 be more advantageous to conduct this matter with quiet unobtrusiveness, 
 without long and public audiences and disputations : for that such 
 audiences and litigious disputations only tended to produce fresh causes of 
 irritation, and by no means promoted unity. Melancthon, acceding to 
 this request, engaged that he would reflect more deeply upon the matter, 
 and would compose a summary. He desired to talk over the subject with 
 Dr. Biiick and other learned men first ; then to make a draft of it to read 
 tt) the Elector ; and if it appeared good and he thought it right, then to 
 place it in Alfonso's hands. 
 
 ' This summary is tho Auffsburg Conjestion, and owed its origin to the 
 suggestion of A. de Valdfe. 
 
90 LIFE OF JUAN I)B VALDES. 
 
 The two most conciliatory men of the two parties, how- 
 everj could not adjust differences of such magnitude. With 
 reference to the same confession of faith, concerning which 
 Luther, admiring and commending it, said, with his usual 
 self-sufficiency, that he himself could not have drawn it up 
 so circumspectly, MelancthOn writes to Joachim Oamerarius 
 on the 26th of June : — 
 
 I am so far from judging it to be more temperate than just, that, on the 
 contrary, I fear exceedingly lest certain parsons should feel offended by our 
 freedom. For Vald^s, the Emperor's secretary, saw it before it was pub- 
 licly exhibited, and held it to be bitter, and in a form intolerable to its 
 opponents. 
 
 And both Vald^s and Melancthon were right. Alfonso 
 de Valdes translated this fine confession of Melancthon's 
 into Italian, at the Emperor's command, who said him- 
 self : " Autant de langues on parle, autant de fois on est 
 homme," — " a man multiplies himself by the number of 
 languages he speaks ;" and who therefore, assuredly, must 
 have highly esteemed this his secretary ! A httle work, 
 entitled ''Pro religione Christiana res gestae in comitiis 
 Augustae Yindehcorum habitis, anno Domini MDXXX.," iu 
 which the licence, dated 6th November, 1530, countersigned 
 A. Valdesius, is probably indeed a work of his own.^ 
 
 Alfonso's name occurs under a Latin letter which the 
 Emperor sent to the Swiss Catholic cantons after their 
 victory at Cappel, in 1531, where Zwinglius was slain, on 
 which Charles congi'atulated them, exhorting them to per- 
 severe. Alfonso could not do otherwise than fulfil the Em- 
 peror's commands by virtue of his office ; and it is known 
 that Melancthon himself said, in 1529, "1 would rather die 
 than stain our party by making common cause with Zwia- 
 glius." And in the same year, after the colloquy of Marburg, 
 he repudiated all brotherhood with those Swiss reformers 
 whom he had in vain hoped to gain over to the German 
 Lutheran party. And Alfonso was not a Protestant. Like 
 Erasmus, he was not wanting in genius to soar with Luther ; 
 like Erasmus, he would not separate himself from the sim- 
 plicity and breadth of the Bible ; and, like Erasmus also, 
 both he and his twin-brother remained within the pale of 
 their ancient communion till their death. 
 
 In 1531, Erasmus writes to Alfonso a letter full of affec- 
 tion. " Beheve me," says he, ''•' there is no one living from 
 
 ' For the whole of the part which dieoi Divine Considerazioni di Giovanni 
 
 Alfonso de Vald& took in the Confession Valdesso," Halle, 1860, pp. 498 503. 
 
 of Augsburg, we owe to the authorities This Appendix, which the doctor mo- 
 
 carefully collected by Dr. Ed. Boehmer, destly calls .Sketches of -the Brothers 
 
 of Halle, and to his learned notes in the Valdfe, deserves the careful study of any 
 
 Appendix to his ed. of the " Cento e one who would write their biography. 
 
ALFONSO DE VALDifis. 91 
 
 wHom I receive a letter more gladly, or to whom I send one 
 more willingly, thaai yom-self. It is unworthy/' continues 
 he, " of your mind, the home of the Graces, to be contami- 
 nated with envy, or to take offence at anything whatever." 
 And after Alfonso had replied to him pleasantly, Erasmus, 
 in a letter of the 29th August, beginning with " the quar- 
 rels of lovers are the renewal of love," writes to him 
 admiringly. " Had you not been born and suckled by the 
 Graces themselves, amidst such spite from yelping curs, how 
 ever could you have been able constantly to maintain your 
 mind pure and sincere ?" He rejoices that his friend gives 
 him hopes of soon seeing him and conversing with him. 
 
 In October or November of 1531, Alfonso left the court, 
 which was then at Brussels, probably to take some journey 
 by order of the Emperor. It appears that in 1532 and in 
 1533 he was still in the Imperial service. He did not, 
 however, embark with the Emperor for Spain, who left 
 Genoa on the 9th April, 1533. He may either have re- 
 mained in the service of the Emperor at Brussels, or have 
 entered into that of Charles's brother, Ferdinand of Aus- 
 tria. It could not have been a prudent thing for him to 
 expose himself to the familiars of the Holy OfEoe in Spain, 
 although his enemy, Castighone, had died before his de- 
 parture; the Inquisitors never had forgiven or forgotten 
 the Dialogue. And another cause of suspicion against him 
 had been added since his departure, by the publication, in 
 1530, at Alcala de Henares, of Angleria's Epistles, in which 
 two from him respecting Luther held a conspicuous place. 
 This opinion, that he did not venture to return to Spain, is 
 corroborated by a passage in the narrative of the imprison- 
 ment at Brussels of Francisco de Enzinas, translator of the 
 Spanish New Testament, 1543, and nephew to Pedro de 
 Lerma. Writing to Melancthon himself, he says : ''There are 
 none of us who did not know Alfonso de Valdes, the Em- 
 peror's secretary, to be a good man. The satellites of the 
 Holy Fathers could never endure his doctrine and authority. 
 They laid such snares for him that if he had returned to 
 Spain there would have been an end of him. They would 
 have caused him to die a cruel death ; the Emperor himself 
 could not have saved him.."' 
 
 We are entirely ignorant of the subsequent events in his 
 personal history, and the place and period of his death. 
 With him seemed to come to an end the poKcy of the party 
 of freedom, which had caused Spanish affairs to arrive at so 
 
 ' Ch. Al. Campan's "MSmoires de Francisco de Enzinas" (Latin and French),, 
 Bruxelles, 1863, tome ii. pp. 154-5. 
 
92 LIEE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 prosperous a promise. Mendoza, Angleria^ Fernando de 
 Valdes, and Grattinara had passed away by death.^ and 
 Alfonso, isolated from all his Spanish connections at least, 
 retired from observation. 
 
 The country party had become extinct in the fall of the 
 Goinunidades by the death of Padilla and his magnanimous 
 lady, and left no hereditary succession. At length its truly 
 national principles died out also in the last representative 
 of the popular rights. Two powers in the state became 
 successively absolute, neither of which paid any deference 
 to the people, who in all countries form the real basis of the 
 common-weal — the Court and the Church. The latter was 
 more oppressive than the former, because freedom of the 
 mind became more enthralled than freedom of the person. 
 Had the Court, a hundred years later, been triumphant in 
 England over the Commons, the course of things in this 
 country would in great measure have been the same as that 
 which history informs us followed in Spain. The Commons 
 of Spain, obliterated as a class, subjected to the exclusive 
 rule of the privileged orders of the State, a vain and 
 unsubstantial splendour, an universal weakness consum- 
 mated by the heavier thrall of bigotry, resulted in the utter 
 degeneracy of the nation. 
 
 When Granvelle succeeded Gattinara in the conduct of 
 affairs, he was not placed in the same position of Grand 
 Chancellor. Charles now held no council of state — ^he took 
 the administration under his own superintendence. In 
 Spanish affairs he concerted with Francisco de los Covos, 
 Grand Commendador of Leon ; and in the German, Burgun- 
 dian, and foreign, with the two Granvelles, father and son, 
 successively ; but he formed his own measures. This course 
 was imitated and more exclusively carried out by his son, 
 Philip II., surnamed "El prudente,'^ whose life is the 
 strongest illustration of the saying, " the cunning are taken 
 in their own craftiness." When Charles undertook to con- 
 duct his own counsels, not by statesmen skQled in the 
 affairs of the world, but by confessors, his concerns went on 
 worse and worse ; and when Philip proceeded in the same 
 direction, led by the advice of ecclesiastics instead of by 
 the broader poUcy of statesmen, he brought on himself the 
 scorn of Germany, with the ruin of his best provinces. 
 The national Spanish policy had died out by the process of 
 nature. Gattinara being removed by death, Charles changed 
 his course, and lent himself to be led by his confessor and 
 the Pope. Alfonso could not remain near his person, 
 but would necessarily be removed to a distance, to con- 
 
LETTER OF ERASMUS TO JUAN DE VALDES. 93 
 
 ciliate both the Spanish and Eomish parties. Whether he 
 was sent on a distant mission to Ferdinand in Austria, or 
 removed in a more summary manner, for which amongst his 
 many enemies — "the Saints of the world," the Spanish 
 friars, the Inquisition, and the enraged partisans of Rome 
 who could never forget or forgive the dialogue of its sacking 
 — instruments would not be wanting either to suggest or 
 execute, must now be left to conjecture. In that age, state 
 policy, ecclesiastical interest, and fanaticism were capable of 
 anything to gain their own pm'poses, and the suppression 
 of a few papers might conceal the whole from history. 
 
 We shall now pursue our relation more especially with 
 reference to Juan, whom we have reason to believe left 
 Spain for Italy about the time that his brother had em- 
 barked with the Emperor for Germany, in February, 1529. 
 He had previously been in correspondence with Erasmus, 
 who, it appears, was early apprised of the danger threatening 
 the brothers from the persecution attendant upon the pro- 
 duction of the two Dialogues, and expressed his sympathy 
 in a letter addressed to Juan, dated Basle, March 2 1st, 
 1529, which seems, from its concluding passage, to have 
 been addressed to him in Italy. 
 
 D. Erasmus to Juan db ValdiSs. 
 
 How sensibly I feel, my dear Vald^s, to learn by your letter what great 
 troubles and dangers bave afflicted you ; and yet, on the otber part, bow 
 lively was my satisfaction to know that you had escaped the storm in 
 safety, and already found yourself secure in port ! I greatly regret to 
 behold Spain oppressed with so many evils. Oh that God would turn the 
 hearts of kings to the love of peace ! Do not grieve, my dear youth, nor 
 make apologies to me for your long silenoe. Always consider the letter I 
 write to your brother as written to yourself, and I shaU always reckon his 
 answer as yours, for in my view you are not merely twins, but I conceive 
 you are rather one siogle person than two bodies. That you should hold 
 a note so slightly written as mine, to be one of your chief literary jewels, I 
 quite appreciate j and, on my side, my dear Juan, I sbaJl treasure with 
 great esteem the memory of a mind so amiable and pure as yours in the 
 depth of my heart. It cannot then be less grateful to me to know that 
 there are so many good men in Spain who heartily love me. And on the 
 other hand, it gives me pain that, in a country favoured with so many 
 privileges, such nests of vicious hornets multiply, that, not to me alone, 
 but to them also whom I love, they should cause such painful disturb- 
 ance ; and I regret your share of it almost more than my own. From 
 my heart I congratulate myself for you, and for as many Spaniards eis are 
 like you, because I see that you consecrate aU your efforts and studies to 
 the culture of letters, always aiming io promote sincere Christian piety, 
 and to unite them to it, which has not been done by many among the 
 Italians until now. What worth have learning and letters if they draw 
 the mind away from religion ? Farewell.' 
 
 Basle, 21st March, 1529. 
 
 • Erasmus, Opera, Lugd. Bat. Epist. MXXX. col. 1165-6. 
 
94 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDE3. 
 
 Juan de Valdes had gone from Spain to Naples, where lie 
 formed acquaintance with various intelligent Italians in that 
 city, with whom he entered into strict intimacy, and who took 
 much dehght ia learning from him the niceties and graces of 
 the Spanish language, then become fashionable amongst 
 persons of rank and letters. After remaining there some 
 few months, he passed on to Eome, where he enjoyed the 
 society of Sepulveda, who was charmed with his likeness 
 to his brother Alfonso in feature, and, what was no less 
 remarkable, in his talents, learning, manners, and pursuits. 
 Whilst there, he formed a collection of Spanish proverbs, 
 and continued his correspondence with his friends at Naples 
 by letters. " You must recollect,'" says one of them, called 
 Martio in the Dialogue on Language, " that when you left 
 this neighbourhood, two years ago, you promised all three 
 of us that you would preserve and maintain our fiiendsMp 
 by correspondence, and this you have done by your letters." 
 
 These friends had agreed to communicate to one another 
 every letter they might receive, and noticing various 
 niceties of language about which they could not agree 
 amongst themselves, they resolved that when he next 
 appeared at Naples they would obtain his opinion. After 
 two years' absence in Rome he came back to Naples. As 
 soon as he had returned, they concerted a plan amongst 
 themselves to attain their wishes, in this manner: — At 
 a country viUa, situate upon the shore of the Bay of 
 Naples, a party consistiag of two or three Italians and two 
 Spaniards, named respectively Marcio, Coriolano, Torres 
 Naharro,* Pacheco, and Valdes, being assembled, and, 
 after .a morning passed in hearing Valdes discourse, as 
 he was accustomed to do, upon subjects of his own selec- 
 tion, determined that they would in the afternoon claim 
 the Hke privilege to choose their discourse, and question 
 him on the subject of their choice, which was the Spanish 
 language, and that, in order to preserve the details of his 
 instructions, they would place a practised writer in a secret 
 place in the apartment, to take down notes of the whole 
 conversation. The scheme succeeded, and they ultimately 
 obtained the notes of the hidden reporter, which with 
 much persuasion they induced Valdes to take home with 
 
 ' BartolomS Torres de Naharro was he found it safe to withdra* to Naples, 
 
 bom at Torres, near Badajos, on the Here he first pubUshed his works, 
 
 borders of Portugal. He had been a chiefly dramas, in 1617, dedicated 
 
 captive in Algiers, and visited Eome to Fernando D'Avalos, husband of 
 
 after 1513, hoping to find favour with Vittoria Colonna. His verses are very 
 
 Leo X. ^ He wrote the bitterest satire free, and were strictly expurgated by 
 
 ou the vices of Eome, on which aocouut the Inquisition. 
 
DIALOGO DE LA LBNGUA. 95 
 
 him and correct. He did this, preserving the form and 
 spirit of the conversation as it actually passed between 
 them. This occasional conversation furnishes us after three 
 hundred years with several minute and interesting particu- 
 lars about himself. The speaker who planned and led the 
 Dialogue would appear to be no other than Marco Antonio 
 Magno, an Italian agent or procuratore to the Donna 
 Giulia Gonzaga, Duchess of Trajetto. . Magno was one of 
 Vald^s' most affectionate friends, and was bound by his 
 avocations to know the Spanish language thoroughly, the 
 force and compa;rative signification of which Vald^s, as a 
 master, could give. Magno wished to translate the ideas 
 of Valdes into Italian, as he states subsequently in his 
 letter to his patroness when translating the " Alfabeto 
 Cristiano " for her. It was a natural thing that he should 
 contrive the Dialogue, the corrected manuscript^ of which 
 is the work now known as the " Dialogo de la Lengua," a 
 production of great beauty, in which wit and learning are 
 charmingly blended with graceful turns of individual cha- 
 racter, and which will be read with pleasure by every 
 student of the Spanish language for its intelligence and 
 discriminating good sense.- The beginning of the Dialogue 
 tells its own story. 
 
 Maetio. Valdes. Coriolano. Pacheco. Torres. 
 
 Martio : Now the servants are gone to dinner, and we are left alone, 
 let us resume, before any one comes to disturb us, the discourse which I 
 begaji with you this morning. 
 
 ValdjSs : I do not remember what you allude to. 
 
 1 For two hundred years the work ditions, p. 512, is confused. D. Cas- 
 
 lay hidden in manuscript ; it was first siano Pellicer attributes it to Alfonso 
 
 published by Don Gregorio Mayans, in Valdes. Various expressions in the 
 
 1737, as a second volume to other " Di^ogo de la Lengua" allude to 
 
 treatises, under the general title of Juan's writings ; — '* I never in my life," 
 
 " Origenes de la Lengua Espaflola," says Pacheco, speaking of Juan, *'saw 
 
 Madrid, 1737, from an imperfect ma- a man more attached to writing ; at 
 
 nuscript preserved in the National Li- home he is always, in fact, a St. Juan 
 
 brary. Mayans adopted various omis- the Evangelist, pen in hand ; so that I 
 
 sions and alterations, which have been believe he writes at night what he does 
 
 restored and corrected with great by day, and in the day what he dreams 
 
 care andnicety in an edition published at by night " (p. 16). This alludes to his 
 
 Madrid, 1860, 8vo., having more than a name, Juan, and his Scripture studies. 
 
 thousand corrections. The editor of And, again, Coriolano : **You did not 
 
 this latter edition strongly advocates learn this Spanish bravado in St. Paul." 
 
 the authorship of the work as by Juan Valdfe: "It is enough that I learnt it of 
 
 de Valdfe, and gives at some length the St. Peter, and in Borne "(p. 149). Adouble 
 
 reasons for his belief. See also the allusion to his Commentaries on Paul's 
 
 Marques P. J. Pedal, in " Eevista Epistles, and to his certain residence 
 
 Hispano-Amerioana," entrega i., 1848, in Rome in 1531, and probably to his 
 
 pp. 18 — 30; Ticknor's "History of first residence there with Adrian VI. 
 
 Spanish Literature," ed. 1863, vol. iiL = See Tioknor, " History of Spanish 
 
 p. 459. The account of the Spanish Literature," vol. ii. p. 20, and note ed. 
 
 translator of Tioknor, vol. ii., ad- London, 1863. 
 
9G LIFE OF JUAN DE VALPES. 
 
 Maetio : Do you not ? Do you not recollect that I told you that a 
 laudable curiosity had been awakened in my mind with reference to the 
 topic we had discussed, and upon which some days ago I would fain have 
 conversed with you ? 
 
 VALDjgs : Now indeed I do recall it ; but it had wholly escaped me. 
 
 Maetio : Since we, to oblige and serve you, have discussed this morning 
 a subject that you wished to have argued, and have fully replied to 
 every question you put to us, it is but right that you, practising that 
 courtesy and good breeding towards us which you show to all, and for 
 which every one gives you credit, should entertain us in conversation this 
 afternoon, by meeting and replying to the questions we shall put to you on 
 the subjects that most interest us, just as we have done to those which 
 you have put to us. 
 
 Vald^s : Had your request been made less rhetorically, I should hare 
 offered to obey you frankly ; but now, seeing that you have tricked it out 
 with so many arguments, and fearing lest you seek to place me in some 
 difficulty, I do not know how to reply, unless you first teU me in plain 
 terms what you require of me. 
 
 Maktio : We require in the first place that without seeking to know 
 more you promise submission to our demands. 
 
 Valdes : Trusting to your discretion, that you will ask nothing un- 
 reasonable or improper, I promise to obey you. 
 
 Martio : This does not satisfy me, and I want you to pledge your faifh 
 to aU three of us that you will do so. 
 
 Vai.d£s : What design have you in seeking to impose such strict obli- 
 gations upon me ? Possibly you have conspired, aU three against one, in a 
 plot para el Mohino ? WeU then, I say, come what may, I give you ray 
 word that I will answer, to the best of my knowledge, every question you 
 shall ask of me this afternoon. Are you satisfied ? 
 
 Martio ; For my part, I am perfectly satisfied. 
 
 CoRioLANO : As for me, I desire nothing more. 
 
 Pacheco : WeU, as for myself, I needed nothing more than what was 
 first promised. 
 
 VAiD^s : Now then, begin your questions ; for I feel bewildered till I 
 know what the mysteries are of which you require my solution. 
 
 Martio : Mysteries ? how so, to you who well know them ? 
 
 Vald^s : Be that as it may, settle it now ; for God's sake, say what you 
 want ! 
 
 Martio : Willingly. You must well recollect, that about the tunc 
 you left this country for Rome, which is now two years ago, you promised 
 us three that you would keep up and maintain our friendship by your 
 correspondence, which you have done. Now you must know that when 
 you had left we made the following arrangement : — that whichever of us 
 should receive a letter from you he should communicate it to the others, 
 and this we have done regularly, and have foimd it a great amusement, for 
 the perusal called up in our minds the memory of our absent friend, and 
 in the witty sayings and graceful expressions with which your- letters ever 
 abound , we found matter for mirth and entertainment. Attentively noticing 
 the happy and delicate expressions you employed when writing in the 
 Spanish tongue (CastUian), we ever found subjects for conversation and 
 argument ; for Don Pacheco, as a man born and bred in Spain, presuming 
 to know the language as weU as any one else, and I, as a student, desiring 
 both to know and write it, as well as to speak it, and Don Coriolano, as a 
 thorough-bred courtier, seeking a perfect acquaintance with it, for in Italy, 
 as you see, it is now held, both by ladies and by gentlemen, to be genteel 
 and gallant to know how to speak Spanish, we have always found some- 
 
DIALOGO DE LA LENGUA. 97 
 
 thing to note in your letters, affecting orthography mid expression as well 
 as style, and it happened that when we hit upon some things which we had 
 not seen used by others, whom we held to be as good masters of Oastilian 
 as yourself, we frequently came to close arguing, at one time upon certain 
 things, and at another upon others, for we severally affected to be masters 
 and not scholars. Now that we have you present, when you can explain 
 what has struck us as being peculiar in your style, we beg it as a favour 
 that you would fully answer our questions. To Sr. Pacheco the language 
 IS vernacular, Sr. Coriolajio is a novice in it, and I myself am an amateur 
 of it. 
 
 Ym.v>^s: Had you said this before dinner, I should have doubted 
 whether you spoke in earnest ; but remembering that it is after dinner, 
 and believing, that whilst proving yourself a courtier, you desired to give 
 a tone to the character of your entertainment, I make up my mind not to 
 accept your statement as aught more than a fiction, and say, that if you 
 wish to learn anything from me, you must lay pleasantry aside for a whUe, 
 since you know, if I take up the affair you will but get from me what a 
 highwayman gets when he attacks a footpad. 
 
 CoRiQL. : Your mode of jesting appears to me capital; for you think by 
 mere dexterity of play to release yourself from the obligation of your 
 promise, and thus defraud us ; but you shall not escape us unless you first 
 answer, in the fullest and amplest manner, every question we shall put to 
 you, with reference to what, as you have been informed, really transpired in 
 your absence, and concerning which we ask information from you. 
 
 Vald^s :_ Do you wish me to speak out truthfully ? For after all I think 
 you are joking with me. 
 
 Pacheco : If you are not inclined to trust them, believe me that all 
 they have said is simple truth. 
 
 ValdiSs : But I could wish that it were simply false ; for what you 
 desire is so extravagant that I can scarce believe you. 
 
 Martio : It greatly surprises me, that it should appear strange to you 
 to discuss your native tongue. Tell me, were the letters, with reference to 
 which we now appeal to you, Latin, would you hold it extravagant that 
 we should ask explanations in connection with them ? 
 
 VAT.pfe : No, I should not, assuredly. 
 
 Martio : Why not ? 
 
 VALDfe : Because I learned Latin methodically and from books, and 
 Castilian from habit. I could reply as to Latin by the method and from 
 the books in which I studied ; but it is otherwise with Castilian, which I 
 learned only in conversation, whence I am justified in regarding it as ex- 
 travagant that you should call upon me to account for that with reference 
 to wMeh there is no record at alL 
 
 Martio : Were we to call you to account why others wrote differently 
 from you, you would be right to decline doing so ; but when we ask you 
 why you write differently from others, you decliue to answer. You cannot 
 justifiably excuse yourself for so doing. 
 
 Vald£s : If, indeed, what you say be so, I shall not cease to decline, 
 for it appears to me an extravagant thing that you should seek to lose our 
 time in discussing a subject so mean and so vulgar as petty points of 
 grammatical nicety or mere elegance of expression ; a thing to my mind 
 so alien to your disposition and judgment, that it would not be to your 
 honour to discuss it were it indeed ever so palatable and grateful to me. 
 
 Martio : I regret to hear you say so. What ! does it seem to you that, 
 Bembo wasted his time when he wrote his work on the Italian, the Tuscan, 
 language ? 
 
 Vald^s : I am not sufficiently versed in the Tuscan tongue to judge 
 
9S LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 whether he lost or gained ; this I can tell you, I have heard many say that 
 his was labour lost. 
 
 Martio : Those very persons who say so, I engage, gam, and that fre- 
 quently, by what they caU " labour lost," whilst there are numbers who 
 thmk otherwise, for they approve of his arguments : whence it may be 
 inferred that we are all under obligation to illustrate and enrich our ver- 
 nacula:r tongue, that which our mother spoke to us when we hung suckhngs 
 on her bosom, and not that which is beaten into us with cane and birch, 
 and which we learn from books. Have you not read what Bemho says on 
 this? 
 
 YAixita : Indeed I have, but we do not appear to me to be in the same 
 predicament. 
 
 Martio : Why not ? Do you hold the CastUian tongue to be less elegant 
 or genteel than the Tuscan ? 
 
 Vald^s : No, that I don't ! but at the same time I do hold it to be less 
 elevated ; for I look upon the Tuscan as illustrated and enriched by 
 Boocacio and Petrarch, who, as distinguished scholars, not only prided 
 themselves upon writing books upon worthy subjects, but strove likewise 
 that their style should be most appropriate and elegant ; and as you know, 
 the Castdian language has never been illustrated by an author, who has 
 written with such care and design as would be required by any one 
 desiring to avail himself of his authority, who should seek to render a 
 reason why he writes differently from others, or to reform the abuses at 
 present discoverable in it. 
 
 Martio : The more you are convinced of this, the greater reason have 
 you to be ashamed that you have allowed, and do allow, a language so 
 noble, so perfect, so genteel, and so ample, to suffer by your neglect. 
 
 Vald]6s : You are quite right, but this does not concern me. 
 
 Martio : How so 1 are you not a CastUian ? 
 
 Vald^s : Assuredly I am. 
 
 Martio : WeU then, how is it that this does not concern you ? 
 
 Vald:6s : Because I am neither so versed in letters, nor so deeply read 
 in science, as are many other CastUians, who might more fully do what 
 you desire. 
 
 Martio : Since they do not do it, and that you are not wanting in 
 ability to do something, you ought not to excuse yourself for declining it 
 For were you to achieve nothing else than to stir up others to do it, you 
 would have done much : and how much more so now, when we do not ask 
 you to write, but to speak ; and as you know the proverb says, " words and 
 feathers are borne away by the wind." 
 
 Pachboo : Do not, your word being pledged, constrain .us to press you 
 so to do that which you perform so easily ; and so much the more since 
 you have promised, and have no just cause of excuse for yourself, since 
 what you say respecting the absence of authors to support you is inade- 
 quate ; for you know that with reference to what you call orthography, 
 and as to words, you can avail yourself of the authority of Antonio de 
 Lebrija's glossary ; and as to style, of the work of Amadis de Gauk. ' 
 
 Ttis extract is amply sufificient to stow the origin, the 
 object, the playful manner, and good sense that pervade 
 the whole of this vrork. In the course of the conversation 
 Valdes thus discriminates between genius and judgment in 
 writing,_ and furnishes his ovm estimate of several of tie 
 best-written books of his time in Spanish. 
 
 ' " Diflogo de la Lengua," edition 1860, pp. 1—9. 
 
DIALOGO DE LA LENGUA. 99 
 
 Vald^s : As to pvoso, I say that I have read but little of the books 
 translated into Spanish ; for, seeing that I understood Latin and Italian, 
 I care but little to occupy myself with Spanisli translations. But 
 of the little that I have read, I feel as if I had seen two treatises, which, 
 with reference to style, pleased me as being pure Castiliau, the rendering 
 from the Latin being very elegant, and in the purest Spanish. One of 
 these is "Boetius de Consolatione ;"' and forasmuch as there are two trans- 
 lations of it, bear in mind that the one which I commend is that one 
 which answers metre for metre, and prose for prose, and is addressed 
 to the Count de Urena. 
 
 Martio : What is the author's name ? 
 
 VALD]fis : Good sooth, I do not recoUect ; but to my mind he was a man 
 of lively genius and clear judgment. 
 
 Pacheco : But tell me, pledging your honour, although it be alien to 
 our subject, that which I have now long desired to know, what diiference 
 do you make between Genius and Judgment ? 
 
 VAT.pfe : Genius discovers what may be said, and Judgment selects 
 from what Genius discovers, what is best, and then marehals it ; so that of 
 the two qualifications of an orator, which are invention and disposition, 
 which means order, the former is to be attributed to Genius, and the latter 
 to Judgment. 
 
 Pacheco : Think you that a man may be found, who, being well 
 endowed with genius, wants judgment ; or who, having a sound judgment 
 wants genius 1 
 
 Vald^s : They are without number, even amonffit those whom you 
 know, and with whom you have daily intercourse. I can point you out 
 several. 
 
 Pacheco : Which do you hold to be the greater fault in a man, want of 
 genius or want of judgment 1 
 
 ValdiSs : Had I to choose, I should prefer a man with but moderate 
 genius and good judgment to one with moderate judgment and great 
 genius. 
 
 Pacheco : And why 1 
 
 YaIjD^s : Because men of great genius lose themselves in heresies and 
 erroneous opinions through want of judgment. Man has no jewd to com- 
 pare with that of a sound judgment. 
 
 Martio : Dropping this topic, return to your books, and say, what is 
 the other Spanish translation from the Latin which pleased you ? ^ 
 
 Vaud^s : The " Enchiridion," ^ by Erasmus, which the Archdeacon of 
 
 1 "Diflogode la Lengua," ed. 1S60, Gothic let. Dedicated al . . . Seflor 
 
 p. 176 : — don Juan Tellez Giron, -coude de vrena : 
 
 "Libro de boecio seuerino intitulado seflor de penafiel." by the translator 
 
 dela cosolaoion dela philosophia, agora Alberto de Aguayo. For an account of 
 
 nueuamente traduzido de lati en cas- the translator, Fr. Alberto de Aguayo, 
 
 tellano por estilo nQca ante visto e see Pellicer's Ensayo, p. 3. 
 
 espafia. va el metro e coplas y la jjsa ' " Difilogo de la Lengua," ed. 1860, 
 
 por medida." p. 178. 
 
 On the last page : — " Fin del quinto " " Enquiridio o manual del Cauallero 
 
 y vltimo libro de boecio seuerino canal- Ohristiano Compuesto pmero en Latin, 
 
 lero y senador romano de la cosolacion per el EcelSte Famoso Varfi D. Erasmo 
 
 natural, deo gratias. Anno domini Eoterodamo Dotor en sacra Teologia del 
 
 vniuersalis redeptoris M.d-xvj. xv. iulij. Cosejo de su Majestad. Traduzido de 
 
 etatis mee xlvij." followed by EI inter- alii en Castellano, y despues visto y 
 
 prete al libro. And below :— aprouado por el muy lUustre y Reueren- 
 
 "Fne impressoel psente libro de boecio dissimo Senor don Alonso Mannq Ar^o- 
 
 seuerino por Jacobo crobergeraleman en bispo de SeuiUa : Inquisidor general 
 
 la muy noble y opulgtissima cibdad de en estos Eeynos : y por los Sefiores de 
 
 SeuiUa : en el mes de junio. Ailo del su consejo. Dirigido a muy illustre y 
 
 Seflor de M.d.xviij. sm. 4to 68 folios Reuerendissimo Sefioria : y Impresso por 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Aloor turned into Spanish, which I think might, in point of style, compete 
 with the Latin. 
 
 Maetio: If the Spanish style be not better as Spanish, than is the 
 Latin as Latin, he achieved but little who turned it into Spanish. 
 
 Vald:^s : It is impossible for you [an Italian], to allow that any one 
 not being an Italian can have a good Latin style. 
 
 Maetio : Have you read no other book, a translation into Spanish, that 
 gratified you ? 
 
 Vald:^s : If I have, I forget it. 
 
 Maetio : Besides, I have heard say, that the " Pilgrim " and the 
 " Courtier," " El Pelegrino " and " El Corfcesano," ' are both well done iato 
 Spanish. 
 
 Vald^s : I have not read them ; but believe me that I hold it to be far 
 more difficult to turn a work well into Spanish than into any other 
 language whatever, wholly irrespective of the language from wMch the 
 translation shall be made. 
 
 Maetio ; And why ? 
 
 Vald]£s : Because the principal grace and elegance of the Spanish lan- 
 guage consists in its metaphorical expressions ; the translator, restricting 
 himself from adding to what he finds written in the language from which 
 he translates, finds it most difficult to give in Spanish that grace and pohsh 
 which he would give to his own original conception.' 
 
 The Dialogue concludes with entreaties to Valdes to 
 revise, and put into form, the short-hand notes made by the 
 secreted amanuensis, and finally winds up with the same 
 graceful modesty of character^ and in the same playful 
 manner as it began. 
 
 Vald:Ss : Then I will give you time to think upon it, and this day 
 week, God wiUing, we wiU meet here again to settle this discussion. 
 It is now time to return to Naples ; let our carriages be ordered, and may 
 God's peace attend us ; this repast has cost me so dear that I am war- 
 ranted in saying, that it has been in the sweat of my brow that I have 
 eaten bread. 
 
 Maetio : I do not concur with you in saying so, for you must confess 
 that the discussion we have held here, though distasteful to you, has been 
 profitable to us ; and but for fear of annoying you, I even thought of secretly 
 introducing a short-hand writer, to record your observations upon the 
 various topics, which were so numerous as to lead me to distrust my 
 memory as to the recollection of them aU. 
 
 Valdes : That you failed to do so, is your loss, and no fault of mine, is 
 it? 
 
 Maetio : Yes, you are to blame, and greatly so, because at the outset 
 you needed so much pressing that, fearing you should take it amiss, I 
 dared not do what I wished. 
 
 Valdes : Your timidity was excessive, for what cause should I have 
 had to take it amiss ? 
 
 su mandado : En la insigne Universidad This was the edition upon which the 
 
 de Alcala de Henares : En oasa de persecution of Erasmus's works began 
 
 Miguel de Eguia. De segudo ImpressiS. in Spain. See the account in chapter 
 
 En el Mes de Enero de M.D. y xxvij II. pp. 42-44. 
 
 '*-n°'-"-D • •, • T ■, , ,., ■ T^® "Courtier" by Castiglione. 
 
 Con Priuilegio Imperia . 4to. 147 The first edition in &)a»«sA was 1534, by 
 
 leaves, Gothic letter. There are two Boscan. 
 
 copies in tho library of the British ■■' " Diaiogo de la Lengua," 1860, 
 
 Museum. pp. 176-178 
 
DIALOGO DE LA LENGUA. 101 
 
 Martio : Because I hold you to be so fastidious, that if a mosquito fly- 
 across your face nearer than it pleased you, you are annoyed by it. 
 
 Vald^s : Well, you are so far right, that I seek too much to have things 
 done to my liking ; and that I am unduly annoyed when a person whom 
 I like either does or says anything that I dislike, and then I am so frank 
 that I immediately express my feeling's undisguisedly. Tliis blemish my 
 friends must needs overlook in me. 
 
 Martio : It would be better, since you acknowledge it to be a blemish, 
 to lay aside the habit. 
 
 Valdes : Better, nay ; but do you not know that death is scarcely 
 more painful than change of habit ? 
 
 Martio : I know it right well ; but yet difference is to be made 
 betwixt man and man. It is droU that you should wish your friends to 
 tolerate in you that which you yourself hold to be a blemish, whilst you 
 are unwilling to tolerate in them what you hold to be blemishes ! 
 
 Values : In saying that differences are to be made betwixt man and 
 man, you are right ; but, on the other hand, you are inconsiderate, for 
 my blemish is more tolerable than those of others, because I recognize it ; 
 and in the mean while there is hope that I shall correct it one day or other; 
 and again, for this reason those of others are less tolerable than mine, 
 because they do not recognize them, and in the mean while cannot correct 
 them ; and thus I should fail as a friend in duty were I not to tell them 
 of that which appears to me to be wrong. But it is of little importance ; 
 let us be going, for it is late. 
 
 Martio : It somewhat irritates you that, the subject not being fully 
 settled, there still remains somewhat more for discussion. 
 Valdi^s : What do you mean by that ? 
 
 Martio : That you have been held in discussion by us who, striving 
 to acquire a good style, have made you its arbiter, and we fear that in so 
 doing we have caused you great annoyance. 
 Valdes : What ? 
 
 Martio : Now you will see. Aurelius, give me here youi manuscript. 
 There you see the manuscript of all that you have said ; and I have such 
 an opinion of him as a writer that he can justify all that he has written. 
 
 Valdes : I am glad of it, and may God's blessing attend it ; but with 
 this restriction, however, that you circulate it only amongst yourselves, 
 and do not show it to others, for you see how wrong that would be. 
 
 Martio : On the contrary, I see the benefit and not the harm, and 
 contemplate putting it in the hands of all who may desire to see it, and 
 even, if it appear to me right to do so, to print it. 
 
 Valdi^s : That would be a pretty affair, indeed ! I cannot think that 
 you wiU be guilty of such indiscretion as that. 
 
 Pachego : Let us cease to beat about the bush ; it will be better to 
 come to the point. I know Senor Valdds, and I know that he will rejoice 
 in his friends asking plainly of him what they wish. And you, Valdfe, 
 must know that we all ask it as a favour that you would take these 
 minutes of our discourse, reduce them to order, and express them in good 
 CastOian ; and you are authorized by these gentlemen to make them speak 
 Spanish, though the conversation has been held in Italian. 
 
 Martio : Nay, we beg you to do so, with all the earnestness we can 
 use, and if you please, make this morning's conversation the first part of 
 the work, and that of this afternoon the second. 
 
 VALD:fis : Is this what you kept in reserve as a final result ? Adieu. 
 Martio : Nay, we wOl not leave the spot, nor shall you, unless you 
 first promise us that you will do what we ask of you. 
 
 Pacheco : Do not force us to entreat it as for your life, since we know 
 that you are not devoted to any other than similar engagements ; and we 
 
102 LIFE or JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 know that yon will lend it so good a colouring, and will so perform it, that 
 it will do you, and ua, and the spot where we have met, honour. 
 
 VALD:fis : It demands, as you see, great consideration ; let me well re- 
 flect on it, and if it appear to me a thing to be done, and if I see that I 
 may reasonably accomplish it, I promise you to do it. 
 
 Martio : This is enough, and in the name of the three I accept the 
 promise, and I now invite yon for this day week to hear what Seiior 
 Coriolano shall find after mature reflection to say respecting the affinity 
 existing between the Tuscan and tlie Latin languages. 
 
 Mabtio : I have yet one thing to ask, promise me aU of you not to deny 
 me it, whomever it may aflect. 
 
 ValdiSs : I, for my part, promise it, for a crow cannot be blacker than 
 his wings. 
 
 Pachbco : I likewise promise it on mine. 
 
 OoRioL. : Well, as to me, you already know that you command me at 
 will. 
 
 Martio : This is my request, that Seiior Pacheco (alias Torres) here 
 engage his word to us, to work out in Spanish proverbs that which he 
 says he has frequently contemplated doing. 
 
 Pacheco : To avoid discussion, I agree to promise it, deferring however 
 its execution untU I find a suitable locality and materials for carrying 
 it out. 
 
 ValdiSs : Which will never be realized ; but let it be when it may, 
 what afl'air of mine is it 1 But that which more concerns me, hark ye, is 
 that my horse be brought to the door. Let the horse go at his best pace, 
 I shall not disturb the man who goes before me, nor shall I wait for him 
 who tarries behind me.' 
 
 In November, 1535, Charles V., after Bis African ex- 
 pedition, came to Naples, where he was receiTed with 
 the honours due to his m.ilitary success^ and in April of 
 the following year passed on to Rome. Juan de Valdes 
 went with him as a gentleman of his suite. The Em- 
 perorj before leaving Naples^ issued on the 4th of February, 
 1536, a rigorous edict forbidding all intercourse with 
 Lutherans^ or persons suspected of heresy, under pain 
 of death and confiscation of property. The Viceroy,^ Don 
 Pedro de Toledo, brother to the Duke of Alva, did not 
 however rigidly enforce it. We do not find that it 
 affected Valdes in the intercourse he carried on there 
 with his friends. He had formed an acquaintance with 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, the celebrated poet, who held a 
 
 ' " Di^ogo de la Lengua," 1860, pp. notice, prefixed to the CX. Considera- 
 
 200-205. tioni, 1550, and in Pasqidllas extaticus, 
 
 2 Various writers, following one an- yet five years earlier, 1545, makes no 
 
 other, assert that Juan de ValdSs mention of the circumstance. Simler, 
 
 occupied the official post of Secretary and the writers who have followed him, 
 
 to the Viceroy of Naples. We have have probably confounded the office of 
 
 not, however, found any proof of this his brother, as secretary to the Emperor, 
 
 opinion earlier than that of Simler, in with Juan's certain residence and death 
 
 " Epitome Conradi Gesneri," Tignri, at Naples. Simler speaks of &cretarm 
 
 1.555, (o. Ill b. Jolmnnes Valdesins Regis, which could not refer tu office 
 
 Secreiarius Itegis [Neapolitani]. But under a viceroy. 
 Curione, who five years earlier, in his 
 
GAECILASSO DE LA VEGA. 103 
 
 command in the army^ and in 1536 perished in the 
 flower of his age, before a petty fortress on the frontiers 
 of Prance. Of the warrior who, to his bravery united the 
 tenderness of the poet in the most harmonious language of 
 his country, Valdes speaks in his Dialogue, "I am glad that 
 this satisfies you, but I should rather wish to satisfy 
 Garcilasso de la Vega with the other two gentlemen of the 
 Emperor^s court whom I know." This was his opinion of 
 Garcilasso^s nice judgment upon language. Critical readers 
 of his graceful elegies and sonnets point out passages ' of 
 pensive seriousness, derived from the influence of his ac- 
 quaintance with Valdes. Garcilasso brought up the last 
 detachment of Spanish troops to Eome. On Charles's 
 departure from that city, Valdes returned again to Naples, 
 where he finally settled for the short, yet perhaps the most 
 important, period of his remaining years.*^ 
 
 ' " Obras del Excelente Poeta Gar- "It happened about this time, that 
 
 cilasso de la Vega." Ano 1612. Eclogue is in the year 1635, there came with 
 
 I. fols. 41, 42. Eclogue II. fol. 83. Charles V. [from Naples] to Eome one 
 
 " Elegia al Dvqve de Alua," fol. 21. Don Juan de Valdfe, a Spanish noble- 
 
 ^ "Aocadde appresso, ciofe nel 1635, man. . . . He was, as the Cardinal of 
 
 che con Carlo V. venne in Koma un Monreale, who remembered him, told 
 
 D. Gio. ValdSs nobile Spagnuolo . . . me, of a fair countenance, very sweet 
 
 Era cestui (mi disse il Card, di Monreale, manners, and soft and attractive speech ; 
 
 che se lo recordaua) di bell' aspetto e di he professed a knowledge of languages 
 
 dolcissime maniere, ed d'un parlare and of the Holy Scriptures. He was 
 
 soave ed attratiTO ; faceva professione settled at Naples." Charles V. arrived 
 
 di lingue e di sacra Sorittura, s' annidb at Naples from Tunis, Nov. 25th, 1635. 
 in Napoli."- — A. Caracciolo, " Vita e 
 Gesti di Paulo IV." MS. 
 
Idl LIFE OF J CAN DE VALDES. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 At Naples, Juan de Yaldes dcToted Mmself to study, and 
 the improvement of his own moral and intellectual nature. 
 His society was sought by such of the nobility as were most 
 distinguished for piety and leamiag. Several of the most 
 eminent preachers acknowledged their obligations to him 
 for clearer views of Scripture doctrine, long after those 
 obligations had been incurred. His religious teaching was 
 of a private and individual character. It was attained by 
 personal moral influence of a remarkable kind, by conver- 
 sations and letters on special subjects and occasions. 
 
 The circle which Valdes assembled around him consisted 
 of clergy and laity, gentlemen and ladies. Amongst them 
 may be mentioned the celebrated Petee Maetye Yeemilius, 
 who, invited by Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, after- 
 wards exercised a great influence, not only at Oxford, but per- 
 sonally by his friendship with the Bishops Eidley, Latimer, 
 Ponet, Hooper, and Jewel,* upon our EngHsh Reformation. 
 Peter Martyr preached at Naples nearly three years, 1538 — 
 1 541 . He lectured on the epistles of Paul to the Corin- 
 thians in the church of S. Pietro ad Ara, where he drew 
 upon himself particular observation by the manner in which 
 he questioned the generally received doctrine of purgatory, 
 when expounding the passage, " If any man build upon 
 this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, 
 
 stubble If any man's work shall be burned, he 
 
 shall suS'er loss ; but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as 
 by fire." — 1 Cor. iii. 12 — 15. In this he may well have fol- 
 lowed Valdes, who read and explained about the same time 
 the same epistle ^ in his own house. 
 
 Beenaedino Ochino di Sienna, the well known preacher, 
 as early as 1536 delivered his eloquent sermons in the 
 church of Giovanni Maggiore at Naples ; stirring the souls 
 
 ' John Jewel, Bishop of Sahsbury, England," bnt died before he saw the 
 
 passed the greatest part of his time, book he so much longed for in print. 
 
 when in exile, with Peter Martyr in See life of John Jewel, appended CO 
 
 Zurich, and it is said that his learning the " Apology," 1685. 
 
 and conyersation were much improved ' "la Epistola de San Pablo a los 
 
 by intercourse with him. Peter Martyr, Eomanos, i la I. a los CorintioB. 
 
 in a letter of 24th August, 1562, written Ambas traduzidas i oomentadas por 
 
 to him after his return to England, Juan de Valdes. Ahora fiehnente 
 
 encourages Jewel to publish his well reimpreta,,. Aiio de 1^56. Corintios," 
 
 known " Apology of the Church of pp. 58- 61. 
 
GALEOTA AND CTJSANO. 105 
 
 of tte crowds who attended to hear him by his new manner 
 of interpreting Scripture, not by distinctions of scholastic 
 philosophy, but in a spiritual sense and with a most fervid 
 diction. Charles V., attracted to hear him when he visited 
 Naples on his return from his African expedition, has him- 
 self told us the impression the sermons made upon his 
 mind, by his remark that the eloquence of Ochino might 
 make the very stones shed tears.* Ochino came by invi- 
 tation of Cranmer to England, and was stationed by him 
 with Peter Martyr at Oxford. 
 
 GiTJUO DA MiLANO, a professor of theology, who was 
 thrown into the prison of San Gio. Bragela at Venice, 
 where he printed a volume of sermons in Italian, and 
 where Ochino also printed the earhest series of his own, 
 by whose interference Giulio regained his hberty and 
 founded a congregation at Puschiavo in the Grisons, which 
 enjoyed his ministry nearly thirty years. He also laid the 
 foundation of a number of churches in his neighbourhood.^ 
 
 Fabio Mario Galeota, a Neapolitan gentleman, was a 
 disciple of Juan de Valdes ; he was thrown into the prison of 
 the Inquisition at Rome, and had the good fortune to escape 
 on the memorable day of the 18th of August, 1559, when, 
 on the death of Paul IV., the Roman populace attacked the 
 dreaded institution. To him, Garcilasso, who knew him in 
 the mutual society of Valdes at Naples, addressed the cele- 
 brated ode, called the " Flower of Gnidus," and his thirty- 
 fifth sonnet, begianing " Mario, el ingrato amor como 
 testigo." 
 
 Benedetto CrsANO, Peter Martyr's fellow student at 
 Padua, with whom he applied himself with such zeal in the 
 study of the Greek language that they' spent whole nights 
 together ; the first rays of morning light appearing through 
 the windows of the library, alone reminded them of the 
 
 ' Antonio Castaldo in "Raccolta dell' poste da uno senio di Iddio alia conso- 
 
 Istoria del Regno di Napoli," vol. vi. latione de fedeli frategli in Cbristo 
 
 p. 66. Giesu Signore, e Saluatore nostro. 
 
 ^ Giulio da Milano wrote under the Delia fede. Delia efficacia della fede. 
 
 disguised name of Hieronjmo Savonese. Delle opere. De meriti. Delia charity. 
 
 See " Catalogo," by Vergerio, 1549. Impossibile fe senza fe de piaoere k 
 
 . The treatises from liis pen, which we Iddio. Pavlo agli Ebrei, cap. xi. (s. 1. 
 
 have seen, are these : — et. a., 36 leaves, sm. 8vo., in Roman 
 
 1. Opere Christiane e Catholiohe di letter). 
 
 Messer Hieronymo Savonese, A gloria In the Bodleian Library are : " Exhor- 
 
 d'lddio, et vtUita de Christiani stam- tatione al Martirio di Giulio da Milano 
 
 pate. Colophon : In Gineura, per riueduta et ampliata, s. 1. 1552," and 
 
 Lorenzo Merlino e Fratelli. Nel " The XLIII. Sermon of M. Giulio of 
 
 MD.XXXXIII. a li xxii. dl Nouembre MUane touchyng the Lordes Supper. 
 
 Stampata (124 leaves, sm. 8vo., Italic Dedicated to the worshypfull mystres 
 
 letter). Anne Carowe." 31 leaves, 4to. B.L. 
 
 2. Pie et Christiane opistole, com- 
 
106 LIPJJl OP JUAN DE VALD6s, 
 
 lapse of time. Thus they read the orators, philosophers, 
 and best poets, and obtained that knowledge of the ori- 
 ginals which enabled them to study the New Testament at 
 the fountain head. 
 
 GiovANNO MoLLio, of Montalcino, near Sienna, who filled 
 the station of lecturer in the monastery of San Lorenzo at 
 Naples. He read lectures chiefly on Paul's epistles, which 
 were attended by monks of different convents, by many of 
 the nobility, and by individuals of the episcopal order. 
 
 LoEENZO EoMATTO, a Sicilian convert, who had not counted 
 the cost, and fell away in the hour of persecution. 
 
 GriAMBATTiSTA FoLENGO, the pious and learned Benedictine 
 prior, of Monte Cassino, who, in his retreat of Albaneta, 
 finished his admirable Commentary on the Psalms, in 1542, 
 which abounds with sentiments similar to those in the 
 writings of Flaminio, accompanied with severe strictures 
 on the superstitious practices which the priests and friars 
 recommended to the people. 
 
 Giovanni Feancisco db Alots, named Caseeta, the inti- 
 mate friend of Flaminio, a man richly endowed with learn- 
 ing and property, and full of generous quahties. He intro- 
 duced his noble kinsman, Galeazzo Oaeaccioii, the eldest 
 son of the Marquis of Vico, to the sermons of Peter Martyr. 
 He was so powerfully affected by them, that after receiving 
 an eloquent letter of congratulation and encouragement 
 from Marc Antonio Flaminio, he laid down his honours, and 
 although he had a wife and family who refused to accom- 
 pany him, left his beloved country and went into exUe 
 for the love and liberty of the Gospel. Caserta, at a later 
 period, testified the constancy of his convictions, by laying 
 down his life rathei' than abandon them. In March, 1564, 
 he, together with another nobleman, Giambernardino di 
 Gargano d'Aversa, was beheaded and burnt in the market- 
 place of Naples.^ 
 
 Maec Antonio Flaminio, already distinguished as a 
 Latin poet, who, having been in the suite of Cardinal 
 Sauli, a lover of learning, and subsequently in that of 
 the Datary Giberti, had come to Naples, in 1538, to 
 re-establish his health. He remained there until December, 
 1540. He was a man after Valdes' own spirit. The letter' 
 
 ' See the depositions before the In- di Giovanni Valdesso." Halle in Sas- 
 
 quisition of the witnesses against him in sonia, 1860, pp. 599 603. 
 
 an " inedited docum^tit" a.p'pen'ied to Dr, ^ "Lettere volgari di'diversi excel- 
 
 E'i. Brehmer's valuable " Cenni Eiogra- lentissimi Hvomini." Libro seoondo. 
 
 flci sui fratelli Giovanni e Alfonso di Viuezia, 1545, fol. 54-66. Flaminio's 
 
 Valdesso," 1861, published by him with lotterto Galeazzo Caraociola is generally 
 
 Le Cento e died Divine Considerazioni known; this letter, and also that ad- 
 
FLAMINIO AND CABNESECCHI. 107 
 
 he wrote to Theodorina Sauli, a lady belonging to a noble 
 family in Genoa, if not as to the style, yet in the senti- 
 ments and arrangement, harmonizes with the teaching of 
 Vald(^s ; everywhere we find the warmest piety and purest 
 morality, founded on Scriptural principles and enforced by 
 the most evangelical motives. 
 
 Jacopo Bonfadio, who followed Valdes with poetical 
 enthusiasm. His charming and tender letter, lamenting 
 his death, addressed to Carnesecchi, will be given hereafter, 
 
 PiETKO Caenesecchi, the papal Prothonotary, secretary 
 of Clement VII., of a distinguished Florentine family, 
 whose ancestors sat in the Senate of the Eepublic, a man 
 of elegant learning and refined manners, whose society 
 was the charm of his friends. Cardinal Pole, writing 
 of him to Cardinal Contarini, says, " The remainder 
 of the day was spent in the holy and profitable society of 
 Signer Carnesecchi and our Marc Antonio Flaminio. I call 
 it profitable, because in the evening Marc Antonio gave 
 me, and most of my family, a supper, ' of that bread which 
 perishes not,^ in such a manner that I know not when 
 I have felt greater consolation, or greater edification." ' 
 Carnesecchi possessed an abbacy at Naples. He used the 
 writings of Valdes and procured their publication. He was 
 called to Rome, in 1 546, to defend himself against suspicions 
 of holding erroneous sentiments. He rebutted all the 
 imputations of his accusers, and returned to his abbey at 
 Naples, where he then resided, enjoying the fairest repu- 
 tation with the highest personages, as a man of great 
 learning and unspotted integrity. In 1565 he was a second 
 time brought to Eome, and on the 3rd of October, 1567, 
 was burnt alive, and not beheaded according to Galuzzi. 
 
 Nor did the influence of those who received the impulse 
 frqm Valdes extend less to the women and common people 
 than to the preachers of Naples and the Terra di Lavoro — 
 Sessa, Capua, Caserta, Gaeta, &c., who listened with earnest- 
 ness to the addresses of Marc Antonio Plaminio on the 
 " Spiritual hfe," and of Francisco de Aloys at Caserta. 
 Folengo, the Prior of Monte Cassino, describes the eSect 
 of these addresses in these words: " We are here present at 
 
 dressed to Carlo Gualteruzzi, in which of the persons who revised the" Beneficio 
 
 he makes some just remarks upon the di Christo" (Benefit of Christ's Death) 
 
 tendency of Thomas a Kempis's "Imi- in "its present form. It is certain that 
 
 tation of Clirist," ai-e to be found in he wrote an apology in defence of it, 
 
 McCrie's Appendix to his " History of which, it would appear, howerer, was 
 
 the Eeformation in Italy." They are not printed. 
 
 better read in the Italian, in which ' Poli "Epistote" III. 42, jil Card, 
 
 language they were written, than in the Gasp. Contarini, di Viterbo, alii ix di 
 
 Latin of Schelhom. flaminio was one Decembre, 1541. 
 
108 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 a most extraordinary spectacle ; we see women who would 
 appear to have been born more prone to vanity than to 
 serious reflection^ men untutored and soldiers, affected in 
 such a manner by the knowledge of divine mysteries, 
 that where ought is anywhere heard relating to 'per- 
 fection of hfe,' it generally originates with them, this is 
 indeed the golden age 1 Throughout my native Campania 
 there is no preacher so learned but that he would become 
 wiser and holier from converse with such women." 
 
 The ladies, with whom Valdfe now associated at Naples, 
 belonged to the higher ranks of society. Of those who 
 embraced his scriptural doctrine we may in the first place 
 name the noble Spanish lady Isabella Maneiqub da 
 Bresegna,^ sister of a cardinal. She zealously laboured to 
 promote evangelical faith, and when persecution arose at 
 Naples, immediately after the death of Valdes, she resolutely 
 withdrew to Zurich. She finally settled at Chiavenna, ia the 
 Valtelline, preferring a life of retirement and poverty, with 
 liberty of conscience, to the ease and opulence of Naples. To 
 her Curione dedicated the first edition, 1557, of his Life of 
 Olympia Morata, and Ochino his treatise on the Sacrament.^ 
 
 CoNSTANZA d' Avalos, Duchessa di Amalpi, of a noble 
 Spanish family, who, like many of the Italian ladies of this 
 period, gave her mind to the love and study of poetry. 
 A canzone of great beauty for its versification, elevated 
 thought, and pious sentiment, written by her, is found ap- 
 pended to the poetry of Vittoria Colonna, and is worthy of 
 the place in which we find it. 
 
 ViTTOEiA Colonna, Maechesana di Pescaea, daughter of 
 Pabrizio Colonna, Grand Constable of Naples, the youthful 
 widow of Perrante d' Avalos, Marquis of Pescara, Charles V.'s 
 commander at the battle of Pavia. After the death of her 
 husband, to whom she was romantically and devotedly 
 attached, in the flower of her age, she dedicated her life to 
 sacred studies, poetry, and retirement. Her sonnets,' com- 
 
 ' It was an accusation against Came- Mulieris omnivm errdissima) Latina, etc. 
 
 secclii, that "he was cognizant of a nd III. Isabellam Breseanam. Basileaj, 
 
 provision of 100 crowns a year sent by 1558. 8vo 
 
 a person friendly to Mm . . to Donna » "Tvtte le Rime della illvstriss. et 
 
 Isabella Bnsegna [Isabella Mannque da eccellentiss. Signora Vittoria Colonna, 
 
 ^risegnaj, a heretic, a fugitive at Marohesana di Pescara da 
 
 r"? ■ ; ^°i^ afterwards at Chiavenna." Girolamo Rvscelli." Venetia, 1558, 
 
 I rial of Carneseochi, by Richard II. iijh 
 
 GibWngs,B.D.,p.21. " Dale tenebre oscure allume chiaro 
 
 etP ■' S"]" i^«V ^«™''';'J™.° "1^ f '™?> Con pure alto pensier, ohe dolcemente 
 
 ^/LJ^ % ■ ^^^' *'"'/> ''«'^''=^tf <i fl « Acqueta 1' alma, e fa lieta la mente 
 
 mIZmL « ^'"'™ ,^'"""' Isabella W inuio, lasciando il peso e '1 cibo 
 
 JJanncha Bresegna, etc. amaro." . 
 
 1.^.0. Lurio. OlympiaeFvlviaeMoratae ' ' 
 
GtULIA GOKZAGA. 109 
 
 pared to the verses of Ariosto, were the admiration of her 
 contemporaries, and are read in various editions with pleasure 
 at the present time. She resided at her villa on the island 
 of Ischiaj having frequent intercourse with Naples. Her 
 circumstancesj her taste, and her sentiments opened her 
 heart to the religious teaching of Yald^s, whose assemblies 
 she attended, and it requires no great stretch of imagination 
 to conceive the joy with which her heavy-laden spirit listened 
 to the holy truths which he set forth. She afterwards re- 
 tired to the convent of St. Caterina at Viterbo, the place at 
 which, on her journey to see her dying husband, the sad and 
 fatal news of his death first reached her. Here she enjoyed 
 the society of Cardinal Pole and Plaminio, who resided at 
 Viterbo, and occasionally that of Carnesecchi and Cardinal 
 Contarini. On her visits to Rome she enjoyed the friend- 
 ship of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, who addressed several 
 sonnets to her, and, when looking upon her body after death, 
 modestly and respectfully kissed her hand, regretting after- 
 wards that he had not kissed her forehead, that nobler part, 
 the seat of that intellectual and moral beauty which had 
 inspired him with admiring affection. 
 
 Of all the noble ladies who were attracted to the sphere 
 of Juan de Valdes, Giulia Gonzaga, Duchess op Trajetto 
 and Countess op Pondi, was the one who drank deepest of 
 his instructions and towards whom his mind was most forcibly 
 brought into exercise. Her noble faculties, her pursuit of 
 the highest virtue, and the loveliness of her mind and person, 
 alike engaged his regard. He longed to lead her into the 
 way of Christian perfection by the royal road of the Gospel, 
 and strove to guide her in the path by the most assiduous 
 endeavours. He has left the record of those efibrts which 
 she preserved through difficulty and danger, and which has 
 been thus reserved for our use and instruction at the present 
 time. Of her we must speak more at length. 
 
 Giulia Gonzaga, or as she signed her name after her mar- 
 riage, GiuLLA. DB Gonzaga Colonna, was the eldest daughter 
 of Ludovico, or Luigi, Gonzaga, Duke of Sabbionetta, a 
 branch of the family of the Dukes of Mantua, who married, 
 in 1497, Prancesca di Gianluigi Pieschi, of Genoa. Giulia 
 was born at Gazzuolo about the year 1499. As she grew in 
 years, and while yet young, she was admired by all who 
 beheld her for the beauty of her person, the brightness of her 
 intellect, and the virtues of her heart ; — kindness, courtesy, 
 and discretion, joined with an engaging candour, won all 
 hearts in her favour. The poets of the time celebrated 
 
110 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 her in their verses, — Ariosto, Molza and Porrino, and par- 
 ticularly Bernardo, father of Torquato Tasso, who, residing 
 at Sorrento, on the opposite shore of the Bay of Naples, had 
 the most favourable opportunities of knowing and esteeming 
 her character and of enjoying the charms of her virtuous 
 conversation. In what sense he appreciated them is dis- 
 played by the following sonnets : — 
 
 SONNETS OF BERNARDO TASSO TO 
 GIULIA GONZAGA. 
 
 SONETTO CLXXXVIII. 
 
 Donna real, la cui helta ivfinita 
 
 Fonnd di propria man' I' alto Fattore, 
 
 Perch' access del suo gentile ardore 
 
 Volgeste I' alme alia heata vita, 
 La cui grazia divina ogn' uno invito, 
 
 AW opre degne di perpetuo onore 
 
 Ne' cui htme sereni onesto amove 
 
 Per tin raro miracolo s'addita : 
 Virtu, senno, valore, e gentilezza 
 
 Vanno con voi ; come col giorno il sole ; 
 
 siccome col del le stelle ardente : 
 L'andar celeste, il riso, e le parole 
 
 Pione d' alii intelletti, e di dolcezza. 
 
 Son di vostra helta ricchi ornamenti.^ 
 
 With His own hand the Everblest Creator, 
 O royal Lady, fashioned thee to shine 
 
 A radiant Presence, — that to Him, thy maker. 
 Thou shouldst draw many to the life divine ; 
 
 Thine eyes — the fire of chastest love uniting 
 With actions worthy of perpetual name — 
 
 Warm every breast with sacred love ; inviting 
 Where Beauty leads along the paths of Fame. 
 
 Virtue with mind, power with gentleness. 
 Go with thee forth as with the day the sun. 
 
 Or glowing stars in galaxy possess 
 Their radiant field and skyey circles run. 
 
 Thy heavenly course, the smile, the lucid speech. 
 
 Full of intelligence and sweetness, teach 
 
 What Beauty's richest graces are in each. 
 
 '^■Eimedi M. Bernardo Tasso," these sonnets serve to show the influence 
 
 edizione dal Pierantonio Serassi. the teaching of Valdfe had upon the 
 
 Bergamo, 1749, 2 vol. 12mo. character and after-life of Giulia 
 
 It IS worthy of remark how much Gonzaga. They represent tlie hind of 
 
BEENAKDO TASSO. Ill 
 
 SONETTO OLV. 
 
 Pellognna gentil, die questa e quella 
 Parte del ciclo con I' ingegno altera 
 Gercando, per trouar il bene e 'I vera, 
 Vifatepiii d' ogn' ultra adorna e hella ; 
 
 Lucente, vaga, e fortunata stella, 
 
 Al cui splendor si volge ogni pensero, 
 
 CJw inostrate il secure e bel sentero 
 
 D' uscir d' ogni mondana atra procella ; 
 
 Gemma, dove si vede impressa e viva 
 L' immagine di Bio ; dove si mira 
 Ogni forma di gloria e di valm-e ; 
 
 SpeccJdo di vera ben, di vero onore ; 
 Idea della belta celeste e diva ; 
 Felice V alma, die per voi sospira} 
 
 gentle Pilgrim ! seeking where to find 
 The grace and glory of the Perfect Mind 
 To make tMne own more lovely and refined ; 
 Star of the morning ! whose resplendent glow. 
 To guide us through this world of shades below, 
 Lights the safe path in which our feet should go ; 
 Seal ! where the features of thy God appear 
 In living hnes, and, lustreously clear. 
 Bach form of beauty and of goodness here, — 
 Divine Idea ! goddessKke to be 
 Glass of His Truth, our Supreme Good to see. 
 Blest is the soul that yearns in sighs for thee. 
 
 Giulia herself was known as a poetess in an age of 
 good writing. The sonnets of Donna GiuKa, scattered in 
 various early collections, were gathered into a volume and 
 published at Bergamo in 1750. At the early age of thirteen 
 she married Vespasiano Colonna, Duke of Trajettoand Count 
 of Fondi, in the kingdom of Naples, a widower of the mature 
 age of forty, with a daughter named Isabella. Having a con- 
 
 impression, made upon the minds of all that relates to the Gospel, in such 
 
 her IHends and admirers, as thougfh manner that, as your mind becomes able 
 
 Bernardo Tasso deduced /rom her life to take Christ and God for your patterns, 
 
 literally the advice Valdis had years you will come to draw your oum portrait 
 
 before given her in his Epistle addressed to the nature of the very image of Christ, 
 
 to her, with his MS. of his translation and to the real image of God, that your 
 
 and commentary on Romans. picture may serve as a pattern to others." 
 
 "Always endeavouring to perfect About 1536. 
 yourself in what concerns piety, and in ' "Rime," &c., ut suprd. 
 
112 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 stitution rendered infirm by his military service, their happy 
 union lasted but a few years. He manifested his estimate 
 of Giulia^s qualifications by committing to her, by his will, 
 at so early an age, the administration of his estates and the 
 guardianship -of his daughter Isabella, the sole ofiFspriug of 
 his former marriage. Graced with talents, wealth, station, 
 youth, and beauty, retired in her castle of Fondi, Giulia 
 received the most pressing solicitations to marry a second 
 time ; nor were there wanting many reasons for such a step, 
 if only for the protection of her fortune and honour in an age 
 •of misrule and violence. She however rejected all entreaties, 
 choosing for her emblem, according to the practice, at that 
 time, of the ladies of Italy, the flower of the amaranth, with 
 the motto : NoN Moeitdea, " it will not die," expressive of 
 her unchangeable attachment to her deceased husband.' Her 
 daughter-in-law, Isabella, married, in 1528, for her first 
 husband, Giulia's brother, Luigi Gonzaga, Lord of Gazzuolo, 
 surnamed Rodomonte, on account of his romantic bravery. 
 The Pope, Clement VII. (Giulio de' Medici), opposed their 
 union, wishing the connection for his nephew Ippolito ; but 
 Isabella's steady attachment to Luigi triumphed over all 
 •obstacles, while Ippolito de' Medici vainly made the most 
 pressing solicitations for Giulia herself. He translated and 
 sent to her the second book of the j3i]neid, prefixing a' 
 dedication to her, expressive of the warmest attachment, in 
 the style of the time.^ After her husband's demise, two 
 candidates arose to assert their claims to the estates : Ascanio 
 
 ' Hilarion de Coste. " Aprfes la mort undying love she cherished for the 
 
 de son mary . . . iamais elle ne memory of her deceased husband, is 
 
 vouloit bannir de son coeur 1' affection adopted on the title-page of this work, 
 
 qu'elle luy avoit port^e ; oe que luy fit because she experienced the same oon- 
 
 prendre pour deuise la fleur que nous stant sentiment of affectionate attach- 
 
 appellons Amarantej ou Passe-velous, ment to the teaching of Vald^s as led 
 
 que les M€decins et les Herbiers appel- her to preserve his writings through 
 
 lent Fleur d' Amour ; car comme cette long years of suspicion and danger, 
 
 belle fleur, qui passe de couleur le Her motto was characteristic of her 
 
 velous cramoisi rouge, lors que toutes les mind, and hence she might well have 
 
 autres fleurs sont desia passes, est said of the 110 Considerations: NON 
 
 encore fraisohe, et ne se fane point ; de MoBITURA. 
 
 sorte que les Bouqueti^res en font des ' The second book cf the jEneid, tran- 
 
 bouquets en plein hyuer: ainsi son slated by Hippolito de' Medici, was 
 
 amour ne se diminuetoit, ne se change- printed at Rome in 1538, 4to., and in 
 
 roit, ou ne s'esteindroit iamais durant Venice in 1539. 
 
 les tristes jours, et les funestes annSes de The copy I have seen forms part of a 
 
 sa viduitS, comme declarent ces mots small volume with the title : I sei primi 
 
 tirez de Virgile, en ses Buooliques, qui libri del Eneide di Vergilio, tradotti ^ 
 
 animoient cette belle devise : NoN piu illustre et honorate Donne, et tra 
 
 MOEITUEA— Bile ne mourra point." 1' altre Ma nobilissima e diuina Madonna 
 
 '_' Les Eloges de les Vies des Reynes, Aurelia Tolomei de Borghesi, h, cui 
 
 Princesses et des Dames illustrges en ancho e indirizzato tutto il presents 
 
 piet6, en courage et en doctrine." Paris : uolume. MD.XXXX. (in Vinetia)." 
 
 1647, 4to. torn. ii. p. 97. " II secondo di Vergilio di Hipolito do 
 
 Ihe motto NoN MoRITURA, adopted Medici, Cardinale, a la Signora Givlia 
 
 by Lriulia Gonzaga, in reference to the Gonzaga. M.D.XXXX." (23 leaves.) 
 
GIULIA GONZAGA. 113 
 
 Colonna on one side, and Napoleone Orsini, Abbot of Torfa, 
 in the kingdom of Naples, on the other. The Pope, Clement 
 VII., substantiated her rights by her husband's will, and 
 Charles V., as sovereign, commissioned her brother Luigi, 
 in 1532, to put her again iuto possession. Whilst endeavour- 
 ing to recover the castle of Nicovara, he was" wounded in 
 the assault, in the shoulder, by a shot from an arquebuse; the 
 castle, however, yielded, but Luigi died from the effects of 
 the wound in the presence of Isabella, at the age of thirty- 
 three years, recommending his young widow to Giulia's care, 
 and leaving an infant son, named Vespasiano, then scarcely 
 twelve months old. As soon as the boy had passed the 
 years of infancy, Isabella having married for her second 
 husband Carlo de Lanoja, Prince of Sulmona, he was con- 
 signed, by virtue of his father's will, to the guardianship of 
 his paternal grandfather, and at his death, in 1540, came 
 under the care of his aunt Giulia, to bring up and educate, 
 being then about eight years of age. In 1533 Giulia returned 
 to Fondi, where she once more took up her abode. 
 
 Her residence at Fondi and the society she attracted to 
 it are mentioned in the poems and letters of some of the 
 best writers of the time. They made her praises known, 
 and her celebrity was not confined to Italy. The distinction 
 of her name, together with the maritime situation of Fondi, 
 exposed her to a stroke of unexpected danger, from which 
 she very narrowly escaped. In the twilight of a September 
 evening of 1634, the gaUeys of Hyradin Barbarossa, the 
 corsair, who afterwards became Dey of Tunis, were dis- 
 covered off the Bay of Naples, steering to the northward. 
 In the dead of night he came abreast of Fondi, and imme- 
 diately disembarked his men. Little resistance to so un- 
 expected an attack could be made by the townspeople, and 
 the inmates of the castle had retired to rest for the night. 
 The uproar and clamour in the town gave the first alarm at 
 the castle. Giulia, roused by her domestics, while the corsairs 
 were already making the assault, fled by a passage to the 
 drawbridge that led to a gallery in the rock, and climbing 
 through^an opening, found herself upon the hill-side. A 
 horse being procured, she mounted, and gave free rein to 
 Vallacorsa, where she rested. Barbarossa having missed 
 the chief object, for which he might have expected at least 
 a weighty ransom, and finding the country alarmed and the 
 forces assembhng, plundered the town and re-embarked 
 with the booty. Among the nobility who hastened to the 
 defence of the place was one who had a m^ore personal 
 motive than the rest. Ippolito de' Medici, rather a warrior 
 
 I 
 
114 LIFE OE JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 than a priest^ although he had now given up secular pur- 
 suits and become a cardinal^ hearing of GiuHa's danger, 
 hastily assembled a body of horse in Rome, and led them 
 himself to her rescue. The crisis, however, had passed 
 away ; and whilst he was entertained for a short time with 
 gratitude at' the castle, he solicited Griulia's permission to 
 allow her portrait to be painted for himself, — a favour she 
 was not then in a position to refuse, if indeed there were 
 any sufficient reason for so doing. Upon his return to 
 Rome, he sent Sebastiano del Piombo, the best portrait- 
 paiuter of the time, to Fondi. He went, attended by a 
 retiuue of four horsemen, for the purpose. He was enter- 
 tained there a month, and returned to Rome with the 
 portrait : " a divine picture," says Vasari, with which the 
 Cardinal was highly pleased. * In August of the following 
 year he passed from Itri again to Fondi. Giulia was 
 absent. Remaining at Fondi during the day, he returned 
 to Itri ; but having taken cold, he fell sick of a fever, and 
 there died. 
 
 At this period, 1535, Giulia had left Fondi and taken up 
 her abode in Naples, where she occupied a house in the 
 Borgo delle Vergini, keeping up an estabHshment and 
 servants suitable to her rank. There she transacted busi- 
 ness and received visits ; but to avoid scandal to her cha- 
 racter in so large and promiscuous a city, she herself took up 
 her residence at the Franciscan convent of Santa Ghiara. 
 The Pope granted a brief to allow her to reside there as a 
 secular person, that is, as one not bound by the rules of the 
 cloister.^ This arrangement continued uninterrupted for a 
 period of thirty years, duriag the remainder of her life. 
 Isabella had married Carlo de Lanoja, Prince of Sulmona, 
 as before mentioned. In the double connection of daughter- 
 in-law and sister-in-law, she now stirred up a long and pain- 
 ful contention against Giulia, asserting that the testament of 
 her father, Vespasiano Colonna, by virtue of which Giuha 
 received the income of the estate during her widowhood, was 
 null and void ; and she refused besides to give up certain 
 jewels and other precious heirlooms which had been lent to 
 her. Lawyers were consulted, and finding the case ambiguous, 
 
 ' Thepiotureof Giulia Gonzaga, paint- him to the National Gallery, London, 
 
 edbySebastiano,went into the collection together with a companion picture by 
 
 of Francis I. of Prance, at Pontainebleau. the same master, containing portraits of 
 
 A portrait, said to be the same, having the painter and his patron, that repre- 
 
 the attributes of a saint, S. Agatha or sents the artist taking up a purse of 
 
 S. ApoUonia, the nimbus and pincers, money from off a document which the 
 
 afterwards adorned the Borghese Palace Cardinal appears to have just written, 
 
 at Rome. It was purchased by the Kev. ' Vita di Giulia Gonzaga. MS. 
 W. Holwell Carr, and bequeathed by 
 
GIULIA GONZAGA. 115 
 
 Giulia was inclined to a fair compromise, as she declared in 
 a letter to her brother, Don Ferrante Gonzaga. The Em- 
 peror Charles V., coming to Naples in 1535, on his return 
 from Africa, the case was laid before him. He referred it 
 to the decision of Don Pedro de Toledo, the Viceroy, recom- 
 mending by letter, dated the 12th of October, 1635, that 
 the cause should be amicably disposed of by mutual agree- 
 ment.*^ After various discussions before the Viceroy on the 
 subject, it was adjudged that Giulia should be satisfied with 
 her dowry and the addition left to her by her husband. 
 This did not put an end to Isabella's importunity, who 
 continued the contention, wishing for herself the addition 
 of the pin-money {sopraddote) , amounting in the aggre- 
 gate to 13,000 ducats. She required that a judicial dis- 
 position she herself had made should be rendered void, 
 although the validity of the deeds by which it was settled 
 remaiued unshaken. Isabella then ofi'ered to give Giuha 
 500 ducats annually for the support and maintenance of 
 her household, but once more changed her mind. Hence 
 Charles V. deputed, by diploma of the 27th of February, 
 1536, three members of Ms council as commissioners, to 
 give judgment as justice required. A great part of the year 
 1536 was spent in this unpleasant affair. On the 8th of 
 June, 1537, Giulia wrote to her brother respecting the issue 
 of the suit : " The judges have decreed the Signora Isabella 
 to pay me 2,500 ducats annually, in quarterly payments 
 {terza per terza), and 1,000 ducats down for lapsed time." 
 Thus ended this troublesome affair, to which allusion appears 
 to be made iu her conversation with Vald^s. " Many years 
 have I Hved in the manner I describe, and during this time, 
 as you hnow, various circumstances have happened to me 
 sufficient to disturb a tranquil spirit, more especially a soul 
 so disquieted as mine." 
 
 It was precisely under these perplexing circumstances 
 that her iutimate acquaintance with Juan de Valdes took 
 place, and that the conversation, detailed with great clear- 
 ness in a volimie entitled the " Alfabeto Cheistiano,"' was 
 held. These incidents serve to explain some parts of the 
 Dialogue : the return in the evening from hearing the 
 preacher's sermon ; the prolonged conversation carried on 
 
 ' The letter is given in Spanish by F(wi»oJlf.i).XiF/."s. 1. fol.76, sm.Svo. 
 
 Affo ; it is addressed to Giulia Gonzaga, Reprinted with two modem translations 
 
 signed by Charles v., and countersigned in Spanish and in English. London, 
 
 by his secretary Idiaquea—Memorie di MDCCCLXI. 8vo. One hundred copies 
 
 tre Piincipesse, p. 40. only of the English translation, by 
 
 '■"Alfabeln Christiana, che inseffna la Benjamin B. Wiffen, were published 
 
 vera:via Hacquistare il lume dello Spirito 1861, Svo. 
 Santo.' Stampata con gratia et priuilegio 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 in her house to a late hour ; how Vald^s could have assisted 
 her in her outward affairs by his intercourse with the Viceroy 
 and the Emperor ; and the reason why Valdes endeavours 
 so much to impress upon her mind an entire dependence 
 upon God and faith in His promises for outward support; 
 the duty of forgiveness of injuries ; the sacrifice of mere 
 worldly honour ; and they also explain a certain clause in 
 her willj by which she directs that 350 ducats be paid down 
 " to the Signora Donna Isabella, Principessa di Sulmona, 
 in lieu of a certain chalice and patena, and certain pearls 
 and a silver basin, that came into my possession from her 
 mansion, and which may be valued at this sum." 
 
 By the will of Ludovico, his paternal grandfather, in June, 
 1540, the tutelage of Isabella's son Yespasiano, then pro- 
 ceeding Duke of Sabbionetta, devolved upon the care of his 
 aunt Giulia. She immediately despatched Mabco Aijtonio 
 Magno as ambassador to the court of Charles V., at that 
 time at Brussels, to secure the investiture of the state of 
 Lombardy for her nephew, and to solicit that the former 
 administrators of the state might be superseded by the 
 Cardinal Brcole Gonzaga and Don Ferrante, Viceroy of Sicily, 
 his brother. In September, 1541, the Emperor issued a 
 favourable diploma, and immediately GiuHa proceeded with 
 Vespasiano's education, providing for him the best instructors 
 in Tuscan, Greek, and Latin. As he grew up, he evidenced 
 the fruits of her care and judgment by his general character, 
 and especially by his love of letters. He granted the Jews 
 a license to estabUsh a Hebrew press at Sabbionetta, from 
 which issued several editions of the Pentateuch, Psalter, 
 and Rabbinical Commentaries. He died in 1591, and in him 
 the Dukes of Sabbionetta became extinct. 
 
 Valdes had been removed by death from the persecutions 
 to come, which seem to have been foreshadowed in his own 
 mind, towards the close of the year 1540. Carnesecchi, 
 who possessed an abbacy at Naples, was there in the 
 December of that year, and was probably with him in his 
 last hours ; he took the place of Valdes in Giulia's con- 
 fidence. It appears that she was the " ItaUan Princess " 
 to whom he was afterwards accused of having recommended 
 two teachers who were sent to open schools in her territory 
 for the instruction of children, but whose opinions becoming 
 suspected, they were apprehended by the Inquisition. 
 When he was called to Rome, about February, 1546, to 
 defend himself against suspicions of holding erroneous 
 sentiments, Giulia Gonzaga was questioned about her cor- 
 respondence with him. He rebutted all the imputations of 
 
DEATH OF GITJIIA GONZAGA. 117 
 
 his accusers, and returned to his abbey at Naples, where 
 lie then resided, enjoying the fairest reputation with the 
 highest personages as a man of great learning and un- 
 spotted integrity. A second time, in 1565, during his 
 last trial under Pins V., Giulia's name being found in a 
 portion of his correspondence with Calvin, her latter days 
 were disturbed by lie vexations of the Holy Office, and 
 it is said that they shortened her Hfe. This may or may 
 not have been the case, for she had already attained to 
 an advanced period of hfe. And a quiet and perhaps 
 welcome death in a home where she had passed nearly 
 one half of her Hfe, arrived to prevent any iurther moles- 
 tation, and also to remove her from the painful know- 
 ledge of the cruel death which shortly afterwards over- 
 took Camesecchi. Having made her will a second time, 
 she left, with the exception of a number of small legacies, 
 her nephew Vespasiano her heir. It is to be obsei-ved that 
 in drawing it up she did not foUow the practice common in 
 that age of recommending the departing spirit, not to God 
 only, but also to the Virgin and the prayers of the Church ; 
 her faith, it appears, held it to be all-sufficient to trust her 
 soul to her Creator and her Saviour. With a beautiful senti- 
 ment of confiding humility, " if it be worthy to be received 
 into eternal hfe,'' she bequeathed her soul to the Lord God 
 Almighty, her long-suffering Father, and to Jesus Christ, 
 His Son, her Eedeemer. Thus, without prescribing any 
 ceremony for her ftmeral, but the place of iuterment, in the 
 full possession of her mental faculties to the last moment of 
 her life, she expired on the 19th of April, 1566, aged sixty- 
 seven, and was interred iu the church of Santa Chiara, 
 according to her last desire.' 
 
 The precise manner which Valdes observed when he 
 began his instruction of Giulia Gonzaga will be seen in 
 extracts given from the " Alfabeto Christiano," a book un- 
 known even to bibliographers for the last three centuries. 
 It had its origia iu an actual conversation between Juan de 
 Valdes and the Duchess, at Naples, about the close of 1535 
 or the beginning of the following year. At her request it 
 was immediately put into form and written down by him 
 iu Spanish, to refresh her memory. It was translated into 
 
 ' " Memorie di tre Frincipesse della Signora Principessa Donna Luigria Gon- 
 
 famiglia Gronzaga offerte a s<ia eoc. il zaga Mantovano." Parma, 1787, 4to. 
 
 Signer Conte Stefano Sanvitale Par- The account of Giulia Gonzaga occupies 
 
 migiano, gentilhuomo di camera con eighty-four pages. It is also in the 
 
 esercito ed essente delle reali guardie " Kaccolta Ferrarese." Vinegia, 1781, 
 
 del corpo di S. A. E. in occasione deUe voL viii. pp. 147-188. 
 sue feliciesime nozze con sua eccel. la 
 
118 LITE or JTAX DE VALDES. 
 
 Italian for her by her own procv/ratore, Marc Antonio 
 Magno. This translation is now onr only origiiial, the 
 Spanish having' perished in manuscript. Taldes addressed 
 the work to her ia an epistle in which he states the occasion 
 that gave ri^e to it. 
 
 TO THE MOST ILLUSTEIOrS LADY, SIGis^OEA 
 DOX^"A GIULIA GOXZAGA. 
 
 Constrained by the commands of yonr most illustrious ladrsMp, con- 
 trary to my own opinion, I have written as a dialogue all tliat religions 
 conrersation in which we were so deeply interested the other day when 
 returning from the sermon, that only the lateness of the hour fitrced us to 
 break it offi If I rightly remember, no point on which we then dis- 
 coursed is here omitted, nor is any subject we then discussed, left rai- 
 esamined. Let your ladyship read it when yon have leisure ; and if you 
 find anything wanting or supCTfluous, or if anything aJ&esh occnrto you in 
 reply to what is here stated, inform me of it ; because by erasing the one 
 and inserting the other, the Diah^ne will at length be left perfect^ con- 
 formable to your wishes ; for my purpose in writing it has solely been to 
 please and satisfy your Ladyship. 
 
 This reason may serve at the same time as an answer to snch perstHis 
 who, on reading T>iii^ Dialogue, may tbiTiV it much too strict and rigorous, 
 and as a reply to others to whom it may appear as mnch toj fiee and 
 nngnarded : both classes forgetting that I did not discourse it with them, 
 nor write it for them, but inthi your Ladyship, and /or your Ladjdiip; 
 including, however, all such persons who, in your najne, and as an a^r 
 entirely yottr own. may incline to make use and avail themselves of iL 
 
 In return for the labour I have for several daj^ employed in writing 
 this treatise. I desire from yonr Ladyship only two things. One is, that 
 you may give to what you wiE here read no trust or behef fnrthex tlian as 
 it appears and is made clear to t ou, that it has a foundation in the Sciip- 
 tnx", and invites and leads you forward to that perfect Christian lore 
 T^hieh is the mark by which Christ desires Tfi'j followers shoidd be ilis- 
 tingnished from all other persons. The other thi^1g is : that yon make 
 use of tbi'i Dialogue as children tise a grammar when they learn Latiii, in 
 the manner of a Christian alphabet, in which you may learn the rudiments 
 of Christian perfection, malriTig it your aim, the elements being attained, 
 to leave the alphabet and apply your sold to thin'" more important, more 
 excellent, more divine It is expedient that your Ladyship do as I say, 
 as mnch for yonr own advantage as for my safety. Because if you do so, 
 I stall not then have feUen into the error of those persons who sell their 
 own writings and imaiinitions at the same price for which they barter 
 Holy Scripture ; nor your Ladyship into the mistake, fer more hurtfid than 
 beneficial, into which those persons fell who, with a pious simpJici^, apjif 
 themselves to the mere writings of men, without looking for sometliiiig iff 
 beyond them. It frequently happens to such persons that, firiHing in 
 those writings the milk of rudimental doctrine, tiiey take so much relish 
 in it that, peisnading themselves they can gain from it the hi^er conso- 
 lations that belong to Christian perfection, they are cot careful to go ies- 
 ward and se^k the aliment of the perfect CTiristian, which is to be fonnd 
 in the Sacred Scriptures alone. Be.;-iase those only in some measure ac- 
 commodate themselves to the capacity of their readers, who at first give 
 the milk of the word, and afterwards present the stronger food to the mrae 
 proficient for their nonxishment. Hence it arises tbit such petstns. 
 depenini- upon men and always reading their writicgs, remain imperfect. 
 
119 
 
 and yet frequently judge of and satisfy themselves that they have 
 reached perfection. Now, desiring that your Ladyship may never judge 
 yourself perfect, but that you may be so in reality, both in the view 
 of God and of the world, I wish you not so to read this composition, 
 nor to hold it in greater estimation than ought to be given to tho 
 writings of one who, desii-ous to gratify you in this Christian object, only 
 points out to you the way by which you may arrive at Christ Himself, and 
 become united with Him. 
 
 And I desire that your Christian intention may be to make Christ the 
 peaceful possessor of your heart, in such a manner that He may absolutely 
 and without contradiction rule and regulate aU your aifairs. And when 
 your Ladyship shall have done this, believe me that you wiU not feel the 
 want of anything whatsoever in this present Ufe that can give you entire 
 contentment and repose. Because Christ Himself wUl dispose all things 
 and provide the most pleasant banquets for you, even the knowledge of 
 His Divinity, in which in quietness and confidence you shall lie down and 
 slumber. And when I shall know and see that your Ladyship is in this 
 glorious state, assured and certain of your spiritual progress, I shall not 
 hesitate to believe that my intention in this work has been altogether a 
 Christian one, and that your Ladyship has perused it with a mind, pure, 
 humble, and discreet. 
 
 May God, our Lord, make it suitable for your Ulustrious Ladyship's 
 need, and for the object which I, as your most affectionate servant, per- 
 petually desire ! 
 
 Naples (1535). Juan de Vald^s. 
 
 Tlie reader wilL apprehend the manner of the Dialogue 
 from a few pages with which it commences. 
 
 GlULIA GONZAGA. — JtJAN DE VaLD^S. 
 
 GiULiA : I have so much confidence in our friendship, that I seem as if 
 I could freely cormnunicate to you even those things that we scarcely dis- 
 close to the ears of a confessor. Therefore, wishing now to impart to you 
 some things more important to me than life itseK, I entreat you, if you 
 have not more urgent business elsewhere, to listen attentively to what I 
 wish to say to you. And if you think you cannot attend closely to me 
 now, through having your thoughts engaged elsewhere, pray tell me ft-ankly, 
 and if so, I can defer it to another day. 
 
 Vald:^s : On the contrary, Signora, I receive as a favour whatever you 
 command me ; and you know already that I have no business which can 
 hinder me, especially in what relates to your service. 
 
 GiuLiA : Now, setting aside all vain rhetoric and useless ceremony, which 
 between us are quite superfluous, I wish you to know that I live almost 
 continually so dissatisfied with myself, and in like manner with all things 
 in the world, and so out of conceit with them, that if you saw my heart, I 
 am sure you would pity me ; for in it you would find, if not confusion, at 
 least inquietude and perplexity. And of these I have sometimes more, 
 sometimes less, according to the nature of the circumstances that present 
 themselves. But I never feel so much serenity of mind, that, wishing to 
 come to a settlement with it, I can conclusively understand what it is that 
 I would wish for, or what thing would satisfy it, or with what it would 
 rest contented. Hence I cannot conceive what can now be offered to me, 
 suificient to remove this my confusion of mind, appease my inquietude, 
 and resolve this perplexity. Many years have I lived in the manner I 
 describe, and during this time, as you know, various circumstances have 
 happened to me suificient to disturb a tranquil spirit, much more a soul so 
 disquieted and confused as mine. Besides this, you know, that when I 
 
].20 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 heard the first sermons from our preacher [Ochino], you persuaded me by 
 your words that by means of this doctrine I should be able to tranquillize 
 and settle my mind in peace ; but up to this tune I find it altogether the 
 reverse of what I thought. And although I attribute this more to my 
 own imperfections than to any defect in him, yet altogether it gives me 
 pain to perceive that my hopes have not been realized. This_ disappoint- 
 ment might be tolerable, yet the evil is that, instead of being cured of 
 one infirmity, I have fallen into another without being released from the 
 former. This is a most heavy and cruel contrariety, so much so that I 
 feel so weajy and disgusted with myself,, that tears frequently come iato 
 my eyes through not knowing what to do with myself or what to lean 
 upon. The sermons of the preacher have produced this contrariety ia my , 
 mind. Through them I see myself violently assailed, on one side by the 
 fear of hell and the love of paradise, and on the other by the dread of 
 people's tongues and the love of the world's honour. In this manner two 
 kinds of fear and two of affection, or, to speak more correctly, two affections 
 of fear and two different ones of love, are %hting within me, and have 
 kept me such as I am for some days. If you could feel what I now feel, 
 you might truly wonder how I can pass it off and conceal it as I do. 
 This is what I find within me, and in this state, good and bad, which I 
 have described as well as I know how, my affairs remain. Now, since 
 you have shown so much affection and good-will as to aid me in my out- 
 ward concerns,' I entreat you to be ready to assist and counsel me in these 
 inward things, because I very well know that, if you are willing, you have 
 more skOl to help me in these than in the others. 
 
 Vald:^s : Say freely, Signora, all that you wish to ask of me, and you 
 may be assured that I will always expend in your service all that I know 
 and am able to do. 
 
 GiuLiA : In such confidence I have entered into this conversation with 
 you, in the first instance, in order that you may tell me from what cause 
 you believe the confusion, doubt, and perplexity spring, which for so long 
 a time I have felt in my mind, and whether you think they can be 
 remedied, and what means can be used for the purpose. This said, you 
 will tell me concerning the contradictions that have arisen in me after I 
 heard these sermons ; whether it would be possible by any way to quiet 
 my mind, either by assent, or really by resistance ; becausp this tempest 
 of affections and appetites, of imagiaations and diversities of will, cannot 
 be endured much longer ; and I wish you not to lose time with excusiog 
 yourself by your usual, not to say feigned humility, which in such a case 
 you are accustomed frequently to use. 
 
 Yalb^s : On the contrary, without more reflection, I will at once make 
 a beginning. Yet I wish you first to make me one promise. 
 
 GiULiA ; What promise ? 
 
 Valdj^s : It is this, that, if I make you truly comprehend from what 
 cause your confusion, inquietude, and contradictions proceed, and show 
 you the way by which you can be freed from them, you will give me your 
 assurance and word that you wiU walk in it. 
 
 GitJLiA : If in this manner I might be certain that you would do what 
 you say, as I am certain that in such case I would do what you ask of me, 
 I should already begin to quiet myself. 
 
 Yald^b : Now, then, I hoJ)e, not so much from any s kin or sufficiency 
 of my own as in the affection and willingness I have to serve you, and 
 likevidse in your lively understanding and lucid judgment, and above all 
 in the grace of God, that before I leave this place you shall not only learn 
 what you wish, but you shall know and understand the way by which you 
 
 ' She was at this time troubled with the suit by her daughter-in-law Isabella. 
 
THE " ALFABETO CHEISTIANO. 121 
 
 can free yourself from your former infirmity and its consequences. Be 
 very attentive, Signora, oecause upon every single thing which I shall say 
 to you, you can reply to me what may occur to you. 
 
 GixjLiA : I win do so. 
 
 Vald^s : Then, in order to understand, Signora, whence proceed the 
 travail and confusion, which you say you have felt for so many years, I 
 wish you would turn over in your memory how man is made in the image 
 and likeness of &od. 
 
 GiULiA : Let me understand what this image and lilceness of Ood is. 
 
 VALD:fis : I wish rather that St. Paul may explain it to you, and thus 
 you win understand it by what he says to the Colossians, where, admonish- 
 ing them to speak the truth one to another, he counsels them to " put off 
 the old man with his deeds, and to put on the New man, who is renewed 
 in knowledge conformable to the image ajid lilceness of Him who created 
 him."' And you will also understand it by what St. Paul again says to 
 the Ephesians, reminding them, that by becoming Christians they have 
 learned to put off the old man and to be renewed in the spirit and clothed 
 with the New man, who is created in the image and likeness of God." 
 From this it appears that, in whatever degree a man possesses and 
 retains in himself the im/ige and likeness of God, in the same measure 
 he sees and knows, understands and relishes spiritual things in a 
 spiritual life and conversation. This truly known, and what objects 
 you set before your mind well scrutinized, you will understand clearly 
 how all the inquietude, all the travail, all the confusion you feel arise ; 
 because your soul desires you to procure its restitution to the image of God 
 to which it was created, and of which it appears you have deprived it. 
 Submitting to your appetites, and persisting in crossing this image, you 
 have put before it t. hirig s earthly and transitory, not by any means worthy 
 of that excellence for which it was created. For this reason it cannot be 
 satisfied or contented with any of these things. It seems to you that it knows 
 not what it wishes for ; and hence you know not how to set before it that 
 which it would desire. This state of mind that happens to you, ever 
 befalls worldly persons who, having attained to a reflective intellect and 
 clear judgment, knowing truly that their souls find not, nor ever can find, 
 entire satisfaction in outward things, turn themselves to seek for it in 
 things relating to the mind. Yet as the stipematural light, by which 
 alon^ truth is discovered, seen, and known, is wanting to them, they go 
 wandering in a labyrinth of appearances and opinions. And thus some 
 seek happiness in one thing, some in another. I think it not worth while 
 to refer here to examples, because this is not the point of your proposition. 
 It is enough that you know this, that aU these persons deceive themselves, 
 and can never shadow out, nor reach to the symbols of the things in which 
 true happiness consists, who, if they had had a little of the light of faith, 
 would most easily and with the grace of God have acquired it, and thus 
 they would have quieted and pacified their souls. Do you now understand 
 the cause whence your inquietude, confusion, and labour proceed ? 
 GmLiA : Yes, very well 
 
 VALDfe : Then you know that they may certainly be remedied, and 
 that the remedy is in your own hands. 
 GiULiA : In my hands ? 
 
 Yald^s : Yes ! in your hands. Because whenever you determine your- 
 self to do what I tell you, and which St. Paul tells you, respecting the 
 renewing and restoring within you the image and Kkeness of Gfld, you will 
 find peace, quiet, and repose of spirit. 
 GiuLiA : And how must I do this ? 
 
 > Col. jii. 9, 10. 2 Eph. iv. 22-24. 
 
122 LIFE Of JUAN DE VALCiS. 
 
 "V AT.n fe : By withdrawing from your mind perishable and transitory 
 things, and by applying it to those that are stable and eternal ; not wish- 
 ing nor endeavouring to feed it with corporeal things but spiritual, not 
 nourishing it with worldly things but with celestial. And in this manner 
 your spirit finding its proper aliment, and seeing itself clothed with the 
 New man in the image and Klceness of which it was created, wiU always 
 live content and cheerful. And here, in this present life, it will begin to 
 taste of that felicity which it expects to enjoy for ever in the life eternal, 
 because the happiness of man consists in his knowledge of God and of 
 Christ shown by the light of faith, and in the union of the soul with Grod 
 through faith, hope, and love. To this happiness only the true Christian 
 can arrive. 
 
 GiiTLiA ; I should well believe what you say, because, indeed, it appears 
 founded in reason ; but as I know many persons who have cancelled the 
 i7na<je of God as much as, and perhaps more than, I have done, and who 
 do not present to their minds things more spiritual than I present to mine, 
 yet they live in pleasure, finding content and satisfaction in the things of 
 this world : so that I know not what to believe. 
 
 Vald^s : Such persons' minds dwell in a low and vulgar state, and 
 therefore low and mean objects give them satisfaction. But a spirit 
 generous and refined like yours cannot tranquillize itself and take repose, 
 except in that greatness for which it was created. Hence, I repeat, if you 
 are disgusted and live with your mind in confusion, it is because you do 
 not turn it to things spiritual and divine, and because you continually fix 
 its consideration upon these low and transitory concerns. You wiU better 
 imderstand it by this comparison : 
 
 Two persons set out from this place to go to Spain. One of them is so 
 careless and forgetful of his purpose, that whenever anything amusing or 
 delightfid. occurs on the way, he not only partakes of it and enjoys it, hut 
 quite forgets his main object, and indulges his body and mind by stopping 
 on the road. The other, on the contrary, is so solicitous and scrupulous, 
 that whatever entertainments and feasts may be ofi'ered him, he will not 
 taste or enjoy any, because he knows and is sure that he is not to remain 
 there ; nay, they are frequently displeasing and distasteful to him, as 
 being hindrances and interruptions of his journey. And those earthly- 
 minded persons even now have a want of satisfaction in these things when- 
 ever their principal journey becomes more impressed on their remembrance ; 
 and although at times they forget themselves and lose sight of their object, 
 there remains impressed upon their memory altogether a something, I 
 know not what, which causes them to find no true enjoyment in anything 
 that the journey presents to them. 
 
 Such are we in this life. We are all born and created to know God, to 
 believe God, to love God, and aft«r our present existence to enjoy Gtod. 
 And yet there are some who feed on the pleasures of this world, not only 
 delighting and giving themselves up to rest in them, but who are wholly 
 forgetful of that other hfe for which they were created. There are also 
 others who, being offered the same delights and pleasures, enjoy them not, 
 nor take relish in them ; nay, they are often insipid and distasteful to 
 them, because they always keep in view that other life for which God 
 created them. And although for a time they forget themselves, losing the 
 remembrance of the other Ufe, yet because God stands ever at the door 
 and calls them, it wiU be impossible that they shoidd fimd reUsh and 
 enjoyment in the things of this world ; and if they expect or endeavour to 
 find them here, they wxU live in confusion, disgust, and inquietude, as you 
 are Uving, Signora. In the same manner, then, like him who knows how 
 to taste of the things of this world, yet does not enjoy them as things 
 
THE " ALFABETO CHRISTIANO. 123 
 
 suitable to his better nature, or that will be lasting, but who looks at them 
 as the curious beholder views them, turning away from the recreations 
 and banquets offered to him by the way, — I wish you, Signora, to act. 
 Turn n-ithin yourself, open the ears of your smil, so that you may hear the 
 voice of God, and think as a true Christiiui, that in this life you can have 
 no other real contentment and rest, than what will come to you by means 
 of the knowledge of Grod, through the faith and love of God. Settle your 
 mind in this consideration ; most earnestly putting qside all those things 
 that are transitory and cannot endure. Doing this, I promise that you 
 will occupy a much shorter time in quieting, soothing, and giving peace 
 to your mind than you have spent in disturbing it. And if you do not 
 thus overcome it, I am content that you should never give credit to any- 
 thing I may say to you. 
 
 GitruA : Truly, I believe that you have divined the source whence my 
 infirmity proceeds, without erring in a single point. God, do Thou assist 
 me ! How blindly do we worldly persons go on ! I am convinced that 
 you have divined how to give me the medicine by which I shall be healed 
 of my weakness. It only remains that I put my trust in God and take it. 
 I have no doubt it will heal me, especially as I have such a physician as 
 you by my side. 
 
 VALDfe : The true physician of the soul is Christ crucified. Put all 
 your confidence in Him sdone, and you will discover the remedy. 
 
 Yaldes tlien describes to her the nature of the Law and 
 the Gospelj and their different effects on the heart : — 
 
 The Law is the rule of conscience, and it is thus that conscience is 
 no other than the Law understood, whose office is to bring sin to Ught, 
 and also to increase it. St. Paul knew both by experience, and as he 
 truly had experienced it, he writes to the Romans, in that his most excel- 
 lent epistle, and says himself, that the Law works wrath, because persons 
 are angry, disdainful, and variable when restricted by the Law (Eom. viii.). 
 He sayB, moreover, that the Law is spiritual, for it is not observed in its 
 integrity, nor rightly understood, unless the person is a spiritual person. 
 The prophets call the Law a heavy yoke, a rigorous sceptre, and other 
 names of this kind, which signify severity. And when Gk>d gave the Law 
 to Moses, the people of Israel, who stood at the foot of the mountain, saw 
 great lightnings and heard thunderings, so that they all trembled with 
 fear and dismay. All say that these things signify the terror, alarm, and 
 conflict of the affections which the Law generates in those minds to whom 
 it is given. But with aU this, you, Signora, ought to know that the Law 
 is very needful for you : since if you hfid not the Law, you would not have 
 conscience ; and without conscience sin would not be known ; and if sin 
 were not known, we should not humble ourselves ; and if we did not 
 humble ourselves, we should not obtain grace ; and if we did not obtain 
 grace, we should not be justified ; and not being justified, our souls would 
 not be saved. And this I believe St. Paul means where he says, that the 
 Law is as a schoolmaster or governor who leads and conducts us to Christ, 
 although by means of faith we are justified.' Here you perceive the office 
 of the Law. 
 
 The Grospel executes the same office in those persons who receive it only 
 as law. But in them who receive it as an ambassador or messenger of 
 grace, its especial office is to heal the wounds made by the Law, to preach 
 grace, peace, and remission of sins ; to calm and pacify the conscience ; 
 to give strength to accomplish what the Law shows us to be the will of 
 God, and by which the enemies of the soul are warred with, and by which 
 ' GaL iii. 24. 
 
124 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 they are overcome and beaten down to the ground. And thus Christ 
 comes to them compassionate, humble, pacific, and full of love and charity, 
 and not terrible and alarming like the Law. In this maimer the Law 
 teaches us what we have to do, the Gospel gives us the spirit by which we 
 are enabled to fulfil it. The Law inflicts the wound, the Gospel heals it ; 
 and, finally, the Law slays, the Gospel gives life. I do not care to go on 
 confirming this with the authority of the Sacred Scriptures, not to occupy 
 the time. .... 
 
 After this Valdes continues upon self-love and self- 
 denial : — 
 
 Valdes : The Preacher, Signora, by his sermons, has awakened in your 
 remembrance what you already had conceived of heaven and hell, and has 
 known so well how to picture it to you that the fear of hell makes you 
 love heaven, and the love of heaven makes you dread heU. And in con- 
 nection with showing you this, he tells you that you cajmot fly from hell 
 except through the observance and keeping of the law and the doctrine of 
 Christ. And as he declares this to you in a manner which it seems to you 
 that you cannot perform without hazard of being whispered about, dis- 
 esteemed, undervalued, and considered as contemptible by people of the 
 world, the forethought of the future Mfe conflicting within you on one side, 
 and on the other an unwillingness to bear the troubles of the present bfe, 
 in this way the contradiction you feel is generated. All this is bom of the 
 amor propria with which you love yourself. You fear heU for your own 
 interest, you love heaven for your own interest, you fear the confusion 
 of the world for your own interest, you love the glory and honour of the 
 world for your own interest. Thus in everything you fear and love, if 
 strictly noticed, you will discover yourself. 
 
 GiuLiA : Then whom do you wish that I should find in my own things 
 if not myself ? 
 
 VALD^is : I wish that you should again find God, and not yourself, if 
 you wish to be free from contradiction, confusion, inquietude, discontent, 
 and a thousand other discomforts beside, from which you can never become 
 freed ; but when you find God, you will find peace, serenity, quietness, 
 content, cheerfulness, and courage, and such an infinitude of spiritual 
 blessings that you wiU not know how to gather them. Now, if you wish 
 to slight Him, and if you are wUling to deprive yourself of heaven and 
 bind yourself to hell, through unwillingness to go a little out of yourself 
 and enter into God — why, look you to it ! For myself, I assure you that 
 there is nothing in the world that could give me equal satisfaction and 
 content as to see you walk in this Christian path, because I know your 
 mind so well inclined, I hold it certain that if you begin to take (Jehght 
 in God, you will surpass in the victory of holiness many of those saints 
 who are in heaven. 
 
 GiULiA : Indeed I desire no other thing ; God knows my wishes. 
 
 ValdiSs : Then why do you not take what you desire ? 
 
 GiULiA : Because I do not know how to do so. 
 
 VALD:fis : Force, force, Signora, is the only means the Gospel concern 
 demands. And so Christ said : " Prom the days of John the Baptist until 
 now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by 
 force." ' Thus if you wish to take the kingdom of heaven, do violence to 
 yourself, and so you wiU fear nothing, because, as a Spanish lady of high 
 rank said, although I think not upon this subject {Quien a si venae, A nadie 
 term), " he who conquers himself fears no one." 
 
 Giulia : Let us leave mere words ; the fact is, I indeed believe that all 
 my confusion, my inquietude, and my contradiction of mind would cease 
 ' Matt. xi. 12. 
 
THE "ALPABETO CHBISTIANO." 125 
 
 by entering upon the way of God ; and for tliis reason I would resolve to 
 enter upon it immediately, but it seems to me so difficult to find, that 
 I dare not set myself to seek it. 
 
 VAUj^fis : What do you see that makes it so troublesome to find ? 
 
 GiULiA : I see few who walk by that road. 
 
 VAi:,D:fis : In this you are so far right, that few walk in it. But you 
 should know that this does not arise so much from the difficulty of the way 
 as from our own evil nature and imperfection. And because I desire to 
 confirm you in this truth, I wish you to know that in the present Hfe you 
 will discover five kinds of persons. Some there are who know not the way 
 of God, neither wish to Iniow it, because they foresee that by walking in 
 that way they must deprive themselves of their amusements and pleasures ; 
 and these persons, although they do not speak it with the lips, yet from 
 the heart they use the language that Job utters when describing the 
 wickedness of the impious : " Depaort from us, for we desire not the know- 
 ledge of thy ways." ' David says the same : " The fool hath said in his 
 heart, there is no God," ' because in reality they wish that there were no 
 Grod. You will find other persons who know the way of God, but, over- 
 come by their affections and appetites, they do not conclusively determine 
 to walk in it. Christ says of such : " The servant who knew his lord's 
 will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." ' And truly it is 
 so also here ia this world. Such persons feel a continual remorse of 
 conscience which keeps them discontented and without enjoyment. 
 
 You will find another class of persons who desire and have the wish to 
 learn and know the way of God, but being bound by the love of the 
 things of this present life, and taking supreme delight in them, they are 
 not willing to give them up, and thus they do not conduct themselves so 
 that God should teach and show them His way. Satan directly sets before 
 such persons certain deceptive paths, which he gives them to imderstand 
 are the right paths, and they, blind with self-love, willingly yield them- 
 selves to be deceived and injured, supposing that God guides them, whilst 
 it is the devil who is leading them. Hence are invented superfluous cere- 
 monies ; hence arise pernicious superstitions ; hence come false worships. 
 God says of such persons by Isaiah : " They seek me daily, wishing to 
 learn and know my ways, like people who have lived righteously and have 
 not abandoned the justice and judgment of the Lord their God." '' 
 
 You will find another class of persons who are willing to know the way 
 of God and dispose themselves towards it. These hearing in their souls 
 the voice of Christ which says : " Turn within you, ye who go wandering ; 
 that is not the right path in which you are walking, for you cannot go by 
 that to the kingdom of heaven." These turn within themselves, and per- 
 ceiving that they wiU be lost, leave the road they are pursuing, and before 
 they take any other covttse pray unto God that He would show them the 
 true way. And this is their condition. Such persons are soon sensible of 
 Christ, who says to them : " Whoever will walk by the true and certain 
 way, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me,* imitating 
 Me in what he can ;" and they are aware that in another place of Scripture 
 He declares this to them : " Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of 
 heart, [and ye shall find rest imto your souls."] ^ And thus they imme- 
 diately enter by the way of denying their own wiU, and by the way 
 of patience and -true humility. 
 
 You will find some other persons who know the way of God and walk 
 in it, some with more and greater fervency than others, yet in such a 
 manner that neither the one nor the other go out of the way nor forsake 
 
 ' Job xxi. 14. ^ Ps. xiv. 1. ' Luke xii. 47. ■* Isaiah Iviii. 2. 
 
 5 Matt. xvl. 24. s Matt. xi. 29. 
 
126 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 it. They ^o on well ; and these in truth are but few, as you say, Signoia, 
 although they are not so few as you think, because their path being 
 spiritual, they cannot be seen but by spiiitual sight, nor are they 
 possibly known except by persons who walk by the same road. These 
 live in continual care not to offend God ; and if at times they fall 
 into any mortal sin through weakness, overcome by temptation, they 
 turn immediately to God, confess their offence, and have no need of 
 many preparations for the confession ; for, as David says, speaking of 
 himself, their sin is ever before their eyes.' These very persons have 
 some negligences and defects which are signs that their minds are not 
 entirely mortified. Indeed their defects and negligences are often made 
 to be the cause of their improvement, because they repent and humble 
 themselves, and thus learn to mistrust themselves and to confide to 
 God. For this reason St. Paul says, that " all things work together 
 for good to them that love God ;"- and hence he says in another place, 
 that there is nothing to bring condemnation to them, who, having entered 
 upon this road, stand united to Christ Jesus by faith and love.' 
 
 The first class of persons are the wicked ; the second, the blind ; 
 the third, the unsteady ; the fourth, the prudent ; the fifth, the holy. 
 In this manner you can see that if few persons walk by the Christian 
 way, it is more through their impiety, blindness, and fickleness than 
 through its difficulty ; and knowing this, you should have no fear of 
 finding it. And since you, Signora, as I think, are one of the fourth 
 sort of persons, set yourself to listen to the voice of ClirUt ; for He will 
 put you forward in the true way. And consider it certain that directly 
 you shall have entered upon it, you wiH feel no more confusion, in- 
 quietude, travail, or perplexity ; in short, you will not feel any of those 
 conflicts of mind, but, on the contrary, you wiU experience great peace, 
 cheerfulness, satisfaction, and supreme content. 
 
 GiUMA : Everything you tell me gives me satisfaction. And since I 
 absolutely wish to enter upon this way, it remains for you to lead me by 
 the hand, instructing me in those footsteps by which I believe you have 
 yourself walked. 
 
 VAT.nfe : I know not what more you wish to learn from me of that 
 which the preacher tells you every day. 
 
 GiULiA : I am weak and cannot make such resistance to my inclination 
 as the preacher speaks of. 
 
 VAi,D:fis : I already, in good part., understand you, Signora. What 
 need have you to go by the branches ? "' I know well what you would 
 wish. 
 
 GnxLiA : TVhat incivility ! Since you know it, why do you not men- 
 tion it ? 
 
 ValdiSs : Because I waited for you to tell it with your own lips. 
 
 GitJiiA : Do me this favour, then, since you know it, to mention it ; 
 and if you divine it, I wiU teU you the truth without reserve. 
 
 Vai,d£s : I am content with this. You, Signora, wish to be freed from 
 the troublesome things that come and go through your imagination, and 
 being convinced that this is the true way to free you from them, you wish 
 me to show you some royal and ladyKke road by which you may be able 
 to get to God without turning away from the world, and by which you 
 can attain to inward humility without showing it outwardly ; by which 
 you may possess the virtue of patience without the occurrence to you of 
 
 'Ps. K. 3. Dejemonos de andar per las ramas.— 
 
 - Bom. viii. 28. ^ Horn. viiL 1. Difflogo de la Lengua, p. 203, ed. 1860. 
 
 ■* An Italian and Spanish proverb >ised Let us come to the point let us cease 
 
 ^y^^aXAis: andareperliramit Orig. : to beat about the bush. 
 
THE "ALFABETO OHRISTIANO." 127 
 
 what would exercise it ; by which you may despise the world, but in 
 a maimer that the world may not contemn ; by which you may cJothe 
 your soul with Christian vu-tues witliout despoUing the body of its 
 accustomed ornaments ; by which you may nourish your soul with spuitual 
 viands without depriving the body of its usual' banquets. You wish 
 forsooth to appear good in God's sight without apppearmg ill in the eyes 
 of the world ; and, in short, by this path you wish to be able to lead your 
 religious life, but in a mode that no worldly person, however great the 
 familiarity and intercourse he might have with you, could discover iu your 
 life more than he at present knows. Have I divined your sentiments ? 
 
 GiULiA : Very nearly ; or at least, if you have not divined them, you 
 may say that you have gone to the turn of the mark. 
 
 VALDfe : This is sufficient for me to warrant my saying that, according 
 to my perception, you are more ready to free yourself from the conflict 
 than you feel to assent to the verdict. 
 
 GiULiA : Yet do you not always tell me that a bad compromise is better 
 than a good verdict ?• 
 
 VALDfe : Yes, I say so, but not in this case, in which the compromise 
 is very dangerous, and terribly hurtfuL Know you not that Christ says, 
 that we cannot serve the world and love God, or we must love God and 
 despise the world 1^ . . . . 
 
 Valdes lays great stress upon the necessity of knowing 
 ourselves truly, and the continual exercise of self-exami- 
 nation. 
 
 O Signora ! of what importance it is that a person should know how 
 to be acquainted with himself. I am sure that if we truly knew it, we 
 should apply much more study and diligence to this than to any other 
 object whatever. 
 
 GitTLiA : In what does this importance consist ? 
 
 VAT.nfe : In this, that if you do not know yourself, you can never 
 cease to love yourself inordinately. And while you have this self-love 
 you cannot love God. And whilst you do not love Him, you cannot do, 
 say, or think anything that may be to His honour ; and not being to His 
 honour, consider whether it would be to the advantage of your souL 
 
 GiTJLiA : So might I know others as fuUy as I know myself. 
 
 ValdiSs : And stUl in this, Signora, consists the deception ; that not 
 knowing yourself, you think you do. I give you to know that he must 
 be a very spiritual person who entirely knows himself. 
 
 GiTJLiA : I believe it may be so. And since this knowledge is of so 
 much importance, instruct me what I must do to know myself. 
 
 Valdes : The ^rst thing you ought to do is to convince yourself that 
 you do not know yourself. The second is to know indeed the necessity 
 you have to know yourself. The third is, to pray God that He would 
 open the eyes of your understanding, so that you may know yourself. The 
 fourth, to occupy yourself a little every day in examining your affections 
 and appetites which incline you to djsobey God. This inclination you 
 must consider comes to you through original sin, and, therefore, you 
 should hold it as the more pernicious, because it is natural to you, and so 
 this causes you to love yourself vrtthout restraint, and to desire everything 
 for yourselt Hence you will learn to trust not at all in yourself ; so wUl 
 you live always above yourself. After this, you may run a little over 
 your past life, and you will iind many defects, which wiU lead you to 
 
 ' Proverb : Mas vale mala avenoncia in reference to Isabella's suit against 
 que buena sentencia,— used by Yaldfe Giulia. - Matt. vi. 24. 
 
128 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDi^S. 
 
 know what you are. You will discover, as David discovered, much 
 inward iniquity and much rebellion against God. With him you will 
 learn that every man is false and a liar ; that is to say, that he his an ill 
 opinion of the things of God. You will know with Jeremiah, that the 
 heart of man is perverse, and you wUl know what God says : that the 
 imaginations of the thoughts of the human heart are evil continually,' and 
 you wiU discover in yourself much ingratitude that you have had against 
 God. Every time you examine, you wUl know on one side the blessings 
 you have received from His hand, as well as the general ones that aU 
 people in the world partake of, also the particular favours you enjoy, 
 especially the benefit of the suflerings of Christ, and of your having been 
 drawn to the knowledge of it, so that you possess and rejoice in it ; and 
 on the other side, when you examine your actions, in all of which you 
 have shown great ingratitude, by evU deeds, by having offended God who 
 gave you the being you have, and who redeemed you by His most precious 
 blood ; and by those acts that appear to you good, because you will under- 
 stand how you did them, not through your love to God, but through love 
 of yourself ; since you have been living, not in the love of God, but in 
 the love of yourself. Such being the vice of ingratitude, it is so much 
 the more abominable and vUe in you, because you have received probably 
 more of the gifts of God in person and in mind than any other individual 
 now living. Think, then, whether you have reason to stand ill with 
 yourself, and to suspect every evil, and thus you will live always carefully 
 watchful over yourself. 
 
 It is proper that you enter every day into the knowledge of this defi- 
 ciency and ingratitude, not to remain there, but to pass forward to another 
 step. This wOl be self-abhorrence. To this you will readily come, because 
 in proportion as you know yourself, the more wiU you abhor and suspect 
 yourself of aU evil ; and although you wfll not entirely abhor yourself, 
 you win at least lose the love you bear towards yourself. For this reason, 
 as much more and better a thing is known that is evil in itself, so much 
 more it is to be hated. I do not say that you should show your self- 
 abhorrence by misusing your person, but by despofling your heart of its 
 self-love, which is the greatest hindrance we have to grace, it being the 
 case that we have no enemy so deadly as this ; for it is that which in 
 every possible way and manner labours to separate us from God. Rather, 
 it keeps us in so blind a state and so carried away by it, that we scarcely 
 remember God ; and hence the prophet Micah says : " A man's enemies 
 are those of his own house." ^ Therefore, Signora, if you wish to walk 
 Hghtly along this Christian path, enter frequently into a knowledge of 
 your own misery and weakness, and labour to banish this mortal enemy, 
 self-love, from your breast. AJnd know for a certainty that, when this 
 is driven out, the Holy Spirit wOl quickly, quickly come and dwell in 
 you. 
 
 And as you go on stripping your heart of self-love, you will go forward 
 clothing it with the love of God. It is then proper that you advance very 
 soon to another step. This is, that as you take a small portion of the day 
 to enter into a knowledge of yourself, in order to come by this to dis- 
 enamour yourself of yourself ; so, without dwelling long upon this, you 
 take another portion of time to enter into acquaintance with God, in order 
 thus to delight yourself with Him. Tliis you wiU readily come to, seeing 
 that the more anything good in itself is known, so much the more it is loved. 
 And that you should the more willingly enter into this knowledge, re- 
 member what Christ says : " And this is life eternal, that they might know 
 Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent ;"^ and what 
 
 ' Gen. vi. 5. ^ Micah vii. 6. 3 John xvii. 3. 
 
THE " ALFABETO OHEISTIANO. 129 
 
 tie wise man says, that the knowledge of God is perfect justification ; and 
 that to know justification and the property (virtiC) of God is the root and 
 foundation of inunortality. 
 
 GiULiA : You take for granted that as I have not Icnown how to know 
 myself, so I have less known how to understand God. Teach me how 
 I can know Him. 
 
 VALD:fis : There are three ways by which persons have arrived and do 
 come to a knowledge of God. One is by the light of nature. This light 
 the Gentile philosophei-s had, and this those people have at the present 
 day, to whom Christ is not known. St. Paul spoke of this knowledge 
 when he said that by the visible things of creation people come to a know- 
 ledge of the invisible things of God.' And it is thus : that reflectiug on 
 this mundane frame of things in which they behold so much that is 
 excellent, they go on investigating and imagining what they do not see, 
 and by the one and the other they arrive at the knowledge that God who 
 made these things is omnipotent. And going on farther, to the consi- 
 deration of the admirable providence with which He governs and regulates 
 all things, in such a manner that one does not interfere with another 
 — rather one assists and serves the others, — they arrive at the knowledge 
 that God is supremely wise, and is, indeed, wisdom itself. Again, besides 
 this, passing on to the consideration of the equality with which, without 
 distinction, aU these blessings, earthly and celestial, are distributed to the 
 people of the world, they know that God is supreme goodness. In this 
 way people of the world, having only the light of nature, reading in the 
 volume of created things, have known and do now know in God omni- 
 potence, wisdom, and goodness. 
 
 Another way to the knowledge of God is by sacred Scripture ; I mean 
 by the Old Tesbunent, which gave a knowledge of God, but imperfectly, 
 exhibiting Him as angry, cruel, and vindictive ; and therefore it calls Htni 
 a God of vengeance, and Lord of hosts, and such similar severe names. 
 In this manner the blind Hebrews knew God ; yet altogether it is a less 
 obscure knowledge than that the Gentiles possessed, although they would 
 yet serve as slaves, indeed they even now serve as such. The third way 
 of knowing God is by Christ. This way is the certain, clear, and safe 
 way ; this is the straight, royal and noble way. And be assured, Signora, 
 that in knowing God through Christ consists the whole being of a 
 Christian ; for to know God through Christ it is necessary first to know 
 Christ Himself And because we cannot know Christ by the light of 
 nature, nor by other human industry, if God does not internally illumine 
 and open the vision of our souls, I say that this knowledge of God through 
 Christ is supernatural knowledge, for which the special grace of God is 
 necessary. And that it is the truth, that we cannot have the true know- 
 ledge of God except through Christ, Christ Himself demonstrates, saying : 
 " No man can come to Me, except the Eternal Father draw him." ^ And 
 He shows it again by His answer to Peter, when Peter acknowledged Him 
 to be the true Son of Gfod, saying to hiVn : " Blessed art thou, Simon, 
 son of John, for this thou hast not gained by human reason, nor by the 
 light of nature, but my Father who is in heaven has revealed it unto 
 thee." ^ When we know God through Christ, we know Him as loving. 
 Benign, merciful, compassionate, because we find in Christ love, benignity, 
 mercy, and compassion. See here, Signora, three ways of knowing God, 
 according to three different kinds of people who have had, and stiU have, 
 a knowledge of God. And because the two first are not to your purpose, 
 you wiU let them pass, and only exercise yourself in the third, which is, 
 to know God through Christ. But in order that this exercise may be 
 
 ' Eom. i. 20. = John vi. 44. = Matt. xvi. 17. 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OP JUAN DB VALD^S, 
 
 profitable, it is proper that you should learn to know Christ, not by 
 knowledge gained by custom, nor acquired by the intellect and human 
 industry, but by the light of faith impired hy the Holy Spirit. It is 
 needful for you in this manner to learn rightly to know Christ if you wish 
 to come perfectly to know God through Christ. 
 
 GiuLiA : I know not that I have anything to reply to you ; so plainly 
 it seems to me that I know Christ well, if there be not some other secret 
 cognizance to which I have not arrived. 
 
 Vald:^s : Now this secret cognizance is what I said persons must come 
 to by inspiration ; and therefore we should not think the public acknow- 
 ledgment of Christ sufficient : an assassin or a traitor has such. St. John 
 undeceives us, saying : " He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His 
 commandments, is a Uar.'" 
 
 GiTTLiA : You seem to me to straiten me greatly, and I feel it so much 
 the more as I have nothing to answer you. Now then, for your Ufe, let 
 us not lose time, but open a little to me the way by which I may enter 
 into the true knowledge of Christ. 
 
 Valdi^s : I will give you, Signora, some principles, by means of which, 
 commending yourself to God, He will Himself reveal the rest to you. 
 And so I say, since you already believe that Christ is truly God and truly 
 man, as God, equal with His Eternal Father, and one and the same with 
 Him, the true knowledge of Christ consists, Signora, in knowiug and con- 
 sidering to what purpose the Son of God came into the world, and was 
 made man ; why He suffered, and why He rose again. 
 
 GiULiA : I wish to learn from you how you consider these three 
 
 Vai,d£s : You may consider, Signora, that Christ came into the world 
 to make satisfaction for original sin. Because this having been an infinite 
 crime in respect to God, who was offended, it was necessary that the satis- 
 faction should be infinite, and this could not be made except by God 
 Himself, who is infinite ; therefore the Son of God, being made man, 
 has made satisfaction for the sin of the first man, and together with 
 his, for all the sins of aU persons who had been, were then, are now, and 
 shall yet be ; and to them who forego the benefit of this propitiation it 
 win be wanting by their own fault. Christ came to qualify men to be- 
 come the sons of God. He came to show us the way to heaveiL He came 
 to confound the pride of the flesh, and to preach humility of spirit. He 
 came to destroy death. He came to break the power of the devil. He 
 came to communicate with us of His own spirit, by which we might 
 do the wUl of God ; for by the law alone had God before declared 
 His wiU to us ; but the law did not give us the power by which we could 
 fulfil it. He came to show us the love that His Eternal Father bears to the 
 human race, which is most perfectly seen and known in Christ. And in 
 short. He came to open to us the gates of Paradise, and to qualify us so 
 that we might enter therein. 
 
 Now considering these causes for which Christ came, think you whether 
 you could acquire by any other means than by the Son of God made man, 
 so many and such singular blessings 1 Besides this, when you wish to con- 
 sider wherefore He suffered, Christ Himself shaU teach you, saying, Cwm 
 exaltatus fuirro a terra omnia traha/m ad meipsum ; that is, " And I, if I be 
 lifted up from the earth, wiU draw all things unto Me ;" as though He 
 said : In order to uproot people from the things of this world, and enamour 
 them with the things of life eternal, it is needful that I be crucified ; and 
 saying in another place that it was necessary He should suffer on the 
 cross, that all who believed in Him might be saved.' And know for a 
 ' .John xi. i. ' Jolm xii. 32. 3 Luke xxiy. 46. 
 
THE "ALFABETO OHBISTIANO. 131 
 
 certainty that nowhere can we better know God thwi in Christ crucified. 
 
 I can say yet more, that if the contemplation of Christ crucified does not 
 
 disenamour you of the things of the world and enamour you of the things 
 
 of God, you will be always miserably bound to created things. So mu3i 
 
 so, that one of the reasons why I think St. Paul calls Christ the mediator 
 
 between God and man' is, because we can neither know, believe, nor 
 
 love God, but by contemplating Christ crucified ; who, suffering, made 
 
 it sweet to suffer ; and euduring, made it easy to endure ; and being 
 
 injuriously treated, made injuries sweet ; and dying, gave to death itself 
 
 a relish. Do not these reasons appear to you most sufficient why Christ 
 
 should have suffered ? Does it not seem to you that Christ has shown so 
 
 much love in this as to satisfy us why we should disenamour ourselves of 
 
 seK-love, and enamour ourselves with God ? But considering still further, 
 
 you will find that Christ arose from the dead that we might arise with 
 
 Him, as well in spirit in this life, as in body in the life eternal And the 
 
 spiritual resurrection is when through dying to the Old man we come to 
 
 be revived in the New man. This is the passing from death unto life ; 
 
 and thus, as Christ through dying came to the resurrection, so we by 
 
 denial of seK come to the neioness of Ufe. And this is what Christ says to 
 
 Nicodemus : " Except a man be bom of water and of the Holy Spirit, he 
 
 cannot enter the kingdom of God." ^ You wiU. consider also in Christ, 
 
 that He ascended up on high to raise our souls to the contemplation of 
 
 heavenly things. To these St. Paul invites us, saying : " If, brethren, ye 
 
 are risen spiritually with Christ, seek those things which are above, where 
 
 Christ sitteth on the right hand of His Eternal Father. Set your affection 
 
 on things above, not on things on the earth." ^ And lastly, consider that 
 
 Christ sent the Holy Spirit that we might be taught the truth of these 
 
 things, that thereby all love of earthly things being banished, we might be 
 
 inflamed with the love of spiritual things, and recover and restore within 
 
 us that image of God to the likeness of which we were created. 
 
 By these considerations, Signora, God aiding you, and favouring you 
 with His grace, you may be enabled to come, little by Httle, to the perfect 
 knowledge of God, And thus you will go on by it, loving God and loving 
 Christ. In the same maimer you will go forward verifying in yourself 
 those truths that you confess in the Creed, so that what you now confess 
 through obedience, merely subjecting your intellect, you will then confess 
 through experience. In this manner, that as joined with the first cog- 
 nizance of God by the light of nature, which the Gentiles had, united with 
 the knowledge gained of Him through the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 which the Jews have, a person can with truth say that he believes in one 
 God, the Father, omnipotent Creator of heaven and earth ; so also and 
 much better than they, after you have known Christ, and through Christ 
 known God, and through God returning to know Christ [more fuUy], you 
 will be able to say, or, to speak more correctly, you will say with truth, 
 feeling in your soul that which you say, the same the others have said and 
 confessed ; and passing beyond them, you will declare with truth that you 
 believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our only Lord. You will believe 
 Him to be so because the love and obedience with which you know that 
 Christ showed Himself most obedient to the wiU of God and aU the other 
 divine perfections that you know to be in Christ, will certify you that 
 Christ is the Son of Gtod ; and the sweetness and charity that you will 
 behold in Christ will constrain you to hold Him alone as your absolute 
 Lord. 
 
 Ajud passing further in the truth, you will believe that He was conceived 
 
 ' 1 Tim. ii. 5. = John iii. 5. = 1 Col. iii. 1-2. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 by the operation of the Holy Spirit ; because the admirable perfection you 
 wiU know to be in Christ will assure you that His generation, or con- 
 ception, was not an ordinary occurrence, but truly the work of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 After this, when you shall feel within your soul that, contrary to aU 
 natural reason, suffering is sweet to you, affliction grateful, and the cross 
 glorious, knowing truly that glory would not be found in trouble, nor 
 honour in calumny, if Christ had not dignified both, then with living faith 
 will you confess that Christ suffered under the presidency of Pontius 
 Pilate. And when you shall have crucified and bmied with Christ your 
 Old man with all his affections and appetites, you will not have any doubt 
 in believing and confessing that Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. 
 
 And when, passing further on, you feel the quickening of the New 
 man, and by this you wiU see that you are raised with Christ, you 
 will be constrained to confess that Christ Himself the third day rose from 
 the dead. And when you shall see and feel that aU your desires are 
 directed by the Spirit, and advancing on towards heaven, you wiU know 
 that Christ already is in heaven, seated on the right hand of the Father, 
 and thus you will confess it. Your soul at once inflamed with desire that 
 the world may behold Christ glorified, since it already saw Him suffering, 
 taking it for certain it must be so, you will confess that Christ must come 
 to judge the living and the dead.' And because the Holy Spirit who 
 dwells in you wiU open your eyes, you wOl recognize the same spirit in 
 many other persons, agreeable to what David says : Qui tvinent te videbuiU 
 me, et Imtabuntur : that is, " they that fear thee wiU see me and be glad ;"^ 
 with the whole heart and a ready tongue you will confess the Holy Spirit. 
 With the same knowledge you wiU believe the holy catholic Church and 
 the spiritual communion of holy persons who are in it. Thus, you will 
 truly know that Christ has here on earth a church universal, holy by 
 participation with the holiness of Christ. 
 
 Finally, when you shall feel and enjoy so much of the sweetness and 
 love of Christ here in this world as is to be felt and enjoyed, taking this 
 sense and enjoyment for an earnest of what you wiH yet have to feel and 
 enjoy in the other life, to which you will expect certainly to go to rejoice 
 perpetually with Christ, you wiU not hesitate to confess the Life Eternal. 
 
 And now, when you possess such inward experience, yours will be 
 living and true faith, because you will have the ex/pericnoe of it within you. 
 Now, mark well, Signora, and consider the fruit you wUl gather from the 
 knowledge of God through Christ. And considering that you wiU be a 
 Christian in proportion as you have this knowledge of God by Christ 
 lively in your soul, I am sure you wiU willingly forget so much of yourseff, 
 entering into this divine cognizance ; in which you ought to enter many 
 times a day if you wish to walk by this Christian path. 
 
 I know not what more to say to you on this subject, except that I wish 
 what has been abeady said may be used by you more as a way-mark, to 
 point to the entrance of the knowledge of God and of Christ, than as an 
 introduction into it, because the introduction must be made by the special 
 gift and grace of God, which you ought always most affectionately to ask 
 for, and when you so ask it of Him, I promise you that He will not deny 
 you. 
 
 GiDLlA : Great is the power of the word of God ! I say so because I 
 assure you, of aU the arguments I have heard you use, there is none 
 that so renewedly increases the desire I have to walk by this Christian 
 path. 
 
 Valdj^s : All these new resolutions you ought, Signora, to embrace, and 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 52. 2 Ps. cxix. 74. 
 
THE "ALPABETO CHBISTIANO. 133 
 
 acknowledge to come from the hand of God. And know that my words 
 cannot be sufficient for this, if the Holy Spirit do not speah within you 
 there (pointing to the heart), soliciting you. Now, because in nothing 
 except in Christ can people entirely know and comprehend the love God 
 bears to us, His mercy, His compassion, and His benignity ; for this reason 
 I say, Signora, that the most certain way and the most royal road to come 
 to a knowledge of God is to Icnow Him through Christ. And so Christ 
 HimseK says : " I am the way, the truth, and the life," ^ and so the Eternal 
 Father draws us to know Christ, and Christ leads us to know the Eternal 
 Father, and we cannot come to God but by Christ ; and life eternal con- 
 sists in knowing God, and in knowing Christ. Hence Christ Himself, 
 speaking to His Eternal Father, says : "This is life eternal,that they should 
 know Tliee, the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent into the 
 world." ^ .... 
 
 " If," says Valdfe, " the will excites you to do, say, or think anything, in 
 every instance test it. If the object suggested present itself in the guise 
 of something bad, it must immediately be banished, whilst anything good 
 must just as quickly be put in action. And if you find what is offered to 
 your mind to be indifierent, think a little over it, and finding that more 
 evil than good may come of it, let it alone ; or, finding that more 
 good than evil may come, adopt it ; but be very careful that you do not 
 deceive yourself, -for the devil frequently transforms himself into an angel 
 of light, and often the flesh moves us, and we think it to be the Spirit. 
 And if a thing be of such nature that it can be neither iH nor.good, and 
 nothing more than a satisfaction to your wiU, to leave or take it is of little 
 consequence ; yet it is quite true, it may be better to leave it, because in 
 proportion as you deny your own will, you mortify it." .... 
 
 Valdes does not think of transporting Giulia at once to 
 perfection, but wishes her to arrive there by easy stages, 
 neither wearied by haste, nor kept back by negHgence. 
 Griulia breathes once more j she confesses her partiality to 
 certaui idle pastimes, to lay which aside would, she fears, 
 induce melancholy. Valdes repeats that she ought to lay 
 these trifling things aside gradually, and that she would, 
 the more she learnt to know divine things, also lose her 
 taste for the former. " I see," says Giulia, gratefully, 
 " you accommodate yourself to my weakness in order to 
 save me from being discouraged.'^ Yaldes asks, " Does it 
 appear to you that I do wrong ?" '"On the contrary, it appears 
 to me that the mode in which you proceed is the best." " It 
 appears good to you for this reason," says the Teacher, 
 "because you are self-indulgent; but we won't discuss this. 
 I wUl give you still greater license, Signora, in order that 
 the difficulties which you wiU encounter on this road may 
 not lead you to turn back. It is this, that if you are not 
 able wholly to subdue your feelings and inclinations, so that 
 you may be absolute mistress of yourself, at least so rule 
 and moderate them that they be not your masters. The 
 good Christian is not to seek to be passionless, but to rule 
 
 I John xiv. 6. ' John xvii. 3. 
 
134 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 his paasionB." The idea and image of Christian perfection, 
 contrasted with her own imperfection, is the book which he 
 would wish her to peruse constantly, and which would 
 advance her more in one day than aU other books in a 
 hundred years. 
 
 Valdes thus defines prayer and the manner in which it 
 should be exercised : — 
 
 Prayer ia the raising of the mind to God, with desire to obtain what it 
 asks of Him. The manner of prayer, and what should be asked for in 
 prayer, are such as Christ taught us by St. Matthew : " And when thou 
 prayest, thou shalt not do as the hypocrites, for they love to pray in the 
 congregations of the people and in the comers of the streets, that they may 
 be seen of men ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But 
 thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut 
 thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret ; and thy Father who seeth 
 in secret shall reward thee openly." Christ teaches us by these words that 
 our prayer should be private, as well to avoid vain glory, as- because the 
 mind outwardly quiet, more easily quiets itself within. Aiid Christ imme- 
 diately says : and " when, thou prayest, use not many words, as the 
 gentiles do." ' Whence He shows that He wishes few words to be used, 
 but much faith and affection, in prayer. Afterwards He says ; " In this 
 manner, therefore, pray ye : Pater noster qui es m ccelis" &c? " Our 
 Father who art in heaven," &c. In this He instructs us that we should 
 not ask for vain or superfluous things in prayer, but for those only which 
 seem to be necessary for the glory of God, for the salvation of the souls 
 of our neighbours and of our own, and for the support of our life. 
 Christ, m another place, teaches us how we ought to pray, saying : " And 
 aU things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." ' 
 So that in order for prayer to be right, it should be in private, with few 
 words, with much desire, with true and just request, and with entire faith 
 and confidence that God will give us what we shall ask of Him. Also 
 Christ teaches us in another place that we should be importunate and per- 
 severing in prayer. Yet because vocal prayer frequently kindles and 
 elevates the mind to mental prayer, I would not wish yon, Signora, to 
 oblige yourself to repeat a certain number of psahns or paternosters, in 
 order that you may always stand at liberty ; for then, God sending to you 
 some good inspiration in prayer, you may be able to dwell in it as long as 
 you feel that your soul has the relish of it. 
 
 GiuLiA : I cannot understand this unless you explain it by some 
 example. 
 
 VALD:fis : I mean to say that, when saying the Paternoster, you come 
 to repeat advmiat regnum tuum, " thy kingdom come ;" and at that 
 passage God shall show you the felicity the soul enjoys when God reigns 
 within it, that you dwell in this consideration. In the same manner, 
 when saying cor mundum crea in me, Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in 
 visceribus meis, that is, " create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a 
 right spirit within me," * you should feel that your heart begins to be 
 warmed with desire for that purity, and your bosom begins to open, 
 anxious that the Holy Spirit may be renewed in it ; without going on with 
 the psabn, feed the fire of your heart with a thought of Christ crucified, 
 and open wider the door of yora breast, that your heart may remain 
 
 ' Matt. vi. 7. • 2 Matt. vi. 9. ' Matt. xxi. 22. ' Ps. li. 10. 
 
THE "ALFABETO CHfllSTIANO. 135 
 
 purified, and your bosom go filled with the Holy Spirit. You will do this, 
 without being obliged to repeat a certain number of psalmatir of pater- 
 nosters. Do you now vmderstand it ? 
 GiutiA: Fully. .... 
 
 Giulia asks Vald^s how she should dispense her alms. 
 
 Vald^s : I shall give you no other rule than that of charity. Love 
 God, and you will know how to dispense your alms. 
 
 GnjLiA : I ask it because the Preacher' said one day, that according to 
 the order of charity, we were more under obligation to our neighbour 
 than to ourselves. 
 
 Valdi^s : AYhat the Preacher said is that well-ordered charity begins 
 from God, and that in Him persons learn it : both how they should love 
 themselves, and how they should love their neighbour. And he said 
 more — that he who lives in perfect charity frequently waives his own 
 individual interest for the good of his neighbour. This we see in many 
 passages of St. Paul, who says that charity seeketh not its own interest. 
 As to distributing alms, St. Paul himself, without any dilferenoe, says, 
 Facite bonum ad o-mnes, " Do good to all men ;" and wishing, in some 
 respects, to come to particulars, he says, " but chiefly to the household of 
 faith." Keeping to what Christ says : " He that receiveth a prophet in 
 the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward ; and he who receiveth 
 a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous 
 man's reward."^ Does it appear to you that these are gifts to be 
 forsaken ? 
 
 Giulia : Rather, I have so much enjoyed to hear this, that I would 
 die with pleasure to know some righteous person, to show him a thousand 
 favours, and do him a thousand benefits, to be myself also righteous. 
 
 Vat,T):^s : A pretty contradiction is this ! Do you not perceive that in 
 this case you are moved by your own interest, and not as Christ desires, 
 purely by. His love ? In short, I see, Signora, that you would be satisfied 
 to do whatever God would command and wish of you, provided you take 
 care of your love for yourself ; and I do not wonder, because there is 
 nothing in the world more disagreeable for persons than to do force to 
 themselves ; so much more in things belonging to the soul, where outward 
 force and human labour are insufiicient. But, in short, willing or not 
 willing, I assure you that you must give your love up to God. 
 
 Giulia : What humiliation ! 
 
 Vald:^s : Do you take it to be humiliating, Signora, that God having 
 created you, in order that you should love Him, and having in so many 
 modes and ways shown His love. He asks you to love Him ? 
 
 GitTLiA : Let me put up with your answer. Yet if I were able to 
 do it so readily, I promise you that I would not be slow to do it ; but 
 it is necessary to come to this efiect through so many intricacies ; and to 
 tell you the truth, I do not know how you mean this. Since God com- 
 mands me to give Him all my love, why does He not make me certainly 
 able always to do what I would wish for Him as easily as I could give 
 Him this robe ? 
 
 Vald^s : The impossibility, or, better to say, the difficulty comes to us 
 from original sin. 
 
 Giulia asks ValdeSj although the hour has become very- 
 late, what is the nature of Christian liberty. 
 
 ' Ochino ; Qiial sia Vordine rlella carilA. Prediche, terza parte, predioa Ixiv. 
 od. 154.3. 2 Matt. x. 41. 
 
136 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 GiTTLiA : I remain indeed satisfied ; and if you tell me in two words 
 about Cliristian liberty, I will then leave you to go with God ! 
 
 VALD:fis : You know, Signora, that Christian liberty is a thing which, 
 however much it is reasoned about, and however good the conduct be, can 
 never be understood if it be not experienced ; so that you will know just 
 so much of it as you experience it in your soul, and no more. If, there- 
 fore, Signora, you desire to learn it, set yourself to experience it, and there 
 win be no necessity that I should tell you about it. -But at all events, I 
 wish to say this : that it appears, according to what St. Paul says, — 
 " though I be free from aU, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that 
 I might gain them aU for Christ," ' the liberty of the Christian is in the 
 conscience ; for the real and perfect Christian is free from the tyranny of 
 the law, from sin, and from death, and is absolute master of his affections 
 and appetites. And on the other hand, he is the servant of all as to the 
 outward man, because he is subject to serve the necessities of the body, to 
 keep the flesh subject, and to serve his neighbours according to his 
 power, either with his faculties, if gifted with them, or with good doctrine 
 if that be added, and with the example of a good and holy life. So that 
 such a Christian person is free as regards the spirit, acknowledging no 
 other superior than God, and as to the body, he is slibject to everybody 
 in the world for Christ's sake. 
 
 YaldeSj according to his usual metlio'd of instruction, 
 sums up the whole discourse by the followiug words : — 
 
 You have already understood, Signora, whence has arisen the confusion 
 of mind in which you have lived until now, and likewise the remedy that 
 you can use for it. You have understood whence the contradiction arises 
 that you felt within you after you heard the Preacher, and in what manner 
 you can free yourself from it. I have depicted to you the idea of Christian 
 perfection. I have shown you the steps by which you will begin to walk 
 to Christ without being seen by the world. I have satisfied yofl of some 
 doubts that have occurred to you. Lastly, you have understood in what 
 Christian liberty consists. It now remains for you directly, directly from 
 this night, to make proof of going in those steps that I have taught you. 
 Therefore I desire that you would teU me in the morning what you think 
 of them. And be careful that you always entreat God that He would 
 guide and conduct you by His grace, without ever consenting to withdraw 
 youpelf from Him. Because this is the way to arrive at Christian per- 
 fection, and to enjoy Christian liberty, to which when you shall become 
 united, you will be able with truth to say with the prophet David : 
 Dominus regit me, et nihil mihi deerit. In loco pasquce ibi me collocamt ; 
 that is, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to 
 lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the stiU waters," &c.^ 
 
 Few were the years of the life of Valdes after the conver- 
 sation of the Alfabeto Cheistiano, yet during the four, 
 or at the most five of them, he presented to G-iuha his 
 translation from the Greek of the Gospel according to Mat- 
 thew, of the Psalms translated from the Hebrew, of the 
 Epistle to the Eomans, also from the Greek, with a com- 
 mentary; nor could she be unacquainted with his " Con- 
 siderations" and his other writings, while they were in 
 
 ' ^ Cor. ix. 19. ! Ps. xxiii. 
 
GIULIA GONZAGA. 137 
 
 manuscript. All those that we know of with certainty 
 were also printed and circulated to some extent in Italy 
 during her lifetime ; and^ as before said, it is to her agent 
 ov procuratore, IMarco Antonio ]\Iagno, that we owe at least 
 the translation from the Spanish manuscript of the " Alfabeto 
 Christiano " into Italian, and consequentlj' its existence at 
 the present time.' 
 
 And what was the effect upon her mind of the rehgious 
 instruction of Valdes ? This at least we know, that besides 
 the superintendence of her nephew's education, she passed 
 her time in visiting the sick in the hospitals, relieving them 
 with her own hands ; in select society, avoiding the acquaint- 
 ance of mere worldly persons ; and in the constant perusal 
 of the Holy Scriptures," that volume of heavenly refresh- 
 ment, " the aliment of the perfect," which Yaldes had re- 
 quested her to substitute for his own writings. She left 
 behind her a character eminent for the graces of her mind, 
 for unspotted purity of life, in a city and in an age of un- 
 restrained Hcense of morals, and for exalted piety carried 
 out to the consistent practice of virtue — a character, we 
 may readily believe, such as Valdes had marked out for her 
 attainment. Its memory, therefore, for these quaUties, 
 more than for the acknowledged beauty of her person and 
 the distinction of rank and family, though receiving a 
 lustre from them also, has come down to us in this later 
 age, joined with liis who is now known, with greater cer- 
 tainty than was apprehended before, to have been " at once 
 her guide, and counseUor, and friend." 
 
 * "Alfabeto Christiano che insegna la Sora speiide tuUo il tempo in 
 
 vera via d'acquistare il lume dello Spirit© pert^r saidi, riuolgendoUScnltiire sacre 
 
 Santo, I'Anno MD.XLVI." Translated con pvjro e sincero petto." M. Simon 
 
 by Benjamin B. Wiffen, 1861. Only Fomari, in " La Spositione sopra 
 
 100 copies printed for publication. I'Orlando Furioso." In Firenze, 1549- 
 
 2 Ariosto, canto XLVI. "Ginlia 50, p. 764. 
 Gonzaga ohe douunque ilpiede volge,etc. 
 
138 
 
 CHAPTBE VI. 
 
 EvEET English traveller who has visited Italy may be ex- 
 pected to have seen Naples. No other spot in the world 
 combines within the same compass so much natural beauty 
 with so many objects of interest as the Bay of Naples. Its 
 circuit from the Capo di Miseno to the Punta deUa Campa- 
 nella is about 35 miles. At its opening between the islands 
 of Ischia and Capri it is 14 miles broad ; and from its open- 
 ing to its head at Portici it is 15 miles long. AU this is 
 seen at one view^ surrounded by towns of classic memory, 
 gardens, palaces, and ruins, with the islands of Procida, 
 Ischia, and Capri bestudding the waters of this charming 
 bay, in the most agreeable climate, and under the brightest 
 of skies. The name by which it was anciently known was 
 derived from the Siren Parthenope, expressive of its en- 
 chanting influence j and — 
 
 Still, as of yore, the setting sun declines 
 O'er marble terraces and trellis'd vines ; 
 Around lier beauteous bay the mountains bend, 
 And glorious lights and balmy dews descend. 
 
 At a part of the city now covered with a magnificent 
 succession of palaces and villas, and including a fashionable 
 drive of a mile and a half in extent, bounded towards the 
 bay by shaded promenades amongst delicious gardens, laved 
 by the murmuring waters, and, in the days of which we 
 are writing, studded with a few villas set in verdure, — hes 
 the quarter of Chiaja. Here Juan de Valdes had a country 
 house,^ and here his friends resorted to hear him discourse 
 upon sacred subjects. Some sHght and interesting allusions 
 in the Didlogo de la Lengua give us an insight into the 
 manner of his readings and conversations with these friends. 
 He held frequent intercourse with them at his own residence 
 in the city ; whilst his less-divided leisure was given to them 
 at his country house. Here Valdes received on the Sunday 
 a select number of his most intimate friends, and they 
 passedthe day together in this manner : After breakfasting 
 and enjoying themselves amidst the glories of the surround- 
 ing scenery, they returned to the house, when he read some 
 selected portion of Scripture and commented upon it, or 
 
 ' See Bonfadio's letter to Carnesecchi, at pp. 177-8. 
 
vald:^s and his friends at OHIAJA. 139 
 
 some "Divine Considjieation " which had occupied his 
 thoughts during the week — some subject on which he con- 
 ceived that his mind had obtained a clearer illumination of 
 heavenly truth. The themes proposed by him might well 
 have been the Hundred and Ten ConsidekationSj occupying 
 110 Sundays^ or full two years, if followed up consecutively. 
 After this they discussed the subject togetherj or discoursed 
 upon Scripture, and upon points which Vald^s himself 
 brought forward, until the hour for dinner. After dinner, 
 in the afternoon, when the servants were dismissed to their 
 own amusements, his friends, and not himself, proposed the 
 subjects and led the conversation, and he had to discuss 
 them agreeably to their desire. As they had been pleased 
 to consecrate the morning according to his wishes, in the 
 serious reading of the sacred Scriptures, the Booh of the 
 Soul, or upon subjects like his "Divine Considerations," 
 he in return devoted his acquirements to their gratification, 
 on themes of their selection.* Such was the origin of the 
 " Dialogo de la Lengua," a dialogue on the Spanish language, 
 which occupied seven or more sittings, and was, in all pro- 
 bability, much more copious than the text which has come 
 down to us, and which furnishes us with these particulars. 
 At nightfall, Valdes and his friends returned to the city.* 
 
 The Sunday meetings may have continued four or five 
 years. These Sabbaths of studious Christians, this exchange 
 of subjects, this intercourse of thought between the pro- 
 posers, the day, the pure elevation of mind they brought 
 as it were with them, the situation, the beauty of the 
 country, the transparent skies of a southern chmate, the 
 low murmurs of the bay — would all be favourable to the pur- 
 pose of Valdes ; and from these social meetings with his 
 friends his purely religious works appear to have derived 
 their origin and form. In this manner were produced the 
 materials, rather spoken than written, of those excellent 
 productions, brought afterwards into more exact shape, for 
 the service, first of his own friends, then of theirs, and par- 
 ticularly of Giulia Gonzaga. 
 
 Valdes read the Old Testament in the Hebrew, from which 
 he translated the Psalms. He translated also St. Paul's 
 Epistles to the Romans and the 1st Epistle to the Corinth- 
 ians from the Greek.^ He commented in a simple manner 
 
 ' "DiSlogo de la Lengvia," ed. I860, Eomanos, i la La los Corintios, 
 
 pp. 1, 2. ambas traduzidas i comentadas por 
 
 9n ^^^^°S° ^^^ la Lengua," ed. 1860, Juan de Valdfe. Ahora fielmente 
 
 P' "05. reimpresas. Ano de 1856." 
 "La Epistola de San Pablo a los 
 
140 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 upon the text, whicli he read in r^ular order in his own 
 house to his friends.' 
 
 Valdds begins these Commentaries by a general argument 
 on the character of the Epistles, and the purpose the 
 Apostle had in writing them; and it will be interesting to 
 learn the nature of his religious sentiments on especial 
 subjects, from his comments on various texts, by the manner 
 in which he treats them. 
 
 The Sceipttjees to be Undeestood by the Spieit with 
 
 WHICH THEY WEEE WeITTEN. 
 
 Eom. xvi. 25, 26, 27. 
 
 Ei atitem, qui potens est, etc. 
 
 " Now to Him that is of power to stabhsh you according 
 to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according 
 to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret 
 since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by 
 the Scriptures of the Prophets, according to the command- 
 ment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for 
 the obedience of faith : to God only wise be glory through 
 Jesus Christ for ever. Amen." 
 
 The order of these -words iii the original Greek is confused, through 
 their being intermixed one with another ; and they all are of great import, 
 because almost the whole scope of the epistle is summed up in them. 
 By " now to Eim that is of power to stablish," it is to be understood that 
 God is able to confirm and establish in you His election and His calling, 
 as if He should say, you are unable of yourselves, but God shall give you 
 ability. By " according to my Oosjjel," I understand that St. Paul means 
 that God is able to establish you in that which is preached, and it is 
 afiirmed in the Gospel which I preach. And the preaching of Jesus Christ 
 and my Oospel are synonymous. This same preaching of the Gospel is 
 what is called the manifestation of the mystery. He means to say, God is 
 able to establish you according to that which now is published, or made 
 inanifest. So that what he, in the first instance, calls my Oospel, may be 
 likewise called the preaching of Jesus Christ, and called the " manifestor 
 tion of the myste/ry," or secret. By " since the world began," is to be under- 
 stood all time anterior to the preaching of the Gospel. By " was Icept 
 secret," is to be understood that there was, indeed, a Gospel, but that it 
 had not been published to men, although, indeed, it had been revealed to 
 some. As though a prince should issue an indulgence or general pardon 
 to all the delinquents in his realm, but that he refrained from pubhshing 
 it for a while, especially revealing it, however, to some individuals accepted 
 by him. By that expression, " and by the Scriptures of the Prophets," it 
 
 '"DiSlogodelaLengua." Madrid, 1860, Epistles as Peter Martyr. ... In 
 
 p. xxiii. " II ValdSs leggeva in sua oasa that of Sessa and of Caserta, Flaminio 
 
 I'istesse Epiatole che lee;geva P. Martire. delivered SermonsontheSpiritual Life." 
 
 II Flaminio In quel di Sessa e di Caserta —Antonio Caraceiolo, " Vita e Gesti di 
 
 faceva Sermoni di Vita Spirituale."— Paulo IV." British Museum, Harleiau 
 
 ' ' Vald€a read in his own house the same MSS. No. 1763, f ol. 11 3 vto. 
 
COMMENTAEIES ON PAUL'S EPISTLES. 141 
 
 appears that he understands that this Gospel, this Indulgence or general 
 pardon, was not only published in the time of Paul, but also in the 
 Scriptures of the Prophets, although it was not understood, because 
 the Scriptures had not been apprehended. For it ever is so, that 
 Hie Scriptures never are understood, save by the same spirit with whieh 
 they are u-ritten. By " aceording to the commandment," it seems to be 
 understood that it was a Divine command that the Prophets should 
 publish the Gospel, but in such manner that they should not be under- 
 stood ; and that the Apostles shoidd publish it clearly and distinctly. 
 By "for the obedience of faith," is to be imderstood that God gave this 
 command with the intent that men, in obeying the Gospel, should exalt 
 justification ; and obedience consists in man's subjugating his judgment, 
 his reason, and his carnal prudence, and beheving what is said, published, 
 and afiirmed on the part of God. By " made Tcnown to all nations" is to 
 be understood that the preaching of the Gospel, of the Indulgence or 
 general pardon, which Christ first, and the Apostles afterwards, announced 
 to the world on the part of God, was already notorious, and manifested 
 unto all nations. And by " to God the only wise," the reader is referred 
 to that which is hereinbefore mentioned ; so that he may finally say, " to 
 God only wise, ivho is of power to stablish you according to my Gospel, 
 be gloi-y through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 This is aU the knowledge that I can attain at present of this Divine epistle, 
 having availed myseH of my two books. Prayer and Consideration. These 
 books have helped me, as far as Prayer has been aided by the Holy Spirit, 
 and as far as Consideration has been helped by personal experience and 
 daily reading. And I hold it for certain that, in proportion as the spirit 
 has been, more fervent and the hope greater, the apprehension of St. Paul's 
 words will have been more perfect, Prayer and Consideration having been 
 more aided. And I hold it likewise for certain that the time will come in 
 which I shall understand all this much better, and then I shall, to the 
 glory of God, supply that wherein I have hitherto failed. — (Romans, pp. 
 302-305.) 
 
 The Sceiptuebs not to be bead with Curiosity. 
 
 1 Cor. i. 17. 
 
 Nov, in sapientia verbi, &c. 
 
 "Not with wisdom of words^ lest the cross of Christ 
 should be made of none effect." 
 
 Here St. Paul begins to treat of another infirmity which it appears that 
 these Corinthians had ; this was their esteem of the wisdom of the world. 
 He goes on to speak against this infirmity in these first chapters, with the 
 intent to eradicate and extirpate it from Christians, as being dangerous 
 and pernicious, since it is always accompanied with curiosity and self- 
 esteem, which in a Christian are two vices, so much the more hurtful 
 because, at times, or rather, ahnost always, they assume the garb of zeal 
 and piety. And this desire of knowledge, by the associations which it 
 brings, is to such a degree pernicious and dangerous that, even in the 
 reading of the holy Scriptures, it injures the mind when the reader is not 
 very guarded, lest he should be guided by curiosity or seK-esteem. And 
 I understand that a man reads the holy Scriptures with curiosity when 
 he does so solely with the view of acquiring knowledge. And I under- 
 stand that a man reads the holy Scriptures with self-esteem when he 
 avails himself of his knowledge to talk about them and criticise them. 
 And should some one ask me, " With what purpose may I then come to 
 
142 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALD^S. 
 
 read the holy Scriptures?" I shall answer him, "For the purpose of 
 personal edification, reading them at times for your consolation under 
 tribulation and affliction, and at other times to awaken in your mind fresh 
 desires after God, and to conceive fresh views of spiritual and divine 
 things ; and, again, in order that the same reading may be to you as a 
 testhnony of what God shall give you inwardly to feel and know of your 
 own soul." And one of the greatest advantages in reading the holy 
 Scriptures is, that the man doing so ascertains the extent to which his 
 feeHngs and experience concur with those of persons who possess the 
 Holy Spirit. Hence he is confirmed in what he feels and in what he 
 knows, and increases in the one and in the other, deriving the greatest 
 satisfaction from both. It is tantamount to saying, I feel that Christ, 
 slaying His body on the cross, slew that of all who are His members, for I 
 feel mine to be dead, or almost dead, as is said in Rom. viL In 
 reading that St. Paul said thus, I am confirmed in my own feelings ; 
 they increase in me, and I enjoy them. In the same manner I know by 
 experience that worldly wisdom, understanding thereby man's knowledge, 
 the man being destitute of the Holy Spirit, is prejudicial to the Christian. 
 Aud, reading those chapters wherein St. Paul recognized the same thing, 
 I am confirmed in my own knowledge ; it is increased in me, and I enjoy 
 it. I make this observation in order that it may be understood that a 
 desire merely to loiow is injurious, and that even in holy things it is 
 prejudicial. And, returning to St. Paul, I understand that, by the 
 expression " not with wisdom of worch," he means to say, God sent me to ■ 
 preach the Gospel ; and this with no ornate discourse blended with 
 science and human wisdom ; and this, lest the cross of Christ should he 
 made of none efl'ect, which would be made of none efieot were I to preach 
 the Gospel after such fashion, for men would attribute the eifect of my 
 preaching or evangelization, not to the efficacy which there is in the cross 
 of Christ, but to the efficacy of my words. And I understand that the 
 efficacy of the cross of Christ consists in men being brought to accept the 
 righteousness of Christ for their own. They are effectively crucified with 
 Christ, and are dead with Christ. They inwardly experience justification 
 in peace of conscience. They experience death, both in body and mind, 
 by the mortification of their affections and appetites, which are after the 
 flesh and after the world. In proportion as their faith is progressively 
 developed, so likewise is their incorporation into Christ effectively 
 increased ; and, as their incorporation into Christ increases, so likewise 
 does their peace of conscience increase with the progressive mortification 
 of their affections and appetites. The expression " not with wisdom of 
 words " is synonymous with " not with a learned discourse." The Greek 
 word Ktvu>9y signifies "lest it be made void," and amounts to the same thing. 
 By the expression " the cross of Christ " is to be understood the preaching 
 of the cross of Christ, and under this word " cross " St. Paul understands 
 all that savoured of humiliation and ignominy, of affliction, misery, and 
 prostration in association with Christ (pp. 13-15). 
 
 On Peeachejjs. 
 
 Rom. X. 14, ] 5. 
 
 Quomodo ergo invocahunt, etc. 
 
 " How then stall they call on Him in whom they have 
 not beHeved ? and how shall they believe in Him of whom 
 they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a 
 
COMMENTAEIES ON PAUL'S EPISTLES. 143 
 
 preacher? And how shall they preach except they be 
 sent ? " 
 
 I understand by these words that St. Paul tries to remove the error 
 into which human wisdom might fall, deceived by what he had said, 
 " that all who call on the name of Christ shall be saved," persuading itself 
 that this invooation is an easy thing to any one who may desire it, and 
 that, therefore, the salvation of man depends upon himself, and not on 
 God. And, because this is directly contrary to what St. Paul has said in the 
 preceding chapter, that it does not depend upon the wOl of man, but on the 
 will of God, he goes on to say that man cannot call on Christ if he do not 
 believe in Him, and that he cannot believe in Him if he have not heard 
 speak of Him. And that he cannot hear speak of Christ if there be no one 
 who preaches Christ to him; and that no man of the world can preach 
 Christ if he be not sent of God to preach Christ ; this is the same as if he 
 said, if he be no Apostle. Paul infers from all this, that since it is true 
 that preaching is not efficacious if he who preaches be not sent of God to 
 preach, it is also true that man cannot hear without a preacher, nor can he 
 believe if he be not told what he has to believe, nor can he invoke Christ 
 if he do not first believe ; it will also be true that they only wUl invoke 
 Christ to whom God shall send preachers or apostles, who shall preach 
 Christ to them. So that all the force of St. Paul's words consists in this, 
 " except they be sent." Aaid, hence it is easy to understand why our 
 preachers do not move the hearts of men, withdrawing them from the 
 world to God, and separating them from themselves for Christ, and 
 making them more readily accept the grace of the Gospel. The reason is 
 because they are not sent, because they are not Apostles ; and that may be 
 affirmed of them which God says by Jeremiah (xxiii. 21), " I have not 
 sent these prophets, yet they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they 
 prophesied." Here, likewise, it is to be understood that they who preach 
 Christian things, not being Apostles of Christ, do not preach Christ, how- 
 ever much they may use His name in the pulpit. But they preach them- 
 selves, their own fancies and imaginations, that which they imagine and 
 invent taking, Christ as their subject^; in the manner of those men who, 
 making profession of other religions, tell their stories, each one taking 
 as his subject the founder of his own religion. To preach Christ, 
 it is necessary that the preacher be an Apostle, sent of God to preach 
 Christ, he having accepted the righteousness of Christ. Those who have 
 not accepted it do not understand it, and not understanding it, they are 
 ill able to preach it, nor can they make their hearers understand it. 
 Besides, a.U they may say wUl be opposed to it, because the human mind 
 is incapable of receiving it. 
 
 On Ministry. 
 Eom. X. 16, 17. 
 
 8ed nort, omnes, etc. 
 
 "But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Esaias 
 saith. Lord, who hath believed our report ? So, then, faith 
 Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." 
 
 St. Paul means by this that the feet of those who preach the Gospel do 
 not cease to be beautiful because all do not give credit to what is preached 
 to them ; he means to say that the incredulity of some does not derogate 
 
144 LIFE OE JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 from the dignity of those who are sent by God to preach, since the purpose 
 of God is that those should believe to whom the good news is sent. This 
 he proves from the authority of Esaias, who also says, that not all those 
 who hear what is told them on the part ot God believe it ; but not on that 
 account was his authority lessened. Whence I understand that St. Paul, 
 employing that expression, our report, infers that man cannot believe 
 unless he be told what it is he has to believe, and that the mere teUuig is 
 inadequate, unless the individual telling him be inspired, moved, and sent 
 by God to tell him it ; so that the whole transaction depends upon the 
 mere wdl of God who inspires the speaker, instructing him what to say, 
 and disposes the listener to hearken. I think that, in the expression " by 
 the Word of God," St. Paul understands " by the word which I say," beiog 
 inspired by God to speak it, and not by that which another has said, 
 inspired of God, which is, indeed, the Word of God, inasmuch as he who 
 spoke it speaks inspired by God. But it will not be the Word of God if 
 I speak it, not being inspired of God to say it ; because, in order that it be 
 the word of man, it is necessary that it should be spoken by man, so, in 
 order to be the Word of God, it is necessary that it should be spoken by 
 the Spirit of God through the mouth of him who announces it. Hence, 
 the Apostles, the ministers of Christ, are called in the Holy Scriptures the 
 mouth of God, because God speaks by them and in them. By this one 
 may understand well what God speaks by Esaias (Iv. 11), " That the Word 
 which goeth forth from His mouth shall not return unto ]Iim void, but that 
 it shall accomplish that which He pleases." And hence we may understand 
 how necessary it always is that, following the advice which Christ gave to 
 His disciples, and which He gives to all of us, we should ask God that He 
 would send amongst us persons who shall speak the words of God ; that 
 they speak, being inspired, and not taught of men, speaking by I>imne 
 experience, and not by human science (pp. 196, 197). 
 
 Justification by Faith. 
 
 Rora. viii. 10. 
 
 8i autem Ghrisius in vohis, etc. 
 
 " But if Christ be in you, the body is indeed dead be- 
 cause of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." 
 
 If any one shall say, " By what shall I know whether I have the spirit of 
 Christ or not, in order to be assured whether that which is affirmed he 
 mine or not f St. Paul says, that it is known by the two effects it produces 
 upon the man in whom it dwells ; of the which one is the death of 
 the body through indwelling sin ; and the other is the life of the mind 
 through righteousness (justification) by faith. So that where there are 
 these two effects, there is the spirit of Christ ; and where they are not, 
 there the spirit of Christ is not. And I undei-stand that he may have 
 them in whole or in part who has begun to have them, and in whom they 
 begin to make themselves felt. By the expression "because of sin," I 
 understand him to mean to say that Christ slew the bodies of those who 
 are His members, because of their subjugation to sin. So that, because 
 their bodies, or their flesh, which is just" the same thing, are subject to 
 sin, Christ slew them in His death. And by the expression " because of 
 righteousness," I tliink he means you are quickened, because in believing 
 you have been justified. Sin i^Tought the death of the body, and right- 
 eousness works life, or the quickening of the mind. So that here by the 
 
COMMENTAEIES ON PAUL's EPISTLES. 145 
 
 spirit is to be understood the mind of man. They who in nowise expe- 
 rience themselves to be dead in their bodies or in their flesh, nor quickened 
 in their minds and in the spirit, are warranted in judging themselves to 
 be aliens firom Christ, and from the effects of Christ's passion (p. 127). 
 
 Justification by Faith. 
 Rom. X. 3. 
 
 Ig nor antes enim iustitiam, etc, 
 
 " For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
 going about to estabhsh their own righteousness, have not 
 submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." 
 
 This sentence is most divine, and most worthy to be considered in 
 opposition to human wisdom, which ever aims at its own justification. 
 For here St. Paul says, that for this reason the zeal of the Jews was not 
 according to knowledge ; for being ignorant of God's righteousness, they 
 sought to justify themselves by their works and by their virtuous life ; 
 and thus they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. 
 These words generally apply to all who aim at self-justification by their 
 works ; and I understand that aU those who prize and esteem these works, 
 to whom it seems that were they to be deprived of them, they would be 
 deprived of their righteousness, — all such aim at being justified by them. 
 This is the weakness of those who say, " entre cuero y came," between flesh 
 and skin ; wherefore every Christian ought to be watchful to recognize 
 it, and even to seek means and remedies wherewith to discover and heal 
 it. Nay, it wiU be better for me to say, that every Christian ought always 
 to suspect himself of this infirmity, and rest assured that he is more or 
 less subject to it; hence he ought to view all his works with a distrustful 
 eye, and those more especially which have the outward garb of goodness 
 and piety. By the " righteousness of God " I understand that wherein 
 God is most just and most perfect in Himself ; and they who are ignorant 
 of the righteousness of God are not aware that the righteousness of man 
 must be of the same exalted character, in order that man may be accepted 
 of God as just ; whilst they who know the righteousness of God, know 
 that the aggregate of the universal innocence with which a man might 
 live in this present life, would not suflSce, in order that God should on 
 this account accept him as just. Hence it is that they who are ignorant 
 of God's righteousness go about to establish their own righteousness, to 
 make it stable and firm, thinking and pretending to be held for its sake 
 as righteous before God ; and whilst such are their thoughts and such are 
 their aims, they do not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. 
 And I understand that they submit themselves to the righteousness of 
 God who, recognizing God's righteousness and confessing their own un- 
 righteousness, renounce and condemn all their righteousnesses, and profess 
 to be righteous only through God's free grace, who executed the rigour of 
 His justice upon Christ, in order to assure aU those who should renounce 
 and condemn their own righteousnesses, yielding themselves to God, that 
 He accepts and holds them as just, on account of the justice which He 
 executed upon Christ. And in this does man's submission and subjugation 
 to the righteousness of God properly consist. So that all they who pre- 
 tend to justify themselves by their works, by the very circumstance testify 
 concerning themselves that they are ignorant how righteous God is. For 
 if they knew it, they would despair of their abUity to justify themselves 
 by their works, and would submit themselves to the righteousness of God. 
 
 L 
 
146 LIFE OP JUAN DB VALDBS. 
 
 Whilst, on the other hand, they who have renounced their own righteous- 
 nesses, testify conoeming themselves that they know how just God is ; 
 and that, knowing it, they have despaired of themselves, and have placed 
 their reliance on God, submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. 
 And those who so remit themselves are accepted as righteous before God. 
 From whence it may well be gathered that only the just know God as 
 just ; and that only they are just who, renouncing their own righteous- 
 nesses, submit themselves to the righteousness of God, because they alone 
 are justiaed by the righteousness of Christ, which St. Paul was warranted 
 in calling the ric/hteousness of God, because by it and with it God justifies 
 us (pp. 183-185). 
 
 On Baptism. 
 
 Eom. X. 10. 
 
 Corde enitii creditur, etc. 
 
 " For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, 
 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 
 
 Confirming that which St. Paul has said, " thou shalt be saved," I under- 
 stand why it is he says that, by the faith of the heart, man is justified 
 before God, enjoying remission of sins and reconciliation with God ; ac- 
 knowledging the righteousness of God, he renounces his own ; and sub- 
 mittiag himself to the righteousness of God, claims to be just on account 
 of that already executed upon Christ, understanding that God punished 
 in Christ that which He had to punish in those whom He purposes to save. 
 And this is the reason why, in order to obtain this salvation, man should 
 confess with his mouth the faith he has in his heart. I understand this 
 confession to relate to baptism, so that this of St. Paul corresponds with 
 that of Christ, where He says, " He that beheveth and is baptized shall 
 be saved." It is necessary that man should believe, and it is necessary 
 that he should proclaim with his mouth the faith which he has in his 
 heart, as well both for the Church, whose province it is to judge externally, 
 as likevidse for each individual severally, forasmuch as confession of the 
 mouth increases the faith of the heart. And thus it is that there will he 
 some who believe rightly of Christ and the Gospel, and feehng that it is 
 a dangerous thing, and that it is despised and esteemed as vile by men, 
 will not dare to confess it, lest they should suffer that danger and that 
 shame ; and thus suppressing their faith they wiU by degrees lose it. But 
 if, not ashamed of Christ or of the Gospel, they boldly confess with the 
 mouth what they have in their hearts, it will be seen that their faith will 
 increase in proportion as their confession shall be more fervent, more 
 animated, and more efficacious. So that faith in the heart is that which 
 is mainly necessary, and confession with the mouth is necessary likewise. 
 But these words of St. Paul are not to be understood so restrictedly as 
 that it suffice to confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth without enter- 
 taining Him in the heart ; nor that it suffice to believe with the heart 
 in the resurrection of Christ, without confessing Him with the mouth. 
 Neither is it to be understood that confession with the mouth without 
 heartfelt faith suffices to salvation. But it is to be understood that God 
 requires both these things— the heart and the mouth : the heart, in order 
 that man may believe ; and the mouth, in order that he may confess what 
 he believes. And by this faith and by this confession, God gives man two 
 things — justification, because he believes with the heart, and salvation, 
 because, by confessing with the mouth what he believes, he thereby forti- 
 fies his faith and increases it. I mean to say, that by believing he enjoys 
 
OOMMENTAEIES ON PAUL's EPISTLES. Ul 
 
 justification, and by confessing he enjoys salvation. It is, indeed, true 
 that faith iu the heart fully suffices both for salvation and justification ; 
 but tliis is when there is no necessity for confession with the mouth, and 
 when a man cannot make it from some impediment that occurs to him, or 
 from some other sufficient cause. And that this is so clearly appears from 
 what Christ said, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ;" 
 and He added, " but he that believeth not shall be condemned." Where, 
 not having added, " and he that shall not be baptized," it seems to be 
 perfectly understood that not all those who are unbaptized shall be con- 
 demned, but all unbelievers and infidels shall be condemned. And I have 
 already said that the confession of the mouth belongs to baptism, because 
 such confession is demanded at baptism. I will even say this, that St. 
 Paul having said, " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, and if thou shcdt 
 believe imth thy heart, &c., and with thy mouth," &c., as if to give to every- 
 thing its part — to faith, righteousness ; and to confession, salvation. But 
 the result is the same ; for he that believes confesses, and he that is 
 righteous obtains salvation (pp. 190-192). 
 
 SUPEESTITION THE FeUIT OF SeLF-LOVE. 
 
 1 Cor. yiii. 12. 
 
 Sic autein peccantes, etc. 
 
 " But wten ye sin so against the brethren, and wound 
 their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ." 
 
 This is as if St. Paul should say : Since thus it is that Christ died to 
 save him whom you condemn, or cause to perish, it follows clearly that 
 sinning against the Christian, polluting or wounding his conscience, you 
 come to sin against Christ HimseK, since you obstruct his work. Against 
 the brethren he understands against Christians, and wounding their weak 
 conscience, he understands making them do things by which they, having 
 tender or weak consciences, consider themselves as lost or condemned. 
 They whom we commonly call the superstitious and scrupulous, St. Paul 
 calls the infirm or weak in faith and conscience. So that as superstitions 
 and scruples are always founded in self-estimation and self-love, so also 
 infirmity and weakness in faith have the same foundation. Wlien self- 
 esteem is mortified and self-love uprooted, man is left free from supersti- 
 tions and scruples, and is left strong and sound in faith and conscience. 
 Whence we may rightly conclude that where there are superstitions and 
 scruples, there is infirmity and weakness in faith, and there is also self- 
 esteem and self-love (pp. 154-5). 
 
 On Pukgatoet. 
 
 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13, 14. 
 
 Si quis mitem sujpercedificat, etc. 
 
 " Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, 
 
 silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's 
 
 work shall be made manifest ; for the day shall declare it, 
 
 because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try 
 
 every man's work of what sort it is." 
 
 AH this St. Paul declares in reference to those who wrongly instructed 
 the Christians of Corinth, threatening those teachers with the revelation 
 which would be made of aU things, in the day of Judgment ; saying that 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE OP JUAN DE YALDES. 
 
 the brightness and fire of that day will give witness of the doctrine of 
 every one of the workmen who labour in God's building. If it be good, 
 and worthy of the foundation, it will stand the fire and be saved ; but if 
 it be vaia and unworthy of the foundation, it will not resist the fire, and 
 win perish. By gold, silver, and precious stones, I understand the good 
 building, which consists in this, that he who builds upon faith in Christ, 
 which is the foundation, builds up or promotes confidence in Gtod, for it 
 promotes mortification of the affections and appetites ; it promotes con- 
 tempt of the world and of self ; it promotes humility, patience, and endur- 
 ance in tribulation and adversity ; it promotes imion with God, and union 
 with Christ, and with the members of Christ, and love and peace with all 
 men. By wood, hay, stubble, I understand the vain building. And be- 
 cause I understand that although it be vain, it is stiU a building, I am 
 certain that it does not consist in false doctrine contrary to the founda- 
 tion, for then it would be no building ; but that it consists properly in 
 vain devotions, lohich in themselves have no more reality or substance 
 than what men give them, which are unworthy of the foundation, and 
 therefore do not enlarge the building ; yet not being contrary to the foun- 
 dation, they so far do not remove or overturn it. And by vain devotions 
 I understand not those that are contrary to Christian truth, and are un- 
 worthy of Christ, because both these destroy the foundation ; but the kind 
 which neither increase the building nor demolish the foundation. By the 
 expression "for the day shall declare it,'" St. Paul understood the day of 
 Judgment, in which the works of aU God's labourers will be made mani- 
 fest. And by the expression " it shall he revealed by fire," he means that 
 in that day there shall be a fire which wUl discover and manifest the 
 works of every workman. It consumes by its brightness, as weU as by 
 its efficacy, and bums up all that is of wood, hay, stubble, purifying and 
 refining all that is of gold, silver, and precious stones. So that St. Paul 
 understands that the fire of the day of Judgment will light up the work 
 of the labourers who have built upon the foundation of Christ that which 
 is conformable to the foimdation ; and that the same fire will confound 
 the work of the labourers who, on the same foundation, shall not have 
 bmlt in conformity with the foundation. By the expression " the worh," 
 he means the building. As to the quality of this fire that shall have this 
 effect in tie day of Judgment, I refer it to the consideration of those 
 persons who profess to understand it, and to give explanation of it, con- 
 tenting myself with knowing that it will be fire which will have this 
 effect (pp. 58-60). 
 
 On Puegatoet. 
 1 Cor. iii. U, 15. 
 8i cuius opus manserit, etc. 
 " If any man's work abide wMcli he hath built there- 
 upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall 
 be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved, 
 yet so as by fire." 
 
 St. Paul having said that the fire of the day of Judgment will try that 
 which God's labourers shaJl have wrought, which is the same as though he 
 had said that which the servants have traded with by their talents, he 
 proceeds to say what wiU be the consequence of the trial. And his 
 opinion is that the workman, whose work, resisting the fire, shall be found 
 solid and firm, will be rewarded by God ; and that, although the work- 
 man whose work not resisting the fire shaU go off in smoke will not be 
 
COMMENTARIES ON PAUL's EPISTLES. 149 
 
 condemned by God, yet he will escape as one who escapes from fire. This, 
 I understand, is the substance {sentmaia) of these words, which through 
 being rather confused, have given cause to those who tried to understand 
 them to say what they have. By the expression " If any man's work 
 abide" he means, if there be any one whose work being gold, silver, or 
 precious stones, shall remain safe and sound, resisting the fire, he shall be 
 rewarded. And in the reward must be understood what I have previously 
 said. These words " Every one. shall take his own reward," may have 
 another meaning in the Greek, which is, that what is built up shall be 
 rewarded ; as for me, I am more satisfied with what I have said, that the 
 builder shall be rewarded. By " If any man's work shall be burned," I 
 miderstand if there be any one whose work, through being wood, hay, 
 stubble, cannot resist the fire, he will suffer damage, the work wiU suffer 
 injury, or the buUding will be consumed or burned. And in the expres- 
 sion, " HiiHself shall be saved," that is, the builder, I imderstand that St. 
 Paul means what I have said, that he who builds wood, hay, stubble, is 
 not a stranger to Christ, since he builds upon Christ, although he is far 
 from making a good building, since he builds up the wood, hay, and stubble 
 of vain devotions ; that, as I have said, consist in human opinions and 
 fancies, in dreams and visions which pass away ; but the workman does 
 not perish, being saved by faith in Christ. By " yet so as by fire," he means 
 to say he is saved, but is as one who passes through the fire. So that it 
 is the same as if he said, he shall be saved ; but, passing first through the 
 file, his edifice shall be burnt. As when one having escaped from the 
 hands of robbers, says, I have escaped, but as one who escapes from the 
 hands of robbers, meaning thereby, with the loss and damage and detri- 
 ment that they experience who escape from the hands of robbers. This is 
 what I at present understand of the words of St. Paul, not prejudging or 
 condemning what others may tuiderstand of them. And I shall rest in 
 this explanation until I perceive a better one (pp. 60-61). 
 
 The Holy Spirit. 
 
 Si Unguis hominum, etc. 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 
 
 " Thougli I speak with, the tongue of men and of angelsj 
 and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a 
 tinkling cymbal." 
 
 The Apostle's design in all this is to console and animate the Corin- 
 thians, who had not received those external gifts of the Holy Spirit which 
 were usually bestowed upon believers. And he does this by showing that 
 the man who possesses charity. Christian love, has attained to greater 
 exceUeuce, and is in a better position, than another who possesses aU. the 
 external gifts of the Holy Spirit, even though he have them in the highest 
 possible perfection. And it is in this Christian love that the Apostle 
 intends to set forth the more excellent way, which he told the Corinthians 
 he would show them. By charity he understands the love (the afiec- 
 tionate feeling) which the man who has accepted the grace of the Gospel 
 cherishes towards God and Christ, and the things of God and Christ, 
 loving God for Himself, and loving the thmgs of God, not on their own 
 account, but for God's sake. I understand this love (this affectionate 
 feeling) to be wrought in man by the Holy Spirit, whom he receives, and 
 more abundantly by a growing faith. So that the measure of the Holy 
 Spirit's influence within a man is determmed by the amount of the faith 
 
150 LIFE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 ■which the man has ; and the measure of the fervour of the love (of the 
 affectionate feeling) within a man is determined by the amount of the 
 Holy Spirit's influences which the man has operating upon him. Whence 
 it is to be understood that, just as St. Paul attributes all this excellency to ' 
 charity, he might have attributed it to faith, since there is no greater 
 difference between them than between the root of a tree and the &uit of 
 the same tree. Faith is the root, and the fruit is love. By the expression 
 " Though I S2Jeah with the tongue of men and of angels" &c., it is to be 
 understood that, though I attain the gifts of tongues in such perfection 
 that, should I not only speak all the languages wmch all the men iu the 
 world have spoken, but likewise speak all the tongues spoken by all the 
 angels in heaven, yet if, with all this, I do not possess love, I am like 
 sounding brass and like a tinkling cymbal, &c. ; for, as the metal and as 
 the cymbal when emitting sound, neither feel nor enjoy any sound or 
 tinkling which they give forth when exercised, so I, wanting charity (the 
 love, the afi'ectionate feeling) shall neither feel nor enjoy that which I 
 shall speak with the tongues. Whence I understand that it is charity 
 (love, affectionate feeling) which gives taste and savour to the person who 
 speaks of spiritual and Divine things. I mean to say that a man's taste 
 for them is to be measured by the amount of his charity (his love, his 
 affectionate feeling). And hence it comes to pass that men of the world 
 have no taste for them, because they want charity ; they neither love God 
 nor the things of God. And, as to the expression when he talks of 
 " speaking with the tongues of angels," I understand this to be but a mode 
 of heightening his argument (pp. 242-245). 
 
 On Loye and Self-love. 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 4-8. 
 
 Gliarltas patiens est, etc. 
 
 " Charity suflfereth long^ and is kind ; charity envieth 
 not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, doth not 
 behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily 
 provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
 rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, hopeth all things, endureth aU things ; charity never 
 faileth." 
 
 St. Paul understands that, by these tokens, one may know how much a 
 man possesses of this charity [or Christian love] of which he here speaks ; 
 which he understands that, as love proceeds from faith as heat proceeds 
 from fire, so love produces these efiects, as the fruit is wont to proceed 
 from the tree. Hence, one should consider that, if love proceeds from faith, 
 and love^ produces the efl'ects which St. Paul here enumerates, and many 
 others, similar to these, which he does not mention ; in the same manner 
 unbehef proceeds from self-love, and from self-love proceed contrary 
 efi^ects to those which St. Paul here mentions, and to others which he 
 might have mentioned ; from which one may gather this conclusion, that, 
 as much as a man has of faith and love, so much has he of these effects 
 f 1^ 1 ■ ^^"^ ^'^^^ mentions ; and, as much as a man has of unbeUef and 
 ot self-bve, so much has he of the effects which are contrary to those of 
 love. The^si effect of love is to suffer long, enduring and tolerating the 
 evd and injury which it receives from others. Self-love is impatient. 
 iJie second effect is to he Icmcl. He means to say loving and pitiful, domg all 
 
COMMENTARIES ON PAUl's EPISTLES. 151 
 
 the good that it can. Self-love is unloying, cmel, hurtful. The third 
 effect is not to he envious ; never to be sorry for, nor tliink ill of, the good of 
 one's neighbour. Self-love is whoUy envious. The fourth effect is not to 
 be insolent ; vaunteth not itself, scorning and depreciating one's neighbour. 
 Self-love is associated with insolence. The fifth effect is that it is not puffed 
 up with self-esteem, or estimating itself higUy. Self-love is presump- 
 tuous and ambitious. The sixth effect is that it is not ashamed; nay, 
 having turned its back on the world, it utterly disregards the shame of the 
 world. Self-love more esteems the reg'ard of the world than the glory of 
 God. Likewise, he may mean to say that love which is not ashamed 
 is always careful to do and say the things which may not cause shame to 
 any man on earth. Self-love holds it to be politeness to put to the blush 
 whoever it can. The seventh effect is not to seek its own — not pursuing its 
 own interest nor its own convenience — postponing its own to advance 
 that of its neighbour. Self-love is interested, seeking always its own, 
 and making the love of itself the first importance. The eighth effect 
 is not to be easily in-ot'oled, however much men who are opposed to it may 
 irritate and provoke it with ill-treatment. Self-love is all anger and 
 revenge. The ninth eff'ect is that it thinks no evil, putting rather a good 
 than an evil construction on aU that it sees and on what it hears, except 
 when they are so evidently bad that no one can think well of them, but 
 must think iU. Self-love thinks evil even of the things that can scarcely 
 fail of a good construction. By the expression thinks no evil it may even 
 be said does not attribute evd, does not impute a bad motive ; but all 
 means the same thing. The tenth effect of love is that it rejoiceth not in 
 iniquity, but is depressed by it, is grieved and saddened by it, seeing that 
 men depart from what is just and virtuous. Self-love rejoices when others 
 are wicked, because its own malice does not seem so bad, and its own 
 goodness is more apparent. The eleventh effect is that love rejoiceth in the 
 truth, is gladdened that men practise truth one with another in word and 
 deed. Self-love is opposed to the truth, because it is opposed to God. 
 The twelfth effect is that it beareth all things which men do and say against 
 it without being disturbed ; and, if it be ruffled, does not avenge itself. 
 Self-love bears with nothing. The thirteenth effect is that it believeth all 
 things. This proceeds from the ninth efi'ect, which is to think no evil ; and 
 hence it behaves what is told it : he means external and worldly things, 
 because it believes as far as it experiences of spiritual things and of the 
 things of God. Self-love, as it is always suspicious, thinking evil con- 
 tinually, beheves nothing ; and, in short, doubts of everything. The 
 fourteenth effect is that it hopeth all things, not hurrying itself in anything. 
 Self-love always moves hurriedly, without knowing how to wait, but when 
 it cannot do otherwise. The fifteenth effect is that it endureth all things ; 
 and, ia fact, it is the same as what has been said in the first and in the 
 twelfth effects, because to be longsuffering, to bear all things, and to 
 endure all things is almost the same thing. St. Paul, having placed these 
 effects as signs by which every one closely examining them may know 
 how much he has of love and how much of self-love, propounds a marvel- 
 lous property of love, saying, Love never faileth. Where it is generally 
 understood that he means to say that love ever has wherein to exercise 
 and practise itself ; Lu fact, it is a truth that love has this property. But 
 1 do not believe that St. Paul meant this property ; I should think he 
 meant that love always maintains a steadfast course, and does not lose 
 itself as self-love does ; which, however much it may la.bour and strive to 
 maintain itself in a virtuous and holy career, can never do so for any 
 length of time ; for, being opposed, it soon falls. I mean to say that I 
 understand St. Paul to assert that the particular characteristic quality of 
 
152 LIFE 01? JUAN DE VALDi^S. 
 
 one who haa love is always to remain solid, iirm, and constant in piety and 
 in justification, without ever falling away from them. Besides, from 
 what follows, it appears that St. Paul intends to attribute this quality to 
 love, and that it also remams and shall remain in the souls of those 
 who are children of God, even to eternal life ; on which account he uses 
 this expression. 
 
 On Cheistian Loye. 
 
 Here Valdes takes occasion to explain the highest degree 
 of Christian love by the example of the natural and endeared 
 aifection he felt towards his brother Alfonso, as being his 
 twin by birth. 
 
 Rom. xii. 9-13. 
 
 Dilectio sine simulations, etc. 
 " Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which 
 is evil ; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned 
 one to another, with brotherly love ; in honour preferring 
 one another. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, 
 serving the time {Kaip(^) ; rejoicing in hope j patient in tribu- 
 lation ; continuing instant in prayer ; distributing to the 
 necessities of saints ; given to hospitality." 
 
 St. Paul, having assumed that the gifts of God are as varied in their 
 character as the members of Christ's body vary amongst themselves, here 
 lays down the Christian exercises and purposes in which they ought to 
 resemble each other. In the first place, he insists that there be love, 
 yet not like the love of the world, in which there is ever more dissimula^ 
 tion than truth, but Kke that of God, which is sincere and pure. By 
 " evil " he understands all that is opposed to Christian piety ; and by 
 " good " he understands all that is conformable to and associated with 
 piety. By the expression "preferring one another,^' he understands that 
 Christians are not to hold back until they are honoured by other Chris- 
 tians, ere they show others honour, but that they ought to anticipate them 
 by showing honour first. The word honour, in the mouth of a Jew, may 
 be synonymous with succour or relief to the needy. By the expression 
 " not slothful in husiness" he understands that they ought not to be sloth- 
 ful in aflairs which demand solicitude and diligence. By the expression 
 "fervent in spirit," he understands that the minds of Christians ought to 
 be fervent in spiritual things ; and this fervour consists in never being 
 lukewarm to God, to Christ, or to evangelical duty, and m never yieldmg 
 to personal apathy, but in ever warmly maintaining this solicitude and 
 diligence. When he says " serving the time" (/caipw), he might mean turning 
 opportunity to account ; and suggests that we should zealously avail our- 
 selves of the circumstances offered us, in which we may evince our piety 
 and our justice, developing them both in ourselves : no opportunity ought 
 ever to be lost by the Christian, for a neglected one is tardily or never 
 regained if once allowed to slip. In the expression " rejoicing in hope," 
 he understands joyous assurance and grateful anticipation 'of the fulfilment 
 of the promises. The expectation of fulfilment of man's promises is 
 uncertain, and forasmuch as it is so, it causes afliiction and sorrow. But 
 the expectation of the fulfilment of God's promises is sure, and as such it 
 causes joy and rejoicing. By the expression " patient in tribulation," he 
 understands that it is the Christian's duty, to show himself firm and con- 
 stant in afiiictions, neither dejected nor weak, so that his mind is not to 
 
COMMENTARIES ON PAUl's EPISTLES. 153 
 
 be disturbed by afflictions ; and if they should disturb him, he is not to 
 be so to the extent of fleeing from them ; for by tlieii- endurance his faith 
 is increased, and thereby, consequently, both his righteousness and holiness 
 are so likewise. He " contimies instant in prayer" who fixedly and 
 steadily cherishes an inward desire to promote the glory of God, as also 
 his neighbour's and his own salvation. This s^lstained desire is the Chris- 
 tian's continuous prayer, who, as he eroe/r desires, prays n'ithout ceasing, 
 and persevering in desu-e, perseveres in prayer ; and the mental prayer is 
 that which God hears, as is said by the Psalmist in Psalm ix. They who 
 do not desire do not pray. This " continuing instant in prayer " may 
 also well be what St. Paul understands, and of which we read as having 
 been practised by the primitive Church, observing a certain method of 
 prayer, in which they were engaged for a long while, and which was pos- 
 sibly a relic of Judaism. It appears from the Gospel history that Christ 
 sought privacy in prayer, and that He persevered in it. Where St. Paul 
 speaks of " distributing to the necessities of saints," he aUudes to alms and 
 works of charity, but to Christians, whom he calls saints ; for if they are 
 Christians, they are saints, and if they are not saints, they are not 
 Christians. 
 
 This is one of those passages in St. Paul from which it is to be gathered 
 that the Christian has to exercise his charity in the first place, and prin- 
 cipally, upon those who aie Christians, and amongst these, upon those who, 
 being more exalted Christians, are more exalted saints. True it is that 
 to the Christian who is regulated by the Spirit of God, there is no need 
 to give him rules for the exercise of charity, for he has within himself the 
 true and certain rule, which is the Holy Spirit. And I will say this, that 
 the Christian in his love towards a true Christian, and towards a man who 
 - is either no Christian at all or only a feigned one, ought to make the dif- 
 ference which a man makes between a twin brother and another brother 
 born before or after him. And I understand that as no one can feel the 
 difference that there is between the love existing between tu-in brothers 
 and the love existing between other brothers, but the individual who shall 
 have had or has a twin brother and a brother or brothers born before or 
 after him ; so neither can they feel the dift'erence which there is between 
 the love of Christians amongst themselves, through the union which they 
 have with Christ, and the love of other men ; but they only can do so 
 who are united with Christ, for they alone realize this difference, and by 
 them alone is it felt. They who were " given to hospitality " in the days 
 of St. Paul, received under their roofs those poor Christians who fled from 
 the persecution of men from one place to another ; and in such seasons 
 this hospitaUty was much needed ; for persecutors were numerous, but the 
 persecuted were stiU more so. The mere appellation of Christian then 
 involved persecution ; now, indeed, that a man is not persecuted, because 
 he styles himself a Christian — nay, but when that title is prized and 
 esteemed, persecution no longer being public, the persecuted do not flee 
 from place to place. There are, indeed, persecutors and persecuted, but 
 not on account of a man's avowing himself a Christian, but on account of 
 his leading a Christian life, his following Christ as his pattern, and 
 " walking even as He walked," as St. John expresses himself (1 John ii. 6). 
 This is not pubhc but secret persecution, and much more severe than that 
 above spoken o£ Thus the persecuted, because they need no longer flee 
 persecution, do not need the hospitality formerly practised ; but they do 
 need to be helped and succoured in other ways (pp. 247-251). 
 
 At this period of Valdes' life he seemed to direct all his 
 finished studies to the edification of Giulia Gonzaga. His 
 
154 LIFE OP JUAN" DB VALDES. 
 
 method of training her mind he clearly explains in a beau- 
 tiful epistle prefixed, like that to the Alfabeto Christiano, to 
 the copy of his Commentary on Eomans, which he tran- 
 scribed for her with his own hand. He had previously sent 
 her the Psalms, translated from the Hebrew into Spanish ; 
 and at a later period he sent her his translation from the 
 Greek of the Gospel of Matthew, with a commentary. 
 
 Epistle of Juan de VALD:fis to the Most Illustrious Ladt, 
 SiGNORA Donna Giulia Gonzaga. 
 
 I am persuaded, most illustrious Signora, that by the constant perusal 
 of the Psakns of David, which I sent to you last year, translated from 
 Hebrew into Spanish, you will have formed in yourseljf a mind, pious, 
 confiding iu God, and referring all things to God, such as David's was. 
 Desirous now, that proceeding onwards you. may form in yourself a mind 
 perfect, firm, and constant in things belonging to the Gospel of Christ, 
 such as St. Paul had, I send you these Epistles of St. Paul, translated 
 from the Greek into Spanish. By the continual reading of them, I am 
 certain that you wO make great progress in spiritual edification. But 
 this will only be, provided you read them in order to form and establish 
 your mind, according as St. Pauls was formed and established, and not 
 for the purpose of vain knowledge or curiosity, as some MKreUgious per- 
 sons do, who think to put an obligation upon God by setting themselves 
 to read St. Paul, like those who, being Spaniards, would think to compli- 
 ment a Greek emperor by speaking to him in Greek. 
 
 I wish to impress this upon you, that you should so far imitate David 
 as you know that he imitated God ; and that you should copy St. Paul 
 so far as you know that he imitated Christ. This I mention, because it 
 concerns you to become very much like Christ and very much like God, 
 striving to recover that image and likeness of God, in conformity to which 
 the first man was created. And I am not satisfied that you should think 
 to regain this, having only David and St. Paul before you as patterns. 
 Because at best that would happen to you which occurs to the painter, 
 who, copying a portrait drawn by another painter, not only fails to attain 
 to the truthfulness of nature, but does not even attain to the perfection 
 of the picture from which he drew it, or, if he does so, it is as by a miracle. 
 I say, then, that this does not satisfy me. Because I wish you to keep 
 David and St. Paul in view a.s patterns only so long as your mind is not 
 capable of taking Christ and God for your patterns. Endeavouring always 
 to perfect yourself in what concerns piety, and in all that belongs to the 
 Gospel, in such a manner that as your mind may become able to take 
 Christ and God for patterns, you will come to draw your portrait accord- 
 ing to the nature of the real image of Christ, and according to the very 
 image of God ; so that your pictm-e may serve for a pattern to others, in 
 a similar manner that the pictures of David and St. Paul now serve for 
 patterns to you. ' 
 
 And if what I say appear to you to be something new and not used in 
 practice, know that it is not new, but that it is ancient, and was much 
 practised, although, not being understood, it now appears to be new and 
 not practised. That it was so appears from what St. Paul, writing to the 
 Corinthians, tells them, that they are carnal, and not spiritual. He 
 says to them, " Be ye imitators of me, as I also am an imitator of Christ ;" 
 
 ' See at pp. 110, 111 the Sonnets of Bernardo Tasso to Giulia Gonzaga. 
 
EPISTLE OP VALDES TO GIULIA GONZAGA. 155 
 
 meaning, imitate me according as I imitate Christ. Here it must be 
 understood that, had the Corinthians been spiritual, he would not have 
 said to them, " Imitate me, draw your picture from that which I have 
 drawn of Christ ;" but he would have said to them, as he said to the 
 Ephesians, who were spiritual, " Be ye imitators of God, as dear children ; 
 endeavour to recover the image and likeness of God, drawing it not from 
 any man, but from God himself." It appears that Jesus Christ our Lord 
 HiQiself had the same object, as in one part He says, " Learn of Me, for I 
 am meek and lowly of heart ;" and in another, " Be ye perfect, even as 
 your Father in heaven is perfect." You see here that in counselling you 
 to di-aw the picture of the very image of Christ and of the very image of 
 God, I tell you no new or impractised thing, but a thing ancient and 
 practised by Christ Himself, and by His Apostle St. Paul. It remains that 
 commending youreeK to God, you apply your mind to it. This you will 
 do by imitating David so far as he imitated God, and was conformed to 
 the image unilikeness of God, having drawn his picture from God him- 
 self ; and imitating St. Paul so far as he imitated Christ, and was con- 
 formed to the image and likeness of Christ, having drawn his picture from 
 Christ himself. And do not rest here, but, passing onwards, consider 
 that you have to imitate God, drawing your picture to the life from the 
 very image of Christ, and the very image of God. And, therefore, in 
 order to imitate Christ, and to draw your picture of Christ, the continual 
 reading of the histories of Christ wiU be of much service to you ; for 
 they have much eflfioacy, containing many of the deeds of Christ, and 
 many of the words He spoke. In these I understand God shows much 
 greater power, moving persons' hearts by them, mortifying them and re- 
 newing them, than in any other that are found written. I think, by the 
 favour of God, to furnish you with these from the Gospel, as I have already 
 furnished you with those of David and St. Paul. 
 
 And know most surely that, as by the reading of St. Paul, the won- 
 derful effects of the Cross of Christ are known, seen, and felt ; so in the 
 reading of the histories of Christ is wonderfully known, seen, and felt the 
 very (Soss of Christ. And imder this word Cross I understand all that 
 which was weakness and infirmity in Christ, as much in what He himself 
 felt, enduring hunger and thirst, cold and heat, with aU the other incon- 
 veniences to which our bodies are subject ; and in suiferiag affliction and 
 anguish for things that He beheld amongst men and in men, and fearfully 
 feeling death, as well in what He outwardly showed in that He was consi- 
 dered to be a man low, base, and common, and was treated as such ; and 
 as. a man scandalous and dangerous, and as such was crucified. I will 
 accomplish what I say relative to the histories of Christ, when and how 
 it may please the Divine Majesty. Meanwhile lose no time, endeavour 
 every day to make yourself more like God, making use of reading the 
 Psalms of David ; and more lite Christ, making use of the reading of 
 St. Paul, in which you will also see the Cross of Christ, although not so 
 clearly as in the Gospels. And because the reading of St. Paul being 
 commonly held to be more difficult than that of the Gospels, it may appear 
 strange to you that I have given you St. Paul before the Gospels; I wish you 
 to know that, according to my apprehension, there is without doubt greater 
 difficulty in the perfect understanding of the Gospels than of the Epistles 
 of St. Paul. This I conceive proceeds from various causes, which would 
 be long to enumerate here. I will only say this : that because I read in 
 St. Paul the ideas and experiences of St. Paul ; and in the Gospels the 
 many thoughts and experiences of Christ, I find so much greater difficulty 
 in the perfect understanding of the Gospels than in the perfect under- 
 standing of St. Paul, as I conceive that the thoughts and experiences of 
 
166 LIJ?E OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 Christ were more exalted and more diyine than the ideas and experiences 
 of St. Paul, not denying that, as to the general sense, and as to the style, 
 the Gospels may be much more intelligible than St. Paul. But respecting 
 this I reserve to speak more at large when it may please God that I come 
 to translate the Gospels. 
 
 In the translation I have wished to go very close to the letter, rendering 
 it word for word as much as was possible for me to do so ; and even 
 leaving the ambiguities found in the Greek, when the text might apply in 
 one sense or another, where I have been able to leave it so in the Spanish. 
 I have done this because in translating St. Paul I have not pretended to 
 write my own conceptions, but those of St. PauL It is very true I have 
 added some little words to the text where they appeared to me needful ; 
 but some of them are understood in the Greek although they are not 
 written, and others seem to be necessarily imderstood. All of these, as 
 you will see, are marked, in order that you may know them for mine and 
 use them as you please, whether you read them or not. Yet be advised, 
 that as it is not well to make of little account what God by Himself may 
 give you to understand in this reading, so neither is it weU for you to trust 
 much to your own judgment, depreciating the judgment of others. It is 
 not weU for you to undervalue your own, and it is worse for you to under- 
 value that of others. 
 
 In the explanations that I have written upon what I have translated, 
 I have approached the mind of St. Paul as much as was possible for me, 
 writing down his ideas, and not my own ; and if I have departed from 
 them in anything, it has been through ignorance, and not wilfully. I shall 
 most wUlingly; therefore, be glad to be corrected and improved in what 
 may not have been correct, and chiefly in what might give birth to any 
 scruple, however small, that may arise in any Christian mind soever. For 
 although, as you are aware, my principal object in these writings has been 
 to satisfy your desire, yet whilst desiring to make them of use to you, I 
 wish at the same time to benefit all those persons who may read them, nor 
 offend the lowliest of them aU in anything. This is my principal profes- 
 sion, because I understand the Son of God made this profession in the 
 present life, whom I, being a Christian, am obliged to imitate. Do not 
 think that the Spanish wUl serve you to understand the words of the 
 Latin which I put at the head of the explanations, because frequently they 
 do not agree one with the other ; but consider that they only serve you 
 more readily to understand what is the Latin to which the Spanish 
 answers, and which, as I have said, is conformable to the Greek text, and 
 not to the Latin, because St. Paul wrote in Greek, not in Latin. 
 
 And because in certain cases you may wish to read the text of St. Paul 
 without occupying yourself with my explanations, in order that you may 
 do so with greater faoUity, I wish to inform you of some particulars which 
 will open the way and render the knowledge of the mind of St. Paul more 
 easy. I therefore tell you that by the word Gospel St. Paul means the 
 proclamation of the good news, of the general pardon which is published 
 throughout the world, affirming that God has pardoned all the sins of all 
 men in the world, executing the severity of His justice for them all upon 
 Christ. It was He who made known this general pardon in the world, 
 and in His name aU those who make it known proclaim it, in order that 
 men, moved by the authority of Christ, who is the Son of God, may be- 
 lieve in the general pardon, and confiding in the word of God, may hold 
 themselves as reconciled with God, and cease to seek after other means of 
 reconciliation. Whence you should imderstand that God in this case has 
 acted and contioues to act towards mankind like a prince, his subjects 
 having rebelled, and through their rebellion fled the kingdom, who gives 
 
EPISTLE OF VALDllS TO GIULIA GONZAGA. 157 
 
 forth a general pardon, and sends it to be proclaimed by his son, in order 
 that they may give credit to the pardon through the authority of the son, 
 and thus confiding in the prince's word, they may return to the kingdom, 
 desisting from endeavours to procure pardon of the prince in any other 
 way or by any other means whatever. It is thus to be understood that 
 they who believe Christ is the Son of God, and yet give no credit to the 
 general pardon which He published, and is stiU publishing, not holding 
 themselves reconciled with God, and going about seeking some other way 
 of reconciliation, not trusting in that which Christ published, and in whose 
 name it is stiU proclaimed, act just as the subjects of that prince do, who 
 believing that he who publishes the general pardon is the prince's son, 
 yet do not hold themselves forgiven, and therefore do not return to his 
 kingdom.' And I vmderstand that neither wiU the prince to whom this 
 occurs be satisfied as regards his intention in this, that he did not send his 
 son except with the purpose that, being known as his son, he might be 
 believed in what he declared ; nor does it appear that God is satisfied 
 in His intention in those who, knowing Christ to be the Son of God, yet 
 not relying upon what He proclaims on His part, do not hold themselves 
 reconciled with God ; His intent being only satisfied in those who, 
 knowing Christ as the Son of God, and confiding in what He proclaims on 
 the part of God, consider themselves reconciled to God, and therefore as 
 pious, just, and holy. It is very true that the knowledge they have that 
 Christ is the Son of God, who yet do not feel reconciled to God, cannot 
 properly be called hnowledge, being more properly opinion than knowledge. 
 Because, if it were knowledge, it would produce in them the effect it pro- 
 duces in others, assuring them of their reconciliation with God, and giving 
 peace to their consciences. 
 
 Besides this, you should know that, by the Letter St. Paul com- 
 prehends all that a man does, thinks, and speaks without being inspired by 
 God to it, although they may be things that other men have thought, 
 said, and done, being inspired. And by the Spirit he comprehends all 
 that a man does, thinks, and speaks, being moved and inspired by God 
 to it. It was the Letter in St. Peter to separate himself from the con- 
 versation of the Gentries in Antioch, not to scandalize the Jews ; and it 
 was the Spirit in St. Paul that reproved him for it. Further : know that 
 by Faith St. Paul intends the belief that a man gives to the general 
 pardon which Christ published, and which is still published on the part of 
 Christ, and in His name. And by Hope he means the patience and 
 endurance with which the, believer expects the accomplishment of what he 
 beUeves, without being weary of waiting, and without ceasing to endeavour 
 after what he expects. And by Charity he signifies the most intimate 
 affection with which the man who behoves expects and loves that which he 
 beheves and waits for ; loving God and Christ, of whom and through 
 whom he must gain what he beheves, expects, and loves, loving also all 
 things that are of God and of Christ. You must know, besides, that, by 
 the Ei&hteousness op God St. Paul means the perfection of God. 
 Thus, when we wish to say of a man that he is perfect, we say that he is 
 righteous, meaning that there is nothing in him that is not very good, and 
 in effect wanting nothing. By the Grace op God he signifies the favour 
 God shows to man, drawing him to accept the general pardon, supporting 
 him and enriching him with other inward favours which are called graces, 
 because God gives them gratuitously, without any regard to merit, and 
 solely because it is His will to bestow. By the Gipt op God he chiefly 
 means, having given us Christ, that the severity of His justice being 
 
 ' See the " Hundred and Ten Considerations," Consid. XIII. 
 
158 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 executed upon Him, we might hold the general pardon as certain ; and he 
 means in particular the exterior gifts of the Holy Spirit, which in 
 St. Paul's time were abunrJantly communicated to them who helieved. 
 By Sin he almost always means the inclination and appetite to sin which 
 lires in man through natural and acquired depravity ; and I say almost 
 always, because by sin he sometimes means the sacrifice for sin. By the 
 Old MA2f he signifies man unregenerated and unrenewed by the Holy 
 Spirit, and by the New Man he signifies man regenerated and renewed 
 by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 You should also know that, by the Flesh, by the Carnal Man, 
 by the Body of Sin, and by the Law in the Members, he means the 
 same as by the Old man, which is nature without the Holy Spirit. By the 
 Law of God he intends that which God gave to the Hebrew people 
 by Moses, which he sometimes calls the Law of Death, because its 
 office is to condemn. At other times he calls it the Law of Sin, because 
 it stirred up in man the inclination and appetite for sin. By the Law of 
 THE Spirit he means faith. By Circumcision he means Judaism, 
 and by the Uncircumoision he means the Gentiles. And lastly, under- 
 stand by Christian Liberty he comprehends the degree, the being, and 
 the dignity to which God brings the man who accepts the grace Oif the 
 Gospel, and who, being regenerated, renewed, and made a child of God, is 
 free and exempt from those things to which other men are subject, so far 
 as he maintains himself in the state of regeneration and newness of life, 
 and does not deprive himself of the filial relationship in which he is 
 guided and governed by the Spirit of God. All this may serve you as a 
 guide by which you may attain to many of the things you wiU read in 
 St. Paul. 
 
 And, because you may be surprised to see that St. Paul, setting hunself 
 to reprehend certain vices in some of those persons to whom he writes, and 
 warning them of those vices they ought to be on their guard against, 
 mentions some that are shameful even in men of the world; and this 
 appearing to you a strange thing for it to be necessary to warn Christians 
 of such vices, while he does not touch upon the more inward vices, know 
 then, that in St. Paul's time, because there were some who, imder a plea 
 of Christian liberty, made licence for the flesh, and gave themselves up to 
 sin and deoeitfulness, it was necessary that St. Paul should expressly treat 
 upon that in which they most sinned. It was also necessary, at that 
 period, to remedy in this manner those outward vices in Christian pro- 
 fessors, because they did not look upon them as sinful, nor were they 
 ashamed of them, through the false persuasion of Christian Kberty into 
 which they fell, and through having given up the estimation of the world. 
 In the same manner it is now necessary to correct the inward vices of 
 Christian persons, who, abstaining partly for God's sake and partly for the 
 world's sake from outward vices, fail to overcome the inward sins, in part 
 because they do not know them as vices, and in part because the world 
 holds the giving up of those vices as itself a vice. You wiU find in 
 St. Paul some things which you wiU not feel in yourself, and you will find 
 others you do not comprehend, and some others that will appear strange 
 to you. It appears to me all these you ought to pass by, not being careful 
 to weary yourself much in order to understand them, since the object for 
 which you set yourself to read St. Paul is not to comprehend all St. Paul 
 says, but to form your mind by that which God gives you to understand, 
 and feel, and relish in St. Paul. I advise you also that, when you begin 
 to read an Epistle, you fail not to read the argument written before it, 
 because it throws much light on the whole Epistle. 
 
THE COMMENTAEIBS OF VALDES. ].59 
 
 But all these advices ai-e as nothing : there is yet another of more value 
 Ihan all of them ; this is that, whenever you take St. Paul in hand, you 
 c onmiend yourself to God, praying Him to send His Holy Spirit, who may 
 guide you in this reading ; and seek to receive it by means of the only- 
 begotten Son of God, Jesus Clirist our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. 
 Amen.' 
 
 Naples. Juan db Vald:4s. 
 
 It may well be expected that Giulia Gonzaga should 
 preserve the writings of one who had shown so much affec- 
 tionate iaterest in her eternal well-being, and who had so 
 greatly laboured to conduct her on the road towards Chris- 
 tian perfection. Through years of personal danger she 
 religiously kept them; making them, however, as Vald^s 
 had requested, useful by their communication to her inti- 
 miate friends. So much, indeed, had they been used before 
 they came to the press, that Yaldes' countryman Juan 
 Perez, when editing the Commentary on the Romans in his 
 retreat at Geneva, mentions that the original came into his 
 possession so worn from constant use since it had been 
 written by the hand of the author himself, that he had 
 found "great labour in restoring it to its first integrity, 
 conformable to the intention of him who composed it, who 
 certainly was a very learned man and truly a Christian ;" 
 and he believed it had been brought to his hands by Divine 
 Providence, without his thought or expectation, that so pious 
 a work should be perpetuated for the future." 
 
 ' Reformistaa Aniiguos Hspanoles. Tomo X. 1856. La Episiola a los Romanos, 
 JEpiaixila Dedicatoria, p. Tii-xviii. ^ Al Chnstiano Lector, pp. 19, 20. 
 
]G0 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Hfndeed and Ten Consideeations of Juan de Valdes 
 appear to have been his latest composition. They exhibit 
 the most finished conceptions of his mind on the subjects 
 of which they treat. In what manner the Sunday readings 
 with his friends were conducted, of what nature were the 
 subjects he delighted to expound to them, and his readiness 
 to entertain their discussions, we have ah-eady described. 
 We think that the manner in which many of the CX. Con- 
 siderations conclude give evidence of the truth of thjs 
 representation. Bach of them is a distinct piece, and if 
 they are examined, it will generally be found that they wind 
 up with a judicial summary, somewhat in this mode : — 
 " From whence I am led to gather," Cons. Ixvii. " Two 
 things I learn from this discourse,'^ Cons. Ixviii. " In all 
 that has been said, I come to two conclusions," Cons. Ixxii. 
 " Having understood how the union between God and man 
 is made by love, and that love springs from the knowledge 
 which man has of God, I come to this conclusion," Cons. 
 Ixxiii. " From all this discourse, I am led to make this 
 conclusion,^' Cons. Ixxvi., &c. 
 
 It is not our purpose to analyze the Considerations, or to 
 explain or defend any of their principles. Whatever might 
 be said, the reader, having the volume before him, will form 
 his own opinion ; and we are satisfied it should be so, know- 
 ing that the author would be himself of this judgment. 
 According to the .reader's own experience, rather than his 
 knowledge, will he appreciate them. For the same reason 
 we do not here reply to the censures of Calvin or Beza ; 
 they have been ably answered by Dr. Ed. Boehmer,' in his 
 edition of the original Italian. The claim to Valdes' high 
 name, set up by the early anti-Trinitarians,' and repeated 
 
 ' " Lo Cento e dieci Divine Considera- pressly declares that it remained whoUy 
 zioni di Giovanni Valdesso, Halle in Sag- unaffected by any observation he had 
 sonia, MDCCCLX." " Cenni Biografici ever made. And fourteen years later, 
 sui Fratelli Giovanni e Alfonso di Val- when drawing up a biographical notice 
 desso " 1861, pp. 583-592. See also Dr. of Vermigli, whom he praises as a faith- 
 Ed. Boehmer's article on Valdfe in the fill disciple of Christ, he characterizes 
 " Real-Encyldopadie fUr Theologie und Vermigli's meeting with Valdfe "as a 
 Kirche," xvii. pp. 25-26, in which he blessed epoch in his career : mutually 
 remarks, "It is surprising that Beza, agreed upon the vital points of true reli- 
 notwithstanding that he disallows that gion, they jointly formed a Christian 
 book [CX. Considerations] to rank as a Church in Naples." Valdfe died in 
 pious one, still entertained such impres- 1540. 
 sion of ValdSs' character, that he ex- Every person will be at once aware 
 
THE ex. CONSIDERATIONS. IGl 
 
 through all the dictionaries, is utterly unfounded. With 
 the exception of the CX. Considerations, they appear not 
 to have, known his religious writings at all ; and we can 
 only be surprised at their presumption in claiming him as 
 one with themselves from one sentence in his works, and 
 that illogicaUy wrested from its proper meaning. The 
 reader will find the sentence referred to in Consideration 
 CIX., and will form his judgment accordingly. 
 
 The collection of these discourses was probably made from 
 loose sheets, or, perhaps, even from notes or minutes taken 
 down week by week, at the time when each Consideration 
 was delivered. Neither have we any assurance that they 
 are clothed in the exact expressions in which Valdes uttered 
 them. They may be found tedious when read consecutively, 
 by their mannerism ' and balancing of opinions, if we may 
 so speak, or they may offend by the frequent recurrence of 
 antithesis ; but if they were read in the textual language used 
 by Valdes, iu the same order in which he uttered them, 
 these objections would disappear, or would have a natural 
 solution. It should likewise be borne in mind that if each 
 one of these Consideeations be read at an interval equal or 
 approximate to that which was interposed when they were 
 first delivered, the tedium incident to such reading wiU be 
 modified. The tenor of all of them presupposes, too, a 
 mind in the reader somewhat attempered to that of the 
 writer. Suman creeds did not come between him and 
 Jesus Christ. It is evident that he desired that no formula 
 of human construction should interpose between him and 
 his Saviour in prescribing to him articles of faith. He 
 sought in this Grreat Teacher all his instruction in the Chris- 
 tian religion by means of his "two books, prayer and 
 meditation." We may likewise say that he felt himself at 
 the feet of a Master who was not human, but divine ; for 
 he desired to arrive at the knowledge of the truth without 
 
 that he who had pursued the hapless tion, and enjoying Christian justifica- 
 
 Spaniard Serretus to a cruel and un- tion, he may gO to live and reign with 
 
 timely death, could not be one in mind Jesns Christ our Lord." — Consid. 
 
 with another Spaniard who wrote thus : LXXVI. and LXIX. 
 
 "In which I apprehend that I ought to The more Christian temper of our 
 
 guard myself as from fire, from perse- milder age will determine which spirit, 
 
 cuting any Tnan in any manner pro- Calvin's and Beza's, or Valdes', most re- 
 
 fessing thereby to serve God." Again, sembled that Master's whom they both 
 
 " We ought never to distrust the salva- professed to love and follow. 
 
 tion of man, so long as there is breath ' Yet this peculiar mannerism and 
 
 in the body, ever hoping that God may balanced style assures to the reader the 
 
 do that which He is able and wont to do, true authorship of his anonymous 
 
 letting Himself be known, and showing pieces ; for when found even in a ti-ans- 
 
 him Christ, in order that knowing he lation of a translation, as it were the 
 
 may believe and love : and that believ- shadow of a shade, they show the form 
 
 ing, he may enjoy Christian justifica- of their true original. 
 
 M 
 
162 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 any alloy of error, and he expected to receive it by direct 
 illumination from Him who teaches " as never man taught." 
 He held that the mode of attaining truth was to hearken to 
 Christ alone, forsaking all human teachers. In many pas- 
 sages of the ex. CoNSiDEEATiONS, in his Dialogues, and in 
 his Commentaries upon the Epistles, he depicts his personal 
 condition and the progressive state of his mind, ever alert 
 to receive his heavenly Master's instructions and to reject 
 those of men ; and all this without defection from Christian 
 unity, practically holding the latter to its fullest extent, 
 fleeing as from fire from the accursed spirit of persecu- 
 tion, from that odium theologicum, or spirit of faction, in 
 matters of religion, which divides men into conflicting sects, 
 and teaches them to hate each other, all defending ■ their 
 equally fallible dogmas, whilst each arrogates to himself the 
 authority of being hifallihle. 
 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century, Morhof, in 
 his " Polyhistor," said of Juan de Valdes and his principal 
 work, the CX. Consideeations : " He appears to us to be 
 commendable for his writings in the highest degree. Those 
 Considerations of his are full of piety, and evidently written 
 with the taste of a purer theology than the common, so that 
 there is no pontifical leaven to be found in them. And it is 
 altogether wonderful that even in that age there were men 
 concealed under papal darkness who profoundly fathomed 
 the depths of religious mysteries. The book was one truly 
 worthy of being turned into Latin or German ; it occasion- 
 ally breathes so sympathetically with Arndt' that it would 
 seem as though they spoke but with one mouth. It ever 
 scrutinizes our actions very closely ; it evinces in its great 
 discretion a true acquaintance with Christianity, and is on 
 that account singularly to be commended." ^ 
 
 The CX, CoNSiDEEATiONS certainly embrace the most varied 
 religious subjects; they are ever sustained by the same 
 practical sense, and are charged and supported with Scrip- 
 tural illustrations. The great doctrines of Justification by 
 Faith in Christ, and Sanctification by the agency of the 
 Spirit, form the groundwork of all the rehgious writings of 
 Valdes, and he especially inculcates them. 
 
 Amongst the individuals to whom more particularly may 
 be attributed the preservation of those writings of Juan de 
 Valdes which have come down to us, we can with certainty 
 point out Giulia Gonzaga and Pietro Carnesecchi. We have 
 
 ' John Arndt's " True Christianity." 
 
 = Mqrhofs " Polyhistor," Lubecse, 1747, torn. i. p. 996. 
 
PIETRO CAENESECOHI. 163 
 
 already mentioned the latter as one of the social circle who 
 surrounded Valdes at Naples. After the death of Vald(5s, 
 Carnesecchi succeeded to his place in the confidence of 
 Giulia Gonzaga. One of his preferments was an abbey at 
 Naples ; he possessed also an abbey in France, travelling 
 between these places at his pleasure ; a liberty useful to him 
 in those perilous times. He went by way of Florence or 
 Venice, and occasionally by that of Geneva and Lyons. 
 After the death of Clement VII., he retired to Naples, 
 where he became intimate with Valdes, and was in that city, 
 December, 1540, when he died; and if he did not himself 
 receive his last confession, which is very probable, he at 
 least knew what it was, for his commendation of it formed 
 part of the accusation against him on his trial, in 1567, 
 before the Inquisition at Eome. We fortunately possess 
 the heads ^ of the accusation framed by the inquisitors, 
 drawn from the original record, which supplies us with 
 various important particulars. It charges him with having 
 been, " before the year 1540, indoctrinated by the late Juan 
 Valdes, a Spaniard ; Marc Antonio Flaminio, and Bernardino 
 Ochino, of Sienna, and holding converse with them, and 
 with Peter Martyr [Vermigh], with Galeazzo Caracciolo, 
 and with many other heretics and those suspected of heresy, 
 reading the book of the Beneficio di Clwisto, and writings of 
 the said Valdes^' (pp. 3—7). 
 
 "In the following year [Dec. 1541], at Viterbo, treating 
 about the same and other heresies with Flaminio, Vittore 
 Soranzo, Bishop of Bergamo, with Apollonio Merenda, and 
 LuigiPriuh" (pp. 8-10). 
 
 The accusation further charges against him "that after- 
 wards, in Venice, he held communication with Pietro Paulo 
 Vergerio, Bishop of Capo d'Istria, and with Lattantio 
 
 Ragnone, of Sienna, the latter a disciple of Valdes." 
 
 "And he recommended by letter to an Italian princess 
 [Giulia Gonzaga] two heretical apostates, with as much 
 ■ warmth of feeling as if they had been two Apostles, sent to 
 preach the faith to the Turks, which apostates were desirous 
 of opening a school [at Fondi] , in the territory of that lady, 
 with the intention of making their tender little scholars 
 learn some heretical catechisms" (pp. 11, 12). Again, 
 " That, together with a person his accomplice, una fersona, 
 tua complice [Giulia Gonzaga], he reprehended, and dis- 
 approved of as scandalous and superfluous, the confession of 
 
 ' " Report of the Trial and Martyrdom natures, an introduction, and illustrative 
 
 of Pietro Carnesecchi," &c. Translated notes, by Richard Gibbings, B.D., of 
 
 from the original MS., and edited with Trinity College, Dublin, &c. Dublin 
 
 an Enghah translation, fao-similes of sig- and London, 1856. Now become scarce. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LIFE OP JTJAN DE VALDES. 
 
 tlie Oatliolic faith made at tlie close of his life by a person- 
 age of high rank, in which, amongst other things, he 
 acknowledged the Pope, and particularly him who was 
 then in authority, to be the true Vicar of Christ and the 
 successor of St. Peter; praising Valdes at the conclusion 
 of his Hfe much more than the said personage" (pp. 
 21, 22) 
 
 Again, " That he arranged to receive in Venice the pro- 
 hibited pestiferous books and writings of the said Valdes 
 from a personage, una persona, tua complice [Giuha 
 Gronzaga], his accomplice, who had them in custody, in 
 order to cause some of them to be printed and published, 
 notwithstanding the prohibition issued by the Holy OflSce ; 
 or at least that they might be removed from sight and 
 secreted, teaching that it was not a siu to retain prohibited 
 books, but an indifferent act according to the conscience ; 
 pledging also to be a diligent conserver of them, and 
 affirming it to be a greater sin, with regard to the soul, to 
 burn them than to preserve them" (pp. 22, 23). 
 
 And again, "1m the same manner, in the year 1564, he 
 treated with that personage [Griulia Gonzaga], his accom- 
 plice and conservatrix — conservatrice (fem.)' of the said 
 writings and books ^ of Valdes, that they might be re- 
 mitted to him at Venice by a safe mode, as well through 
 the wish to preserve them as also to free that personage 
 from the danger with which the keeping of them threatened 
 her " (pp. 28, 29) . And finaUy, " That he held all the errors 
 and heresies contained in that book, the Beneficio de Ghristo, 
 and the false doctrine and institutions taught to him by the 
 said Juan Valdes, his master" (p. 43). 
 
 When Vergerio iinaUy withdrew from Italy, having had 
 intercourse with Carnesecchi at Venice, in October, 1548, 
 he carried with him the manuscript of the Italian trans- 
 lation of Gento et died diuine Consider ationi, and got it 
 printed and published, in May 1550, at Basle, with a prefa- 
 tory commendation by Celio Secondo Curione.' When 
 
 1 It is to be remarked that in this and committed to her custody hj ValdSs 
 
 place and in the former instances, where himself. See his Epistles to her. 
 
 the words " una persona tiia complice, ^ By the year 1664 these works of 
 
 tua conservatrice " are used in the ori- Valdfe had been printed — the Two Dia- 
 
 ginal process, Mr. Gibbings translates logues in Italian at Venice ; the Alfa- 
 
 them in the masculine ; they are, how- beto Christiano at the same place ; the 
 
 ever, undoubtedly to be read as femi- CX. Considerations in Italian at Basle ; 
 
 nine, and could appl^ to no other person the two Epistles, with Commentaries, 
 
 than the Italian Princess, Giulia Gon- 1556 and 1557, in Spanish [at Geneva], 
 
 zaga, whom we have sufScient and having the imprint of Venice ; and, we 
 
 certain evidence to prove was in cor- may add also, the CX. Considerations 
 
 respondence with CameSeoohi, and in French at Lyons, 1568. 
 
 was the preserver of the works of " See Ciirione's Epistle at the com- 
 
 ValdSs.and for whom many were written menoement of the CX. Considerations. 
 
LIST OF VALDfis' WOEKS. 165 
 
 Carneseccliij shortly afterwards, went to France, going and 
 returning in ] 551-2, he passed through Lyons. In that 
 city, and at Paris, and in the court, he introduced from 
 Italy a book by Valdes, and presented it as a gift. The 
 French translation of the Consider ationi was printed at 
 Lyons in 1563, and again at Paris in 1565, for which his 
 previous visits would seem to have prepared the way by his 
 recommendation and introduction of copies of the edition in 
 Italian. Carnesecchi is accused of having received letters 
 from Lyons and Geneva, and of having, in 1564, arranged 
 with a friend — tua complice et conservatrice, who was associ- 
 ated with him as keeper of the books and writings of 
 Valdes, that they should be sent by safe conveyance to 
 Venice, being anxious as well to preserve them as to deliver 
 that personage from the danger which threatened her from 
 having them in her possession (pp.28, 29). The distinc- 
 tion made between the writings and boohs, and the circum- 
 stances respecting them, evidently show that Carnesecchi 
 had a great interest in the care and possession of the 
 manuscripts or " writings," and probably the Italian trans- 
 lations, and that he diligently promoted the printing of 
 them at Venice ; and it is scarcely to be doubted that he 
 was also concerned in those editions which issued from 
 Basle, Lyons, Paris, and Geneva. 
 
 A LIST OF THE WOEKS OF VALDES. 
 
 1. Dialogo de Mercuric j Caron : en que aUende de muohas oosas 
 
 graoiosas y de buena dootrina : se cuenta lo que ha acaescido 
 en la guerra desdel ano de mill y Quinjentos y veynte y vno 
 hasta los desafios delos Eeyes de Franoia y Ynglaterra hechos 
 al Emperador en el ano de 1528, 4to. and 8vo., Gothic letter, 
 Seditions ... ... ... ... ... ... 1529? 
 
 • in German, 4to. Amherga, 1609. Frankfort, Svo. ... 1643 
 
 2. Dialogo : en que particularmente se tratan : las cosas acaecidas 
 
 en Eoma : el ano de M.D.XXVII. A gloria de Dios y Men 
 vniuersal de la Republica Christiana. 4to. G. L. 1529 ? 8to., 
 2 editions, s. d. et a. Koman letter, Paris, Svo. ... ... 1586 
 
 The Sacke of Eoome, Exsequuted by the Bmperour 
 
 Charles' armies euen at the Natiuitie of this Spanish Kinge 
 Philip. .... Translated latelie into the English toungue. 
 .... London, 4to. B.L. 1590 
 
 Dos Dialogos escritos por Juan de Valdfe, ahora cuidadosa- 
 mente reimpresos. " Valdesio Hispanus Scriptore superbiat 
 orbis." 8vo. (BeformistasAntiguosEspanoles,T.iv.) Anode 1850 
 
 ' A version of the Di&logo de Mer- peum, 1844, p. 122. A copy in German, 
 curio y Carrni from the Spanish into printed at Amberg, in Bavaria, bear- 
 German, made, as it seems, shortly after ing the date of 1609, is in the Ducal 
 the publication of the original, is pre- Library, Gotha. Both these are men- 
 served in manuscript in the library of tioned by Dr. Edward Boehmer, in his 
 Count Ortenberg, at Tambach, in Fran- ample notes to the CX. Consideratioui ; 
 conia, 12 miles from Gotha : vedi Sera- ed. Halle, 1861, p. 490. 
 
166 LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 Pve dialoghi. L'vno di Mercvrio, et Caronte : Nel quale, 
 oltre molte cose belle, gratiose, et di buona dottrina, si 
 raoconta quel, che acoade neUa guerra dop6 I'anno M.D.XXI., 
 L'altro di Lattantio, et di vno Archideacono : Nel quale 
 puntalmente si trattano le cose auenute in Roma nell' anno 
 M.D. XXVII. Di Spagnuolo in Italiano con molta accura- 
 tezza et tradotti, et reuisti. In Venegia. Con gratia, et 
 privilegio per anni dieci. 8vo. Italic letter, 5 editions. And 
 1 ed. in Roman letter ... ... ... ... 1545 
 
 3. Dialogo de las Lenguas [written about 1533] in Gregorio Mayan's 
 
 " Origines de la lengua Espanola," Tom. II. Madrid, 12mo. 1737 
 Dialogo de la Lengua (tenido azia el A. 1533) i publicado por 
 primera vez el ano de 1737. Abora reimpreso conforme al 
 MS. de la Biblioteca Naziondl, lioico que el Editor conoze. 
 Por Apendize va una Carta de A. Valdfe. 8vo. 
 
 Madrid. Ano de 1860 
 
 4. Alfabeto Christiano che insegna la vera via d'aoqvistare U Ivme 
 
 deUo spirito santo. Stampata con gratia et priulegio. Sm. 
 
 8vo. (Venegia) I'Anno 1546 
 Tbe same text reprinted, with a Spanish and Bngbsh 
 
 translation. (Seformistas Antiguos Espanoks, T. xv.) 
 
 8vo. London. 1861 
 The same in English only. 8vo. London. 1861 
 
 5. 'Modo di tenere neH' iusegnare nel predicare al pricipio deUa 
 
 reHgione Christiana. A tract of 13 leaves, mentioned by 
 
 Vergerio in " II Oatalogo," printed before 1549. 
 
 Not discovered ... ... ... ... ... 1546? 
 
 6. 'Qual maniera si dourebbe tenere in formare i figliuoU de 
 
 Christiani neUa Christiana religione. 1 leaf ; Vergerio. 
 Printed before 1549. Not discovered ... ... ... 1546? 
 
 7. Le cento et dieci diuiue Considerationi del S. Giouani Valdesso : 
 
 nelle quali si ragiona delle cose piu utiU, piu neoessarie, et piu 
 perfette, della Christiana professione. 1 Cor. ii. 8vo. 
 
 In BasUea. 1550 
 
 The same reprinted ; " con Cenni biografioi sui frateDi 
 
 Giovanni e Alfonso Valdesso," and ample notes, 8vo. HaUe. 1861 
 
 ' Curione, in one of his letters, ac- Italian taken by Vergerio for Ms transla- 
 
 cuses Vergerio of having taken a work tion had been composed by Vald€s, and 
 
 of Valdfe', translated it into Latin, and that Vergerio used it without aoknow- 
 
 passed it off for his own, under the lodgment of its author. The Latin of 
 
 title of "Lac Spirituale." A copy of the Vergerio has been recently reprinted, 
 
 Latin has been found in the Brunswick with remarks by the learned Editor, 
 
 Library ; it was translated into German F. Koldewey : Lac spiritnaU, Instituiio 
 
 and Pohsh. puerorum chrisiianorum Vergenana, 
 
 edidit F. Koldewey, Brutisvigae, sumpti- 
 
 Comparing it with Valdfe' manner of Ims Alfredi Brulm, 1864, 8to. pp. 32. 
 
 writing, the style and method of treating The German version is in the University 
 
 the subject appear too dissimilar to be Library, Gottiugen ; the Pohsh transla- 
 
 a translation from Vald^s, at least in its tion has not been found, 
 
 present form, although it contains sen- If this be not the work of Valdfe, it is 
 
 timents similar to his. clearly the production of a writer of his 
 
 P. P. Vergerio translated a tract from school, 
 
 the Italian into Latin, which he oaUed The translation of Matthew, of the 
 
 Lac spirituale. It is in the manner of Psalms, and Letters on particular points 
 
 a catechism for the religious instruction of doctrine mentioned by himself, 
 
 of youth, and contains many coinci- Acliaro, and Aviso sohre los Interpreles 
 
 donees with the known writings of de la sagrada Escrilura, quoted by 
 
 Valdgs. C. S. Curione said that the Llorente, appear to be irrecoverably lost. 
 
LIST OF VALD^S' WORKS. 167 
 
 ' In French, ... ... ... 8vo. Lyons 1563 
 
 And ... ... ... ... 12mo. Paris. 1565 
 
 In Dutch. Godsalighe Ajimerckingen uyt het Italiansche 
 
 overgeset. A copy -vvas in the library of Zach. Conrad 
 Uflfenbach at Frankfort. See Biblioth. Uffenbach. 
 Francof. 1729. Tom. I. p. 914, No. 27. Not discovered ... 1565 
 
 In English. The Hundred and Ten Considerations of 
 
 Signor John Valdesso. 4to. ... ... Oxford 1638 
 
 And 12nio. Cambridge 1646. Another translation. Svo. London 1865 
 Ziento i diez Consideraziones de Juan de Valdfe. Ahora pubU- 
 cadas por primera vez en casteLLauo. "Valdesio Hispanus 
 Scriptore superbiat orbis." 8to. {Iief.Ant.Esp.,T!.bi.)J^oAe 1855 
 Ziento i diez Consideraziones leidas i explioadas hazla el aSo de 
 1538 i 1539. Por Juan de Vald^s, conforme a un MS. 
 Castellano esorito el A. 1558, existente en la bibhoteca de 
 Hamburgo, i ahora publicado por vez primera con un fac- 
 simile. Valdesio Hispanus scriptore superbiat orbis. 8vo. 
 [Befonnistas Antiguos Espanoles, T. xvi.) Espana. Ano 1862 
 Ziento i diez Consideraziones de Juan de Vald^s. Primera vez 
 publicadas en Castellano el A. 1855. Por Luis de Usoz 1 Eio, 
 i ahora correjidas nuevamente con may6r cuidado. roy. 8vo. 
 (Heformistas Antiguos Espanoles, T. xvii.) A£o de 1863 
 
 pp. xxxii. & 734. In addition to the text, this edition has 
 various readings and an Appendix, 308 pages. 
 
 8. Comentario, o deolaraoion breve, y compendiosa sobre la Epistola 
 
 de S. Paulo Apostol a los Romanes, muy saludable para todo 
 Christiano. Compvesto por Ivan Valdesio pio y sincere 
 Theologo. Kom. 1. En Venecia (Geneva), en casa de 
 Juan PhUadelpho. Svo. ... ... ... ... 1556 
 
 9. Comentario o declaracion familiar, y compendiosa sobre la 
 
 primera Epistola de san Paulo Apostol alos Coriathios, muy 
 vtil para todos los amadores dela piedad Christiana, compvesto 
 por Ivan W. pio y sincere Theologo. Psal. 119. En 
 Venecia (Geneva), en casa de Juan Philadelpho. 8vo. ... 1557 
 La Epistola de San Pablo a los Eomanos i la 1. a los Corintios. 
 Ambas traduzidas i comentadas por Juan de Vald^s. Ahora 
 fielmente reimpresas. " Valdesio Hispanus Scriptore superbiat 
 orbis." Svo. (BeformistasAntigvasEspanoles,'E.x.-jd.) A&ode 1856 
 
 ' There are some copies of the JFrenoh pages, and the thi'ee last leaves of Sig. 
 translation of ie cento et died diuine 7i are reprinted, in order to omit the 
 Considerazioni, Lyons, 1563, which colophon and date. A copy is found in 
 bear the date 1601 ; they are, however, the Wolfenbiittel Libraj-y, and in St. 
 only a spurious issue of that edition. Sepulchre's, Marsh's Library, Dublin. 
 They have the following title ; — Les Calvin remonstrated with the printer. 
 Divines Considerations et sainotes medi- Jean AgeroUes, at Lyons, against the 
 tations de Jean de Val D'Esso, Gentil- publication of the Considerations. He 
 homme Espaignol. Touchant tout ce issued them, however, with various 
 qui est necessaire pour la perfection de qualifying notes. 
 
 la vie chrestienne. Traduittes par It may be conjectured that the affair 
 C. K. P. Beueues de nouveau, et rap- of Camesecchi, not long after the publi- 
 
 tees par I'Aucteur. A Lyon. Par Pierre publisher, and induced him to withdraw 
 
 Pieard, 1601. The title and the epistle the remaining copies from sale. They 
 
 of C. S. Curione in the edition of 1563, were kept in stock and reappeared in 
 
 eight leaves being omitted, are replaced this spurious form after the lapse of 
 
 by a new title and preface of four leaves thirty-eight years, and the death of the 
 
 only, thus leaving a hiatus of eight parties concerned. 
 
lUj LIFE OF JUAN DB VALDES. 
 
 The "Beneficio di Ohristo "—Benefit of Christ's Death— 
 a book now pretty well known by its modern reprints and 
 the discussions^ both in this country and abroad, which have 
 endeavoured to determine the authorship of it, has been 
 attributed to Juan de Valdes. It is very clear that the 
 earliest opinions on the subject tend to support this im- 
 pression.' Certain it is that there are passages in it textuaUy 
 similar to parts of the CX. Consideeations. The inquisitors 
 at Rome were intimately acquainted with the circumstances 
 relating to productions of this class ; they were active in 
 discovering who were their individual authors ; and we find, 
 in the original process of the Inquisition against Camesecchi, 
 that before 1540 the book of the "Beneficio di Christo" is 
 coupled with the writings of Juan de Valdes. It is there 
 shown that Carnesecchi, coming from Naples in December, 
 1541, is accused of having discussed the "Beneficio" at 
 Viterbo, with his friends there, who are known, on the occa- 
 
 ' The Benefit of Christ by his saorifiee "Considerations" and the "Beneficio" 
 and death may be said to form the bur- both use language so pecuUar, and yet so 
 den of the CX. Considerations from be- much alike, that it may assist the reader 
 ginning to end. The opening page of the to see them placed side by side here. 
 
 CX. CONSIDEKATIONS. BENEFICIO DI ChBISTO. 
 
 Molte volte ho deliberato intender La Sorittura santa dice, che Dio creo 
 in che cosa propriaraente consista quello 1' homo ad imagine e similitudine sua, 
 che dice la santa scrittura, che I'uomo facedolo quato al oorpo impassible, e 
 fa create alia immagine e similitudine quanto all' animo iusto, uerace, pio, 
 di Dio ; . . . La immagine e similitudine misericordioso, e santo. Ma poi che 
 di Bio intendo che consiste nel sue pro- egli uinto dalla cupidita del sapere, 
 prio essere, in quanto h impassibile ed mangio di qael pomo prohibit© da Dio, 
 immortale, e in quanto h beuigno, mise- perdette quella imagine e similitu- 
 ricordioso, giusto, fedele, e verace ; . . dine diuina, e diuento simile alle 
 Questa immagine e similitudine di Dio bestie, e al demonic, che 1' hauea in- 
 intende che perdette il prime uomo per gaunato, percioche inquanto all' animo 
 non ubbidir a Dio, e cosi rimase passi- diuenne ingiusto, mendace, e cru- 
 bile e mortale, rimase malvaggio, cru- dele, impio, e inimico di Dio, e in- 
 dole, impio, infddele, e bugiardo, quanto al corpo diueto passibile, e 
 
 Edition 1550, edited by Dr. Ed. suggetto a mille incomodi, e infirmita, 
 
 Boehmer, 1860. ne solamente simile, ma anchora infe- 
 
 riore a gli animali bruti. 
 
 Edition 1543, edited by Dr. Babington, 
 1855. A. ii. 
 
 It is to be borne constantly in mind "la esperienza, la quale 
 
 that Valdes being deceased in 1540, the hanno solamente quelli che per done di 
 
 allusions to this subject in the Considera- Dio e per beneficio di Christo hanno fede, 
 
 tions had been expressed in his assera- speranza e caritSi, e cosi sonopii, santl e 
 
 Mies several years before. giusti in Christo . . . ." 
 
 TheConsiderationsXItl. andXXXIV. In the Commentary on Romans, pp. 
 
 are written on this express subject. 74, 87, 117, 119, 153 ; and it is treated 
 
 It is sprinkled, as it were, through- of in the Commentary on 1 Cor. p. 74, 
 
 out Consid. XXXII. XL. LXV. LXXI. where the term occurs six times in the 
 
 LXXV. LXXXVIII. XCIX. CVII. CX. page. 
 
 The Beneficio di Christo is a favourite Dr. Boehmer, with his usual critical 
 
 expression, to which his mind loved to sagacity, makes these references to the 
 
 recear, and with which the latest sen- similarity of the two works under con- 
 
 fence of the Considerations concludes sideration. 
 
THE "BT-INEFICIO DI OHRISTO." 169 
 
 sioiij to have been Marc Antonio Flaminio, Vittore Soranzo, 
 Bishop of Bergamo, Apollonio Merenda, and Luigi Priuli. 
 Laderchius, who drew his information from the process of 
 the Inquisition against Carnesecchij absolutely attributes 
 the work to Vald6s. The theory^ respecting its author, in 
 the Spanish point of view, is, that it had its origin at Naples 
 in the same way as the " Considerations ;" and it was simply 
 in this manner : — Juan de Valdes, in his Sunday discourses, 
 which we akeady have mentioned that he held with various 
 friends in his country house at Chiaja, in Naples, occupying 
 perhaps about ten Sundays calculating with reference to 
 the ex. Considerations, communicated to them his medi- 
 tations upon the subject of the benefit of Christ's death to 
 Christians, its necessity and paramount utility ; that having 
 extremely gratified all his hearers, one of them, who might 
 be Marc Antonio Magno, or Carnesecchi, or probably 
 Benedetto Cusano, monk of San Severino, immediately took 
 them down, in the same way that the Layman wrote down 
 the sermons of Tauler, which have been transmitted to us ; 
 that this compilation was the first treatise of the Benefit of 
 Christ, and which we owe to Valdes. And as it was a sub- 
 ject of paramount interest and fertile in suggestions for 
 every sincere Christian, the consideration of it was natural j 
 and some one, the ablest of those enlightened Italians 
 whom the persuasive force of Valdes as a sanctified instru- 
 ment attracted to the tranquil and profound love of the 
 Gospel, might amplify with his own reflections. Thus 
 Paleario, thus Plaminio in his sermons on the spiritual life, or 
 any other of them who might afterwards compose or preach 
 other addresses on the subject of the " Benefit of Christ," 
 to which Valdes first called the attention of many of them, 
 who were united in those sacred meetings, conducted with- 
 out formularies, without liturgy, without creeds or human 
 symbols, giving them to experience the sweetest hours of 
 Christian liberty [see Consid. XXXVI.], surrounded by the 
 enchantments of earth and sea, refreshed by the moisture 
 and motion of the air fragrant with flowers, which disposed 
 their minds to love and tranquil enjoyment ; and who thus 
 associated together, felt in their hearts the benefit of Christ 
 still more than the benign influences of nature, which they 
 tasted and rejoiced in. 
 
 To them his voice seem'd mellowed to a sound 
 More sweet than Virgil's on Italian ground j 
 For every lesson, every turn he drew, 
 Fell on the heart, and melted in like dew. 
 
 ' Ziento i Diez Consideraziones. Ano de M.DCCCLXIII. Ap&dize, pp. 641-2. 
 
170 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In his national as well as his more strictly religious views, 
 Juan de Valdes was, we think, one of the most advanced 
 reformers of his time. If in a country there be no popularly 
 constituted assembly, no recognized civil authority, to ac- 
 credit and cherish individual freedom, and thereby prosper 
 and uphold public usefulness ; and if irresponsible rulers, 
 led by political wiles, tread public honour and public use- 
 fulness under foot, — ^then the obligation devolves the more 
 imperatively upon individuals to study the causes of such 
 evils, and by public exposure of them to procure their 
 remedy. This seems to have been what Juan de Valdes 
 had principally in view in all the political portions of his 
 works. In them he endeavours to promote a necessary 
 reformation in points of faith and practice, because without 
 this reformation every other remedy is illusory. He who 
 does not examine what he believes, can never make any 
 belief his own, or will never have any belief at all. Reh- 
 gion can neither be learnt nor gained, like other branches 
 of knowledge ; neither will a religion that is learnt and not 
 inspired, ever produce a devoutness, which in its turn shall 
 bring with it religious liberty, the only solid foundation of 
 national political freedom. The recognition of the right 
 and duty of personal religious conviction lies at the base of 
 all social advancement. Without national piety and reli- 
 gious liberty, even that intellectual amelioration which 
 creates that material prosperity to which man ought to 
 aspire, will never be attained. It does appear that deduc- 
 tions like these occur to the student of Valdes without 
 overstraining his expressions, and the reader will thus be 
 led rightly to appreciate, by an elevated yet correct standard, 
 the author and his writings. 
 
 The inviolability of religious hberty is brought out in- 
 controvertibly by Juan de Valdes ia the LXXVI. Consi- 
 deration. He therein shows that religious persecution is 
 the greatest of scandals or offences. He considers, in the 
 first place, that it is impossible to live in this present life 
 without giving offence, it being assumed that Christ himself 
 gave offence, and was even called a stumbling-stone, because 
 many stumbled at His humiliation and low estate. He says 
 
vald:^s on religious libeety. 171 
 
 that the "Saints of the 'world" in all ages stumbled at 
 Christ, and at true Christians and their ways, just in pro- 
 portion as these are more Uke to Christ. And he observes 
 likewise, that the Saints of God are scandalized by the 
 Saints of the world, in being falsely indoctrinated by them, 
 in being persecuted by maltreatment, calumny, and death ; 
 and they are thus driven to separate themselves from the 
 Gospel and Christ. He observes also, that the " Saints of 
 the world " scandalize or offend each other ; for it is matter 
 for surprise if there be found one of them that approves of the 
 manner of hving of another, worldly sanctity consisting in 
 ceremonies and superstitious observances. And from this, 
 and from much more that Valdes brings under considera- 
 tion, he finally deduces thirteen main propositions, which 
 all issue in proving the inviolabihty of religious Hberty, and 
 the antichristian character of all persecution. In his com- 
 ment on 1 Cor. XV. 9, he thus strongly condemns reH- 
 gious persecution : — " One thing is here worthy of remark 
 — ^that St. Paul rested his unworthiness to be called an 
 Apostle on the ground that he had persecuted the Church 
 of God, although, as he himself elsewhere says, he had not 
 been aware that he erred in so doing. This serves to show 
 us what evil they do who persecute others, and more espe- 
 cially those who do so under the pretence of religion and 
 piety ; and that we should understand that there is nothing 
 more foreign to a Christian mind than persecution. It is 
 proper that the Christian suffer, and so far as this is proper 
 to him so much is it iynproper for him to persecute another." 
 Valdes thought that every kind of rehgious persecution 
 should be repugnant to our very nature. And it is better 
 to have no profession at aU than to have one that denatu- 
 rahzes man ; for grace perfects nature, but does not pervert 
 and deprave it. It is a contradiction in terms to speak of 
 being converted, meaning thereby, rendered so unnatural 
 as to defend grace or reHgion by cruel and unequal laws; 
 and to be exclusive in religion, putting force upon others, 
 in order to compel them to be so, is to be irrehgiously reli- 
 gious. How can a Christian be consistently intolerant ? It 
 is inconceivable. And still less is it conceivable how a 
 Christian, be he whom he may, can beheve himself em- 
 powered to defend that which he holds to be religion, and 
 which he calls " the cause of God," with coercive power, 
 persecuting his neighbour, because he professes a different 
 religious creed from his own. " The cause of God " is well 
 defended by Himself, without human codes and idle words. 
 He alone searches and knows the hearts of men, and weighs 
 
172 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALD:fiS. 
 
 their actions, not according to the external forms of their 
 worship, but according to their motives, secretly impelled, 
 yet openly known and manifest to Him alone. Such were 
 the sentiments of Valdi^s, although remaining in the bosom 
 of a Church under the control of a persecuting hierarchy. 
 But he could not have found, had he sought for it, the ex- 
 ternal form of any Church that was free from the like 
 unhappy spirit. 
 
 In the LIV. Consideration Valdes explains the mental 
 process he pursued in the formation of his own rehgious 
 views : — " That prayer and consideration are two very sure 
 books, or interpreters, for the understanding of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and how a man ought to avail himself of them." He 
 concludes his familiar Commentary on the Epistle to the 
 Eomans by the same sentiment : — " This is what at present 
 I can attain to, in the understanding of this divine epistle, 
 having made use in it of my two books, which are Prayer 
 and Consideration ; these have so much assisted me as Prayer 
 has been aided by the Holy Spirit, and as much as Consi- 
 deration has been assisted by my own experience and daily 
 reading; considering it certain that when the Spirit was 
 most fervent and hope the greatest, the understanding of 
 the words of St. Paul would be most perfect, being then 
 most aided by Prayer and Consideration ; and I am also sure 
 that a time will come when I shall understand all this much 
 better, and then I will supply what is now wanting." Thus 
 he maintained his mind in a state of constant exercise and 
 constant mental progress, his activity being tempered at the 
 same time by a humiUty, of which he delighted to make a 
 true confession. In a letter he wrote at a late period of his 
 life, which Marc Antonio Magno has appended to the 
 Alfabeto Ghristiano, perhaps written to himself, he writes in 
 the same strain, yet more at length : — 
 
 Whilst a man studies merely in the books of other men, he becomes 
 acquainted with the minds of their authors, but not with his own. Now, 
 as it belongs to a Christian's duty to know himself, to know the state of 
 being that he possesses as a chUd of God through Christian regeneration, 
 I am accustomed to say that a Christian's proper study shoiild be in his 
 OWN BOOK. This rightly understood, know, then, that I am accustomed 
 to caU my mind my book ; because in this are contained my opinions, 
 both false and true. In this I discover my confidence and my diffidence, 
 my faith and my unbelief, my hope and my negligence, my charity and 
 my enmity. In this also I find my humility and my presumption, 
 my meekness and my impatience, my modesty and my arrogance, my 
 simple-mindedness and my curiosity, my resolution against the world and 
 my deference to it, my firinness against myself and my own self-love. In 
 this is found whatever I possess of good by the favour of God and of 
 Christ, and whatever evil I have acquired by my natural depravity. This 
 
VALDlSs' OWN BOOK. 173 
 
 IS MT BOOK. In this I read at all hours and at all seasons, and there is 
 no occupation whatever that interrupts this reading. Sometimes I occupy 
 myself in examining the opinions I entertain upon Christian subjects — 
 on what I base them, how I understand them, and how I feel them. At 
 other times I set myself to examine what degree of confidence I have in 
 the promises of God : how far I depend upon Him in all circumstances, 
 and with what alacrity I put in practice what I know to be His wUl. I 
 consider whether the Christian's faith has its efi&oaoy within me, causing 
 me to change my natural disposition ; and whether the Christian life has 
 made me change my former state and manners ; because such alteration 
 is Christian renovation and regeneration. I enter at other times into a 
 very strict account with myself, examining how far I love God and Christ ; 
 whether I love Him more than myself ; and how far I love my neighbours, 
 and whether I love them as weU as I love myself. If, then, I perceive 
 that I am going forward, purely directed to the glory of God and of 
 Christ, and to the spiritual and eternal good of my neighbours, I know 
 that I go forward in love. This is the way I study in my own book. 
 The fruit I gain from such perusal is, that I arrive at a much better know- 
 ledge of what I am, and of what I am worth in myself, and what through 
 God and through Christ ; and so I arrive at a more intimate knowledge 
 of the iemfit to be received from Christ. And this is the consequence, that 
 the more constantly I read in this my book, so much the more the life I 
 have by the grace of God and of Christ grows within me, and that which 
 I have as a son of Adam becomes less. When I wish to examine whether 
 my opinions in the Christian faith are false or true, I go forward, com- 
 paring them with those which I read those holy men held who wrote the 
 sacred Scriptures. Reading the holy faith of those Christians of the 
 primitive Church, who were acknowledged to be justified and sanctified in 
 Christ and by Christ, I know my own faith and my unbelief, and ask of 
 God that He wiU increase my faitL Considering, also, the modest and 
 simple manner in which Christian people lived at the first pubbcation of 
 the Gospel, having all things in common, and having no other thought 
 than to know Christ crucified, I know my own modesty and simplicity, 
 my arrogance and vain curiosity, and come to abhor all vanity, embracing 
 simplicity of life. Finally, comparing my afiections and appetites with 
 those I read of in the Holy Scriptures, I know well how lively or how 
 dead they are ; and I desire to give them not a single day to live. In this 
 manner Holy Scripture serves me the better to study mt own book, 
 and the better to understand it. In this manner I comprehend whether 
 my Christian life and my Christian self-denial correspond well or iU, little 
 or much, with my Christian faith and profession. Thus I become a gainer 
 of two things : one is, that I do not estimate myself by the opinion men 
 have of me, whether good or iU, but by that which I entertain myself, 
 always referring myself to the opinion which God has of me ; the other 
 is, that I go on forming my mind, reducing it by the imitation of Christ 
 and His saints to what I know to have been in Him and in them. I have 
 said that mt book is mt mind, and in the study of it, when I examine 
 what I have in it, the benefit I draw from it is, to know myself, and to 
 know God and Christ. The same belongs to this study which belongs to 
 all others you can pursue ; what at the first was dry and forbidding, when 
 advanced to the middle becomes easy, and has some pleasantness in it, 
 and in the end is most sweet and delicious. Besides, so much greater wiU 
 be the enjoyment in this than in any other study, as the benefit resulting 
 from it is greater, which you wUl find if you will make the trial.' 
 
 ' " In wlMt manner ike Christian fruit he would draw from tlie study of 
 shcmld study in his omi hooh, and what it, and how the Holy Scriptures serve ■ 
 
174 LIFE OF JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 With a masterly power over his whole moral nature, 
 Yaldes sought to apprehend truth through the just me- 
 dium of feeling as well as reason. He brought an 
 earnest affection for right wisdom to the bar of reason, and 
 a well-regulated understanding, and tried it by the test of 
 his experience and the declarations of the New Testament. 
 When he found Scripture, experience, the heart and the 
 understanding all concurring to elucidate the truth he 
 sought to find, he delivered his mind to absolute trust in it, 
 and at once gave it life by applying it to the conduct of 
 life. This ought to remove the objection of mysticism from 
 his writings and character ; and the same reason should 
 remove it, as a charge, from a body of Christians in the 
 present day, who, in consequence of carrying out their 
 reasonable reHgious convictions into daily practice, have 
 not inaptly been styled the most English of the English; 
 that is, the most jft-actical, in these respects, of a nation 
 eminently practical in all their purposes. And, after all, 
 when more intimately considered, how can the religious 
 relations, although clearly known to himself, between the 
 spirit of a man and the Divine Spirit, in which relations the 
 essential quality of real religion consists, be otherwise than 
 mystical to others, who yet wear their own mystery, if they 
 also have any essential religious sentiments ? 
 
 To Valdes the internal word of inspiration was not mys- 
 tical. He knew that the Word of God within — earnestly 
 sought for, patiently believed in, and obediently comphed 
 with — was also the highest reason ; and that its commands 
 were practicable just in proportion to the degree of the 
 reliance of faith reposed in them. The sacrifice offered by 
 Abraham was as perfect and as practical as if he had actu- 
 ally slain that darling son, whom he was called upon by the 
 Divine Word to offer up without reserve. 
 
 Neither did Valdes inculcate an ascetic life. He mixed 
 with men and with their affairs, striving alike by his prac- 
 tice and instruction to direct them to a foretaste of that 
 true felicity in this hfe which they might hope to enjoy per- 
 petually hereafter ; and in this also he was practical. In 
 his Dialogue of the ''Alfabeto Christiano" he endeavoured to 
 inculcate in the mind of Giuha Gonzaga such purity of in- 
 tention and thought, such sacrifice of the mere distinctions of 
 rank and honour, such quiet endurance of injury, such a 
 manner of beholding Christ in God, and again God in Christ, 
 as clearly shows that the religion of Valdes, that which in 
 
 /lira as an interpreter or commentary/." to the " Alfabeto Christiano," fol. 71-76 
 A tract by Juan de Valdfe, appended of the Italian. 
 
CHARACTEE OP VALD^S, BY JUAN PEBEZ. 1V5 
 
 every man should be truly his own, his religion of the heart, 
 was indeed the practical religion of the New Testament. It 
 was so ia its spiritual meaning, in a sense more profound 
 than the Apostles appear to have had during their Lord's 
 ministry and presence whilst here upon earth, before His 
 resurrection and ascension. And this brought Juan de 
 Valdes to receive the doctrine of Justification by Faith, in 
 an acceptation deeper and more intimate, although less 
 demonstrative than that which Luther himself enunciated to 
 reform Europe. This he taught to others in the manner of 
 his Divine Master; in the dweUing-house, or walking by 
 the way, or when, for those who had an ear to hear, he gave 
 them to understand things of highest meaning by personal 
 communication, explained by parables drawn from incidents 
 familiar to their circumstances, and from objects within the 
 range of their immediate observation. Vesuvius illustrated 
 the earthquakes of mental agitation ; the passage from the 
 Mole to Capri, the effect of the steadiness of faith; the 
 common journey from Naples to Spain, the travel of life ; 
 the disease of the skin, so well known iu the earlier ages, 
 that the cure of interior evils cannot be effected by outward 
 services ; the proverbs of the people, our conquest of our- 
 selves ; and that a successful lawsuit may be more damaging 
 than its failure. 
 
 Juan Perez, Yalde s' pwn countrym an, who edited and 
 pubUshed his Comm^SSries upon the Epistles to the Romans 
 and 1 Corinthians,^ thus describes his character and dispq^ 
 sition : — " He was very learned, and was truly a Christian. 
 He was a thorough gentleman, noble and wealthy, and 
 made his true nobility not to consist in having finer blood 
 than others, but in being an imitator of Christ, and in obey- 
 iag the laws of Christian knighthood^/ He renounced 
 wordly nobility, to pursue the spiritual nobility of the sons 
 of God. He gave himself to the study of sacred letters. 
 So diligent was he in its pursuit, and conducted it to so 
 good and direct a purpose for the glory of the Lord, that He 
 Himself assisted his understanding and greatly prospered 
 his labours therein. Valdes did not by this study pretend 
 to be wiser than those whom the world appreciates, but to 
 be a Christian, one whom God approves. He was not a 
 speculative theologian, but a practical one, who carried out 
 what he understood. He did not aspire to be considered a 
 
 'Juan Perez and his amanuensis taries. Thus he generally uses the 
 
 Julian Hernandez were Andalusians. words muncko, muTichoSj for muchOj 
 
 He has left signs of his provincial origin muchos, 
 in the orthography of these Commen- 
 
176 LIPE OP JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 literary man, but one who imbibed into his mind the habits 
 of Ohristj and to appear like Him in his own manner of 
 life, as he exemplified in the course of it. He was not a 
 man who kept the understanding alone instructed, but he 
 also held his will subjected and enamoured of the truth of 
 what he understood. Thus he gained the title of a wise man, 
 not, however, amongst those who were enchanted with their 
 own opinions, but amongst those who were known of God. 
 He suffered great troubles whilst he lived, in order to follow 
 the footsteps of Christ ; the world treated him as the world 
 usually treats those who take into their bosoms the obedience 
 and love of the truth. Valdes followed his Lord and obeyed 
 Him to the end of his days. . . It appears that Divine 
 Goodness gave His faithful servant Valdes to the nobility 
 and gentry of his nation to be as a glass, in which they 
 might see and learn, to appreciate how to be truly noble 
 hidalgos of that nobility which ends not in this life ; that 
 they might view in him that generous knight [cabalUro) who, 
 in order to follow Christ, gave up his own nobility and re- 
 nounced all for Him."^ 
 
 Valdes, as a reformer, entered less than almost any 
 thoughtful man of his time into the battle of hierarchies. 
 He was less a destroyer of error and evil, than a builder-up 
 of truth and goodness. He left not himself the profession 
 of the Church of Rome, nor incited others so to do. This 
 was no part of his religion. He looked beyond her cere- 
 monies and pompous ritual. Taking the New Testament 
 for his standard, he fixed his view upon the things signified, 
 not upon the symbols exhibited, being aware, to use his 
 own words, how " outward ceremonies breed inward vices," 
 and how the mind which is inclined to superstition is natu- 
 rally inclined to persecution. The penetrating discrimina- 
 tion of his mind when applied to his religious inquiries, 
 frequently amounted to a moral anatomy of motives. Yet 
 he made not theology, that is a doctrinal science of religion, 
 his study, and therefore had not, in his more enhghtened 
 years, to unlearn the sophistical formulas of the schools. 
 He had the advantage of not having been brought up a 
 priest, and was therefore not called upon to perform cere- 
 monies in which he had no reliance. Had he been a priest, 
 his conscience, like Martyr's and Ochino's, could not have 
 allowed him to practise the rites in the sense in which the 
 people received them ; and his principles brought to this 
 
 ' "La Bpistola de San Pablo a los Romanos, i la I. a los Corintios," &o. Afto 
 de 1856. Al Lector, pp. 27-29. {Reformistas Antiguos Espanoles, T. x.-xi.) 
 
CHAEACTEE. AND DEATH OP VALDKS. 177 
 
 test must have driven him to a more definite decision 
 respecting them. 
 
 The works written during the later years of his life ; viz.j 
 the " Alfabeto Christiano/' the " Commentary on the 
 Epistle to the Romans," ''On the 1st of Corinthians," and the 
 " Hundred and Ten Considerations," a series of separate 
 productions, have all four a uniformity of character, of con- 
 sistency, and of religious purity ; and all of them are con- 
 ceived in the same tone of humility and modesty, and in a 
 truly evangelical spirit. The style of all manifests a mind 
 serene, quiet, and self-possessed ; which, while it is highly 
 active and progressive, is ever subjected to the authority of 
 the Scriptures. The understanding and reason are found 
 always guided hy the royal law of which the Apostle James 
 speaks ; they are vigilant over the passions and affections. 
 There is nothing in them showing iuconsideration, hesita- 
 tion, or impatience ; nothing assuming or dogmatic. 
 
 The feature of Valdes' mind that strikes us as the most 
 singular for one born and nurtured in a southern clime, and 
 amongst an imagiuative people, is its argumentative and 
 logical structure. He endeavours in all he writes to prove 
 his position by strict though not formal reasoning, and 
 whenever his thoughts assume a playful turn, they take the 
 form of wit rather than of fancy. He seemed to possess 
 more of the Saxon or Teutonic element than is common to 
 his countrymen : this is shown in its practical character, in 
 its love of rational liberty, in its love of religious freedom, 
 and in its exemption from superstition, the thrall of a tyran- 
 nous imagiaation applied to religion. 
 
 In person, Valdes was spare in body, of fair and pleasing 
 countenance, of sweet and courteous manners, of soft and 
 wiuning speech, clear and logical in discourse, active, and 
 diligently studious. He was unmarried and of unblemished 
 Hfe. He died at Naples, about middle age, ia the year 1640, 
 greatly beloved and honoured by his numerous friends, 
 whose sentiments are represented in the well-known letter 
 of Jacomo Bonfadio to Camesecchi, written shortly after the 
 event.i 
 
 Jacomo Bonfadio to Monsignoe, Oarnesecchi. 
 
 I have heard by letter from M. Marc' Antonio Plaminio that your 
 fordship has had a very severe fever, which has brought you near to death, 
 and that now you are not out of bed, although you' are out of danger. I 
 have felt, as I ought, the greatest uneasiness ; and reflecting in myself 
 how temperate you are to all things, and with what regularity you order 
 
 '" Letters Tolgarididiversinobllissimi letter of Bonfadio appeared in the first 
 Huomini," Vinegia, 1544, fol. 32. The ed. 1.542. 
 
 N 
 
178 CHAEACTBE AND DEATH OV JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 your way of living, I can discover no other cause for your sickness than 
 too fine a temperament, which shows its spirit to be divine. As the 
 Romans preserved those statues which fell from the skies, may God pre- 
 serve your lordship's life ; and He will do it, so that one of the brightest 
 lights of Tuscan virtue may not be early extinguished upon earth. Let 
 your lordship, then, under the direction of God, endeavour to improve 
 your health, and to live with that cheerfulness with which you were accus- 
 tomed when we were at Naples. Would that we were there now with 
 that happy company ! I seem now to see you affectionately sigh for that 
 country, and frequently call to your mind Chiaja and the charming 
 Posilippo. Monsignor, let us confess the truth, Florence is all beautiful 
 within and without — this cannot be denied ; yet the amenity of Naples, 
 that situation, those shores, the perpetual spring there, show a higher 
 degree of excellence. There nature appears to rule with unlimited sway, 
 and everywhere presiding, smiles and rej oices. If you were now at the win- 
 dow of that turret, so often praised by us, while the eyes were cast by 
 turns all around those sunny gardens, and then stretched along the spacious 
 bosom of that smiling sea, a thousand vital spirits would multiply about 
 the heart. I remember yoiu: lordship said many times before leaving that 
 you wished to return, and as often invited me there. May it please God 
 that we may return. Yet, thinking on the other side, where shall we go 
 now Signer Vald^s is dead ? This has truly been a great loss for us and 
 the world, for Signer Vald^s was one of the rare men of Europe, and those 
 writings he has left on the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms of David most 
 amply show it. He was, without doubt, in his actions, his speech, and in 
 all his conduct a perfect man. With a particle of his soul he governed his 
 frail and spare body ; with the larger part, and with his pure understand- 
 ing, as though almost out of the body, he was always raised in the con- 
 templation of truth and of divine things. I sympathize with Messer 
 Marc' Antonio [Magno ?], for he loved and admired him above all others. 
 It seems to me. Signer, that when so many talents and so much learning 
 and virtue are united in one mind, they make war upon the body, 
 and seek to ascend as soon as they can together with the spirit, to that 
 mansion from which it descended ; therefore it causes me no regret to have 
 so few, for I might sometimes fear lest they should mutiny and leave me 
 on earth like a fool. I would fain Hve if I could, and I exhort your lord- 
 ship to do the same. Farewell. May our Lord give you that prosperity 
 in life which you may desire. — From the Lago di Garda. (1541 ?) 
 
 The remembrance of Vald^s inspired the tone of this 
 charming letter, which, although frequently quoted, never 
 loses its freshness or becomes familiar; like a strain of 
 delightful and pensive music, that recurs with ever return- 
 ing pleasure, because it has tempered the inward spirit to 
 the charm of a divine melody arising within itself. The 
 rehgious writings of Valdes, when they are apprehended 
 and felt, bring the thoughts of the reader, in the same 
 manner, within the compass of the quiet and well-adjusted 
 harmony of his own tranquil and pervading mind, directed 
 as it was by what may be called the essentially poetic 
 sentiment and experience of the Life divine. 
 
 Benjamin B. Wiefen. 
 
 Near Woburn : 
 
 4th month, 1865. 
 
179 
 
 TITLES OF THE EDITIONS OF THE 
 ex. CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 1 Title of the Italian Basilba ISfiO 
 
 2 OP THE Italian Hm,t,b 1860 
 
 3 OF THE Fkehch Lyon...,. 1563 
 
 4 OF THE FSENCH FARIS 156S 
 
 5 ....... Spueious Lton 1601 
 
 6 OF THE English Oxfobd 1638 
 
 7 OF THE English Cambeidoe 1646 
 
 8 OF THE English London 1865 
 
 9 of THE Spanish , 1855 
 
 10 op THE Spanish Lonbees 1863 
 
 11 OF THE Spanish, fhom the MS. of 1558, in the 
 
 City Libhaey,^ Saububoh. Espana 1862 
 
 12 OF THE Spanish MS. in the City Libbaby, 
 
 TTAMTtTJSGH 1558 
 
 13 OF the DtTTCH Not discovered ... 1566 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 [1] 
 
 Le cento & dieci di 
 
 uine Confiderationi del S. 
 Giouani Valdeffo : nelle qua- 
 li fi. ragiona delle cofe piu uti 
 li, piu neceflariej^piu perfet 
 te, della Chriftiana 
 profefsione. 
 
 /. Cor. II. 
 
 Not vi ragionamo della perfettaja- 
 p'tentia, non della fapient'ia di quejio 
 mondo, ^c. 
 
 In Baftlea, M. D. L. 
 
181 
 
 [2] 
 
 LE CENTO E DIECI 
 
 DIVINE CONSIDERAZIONI 
 
 DI 
 
 GIOVAMI VALDESSO. 
 
 HALLE IN SASSONIA. 
 MDCCCLX. 
 
182 
 
 [3] 
 
 CENT 
 
 ET DIX CON- 
 
 SYDERATIONS 
 
 DIVINES DE IAN 
 
 DE VAL d'eSSO, 
 
 Traduites premier ement^ d'Espai- 
 
 nolen langueltalienne^^ de nou- 
 
 ueau mifes en Franqois^par 
 C. K. P. 
 
 o 
 S 
 
 Q 
 
 A LYON, 
 
 Par Claude Senneton, 
 M. D. LXIII. 
 
183 
 
 [4] 
 
 
 CENT 
 
 m§)) ET DIX CON 
 
 As^^ SYDERATIONS 
 
 DIVINES DE IAN 
 
 DE VAL d'ESSO. 
 
 ^ >-, 
 
 Traduites premierement, d'Ef- l ' '. r^^^^' 
 paignol en langue Italienne, I -^-C-vX*'* 
 & de nouueau miles en 
 Francois, par 
 
 C. K. P. 
 
 A PARIS, 
 
 Par Mathurin Preuoji^a Pefcu 
 dcVenife^rue S. laques. 
 
 1565: 
 
 
184 
 
 [5] 
 
 Spurious title in some copies of the edition of 
 Lyon of the year 1563. 
 
 LES DIVINES 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS, 
 
 ET SAINCTES MEDITATIONS 
 DE lEAN DE VAL D'ESSO 
 
 Gentil-homme Efpaignol. 
 
 Touchant toutce qui eft neceflaire, pour la per- 
 fection de la vie Chreftienne. 
 
 Traduittes par C. K. P. 
 
 Reueuh de nouueau, l^ rapfortees fidelement a I'ExempIaire 
 
 Efpaignol, isf amplifiees de la Table desprin- 
 
 cipales matieres trainees par PAuileur. 
 
 A LYON, 
 Par Pierre Picard. 
 
 1601. 
 
185 
 
 _^ [6] 
 
 THE HUNDRED AND TEN 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 OF SIGNIOR 
 
 lOHN VALDESSO: 
 
 TREATING OF THOSE 
 
 things which are moft profitable, moft 
 
 neceffary,andmoftperfe(3;in our 
 
 Chriftian Profeffion. 
 
 WRITTEN IN SPANISH 
 
 Brought out of Italy by Vergerius, and 
 
 firft fet forth in Italian at^o/f/by 
 
 Ccelius Secundus Curio, 
 
 Anno 1550. 
 
 Afterward tranflated into French, and Printed 
 
 atLions 1 563. andagain at Paris 1565. 
 
 And now tranflated out of the Italian 
 
 Copy into English, with Notes. 
 
 Whcreunto is added an Epiftle of the Authors, 
 
 oraPreface to his Divine Commentary 
 
 upon the Romans. 
 
 I. CoR. Z. 
 
 Howbeit we/peak wijdomeamongftthemthat are per- 
 fect, yetnot thewijdome of this world. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 Printed by Leonard Lichfield, Printer 
 totheVniver(ity.yf»«.Z)o»?. 1638. 
 
186 
 
 [V] 
 
 og DIVINE eg 
 
 * CONSIDERATIONS * 
 
 c^a 0(53 
 
 ^ Treating $, 
 
 ^ Ofthofe things •which are mojiprofi- * 
 * tahle, moji necejfary, and moji * 
 
 cjj perfe6i in our Chrijiian * 
 
 ci53 trojeljion. ^ 
 
 * <*> 
 
 ^ OHN VaLDESSO. c43 
 
 <*» ** o5d 
 
 cifo c^ 
 
 cjQ I. Cor. 2,. 6. c^ 
 
 <*) Howbeit we/peak wijdome amongft them <*! 
 
 ^ that are perfect ; yet not the wijdome of ^ 
 
 6j3 this world. cija 
 
 qjD oOo 
 
 C$3 :^ 
 
 c5o <*) 
 
 C$3 CAMBRIDGE: c*. 
 
 cj3 Printed for E. D. hy Roger Daniel^ Printer c^a 
 
 *! to the Univerfity. 1646. <*> 
 
187 
 LIFE AND WKITINGS m 
 
 OF 
 
 JUAN DE YALDES, 
 
 otftertotsj 'FalUegso, 
 
 SPANISH REFOEMEB IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN. 
 
 WITH 
 
 a 'STranslatton from t|)e Utalian 
 
 OF HIS 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T. BETTS. 
 
 Valdisio Hispanus SCBIPTORE SUPERBIAT ORBIS. 
 
 Daniel Roger*. 
 
 NoN MoBiTUBA. — Giulia Gonzaga's Motto, p. 11.2. 
 
 ^ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY. 
 
 1865. 
 
 IThe right of Tranilation and Reproduction is relerved.^ 
 
188 
 
 [9] 
 
 ZIENTO I DIEZ 
 
 CONSIDEEAZIONES 
 
 DE 
 
 JUAN DE VArSES. 
 
 Ahora publicadas por primera vez en castellano, 
 
 Valdgssio Hispanus Scbiptore superbiat Obbis 
 (Dan. Roger. Epigr. in turn. Juelli. Humphr. 
 Vita Juel. 4to. 1573.) 
 
 ANO DE MDCCCLV. 
 
189 
 
 [10] 
 
 ZIENTO I DIEZ CONSIDERAZMES 
 
 DE 
 
 JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 PRIMERi VEZ PTJBLICADAS EN CA.STELLANO, EL A. 1865 
 
 LUIS DE USOZ I EIO 
 
 AHOBA CORKEJIDAS NUEVAMENTE CON MAYOR CITIDADO. 
 
 "VaLDESIO HlSPATTTTS SCHIPTOEE SITPEBBIAT OEBIS." 
 
 Dan. Roger. Epigr. in turn, Juelli SuvvpTvr, 
 Vita Juel, 4,to. 1573. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ANO DE MDCCCLXIII. 
 
190 
 
 [11] 
 
 ZIENTO I DIEZ COn^SIDERAZI09^E8 
 
 LEIDAS I EXPLICADAS HAZIA EL 
 ANO DE 1538 I 1539. 
 
 FOR JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 CONrORME A UN MS. CASTELLANO 
 
 BSCRITO EL A. 1658 
 
 EXISTEHIE EN LA BIBLIOTECA DE HAMBUEGO, 
 
 I ahora publicado por vez primera 
 con vm facsimile. 
 
 Valdesio Hispanus scriptore superbiat Orbis. 
 
 ESPANA. A!VO MDCCCIXII. 
 
191 
 
 [12] 
 
 Title and Colophon of the Spanish 
 Manuscript in the City Library of Ham- 
 burg, written in 1558, printed in 1862. 
 
 See N' M. 
 
 ^ las ciento e diez consideragiones del Valdes, 
 Traduzidas del ytaliano en Romange. 
 
 Fin de las ciento y diez Considera 
 
 qiones que se acabaron de trasladar en 
 
 xxiiij de noujembre Am de MDLVIIj. 
 
 A gloria de Dios y del hijo de 
 Dios Jesu Xpo. n. s\ 
 
192 
 
 [13] 
 The Dutch Translation [by Adrian Hamsteed ?] 1565 
 
 HAS NOT BEEN DISCOVERED. ThEEE WAS A COPT IN THE 
 
 Library of Zach. Conrad Uffenbach, FRAi«FORT, in 
 1729. It is entered in the printed Catalogue. 
 
 27. Jo Valdesii Godsalige AnmercMngen uyt het 
 Italiansche overgeset (o) 1565 : 45. 
 
JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 PAET II. 
 
LONDON 
 
 PHTNTBD BT BPOTTISWOODH AND 00. 
 
 NEW-STREBT BQITAHE 
 
THE HUNDEED AND TEN CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 JUAN DE VALDES. 
 
 ©ranslatetf from tfie Italtan 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T. BETTS. 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 That the English versions of the ' CX. Divine Considerations' 
 of Juan de Valdes have become rare ; that they are seldom 
 attainable by purchase ; that they are but occasionally to be 
 found in private hands, and that a sight of them is only 
 to be ensured by a visit to the British Museum or our 
 University libraries ; and that they are, besides, antiquated in 
 style and uimecessarily obscure ; — these circumstances serve 
 as plea and warrant for the present republication of them in 
 a modern translation. 
 
 That these Divine Considerations still continue to be highly 
 prized by the pious and learned of other countries is proved 
 by the recent republication and retranslation of the work into 
 the language in which it was written. The Italian version of 
 1550, the editio princeps, has been recently republished by 
 Dr. Ed. Boehmer, of Halle ; and there is a recent retransla- 
 tion of it into Spanish, which has appeared in a handsome 
 edition; Professor Schmidt, of Strasburg, has also retrans- 
 lated it into French, although not yet printed ; whilst there 
 is a German retranslation of it in progress, if it be not already 
 finished. 
 
 Of the English version, the first edition appeared at Oxford 
 in 1638, in 4to; another was published at Cambridge 
 in 1646, in 12mo. Nicholas Ferrar> the translator, for- 
 warded his MS. to his friend George Herbert, of Bemerton, 
 for his opinion and advice as to its publication. Herbert, 
 having annotated it, returned it to Ferrar with the following 
 
198 PKEFACE. 
 
 excellent letter, which was prefixed to the first edition, and 
 the reader will regard it as the most interesting and striking 
 indication of the character of the work that could be ofiered. 
 
 " George Hekbeet to his Fkiend Nicholas Fereak. 
 
 " My deaee and deserting Brother, 
 "Your Valdesso I now returne with many thanks, and some 
 notes, in which perhaps you will discover some care, which I 
 forbarenotin the midst of my griefes: first for your sake, because 
 I would doe nothing negligently that you commit unto mee ; 
 secondly for the Author's sake, whom I conceive to have been a 
 true servant of Grod ; and to such, and all that is theirs, I owe 
 diligence ; thirdly for the Churches sake, to whom by print- 
 ing it I would have you consecrate it. You owe the Church 
 a debt, and God hath put this into your hands (as he sent the 
 fish with mony to S. Peter) to discharge it : happily also with 
 this (as his thoughts are fruitfull) intending the honour of 
 his servant the Author, who being obscured in his own country 
 he would have to flourish in this land of light, and region of 
 the Gospell, among his chosen. It is true there are some 
 things which I like not in him, as my fragments will expresse, 
 when you read them ; neverthelesse I wish you by all means 
 to publish it, for these three eminent things observable 
 therein : First, that God in the midst of Popery should open 
 the eyes of one to understand and expresse so cleai'ely and 
 excellently the intent of the Gospell in the acceptation of 
 Christ's righteousnesse (as he sheweth through all his Consi- 
 derations), a thing strangely buried, and darkened by the 
 Adversaries, and their great stumbling-block. Secondly, the 
 great honour and reverence, which he everywhere beares to- 
 wards our deare Master and Lord, concluding every Consi- 
 deration almost with his holy Name, and setting his merit 
 forth so piously, for which I doe so love him, that were there 
 nothing else, I would print it, that with it the honour of my 
 Lord might be published. Thirdly, the many pious rules of 
 
PKEFACE. 199 
 
 ordering our life, about mortification, and observation of 
 Grod's kingdome within us, and the working thereof, of which 
 he. was a very diligent observer. These three things are very- 
 eminent in the Author, and overweigh the defects (as I con- 
 ceive) towards the publishing thereof, etc. 
 
 "GEOEGE HERBEET. 
 Bemeeton : Sept. 29 £1637]." 
 
 Dr. Boehmer, who has been so variedly and so long engaged 
 upon Valdes' works, and who has recently become his 
 biographer in Herzog''s Real Encyklopaedie, prompted by 
 veneration for our author, and knowing that the English 
 translation of Valdes' GX. Considerations was in progress, 
 wrote to the translator, and advised him ' to make it as simple 
 in mode of expression as it is in the original, unabbreviated 
 and unchanged,' and this advice has been studiously carried 
 out ; so that, without obtruding his own ideas, the translator 
 has endeavoured to render those of Valdes as faithfully as 
 Valdes did those of St. Paul. In Valdes' letter of dedication 
 to Giulia Gonzaga, prefixed to his translation of, and com- 
 mentary upon, the Epistle to the Eomans, he says : ' I have 
 desired to keep to the letter of the text, rendering it word 
 for word as much as possible ; for wherever I found ambiguity 
 in the Greek text, I left it in the Spanish — that is to say, I 
 did so wherever the text was as susceptible of one mode of 
 apprehension as of another. I have done this, because in 
 translating St. Paul it has not been my aim to write my own 
 conceptions, but those of St. Paul.' 
 
 My friend Benjamin B. Wiffen, who is well known for his 
 successful researches in connexion with the writings and life 
 of Valdes, and who has assisted to bring to light various of his 
 works supposed by distinguished scholars to have been utterly 
 destroyed and lost — such, for instance, as Valdes' ' Alfabeto 
 Christiano ' — has now, in the history of ' The Life and 
 Writings of Juan de Valdes ' which is prefixed to this trans- 
 lation of the ex. Divine Considerations, given extracts from 
 his writings sufiiciently copious to enable the general reader 
 
200 PEEFACB. 
 
 to form a conception of the scope and character of works 
 which cannot be easily obtained for perusal, because, though 
 reprinted, this has chiefly been done not for the public at large, 
 but in order to rescue them from total oblivion, by means of 
 private circulation, and preservation in libraries. 
 
 These works of Valdesso are, to use Milton's expression, 'the 
 precious life-blood of a master-spirit,' — of an apostle, as it were, 
 to the aristocracy of birth and intellect of his day ; whom the 
 Inquisition and the Eoman Court feared and hated as an 
 heresiarch, but who was acknowledged and honoured of the 
 Holy Spirit to be the Father in Christ (1 Cor. iv. 15) of such 
 personages as Giulia Gonzaga and Vittoria Colonna, of Peter 
 Martyr Vermiglio and of Graleazzo Caraccioli. 
 
 Peter Martyr Vermiglio, as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 
 appointed by Cranmer interpreter of Holy Scripture, began 
 his career at the University by expounding the First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians — a book upon which Juan de Valdes 
 had written a commentary — doing so, as Josiah Simler says, 
 ' because therein are handled divers and many principal 
 matters which served for the controversies of the time, in 
 such sort that the doctrine of this epistle, if it be profitably 
 and aptly read, may cure all the faults wherewith the sincerity 
 of the Church is corrupted.' 
 
 At the death of Edward VI., Peter Martyr Vermiglio, to 
 escape the persecution of Mary, had to fly England, and 
 filled Protestant chairs both at Strasburg and Zurich ; his 
 friend and pupil. Bishop Jewel, sought safety in exile likewise, 
 and during many years was received as a member in Peter 
 Martyr's household, living at his table. 
 
 The Zurich letters witness with what reverence both 
 Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Jewel held Peter Martyr as 
 the master-spirit in Israel ; and can it be otherwise than deeply 
 interesting to the English reader to study the sentiments of 
 Juan de Valdes, who moulded the mind, in Evangelical doc- 
 trine, of Peter Martyr, the arch-counsellor of the recognised 
 founders of the English Church ? 
 
 JOHN T. BETTS. 
 
THE ITALIAN EDITOE'S LETTER 
 'TO CHRISTIAN READERS.' 
 
 Celio Secondo Curione, a servant of Jesus Christ, to all 
 those who are sanctified by God the Father, and saved and 
 called by Jesus Christ our Lord ; mercy, peace, and the love 
 of G-od be multiplied to you. 
 
 Behold, brethren, we do not here present you Boccacio's 
 Cento Novelle, but the Hundred and Ten Considerations of 
 Valdes, the importance of which I am about to declare to 
 you. Many, both ancients and moderns, have written upon 
 Christian topics, and some of them have done so better than 
 others ; but it would possibly be difficult to find out the man 
 who, since the days of our Lord's Apostles and Evangelists, 
 has written better, more soundly, and more divinely than 
 Juan Valdes. Certain it is that some of them have left gi'eat 
 books, both ponderous and numerous ; but there are amongst 
 them many that are but of little importance, not much cal- 
 culated to promote Christian life, but charged with unprofit- 
 able questions and philosophic disputations, from which 
 thousands of inconveniences have sprung up in Christ's 
 Church. And in order that it may be seen that what I say is 
 true, I will here set forth some of those inconveniences, from 
 which an estimate may easily be formed of the rest. Then, 
 in the first place, because they have written such very great 
 books, they have not been able to avoid lies, follies, and 
 vanity ; for as the wise man says (Eccles. v. 7), ' Where there are 
 many words there are also divers vanities.' Then these great 
 writers have dragged all Scripture into doubt and disputation, 
 
202 THE ITALIAN EDITOE S LETTER 
 
 and have instituted a school where everything is called in 
 question to such an extent that they have brought the doctrine 
 of the Son of Grod and of His Apostles, and the infallible and 
 most certain hope of eternal life, into utter uncertainty. But 
 amongst the other inconveniences of which I am about to 
 speak, this is not the least important : with their very exten- 
 sive and almost infinite number of books, men have been led 
 aside and alienated from the study of the truly Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and from the contemplation of the simple truth ; and 
 they have converted disciples of Christ into disciples of men ; 
 and to such a pass are we come that greater and more implicit 
 faith is given to those who are styled doctors, than to the 
 simple doctrine of Christ, just as if Christ and His Apostles 
 were not the true and eternal doctors and masters of the 
 Church. This forsooth is the benefit, this the edification, 
 which redounds to the Church of Grod from these huge 
 volumes ! 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the salvation of His 
 Church has been more dear than His own life, seeing this, 
 has stirred up and awakened some, and has opened their 
 eyes, who should by gentle stages bring back His sheep to the 
 verdant and wholesome pastures of the Holy Scriptures, and 
 to the pure, clear, and sweet fountains of the word of Grod. 
 Here each one has striven according to the talent, that is to 
 say, the gift received ; but it appears to me, and I hope that 
 it will so appear to all who have a true taste of the doctrine 
 of Christ, that this our author, in these his Divine Considera- 
 tions, and in some other of his writings, has so well considered 
 the duties of the Christian, and has enabled us all to do the 
 same, that but very few can go beyond him. He, indeed has 
 not written such great volumes, nor such worthless ones 
 but his are small and few ; they are, moreover, pure, clear 
 and truly divine. Many have written on the virtues, habits, 
 and duties of a wise and good man, as Aristotle, Panstius, 
 and Cicero, and amongst Christians Ambrose, and in this 
 
'TO CHRISTIAN READERS.' '203 
 
 age Tommaso Venatorio;' hut no one of them has soared 
 in his writings to such a height, nor demonstrated so power- 
 fully, nor reasoned so sweetly, nor with such majesty, nor 
 with such authority, nor with such grace, as our Valdes. 
 
 This, this is ti'uly worthy to be called the book of Christian 
 duties, the book of Christian demonstrations, and of truly 
 divine speculations. It shows the origin, cause, progress, and 
 end of every movement, of every action, of every event that is 
 done imder heaven, whether of God or of the devil, whether 
 of the pious man or the impious, and all these from clear, 
 certain, and undoubted Scriptural principles, accompanied by 
 such beautiful and appropriate examples, similitudes, compari- 
 sons, divisions, and definitions, that unless we are extrava- 
 gantly obstinate, and destitute of common sense, we must needs 
 acquiesce in what it represents as being due to Grod, to self, 
 and to our neighbour, and how great is the benefit of Christ, 
 and what the advantage derivable from Christ's weakness 
 and power. His humiliation and exaltation, our mortification 
 and vivication, election and reprobation, and a thousand other 
 beautiful and useful topics which admit of clear apprehension ; 
 so that by being conversant with this book you will better 
 understand all vital Scriptiu-al truths, than by means of the 
 grand and ponderous commentaries of many authors. 
 
 But for bringing to our knowledge and into our possession 
 this great and heavenly treasure, we are all indebted to 
 Maestro Pietro Paolo Vergerio, who was, in the course of 
 Divine Providence, instrumental in causing it to be printed. 
 Coming from Italy, and leaving a feigned bishopric to come 
 to the true Apostolate to which he was called by Christ, he 
 brought with him many beautiful compositions, and did as men 
 are wont to do when either their own home is burnt down, or 
 
 ^ Thomae Venatorii de Virtvte Christiana libri III. Praterea Index additus, 
 prcBcipuas sententias complectens. Norinberg<B. jk. b.xjtjx. 414 pp. 
 
 Axiomata qyaedam rervm Christianarum, Thomas VenatoriJ, Ministri patiperum 
 Anno. H.D.xxvi, 8 leaves. 
 
204 THE ITALIAN EDITORS LETTEK 
 
 when a town is sacked or destroyed, for then everyone 
 escapes, with whatever in his house he prizes as dearest 
 and most precious ; so our Vergerio, holding nothing so 
 dear as the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, brought with 
 him those things which might serve to illustrate and ex- 
 tend it. He left, therefore, his earthly treasures, and bore 
 away with him the celestial and divine, amongst which this 
 is one of the most beautiful and rare that can be ima- 
 gined. And knowing that good and excellent things are so 
 much the greater, better, and praiseworthy, in proportion as 
 they are communicated to a greater number of persons, he 
 left with me these ' One Hundred and Ten Considerations ' in 
 order that I might get them printed, which I have done, as 
 you see, with all the diligence in my power. These Consi- 
 derations, as is known to many, were originally written by 
 the author in Spanish, and afterwards translated by a pious 
 and worthy person into Italian, and hence it is that they are 
 not wholly divested of the Spanish idiom peculiar to them ; 
 and there are moreover still some words of the author's 
 vernacular, although they are but few. 
 
 For Juan Valdes was by birth a Spaniard ; of a noble 
 family, of honourable station, and a splendid knight in the 
 service of the Emperor, but of much higher rank and much 
 more splendid as a knight of Christ. He was not, therefore, 
 very assiduous as a courtier after Christ had been revealed to 
 him, but remained in Naples, where, by suavity of doctrine 
 and holiness of life, he gained over many disciples to Christ, 
 especially amongst gentlemen and cavaliers, and some gentle- 
 women, most praiseworthy and exalted in all that cotdd 
 challenge praise. It seemed as if he had been appointed by 
 God as the instructor and pastor of noble and illustrious 
 persons : although his benignity and charity were such that 
 he surrendered his pleasure to every mean, low, and rude 
 person, and made himself all things to all men in order to 
 gain over all to Christ. (Rom i. ; 1 Cor. ix.) And not only 
 
'TO CHRISTIAN EEADERS.' 205 
 
 this, but he has enlightened some of the most renowned 
 Italian preachers, which I know from having conversed with 
 them. He never married, but his continence was such that 
 it was never called in question ; whilst he was, to the best of 
 his ability, assiduously intent upon real mortification ; in 
 which, when death found him, he was perfectly mortified, 
 to be afterwards perfectly vivified at the resurrection of the 
 just, and to rejoice in it with Christ our Lord. He died in 
 Naples about the year 1540. 
 
 He has also left some other excellent and pious composi- 
 tions, which, as I hope, will, through Vergerio's help, be com- 
 municated to you. Come, then, brothers and sisters in the 
 love of Grod and in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, take 
 this treasure, and attach no importance to the mere posses- 
 sion of it, but cherish it for the use and the fruit that is to 
 be gathered from it. He has not considered these beautiful 
 things for the sake of providing food for the imagination only, 
 but to put that which he had considered and resolved into 
 practice. We must needs have knowledge, but it is also ne- 
 cessary to combine practice with it ; for all the praise due to 
 every virtue and art consists in exercise and in actions 
 adapted to the particular virtue and art. And you who spend 
 all your time unprofitably in reading the Cento Novelle of 
 Boccacio and similar authors, lay them aside for a while, and 
 read these Considerations of Valdes, which are truly novels ; 
 for they treat of that great, divine, and joyful novel of the 
 Grospel of Jesus Christ, of the great pardon of sins, of recon- 
 ciliation with Grod, made by the death of God's Son. Here 
 you will find the true and holy love of Grod and of Christ to 
 the human race ; here you will learn the true embraces and 
 the true kisses given by the Holy Spirit ; and here, finally, 
 you will learn what are the true delights and pleasures of 
 souls enamoured of God and of Christ, and disenamoured of 
 the world. 
 
 And if the language do not appear to you so polished and 
 
206 THE ITALIAN EDITOR'S LETTEK. 
 
 elegant as that of Boccaccio, remember what Paul, that great 
 Apostle of Jesus Christ, says in 1 Cor. iv. 20, ' The kingdom 
 of God consists in power ' of the Spirit and not in elegance 
 of diction. Not that this style of speaking is to be despised ; 
 on the contrary, I find it very appropriate and excellent, 
 with reference to what it desires to express, which is the 
 prime merit of an author. 
 
 But here I conclude my discourse, not to detain you any 
 longer from the sacred perusal of these Divine Considerations ; 
 in reading which, you will yourselves diligently consider 
 them, with prayer to Grod for me and for all, that we may all 
 be enamoured of Christ and be incorporated with Him, just 
 as He is incorporated with us, — to whom be all honour and 
 glory eternally. 
 
 Basle, in the year mdl. the first of May. 
 
207 
 
 CONSIDERATION I. 
 
 How it is to be understood that man was created in the 
 Image and Likeness of God. 
 
 Oftentimes have I studied to understand in what 
 that Image and Likeness of God properly consists 
 of which the Sacred Scriptures speak, when they 
 declare that man was created in the image and 
 likeness of God. So long as I strove to understand 
 it by consulting authors, I made no advance towards 
 its apprehension, because I was led by reading, at 
 one time to entertain one opinion, and at another 
 time another ; until, gaining the conception of it by 
 reflection, it appeared to me that I apprehended it, 
 or at least that I began to do so ; and I feel certain 
 that the same God who has given me the know- 
 ledge I possess, will give me that which I still want. 
 
 I understand the Image and Likeness of God to 
 consist in His own peculiar Being, involving His 
 impassibility and eternity, as likewise His benignity, 
 mercy, justice, faithfulness, and truth. I understand 
 that God created man in the terrestrial paradise 
 with these qualities and perfections, where, prior to 
 his disobedience to God, he was impassible and im- 
 mortal — he was good, merciful, just, faithful, and true. 
 
 As I understand, the first man lost this image 
 and likeness to God by disobedience to God,, and 
 
2o8 CONSIDERATION I. 
 
 so he became passible and mortal — he became male- 
 volent, cruel, impious, faithless, and mendacious. 
 
 After I understood this by reflection, desiring to 
 compare it with Holy Scripture, I find that it 
 coincides admirably with what St. Paul says in Eph. 
 iv. 22-24, Col. iii. 5-9 ; and thus I am so much the 
 more confirmed in my conclusion. 
 
 And proceeding still further, I understand that 
 this image of God was in the person of Christ, as 
 far as His soul was involved, prior to His death, 
 whence He was benign, merciful, just, faithful, and 
 true ; and with reference to soul and body, after 
 His resurrection, inasmuch as He now possesses, 
 in addition to benignity, mercy, justice, faithfulness, 
 and truth, both immortality and impassibility. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that they who, being 
 called and drawn by God to the grace of the Gospel, 
 make Christ's righteousness their own, and are in- 
 corporated into Christ, recover in this present life 
 that part of the image of God which relates to the 
 soul, and in eternal life recover also that part which 
 relates to the body ; and thus we shall all, through 
 Christ, come to be like God, as Christ is ; each one 
 in his degree — Christ as the head, and we as the 
 members. 
 
 And it will truly be the greatest felicity to see 
 in men, goodness, mercy, justice, faithfulness, and 
 truth ; and to see them likewise impassible and 
 immorta.1 — to see them very like Christ, and to see 
 them very like God : and to see that the glory of 
 God increases with this happiness of man, and that 
 the glory of the Son of God is thereby promoted 
 also, through whom we shall all confess that we 
 have attained our happiness, all recognising as our 
 Head the self-same Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
209 
 
 CONSIDERATION II. 
 
 That the happiness of man consists in knowing God, and 
 that we cannot know God unless we fir'st know Christ. 
 
 Many have laboured much, desiririg to understand 
 in what man's happiness properly consists ; and 
 having striven to do so as men, by human intellect, 
 they have all erred in their imaginations, as they are 
 wont to err in almost everything, the knowledge of 
 which is sought through the same channel. That 
 which I say so many have laboured anxiously to 
 understand, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches in 
 these words : Haec est vita aeterna ut cognoscant te 
 verum Deum solum et qium misisti yesus Christum 
 (Jo. xvii. 3). ' This is life eternal, to know Thee 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou 
 hast sent :' as if He had said, men's happiness consists 
 in this, that they know God and Christ But though 
 Christ teaches this, they alone understand it who 
 cease to be men — that is to say, who lay aside the 
 image of Adam and put on the image of Christ — 
 because these alone know Christ, and only in Christ 
 and through Christ do they know God. 
 
 Truly, men attain, whilst but men, to a certain 
 knowledge of God, by contemplation of the creature, 
 but they do not realise happiness by this knowledge ; 
 for in truth happiness is not involved in it, but 
 consists only in that knowledge of God which they 
 
2IO CONSIDERATION II. 
 
 alone acquire who have ceased to be (mere) men, 
 and being incorporated into Christ know God, by- 
 first knowing Christ. And I understand that the 
 reading of Holy Scripture and the contemplation of 
 the creature serve to increase and augment in them 
 that knowledge of God which involves happiness 
 and eternal life. 
 
 The knowledge which they acquire of God who 
 know Him through the creature, I conceive to be 
 similar to that knowledge which an inferior artist 
 acquires of a consummate painter by looking at his 
 paintings ; and the knowledge which they acquire of 
 God who know Him through the Holy Scriptures, 
 I conceive to be similar to that which an ignoramus, 
 or an unlettered man, acquires of a highly celebrated 
 author by reading his works. And the knowledge 
 which they who know Christ, and are incorporated 
 into Christ, have of God, I conceive to be similar 
 to the knowledge which I have of a monarch 
 through the sight of his portrait, and through 
 an exceedingly minute account of all his habits, by 
 the report of individuals who are upon very intimate 
 terms with the monarch. I conceive that they who 
 know God after this fashion, in reading the Scrip- 
 tures, know Him as a learned man knows a great 
 author — by reading his works. And I conceive that 
 these very same individuals, in contemplating the 
 creature, know God as a good painter knows a per- 
 fect artist — by studying his paintings. 
 
 Having apprehended thus much, I understand in 
 what man's happiness consists, and I find myself 
 happy, and I understand much better than I ever 
 previously did the great obligation under which men 
 lie to God, and to the Son of God, Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
211 
 
 CONSIDERATION III. 
 
 Of that wherein the sons of God differ from the sons of Adam. 
 
 We are sons of God just so far as we submit to 
 be ruled and governed by God. Thus St. Paul 
 says : Qui spiritu Dei aguntur, ii sunt filii Dei. 
 (Rom viii. 14) — ' They who are led by the Spirit of 
 God, they are the sons of God.' And hence it is 
 certain that he who is a son of God, submits to be 
 ruled and governed by God ; and that he who is 
 ruled and governed by God is a son of God : and, 
 on the other hand, they who are ruled and governed 
 by human wisdom are sons of Adam ; and the sons 
 of Adam are guided and governed by human wis- 
 dom, because they neither know, nor are conscious 
 of, any other rule or control. I understand this rule 
 and control as exerting an influence on the body as 
 well as on the soul. 
 
 The sons of Adam, guided and governed by 
 human wisdom, have certain medical laws to pre- 
 serve and maintain health, and they have others to 
 regain health when sick ; having, as they have, 
 herbs, roots, and many other things of which they 
 avail themselves to do so. But the difficulty is for 
 them to know the time and season when to employ 
 these things, which is almost impossible. 
 
 These same sons of Adam, in order to preserve 
 their souls in purity and simplicity, have the laws of 
 
 p2 
 
212 CONSIDERATION III. 
 
 God and the doctrine of Christ and His apostles. 
 But the difficulty is for them to understand these 
 laws and this doctrine, and to understand their ap- 
 plication, which I hold to be still more impossible. 
 But were either one or the other possible, I might 
 perchance admit that, as they know how to apply 
 those drugs in the preservation and maintenance of 
 bodily health, so likewise they, by knowing how to 
 apply Holy Scripture, might preserve and maintain 
 moral health. But holding both to be impossible, 
 I hold it to be equally impossible for a son of 
 Adam to maintain either bodily health or spiritual 
 health. 
 
 The sons of God, as they inwardly mortify their 
 human wisdom, so do they equally renounce the 
 utility of medicine, together with all things apper- 
 taining and belonging to it, accepting God alone as 
 their physician, who is their Father, by whom they 
 are immediately governed, and kept in bodily health, 
 of which, if they have not as much as they desire, 
 they have at least as much as suffices to promote 
 their spiritual health, which is with them the princi- 
 pal thing. God permits them to fall sick, but it is 
 at one time to mortify them, at another to try them, 
 and again that they may know Him to be their 
 Father and Lord ; and when they are sick, He fre- 
 quently restores them, without the use of the medi- 
 cines which the sons of Adam employ. These same 
 sons of God, in their drawing near to Him resemble 
 those Samaritans who said to the woman : Non 
 propter tuam loquelam (John iv. 42) — ' Now we 
 believe, not because of thy saying ;' and applying the 
 words to the Sacred Scriptures, they say likewise, 
 Non propter tuam loquelam. We have another law 
 and another doctrine, which keeps and preserves us 
 
CONSIDERATION III. 213 
 
 in holiness and righteousness ; this is the Spirit of 
 God, who dwells in us, who so guides and governs 
 us that we have no need of any other rule or con- 
 trol as long as we will not forsake our Heavenly 
 Father. And as it is possible that an individual 
 may be a son of God, and yield himself up to be 
 guided and governed by God ; so it is possible that 
 a son of God may preserve and keep himself in 
 bodily and spiritual health. 
 
 The sons of God indeed employ physicians and 
 medicines to preserve bodily health, as they also 
 employ Scripture to preserve spiritual health ; but 
 they do so without placing confidence in either one 
 or the other, because all their confidence is placed in 
 God. Moreover, they observe time and place with 
 reference to the preservation of their bodily health, 
 just as they observe certain ordinances for the pre- 
 servation of their spiritual health. This they do, 
 rather in external conformity with the sons of Adam 
 than from any conscious necessity of such observ- 
 ances. Nevertheless, these being governed by God 
 only, obey the will of God and depend solely upon 
 it. They understand these truths, for they expe- 
 rience them ; but others find them exceedingly intri- 
 cate, because animalis homo non percipit ea qu(Z 
 sunt spirits Dei (r Cor. ii. 14) — ' The natural man 
 discerneth not the things of the Spirit ;' and for this 
 reason he ever censures and condemns them. 
 
 In order to be better understood I offer this simile. 
 Two men would fain ford a great river. A man 
 well acquainted with the river comes up to them, and 
 says, ' If you will pass over, you have but to go down 
 into it here, and then you have to regulate yourT 
 selves thus and thus ; but if you wish me to take you 
 over, follow me, and do so fearlessly. One of thesg 
 
214 CONSIDERATION IV. 
 
 two men, confiding in his natural sagacity, and in 
 what he had been told, begins to ford the waters 
 alone; I take this man to represent the sons of 
 Adam. The other, confiding himself to the man 
 acquainted with the river, follows him ; this one I 
 take to represent the sons of God. 
 
 And as I hold it certain that the folly, presump- 
 tion, and error of the sons of Adam is much greater 
 than that of him who, when he might cross the river 
 with a guide, and safely, ventures to cross it alone ; 
 so, again, I certainly hold the prudence and discretion 
 of the sons of God, who submit to be ruled and 
 governed by the Spirit of Christ, to be much greater 
 than that of the man who wishes to cross the river 
 with a guide rather than alone. 
 
 And it is to be understood that we are to that 
 extent the sons of God, in which we are incorporated 
 into Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION IV. 
 
 The origin of the vindictive principle in man, and what effects 
 
 result from the long-suffering with which God defers the 
 
 punishment of the injuries done Him by men. 
 
 Placing on the one hand all the injuries that 
 men have done each other from the beginning of 
 the world to the present time, and placing on the 
 other hand only those which a man does to God in 
 the course of a single day, it appears to me that 
 the latter transcend the former in heinousness and 
 
CONSIDERATION IV. 215 
 
 aggravation, in quality and quantity, beyond all 
 comparison. 
 
 Proceeding further, and considering to what ex- 
 tremes the vindictive affections are carried out by 
 men (for there are but very few injured men who, 
 being able to avenge themselves, do not take re- 
 venge) ; and considering that God, being able to 
 annihilate all those who offend Him with a nod, not 
 only does not annihilate them, but, on the contrary, 
 tolerates them, bears with them^ and makes them the 
 recipients of His favours — I have set myself to 
 examine whence the vindictive principle in man pro- 
 ceeds, and what are the effects of the long-suffering 
 of God. And I hold it to be certain that the vindic- 
 tive principle in man proceeds from the depravity of 
 the first man ; being satisfied that, if human nature 
 were not depraved, all vengeance would be most 
 alien to man. For the first man having been created 
 in the image and likeness of God, it is manifest that 
 he was created with feelings alien to vindictiveness, 
 since we know such feelings are so to God. Thus 
 much with reference to man. 
 
 From the long-suffering with which God bears the 
 wrongs which are ordinarily done to Him, I consider 
 all the effects that I am going to mention flow ; and 
 they are in my opinion worthy of profound considera- 
 tion. The first is, that many of these wrongdoers 
 and impious persons become His worshippers, and 
 pious ; which would never have come to pass had 
 they been punished at the time they did the wrong. 
 
 The second is, that had God chastised the wicked 
 immediately upon transgression, within a short time 
 all the impious in the world would have been con- 
 sumed ; and there being no longer any impious per- 
 sons, the pious would have no opportunity of 
 
2i6 CONSIDERATION IV. 
 
 exercising their piety, which is necessary in order 
 that, being purified by exercise, it may shine forth to 
 the glory of God. 
 
 The third is, that the pious, considering how alien 
 vengeance is to God, and reflecting that their busi- 
 ness in this life is to recover the image of God, in 
 which the first man was created, bring their minds 
 to lay aside every feeling of wrath and of vengeance, 
 expressing themselves, when assailed, in these or 
 similar terms : ' My purpose is to recover the image 
 and likeness of God, in which the first man was 
 created ; this was wholly alien to vengeance, since 
 God, being able to avenge Himself, does not exercise 
 revenge ; hence it is not for me to avenge myself, 
 but to do that which my God does, in order that I 
 may attain to be like Him,' 
 
 I find these three effects which conduce to the 
 welfare of the pious, and I find two others that con- 
 duce to the prejudice of the wicked. 
 
 The first, that just in proportion as they succeed, 
 do they offend and work injury ; and thus in the 
 same proportion do they augment and aggravate 
 their eternal condemnation. The second, that in 
 the disquietude arid travail which they suffer in their 
 consciences, they begin to feel in this life what they 
 will have to suffer in the other ; they desire to die, 
 thinking to become free from punishment ; but, on 
 the other hand, they would fain not die, doubting 
 lest they should augrnent it, So that jn the long^ 
 suffering with which God endures and defers ven^ 
 geance of the wrongs which men do to Him, I find 
 three things which are to the advantage of the pious, 
 and in the same I find two things which are to the 
 prejudice of the wicked ; whence it appears to me, 
 that as even that which is good in itself recoils 
 
CONSIDERATION V. 217 
 
 prejudicially upon the wicked, so also that which 
 seems to be evil proves advantageous to the pious, 
 who hold and embrace that piety which is acquired 
 through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 I will add here three things : 
 
 First, that God, in commanding me to pardon 
 those who do me wrong, virtually commands me to 
 be like Himself, and that I should do as He does. 
 
 Secondly, that the vindictive principle emanates 
 from a base mind ; and that the inclination to pardon 
 emanates from a generous mind. 
 
 Thirdly, that the Christian, seeing that he can 
 pardon an injury with greater facility than he can 
 avenge it, recognises that God desires of him that 
 which is very easy for him to do, and that which is 
 most becoming and useful for him. And in this way 
 he knows how great is the love which God bears to 
 men, for whose sake he carried out the rigour of His 
 justice upon His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, 
 
 CONSIDERATION V. 
 
 Upon the difficulty there is of entering into the kingdom of God; 
 the inocje of entry, and in what it consists. 
 
 Man naturally does not confide in his fellow-man, 
 unless it be in reference to what he cannot do him- 
 self ; neither does he confide in God, unless in refe- 
 rence to what he knows and sees he cannot attain 
 by means of any creature. Such is the wickedness 
 
2i8 CONSIDERATION V. 
 
 of the human mind. And hence, the more a man 
 is favoured with creature advantages, the more diffi- 
 cult is it for him to be brought to confide in God. 
 
 And that such is the fact, we may learn from the 
 sick, of whom those only are brought to resign therti- 
 selves to the will of God, who are destitute of means 
 to pay for physicians and medicine : and those like- 
 wise who, though they have the means, are at last 
 brought to despair of help from either one or the 
 other. 
 
 Hence I am led to reflect upon man's perverse- 
 ness and to meditate further upon the goodness of 
 God, inasmuch as He still helps and favours those 
 who, through their inability to resist further, submit 
 themselves to His will ; and disregarding, as for that 
 matter, how far we have been pious or impious. He 
 is simply intent to keep His word, by which He has 
 engaged Himself to help those who submit them- 
 selves to Him. 
 
 That this is true we have constant proofs, not 
 only in what I have stated about sickness, but like- 
 wise in everything occurring to man in this present 
 life. Precisely that which we have seen experi- 
 mentally in external things, I feel assured we shall 
 be able to see in those which are internal ; for man 
 is never brought to commit his justification, his re- 
 surrection, or his eternal life to God, until he knows 
 and sees them to be unattainable by creature agency. 
 
 Now, reflecting that the rich man has, as he 
 thinks, the means of availing himself of creature 
 agency, both for external as well as for internal things, 
 without submitting himself to the will of God, that He 
 may dispose of him as He pleases, I understand the 
 reason why Christ says, in Matt. xix. 23, ' that it is 
 difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
 
CONSIDERATION V. 219 
 
 heaven'— that is, that he be brought to resign himself 
 to the will of God, and to allow himself to be guided 
 and governed by God, renouncing the guidance and 
 governance of human wisdom, and renouncing the 
 assistance of the creature. 
 
 Whence I gather that God first opens the eyes of 
 any man — be he rich or be he poor — whom He pur- 
 poses to introduce into His kingdom, so that he may 
 know his own impotence, and how impossible it is to 
 the creature to give Him that which He aims at and 
 desires. And I consider the difference between the 
 pious and the wicked, when commending themselves 
 to God, to consist in this, that the wicked submits to 
 God when he can no longer resist ; and the good 
 man submits to God whilst he might still further 
 use and avail himself of creature help, and this both 
 as to external things and internal things. And I 
 think that a man may know when he has inward 
 confidence in God, by what he discovers of his out- 
 ward reliance upon God. 
 
 Those who are in the kingdom of God in the way 
 I have described, are the poor in spirit, whom Christ 
 commends. . David felt himself such when, in Psalm 
 xl. 17, he called himself poor and needy. And I 
 consider that such have partly attained what is 
 sought in the prayer, Adveniat regnum tuum. — ' Thy 
 kingdom come.' And contemplating the felicity that 
 results from being and remaining in this kingdom, I 
 understand the motive why John began his preach- 
 ing with announcing this kingdom, and the reason 
 why Christ began His with the same, and the reason 
 why He sent forth the Apostles for the very same 
 purpose. Whence I gather that the beginning, 
 middle, and end of Christian preaching should be to 
 preach the kingdom of God, and to constrain men to 
 
220 CONSIDERATION V. 
 
 enter into it, renouncing the kingdom of the world, 
 and all that belongs to it. 
 
 The men who are, as it were, the natives of this 
 kingdom, I look upon as being planted in God, as 
 a tree is planted in the earth ; and as the tree sub- 
 sists and produces flowers and fruits by the virtue 
 communicated to it by the earth ; so he who is planted 
 in the kingdom of God, subsists and produces flowers 
 and fruits by the Spirit of God, which guides and 
 governs him. And such an one is a son of God, is 
 just, and will rise glorious, and have eternal life, be- 
 cause he is conformed to Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God ; and, in addition — Matt. vi. — he enjoys this 
 world's goods little or much, as best comports with 
 the glory of God. 
 
 Between that which those persons know and un- 
 derstand of this kingdom of God, by what they read 
 and what they hear, who are outside it ; and that 
 which those know and understand of the same king- 
 dom, by what they feel and by what they experience, 
 who are within it ; I recognise a much greater differ- 
 ence than between what those persons know and 
 understand of the rule and government of a most 
 perfect king, by reading and hearsay, who are outside 
 it, from what those know and understand of the same 
 rule and government, from sight and experience, who 
 are within it. 
 
 I will add what is in my judgment apposite : that 
 precisely as diverse plants in the same meadow 
 imbibe the virtues of the soil in different proportions, 
 according to their respective qualities — the one more, 
 the other less ; one after this fashion, and another 
 after that : so, according to the diverse constitutions 
 of those who are in God's kingdom, God communi- 
 cates His Spirit to them in different degrees — to one 
 
CONSIDERATION VI. 221 
 
 more, to another less ; and to one after this fashion, 
 and to another after that And all are in the same 
 kingdom, and all participate of the same Spirit ; as 
 all the plants that are in the same meadow, all parti- 
 cipate of the same virtues of the soil. And as the 
 plants, were they endowed with the faculty, would 
 affirm the truth of what has been said of them ; so 
 they who belong to the kingdom of God, because 
 they have the Spirit, declare that to be true which 
 has been said of them, recognising everything as 
 proceeding from the favour of God, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION VI. 
 
 Depravity in man is of two kinds — the one natural, and 
 the other acquired. 
 
 I LOOK upon every man who is not quickened by 
 the Holy Spirit as subject to a twofold depravity — 
 the one natural, and the other acquired. I under- 
 stand the natural one to be expressed in that passage 
 in Job xiv. 4, Neque infans unius diet — ' They go 
 astray from the womb ;' and in that in Ps. li. 5, In 
 iniquitatibus conceptus sum — ' In sin did my mother 
 conceive me ;' and in that of St. Paul, Eph. ii. 3, Era- 
 mus naturd filii ires — 'We were by nature children 
 of wrath ;' and similarly in all those places of Holy 
 Scripture in which our human nature is condemned. 
 I understand the acquired one to be set forth in 
 Gen. vi. 12, Omnis caro corruperat viam suam — ' All 
 
222 CONSIDERATION VI. 
 
 flesh had corrupted his way ;' and in that passage of 
 St. Paul in Rom. vii. 9, Ego autem vivebam sine 
 lege qiiondam — ' For I was alive without the law 
 once ;' and generally in all those passages of Holy 
 Scripture which speak of the corruption of our flesh. 
 The acquired proceeds from the natural, and the 
 natural is inflamed by the acquired. 
 
 Of these two kinds of depravity, I apprehend that 
 the natural one cannot be rectified save by grace ; 
 and thus I apprehend that those persons only are 
 freed from it, who by faith enter into the kingdom of 
 God, and become children of God by the Holy Spirit 
 which dwells in them. So that, in those who know 
 Christ by revelation, and accept the covenant which 
 He established between God and man, believe, and 
 because they believe are baptized, their natural de- 
 pravity is corrected, and they only retain that which 
 is acquired. From this they gradually free them- 
 selves, receiving for that end the help of God's 
 Spirit. And whilst they are thus freeing themselves 
 from it, their offences are not imputed to them as 
 sin, because they are incorporated into Christ Jesus, 
 and on that account, as St. Paul says, Rom. viii. i, 
 ' Nothing now brings them under condemnation.' 
 
 I apprehend that just as the acquired depravity 
 which incites the natural is acquired by habit, so it 
 maybe laid aside by habit. And to accomplish this, 
 I understand that they are helped by the laws and 
 precepts which human prudence devises, so that a 
 man may by himself free himself from acquired de- 
 pravity and from inflaming natural depravity, as we 
 read that many have freed themselves. But man will 
 never free himself from natural depravity by himself, 
 because, as I have said, we are freed from this by the 
 grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
■22' 
 
 CONSIDERATION VII. 
 
 It is God's will that we commit to Him the execution of 
 all our desires. 
 
 True indeed it is, that we know many things by 
 experience which we never should have understood 
 by the aid of speculation only. Having frequently 
 purposed to do many things, each more pious, more 
 holy, and more Christian than the other, and having 
 observed that my purposes almost always issued 
 contrarily to what I had designed, and that many 
 pious, holy, and Christian things in connection with 
 myself have succeeded without my ever having 
 exerted any previous thought or deliberation respect- 
 ing them, I found myself as it were perplexed, not 
 understanding wherein the secret lay. 
 
 I did not marvel that things upon which I, as a 
 man, had resolved, should issue contrarily to what I 
 wished ; but I did marvel that the same should occur 
 to me with reference to things upon which I, as a 
 Christian, had resolved : and finding myself in this 
 perplexity, it happened that I read that declaration 
 of St. Peter, in Mark xiv. 31, Si oportuerit — 
 ' Though I should have to die with Thee, yet will I 
 not deny Thee.' And reflecting that, although the 
 resolution was pious, holy, and Christian, the issue 
 was the reverse of w'hat he had resolved ; I under- 
 stood the reason why my resolutions proved wholly 
 
224 CONSIDERATION VII. 
 
 in vain. It was because I resolved without taking 
 into consideration my inability to carry into effect what 
 I had resolved. Moreover, I learned that though 
 God chastised my thoughtlessness by not permitting 
 me to succeed in what I desired ; yet, on the other 
 hand, He satisfied my desire by permitting me to suc- 
 ceed in what I had never striven after, never hoped 
 for, nor aimed at Whence I have gathered that it 
 is the will of God that I am so dependent on Him, 
 that I never resolve or propose anything without 
 having Him present to my mind, without laying be- 
 fore Him my good purpose, and without leaving to 
 Him its execution ; and that not only in things which 
 relate to outward and bodily life, but likewise in 
 those relating to inward and spiritual life. This the 
 Divine will so checks me, that although I know 
 what I have said to be what He demands of me, 
 yet I do not dare to resolve, saying ' I will do so and 
 so ; ' because I know my inability to carry it out And 
 not daring to make resolutions, I venture to desire 
 to be ever conformed to this will of God, and to 
 leave the execution of it with God ; and I am assured 
 that God in His mercy will favour me in this my 
 good purpose ; and I am convinced that I ought to 
 regulate myself in all things after this manner. Fresh 
 desire to confide in God in all things will come upon 
 me, and I shall commit myself to Him, in order that 
 He may carry this my purpose into execution. Thus 
 I desire to be ruled by love, hope, and self-denial ; 
 in a word, by all that may conduce to make me like 
 Christ and like God, and in all that may redound in 
 bodily and spiritual advantage to my neighbours ; so 
 that whilst the purpose remains lively and entire in 
 me, its execution is left to the goodness of God. I 
 entreat every Christian thus to regulate himself, or, 
 
CONSIDERATION VII. 225 
 
 more properly speaking, thus to submit himself to be 
 ruled by God, assuring him that God will not only 
 fulfil his desires, but will satisfy him in many other 
 things which will be done to the glory of God, to his 
 own edification and to that of his neighbours, without 
 his ever thinking of them, hoping or desiring them ; 
 God will do this through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 In proof of what has been stated, I hold that a 
 man naturally resolves only to do, or not to do, what 
 he believes himself capable of doing ; no man re- 
 solves to bring about either wet or fine weather. 
 Whence I gather that our resolutions will never be 
 free from arrogance and presumption if we think that 
 to be in our power, which is no more in it than to 
 bring about wet or fine weather. Hence it is not 
 our province to make resolutions, but to desire and to 
 leave the execution of what we desire with God. And, 
 keeping the same end in view, I hold that we ought, 
 in our Christian resolutions, ever to reflect whether 
 that which we resolve upon be pleasing to God or 
 not ; because it is a mark of great ignorance, to re- 
 solve to do something to the honour of God, of which 
 we are not certain that it is pleasing to God. And 
 thus I feel assured that our resolutions will then be 
 good and wise, when they are conformable to God's 
 will concerning us, and conformable to our ability ; 
 seeing that it is folly to promise another what we 
 are not able to perform. And this being the truth, 
 it has been well said that resolution consists in de- 
 siring, leaving the execution of our desires with God ; 
 being assured that He favours us in them, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
226 
 
 CONSIDERATION VIII. 
 
 The covenants which our Lord Jesus Christ established 
 between God and men. 
 
 We men, in recognising our existence as derived 
 from God, are born under obligation to love God, to 
 depend on Him, and to submit ourselves to be ruled 
 and governed by Him. This obligation, thwarted 
 by our depravity and evil inclination, draws us in the 
 contrary direction. We may call this obligation a 
 law of nature, and we may say, that the law which 
 God gave the Hebrews, by the hands of Moses, 
 came to discover our obligation and depravity, Rom. 
 iii. 20. For ' by the law is the knowledge of sin.' 
 And so powerful is this evil inclination in the minds 
 of men, that, however much they may strive, they 
 never succeed in the full discharge of their obligation. 
 God, knowing this, sent His only begotten Son, 
 made man, into the world, and willed that His justice 
 should be executed upon Him for that wherein all 
 men had failed, and should thereafter fail, in the 
 obligation incident to their birth. So that this is the 
 covenant between God and man : that they believe 
 and hold that that justice which was executed upon 
 Christ, the Son of God, frees and exempts them from 
 the punishment which they deserved, in having failed 
 in the obligation under which they were born ; and 
 that God justifies them, and accepts them as His 
 
CONSIDERATION VIII. 227 
 
 adopted children, and as such rules and governs 
 them during this life, and afterwards raises them up 
 and will give them eternal life. Human wisdom is 
 incapable of admitting this covenant : because, in the 
 first place, looking upon Christ as an ordinary man, 
 it does not apprehend that He is the Son of God ; 
 besides, it does not see on what basis the truth of 
 this covenant is laid, so as to believe it, to hold it 
 undoubtingl)', and to rely on it. To attain this, a 
 particular and peculiar revelation from God is needed, 
 which may cast down all the arguments of human 
 wisdom ; so that holding it as assured and settled, 
 that Christ is the Son of God, and that the justice 
 which was executed upon Him exempts us from 
 responsibility in having failed in our obligation, we 
 oblige God to justify us, according to the covenant 
 which He has entered into with us. And being 
 justified, we are incorporated into Christ and 
 grafted into Him. Precisely as a plant is sustained 
 by the virtue of the earth where it springs up, or is 
 planted, so we are sustained by Christ's virtue, in 
 which we are planted in order that we may persevere 
 in the covenant 
 
 Two other covenants depend upon this covenant 
 The one is, that we believe that Christ rose from the 
 dead glorified, and that faith in this gives us fellow- 
 ship in Christ's resurrection, so that we rise again 
 even as He rose, and that God will accomplish in us 
 what He wrought in Christ Human wisdom finds 
 no grounds to warrant belief in this resurrection, and 
 does not believe it ; but the man who has accepted 
 the first covenant, easily accepts this second. The 
 other covenant is, that we believe that Christ lives 
 evermore with God, in the highest exaltation ; and 
 that this faith gives us eternal life, and that by this 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 CONSIDERATION VIII. 
 
 faith God works in us what He wrought and still 
 works in Christ. Human wisdom finds no grounds 
 to warrant the hope of eternal life ; but the man who 
 has accepted the first covenant, through revelation, 
 and through the first has accepted the second, easily 
 accepts this third. So that, we, being assured that 
 Christ is the Son of God, accept the covenant of 
 justification by faith, which gives us fellowship in 
 Christ's death ; we accept the covenant of Christ's 
 resurrection, which gives us fellowship in the resur- 
 rection ; and we accept the covenant of eternal life, 
 which gives us fellowship in the eternal life wherein 
 Christ lives. 
 
 We believe four things, and God works four 
 things in us. We believe that Christ is the Son of 
 God, that He died, and rose again, and that He 
 lives ; and God makes us His children, justifies us, 
 raises us again, and gives us eternal life. We 
 enjoy the two first in this life, and they bring it to 
 pass that we love God, that we depend on Him, 
 according to the obligation with which we are born, 
 having in a great measure overcome our evil inclina- 
 tion ; we shall enjoy the two others in a future state. 
 And experiencing, in this life, in the two first things, 
 the truth there is in the covenant which Christ es- 
 tablished between God and us, we are assured of the 
 truth there is in the two second, which we shall 
 realise when it pleases the Divine Majesty for us to 
 do so : in the meanwhile, let us wait and persevere 
 in the covenant and covenants which have been made 
 with us by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
229 
 
 CONSIDERATION IX 
 
 One excellent privilege of piety. 
 
 All the good works to which we are excited in this 
 life, stand related either to humanity or to piety. That 
 we have been created men, leads us to sympathise 
 with, and help each other ; that is to say, in all things 
 that belong to the comfort of life. Piety leads us to 
 confide in God, to love Him, to depend upon Him : 
 leads us to confide in Christ, to love Him, and to 
 preach Him : leads us to mortify our fleshly affections 
 and lusts : and leads us to contemn all that the world 
 prizes, such as honours, station, and wealth. There 
 shall be a person wholly alien to piety, who, led by 
 his humanity, will exercise himself not only in all 
 offices that stand related to it, but, beyond these, will 
 discharge those that stand peculiarly related to piety 
 — striving to fulfil the one, and partly performing the 
 other ; and there shall be another decidedly pious, 
 who not only will exercise himself in duties peculiar 
 to piety, but moreover in those which are peculiar to 
 humanity, ever discharging them when an opportunity 
 presents itself And as the alien to piety, exercising 
 himself in duties peculiar to piety, does not exercise 
 himself in piety, but in the duties which stand related 
 to humanity, because his principal design is his own 
 peculiar interest, which is incident to his being 
 human ; so, on the other hand, the person who is 
 
230 CONSIDERATION IX. 
 
 decidedly pious, exercising himself in the practice of 
 duties incident to humanity, practises himself in piety, 
 because his principal design is the glory of God, 
 which is the characteristic of piety. And it will 
 come to pass, that an alien to piety will preach 
 Christ, yet will not exercise himself in piety, because 
 his principal design will be his own glory and his 
 own private interest ; and, on the other hand, it will 
 come to pass, that a pious man will do good to one 
 that is without piety, and will practise himself in 
 piety, because his principal design- is the glory of 
 God ; and although he was not moved to that by 
 Christian charit}', but by human pity, nevertheless 
 he exercised himself in piety. Whence I gather, 
 how very great are the advantages which they enjoy 
 who have piet)^ wrought in them by the Holy 
 Spirit, and communicated to the faithful through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Let me add, that he who is a stranger to piety is 
 not only precluded from the perception of this differ- 
 ence between the Avorks of the two classes of persons 
 which is here laid down, but likewise precluded from 
 knowing that he never practises piet}- himself ; 
 whilst the pious man perfectly well understands when 
 he exercises himself in matters peculiar to humanity, 
 and when he exercises himself in matters peculiar 
 to piety : and this he does by reflecting for an in- 
 stant, or, more properly speaking, by not forgetting 
 himself. But, indeed, it is true that these privileges 
 of piety are as books, as Isaiah says,^ ' which God 
 hath prepared for those who love Him ;' that is to say, 
 for those who come to know and love Him, being 
 justified by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 * Isaiah xxix. 11-12, 18, 23-24. 
 
231 
 
 CONSIDERATION X. 
 
 In what respect the state of that Christian who believes with 
 
 difficulty, is better than that of another who believes 
 
 with facility. 
 
 Amongst those who bear the Christian name, I 
 note two classes of men : the one, to whom it is ex- 
 tremely easy to believe all that is said to them in 
 matters of religion ; and the other, to whom it is ex- 
 tremely difficult. And it appears to me that the 
 facility of belief in the one springs from superstition, 
 and slight consideration ; whilst the difficulty in the 
 other springs from excessive consideration. The 
 former never take counsel of human prudence upon 
 any subject whatever ; whilst the latter call in its aid 
 upon every occasion, and are brought with difficulty 
 to believe in anything which human prudence does 
 not approve. The former believe many things that 
 are false, along with some that are true ; and it does 
 so happen, that they give much greater credit to the 
 many things that are false, than they do to the few 
 that are true : the latter do not believe the false, 
 and hesitate to accept the true. Pondering the 
 matter more deeply, I find that the former are as- 
 sured as to the true things they believe in by the 
 Spirit of God, when He is communicated to them, 
 and by this attestation they are by degrees disabused 
 as to the false, which they thus gradually abandon. 
 
232 CONSIDERATION X. 
 
 Again, I find that the latter have it certified to them 
 by the same Spirit of God, when He is communicated 
 to them, what things are true ; and by His attesta- 
 tion they are strengthened in the belief of things 
 which are true, and in the disbeHef of those which 
 are false. So that the Holy Spirit, by its entrance 
 into two individuals — the one of whom is very easy 
 of belief, and the other very difificult — ^places them 
 in this condition, that the one struggles with himself, 
 labouring to dispel from his mind those untruths 
 which he so easily accepted ; whilst the other strug- 
 gles with himself, labouring to attain conviction of 
 those truths which, when delivered by men, he was 
 unable to believe. 
 
 Both these men have to strive ; but I hold the 
 position of the man who found it difficult to believe, 
 better than that of the man who found it easy to be- 
 lieve : and this for three principal reasons. The 
 first, because the man who is aided by the Holy 
 Spirit, and has many other subsidiary helps, finds it 
 more easy to believe the truth than to disbelieve 
 falsehood ; the difficulty in doing which is owing to 
 superstition and various other things. The second, 
 because the man who believes easily may readily be 
 deceived ; whilst he to whom it is hard to believe 
 is with difficulty misled. And the third, because 
 the person who is ready to believe remains for a 
 long time under various delusions, as did those in 
 the primitive Church who were converted from 
 Judaism to Christianity ; and he who is slow to be- 
 lieve remains free from every error, since he only 
 believes what the Holy Spirit teaches him. 
 
 Hence I conclude that the position in which the 
 Holy Spirit places the person who believes with 
 difficulty, when He begins to teach him, is beyond 
 
CONSIDERATION XI. 233 
 
 all comparison better than that in which He places 
 the man who believes easily. Again, I am cleariy 
 of opinion that he who believes, without having 
 been taught by the Spirit of God, relies more upon 
 opinion than upon faith, and is ever involved in error 
 and false conceits. Whence it should be understood, 
 that when a man believes alike in all the statements 
 made to him, he is without the Spirit of God ; he 
 believes upon report, by human suasion, and by 
 received opinion, and not by revelation, nor by inspi- 
 ration. And it being true that the Christian's hap- 
 piness does not consist in believing merely, but in 
 believing through revelation, and not by report, — we 
 are to conclude that the Christian's faith is not what 
 is based upon report, but that the Christian's faith 
 is by revelation alone : and this is what makes us 
 happy ; it is what brings with it love and hope, and 
 is what purifies the heart, and it is also what is in 
 every respect pleasing to God. May we be enriched 
 with it by -God Himself, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord ! 
 
 CONSIDERATION XI. 
 
 In what manner the justice of God redounds to the advantage 
 of those who, through revelation, believe in Christ. 
 
 All the attributes which the Sacred Scriptures 
 ascribe to God, appear, even to human prudence, to 
 redound to the welfare of man, with the exception of 
 one, which appears to be prejudicial to him. It is 
 
234 CONSIDERATION XI. 
 
 well for man that God is omnipotent, generous, wise, 
 true, benign, merciful, and pitiful ; but it does not 
 appear to be well for him that God is just ; for God 
 being just, and man unjust, man does not see how 
 he shall escape the judgment of God. But the 
 goodness of God is so great, that it is His will that 
 even this His perfection, which to our minds appears 
 injurious to man, should redound to his welfare no 
 less than all the rest. He determined to inflict upon 
 His own Son all the rigour of that justice which He 
 ought to execute upon all men for all their impiety 
 and sins, in order that men holding this truth for an 
 assured fact — to wit, that God has executed the rigour 
 of His justice upon His own Son — may know that it 
 is as much to their welfare that God is just, as that 
 He is merciful : it being sure that, in administering 
 justice. He cannot fail to save those who regard the 
 punishment already inflicted upon God's own Son as 
 their own. Whence I understand, and assure myself 
 of the fact, that God revealed to the Old Testament 
 saints, that His justice should be carried into execu- 
 tion upon His own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; 
 and therefore they would hold it as certain that it 
 was nothing less favourable to them that God was 
 just as well as merciful, together with all His other 
 attributes and perfections. 
 
 Again, I understand that men, who are not assured 
 by revelation that God has visited the rigour of his 
 justice upon Christ, as we have already stated, ever 
 dread God's judgment ; and it is a fearful thing to 
 them that justice is an attribute of God, because they 
 do not know how to satisfy it. This dread gives birth 
 to superstitions, scruples, and ceremonial observances. 
 From all which, we, who, through revelation, are 
 come to the knowledge of Christ, are free, having 
 
CONSIDERATION XII. 235 
 
 the certainty that God, being just, will not chastise 
 us twice. We believe in the Gospel, which assures 
 us that we have been punished in Christ ; and in this 
 we feel assured, knowing that God is just, and that 
 we have already been punished in the cross of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XII. 
 
 In what manner the reason of our inner man assists us, as 
 do the eyes of our outward man. 
 
 Having frequently stated that man, in order to 
 dwell and abide in the kingdom of God, must needs 
 mortify his reason and his human wisdom in all 
 and everything ; this being true, it may be doubted 
 for what purpose God placed reason in man, since 
 He will not allow him to make use of it whilst he 
 lives in His kingdom. To this, it appears to me 
 that I may answer without hesitation, that God 
 placed it in the inner man for a similar purpose that 
 He placed eyes in the outward man — that just as the 
 external eyes are able to see the sun, not of them- 
 selves, but by the sun itself, and likewise all that the 
 sun discloses ; so reason, which is in the inner man, 
 is able to know God, not of itself, but by God Him- 
 self, and likewise all that God manifests. 
 
 The first man, proud of his reason, wished to know 
 God without God, as if one wished to see the sun 
 without the sun ; and he deprived himself of the 
 knowledge of God, and was left to the gbvernment 
 
236 CONSIDERATION XIII. 
 
 of his own reason. And he, and all men who have 
 imitated him, seeking to know God simply with 
 their reason, by means of the Scriptures and of the 
 creature, are still more rash than those who, not 
 wishing to see the sun by the sun, attempt to see it 
 by the light of a candle. 
 
 Now, this being true, we understand that God has 
 placed reason in man, in order that he, by it, may 
 know God ; but it must be by God, and not by his 
 own speculations. It is well that God requires man 
 to mortify his reason, so far as it presumes to know 
 God, and the things of God, by itself alone, without 
 the Spirit of God, — if he desire to know God and to 
 abide in His kingdom in the way it behoves him to 
 do. Of this mortification we have already spoken 
 many times, and said it is that which is revealed to 
 us by our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XIII. 
 
 An allegory, which shows in what the Benefit consists which 
 the human race has received from God, through Christ. 
 
 The vassals of a great King rebelled against Him. 
 For the revolt He condemned them to death, con- 
 fiscated their estates, and banished them from His 
 kingdom. Condemned, despoiled, and expatriated, 
 they entered into the service of foreign kings, the 
 enemies of their natural liege Lord. The King, as 
 He was benignly disposed towards His vassals, de- 
 ferred for a while to act against them ; and because 
 He was desirous that they, who were wanderers in 
 
CONSIDERATION XIII. 237 
 
 exile, should return to His kingdom, first executed 
 the rigour of His justice upon His own Son, and 
 then sent an universal proclamation throughout the 
 world, in which He declared that His justice was al- 
 ready satisfied, and that He had already pardoned all 
 who had rebelled against Him, encouraging them to 
 return to His kingdom, and promising them the entire 
 restitution of what they had lost. The persons who 
 were criminally involved in this rebellion heard this 
 proclamation ; some of them, pretending that they were 
 not involved in it, rejected the amnesty ; for it seemed 
 to them that its acceptance was a confession that 
 they had been rebels. Others, although they knew 
 themselves to be rebels, would not give credit to the 
 proclamation ; it appeared to them too strange a 
 thing that the King should pardon them on account 
 of His Son's obedience to Him. Similarly, some 
 others, though they knew themselves to be rebels, — ■ 
 though they held the proclamation to be genuine, — 
 though -they took a copy of it, and even themselves 
 published it, yet dared not return to the kingdom, 
 but sought, on the contrary, in every possible way, 
 to obtain pardon from the King by services, gifts, 
 and presents, being unwilling to avail themselves in 
 any manner of the King's generosity, or of His Son's 
 obedience ; and as they never came back to the 
 kingdom, their property was never restored to them. 
 Thus, neither of these classes availed themselves of 
 the general pardon ; so that, as far as they were 
 concerned, it was just as if it had never been offered. 
 There were some who, knowing themselves to be 
 rebels, and giving full faith and credit to the pro- 
 clamation, trusting to the King's word, accepted the 
 general pardon, and returned to the kingdom, 
 submitting themselves in all and everything to their 
 
238 CONSIDERATION XIII. 
 
 King's government. And although they might at 
 first have somewhat doubted as to the pardon, and 
 so much the more because they saw that that pro- 
 perty of which they had been deprived was not all 
 at once restored to them, yet, continuing to reside in 
 the kingdom, and seeing that the King treated them 
 kindly, and that He gradually restored to them what 
 they had forfeited by the rebellion, they likewise 
 persevered in testifying that they had been par- 
 doned, and had heartily to congratulate themselves 
 that they had returned to the service of their own 
 King, and to remain under His rule and government. 
 And because they had experienced the evils incident 
 to rebellion and exile, they terminated and renounced 
 all their friendly relations and associations with other 
 men, as also all their own peculiar designs, which, as 
 they thought, might induce them to rebel again. 
 Occupying and exercising themselves in doing this, 
 they gradually acquired such credit with the King, 
 that He not only restored them all they had lost 
 through rebellion, but made them valuable presents, 
 and treated them as if they never had been rebels. 
 
 This is the allegory ; and, although it be clear 
 enough in itself, I am unwilling to leave it without 
 some further explanation. And I say that the first 
 man, being in the kingdom of God, and having been 
 created in the likeness and image of God, rebelled 
 against God ; through that rebellion he was de- 
 spoiled of the image and likeness to God, was exiled 
 from the kingdom of God, and was condemned to 
 death ; and almost all the whole human race was 
 thus in exile, and for a long period in the service of 
 Satan. God, desirous in His mercy to remedy this evil, 
 first executed the rigour of His justice upon His own 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and then sent to have it 
 
CONSIDERATION XIII. 239 
 
 proclaimed throughout all the world that His justice 
 was satisfied, that He had pardoned all those who 
 were rebels, and that they might, at pleasure, return 
 to the kingdom from which they had been banished, 
 and that He would restore to them His image and 
 likeness which they had lost. This proclamation 
 has been heard throughout the whole world. And 
 some men, esteeming themselves to be saints and 
 righteous, have thought that pardon had nothing to 
 do with them, because they held that where there 
 was no crime, there could be no pardon ; and thus 
 they let it pass. Others, though they held them- 
 selves to be rebels, distrusted the pardon, because it 
 appeared to them too strange a thing that God 
 should pardon and receive them into His kingdom, 
 and restore to them what they had lost through re- 
 bellion, on account of the righteousness and obe- 
 dience of another. There are others who, though 
 they know themselves to be rebels, and look upon 
 the pardon as reliable, and receive the Gospel, read 
 it and preach it, yet they cannot bring themselves to 
 enter into the kingdom of God ; because they trust 
 more in themselves than in God, and thus prefer 
 to remain under the rule of their human wisdom, 
 rather than to enter the kingdom of God. These 
 think they ought to earn the pardon of their rebel- 
 lion by their industry and diligence, and by their own 
 merits. And because neither the one class nor the 
 other enter the kingdom of God, they experience none 
 of its benefits, neither do they enjoy God's liber- 
 ality nor Christ's obedience. To this position they 
 are brought by their own arrogance and presump- 
 tion, and thus they ever remain in a state of revolt. 
 But there are those who know themselves' to be 
 rebels to God, and give full faith and credit to 
 
240 CONSIDERATION XIII. 
 
 the general pardon which, on the part of God, is 
 proclaimed to them in the Gospel ; and then in- 
 stantly, and without further deliberation, accepting 
 the pardon, enter the kingdom of God, renouncing 
 the kingdom of the world and the rule of human 
 wisdom. These persons, though they doubt to some 
 extent at the outset — doubt as to the pardon, doubt 
 as to the government and rule of God — yet, as they 
 do not depart from the kingdom, they go on to ac- 
 quire assurance as to this and the other point, and so 
 much the more as they feel God gradually restores 
 to them His image and likeness, which the first man 
 lost through his rebellion, with all the other pri- 
 vileges forfeited through the same rebellion. And 
 because the principal punishment of the rebellion 
 was death, although He does not free them from 
 temporal death, since they die like other men. He 
 frees them from eternal death, promising them re- 
 surrection, and giving them an earnest of it in an 
 internal quickening and in Christ's resurrection. 
 These live in consummate happiness, wholly intent 
 upon mortifying their human wisdom and reason, and 
 all those other things which led them to their former 
 rebellion, and might lead them to another. In this 
 course they continue and persevere, and thus go on 
 to acquire such favour with God, that He not only 
 renders them conscious of pardon and the happiness 
 which is involved in being in His kingdom, and 
 possessing whilst there the image of God, but He 
 bestows on them many other favours and graces, 
 receiving them as His sons. This kingdom is begun 
 in this present life, and is continued in the future life ; 
 and all this happiness these men recognise as God's 
 bounty, through the obedience of His only begotten 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
241 
 
 CONSIDERATION XIV. 
 
 Amongst those things which we are bound by Christian piety 
 to believe, what that is which is most difficult of belief. 
 
 Having at times occupied myself with the consi- 
 deration, how difficult it is to bring the human mind 
 duly to believe the truths of Christianity when it is 
 engaged in contemplating and reviewing them, I 
 am now led to examine which, among them all, pre- 
 sents the greatest difficulty ; and I conclude that it 
 is the general pardon following upon the execution 
 of God's justice on Christ; 
 
 I am brought to this conclusion by considering 
 that, all men being alive to their own interests, easily 
 give credence to those things, the belief of which 
 does not involve loss to themselves ; and that they 
 believe with difficulty those things which may pos- 
 sibly damage them. However true it be that, 
 amongst all the truths of Christianity, this general 
 pardon is the only one which, as has been said, could 
 redound to the damage of the person believing it, in 
 the event of its proving to be untrue, it appears that 
 my conclusion is good, holding that of the truths to 
 be believed, this is the most difficult to believe. I 
 might fortify this my conclusion with many arguments; 
 but this appears to me so sufficient, that I am willing 
 to be contented with it, confirming it with what is 
 seen by experience : because, even the man who 
 
 R 
 
242 CONSIDERATION XIV. 
 
 lives in the belief of the proclamation, which is 
 published throughout the world, of a general pardon, 
 and shows that he believes, by divesting himself of 
 every external justification, and by entering boldly 
 into the kingdom of God, in which God provides for 
 His people equally in things affecting the body and 
 the soul ; — even such a one finds great repugnance in 
 his mind, when he would bring himself to a state of 
 unreserved trust in God for the support both of body 
 and soul. For he is ever meditating and saying 
 within himself — ' And should it be untrue that God 
 will, without anxious care on my part, provide all 
 that is necessary for my support, what will become 
 of me ?' ' And should it be untrue that God, having 
 executed upon Christ the rigour of His justice, and 
 that the proclamation of a general pardon is pub- 
 lished by His authority throughout the world, I shall 
 have been bitterly trifled with.' And it is certain 
 that, in proportion as a man argues thus with him- 
 self, will it appear to him that he might himself 
 make provision for both one and the other. 
 
 Proceeding further, and being desirous of examin- 
 ing as to which man had the greater difficulty in 
 confiding to God, whether the support of the body 
 or that of the soul ; I think that it would be the sup- 
 port of the body. I think so, because man is brought 
 with less difficulty to expect that from God which 
 he most assuredly holds himself to be unable to attain 
 by his own efforts. It being, therefore, true that 
 man distrusts himself more with relation to his justi- 
 fication, than with relation to his bodily support, we 
 may conclude that a man is brought with greater 
 difficulty to rely on God for his bodily sustenance 
 than for his spiritual. Having arrived at this point 
 in my meditations, I clearly understand why it is 
 
CONSIDERATION XIV. 243 
 
 difficult for the rich man to enter into the kingdom 
 of God (Matt. xix. 23). And being desirous of per- 
 suading my mind that it may be brought to depend 
 on God in bodily things as well as spiritual, I call to 
 mind how Christ promises to give the former by way 
 of addition to those who seek the kingdom of God 
 (Matt vi. 33) ; and I think that, finding all to be true 
 that Christ promised me in things pertaining to the 
 soul, I have no reason to doubt that He will be 
 found equally true in what pertains to the body. 
 When this fails to satisfy me, I think thus : Since I 
 am justified through acceptance and belief of the 
 proclamation of general pardon, and since I have en- 
 tered into the kingdom of God, from which the first 
 man was exiled through rebellion, I go on to recover 
 the privileges which the first man lost through his re- 
 bellion ; ought I to doubt that God will provide me 
 with external things, without my solicitude ?— since 
 it is true that the first man, whilst he remained in 
 the kingdom of God, was provided with them, with- 
 out solicitude on his part. And that this is true, I 
 know it from the fact, that amongst the other punish- 
 ments with which God visited his rebellion, was this : 
 Sudore vultus tui vesceris pane — ' In the sweat of thy 
 brow shalt thou eat bread ' (Gen. iii. 1 9). 
 
 From all these considerations I gather, that it is 
 •the right thing for me to be mentally intent to depend 
 upon God, as well for the support of the body as for 
 that of the soul ; and so much the more for the 
 support of the body, since I have accepted and be- 
 lieve the proclamation of general pardon, and have 
 entered into the kingdom of God ; and especially since 
 I know it to be true, that man is brought with greater 
 difficulty to trust God for the former than for the 
 latter. In the next place I gather, that then I shall 
 
 R 2 
 
244 CONSIDERATION XV. 
 
 be completely a citizen of the kingdom of God, when 
 I shall wholly depend upon God, being a living and 
 true member of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XV. 
 
 How Christians should bear themselves under their tribulations, 
 afflictions, and labours. 
 
 Because human wisdom, as we have at other times 
 stated, holds it to be humility not to trust God, and 
 that it is arrogance to confide in Him ; it is ne- 
 cessary for the Christian to be ever on his guard, 
 that it do not sell him white for black, nor black for 
 white. When a pious man is overtaken with some 
 great trial and grief, he is tempted by the devil, 
 through the medium of human wisdom, persuading 
 him that it is wrong to believe that God is engaged to 
 deliver him from that grief and trial in which he finds 
 himself ; and that the only thing which it is his duty 
 to do, is to bring his mind to be content with what- 
 ever it may please God to appoint. This counsel 
 appears devout and pious, but, examined by a Chris- 
 tian spirit, there is a despair and distrust recogniz- 
 able in it, which lies in the first proposition, in which 
 it is declared that it is wrong to trust in God ; and 
 though the second proposition, that of mental sub- 
 mission, be good, the first spoils it. Now, in order 
 that the second may be good, the Christian spirit 
 makes the first good, persuading every devout per- 
 son whom it sees in grief and trouble, that God has 
 
CONSIDERATION XV. 245. 
 
 promised to honour those who honour Him ; and 
 that He will not allow them to be maltreated by men 
 of the world, but that, on the contrary, He will take 
 great care of them, both in assistance and defence. 
 Dost thou honour God ? — then thou mayest be 
 assured and certain that God honours thee, and that 
 He will" right early deliver thee from the grief and 
 trouble in which thou art involved ; so that the im- 
 pious, who wish thee evil, shall have no cause to re- 
 joice in thy calamity. By this suggestion, all God's 
 promises on this head, given in Holy Scripture, recur 
 to the Christian's mind ; and when the saint under 
 trial is prepared to receive this truth, and remains 
 steadfast and firm in this hope, it may persuade him 
 to bring his mind to acquiesce in God's design in 
 that trial. And in such case, acquiescence in the 
 Divine Will is pious and holy, because it is based on 
 a confidence that is in itself pious and holy. 
 
 Human wisdom opposes itself to this, and says. 
 Having seen that God permits His people to be per- 
 secuted, afflicted, and maltreated, on what canst 
 thou, as a Christian, base thy confidence that He will 
 deliver thee from this affliction and travail ? To 
 this the Christian spirit replies, It is true that God 
 permits all this to happen to His people ; but He 
 does so when calculated to promote the cause of the 
 Gospel, the manifestation of His glory, or the glori- 
 fication of His name, but not to gratify the malignity 
 and base desires of men of the world. Truly God 
 does consent that His saints be maltreated, when 
 they are maltreated because they are saints, and from 
 this results all that we have said ; but He does not 
 suffer them to be so, when maltreated as men, from 
 worldly motives, because He has engaged His word 
 to do just the reverse. David exults in that he, 
 
246 CONSIDERATION XVI. 
 
 throughout the course of his life, had never seen a 
 righteous man abandoned by God (Ps. xxxvii. 25) ; 
 and all the righteous may exult for the same reason ; 
 for, although God permits them to suffer, when they 
 suffer as saints and righteous, He does not allow 
 them to suffer under circumstances which happen to 
 men indifferently in this present life. 
 
 From all that has been said, we may conclude 
 that a Christian, when maltreated for his piety and 
 righteousness, should resign himself and all his con- 
 cerns into God's hands, bringing his mind to acquiesce 
 in all that God shall ordain in His disposal of him, 
 rejoicing that God's name should thus be magnified 
 in it and by it ; and that, when he is maltreated 
 simply as a man of the world, he is to believe and 
 be assured that God will deliver him from that grief 
 and trouble to his great satisfaction and contentment, 
 and he ought to bring his mind to be satisfied with 
 the way in which God shall deal with him. And 
 this is the truly Christian disposition of mind, only 
 to be found in those who are incorporated into Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XVI. 
 
 That God's promises belong to those who believe them. 
 
 Christian piety insists that the Christian hold it as 
 certain and assured that God is engaged to uphold 
 him by His grace and in His grace in this present 
 life, and that in the other life He is engaged to give 
 
CONSIDERATION XVI. 247 
 
 him immortality and glory. Human wisdom, assum- 
 ing or feigning piety, would persuade the Christian 
 that he ought to feel assured that God will do this 
 for him, but upon condition that he have faith, hope, 
 and love, which are the gifts of God that impart to 
 the Christian both life and being — not understanding 
 that the extent of a man's possession of these three 
 gifts will be relative to that of his assurance and 
 certainty of the two things upon which Christian 
 piety would have the Christian to be sure and cer- 
 tain, since these two things involve faith and hope, 
 from which springs and proceeds love. Whence we 
 fully gather that it is the duty of the Christian to stop 
 his ears to human wisdom, and to open them to the 
 promises of the Holy Spirit ; and thus look to be 
 assured and confirmed in the two first things. I 
 understand that the extent to which he will attain 
 and possess the three Christian graces, faith, hope, 
 and love, will be in proportion to the certainty and 
 assurance with which he holds that God is engaged 
 to support him in this present life, through His grace 
 and in His grace, and that He is engaged to give 
 him immortality and glory in the life to come. 
 
 For the pious Christian will say, I know that God 
 only calls those to Himself whom He has first known 
 and predestinated ; again I know, that those whom 
 He calls, them He also justifies and glorifies ; and I 
 know for certain that He has called me, and there- 
 fore I am certain that He has known and predes- 
 tinated me, and that He has justified me, and that 
 He is engaged to glorify me. Let him hold this, 
 and remain assured of it, never in the least doubting ; 
 for the promises of God are fulfilled to all such. 
 Many authorities of Sacred Scripture may be cited 
 to prove this true, but it would be better to say thus : 
 
248' CONSIDERATION XVII. 
 
 the truth of this is not believed unless felt experi- 
 mentally, and this experience belongs only to those 
 who are incorporated in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XVII. 
 
 The manner in which a man should form his resolution with 
 
 reference to the world and to himself, in order to 
 
 become a true Christian. 
 
 All Christian duty consists in the exercise of con- 
 fidence, faith, and love — ^for these combined, con- 
 stitute piety, justification, and holiness : since by 
 confiding, man acquires piety ; by believing, he ac- 
 quires justification ; and by loving, holiness. In 
 order to confide, believe, and love, it is necessary to 
 be wise, to understand, and to know ; to be wise in 
 selecting the object in which we ought to confide ; 
 to understand what it is we have to believe ; and to 
 know what we ought to love. Of this wisdom, 
 knowledge, and intelligence, man is incapable — partly 
 from natural depravity, arising from original sin ; and 
 partly from that which is acquired by evil habits and 
 worse practices. 
 
 The wise man understood this when he said, that 
 ' Divine knowledge does not enter into an ill-disposed 
 mind, and does not abide in a sinful body.' Whence 
 I understand that it behoves the man who desires to 
 exercise confidence, faith, and love, in order that he 
 may attain piety, justification, and holiness, to apply 
 himself to be wise, to understand, and to know ; 
 
CONSIDERATION XVII. 249 
 
 divesting the mind of every evil inclination, with- 
 drawing the body from every evil practice and from 
 every evil habit. Moreover, I understand that, in 
 order to divest the mind of every evil inclination, it 
 is necessary that a man courageously and magnani- 
 mously take his resolution with reference to the 
 world, turning his back on all its honours and glory 
 and esteem, neither coveting nor wishing for them 
 in anything, nor in any manner, but extinguishing 
 all ambition and self-esteem. In the next place, I 
 understand that, in order to withdraw the body from 
 every evil practice and from every evil habit, it is 
 necessary that a man be determinedly self-resolved, 
 effectively renouncing all those things from which he 
 may derive any satisfaction or bodily gratification ; 
 breaking off from every such thing, withdrawing from: 
 it, and abhorring it. Because, by acting thus he will 
 purify soul and body, and will render himself capable, 
 God granting him wisdom, intelligence, and know- 
 ledge, of receiving them ; and thus he will come to 
 attain confidence, faith, and love, and will be pious, 
 just, and holy, and consequently will be a true 
 Christian. 
 
 I understand that Jesus Christ our Lord invites 
 every one to take this resolution, saying, in Matt, 
 xvi. 24 — Qui vult post me venire, abneget seipsum, et 
 toilet crucem suam, et sequatur me — ' He who will 
 come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross, and follow me.' And I understand that a man 
 then takes his cross upon himself when he voluntarily 
 endures the martyrdom with which men of the world 
 choose to torture him, whether bodily or mentally. 
 The true Christians of the primitive Church en- 
 dured that of the body, when they who were the 
 open enemies of God and Christ took away their 
 
250 CONSIDERATION XVII. 
 
 lives because they believed in Christ. True Chris- 
 tians have endured, and still do endure, that of the 
 mind, when, having trod in the steps of those of old, 
 they are despised and treated as vile and spiritless, 
 and are robbed of their honour and fair fame by those 
 who are the concealed enemies of God and of Christ. 
 And I consider this to be the most cruel, the most 
 terrible, and the most insupportable of all martyr- 
 doms : and the man who stands firm and constant 
 under torture of this kind, may account himself to be 
 a true martyr of Christ. 
 
 Again, I understand that to the resolution which 
 man has to form with himself and with the world, 
 and to the martyrdom to which he ought to offer 
 himself, Christ added (Matt. xvi. 24), Et sequatur 
 me — ' And let him follow me.' I understand that 
 man does not acquire piety, justification, and holiness 
 by the resolution nor by the martyrdom, but by the 
 imitation of Christ, as far as by imitating Christ he 
 succeeds in recovering the image and likeness of God 
 in his mind, in which the first man was created, 
 looking forward to recover it bodily at the resurrec- 
 tion of the just, when, having acquired impassibility 
 and immortality, Christians shall rejoice for ever with 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
251 
 
 CONSIDERATION XVIII. 
 
 What ought to engage the attention of the man who aspires 
 and desires to enter into and remain in the King- 
 dom of God, and what to this end he 
 brings of his own. 
 
 Understanding what our Lord Jesus Christ says 
 (John vi. 44), that no man can come to Him unless 
 His eternal Father dra-w him ; and understanding 
 what St. Paul says (2 Thess. iii. 2), Non omnium est 
 jfides — ' All have not faith,' and that faith is the gift 
 of God (Eph. ii. 8), I understand, likewise, that it is 
 not in man's power to believe, to love, and to confide : 
 nor is it in the power of man to know God, or to 
 know himself, or to hate the world and himself; 
 since it is necessary that all this be brought about 
 by the peculiar and special favour of God ; so that it 
 is manifestly beyond man's power to make himself 
 inwardly pious, just, and holy, it being God's pro- 
 vince to effect all this. 
 
 On the other hand, understanding the numerous 
 exhortations and admonitions with which Scripture 
 abounds, by which all men, without exception, are 
 exhorted and instructed to be pious, righteous, and 
 holy, I understand that it is every man's duty to 
 aspire after, to desire, and to attain piety, righteous- 
 ness, and holiness ; but by asking it of God, seeking 
 
252 CONSIDERATION XVIII. 
 
 to obtain it wholly from Him and through Him, and 
 understanding that it is the Christian's duty, who is 
 seeking and asking this, to exert himself studiously 
 and diligently in all that relates to himself, and that 
 appears within his power, as, for instance, in curbing 
 his affections and lusts, at least in those externals 
 which admit of being curbed, or in averting his eyes 
 from what gratifies the sight, in withholding his ears 
 from what would excite them with delight, and thus 
 in all other external sensations, which the Christian 
 may conquer, by withdrawing the body when he 
 might be unable to withdraw the mind. But beyond 
 everything else, and chiefly, should the Christian be 
 attentive not to please men of the world, neither 
 holding with nor adopting the tone of their conver- 
 sation, ever remembering what St. Paul says (Gal. 
 i. lo), Si hominibus placuero, Christi servus non 
 essem — -' For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the 
 servant of Christ.' In such circumstances he will 
 have to obey this rule : Should he be invited to please 
 man by irreligious conduct, he will in no way gratify 
 them ; but to every solicitation to act in harmony 
 with religion, let him ever consent ; and in things in- 
 different, let him oblige the world in such as are dis- 
 tasteful to himself, but he is not to do so in such as 
 are personally agreeable to him. Thus he will be 
 brought not to please men when they solicit an irre- 
 ligious line of conduct; or one that would be agree- 
 able to himself; and thus he will not refrain from 
 obliging them in order to disoblige them, but in order 
 that he may not offend against religion, and that he 
 may not pamper his mind with the aliment of self- 
 satisfaction. A man will easily accomplish this, by 
 prayerful dependence, upon God, and by ever living 
 superior to himself— ^by conceiving of himself as living 
 
CONSIDERATION XVIII. 253 
 
 amongst worse than mortal enemies, against whom 
 it is one's duty to be ever on the watch, that nothing 
 may occur inadvertently. And whilst engaged in 
 these exercises and occupations, it will never occur to 
 him that he is through them to acquire piety, right- 
 eousness, and holiness ; but he will only seek to keep 
 his mind well awake, and his habits well regulated — 
 so that, when it shall please God to give him piety, 
 righteousness, and holiness, it may descend on his 
 soul as beneficially and as successfully as the rain 
 upon a good soil when it has been ploughed and 
 cleaned from briars and stones : holding it beyond 
 all question, that as the husbandman, when he clears 
 the land from briars and stones, places God under 
 no obligation to visit it with rain and sunshine ; so 
 man, by purging and cleansing his bodily appetites 
 and the affections of his mind, places God under no 
 obligation to bestow His Holy Spirit upon him. 
 But as sun and rain work more effectively upon land 
 that has been ploughed and cleaned from briars and 
 stones, so the Holy Spirit operates more effectively 
 upon a mind that is found free and purged from 
 affections and lusts. And in this'manner the Chris- 
 tian understanding the duties devolving upon him, 
 and practising them, and understanding what he has 
 to expect from God, and longing for it, will find him- 
 self within a short time much conformed to the image 
 of God, and to that of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
254 
 
 CONSIDERATION XIX. 
 
 Christian life consists in this, that man esteem himself dead 
 to the world, and that he aim to live to God. 
 
 The appellation ' Christian,' when first employed, 
 was in the eyes of the world so vile, despised, disho- 
 nourable, and abject, that only those persons adopted 
 it who, being called of God, and having suppressed all 
 desire of ambition, glory, and worldly repute, es- 
 teemed and judged themselves wholly dead to the 
 world. And it was when they came to baptism that 
 they with propriety assumed the Christian name ; so 
 that a man first received the Divine call, and esteemed 
 and judged himself to be dead to the world, before 
 his subsequent baptism, at which he assumed the 
 designation ' Christian.' Because the baptized, al- 
 though they were at first called saints, were after- 
 wards called Christians, when, as God's elect, they 
 believed the justice of God to have been executed 
 upon Christ, and being baptized, they were to the 
 world as if dead and buried, whilst as to God they 
 had risen again from the dead and lived — pro- 
 fessing to imitate Christ, who ignominiously died to 
 the world, and gloriously lives to God. St. Paul 
 understood this when, in Romans vi., he says that 
 ' Christians are dead and buried in baptism with Christ 
 into His death : that like as Christ was dead and 
 
CONSIDERATION XIX. 255 
 
 buried and lives, so likewise we, being dead and 
 buried, should walk in newness of life.' 
 
 We Christians are dead and buried, as being dead 
 with Christ upon the cross, as well in the world's 
 opinion of us as likewise in the opinion we have of 
 the world ; and we are raised up, and live too : we 
 are risen with Christ, and also in respect of the 
 judgment God entertains of us, giving us His Holy- 
 Spirit, and likewise in respect of the opinion we hold 
 of Him, striving as we do to attain great conformity 
 to the image of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 Since the term ' Christian ' began to be honourable 
 and glorious in the eyes of the world, Kings and 
 Emperors feeling honoured in the application of it to 
 themselves ; and since baptism is given and imparted 
 to those who do not maintain that first resolution,' of 
 adjudging themselves to be dead to the world, al- 
 though the title of Christian is assumed at baptism, 
 and that man in baptism promises and makes profes- 
 sion of imitation of Christ, so far as He dies to the 
 world and lives to God : because, though it be in the 
 eyes of the world an honourable thing to take the 
 style of Christian, and to make a Christian profession, 
 it is disgraceful to fulfil what is promised, and to 
 maintain one's profession ; men, with reference to 
 Christ, ordinarily remaining satisfied to assume that 
 which indeed is honourable, namely, the style and 
 profession, they decline to assume that which is 
 ignominious, that is, to die to the world, nor do they 
 care to assume that which the world neither sees nor 
 understands, namely, to live to God. And hence 
 what St. Paul says has no reference to them ; they 
 are neither dead with Christ nor have they risen with 
 Christ, for he cannot be raised from the dead who 
 never died. 
 
256 CONSIDERATION XIX. 
 
 I consider it to be the part of a Christian, acting 
 out the title he assumes, and upholding the profession 
 which he made at baptism, to bring himself to that 
 resolution to which men came at the first promulga- 
 tion of the Gospel before they came to baptism ; 
 their determination being in this form — ' As far as the 
 world goes, I am dead and buried, for when they 
 baptized me, they slew and buried me ; I am raised 
 from the dead and live in reference to God, for when 
 Christ died, I was buried in baptism with Christ into 
 His death, my resurrection began, and I began to 
 live In Christ in His resurrection and in His life. 
 God slaying Christ's flesh upon the cross, slew mine ; 
 and God raising Christ from the dead, raised me. 
 Now, this being true that I am dead and buried, 
 there ought to be no greater liveliness of affections 
 and appetites than is to be found in a man really and 
 effectively dead and buried. And It being equally 
 true that I am raised from the dead and alive. It Is 
 right that all those affections and sentiments should 
 live in me which are to be found in a man who Is 
 really and Indeed raised from the dead and alive.' 
 Having formed this purpose and resolution, he will 
 live self-observant and watchful ; so that, when he 
 shall recognise in himself any affection or any 
 appetite peculiar to a man who Is' alive to the world, 
 he will very quickly endeavour to slay it, saying, 
 ' This is not mine, nor does it belong to me, who am 
 dead to the world ;' and when he shall feel himself 
 moved by anything that savours of worldly honour 
 and esteem, or when he shall wince because both are 
 taken away from him, he will remedy the evil pre- 
 sently, saying, ' I know that I am not alive to the 
 world : why, therefore, should I aim at or esteem that 
 which the world prizes ? And if I live to God, I ought 
 
CONSIDERATION XX. 257 
 
 not to aim at or to esteem anything that is not 
 honoured and prized by God; that is, I hold myself to 
 be dead and buried as to the world, and raised from 
 the dead and alive unto God — so that I being dead 
 and buried to the world, ought not to aim at worldly 
 things, nor ought I to feel pained when I am spoiled 
 of them : and being raised again unto God, and living 
 to God, I ought to aim at the things of God, and to 
 grieve and feel pained only when I am robbed of 
 them. And the divine things which the Christian 
 ought to aim at and strive after are those of the 
 Holy Spirit, and that He should rule and guide him, 
 and maintain him in the possession of the kingdom 
 of God in the present life, as He is fully able to do ; 
 and in the life eternal, as He has engaged Himself to 
 do ; and this with Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XX. 
 
 That men should regulate the mind, when disordered, 
 
 convalescent, and in health, as they are wont to 
 
 treat the body under similar circumstances. 
 
 I CONCEIVE that they who belong to the kingdom 
 of God should regulate the mind, when disordered, 
 convalescent, and in health, as discreet men regulate 
 the body, when disordered, convalescent, and inhealth. 
 
 s 
 
258 CONSIDERATION XX. . 
 
 I mean to say, that as the discreet man, in bodily 
 sickness, seeks out wise and experienced physicians, 
 who, by prescribing suitable medicines for him, and 
 by subjecting him to a proper regimen, cure him ; so 
 he who finds himself mentally sick ought to seek 
 out an experienced spiritual physician, or indeed 
 several such, who may put him in the way of know- 
 ing Christ, in order that, being made a member of 
 Christ, he may be cured of his mental ailment ; of 
 which, I take it, all those are cured who, being called 
 of God, believe in Christ, while all others remain 
 diseased. 
 
 Again, I mean to say, that as the discreet man, 
 when convalescent from bodily ailment, always lives 
 most attentive and observant of himself in all things, 
 careful lest he should eat anything that might cause 
 him to relapse, as also careful not to commit any 
 other excess that might cause him to fall into the 
 same disorder ; so he who is endowed with a toler- 
 ably sound mind will have, while only convalescent, 
 to live very careful of himself in all things, and very 
 self-observant, seeing well to it that every obstacle 
 be removed out of his way, and not engaging in any- 
 thing that might cause him to relapse, or to lose aught 
 of the health that he has acquired, being equally 
 attentive and vigilant, when in conversation and other 
 worldly matters, not to take any part in them that 
 may do him harm, — just like a convalescent at a ban- 
 quet or elsewhere, who fears lest he should err in 
 anything whereby he may possibly injure his bodily 
 health ; feigning to eat, but not eating, and so con- 
 ducting himself that he neither damages his own 
 health nor offends those persons who have their eyes 
 upon him. 
 
 Moreover, I mean to say, that as he who, having 
 
CONSIDERATION XX. 259 
 
 been sick, and having been convalescent, although he 
 may find himself in health, if he be discreet, does 
 not permit himself to indulge in eating things pre- 
 judicial to the body, nor to injure himself by exces- 
 sive exertion, although he may not live with that 
 attention, nor with so great care as he did when 
 convalescent, fearing lest he should again be over- 
 taken by that sickness of which he was cured ; so 
 likewise he who finds himself cured from some 
 mental infirmity, feeling himself much mortified and 
 much quickened, ought not to live negligently, nor to 
 deviate into practices and conversations relating to 
 things of the external world, fearing lest through 
 mental depravity he should return again into the 
 past disorder, considering that relapses in diseases of 
 the mind are worse than relapses in diseases of the 
 body. Though from this relapse God Himself ev&r 
 preserves those who have gained health by regene- 
 ration and renovation, wrought by the Holy Spirit 
 in them who are incorporated in Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 s 2 
 
26o 
 
 CONSIDERATION' XXI. 
 
 Differences in sins and in sinners ; the obligations of 
 piety; and signs of piety and of impiety. 
 
 All men who sin, either sin against themselves or 
 against their neighbours, or against Christ or against 
 God. They sin against themselves, defiling their 
 bodies with carnal vices and with intemperance ; 
 depraving their minds with ambition, with envy, and 
 with anger ; because, while practising these, they 
 join to the natural depravity in which they were born 
 the corruption of their vicious habits. They sin 
 against their neighbours, injuring and damaging them 
 in their persons, in their property, in their honour, 
 and in their character, and by presenting to them a 
 bad example and pernicious teaching. They sin 
 against Christ, in seeking to be justified by their own 
 works : because they show in so doing that they give 
 no credit to Christ in the covenant of justification, 
 which He established between God and men, shed- 
 ding His own blood. They show, I say, that 
 they hold it to be invalid, and that they distrust it. 
 They sin against God, when they are angry and 
 aggrieved at God's dealings, because by their com- 
 plaints, anger, and vexation, they manifest their dis- 
 satisfaction with them ; the dissatisfaction proceeds 
 
CONSIDERATION XXI. 261 
 
 from disapproval, and the disapproval proceeds from 
 a disparaging conception of God ; and for this very- 
 same reason God Himself is hated. 
 
 They who sin against themselves, sin against the 
 dignity of man ; they who sin against their neigh- 
 bours, sin against charity ; they who sin against 
 Christ, sin against faith ; and they who sin against 
 God, sin against natural piety. 
 
 They who sin against themselves, sin likewise 
 against their neighbours, since by their sins they set 
 an evil example ; and they sin against Christ, since 
 by their sins they bring Christianity into disrepute ; 
 they sin against God, since they are convinced, either 
 by the law or by their own consciences, that in what 
 they do they offend against God. 
 
 Those who sin against their neighbours, sin 
 against themselves, augmenting their own depravity 
 and corruption ; they sin against Christ, depriving 
 themselves of charity, which is the criterion of Chris- 
 tian piety ; and they sin against God, being convicted, 
 either by the law or by their own consciences, that 
 their conduct is offensive to God. 
 
 They who sin against Christ, sin against them- 
 selves, depriving themselves of justification, and con- 
 sequently of the kingdom of Gad ; they sin against 
 their neighbours, giving them an example of unbelief ; 
 and they sin against God, because by offending the 
 Son they offend the Father, and by offending the 
 person sent, they offend Him who sent him. 
 
 They who sin against God, sin against themselves, 
 depriving themselves of piety ; against their neigh- 
 bours, by setting a bad example ; against Christ, for 
 the very same reason that they do who, when 
 they sin against Christ, sin against God, through the 
 union that exists between Christ and God. 
 
262 CONSIDERATION XXI. 
 
 Whence I gather, that man owes it to himself to be 
 pure and free from defilement, which is attained by- 
 mortification of the affections and appetites that are 
 according to the old Adam ; he owes to his neigh- 
 bours love and charity, with good example and 
 good teaching ; to Christ, faith ; and to God, piety. 
 And as I understand a certain hope of resurrection 
 and eternal life stands connected with faith, so like- 
 wise is worship in spirit and in truth connected with 
 piety (John iv. 24). 
 
 Moreover, I infer that to live licentiously and 
 viciously, is a mark of depravity and corruption ; to 
 live prejudicially to one's neighbour, is a mark of 
 malignity and iniquity ; to live superstitiously and 
 ceremonially, is a mark of unbelief and distrust ; and 
 to live discontented with God's providence, is a mark 
 of impiety. So, on the other hand, it is a sign of 
 mortification, to live chastely, purely, and modestly ; 
 it is a sign of goodness and of charity, to live without 
 prejudicing anyone ; it is a sign of faithfulness and 
 confidence, to live at peace with conscience ; and it 
 is a sign of piety and holiness, to live content with 
 God's dealings in all things. Whence, understanding 
 that self-denial and charity are only attained by the 
 gift of God, I know that faith and confidence, piety 
 and holiness, self-denial and charity, are preserved 
 and increased in man by the Spirit of God, which we 
 receive through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 I will add, that when men sin against themselves 
 and against their neighbours, if they sin through 
 weakness, as soon as they have sinned they feel 
 grieved, and repent, considering the offence against 
 God, the damage to their neighbour and to them- 
 selves ; and that when men sin against Christ and 
 against God, if they sin through weakness and in- 
 firmity, they do the same, considering the offence 
 
CONSIDERATION XXII. 263 
 
 against Christ and against God, the bad example to 
 their neighbour, and their own injury. 
 
 And, furthermore, as they who sin viciously and 
 carnally find satisfaction in their sins, when they sin 
 through baseness ; so likewise they who sin against 
 Christ in external justification, and against God in 
 complaining of His doings, find satisfaction in their 
 works and feelings when they sin through unbelief 
 and impiety. 
 
 And by these indications a man may know when 
 he sins through weakness and infirmity, and when 
 through baseness ; having before his eyes, however, 
 the light of the Holy Spirit, which is obtained through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXII. 
 
 The reason why God gives a pious man a son, and 
 then suddenly takes him away again. 
 
 Pondering within myself what God designs when 
 he gives a pious man a son, and then takes him 
 away again within a few days ; I think that He may 
 design what we ourselves purpose when we give a 
 boy a plaything, and seeing him very pleased with 
 it, and having a desire to test his temper and dis- 
 position, we take it from him. And I understand 
 that as we form a favourable opinion of such a boy, 
 whom we see resign his plaything with the same 
 
264 CONSIDERATION XXII. 
 
 cheerfulness when we take it away from him as he 
 exhibited when he received what we gave him, 
 and as we form a bad opinion when he complains, is 
 vexed and weeps, and then chastise him for it ; so 
 God, purposing to try the self-denial of a pious man, 
 gives him a son, and when He sees him joyous in 
 the possession of the boy. He takes him away again : 
 and if the pious man aforesaid resign him with the 
 same pleasure with which he received him when He 
 gave him, the pious man gives a good indication of 
 piety and holiness ; and if he complain, vex himself, 
 and weep, he gives but a sorry indication of his piety, 
 and a worse of his self-denial. And occasionally it 
 happens that God chastises him on this account more 
 keenly in this, which is to him the sorest point. 
 
 There is this difference, that we giving the boy a 
 plaything, and then taking it from him, design to 
 test and know him ; but God giving a son to a pious 
 man, and taking him away again, designs that this 
 person should know himself — that he should ascer- 
 tain his religious position, what are his powers of self- 
 denial — and designs to exercise him in self-mortifica- 
 tion. And it is to God a much more easy thing to 
 give a man a son, and then to take him away again, 
 than it is for a person to make a present and then 
 resume it. Hence I understand it to be becoming and 
 dutiful in a saint so to bear himself with relation to 
 Gpd, when He takes from him something that He 
 lias given him, however dear it may be to him, as the 
 well-disposed boy conducts himself towards his father 
 when he takes from him the plaything which he had 
 given him. But none ever attain to such piety save 
 those who enter into it through the door, which is 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 
265 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXIII. 
 
 Similar things happen to the man whom God disenamours 
 
 of the world and enamours of Himself, as to 
 
 him who is disenamoured of one woman 
 
 and becomes enamoured of another. 
 
 Finding my mind wholly sterile and dried up, 
 and as it were alienated from God, and understand- 
 ing that this proceeded from God's having hidden 
 His presence from me, I thought to remedy this my 
 necessity by imposing on my memory that it should 
 occupy its meditations with God solely. Scarcely 
 had I conceived this purpose — scarcely had I begun 
 to put it in execution, than I understood that, al- 
 though it be in my power to occupy my memory in 
 meditation upon God as upon anything else, still, 
 however, it is not in my power to cause my mind to 
 feel the presence of God, and thus free it from barren- 
 ness, aridity, and alienation from God. Moreover, I 
 understood what an utter difference there is between 
 the state of the soul when it labours to realise the 
 presence of God, from that in which it is when God 
 makes it conscious of His presence ; and being 
 desirous of knowing in what this difference consisted, 
 I perceived it consisted in this, that in one instance 
 there is the operation of the human mind, and in the 
 
266 CONSIDERATION XXIII. 
 
 other that of the Holy Spirit; and thus I concluded 
 that the same difference exists between these two 
 states of mind, that there is between flesh and 
 spirit. 
 
 And proceeding further, I understood that the 
 men who, for their own purposes and for their own 
 interests, seek and strive to estrange themselves from 
 the world, and to set their affections upon God, 
 neither being inspired nor moved so to do by the 
 Holy Spirit, much resemble those men who, for their 
 own purposes and their own interests, labour and 
 strive to estrange themselves from a base and vulgar 
 woman, and to enamour themselves of another with 
 higher qualifications, not being excited to do so either 
 by the force of their own affections nor by the desire 
 of the object to which they would fain attach them- 
 selves. I mean to say, that the difificulties, the vexa- 
 tions, and the toils which these latter experience, are 
 similar to those experienced by the former, and that 
 neither ever succeed in attaining what they aim at. 
 
 Again, I understood that the men whom God 
 would estrange from the world and enamour of 
 Himself, much resemble those men whom a person 
 in high station would detach from another person of 
 a low and plebeian one, and enamour of himself I 
 mean to say, that the mutual experiences of the one 
 and of the other are almost coincident ; that with the 
 same facility either of them is estranged and ena- 
 moured ; that almost the same feelings and emotions 
 animate them both : because, as the one is assisted to 
 withdraw and to fix his affections by favours, caresses, 
 and external demonstrations, so the other is assisted, 
 or, more properly speaking, is constrained, to with- 
 draw and to fix his affections by favours, caresses, 
 and by demonstrations internal, spiritual, and divine. 
 
CONSIDERATION XXIII. 267 
 
 I mark one notable difference here, that the one, 
 because he loves mutable objects, is ever timid ; and 
 the other, because he loves objects stable in their 
 nature, is wholly freed from fear. Furthermore, I 
 find that the one has the satisfaction that is associ- 
 ated with the remembrance of the object he loves, in 
 his own power ; and that the other always remains 
 at God's mercy, not having it in his power to be able 
 either to take or to feel greater satisfaction than 
 what God may please to give him, in making him 
 feel and enjoy His presence. 
 
 And I understand that when that person whom 
 God would estrange from the world and enamour of 
 Himself, applies himself diligently and exercises 
 himself to become enamoured of God, he experiences 
 that in himself which he proves who, for his own 
 purposes and interests, seeks to disenamour himself 
 of the world and to enamour himself of God ; so 
 that they whom God disenamours and enamours 
 may bear witness as to the state of those who labour 
 to disenamour and to enamour themselves ; but these 
 can give no testimony to the state of the others. 
 Whence I understand that the men labour in vain 
 who, to attain their own ends, seek to disenamour 
 themselves of the world and to enamour themselves 
 of God. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that they may regard 
 themselves as most fortunate who know that they 
 are not self-impelled to disenamour themselves of the 
 world and to enamour themselves of God, but that 
 they have been moved by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Furthermore, I understand that they who labour 
 to disenamour themselves of the world and to 
 enamour themselves of God, waste their energies 
 when, without being moved to love, or when God 
 
268 CONSIDERATION XXIII. 
 
 hiding His presence from them, they would fain dis- 
 cover it by their own diligence and by their own 
 efforts ; when God, holding Himself aloof, they for 
 their own satisfaction desire His presence'. 
 
 And, above all, I understand it to be the duty of 
 those whom God is pleased to disenamour of the 
 world and to enamour of Himself, to apply their 
 minds to their disenchantment from the world, neither 
 desiring its favours, its caresses, nor its blandish- 
 ments, but putting them far away from themselves, 
 avoiding and abominating them ; not purposing 
 thereby that God, moved by their effort, be bound 
 to enamour them still more of Himself, but that, 
 God's favours finding them stripped and deprived of 
 worldly favours, they will be more efficacious in them, 
 penetrate them more deeply, and transform them 
 more into God's likeness, and then they will more 
 quickly attain and totally acquire the love of God. 
 And that this is true, he will easily understand who 
 will consider how much more quickly a man will be- 
 come enamoured of a highly-gifted person who has 
 wholly given up and desisted from intercourse and 
 converse with a base and plebeian one. 
 
 Having reviewed these considerations, and having 
 understood these secrets and others that are con- 
 nected with and dependent upon them, referring to 
 Holy Scripture I have found them quite in harmony 
 with what I have read there ; since Solomon, In his 
 Canticles, celebrates the love between God and the 
 soul, and that the separation which takes place when 
 the soul leaves God and devotes itself to the world 
 is there called adultery. And it appears to me that 
 the conduct of our Lord Jesus Christ, in declining 
 one who wished to follow Him, and in calling another 
 who suggested difficulty or delay (Matt, viii.), did 
 
CONSIDERATION XXIV. 269 
 
 nothing else than reject the love of the one, and de- 
 sire to gain the love of the other. This, as I conceive, 
 He gave the apogJes to understand when He said 
 unto them (John xv.), Non vos me elegistis, sed. ego 
 elegivos, — ' Youhave notchosen me, but I have chosen 
 you ;' as if He had said. You did not set your affec- 
 tions upon me, but I set mine upon you. I under- 
 stand that St. John expresses the same idea when he 
 says that to be a son of God one must become so, 
 neither by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of 
 man, but by the will of God and through the Holy 
 Spirit (John i. 13). So that man in this present life 
 should strive to disenchant himself of the world, and 
 occupy himself in prayer to God that he may 
 become enamoured of Him, receiving from Him to 
 this end the Holy Spirit, which is attainable by faith 
 In Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXIV. 
 
 That they who are governed by the Holy Spirit, aspire, in 
 serving God, to increase in the love of God. 
 
 God loves all men generally, and He loves with a 
 particular love all those for whom He has executed 
 the rigour of His justice upon His only begotten 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Men generally hate 
 God, and those hate Him with peculiar hatred who 
 
270 CONSIDERATION XXIV. 
 
 know that they have added other acts of depravity 
 to their natural depravity. 
 
 The love which God bears to ijjan proceeds from 
 the .great things which He has done for him ; so that 
 it stands to reason, He loves those most who are 
 interested in the justification which is through Christ. 
 Man's hatred to God proceeds from the depravity, 
 with which he offends Him, because, as the adage 
 runs, ' He who injures, never forgives ;' so that it 
 stands to reason that they hate God most who have 
 offended Him most. It appears to be reasonable, 
 that as God is consummate perfection. He should be 
 loved by man in the highest degree ; and that man 
 being in the highest degree imperfect, he should be 
 in the highest degree hateful to God. It seems, 
 likewise, that man, having received many benefits 
 from God's bounty, ought to love God much ; and 
 that God, not having received from man anything 
 save insults and injuries, man should be hated by 
 God. But, on the other hand, the obligation God 
 has to love man, on account of the great things He 
 has done and is doing for him, is so strong, that 
 although He knows the highest imperfection to be in 
 him, and that He is offended by him, He does not 
 cease to love him ; that being in this instance true of 
 God, in relation with men, which takes place in the 
 case of a good father with a disobedient and vicious 
 son, who is more drawn to love him by the strength 
 of what he has done for his son, than he is to hate 
 him by his disobedience and depravity. And the 
 hatred and enmity which man has* towards God, 
 through natural depravity, and through the offences 
 which he has added to depravity, draw him likewise 
 as much the other way ; so that, although he re- 
 cognises in Him consummate perfection, and, beyond 
 
CONSIDERATION XXIV. 271 
 
 that, finds and feels himself benefited by God, not 
 only is he unable to bring himself to love God, but, 
 indeed, neither can he cease to hate Him. That 
 occurs to man in this instance, with relation to God, 
 which happens to a vicious and malignant son with 
 his good father, in whom baseness and malignity have 
 greater influence in exciting hatred to him than the 
 knowledge of the father's goodness, and the great 
 obligations under which he is to his father, prompt 
 him to love him. 
 
 Whence I understand that God, willing to be loved 
 by man, as the good father desires to be loved by his 
 son, knowing that the" hindrance to this love is what 
 we have stated, namely, that ' the injurer never for- 
 gives,' God executed the rigour of His justice upon 
 His own Son ; as though the good father should say 
 to the disobedient son, ' Thou seest that I have 
 chastised thy brother for thy disobedience and 
 offences ; since then I have removed the impediment, 
 love thou me as I love thee.' 
 
 Here I understand that it was not less God's pur- 
 pose, in carrying out the rigour of His justice upon 
 Christ, to give me confidence than to satisfy Him- 
 self Moreover, I understand that the man who 
 gives credit to this justice of God, visited upon Christ, 
 accepting it and making it his own, loses all the 
 hatred which he bears to God, and begins to love 
 God ; just as the son, who believes that the father 
 has chastised his brother for that wherein he had 
 himself disobeyed, ceases to hate his father, and be- 
 gins to love him. Now I understand, that just as the 
 son, not longing that his father would love him — for 
 he already knows that he loves him — neither that he 
 should love him more, because he knows that he loves 
 him exceedingly, but longing himself to love his father 
 
272 CONSIDERATION XXIV. 
 
 greatly, strives with all his might to serve him in 
 everything that he thinks to be pleasing to him, and 
 exposes himself to great perils for his sake, and denies 
 himself all his pleasures and gratifications on his ac- 
 count, considering that being loved by his father, for 
 whom he likewise is doing all in his power, he will 
 greatly love his father ; — thus, neither more nor 
 less, the man already justified, longing, not that God 
 should love him, because he knows that He loves 
 him already, neither that He should love him more, 
 because he knows that He loves him exceedingly, 
 but desirous himself of loving God much, strains 
 every nerve to serve God, knowing that he being 
 loved by God, for the great things that God has 
 done and is doing for him, that he also, in doing all 
 in his power for God, will come to love God greatly. 
 
 Furthermore, I understand that reflection upon the 
 great sins which God has pardoned us, causes our 
 love to increase ; just as reflection upon the great of- 
 fences we have committed, when we are unconscious 
 of pardon, causes our hatred to increase. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that the services which 
 those persons who are governed by the Holy Spirit 
 render to God, are not done to discharge obligations, 
 subject to which they were born ; nor are they done 
 at the suggestion of human prudence, as human 
 philosophy teaches, feigning piety in order to put 
 God under obligation, or that He may pardon them 
 their offences, or that He may love them ; but indeed 
 to bring themselves under obligation to love God 
 more, and to increase, day by day, in the love of God. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that the services which 
 the Holy Spirit assigns these persons are in order to 
 disenamour them of themselves and of the world, and 
 in order to enamour them of God and of those per- 
 
CONSIDERATION XXIV. 273 
 
 sons who love God. And I understand that a man 
 has become disenamoured of self when he denies 
 himself all those things that could give and cause him 
 outward satisfaction in any way whatever. And I 
 understand a man then to disenamour himself of the 
 world, when he takes away, and detaches from his 
 mind, every thought of gratifying and pleasing the 
 world in worldly things, and carries out this his pur- 
 pose whenever opportunity offers. 
 
 And I understand that a man then evinces affection 
 towards God, and towards those who love God, when 
 his soul yearns after them — when he obliges himself 
 to love them by practically serving and benefiting 
 them — acting towards them as he would act towards 
 God Himself were he to see Him in need of his 
 service, as David says he did (Ps. xvi.). 
 
 And again, that to suffer for Christ — that is to say, 
 in the confession and in the manifestation of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ — more than anything else 
 enamours them of God and of Christ who so suffer ; 
 and I understand that when actually suffering, love 
 takes away from them much of the poignancy of 
 what they undergo. 
 
 And, with all this, I understand that the love which 
 God bears a pious and just man, however afflicted 
 and imperfect he may be, is beyond all comparison 
 greater than the love which a pious and just man, 
 however perfect he may be, bears to God : just as a 
 good father loves a son more, however wicked he 
 may be, than a son, however good he may be, loves 
 his father. And since this is the truth, it is no 
 wonder that they who are such live in great security ; 
 that nothing that is evil can possibly happen to them 
 in this life, neither can the happiness which is pro- 
 mised to the pious and just fail them in the life 
 eternal, knowing as they do God's particular provi- 
 
274 CONSIDERATION XXV. 
 
 dence ; and they are just in accepting the justice of 
 God executed upon Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXV. 
 
 In what way the pious are moved to bring into 
 operation the righteousness of God. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that very much of Christian piety con- 
 sists in this — that a man should never dispose of him- 
 self, either in action, by working out his own will, or in 
 thought, saying 'This would suit me well,' unless he 
 have some evident indication of the will of God ; so 
 that, when his actual position, his dwelling, and mode 
 of life, become irksome to him, and it occurs to him to 
 think and say, ' Such and such a thing would suit me 
 well,' — let him immediately say, ' What do I know as 
 to whether this would suit me well ? God is the Being 
 who knows what is good ; and since He knows it, I 
 refer myself to Him, that He may place me in it, 
 and in the meanwhile I will believe that which is 
 best for me is to remain in the position in which I 
 am.' By this resolve, man condemns the judgment 
 of prudence and of human reason ; he renounces the 
 light of nature, and enters into the kingdom of God, 
 surrendering himself to the rule and government of 
 God. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that although God has 
 manifested His will to some saints under the old 
 
CONSIDERATION XXV. 275 
 
 dispensation, and to others under the new, verbally, if 
 the expression may be permitted ; yet the common 
 language in which God speaks to the saints is by 
 influencing their will to do what they ought, and 
 afterwards constraining them to do it, or by facilitating 
 its execution. So that, when a pious person shall 
 feel himself moved to change his condition, place of 
 residence, or style of life, or anything else as to which 
 he shall doubt whether the impulse be from the spirit 
 or from the flesh ; if, on the other hand, he shall see 
 himself obliged to put it in execution, or that he 
 shall find great facility in carrying it out, he will 
 understand that God shows His will in that way — and 
 holding that demonstration as an adequate indication 
 of God's will, he will not hesitate to put it in execu- 
 tion. If he shall have the will, but not the necessity 
 nor the facility, he will remain quiet. If he shall have 
 the necessity or the facility, and not the will, he will 
 likewise remain quiet, saying, ' If this be the will of 
 God, He will inspire me with the will to perform it ;' 
 and he will so much the more assure himself of this, 
 because I understand, and hold it sure and certain, 
 that God is so jealous of them who act thus devoutly, 
 that even when they are so excited by sensual 
 appetite and human affection that they entertain the 
 desire to carry it into execution, God Himself pre- 
 vents its accomplishment, lest they should fall into 
 depravity — unless it be His will to chastise them 
 by letting them fall into what they desire, holding it 
 to be good for them, as He chastised David in the 
 instance of Bathsheba. And this discipline is very 
 fearful. I do not understand that it consists in the 
 carrying out of the man's lust, but in the experience 
 of the trouble in which he finds himself involved 
 after its gratification. In such cases, pious persons 
 
 T2 
 
276 CONSIDERATION XXV. 
 
 know also the will of God, but it is combined with 
 anger and wrath ; and thus they are more confirmed 
 in never coming to the conclusion that it can be well 
 that they should be in some other position than that 
 in which they actually are, and in remaining attentive 
 listeners to that divine language when God moves 
 the will, and facilitates and compels its accomplish- 
 ment. With which language I understand that God 
 likewise speaks to the wicked, as He spoke to Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, and as He spoke to Darius and Cyrus, 
 and as He spoke to Titus and Vespasian. But there 
 is here a very great difference : because in that which 
 they did and do who are wicked like these latter 
 persons, they neither knew nor know the will of God, 
 and on that account, however well they acted, they 
 nevertheless neither did, nor do they, thereby serve 
 God ; and the pious, because they know the will of 
 God, and knowing it, put it into execution, do thereby 
 serve God. And because they who are such engage 
 in all their works with this knowledge, I understand 
 that they in all their works serve God. These are 
 they who by faith appropriate the justice of God 
 which was executed upon Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
277 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXVI. 
 
 That the flesh is enmity to God whilst it is flesh 
 unregenerate, and that regeneration is properly 
 the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, experimentally instructed by the 
 Holy Spirit, condemns the flesh as enmity against God. 
 By flesh I understand all mankind, in so far as they 
 are not regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Human 
 wisdom, which is ever opposed to the Holy Spirit, 
 holding this condemnation to be hard and terrible, 
 and being unwilling to submit to it, will have it that 
 by flesh St. Paul meant that which Socrates or Plato 
 would have understood — that is, the sensuous judg- 
 ment. All the partisans of human wisdom concur in 
 this sentiment, holding it to be both absurd and evil 
 to condemn all the works of unregenerate flesh as 
 sins ; because, as they think, there are some with 
 which unregenerate men not only do not offend God, 
 but in reality serve Him — as are those to which they 
 and the animals conform, both being moved by natural 
 instinct, as it is for a father to beget a son, and as it 
 is for a son to maintain a father — which things human 
 wisdom says not being vices, but, on the contrary, 
 being virtues in the brutes, it is erroneous to affirm 
 that these same acts are sins in unregenerate men ; 
 
278 CONSIDERATION XXVI. 
 
 because, were it so, man's position would be worse 
 than that of the brutes. Here L understand human 
 wisdom to be self-misguided, in that it does not re- 
 flect that the brute, having neither wisdom nor reason, 
 does not change God's ordinances nor Nature's insti- 
 tution ; whilst man, not regenerated by the Holy 
 Spirit, continually perverts and changes it by his 
 wisdom and reason — nay, cannot cease to pervert 
 and change it, to the extent in which, elated by his 
 wisdom and by his reason, he occupies himself in 
 correcting the works of God, and as far as, moved 
 by self-love, he aims in everything at his own interest 
 and his own private glory ; and thus he neither follows 
 the order of Nature, nor aims at the glory of God. 
 So that a father in begetting a son, and a son in main- 
 taining a father, each severally designs his own glory, 
 his own interest, and satisfaction ; such being peculiar 
 to man through the depravity of corrupted flesh, that 
 he ceases to love and esteem God, and esteems and 
 loves himself, aiming in everything at his own 
 private interest and glory. 
 
 Hence I bring forward the case of a proprietor 
 who, in this our world, has in his establishment 
 thirty slaves, for all of whom he has amply provided 
 necessaries, and whom he has instructed as to the 
 services which he wills that they should render him. 
 Of these thirty slaves, I conceive of ten as stolid, 
 without intellect or faculty of discourse — indeed, like 
 beasts : I understand that these do what their master 
 commands them, designing nothing beyond obedience 
 to him. I conceive of the next ten as being expert, 
 and as having judgment and discretion, who, claim- 
 ing to know and understand as much as their master, 
 and sometimes more, set aside the orders which have 
 been given them. Thinking themselves shrewder 
 
CONSIDERATION XXVI. 279 
 
 than he, and having an eye to their own interests, 
 they always aim at gaining their liberty — at being 
 better treated, and at being made more of by their 
 lord — discontented with their servitude, and dis- 
 contented with the ordinary treatment they receive 
 from their lord. I conceive of the remaining ten as 
 being equally expert and intelligent, possessing judg- 
 ment, ability, and discretion ; but, being persuaded 
 that their master knows more than they, and not 
 making use of their faculties to fathom their master's 
 purpose in what he has commanded them, without 
 perverting or changing the orders given them, they 
 obey their lord, and are content with their servitude 
 and with their treatment : these obey their master, 
 only aiming to do what has been commanded them, 
 for the advantage, satisfaction, and glory of their 
 master. The ten first serve but as beasts, with their 
 bodies ; and in the world these are the brute animals. 
 The second ten, in serving, feign service and offend, 
 and they then offend most when they serve most and 
 best, because they then most set aside and pervert 
 the will and order of their master ; and these com- 
 prise all those who are not regenerated by the Holy 
 Spirit. The third ten serve Hke obedient children, 
 neither setting aside nor changing their master's will 
 and order, and they serve both with body and mind ; 
 and these are the men regenerated by the Holy 
 Spirit, without which regeneration it is impossible 
 for men to be brought to this position. And, there- 
 fore, well does St. Paul say that the flesh is enmity 
 against God, and is not subject to the law and will 
 of God, neither indeed can be, even if it wished to 
 be so ; for man, elated with his own wisdom and his 
 own reason, aims at correcting the works of God ; 
 and because self-enamoured, he has but self in view 
 in everything he does. 
 
28o CONSIDERATION XXVI. 
 
 In order to render this more intelligible, I say- 
 that by regeneration I understand that change and 
 renovation, both external and internal, which the 
 Holy Spirit works out in them who, believing in 
 Christ, and accepting as their own God's justice 
 executed upon Christ, are changed and renewed in 
 all their affections ; so that they do not aim to indulge 
 their appetites, nor give way to the violence of their 
 passions as they did before their regeneration, having 
 given up the notion of desiring to correct the works 
 of God, and having lost that self-love in which they 
 previously indulged themselves — as if one of the ten 
 slaves of the second order should pass over into 
 the number of the ten of the third order. I under- 
 stand that men who aim, by human skill and device, 
 to change and renew themselves, do not attain this 
 Christian regeneration, but that only which is human, 
 which is of the flesh and of wisdom, and is human 
 reason, as was that of some Gentile philosophers ; 
 because in Christian reason the Holy Spirit alone 
 takes part — nay, it is only to that extent regeneration 
 and renovation as it is the work of the Holy Spirit ;- 
 that is to say, in so far as the Holy Spirit Himself 
 operates it in the man, when he, feeling his election 
 and calling, and leaving the Holy Spirit to work in 
 him, without aiming to work himself, or to follow his 
 own judgment or his own opinion in anything — when 
 he thinks himself farther from his regeneration and 
 renovation, he finds himself to be nearest, most entire, 
 and most perfect in it. And this is the regeneration 
 and the renovation which St. Paul says the Holy 
 Spirit works in them who are true Christians ; and 
 this is the very same which was spoken of to Nico- 
 demus in John iii. by the Son of God Himself, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
28l 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXVII. 
 
 The Christian's resolution is upheld by mortification ; and 
 
 by submission of the mind to God, is man kept 
 
 assured of the providence of God. 
 
 The man who, being called by God, feeling his 
 vocation, and responding to it, devotes himself ener- 
 getically to religion, is, I understand, in the first place, 
 moved to resolve with himself relatively to the world 
 that he will have no greater share in its dignities and 
 esteem than it shall please God for him to have ; and 
 is moved to resolve relatively to himself, not to desire 
 any greater comforts for his body, or to be better off 
 in outward circumstances, than it shall please God 
 that he should be. 
 
 Again, I understand that man can neither uphold 
 himself in his resolution with reference to the world, 
 unless he mortify his indwelling affections of ambition, 
 avarice, and personal reputation ; nor can he uphold 
 his resolution with reference to himself, unless he 
 mortify his indwelling sensual appetites : and there- 
 fore after the perception of his vocation has moved 
 him to the two resolutions, the perception of the 
 faith to which he is called, together with the Holy 
 Spirit, which by faith is communicated to him, 
 mortify those affections in him which might hinder 
 and disturb his resolution as to the world, and the 
 
2«2 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXVII. 
 
 lusts which might impede and hinder his resolution 
 as to himself. So that faith and the Holy Spirit 
 mortify man's affections and lusts in order to main- 
 tain and uphold in him those resolutions which, 
 through his vocation, he has made with regard to the 
 world and to himself Whence I understand that 
 a pious man's feeling himself tempted by ambition 
 and self-esteem, is not a sign of not being resolute 
 as to the world, but of not having mortified his 
 affections. Likewise, I understand that a pious 
 person's feeling himself tempted by sensual pleasures, 
 is no sign of not being resolute as to himself, but of 
 not having mortified his lusts. And thus I conclude 
 that the pious person, responding to his vocation, has 
 formed his resolve as to the world and as to himself, 
 and, desiring to maintain his resolution, should apply 
 himself earnestly to mortification, which, as has been 
 said, keeps men up to their resolution. 
 
 Similarly I understand that the same vocation of 
 God moves the man called, to approve God's parti- 
 cular providence in all things, he holding it as certain 
 that they are all His works, in which His will parti- 
 cularly concurs. And I understand that the faith to 
 which man is called, and the Holy Spirit, which 
 by faith is communicated to man, make him con- 
 tented with all that happens to him, whether good 
 or evil, he holding it all to be good, in order that he 
 may be upheld and maintained in that assurance, in 
 which he could not be sustained unless he were 
 brought to that state. 
 
 And here, again, I understand that for a pious 
 person to repine at the evils that befall the body, is 
 no sign of his wanting assurance in God's providence, 
 but of his not having brought his mind to be con- 
 tented with God's dealings. And thus I conclude in 
 
CONSIDERATION XXVIII. 283 
 
 reference to this subject, that together with a man's 
 applying himself earnestly to the mortification of his 
 affections and of his lusts, he ought to apply himself 
 vigorously to bring his mind to this conformity with 
 the will of God ; for by maintaining his inward reso- 
 lutions in this manner, he will also maintain his 
 assurance of God's providence, and will likewise 
 maintain himself in piety, righteousness, and holiness, 
 which is acquired by believing in Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXVIII. 
 
 How a man may attain assurance of his vocation. 
 
 Because I understand it to be of great importance 
 that a man be certain of having been called by God 
 to the grace of the Gospel of Christ, to the end that 
 by faith in Christ, he may obtain immortality and 
 eternal life — inasmuch as this certainty operates in 
 him resolution as to the world and as to himself, and 
 the mortification by which his resolution is main- 
 tained — I proceed to say, that the person who shall 
 not have had a vocation, a call as evident and as 
 clear as was that of St. Paul after the coming of the 
 Holy Spirit ; or as was that of the Apostles whilst 
 Christ walked amongst men; nor as efficient and 
 powerful as in some individuals, in whom, although 
 it be inward, its effects are so evident that it 
 
284 CONSIDERATION XXVIII. 
 
 countervails an outward one ; but he shall have had 
 a call calm and subdued, as is the case with certain 
 persons, in whom, it being inward and incapable of 
 demonstration by outward indications, for that they 
 themselves are without external demonstrations in 
 their affections and appetites — I say that such a per- 
 son may attain certainty of his call by the perception 
 of his justification by faith. I mean to say, that 
 when a person, being moved to Christian piety, or, 
 having marked the movement, shall doubt as to 
 whether he was moved by God's call or by the 
 stimulus of self-love — finding in himself any percep- 
 tion of justification by faith, that is to say, of the 
 peace of conscience which they obtain, who, by 
 believing, make God's righteousness their own, such 
 a one may well rest assured that his impulse to piety 
 was God's call, and not a project of human wisdom ; 
 this being certain, that only they who are called by 
 God experience in themselves the benefit of the 
 justice of God executed upon Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
285 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXIX. 
 
 To believe with difficulty is a sign of vocation. 
 
 The facility with which those persons believe the 
 objects of Christian faith, who believe them as 
 matter of opinion, of report, and of persuasion, and 
 the difficulty with which other persons believe, who 
 believe them by inspiration and revelation, has 
 brought me to this consideration — that they who 
 believe by report, amongst some things true, believe 
 many that are false, and they are even more ready 
 to believe the false than the true ; and they who 
 believe by revelation, believe only the true, and 
 admit none of the false : so that difficulty of belief 
 is rather a sign of vocation than facility. He who 
 believes by revelation believes as much as he feels ; 
 and because he finds contradictions in what he does 
 not feel, he believes what is inspired and revealed to 
 him — nor this always, but then only when the revela- 
 tion, the inspiration, and the inward experience, are 
 vivid and-perfect. Christ calls those who attain this 
 faith, blessed ; and these are they who are the chil- 
 dren of God. And this is the faith that ever has 
 charity and hope in its train, and is that without which 
 it is impossible to please God, and that which purifies 
 the heart, cleansing and quickening it. May our 
 Almighty God enrich us with it, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord ! 
 
286 
 
 CONSIDERATIOxN XXX. 
 
 That God deals with us in communicating to us spiritual 
 
 things, as He does in His mode of giving us 
 
 the fruits of the earth. 
 
 At times, when making my reckoning with God, I 
 address Him thus : ' Why, Lord, when Thou callest 
 a person to Thy kingdom, dost Thou not at once 
 cause him to experience justification ? why dost Thou 
 not at once give him Thy Holy Spirit to rule and 
 govern him ? why dost Thou not at once vouchsafe 
 him Thy presence ?' To this, it seems to me, He 
 may answer, saying, 'For the same reason that, when 
 a man sows corn, I do not cause it to spring up at 
 once ; and this in order that it may be harvested.' 
 'This' (I say) 'is the curse of sin;' 'and this other' (He 
 says) ' is likewise through the curse of sin.' I say, 
 ' Since Thou hast done so with St Paul and some 
 others, why dost Thou not generally deal so with 
 all ? ' ' For the same reason ' (He says), ' that at times 
 I have given men bread without its having been pro- 
 duced .in the ordinary manner, desiring in both 
 instances to manifest my omnipotence.' ' As those 
 persons. Lord ' (I say), ' to whom Thou hast given 
 bread in an extraordinary manner, are more grateful 
 for that bread, derived from Thy bounty, than they 
 
CONSIDERATION XXX. 287 
 
 who have it in an ordinary mode ; so likewise all Thy 
 elect would be more grateful to Thy bounty for in- 
 ward gifts, wert Thou to deal with them as Thou 
 didst with St. Paul, rather than by guiding them, as 
 Thou dost guide them, in an ordinary manner.' ' It 
 is my will ' (He says), ' that both be grateful to me 
 for what they get in the ordinary manner, and so 
 much the more when it seems to them that they 
 have acquired it by industry and effort ; because it is 
 my will in this, that they mortify the judgment of 
 their human wisdom, which mortification would not 
 be necessary had they received these things from 
 me in an extraordinary manner. I will that the 
 labourer till the earth and sow the seed, and it is 
 my will that he attribute to me the fruit of his 
 labours. In like manner it is my will that spiritual 
 persons striving and labouring, surrender themselves 
 to believe and to love, and that they thus obtain 
 justification and the Holy Spirit, and it is my will 
 that they attribute it all to me. And regard thou it 
 as certain, that as the husbandman would presume 
 to anticipate a large crop who should think that he 
 had water at command when he might desire it, and 
 sunshine when he might desire it ; so the spiritual 
 person would be equally presuming who should 
 think to increase greatly in piety, were inspiration at 
 his command whenever he might desire it. Where- 
 fore, regard it as certain, that he receives in the best 
 mode who freely resigns himself up to me without 
 the least opposition, and without a thought of con- 
 trolling that by himself which ought to be controlled 
 by me.' With these considerations I set my mind 
 at ease when I find it impatient, and but little dis- 
 posed to wait upon God, committing myself to my 
 God in everything and in every way, assured that 
 
288 CONSIDERATION XXXI. 
 
 He governs men and will govern me in this Christian 
 affair, as my necessity requires, by His only begotten 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXI. 
 
 That vivacity of the afifections is more injurious than vivacity 
 of appetites, and that both must be slain. 
 
 Examining in what vivacity of the affections and 
 appetites properly consists, and when this vivacity 
 offends and when it does not offend ; and having 
 proved that vivacity of the affections consists in the 
 inward satisfaction that is after the flesh — that is, 
 when the man lives and is wholly wrapped up in 
 tasting with the mental senses the things which 
 savour of the world, such as its honours and vaunted 
 glories, and especially its estimation and repute ; 
 and understanding that vivacity of the appetites 
 consists in the outward satisfaction — that is, when 
 the man lives and is wholly wrapped up in tasting 
 with the five bodily senses the things that flatter 
 and gratify sensuality — and concluding that this 
 vivacity of the affections and of the appetites then 
 injures, when he who has it neither knows it nor 
 understands it, nor holds it to be either a vice or 
 a defect ; and that it does not then injure when he 
 who has it knows it and understands it, and, holding 
 it to be a defect and a vice, goes on gradually to 
 bridle and mortify it — I proceed to consider which 
 is the more injurious and the more opposed to the 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXI. 289 
 
 Holy Spirit, the vivacity of the affections or that of 
 the appetites. 
 
 In resolving this question, I come first to consider 
 that vivacity of the affections keeps the inward man 
 aHve to worldly things, and that vivacity of the 
 appetites keeps the outward man alive to things of 
 the flesh ; and I understand that in proportion as the 
 mind is more worthy than the body, is vivacity of 
 the affections more prejudicial, and more, opposed to 
 the Spirit, than that of the appetites. Then I con- 
 sider thus : A person shall go to a fete for his own 
 satisfaction — I mean to say, to satisfy his appetites, 
 the sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — and 
 another shall go to discharge his duty to the world, 
 for the satisfaction of the party who gives the enter- 
 tainment. And it will appear that the eagerness 
 will be greater in him that goes for his own satisfac- 
 tion, than in him who goes to gratify another ; but in 
 truth it is not so — because, were the affections of 
 self-esteem and worldly honour not lively in the man 
 -who goes to gratify another, he would not go ; so 
 that, although he does not go there drawn by his 
 appetites, he does go drawn by his affections, and by 
 those of the persons whom he desires to please. It 
 being true that the person who goes for his own 
 satisfaction, gratifies his own appetites, and that the 
 other who goes for another's satisfaction, gratifies his 
 own and another's affections ; it is clear that the 
 satisfaction of the affections is more injurious, and 
 more contrary to the Spirit, than that of the appetites. 
 Moreover, I consider that, in the eyes of human 
 wisdom, he is rebuked and censured who is un- 
 bridled in the vivacity of his appetites, and he is 
 praised and honoured who is moderate and tempe- 
 rate in them, whilst he is held to be a saint who has 
 
 u 
 
290 CONSIDERATION XXXI. 
 
 wholly mortified them. And, on the other hand, he 
 is esteemed and prized who keeps aHve his senti- 
 ments of honour and self-esteem ; and he is looked 
 upon as vile and mean who practises mortification in 
 all these. Now, it being true that what appears 
 great in the eyes of human wisdom ever appears 
 small in the sight of the Holy Spirit, and that what 
 appears great to the Holy Spirit ever appears small 
 to human wisdom, it will justly follow that human 
 wisdom holding the appetites to be more injurious 
 than the affections, the Holy Spirit will hold the 
 affections to be more injurious than the appetites. 
 Many other things might be taken into consideration 
 to confirm this ; but these are quite sufficient for my 
 purpose, which is this — that the person who is intent 
 upon becoming like Christ and like God, and to 
 comprehend the Christian perfection to which he is 
 engaged, through the membership by which he is 
 incorporated into Christ, must apply himself to the 
 mortification of his affections and appetites, ever 
 keeping a strict account with them, in order to slay 
 them, whenever they show themselves lively ; but let 
 him principally devote himself to the mortification of 
 his affections, as well on account of what we have 
 spoken, as likewise because the appetites die upon 
 the death of the affections, but the affections do not 
 die upon the death of the appetites ; on the contrary, 
 it comes to pass that the evil affections revive upon 
 the death of the appetites, because, as has been said, 
 the mortification of the appetites is greatly esteemed 
 in the eyes of human wisdom. 
 
 Here I understand that when a man slays his 
 affections by human wisdom and effort, holding 
 light the world's honour and reputation, he becomes 
 vicious and licentious, because the appetites live and 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXI. 291 
 
 become unbridled ; and that when another person 
 slays his affections by the Holy Spirit, he at the 
 same time slays his appetites, by which test many 
 designs and movements pertaining to contempt of 
 the world may be judged, whether they proceed 
 from the human spirit or from the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Fain would I wish that my affections and appetites 
 were wholly dead within me, so that neither my mind 
 should enjoy anything that is not spiritual and divine, 
 nor my body partake of worldly things more than 
 might suffice to sustain and maintain it in the world 
 what time God has ordained that it should live in it. 
 But were I to give loose to my passions in anything 
 — ^were some carnal desire to seize upon me, that of 
 the appetites would displease me less than that of 
 the affections. I mean to say, that I should hold it 
 to be less inconvenient to discover in myself some 
 intensity of the appetites, and to gratify myself 
 in them, than to discover in myself some intensity 
 of the affections, and to gratify myself and others 
 in them ; nay, if public shame and the evil ex- 
 ample to spiritual persons could not restrain me, 
 scarcely should I be able to contain myself at times 
 from giving way to satisfy my appetites, feeling 
 assured that I should in that way mortify the affec- 
 tions the more speedily, and that, the affections dying, 
 the appetites would die at the same time with them. 
 I will add this, that the affections are mortified when 
 a man, having the ability to increase in honour and in 
 repute, and in great credit with men, does not seek 
 to do so, but renounces it altogether ; and that the 
 appetites are mortified when a man may with pro- 
 priety gratify them, and yet does not gratify them. 
 He who mortifies his appetites, slays his flesh ; and 
 he who mortifies his affections, crucifies himself 
 
 U 2 
 
292 CONSIDERATION XXXII. 
 
 wholly with Jesus Christ our Lord, saying, that 
 in gratifying my appetites occasionally I should be 
 reminded to mortify my affections. I understand that 
 the shame and confusion deservedly attaching itself 
 to me, in connection with the gratification of my 
 appetites, would bring it to pass that I should not 
 think of carrying out my affections ; and that it would 
 keep me from further gratification of my appetites, 
 I feel assured, as many inwardly experience who 
 strive after the Spirit, and it is of such only that I 
 speak here. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXII. 
 
 In wliat consists the abuse, and in what consists the use, 
 of Images and of the Scriptures. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that learned men, without the 
 Spirit, suffer, with reference to the Holy Scriptures, 
 the same illusion that unlearned men, without the 
 Spirit, do with images. And it is in this way : An igno- 
 rant man keeps a crucifix in his room, in order by its 
 aid to recall what Christ suffered every time he enters 
 it ; and because he finds the memorial both piously 
 and religiously suggestive, he sets up similar images in 
 every part of his house; and being assured that every 
 time he passes through the house, every time he 
 goes to church, and frequently in various parts of 
 the town, he will find similar images, that will bring . 
 to his memory what, Christ suffered, he does not seek 
 to imprint Christ crucified upon his mind, resting 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXII. 293 
 
 satisfied with seeing Him portrayed ; and so long as 
 he does not keep Him in his mind, he neither 
 experiences nor tastes the benefit of Christ's passion. 
 And it comes to pass that when this unlearned man 
 is moved to solicit something of Christ, that because 
 it appears to him to be enough to look upon Him 
 portrayed to his bodily eyes, he has no desire to 
 raise his mind to the contemplation of Him with his 
 spiritual eyes, so that it may be said, that he does 
 not invoke Christ, but that efiigy. 
 
 Just so, a learned man, without the Spirit, has in 
 Holy Scripture everything recorded that pertains to 
 the Christian — what he ought to believe and what he 
 ought to do ; so that, every time he opens his book, 
 he understands both the one and the other. And 
 because this appears to him sufficient, he exhausts all 
 his study and all his diligence in procuring many 
 books expository of the Sacred Scriptures, but he is 
 not solicitous to imprint on his mind what he reads 
 and what he studies in holy writ, nor to form his 
 opinions and conceptions upon topics affecting the 
 Christian religion by what he there reads and 
 studies. And it comes to pass that when he is moved 
 by desire to understand some divine mystery, and 
 things in their nature spiritual, expecting to find them 
 in Holy Scripture, he does not raise his mind in 
 prayer to God, that He would show and teach him ; 
 so that, not holding the Spirit of God in his eye, he 
 mistakes the teaching of his own mind and his own 
 nature for what those men wrote who had the Spirit 
 of God. And if they thus sufier illusion who deal 
 with the Scriptures written by the Holy Spirit, we 
 may think how great will be the illusion of those 
 who deal with writings dictated by the spirit of man. 
 The unlearned man, who has the Spirit, employs 
 
294 CONSIDERATION XXXII. 
 
 images as the Alphabet of Christian piety ; since he 
 employs the portraiture of Christ crucified, as much 
 as may suffice to imprint on his mind what Christ 
 suffered, and to taste and feel the benefit of Christ 
 And when he has imprinted it and tastes it, and feels 
 it, he cares no longer for the portraiture, leaving it to 
 serve as an alphabet to other beginners ; and when 
 he has Christ in his soul — when he is inspired to ask 
 something of Christ, he does not desire to fix his 
 bodily eyes upon a portrait, but his spiritual ones 
 upon the impression he keeps in his mind. In the 
 same manner, the learned man, who has the Spirit, 
 employs the Holy Scriptures as an Alphabet of 
 Christian piety, wherein he reads what relates to 
 piety, until his mind is penetrated with it — until he 
 tastes and feels it, not with human judgment and 
 skill, but with his own mind, in which he imprints 
 those conceptions and those actions of God which 
 are written there ; so that when he desires to under- 
 stand some divine mystery, he goes first of all to the 
 Book of his mind — he first consults with the Spirit of 
 God — and then he goes to compare what he has 
 learned with what is written in those holy books ; so 
 that, having availed himself at the beginning of the 
 Holy Scriptures as of an Alphabet, he then leaves 
 them for other beginners to do the same. He himself 
 attends to the inward inspirations, retaining God's 
 own Spirit as his master, availing himself of the 
 Sacred Scriptures as a kind of holy conversation, 
 that refreshes him, entirely putting from himself all 
 writings dictated by the spirit of man. And thus in 
 the instance of the unlearned, gifted with the Spirit, 
 as well as in that of the learned, gifted with the 
 Spirit, I understand that both in this manner fulfil 
 what was prophesied of the Gospel epoch, where it 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXIII. 295 
 
 says, in Isaiah liv., 'They shall be all taught of God,' 
 Erunt omnes docti a Deo, — as those persons expe- 
 rience who obtain the Spirit that is communicated 
 by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXIII. 
 
 In what manner we, by patience and comfort of the 
 Scriptures, maintain ourselves in hope. 
 
 According to St Paul (Rom. xv. 4), we who in this 
 life are in the kingdom of God, maintain ourselves in 
 the hope of eternal life by patience and comfort of 
 the Scriptures. Patience consists in this — that 
 although the fulfilment of what we desire appear 
 tardy, we fortify our minds by hope more and more, 
 never resigning our confidence. And comfort of the 
 Scriptures consists in this — that reading in them the 
 promises of God, we are anew confirmed and 
 strengthened in hope. Our case resembles that of a 
 man to whom a nobleman engages by letter to pay 
 1,000 ducats a year. The man cherishes the hope of 
 receiving that income, by patience strengthening his 
 heart ; more and more by hope, when it appears to 
 him that the fulfilment of the promise is delayed ; 
 never parting with hope, and comforting himself with 
 the nobleman's letter by reading the promise, in 
 which he comforts himself anew in his hope, and 
 once more confirms himself in his confidence of 
 obtaining the income which has been promised him. 
 
296 CONSIDERATION XXXIV. 
 
 1 mean to say, that just as this man, by bearing the 
 delay, and by reading his letter, keeps himself up 
 until the promise is fulfilled ; so we, enduring the 
 delay of Christ's second coming, and by reading Holy 
 Scripture, confirm ourselves in our hope, until at 
 length we attain unto life eternal, which is promised 
 us by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXIV. 
 
 In what the benefit consists that men have obtained 
 from God through Christ 
 
 A WEALTHY proprietor has a vicious and ill-disposed 
 female slave, and she has children as vicious and as 
 ill-disposed as herself Such being their character, he 
 would not for any time keep them in his house ; but 
 afterwards, and under some peculiar circumstances, 
 he is pleased to keep and maintain some of them in 
 his household, and, to induce them to remain, he is 
 pleased to treat them as sons. And because he 
 knows their evil inclinations, and sees that, if he 
 deals with them hardly, it would be impossible for 
 themtoremain in the house,he not only overlooks their 
 being born of a vicious and ill-disposed slave — because 
 he made up his mind as to this when he received them 
 into the house — but he also pardons all their future 
 vicious and base practices to which they were prone 
 and subject bythe evil tendencies with which they were 
 born. And they, with their lord's kind treatment, 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXIV. 297 
 
 ■who has made himself father to them, together with 
 the good habits which they acquire by remaining in 
 his household, gradually lose what they inherited 
 from their old and wicked mother, and progressively 
 acquire what they see in their new and good father ; 
 and thus they come to be heirs of the property of 
 their lord, who has made himself their father. 
 
 In this similitude I set forth in what the benefit 
 of Christ to men consists. The wealthy proprietor 
 is God ; the wicked female slave is human nature, 
 first depraved in the fall ; the children are mankind. 
 The household of God is the kingdom of God ; the 
 season in which God admits men into His kingdom 
 is the Gospel epoch ; the peculiar circumstances are 
 the execution of God's justice upon Jesus Christ our 
 Lord ; on account of this, God is pleased to admit 
 into His kingdom those who come to Him, and to 
 accept them as children, and to treat them as sons. 
 And because He knows their wicked inclination, and 
 sees that, were He to deal harshly with them, it 
 would be impossible for them to remain in His king- 
 dom. He not only overlooks the vice of the depraved 
 nature with which we are born, which is original sin 
 — because as to original sin. He pardons them when 
 He admits them to His kingdom — but all their subse- 
 quent vicious and base practices to which they were 
 prone and subject by thewicked inclination with which 
 they were born, which is peculiar and natural to them, 
 whilst they in the meantime go on to combat with 
 and resist it. Whence, by the favour of God, who, 
 from being their Lord is become their Father, con- 
 verting them from slaves into children, and with the 
 good habits which they acquire by remaining in the 
 kingdom of God, they by degrees lose the character- 
 istics of the old evil and vicious mother, and pro- 
 
298 CONSIDERATION XXXV. 
 
 gressively acquire that which they see in their new- 
 good and divine Father, ceasing to resemble and to 
 be Hke their mother. And as, prior to their entrance 
 into the kingdom of God, they bore and represented 
 in themselves the image and similitude of depraved 
 nature ; just so, having entered into the kingdom of 
 God, they bear and represent in themselves the 
 image and likeness of God, recovering that which 
 the first man lost. By this I understand how man 
 was created in the image and likeness of God, and 
 in what the benefit consists which men have received 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXV. 
 
 Whence the difficulty arises, experienced by pious persons, 
 of continuing in a course of piety and justification. 
 
 Considering that religious duty insists upon a 
 man's approbation of all that God does — persuading 
 himself and holding surely that all God does is 
 good, holy, and just — and believing that all which 
 happens in this present life happens through Divine 
 Providence, and that nothing happens by chance ; 
 and considering that it is the duty of Christian faith 
 to accept from the heart and confess with the mouth 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. x. 9) ; 
 and seeing, on the one hand, in many men destitute 
 of the Spirit, much conformity to the will of God, so 
 that they neither grieve nor do they bewail im- 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXV. 299 
 
 moderately either the death of those whom they 
 greatly love, or the loss of property, or the loss of 
 honour, and that they resign themselves contentedly 
 to death ; and seeing likewise, in many other men 
 destitute of the Spirit, ample acceptance and ample 
 confession of the Gospel, never calling it in question 
 in any way ; and seeing, on the other hand, that some 
 spiritual persons do grieve, do feel excessively, and 
 do bewail the death of persons whom they love, and 
 other troubles that befall them, and that they cannot 
 bring themselves to be willing to die, and that they 
 feel the loss of property and the loss of honour ; and 
 seeing again in other persons that have the Spirit, 
 great wavering in the acceptance and confession of 
 the Gospel, so that they are wholly unable to assure 
 and confirm themselves in it, — I have frequently 
 occupied myself in considering the causes whence 
 such contrary effects proceed ; since it appears that 
 there ought to be no conformity with the will of God 
 in him who has not the Spirit, neither ought he to 
 believe in the Gospel ; whilst both these ought to be 
 found in him who has the Spirit. And after having 
 considered it, I understand that the will, although it 
 may at times contradict the flesh to some small ex- 
 tent, nevertheless it suffers itself at length to be con- 
 quered and subjugated by it ; for there being, in the 
 man who has not the Spirit, an affection of the flesh, 
 as well in the desire to be conformed to the will of 
 God, as also to grieve, sorrow, and bewail himself at 
 the troubles which present themselves in this present 
 life, it comes to pass, that one affection conquering 
 the other, it appears as if such a man conformed 
 himself to the will of God ; and it is not true, because 
 he does not conform unless it be to his own will, with 
 which he, for his own gratification and for his own 
 
300 CONSIDERATION XXXV. 
 
 designs, deliberates how he may please self in every- 
 thing, when conforming himself to the will of God in 
 everything. 
 
 That this is true, we read in many books of pagan 
 authors, and we hear and see it in many other na- 
 tions, some wholly infidel, and others feigning to be 
 believers. Precisely so, I understand the acceptance 
 and confession of the Gospel, as likewise the refusal 
 to accept or confess it upon the part of a man who 
 has not the Spirit, to be a carnal affection : it comes to 
 pass that, one affection getting the mastery over 
 another, it appears as if such a man believed in the 
 Gospel, and it is not true, because he believes but in 
 his opinion and imagination, as the Jew pertina- 
 ciously stands to his Law, and as the Moor believes 
 in his Alcoran. 
 
 On the other hand, I understand that the flesh 
 ever resists the Spirit, ever contradicts and ever with- 
 stands it, through the intense enmity there is between 
 the two. Whence it comes to pass that, there being 
 in the man who has the Spirit, as an affection of the 
 Spirit, the desire to be conformed to the will of God, 
 the approbation of all that God does, resistance to 
 and strife with the flesh, without allowing it to get 
 the victory unless after a considerable time, it comes 
 to pass that the man who has the Spirit grieves, 
 feels excessively, and is vexed by his personal 
 troubles, and by everything else that causes the 
 flesh to suffer, and above everything by death. 
 Thus, as we see, the saints under the Law afflicted 
 themselves ; and thus as St. Paul, a New Testament 
 saint, would have felt, as he himself says in Phil, 
 ii. 27, if his friend had died; and thus the Son of 
 God Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord, deeply felt 
 (John xi. 35). 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXV. 301 
 
 Just so I understand that, in a man who has the 
 Spirit, the wish to accept and confess the Gospel, 
 combating and contradicting' the flesh, because it 
 does not share that desire and that wish, is an 
 affection of the Spirit ; it comes to pass that the 
 man who has the Spirit feels weak in faith, goes on 
 wavering and hesitating in it — as we read of some 
 saints, and as we ourselves see in others. So that just 
 as appearances of piety and appearances of faith 
 present themselves in those who have not the Spirit, 
 through the little contradiction there is between 
 carnal affections, so weakness of faith is found in 
 those that have the Spirit, through the great con- 
 tradiction there is between flesh and Spirit — that 
 taking place in an individual, which in the world 
 takes place in a province and in a republic. I mean 
 to say that as, when a person moved by the Spirit 
 says or publishes anything, he presently encounters 
 opposition, contradiction, and outward persecution, 
 although it be a thing commonly said and practised, 
 but without the Spirit and by human affection ; so 
 likewise, when a person moved by the Spirit 
 would fain attain conviction and confirmation with 
 reference to some topic affecting piety, or justi- 
 fication, he presently encounters inward opposition 
 and contradiction, because his affections and his 
 appetites, which are mortal enemies of the Spirit, 
 revolt against him. And this happens, likewise, 
 when such a thing has in time past been received 
 and believed by him from his own impulse and 
 from his own opinion. 
 
 Whence I come to this conclusion — that it is a 
 sign that the Holy Spirit is He who works in man, 
 who prompts him to seek and desire to be largely 
 endowed with piety and faith, when a man in all this 
 
302 CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 
 
 finds within himself great opposition and contradic- 
 tion, and when he experiences the same in his exter- 
 nal relations with men. And I conclude that we 
 ought to labour and strive greatly in this opposition 
 and in this fight, — but without being afflicted and 
 saddened because the flesh, with all its affections, 
 retains its vitality, — that the Holy Spirit may have 
 the victory and be the conqueror : for it is not 
 fit that the son of the bondwoman, which is the 
 flesh, should be heir with the son of the freewoman, 
 which is the Spirit, of those blessings which properly 
 belong to the Spirit (Gal. iv. 30) — that is, of the know- 
 ledge of God in this present life, and of the vision 
 of God in the life eternal. And when I say flesh, I 
 mean the affection of the flesh ; that which men 
 receive from Adam — which must all die in us, in 
 order that all that may live which it is possible for 
 us to receive from Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 
 
 In what Christian hberty consists — how it is known and 
 how it is exercised. 
 
 To understand well in what Christian liberty con- 
 sists, how it is to be known and how experienced, it 
 is very important, in the first place, to understand in 
 what Jewish bondage consists, how it was understood 
 and how it was experienced. I understand that 
 Jewish bondage proceeded from the precepts of the 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 303 
 
 Law, which, by threats and promises, kept men in 
 bondage, and treated them hke slaves. Amongst 
 the Jewish people there were some who applied 
 themselves to the Law from inspiration, and others 
 from opinion ; and there were, moreover, others 
 who cared nothing about the Law, living licentiously; 
 they knew nothing of Jewish bondage, neither did 
 they exercise themselves in it. They who applied 
 themselves to the Law from opinion, being desirous, 
 and endeavouring that the threats with which the Law 
 menaced transgressors should not be carried out upon 
 them, and that the promises which the Law made to 
 them who should obey it should be accomplished in 
 them — they knew the Jewish bondage, but did not 
 put it in practice as was right ; because, being ruled 
 by their own spirit, they were in some things most 
 superstitious, and in others most licentious. They 
 who applied themselves to the Law from inspiration, 
 and exercised themselves in it as was right, desiring 
 its promises and fearing its threats, — these knew the 
 Jewish bondage, seeing that they must ever remain 
 bound to the Law ; and they exercised themselves in 
 it as was fit, holding themselves to be bondsmen and 
 dependent upon the will of God, because being ruled 
 by the Holy Spirit, who inspired them to fulfil the 
 Law, they became pious, holy, and just. Thus Jewish 
 bondage was brought about by the Law, and was 
 known when men applied themselves to the obser- 
 vance of the Law, and was exercised when the 
 application proceeded from the Holy Spirit. On 
 the other hand, Christian liberty consists in the 
 abrogation of the Law, which was wholly abrogated 
 at the coming of the Holy Spirit, who succeeded to 
 the government of the people of God, superseding 
 the Law. 
 
304 CONSIDERATION XXXVI 
 
 There are amonpfst those who bear the Christian 
 name some who experience this liberty by the Holy 
 Spirit ; there are others, who by the spirit of man spe- 
 culate about it ; and there are those who neither 
 experience nor speculate about it. They who neither 
 experience it nor speculate about it, resemble in each 
 and every particular those amongst the Jewish people 
 who speculated upon the bondage of the Law, being 
 in all and everything most superstitious, making it 
 matter of duty, and binding themselves not only to 
 what they think to be the law of God, but likewise 
 to that which they know to be the law of man. And 
 besides this, they bring themselves under obligation 
 to other laws, and bind themselves by them ; so that 
 they neither know in what Christian liberty does 
 consist, nor do they know it • or exercise it, living, 
 poor wretches, in miserable and hard bondage. Those 
 who by the spirit of man speculate upon Christian 
 liberty, are very similar to those of the Jewish nation 
 who disregarded the Law : these, throwing off every 
 restraint, live licentiously, neither knowing nor exer- 
 cising Christian liberty as is right ; these are ordi- 
 narily impious and most vicious. And I understand 
 that they speculate upon Christian liberty with the 
 spirit of man, who, availing themselves of their own 
 wit and judgment, and of what they hear and read, 
 hold the Christian to be free ; and these persons, 
 never considering whether they themselves are 
 Christians of such a stamp that Christian liberty 
 belongs to them, substitute carnal licentiousness for 
 Christian liberty. They who by the Holy Spirit 
 experience Christian liberty, strongly resemble those 
 amongst the Jewish people who by the Holy Spirit 
 applied themselves to the Law : these know that 
 Christian liberty consists in this, that the Christian 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 305 
 
 will not be punished for living ill, nor will he be 
 rewarded for living well, knowing diat chasdsement 
 is for unbelievers, and reward for believers, since 
 God will punish those who will not beHeve in Christ, 
 and not believing in Him will not accept the covenant 
 which He established between God and men ; and that 
 He will reward those who will believe in Christ and 
 accept Christ's covenant 
 
 They who know Christian liberty in this manner, 
 disregarding both chastisement and reward, and 
 being careful to preserve the personal decorum of the 
 character they have to sustain in this life, which is, 
 that of being members of Christ, the most perfect 
 Head, and of living in this transitory world a life like 
 that which they have to live in the life eternal, these 
 exercise Christian liberty properly. Because, go- 
 verned by the Holy Spirit, on the one hand they find 
 and know themselves to be free and exempted from 
 the Law, to such an extent that it appears to them 
 that they may say with St. Paul, 'Omnia mihi licent,' 
 ' all things are indeed lawful for me,' neither fearing 
 to be chastised for transgression, nor hoping to be 
 rewarded for obedience, wherein they experience and 
 know Christian liberty ; and on the other hand, they 
 find and know themselves obliged to be like Christ 
 in their life and conduct, and therefore they say with 
 St. Paul, ' Non omnia expediunt,' ' all things are 
 not expedient' (i Cor. vi. 12); and abiding by this 
 rule, they exercise themselves in Christian liberty. 
 So that Christian liberty consists in the abrogation of 
 the Law, and is known, when men neither fear chas- 
 tisement for the transgression of the Law, nor pre- 
 tend to reward for obedience to it ; and it is rightly 
 practised when men observe the propriety peculiar to 
 a Christian, who is a member of Christ, and is bound 
 
306 CONSIDERATION XXXVI. 
 
 to be strictly conformed to Christ in everything be- 
 longing to him. 
 
 From all this I gather that — since men, speculating 
 upon Christian liberty with the spirit of man, with 
 ability and judgment, become vicious and wicked, 
 and misapprehending it, make themselves super- 
 stitious and wretched ; and since men understanding 
 it, knowing it, proving it, and exercising it with the 
 Holy Spirit, become holy, pious, and just, making 
 themselves very like our Lord Christ — it is well 
 that a man apply himself to understand Christian 
 liberty, asking of God His Holy Spirit to cause him 
 both to know and feel it, and likewise to lead him 
 to exercise it. And in this way, neither his ignorance 
 of it will make him live superstitiously and miserably, 
 nor will the knowledge of it by the spirit of man 
 make him live licentiously in habits and impiously in 
 mind; and understanding it, knowing it, and exercising 
 it, he will be enabled to live without fear before God 
 in holiness and righteousness all the days of his life, 
 and will afterwards be placed glorious in life eternal 
 with Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
307 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 
 
 That they who know God by human representations form 
 
 a false opinion of Him, whilst they who know Him 
 
 through the Holy Spirit form a just one. 
 
 This is ever true, that men form their opinions 
 and conceptions of things they do not know, accord- 
 ing to the report and information concerning them 
 furnished by men. And so it is that, when we hear 
 that a man lavishes his affections upon all that he 
 sees, we take him to be vain ; hearing that he is 
 fond of receiving money and presents, we set him 
 down as sordid ; hearing that if offended he does 
 not pardon, we regard him as cruel, inhuman, vin- 
 dictive. If it happen that we need the services 
 of such a man, it is also ever true that we try to 
 gain his goodwill by those things which correspond 
 with the notions and conceptions that we have formed 
 of him by hearsay ; in which we continue and per- 
 severe until, getting on terms of intimacy with him, 
 we gradually acquire other notions and conceptions 
 that harmonise with our personal knowledge ; and 
 so it follows, that now we do not strive to gain his 
 goodwill by those things which we had been wont 
 to do according to hearsay, but by those things 
 which our own knowledge has taught us to be 
 suitable. 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 
 
 The same thing occurs to us in reference to God. 
 Men, deceived by human philosophy, by human 
 wisdom and reason, which never attain to the 
 knowledge of God, and chiefly misled by supersti- 
 tion and false religion, represent God to us as so 
 fastidious and irascible, that He is offended at every 
 thing; as so vindictive, that He punishes all offences ; 
 as so cruel, that He chastises with eternal punish- 
 ment; as so inhuman, that He takes pleasure in our 
 maltreating our bodies to the extent of shedding 
 our own blood, that which He gave us, and in 
 divesting ourselves of our property, which He gave 
 us, in order that by its help we might sustain our- 
 selves in this life ; as taking pleasure in our going 
 naked and barefoot, in continual suffering ; as vain, 
 and gratified by presents, and as pleased with gold 
 and gorgeous apparel ; and, in short, as delight- 
 ing in all those things which delight a tyrant, and 
 which He is gratified to have at the hands of those 
 who are subject to Him. 
 
 We form our notions and conceptions of God by 
 these representations which men make to us of God, 
 and so much the more as we find that which men 
 tell us by word of mouth written by men in their 
 works. And so because, when we begin to read 
 Holy Scripture, we, fully as much as they, have 
 already conceived that opinion of God, and formed 
 these notions of Him, it comes to pass that, not 
 gathering the true fruit of Holy Writ, which consists 
 in knowing God, but on the contrary straining it, 
 and understanding it according to that opinion and 
 these notions which we entertain through men's re- 
 presentations to us, — it comes to pass that, the Holy 
 Scripture being a report of the Holy Spirit, by 
 means of which we might conceive a true judgment 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 309 
 
 and correct conceptions of God, we treat it as the re- 
 presentations of men, as if it expressed, not what the 
 Holy Spirit designs, but what human ignorance 
 fondly imagines. 
 
 Hence it arises that men, knowing their need of 
 God, because they hold Him to be sensitive, re- 
 vengeful, and cruel, live in constant s,crupulosity, in 
 continual fear and terror, feelings which are wont to 
 generate hatred. Because we hold Him to be in- 
 human, we maltreat our bodies with fasts, with vigils, 
 with penances, and all the other things which are 
 abhorrent to the flesh, and by such means we 
 think greatly to please God ; because we hold Him 
 to be Sordid, we sacrifice our property to Him, and 
 decorate Him with golden ornaments and jewels ; 
 and finally, because we hold Him to be a tyrant, we 
 regulate ourselves with reference to Him in all and 
 everything as we regulate ourselves with those that 
 are tyrants. And we continue to be thus affected 
 towards God as long as we form our opinions and 
 our conceptions of God by the representations we 
 get from men. Hence I understand, that as long as 
 a man strives to obtain God's goodwill by these 
 means, he clearly shows that the opinion and con- 
 ception which he holds of God is based upon men's 
 representations. And if any one shall say to me, ' I 
 do these things out of conformity to others, but I do 
 not rely upon or at all value them ;' I shall reply, 
 that it is a most difficult thing to know whether he 
 confide in them or not ; and I shall say to him, 
 ' Wouldest thou, brother, understand whether thou 
 confidest in them or not ? examine well whether 
 thou findest satisfaction in doing them or not ; 
 whether thou entertainest a good opinion of those 
 who do them, or not ; and whether thou hast a 
 
3IO CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 
 
 bad opinion of those who do not do them, or not. 
 And thus wilt thou understand whether thou confidest 
 in them or not ; and, finding that thou dost confide in 
 in them, hold it for certain that the opinion and con- 
 ception that thou hast of God is based upon man's 
 representations.' 
 
 They who,. by accepting the Gospel, and who, by 
 the covenant of justification established by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, are made sons of God, and, sus- 
 taining intimate relations with God, know God and 
 acquire a fresh opinion of God and form new con- 
 ceptions of God, not indeed by report, but by know- 
 ledge and by experience — when these persons have 
 recourse to the Holy Scriptures with their fresh 
 opinion and their new conceptions, they find that 
 written in them which they know and experience. 
 These persons understand that God is patient, merci- 
 ful, slow to anger, and alien to vengeance, unless 
 towards them who are vessels of wrath, whom God 
 still for a while tolerates and bears with. Under- 
 standing this, they banish from their minds scruples, 
 fears, and terrors ; they understand that God is so 
 humane, that to give men eternal life. He sent His 
 only-begotten Son, made man, into the world, upon 
 whom He executed the rigour of His justice. 
 Whence they know that He takes no pleasure in 
 men's maltreatment of their own bodies, but desires 
 that they should be so divested of self-love, that 
 whenever they are maltreated, they neither bewail 
 nor resent it ; and that He does not will that they 
 deprive themselves of their property, but that they 
 possess it in such manner that whenever deprived 
 of it they do not take it ill nor vex themselves ; and 
 that, when it is necessary to resign it, by God's call- 
 ing them to the ministry and manifestation of the 
 
CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 311 
 
 Gospel, they immediately resign it, and deprive 
 themselves of it. Finally, these persons, holding 
 this fresh opinion and these new conceptions of 
 God, recognising God first in Christ, are just and 
 holy ; and, knowing that God is pleased with justice 
 and holiness, they serve Him in righteousness and 
 holiness. Moreover, recognising God in all these 
 natural things, they acquiesce in everything, in what- 
 ever way it may turn out ; they willingly follow the 
 course of things that God has established, without 
 being grieved or vexed by anything that may 
 betide them, holding all God's ways to be good, 
 just, and holy, though, at the very same time, they 
 may be judged the reverse by human wisdom. 
 And because they know that God is pleased with 
 this obedience and this mortification of human 
 wisdom, their service, characterised by obedience 
 and mortification, is stamped with piety. They 
 persevere in this, whilst they continue in the opinion 
 and conceptions of God which are obtained by 
 communion with Him, by the knowledge and 
 experience which they have of God having accepted 
 the covenant of justification established by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 I understand that they not only find no satisfaction 
 in the things done by them whose opinion and con- 
 ception of God are founded upon the representations 
 of men, but, if they are constrained to do them, feel 
 displeasure and dissatisfaction ; and this displeasure 
 and dissatisfaction in these matters I judge to be a 
 good indication whereby to know that the man has 
 already lost the opinion and conceptions of God which 
 are derived from men's representations, and that he 
 has acquired the opinion and conceptions of God 
 derived from intimacy with, and knowledge of God, 
 
312 CONSIDERATION XXXVII. 
 
 and by the experience of those things which are 
 effected by the Spirit of God. 
 
 By this consideration I am brought to understand 
 the reason why, to a person beginning to hold com- 
 munion with God,and to have experience in the things 
 of the Spirit of God, it should seem as if the knowledge 
 of God were being daily renewed in him, that is, that 
 he comes to know God afresh. And it is because he 
 retains for a long while the opinion and conception 
 of God obtained by men's representations stamped 
 upon the mind, and because he is unable to strip 
 himself of them at once, that he proceeds to lay 
 them aside gradually, and goes on by degrees to 
 receive the opinion and conception of God given 
 since, by the Spirit of God ; whence it appears to him 
 that he makes as many changes in the knowledge of 
 God, as are the variations which he makes in ridding 
 himself of the old opinion and conceptions of God, 
 and in putting on the fresh opinion and new concep- 
 tions of God. And because it is still more agreeable 
 to depraved nature to remain in the first than in the 
 second, in the old than in the new, in that of Adam 
 than in that of Christ, in that of the Law than in that 
 of the Gospel ; I understand that it is with difficulty 
 that a man strips himself of the old, and puts on the 
 new. And I understand that it is the duty of a man 
 regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit to keep 
 his mind, throughout the whole course of his life, 
 intent upon stripping off the opinion and conceptions 
 of God acquired by men's representations, and in 
 putting on that opinion and those conceptions of God 
 which emanate from the Holy Spirit, whom we receive 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
313 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXVIII. 
 
 Shows by a similitude wherein the error of false Christians 
 consists, and what that is which true Christians do. 
 
 It is certain that we all should judge and hold 
 those persons very stupid and very foolish who, 
 finding themselves banished from a kingdom on ac- 
 count of their misdeeds, and having letters patent 
 issued by their king, subscribed with his sign-manual, 
 and sealed with his seal, presented to them, whereby 
 he pardoned them and enabled them to return to the 
 kingdom ; if taking up the patent, and recognising 
 their king's hand and seal in it, they should neglect 
 to return to the kingdom, and occupy themselves in 
 examining whether the seal with which the patent 
 was sealed was of gold or of brass, and spend their 
 time in worshipping it and doing it honour, while they 
 remained in exile, deprived of the kingdom, and of 
 the king's favour ; striving by other means and ways 
 to obtain precisely what the king graciously and 
 freely has given them by his patent, which they have 
 received, read, and recognised, and which they adore 
 and look upon reverentially, doing in reference to it, 
 and with it, what is of no importance to them so far 
 as the king's intention was concerned when he sent 
 it to them. Since what they ought to have done, 
 had they been wise, would have been to return to the 
 
314 CONSIDERATION XXXVIII. 
 
 kingdom and accept the king's grace as soon as they 
 received and verified the patent, and afterwards to 
 have carefully kept and preserved his patent in testi- 
 mony of his pardon ; and so they would have known 
 all that was of importance for them to know of the 
 king's signature and of his seal. 
 
 By this allegory and similitude, I understand what 
 a man ought to do immediately upon his becoming 
 acquainted with the message of the Gospel ; for the 
 Gospel is as it were a patent, by which God gra- 
 ciously and freely pardons us all our misdeeds, for 
 which we are in exile, and banished His kingdom, 
 and He qualifies us to return and enter into it, as also 
 to receive His favour, together with His image and 
 likeness. And moreover I understand in what consist, 
 and how great the error, stupidity, and folly of those 
 who, reading the Gospel, approve of it, and hold it to 
 be true, but, not relying upon what it promises, neither 
 enter into the kingdom of God, nor make their peace 
 with God, and spend their time in examining and 
 verifying curious conceits about God and Christ, 
 wholly out of their province, and which are useless 
 to them ; they busy themselves in serving God and 
 Christ in those things which are neither prescribed by 
 Him, nor are pleasing to Him, and by which, perad- 
 venture, they aggravate the wrath of God against 
 themselves. I understand that all men fall into this 
 error who regulate themselves in matters pertaining 
 to God by human wisdom, being ignorant of God, 
 and not knowing Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
315 
 
 CONSIDERATION XXXIX. 
 
 That quickening to spiritual life bears certain relations 
 
 to dying to the world, and that the glory of the 
 
 resurrection bears certain relations to such 
 
 quickening. 
 
 This is certain, that as soon as a man, inspired by 
 God, accepts the covenant of justification through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, he begins to die to the world, 
 and to live to God ; to die to Adam, and to live to 
 Christ ; to withdraw from the kingdom of the world, 
 and to enter into the kingdom of God : and that when 
 the man dies, the soul separating itself from the body, 
 he consummates the dying to the world, and the 
 dying to Adam, and his withdrawal from the king- 
 dom of the world ; and that when he shall rise again, 
 the soul made perfect, returning to unite itself with 
 the body, he shall rise wholly to God, he shall live 
 to Christ, and shall abide in the kingdom of God. 
 Hence considering the difference there is between 
 the condition of a man, however much he may have 
 died to Adam and the world, so long as soul and 
 body remain united, and the condition of another 
 rnan already dead, whose soul is disunited from the 
 body, I understand the differences there will be 
 between the condition of a man, however much he 
 
3i6 CONSIDERATION XXXIX. 
 
 may be quickened towards God and towards Christ 
 whilst he is in this life, and the condition in which 
 he will be when raised again to God and Christ in 
 the life eternal — understanding that the difference 
 between the state of resurrection, and that of quicken- 
 ing, will be beyond all comparison greater than is 
 between the state of death and that of mortification, 
 although this is exceedingly great. I mean to say, 
 there is a much greater difference between a man 
 raised from the dead, and one only quickened, than 
 there is between a man dead and one mortified ; 
 understanding, that the man mortified is as it were 
 dead, being crucified to the world and to himself, 
 and more in the other life than in this, and that the 
 quickened one is so far from being like one raised 
 from the dead, that he remains still subject to passions 
 and to death ; from all which things he is set free at 
 the resurrection. And understanding all this, I am 
 wont to style mortification incomplete death, and 
 quickening incomplete resurrection. And I under- 
 stand that the resurrection in the life eternal will be 
 analogous to the quickening in this life. I mean to 
 say that the glory of the resurrection will respond to 
 the perfection of the quickening. 
 
 Whence I gather, that since quickening in this life 
 has fixed relations with mortification, and the glory 
 of the resurrection in life eternal will have fixed rela- 
 tions with the quickening, it is the duty of the pious 
 Christian, desirous of realising the life eternal, to 
 mortify himself greatly, to be very like Christ in 
 death, in order that he may likewise be very like 
 Christ in the resurrection, in which he will evermore 
 remain in the kingdom of God, together with God's 
 own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
317 
 
 CONSIDERATION XL. 
 
 That God exerts His will in two modes, the one 
 mediate, the other immediate. 
 
 I CONSIDER that God exerts His will in two modes, 
 the one mediate and general, and the other immediate 
 and particular. I understand that He governs the 
 universe with the one, and that He governs those 
 whom Christ has redeemed with the other. I 
 understand that creatures are the agents of the one, 
 each one in his degree and office ; and I understand 
 that the Holy Spirit is the agent of the other, with 
 those persons who partake of the same Spirit. 
 
 I understand that men are frequently grieved with 
 the results of the divine will wrought mediately, 
 because it appears to them to redound to their pre- 
 judice. And I understand, that they who are 
 affected by the results of the divine will wrought 
 immediately are ever pleased with it, because it 
 always redounds to their advantage. The efforts of 
 the divine will worked mediately are, as I understand, 
 those which result from celestial influences and from 
 other natural things, which, following the order pre- 
 scribed for them by God, at one time do harm, and 
 at another do good. This order and this course is, 
 I understand, sometimes altered by God's will speak- 
 ing immediately, and at other times, I understand it 
 
3i8 CONSIDERATION XL. 
 
 is curbed by the same (Wisdom xvi.) : and in this 
 altering and curbing consists, as I apprehend, that 
 mode of exerting God's will which I call immediate, 
 because the common and general order is not followed 
 out. The other mode in which God exerts His 
 will immediately consists, as I understand, in those 
 things which He does Himself by His word and by 
 His Holy Spirit; such are, the creation of the world, 
 and particularly that of man, the restoration of the 
 human race by Christ, the call to participation in this 
 benefit, justification, with all the other spiritual ex- 
 periences and feelings. I understand that man was 
 at first, at his creation, made subject to this immediate 
 will of God : and I understand that it was by sinning 
 that he made himself subject to the mediate, will of 
 God : and that in this subjection, as I understand, all 
 the evils and travails consist to which our human 
 nature is subject, and of them death is by far the 
 greatest. 
 
 By this process of reasoning two things are made 
 clear to me. The one, that Adam, by disobedience 
 to' God, subjected us to that form of God's will which 
 is mediate, and thereby to ills and death ; and that 
 Christ, by obedience to God, restores His people to 
 subjection under that mode of God's will which is 
 immediate, and thereby He frees them from ills and 
 from death. And I understand that He frees them 
 from ills in the same manner as from death. He 
 frees them from death, by qualifying them for the 
 resurrection in which they will live the life eternal. 
 He frees them from ills, sometimes by bringing it to 
 pass that they escape those which they would ordin- 
 arily have encountered ; at other times, by taking 
 from them the feeling of their presence : and again 
 He converts them into instruments of self-mortifica- 
 
CONSIDERATION XL. 319 
 
 tion, so that evil is to them transmuted into good; 
 just as He does not free them from death so that 
 they should not die, but prepares them for a most 
 blissful life eternal, so neither does He so free 
 them from evils that they should not encounter them, 
 but He enables them to extract good from these 
 evils. 
 
 The other thing that I understand is, that the 
 incessant aspiration of the man who feels, or who 
 begins to feel, the benefit of Christ within himself, 
 ought to be the desire and prayer to be freed 
 from subjection to the mediate will of God, and 
 to be restored to His immediate will ; because God 
 being consummately good, nay goodness itself, 
 there is nothing in His immediate will that does net 
 exactly agree with Himself And I certainly think 
 that Christ, when he counsels His people to say, 
 ' Fiat voluntas tua,' ' Thy will be done,' counsels 
 them to cherish the desire I have expressed, and 
 that they ever aspire in this manner, as though He 
 would say : Ask God that He exempt you from 
 His ordinary rule and government, and that He 
 make you the subjects of His particular rule and 
 government ; that He free you from the govern- 
 ment of His will exerted mediately, and place you 
 under that which He exerts immediately, so that, 
 just as the heavenly Hosts are ruled immediately by 
 God, so you here on earth may also be governed 
 immediately by God. 
 
 Hence I gather, that when a pious person feels 
 himself afflicted and tried in body or in mind, it will 
 be well that, attributing that affliction and trial to 
 subjection to that mode of God's will which is me- 
 diate, he feel the original sin of Adam stirring within 
 him ; and that longing for and groaning after Christ's 
 
320 CONSIDERATION XL. 
 
 righteousness, he say to God : ' Fiat voluntas tua,' 
 'let Thy will be done; free me, Lord, from this Thy 
 mediate and general will, and place me under Thy 
 immediate and special will ; take from me the prone- 
 ness to evil, to Adam's disobedience, and implant in 
 me the sense of good, of Christ's obedience.' Those 
 who utter the words ' Fiat voluntas tua, ' without 
 apprehending them thus, will, I am certain, if they 
 would but closely examine their own minds, find that 
 they say so through their inability to do otherwise : 
 since were they able to bring it about, that God 
 should do that which they fain would, they would 
 not easily submit to God's will ; but when they can- 
 not carry out their own will, they say to God ' Fiat 
 voluntas tua, ' ' Thy will be done, ' making a virtue 
 of necessity. Those who say to God, ' Fiat voluntas 
 tua,' meaning, as has been said, to be subject to 
 the immediate will of God, say so with all their 
 heart, say so with the Holy Spirit, and say so in 
 the sense in which it is suggested that our Lord 
 Jesus Christ might say it Himself. 
 
 I do not understand that the mode of God's will 
 which I style mediate is not God's particular provi- 
 dence, but I understand that such providence is 
 common to mankind, as are rain, sunshine, &c. &c., 
 things which are enjoyed by men in general. And I 
 understand the immediate will to be a providence of 
 God more special and advantageous to the elect ; as 
 was the case in the gift of Christ, and as are those 
 other favours which He bestows with a preference 
 on one rather than on another. Some of these favours 
 are occasionally enjoyed by the wicked, though this 
 is not God's principal design ; as, when at Joshua's 
 prayer, God arrested the sun, a favour by which many 
 wicked persons profited accidentally, it might be said 
 
CONSIDERATION XLI. 321 
 
 while the people of God enjoyed it in a manner 
 wholly different, because they appreciated the favour. 
 The same might be said of all the external favours 
 which God bestows on His own people, in which 
 others always participate who are not His ; but they 
 know nothing of that more special and gracious 
 providence and will of God ; and thus, as far as 
 they are concerned, these events are fortuitous. 
 
 I come therefore to this conclusion, that in speak- 
 ing of the mediate will of God, I understand this 
 particular providence of God ; that is, in the natural 
 course of things, with which God ever concurs. And 
 that in speaking of the immediate will of God, I 
 understand that more special and gracious provi- 
 dence of God, by which the natural course of things 
 is changed ; and to this I attribute all that God 
 works in His people and by them And I call those 
 His, who, as members, are incorporated with Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLI. 
 
 God wills that pious persons should know that everything 
 
 must proceed from Him, and that they should 
 
 seek to obtain everything from Him. 
 
 Considering that Jesus Christ our Lord assures 
 every pious person that he shall obtain from His 
 eternal Father all that he shall ask believingly In 
 
322 CONSIDERATION XLI. 
 
 prayer ; and having experienced in myself, and find- 
 ing the same experience repeated in other devout 
 persons, that I sometimes obtain less of what I pray 
 for, when, as it appears to me, my confidence in- 
 prayer is the greatest ; and that, at times, I obtain 
 what I pray for, when, as it appears to me, my con- 
 fidence in prayer is less ; I think thus, that God 
 requires of a man faith in prayer, just as He requires 
 of him his entire love. God well knows that man 
 cannot (of himself) love Him with the whole heart ; 
 and He knows well that man cannot exert faith in 
 prayer ; for they are both contrary to his natural in- 
 clination, and they both must necessarily proceed 
 from Himself; but God requires them of man that 
 he may know himself, and that knowing himself, he 
 may humble himself, and cast himself on the mercy 
 of God, and not pretend to be able to do anything 
 as of himself And because He knows that the 
 human mind is most arrogant. He is at times more 
 deaf to a man's petition, when it appears to the sup- 
 pliant that his faith in prayer is the strongest. God 
 acts thus, that man may not attribute that which he 
 obtains through prayer to his own faith, and in 
 order that he may know the difference there is 
 between self-confidence and that assurance which 
 comes from God. And that he may know that God 
 holds him in esteem, and loves him. He occasionally 
 gives him what he asks for, when his faith was in 
 his own eyes less ; at other times He gives without 
 being asked, simply upon his wish, and again at other 
 times He gives him that which he might desire, even 
 without his desiring it. 
 
 Hence I understand that God wills of man that 
 he strive with all his mind to give Him all his love, 
 to trust solely in Him, and to hope from Him all that 
 
CONSIDERATION XLII. 323 
 
 belongs to the present life and to the future. With 
 this effort, and with this tendency, I understand that 
 man gains two grand points : the one, that God 
 overlooks the coolness of his love, the weakness of 
 his faith, and the impatience of his hope ; and the 
 other, that God Himself gradually influences his love, 
 strengthens his faith, and animates his hope. And 
 thus He brings that to fulfilment Himself which 
 Jesus Christ our Lord promised. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLII. 
 
 The manner in which a devout person should conduct 
 
 himself when in a state of inward prosperity ; 
 
 and in what manner when under inward 
 
 adversity. 
 
 It comes to pass that a devout person, being over- 
 taken by a state of barrenness and discontent, finds 
 himself without assurance and almost without faith ; 
 and it comes to pass that the same person when in 
 another state, well satisfied, cheerful, and content, 
 finds himself exercising great assurance and great 
 faith. Whereupon the enemy of the human race, 
 desirous of disturbing his happiness, comes to per- 
 suade him that he trusts and believes on account of 
 the good he finds within himself, so that his trust is 
 in himself and not in God. Yet it is wholly the 
 reverse ; and for this reason : the devout person, 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 CONSIDERATION XLII. 
 
 finding himself in the former state, will know and 
 understand what he is of himself, what he is by crea- 
 tion, and what he is through Adam, and will think 
 that, because he has, at some seasons, experienced 
 the favour of God, that he in his present predicament 
 realises His disfavour, for only he feels estrangement 
 who has previously felt love And this reflection 
 will avouch to him his election, his call and predesti- 
 nation, and will prompt him to say, ' the same God 
 who, at other seasons, has without merit on my part 
 shown Himself gracious unto me, will deliver me out 
 of this estrangement, and will afresh show His loving- 
 kindness to me.' 
 
 When the devout person finds himself in a pros- 
 perous state, he will know and understand what he 
 is through God, the being which he has from God, 
 and the being which he has through Christ ; and he 
 will recognise the presence of God within himself, to 
 which he will attribute his love, affiance, faith, and 
 hope, knowing that they are all gifts of God, and 
 having already known what he is of himself, and what 
 he is without God. 
 
 In this mode, knowing himself to have been in the 
 'former state, bereft of the presence of God, and 
 knowing God in the latter state, and being enriched 
 with His presence, he will increase greatly in self- 
 knowledge and in the knowledge of God ; and this, 
 as Solomon says, 'est omnis homo,' ' makes the whole 
 man ' (Eccles. iii.) ; meaning to say, that the whole 
 being and all the perfection of man consist in this, 
 that he know that his being and his perfection come 
 to him from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Postscript. — I do not understand that justification 
 and faith are synonymous, but that they who believe 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIII. 325 
 
 enjoy justification, through the justice of God already 
 executed upon Christ. And I understand that for 
 a man to be justified by this justice, is as worthy a 
 cause of pride or of self-esteem and vainglory, as for 
 the thief who is rescued from the gallows in holy- 
 week, to make his liberation a subject of self-esteem 
 and vainglory. Men never flatter themselves unless 
 it be upon what they find and recognise to be a per- 
 sonal merit. I speak of those who have a sound 
 judgment. And if any one shall say to me, ' Why 
 did St. Paul boast himself and glorify himself so 
 much upon being a Christian ? ' I shall answer him, 
 ' St. Paul did not boast of himself as matter of per- 
 sonal glorification, but he boasted himself of Christ, 
 to the glory of God (Gal. vi.) ; as the thief, boasting of 
 his liberation, does not glorify himself, does not boast 
 with a view to his own glorification, but he boasts, 
 as one might say, of holy-week, to the glory of 
 Christ. ' 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLIII. 
 
 How a pious person may be assured that he has 
 obtained piety and justification by the Spirit, 
 and not by human wisdom. 
 
 Amongst other things with which evil spirits dis- 
 quiet and molest the thoughts of devout persons, is, 
 as I understand, the suggestion that the knowledge 
 
326 CONSIDERATION XLIII. 
 
 which they have of God and of Christ, together with 
 their apprehension of spiritual things obtained through 
 the Holy Spirit's teachings, are not gained by them 
 from revelation, nor by inward inspiration, as they 
 acquire it who are God's elect, and as they needs must, 
 in order that they may be interested in that blessed- 
 ness which Jesus Christ our Lord declared to be 
 St. Peter's, in Matt. xvi. 1 7 ; but by human skill, 
 judgment, and diligence, as those persons acquire it 
 who are not God's elect, and are therefore neither 
 esteemed nor called blessed. And because I am 
 aware of this, I desire that they who know God and 
 Christ by the Holy Spirit, may understand their 
 good fortune and their happiness. I say, that every 
 pious person justified by the justice of God executed 
 upon Christ, being tempted with such imaginations 
 and with suggestions, may, as far as the former pro- 
 position is concerned, rest assured, that if his piety 
 and his justification were not the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, he would not have been tempted by such 
 imaginations, nor by such suggestions; for the flesh 
 is never opposed to the flesh, but is ever opposed to 
 the Spirit ; and for this reason, the evil spirits, who, as 
 David says (Ps. Ivi. 6), 'exercise all their thoughts 
 in devising wickedness, ' availing themselves of the 
 enmity there is between the flesh and the Holy Spirit, 
 disturb the mind with such suggestions and with such 
 imaginations. If with this they are unable to dispel 
 from their minds such imaginations and suggestions, 
 let them compare what they know of God and of 
 Christ, and what they understand of spiritual things, by 
 the operation of the Holy Spirit Himself, with what 
 men, prized and esteemed by the world for their ability, 
 judgment, and diligence, commonly know and under- 
 stand about them, who have read all that they have. 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIII. 327 
 
 who have heard all that they have, and who seek for 
 themselves all that the former aspire to, and finding, 
 as in fact they will find, that what they know of God 
 and of Christ, and what they understand of spiritual 
 things by the operation of the Holy Spirit Himself, 
 is very different, quite diverse and of another quality, 
 from what men commonly know and understand ; they 
 will be able thoroughly to assure themselves that the 
 blessing of piety and the blessing of justification have 
 not been obtained by human ability, judgment, or dili- 
 gence, but properly by divine revelation, by divine in- 
 spiration, and by the Holy Spirit; unless they shall be 
 so presumptuous and so arrogant as to think that they 
 have more ability, more diligence, and more judg- 
 ment than other men. But this thought is ever 
 alien to those who are elected by God to be par- 
 ticipators in the grace and favour of God, which is 
 preached amongst men in the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
328 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLIV. 
 
 How a man shall know what progress he has made in 
 
 mortification ; and why it is that they who become 
 
 devout are assailed by affections and appetites 
 
 with which they had never previously 
 
 been tempted. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND, that when a person wishes to know 
 what progress he has made in mortification, I mean 
 to say, what affections and appetites he has mortified, 
 he will be able to do so, by examining himself very 
 diligently, what affections and appetites he has felt 
 alive and in full force within him, being tempted by 
 them ; and by considering which of them are already 
 dead or mortified, he will then know what progress 
 he has made in mortification. 
 
 For I understand, that he who has never felt 
 ashamed to speak of Christ's righteousness, has not 
 mortified the affection of shame which is peculiar 
 and natural to man ; and he that has felt the shame, 
 but now no longer feels it, is the man who has morti- 
 fied it, as St. Paul had mortified it, according to his 
 own showing, Rom. i., where he says, ' I am not 
 ashamed to preach the Gospel ; ' and I understand 
 that, if he never had been ashamed of it, he never 
 would have boasted of not being ashamed of it. 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIV. 329 
 
 Similarly I understand, that he alone has mortified 
 the affection of worldly honour and of self-esteem, 
 who, having been tempted by them, and having with- 
 stood them, has now ceased to be tempted by them. 
 
 I apprehend that it is just the same with the affec- 
 tions of wrath, of envy, of hatred, and of revenge, 
 as I do moreover of the sensual appetites ; under- 
 standing, that the carnal appetite has not been morti- 
 fied, save by him who, having been tempted by it, 
 and having withstood it, has ceased to be tempted. 
 
 My estimate is precisely the same of the passion 
 of seeing objects that delight the eyes, of eating 
 things that pamper the palate, of lending the ear to 
 frivolous and worldly tales, of gratifying the sense of 
 smell with exquisite perfumes ; understanding, that 
 he only may be said to have mortified himself in 
 these appetites, who, having been tempted and an- 
 noyed by them, and having combated them, has 
 brought himself to such a state, that either he no 
 longer feels them, or is so much their master, that 
 he easily conquers them whenever they assail him. 
 
 And forasmuch as death can only be experienced 
 by one who has lived, it being necessary that every- 
 thing and all that is after the flesh, as well affections 
 as appetites, should die in them who are to be 
 quickened ; I understand, that all this having to die 
 in the regenerated man, it is the work of God, that 
 immediately upon a person becoming pious he is 
 assailed and tempted, not only by those affections and 
 appetites by which he had been tempted in time past, 
 but also by others that he had never felt before, 
 diverse and even wholly foreign ; in order that feeling 
 them to be alive, he may slay them, and slaying them, 
 that regeneration may be made as perfect in him as 
 it is in them who are members of the Son of God, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
330 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLV. 
 
 Whence proceeds the fear of death in pious persons ; 
 
 and that satisfaction in the prospect of another 
 
 life is a mark of predestination. 
 
 Desirous of understanding whence it proceeds 
 that many persons destitute of piety have voluntarily 
 yielded themselves to death, and have courted and 
 desired it, and have become suicides ; whilst many 
 pious persons are made sad, and lament at the thought 
 of death, not being able to bring themselves to be 
 resigned to death, — which, according to the dictates 
 of human reason, ought to be just the reverse, foras- 
 much as persons destitute of piety either disbelieve 
 in another life, or are in a state of doubt concerning 
 it, or think that it will go ill with them in it ; and 
 forasmuch as the pious believe in a future state, and 
 rest certain of it, and are assured that it will go well 
 with them in it, — I am thus led to think that 
 amongst those who are destitute of piety there are 
 some who do not fear death, through some fixed 
 notion which they entertain ; and others, because 
 they hold it a brave thing not to fear it; whilst 
 some love death, believing to acquire fame by dying; 
 and again others, because they find it troublesome 
 and painful to live in want and dishonour ; who act. 
 
CONSIDERATION XLV. 331 
 
 like the Impatient invalid, that exposes himself to 
 the danger of a relapse into more serious illness, in 
 his desire to rid himself of the lesser one which he 
 feels. In all these, I contemplate their own rashness, 
 their own madness, and their own impatience. 
 Again, I think that amongst the pious who fear 
 death, some do so because they are not fully con- 
 firmed in religion, nor are they fully assured of the 
 righteousness with which eternal life is obtained. 
 Others fear it through natural instinct, God having 
 so constituted it, that men should fear death, and 
 should love life, in order that they should preserve 
 it. Whilst others fear it because it has been inflicted 
 on men as the punishment of sin, God having so 
 constituted it, that man should feel as chastisement 
 that which has been given to him as chastisement 
 by a general sentence affecting all, for that all are 
 implicated in the evil of original sin. In all these I 
 recognise piety, righteousness, and holiness, although 
 I discover weakness and infirmity in the former, 
 which I likewise impute to those pious persons, who, 
 without consciousness of inward inspiration that God 
 wills that they should die, desire and love death, for 
 this desire is not free from some traces of impatience, 
 akin to that of those who are destitute of piety. 
 
 Whence I come to this conclusion, that since the 
 absence of the fear of death, and of love of it, in 
 those who are destitute of piety, springs from rash- 
 ness, folly, and impatience ; and that the fear of 
 death in the pious springs from piety, righteousness, 
 and holiness, that neither a man destitute of piety, 
 when freed from the fear of death, has cause for self- 
 exaltation, nor has the pious man, when he finds him- 
 self timid in death, cause for self-depression, knowing 
 that his fear is caused by weakness and infirmity, 
 
332 CONSIDERATION XLV. 
 
 through want of assurance, and of firmness in reliance ; 
 or that he has it from natural temperament ; or that 
 he has it as a conscious chastisement for sin ; which 
 operates upon all who belong to the people of God, 
 even should they not feel it to the same extent. 
 Whence, if any one shall say, ' Christ having suffered 
 for original sin, they who are His members ought 
 not to feel the penalty and chastisement of death,' I 
 shall reply that Christ has not revoked the sentence 
 issued against us all, which subjects us to death, but 
 He provided a remedy for it by the resurrection ; so 
 that we died through Adam, and are raised through 
 Christ. 
 
 I come moreover to a further conclusion, which is, 
 that the pious man is, as such, content to die, when 
 the glory of God is magnified by his death, as the 
 Christian martyrs were content, and when it is 
 God's will that he should die ; for I understand that 
 God at such a moment gives him contentment. So 
 that when a pious man shall feel within him a fixed 
 fear of death, not being able to bring himself to be 
 content to die, he may rest assured that God will not 
 remove him from this life at such a moment ; and he 
 ought to think that, whilst he fears, natural inclina- 
 tion and the chastisement of sin are producing their 
 effect upon him ; and thus he will not grieve, neither 
 will he hold himself to be less pious on this account. 
 Persons destitute of piety, when they fear death the 
 least, and when they are brought to be most contented 
 with it, were they to speak the truth, would confess 
 that, were it in their power, they would not desire 
 that there should be another life, because they are 
 not certain of being well off in it. And the pious, 
 when they fear death the most, speaking the truth, 
 will confess, that they would not be content that 
 
CONSIDERATION XLV. 333 
 
 there should not be another life, feeling within them 
 selves that God has not created them for this world, 
 but for the other. 
 
 And this discontentedness with the present life 
 only, is, as I understand it, a great sign by which a man 
 may be able to assure himself of his piety and of his 
 predestination ; for I hold it for certain, that God 
 implants exceedingly great love and affection to 
 eternal life in all those to whom He is about to 
 give it. 
 
 So that he who shall feel the desire within him, 
 that there should be no other life, let him regard 
 himself as without piety, though death be attractive 
 to him ; yet let him not despair, for although he is 
 at present without the pale of piety, he ought to think 
 that God is mighty to draw him within it, even as 
 He has drawn and draws all those who have been 
 and are in it. And he who shall consciously feel love 
 in his soul to life eternal, and discontentedness with 
 this present life, let him hold himself to be pious, 
 and predestined to eternal life, although he may fear 
 death, considering all that has been here said, and 
 above all, that even He feared death who was the 
 only Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
334 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLVI. 
 
 That they who tread the Christian path without the 
 
 inward light of the Holy Spirit, resemble those 
 
 who walk at night without the light of 
 
 the sun. 
 
 All they who, guided only by the light of nature 
 and by human wisdom, presume to understand things 
 that belong to the Spirit of God, and to tread the 
 Christian path, that is to say, to live in a Christian- 
 like manner, I compare to a man who walks at night 
 by a way that is full of perils and obstacles simply 
 with the light of his eyes. And it appears to me 
 that just as to this man a tree will at one time 
 appear to be a footpad, and he will fly from it ; a 
 rock, to be an armed man, and he will be dismayed ; 
 and at other moments, water will appear to him to 
 be stone, and he will be plunged in it ; and a shadow 
 will appear to be a tree, and, trying to lean against it, 
 he will fall flat on the ground ; exactly in a similar 
 manner, the man who, guided by the light of nature, 
 treads the road to God, at times is frightened by 
 things that ought never to have terrified him at all, 
 and at other times he feels secure, and reposes trust 
 in things in which he ought never to have felt secure, 
 nor reposed trust at all, and thus groping his way. 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVI. 335 
 
 he walks like one bewildered, and knows not whither 
 he is going. 
 
 He who walks by the light of Holy Writ and 
 after the example of the saints, but without the 
 Spirit, I compare to a man who walks at night, 
 carrying a candle in his hand, so that he does not go 
 wholly in the dark ; but, neither does he go without 
 fear, nor does he in his mind feel safe, nor is he 
 sure that he shall not fall into many difficulties. 
 
 Whence I understand, that just as to the traveller, 
 of whom I have spoken as walking by night simply 
 by the light of his own eyes, the best and safest 
 counsel that can be given is, that he suspend his 
 . journey as long as the night lasts, till the sun be risen 
 to show him the way and the objects upon it, and 
 he be enabled to travel, aided by the light of his 
 eyes ; so to him that travels on the road to God 
 simply by the light of nature, by the testimony of 
 Scripture, and by the example of the lives of the 
 saints, the best, the soundest advice that can be 
 given him is, that he stop on the way, during the 
 night of his own blindness, until God send him His 
 Spirit, by means of which, together with the light of 
 nature, and with his human wisdom, he may tho- 
 roughly know his way, and see all that is in it. And 
 if a man should ask me, saying, ' How shall I halt 
 on this road ?' I would answer him, ' Do not exer- 
 cise thyself in anything affecting righteousness, or 
 religion of any sort or kind, and pray God heartily 
 that He would send thee His Spirit to be to thee as 
 a sun upon this road, upon which thou neither 
 knowest how to walk, nor canst walk by thy mere 
 wisdom. And be careful, all the while that God 
 delays sending thee His Spirit, to apply thyself to 
 everything that shall present itself to thee, in which 
 
336 CONSIDERATION XLVII. 
 
 thou recognisest true piety, without any admixture 
 of superstition ; and be contented with all that God 
 does, and discontented with all that thou thyself 
 doest' This is what I would say to him. 
 
 And I understand, that just as if the sun came 
 forth at once in its full splendour, the eyes of the 
 traveller of whom I have spoken would be blinded, 
 so that he would not be able to use them more than 
 when it was night ; so similarly, were the Spirit of 
 God to give a man in a moment all the knowledge 
 that it has to give him throughout a protracted period, 
 it would blind him, and place him in greater difficul- 
 ties than at first. And because this is true, I under- 
 stand, that our God, rich in grace and mercy, gives 
 us His Spirit, but in such measure that it shall profit, 
 and not injure us ; not according to our cravings, 
 but according to His eternal wisdom, with which, as 
 a good Father, He governs them who are His 
 children, being incorporated in His only begotten 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLVII. 
 
 Four marks by which to recognise those who pretend 
 
 to piety and the Spirit, they not having either 
 
 one or the other. 
 
 Understanding that the false prophets, against 
 whom our Lord Jesus Christ counsels us to be on 
 our guard, because they have the appearance of 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVII. 337 
 
 sheep, and are really wolves (Matt. vii. 15), are 
 peculiarly those, who, having busied themselves 
 about Christian piety, pretending to obtain the Spirit 
 of God and to become spiritual persons by their 
 exercises and labours, and without having been able 
 to succeed in their project, ever remain undevout in 
 their minds, although they dissemble and feign piety 
 as far as it can be counterfeited by strange supersti- 
 tions and ceremonies that make a show of piety ; 
 and understanding that the reason why our Lord 
 Jesus Christ tells us that we should be upon our 
 guard against them, is because they are the most 
 pernicious pest that can be, for those who earnestly 
 apply themselves to piety, inasmuch as having lost 
 worldly shame, and having renounced honour and 
 outward reputation, and having lost respect for God 
 and all religion, they are solely intent upon doing all 
 the injury they can to religion and to those who are 
 devoted to it, finding a door open for that purpose 
 in the conversations and intercourse which they have 
 with such persons. Now, desiring that pious and 
 spiritual persons may recognise such wolves* as these, 
 who present themselves in the garb of sheep, and 
 that, knowing them, they may beware of holding 
 converse and intercourse with them in the exercise 
 of that dovelike simplicity which they have received 
 from the Holy Spirit, and in the practice of that 
 wisdom of the serpent which is natural to them, I 
 have discovered four marks, by which spiritual per- 
 sons may discern whether he who comes to them, 
 comes having the divine vocation to do so, or 
 whether he comes at his own suggestion, called by 
 his own self-love. I mean to say, whether he being 
 
 * Inquisitors and their satellites. See also in Dos Didlogos, ed. 1850, 
 p. 285. Inquisitors, friends of Charon, enemies of true Christians. — Tr. 
 
 Z 
 
338 CONSIDERATION XLVII. 
 
 one who, despising the false religion followed by 
 men of the world, desiring to devote himself to the 
 true religion followed by the children of God, becomes 
 undeceived by his own wisdom and human reason, or 
 purely by the communication of the Holy Spirit ; 
 for I understand that those who are undeceived by 
 human reason are always impious, and are pernicious 
 to the spiritually-minded. 
 
 The first mark is great affection to spiritual things, 
 delighting in them, and following anxiouslyafter them. 
 And I call all those things spiritual which are peculiar 
 to the Holy Spirit, which are inward and divine. 
 Such are the study of the Holy Scriptures, discourse 
 upon sacred topics, persevering prayer, and con- 
 tinual adoration in the Spirit ; that is to say, a man's 
 continual satisfaction with all that God does, esteem- 
 ing everything to be holy, just, and good, as far as 
 the weakness of the flesh admits of it. 
 
 The second mark is a total abhorrence of all con- 
 versations and of all discourses of men and of books 
 in which there is no trace of the Holy Spirit. For 
 I understand that the man who has truly enjoyed 
 the conversation and the discourse of men and of 
 books which have the Holy Spirit, can never enjoy 
 other men nor other books ; or if he does enjoy these, 
 it is an indication that he has not enjoyed the former. 
 
 The third mark is the approval of the things of 
 the Holy Spirit ; of the thoughts and of the experi- 
 mental knowledge, and of the feelings, which are 
 acquired by the Holy Spirit, and that with the heart, 
 and not with the head. Human wisdom, occasionally, 
 approves of spiritual things not with the affections, 
 but with the understanding; with the judgment, and 
 not with heartfelt sympathy ; and I understand that 
 the man who has this heartfelt sympathy, easily knows 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVII. 339 
 
 whether another approves them from the heart, or 
 from the understanding. 
 
 The fourth mark is the mortification of the mind 
 and of the body. Of the mind, in all the affections 
 which savour of the world ; amongst these I assign a 
 prominent position to curiosity, however we may be 
 pleased to palliate and describe it ; and of the body, 
 in all the appetites which savour of the flesh. 
 Human wisdom approves and teaches mortification ; 
 but however much it may approve and teach it, there 
 never has been, and there never will be, a man who, 
 without the Spirit of Christ — I mean to say, without 
 being incorporated into Christ — will ever so acquire 
 it, that he may not easily be recognised by the man 
 who shall partly have acquired it through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 And therefore I come to this conclusion, that the 
 pious Christian will safely admit to his converse and 
 intimacy, men whom he shall see cherishing spiritual 
 things, detached from and disenamoured of those in 
 which the Holy Spirit has no part, and by whom he 
 shall see those things to be approved which stand 
 connected with the Holy Spirit, and in which he 
 shall see true mortification ; holding it to be certain, 
 that natural wisdom and cunning are unequal to the 
 task of playing the hypocrite and dissembler in all 
 these things, though they may in some of them, yet 
 not wholly so, but only in part. And this part is 
 easil3'discovered by pious Christians, whom it behoves 
 to exert serpent-like wisdom, so that, availing them- 
 selves of these four marks, they may recognise those 
 who come to them in the outward garb of sheep, 
 being indeed wolves ; and in so doing they will 
 avail themselves of the assistance which is given to 
 
 us by our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 
 
 That he who prays, works, and understands, does then 
 
 pray, work, and understand as he ought, when 
 
 he is inspired to pray, to work, and 
 
 to understand. 
 
 From Romans viii. 26 we collect that St. Paul 
 considered prayer to be one amongst the things with 
 which, in our weakness and infirmities, we are favoured 
 and helped by the Spirit of God ; and thus he says, 
 that forasmuch as we know not how to pray as we 
 ought, the Spirit of God prays for us. Hence I under- 
 stand that the Holy Spirit then prays for us when He 
 impels us and moves us to pray, because at such a time 
 He prays in us Himself And I understand, that he 
 who prays with the Spirit of God, asks that which is 
 the will of God, and thus obtains what he desires ; 
 and he who prays with his own spirit, asks that 
 which is his own will, and hence the reason why man 
 neither knows for what, nor how, he ought to pray. 
 
 The human mind is presumptuous and arrogant, 
 and being unwilling to admit that it neither knows 
 for what, nor how, it ought to pray, it says, ' I will 
 ask God that His will be done, and thus I cannot go 
 wrong ;' and does not consider that this prayer 
 springs from his inability to do otherwise, and it may 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 341 
 
 possibly ill comport with, and ill suit him, that God's 
 will should be done, as was the case with Hezekiah, 
 who was diconcerted when death was intimated to 
 him (2 Kings xx.) ; and furthermore, he does not 
 know how he will be contented with, and conformed to, 
 the will of God. But man, being unwilling to resign 
 himself as vanquished even by this argument, says, 
 ' I will ask God that He make me contented with 
 whatever shall be His will, and thus I shall make 
 sure ; ' and he does not consider that it frequently is 
 better for a man neither to be contented with, nor 
 conformed to, the will of God, as it proved better for 
 Hezekiah, and as it proved better for those persons 
 who, grieved and irritated by that which God does, 
 are brought to know themselves, and to know God, 
 to humble themselves, and to exalt God. So that, 
 willing or unwilling, the human mind is constrained 
 to confess what St. Paul says, that we neither know 
 for what, nor how, we ought to pray ; and he that 
 confesses this, understanding from St. Paul himself 
 that the Spirit of God prays for us and in us, will 
 earnestly pray to God to give him His Holy Spirit, 
 to pray for him and in him. When he who prays 
 with the human spirit, utters these words of the 
 Lord's prayer, 'Fiat voluntas tua,' 'Thy will be done,' 
 although the words were dictated by the Spirit of God, 
 he does not pray with the Spirit of God, because he 
 does not pray being inspired, but instructed. And 
 St. Paul does not say that the Holy Spirit should 
 teach us to pray, but that He prays for us, and that 
 He prays in us. 
 
 I will add this, that they who pray with their 
 own spirit, when they obtain what they ask in 
 prayer, feel in their minds a sort of contentment, 
 blended with pride and egotistic esteem ; whilst they 
 
342 CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 
 
 who pray with the Holy Spirit, when they obtain 
 what they ask in prayer, experience the greatest 
 satisfaction, blended with humility and mortification. 
 And for my part I hold these feelings to be sufficient 
 to give a person entire knowledge, whether he prays 
 with his own spirit, or with the Holy Spirit. True 
 it is, that if a man never have prayed with the Holy 
 Spirit, he cannot make this distinction. Cornelius 
 prayed with the Holy Spirit before St. Peter went to 
 his house, but he did not understand that he prayed 
 with the Holy Spirit. Understanding it however 
 subsequently, through St. Peter's agency, he obtained 
 from God even more than he sought, — not indeed 
 more than the Spirit of God sought, which prayed 
 for him and in him, but more than Cornelius himself 
 sought in his own mind (Acts x.). So that the 
 Spirit of God frequently prays in us and for us with- 
 out our knowing that it is the Holy Spirit who prays, 
 and what the object is that is solicited by Him in 
 prayer. 
 
 I understand precisely the same to be true of 
 work as of prayer, since St. Paul likewise classes 
 ministering, that is to say, service to our neighbour 
 and the exercise of charity, amongst the gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit (Rom. xii. 7) ; and I understand, that 
 because we otherwise know neither what, nor how, 
 nor when, we ought to work, God gives us His Spirit, 
 that He may work in us. 
 
 Human wisdom, which is ever opposed to the 
 Spirit of God, pretends to know how to work; and when 
 it works, it works to its own advantage, it works for 
 its own glory, and for its own satisfaction, and not 
 simply for its neighbour's advantage, not for the 
 glory of God, nor for the satisfaction of those who 
 love God ; and thence it is that it neither knows 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 343 
 
 how, nor when, it has to work. On the other hand, 
 the Holy Spirit works in the interest of the neigh- 
 bour, for the satisfaction of those who love God, and 
 works to the glory of God. 
 
 When he who works merely with the human 
 spirit, imitates the works of the saints, follows the 
 doctrine of the saints, I do not understand that he 
 works with the Holy Spirit, but with his own spirit; 
 since he does not work being inspired, but being 
 taught. And St. Paul says (i Cor. ii.), that to work 
 by the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 They who work with human wisdom find satis- 
 faction in their works, but mixed with arrogance and 
 presumption ; and they who work with the Holy 
 Spirit find also satisfaction in their works, but of a 
 very different kind, and mixed with humility and 
 mortification ; so that a person, by examining his mind 
 after the work is completed, shall be able by this con- 
 sideration to understand whether human wisdom 
 or the Spirit of God has wrought in him. True 
 it is, that he who has never wrought with the Spirit 
 of God, can never draw this distinction. I hold 
 the same with reference to the work of Cornelius 
 that I hold with relation to his prayer ; he wrought 
 with the Holy Spirit, but he did not understand that 
 it was the Holy Spirit, and he understood it when 
 he saw, and felt in himself, that which resulted from 
 his work. And between that which Cornelius 
 wrought and prayed with the Holy Spirit, and 
 before he knew Christ and received the Holy Spirit, 
 and that which he prayed and wrought with the Holy 
 Spirit after he had known Christ and received the 
 Holy Spirit, I make this difference, that when he 
 at first prayed and wrought he did not understand 
 that he prayed and wrought by the Holy Spirit. 
 
344 CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 
 
 That which I understand of prayer and of work, I 
 understand equally of conceptions of God, and of the 
 comprehension of Holy Scripture; reflecting that St 
 Paul ranks these intellectual faculties likewise among 
 the gifts of the Holy Spirit (i Cor. ii.) ; understand- 
 ing that because human wisdom is unable to discern 
 the things of the Spirit of God, He gives His Spirit 
 to those who are His, in order that He may teach 
 them to do so. The human mind is proud and 
 haughty on this point, as well as in every other ; and 
 hence, preferring itself to the Holy Spirit, it goes 
 about to help itself all that it can, in order to arrive 
 at the knowledge of God and the understanding of 
 Holy Writ by its own intellect and judgment. And 
 it is a marvellous thing that, the more it labours to 
 do this, so much the more does it incapacitate itself, 
 taking up and understanding the things of God and 
 of the Spirit of God in a sense contrary to the truth. 
 And on the other hand, they who understand and 
 know the Holy Spirit, the more they devote them- 
 selves to understand and know, so much the more 
 do they understand and know. 
 
 When he who knows and understands the things 
 of God, goes forth in his own skill, and with his own 
 judgment, though he understands that which the 
 saints have understood, I do not apprehend that he 
 knows and understands with the Holy Spirit, but 
 with human wisdom, understanding and knowing, 
 taught, not inspired ; and St. Paul decides that to 
 know with the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 He who knows and understands the things of God 
 by his own skill and judgment, realises the satis- 
 faction that he experiences in other kinds of per- 
 ception, and in the various modes of apprehension 
 
CONSIDERATION XLVIII. 345 
 
 of human things and of men's writings, and with the 
 satisfaction experienced in contemplating these, he 
 feels pride and self-esteem ; and he who understands 
 and knows with the Holy Spirit, realises a satisfaction 
 in that which he knows and understands very- 
 different from that which he experiences in other 
 things that he knows and understands, and he feels 
 in his mind humility and mortification. So that, by 
 the feeling which a person experiences in his mind 
 when he acquires a perception of God, and when he 
 understands a place in Holy Scripture, he will be 
 able to judge whether he has attained that percep- 
 tion and that knowledge by his own ability and 
 judgment, or by the Spirit of God. If the feeling 
 be one of pride and self-esteem, adjudging what he 
 has perceived and understood to be due to his own 
 ability and judgment, he will relinquish it ; and if the 
 feeling be characterized by humility and mortification, 
 adjudging what he has perceived and understood to 
 be due to the Holy Spirit, he will abide by and 
 strengthen himself in it. True it is, that he who has 
 never known nor understood with the Holy Spirit, 
 can never make this distinction. 
 
 From these three reflections I am brought to this 
 conclusion : that in order to pray as we ought, 
 as well as to work, and likewise in order to per- 
 ceive and understand, and also for everything else in 
 which we exercise ourselves with mind or body in this 
 present life, we need the direction of the Spirit of 
 God, without which, although it may annoy us, we 
 ought to confess that we know not how to pray as 
 we ought, and that we do not know how to perceive 
 or to understand as we ought. With this confession 
 we shall ever ask of God His Holy Spirit, and He 
 will give us it through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
346 
 
 CONSIDERATION XLIX. 
 
 Whence it arises that human wisdom will not attribute 
 
 all things to God, and in what manner they 
 
 ought to be attributed to Him. 
 
 There are, as I understand, three causes why men, 
 deceived by the judgment of human wisdom, will 
 not confess that everything comes from God. 
 
 The first, in order that they may not divest them- 
 selves of the merits arising from their own good 
 works, conceiving that they would be divested of 
 them, were everything attributed to God ; since the, 
 goodness of God, and not that of men, would be 
 brought under consideration in their good works. 
 
 The second cause, as I understand, is, because 
 men judge the works of God with the same judgment 
 with which they judge their own works, they hold 
 that to be evil in God which they hold to be evil in 
 wicked men ; and it appearing to them to be absurd 
 and wicked to attribute evil to God, who is con- 
 summately good, and is goodness itself, they resolve 
 that they will not attribute everything to God. 
 
 The third cause I understand to be, because 
 they think that men, if they believed that God did 
 everything, would lead dissolute lives, and would 
 become licentious, vicious, and insolent, remiss in 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIX. 347 
 
 rendering and showing kindness to their neighbours ; 
 each one of them saying of himself : ' If I live ill, it is 
 because it pleases God that I should live so ; and 
 He Hi-mself, when it shall seem good to Him that 
 I should live well, will make me live well.' And 
 speaking of their neighbour : ' If such a one be 
 needy, troubled, and afflicted, it is because it pleases 
 God that he be so, and when it shall please Him 
 that he be otherwise. He will raise him out of poverty, 
 trouble, and affliction ; therefore there is no occasion 
 for me to interfere in the matter.' 
 
 To these three causes, or reasons, alleged by human 
 wisdom, I understand a complete reply may be given 
 in this manner. 
 
 To the first, that if men knew themselves, they 
 would recognise in themselves rebellion, iniquity, 
 and sin ; and in their works, self-love and self-interest; 
 and thus they would not pretend to acquire merit 
 by their works ; and by the withdrawal of that pre- 
 tension, the first cause of this impiety would be 
 taken away. Into this they easily fall who are just 
 and holy in the eyes of the world, because they are 
 precisely those who seek merit in their works. 
 Those persons are free from this stumbling-block, 
 who, knowing the being and nature of man, renounce 
 their own merits, and cleave only to the righteousness 
 of God, wrought out by Christ. 
 
 To the second cause and reason, it may be replied, • 
 that if it appear to man absurd and evil that God 
 should harden Pharaoh's heart, making him sin, in 
 not allowing the people of God to depart ; and that 
 God commanded Shimei to sin, in cursing David ; 
 and that God cau3ed those to sin, to whom, accord- 
 ing to Holy Writ, He gave the spirit of error ; and 
 that He should have ordained that Judas should sin 
 
348 CONSIDERATION XLIX. 
 
 by selling Christ ; and that God blinded the eyes of 
 those of whom St. Paul speaks in Rom. i., in order 
 that they might fall into filthy and abominable sins ; 
 and that if it likewise appear to men an absurd and 
 evil thing that God should deal thus with many 
 other men ; — it is not because the things are absurd 
 and evil in themselves, but because they are the 
 works of the Holy Spirit; and men judging them by 
 human wisdom, by which they are unable to under- 
 stand the divine mystery that is in them, arrive at a 
 false judgment concerning them. They stand in 
 this matter with reference to God, as rash men do to 
 princes, who think evil of them when, in the interest 
 of good government, and for the public good, they 
 do something which turns to the prejudice of some 
 individuals, neither considering nor fathoming the 
 purpose which the prince had in such transactions, 
 because had they considered and understood them, 
 they would have approved of the things done, and 
 of the princes who do them. I mean to say that 
 rash men, just in the same manner, because they do 
 not understand God's purpose in His works, think 
 evil of them, and under the pretence of piety refuse 
 to attribute them to God ; and if they had known 
 and had understood God's purpose in the things 
 they judge to be evil, they would have held and 
 adjudged them to be good ; and they would not 
 have been led to divest God of His particular pro- 
 vidence in everything. And certainly, if these men 
 had considered that, in hardening the heart of 
 Pharaoh, so that he might sin, by refusing to let the 
 people of God depart, God designed to illustrate His 
 own glory, and to manifest His own power exerted 
 in His people's favour, they would reckon the 
 hardness of Pharaoh's heart amongst the works of 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIX. 349 
 
 God's mercy, since through it the desire of God's 
 people was accomplished. They would form the 
 same judgment of Shimei's curses, and of Judas's be- 
 trayal of Christ, and of the sins of those of whom St. 
 Paul speaks in the first chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, and they would form the same judgment 
 of all the works of men, never hesitating to attribute 
 them all to God, searching not the mysterious judg- 
 ment involved in them, as pious persons investigate 
 them, to whom it frequently occurs that they hold 
 something affecting themselves or somebody to be 
 wrong, through ignorance of God's design in it, and 
 then after a while, knowing God's purpose in it, they 
 hold it for a thing most correct. And it frequently 
 happens to the same persons that they hold a thing 
 to be well done, which they subsequently, and after 
 a while, know was ill done. This occurs to them, at 
 one time, when they are not intently observant of 
 God's judgments, and at another because it does not 
 always please God that they should understand what 
 He purposes in His works ; as possibly it may not 
 have pleased Him that Moses and Aaron should 
 understand what He designed by Pharaoh's obduracy, 
 in order that they should not desist from urging 
 him to let God's people go. Whence it appears 
 that man's piety consists in earnestly applying his 
 mind to understand what God purposes in His works, 
 and principally in those which appear absurd and 
 evil, and in reverence and approval of those which 
 he does not understand, holding them all to be holy, 
 just, and good. 
 
 To the third cause and reason which men find for 
 not confessing that God does everything, it may in 
 truth, and with the warrant of personal experience, 
 be replied, that the men who believe and hold it 
 
3SO CONSIDERATION XLIX. 
 
 certain that God causes everything, for that very 
 same reason that they have such certainty are they 
 pious and just ; and being pious and just, they are 
 in themselves most temperate and most modest, and 
 are towards their immediate dependents most pitiful, 
 most attentive, and most liberal ; inasmuch as piety 
 and justice mortify in them both the sensual appe- 
 tites which might make them vicious and insolent, and 
 the affections of mind which might make them self- 
 seeking egotists, and consequently remiss to their 
 neighbours. This mortification in them proceeds 
 partly from their heartfelt union with God, of whose 
 presence they are ever conscious, and principally 
 from the incorporation with which they ever abide 
 incorporated into the death of Christ, who, slaying 
 His flesh upon the cross, slew together with it that 
 of all those who, believing in Him, make themselves 
 His members. And they who abide in this, never 
 go the length of apologising for licentiousness of life 
 by pleading the vehemence of their passions, saying 
 that it pleased God that they should be so constituted : 
 just the reverse, recognising any vice in themselves, 
 and recognising any vehemence of passion within 
 them, they discover in themselves the traces of their 
 own iniquity, rebellion, and sin, and they ask of God 
 that He would mortify these remains of sin in them, 
 as He has mortified the rest. Nor do they ever be- 
 come remiss in assisting and aiding their neighbours, 
 unless it be to the extent in which their affections, 
 which are after the flesh and human wisdom, dying 
 in them, and those which are after the Spirit quick- 
 ening in them, they cease to be moved by any anxious 
 affection of the flesh, but are moved by an affection 
 controlled by the Spirit ; and to the extent to which 
 they are without inward feeling inciting them to help 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIX. 351 
 
 and succour their neighbours, they recognise God's 
 will that it should be so. This I say, because the 
 persons who sustain their pious frame, keeping a 
 strict reckoning with their inward motions, hold those 
 to be after the will of the flesh, that differ from what 
 they know to be the will of God ; and hold those to 
 be after the will of the Spirit, which they know to 
 be conformed to the will of God, forming this judg- 
 ment in consonance with what they owe as duty to 
 piety and as duty in connection with righteousness and 
 the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, both new and 
 old; and being thus watchful, they conquer the motives 
 that are after the flesh, and carry out those which 
 are after the Spirit. And though by the will of God 
 they have their imperfections, it is their desire to 
 become perfect ; and though they hold their neigh- 
 bours' sufferings to be the will of God, they hold 
 their impulses to aid and assist them to be also the 
 will of God. And recognising in their own imper- 
 fections and in their neighbours' sufferings the will 
 of God, as associated with wrath ; and recognising in 
 their own desires of perfection, and in their impulses 
 to succour their neighbours, as associated with mercy, 
 loving the will that is connected with mercy, and 
 fleeing from that which is connected with wrath, they 
 study to attain perfection ; and they study to assist 
 their neighbours, remaining quiet when unconscious 
 of any movement towards them, understanding it to 
 be God's will that they should be quiet. 
 
 Having explained what moves men not to attribute 
 all things to God, and what may be said in reply, 
 I will now set forth my thoughts on the subject, 
 submitting myself to a judgment more perfect and 
 spiritual. 
 
 I consider that the will of God manifests itself in 
 
352 CONSIDERATION XLIX. 
 
 two ways, as I have expressed myself in previous 
 Considerations : the one mediate, when He works 
 by those which we call second causes ; and the other 
 immediate, when He works by Himself. 
 
 I understand that men are subjected to the imme- 
 diate by original sin, and I understand that men are 
 free and exempt from the mediate by regeneration, 
 but in a certain manner. 
 
 I think that in avoiding those things which, by 
 this mediate will, might do him harm, and in apply- 
 ing himself to those things which, by the same, might 
 do him good, freewill in man consists in all those 
 things standing intimately connected with his being 
 externally and bodily well or ill off — with his living 
 outwardly a vicious or a virtuous life. 
 
 I understand that all men remain generally subject 
 to the immediate will, God working in them — in some 
 by love, and in others by hatred ; in some by wrath, 
 in others by mercy ; in some by complacency, and in 
 others by displeasure. And this is, as I understand, 
 that will of God concerning which St. Paul says, in 
 Romans ix. 1 9, that men cannot resist it ; and I 
 understand that God exerts this in illustrating His 
 glory, and in manifesting His omnipotence in His 
 people. So that, in this will of God, there are two 
 developments, with distinct characteristics : the one 
 stamped with hatred, wrath, and displeasure ; the 
 other with love, mercy, and complacency. I under- 
 stand that the former fell upon Pharaoh, upon Shimei, 
 and upon those to whom God gave the spirit of 
 error; and upon Judas, and upon those, 'quos tradidit 
 Deus in reprobum sensum,' ' whom God gave over to a 
 reprobate mind' (Rom. i. 28). And I understand this 
 very same fell upon all those who are vessels of wrath, 
 as was Nero, and as all those have been, are, and will 
 
CONSIDERATION XLIX. 353 
 
 be, who malignantly persecute the Spirit of Christ, 
 in them who are His members. I understand all 
 those to be such who accomplish the will of God, 
 without understanding themselves that such is the 
 will of God ; for had they understood it they would 
 have ceased to be wicked, and would have been 
 pious. 
 
 The will of God, stamped with love, mercy, and 
 complacency, was, as I understand, exhibited in 
 Moses, Aaron, and in David, and in the saints under 
 the law, and I understand it likewise in John the 
 Baptist, and in the Apostles and Martyrs, and 
 similarly in all those who are called of God to par- 
 ticipate in the Gospel, all of whom, as I understand, 
 fulfil God's will ; for herein piety consists. And I 
 understand that neither Pharaoh, nor Judas, nor they 
 who are vessels of wrath, could cease from being 
 what they were ; nor Moses, Aaron, nor St. Paul, nor 
 they who are vessels of mercy ; so that Judas 
 could not have forborne selling Christ, nor could St. 
 Paul have desisted from preaching Christ. 
 
 Finally, I understand that amongst the things which 
 are done in the world by the mediate will of God, they 
 who are vessels of wrath know the natural order of 
 things, and know the goodness or the malignity of 
 men. And I understand, that in the same things they 
 who are vessels of mercy recognise in the natural 
 order of things the will of God, which established 
 that order, and in that, which is, or appears to be, the 
 goodness or malignity of men, they, with the will of 
 God, recognise the goodness and malignity of men. 
 
 Similarly I understand that amongst the things 
 which are done by the immediate will of God, they 
 who are wicked know nothing beyond their own 
 desires, and those of them who do them. And ir; 
 
 A A 
 
354 CONSIDERATION L. 
 
 the very same things they who are pious recognise 
 the will of God, attributing them all to God ; discern- 
 ing in them who are vessels of wrath, as Pharaoh, 
 Shimei, Judas, and Nero, the exhibition of the will of 
 God in wrath, anger, and displeasure ; and recognis- 
 ing in those who are vessels of mercy, as were those 
 of the Jewish nation and those of Christendom, the 
 will of God in love, mercy, and complacency. 
 
 And in this manner, without acting injuriously to 
 God, without becoming depraved themselves, and 
 without casting off charity, nay, illustrating the glory 
 of God, with self-mortification and with expanded 
 charity, they come to believe that God does all things; 
 some by His mediate will, and others by His imme- 
 diate will ; some as to vessels of hatred, wrath, and 
 displeasure, and others as to vessels of love, mercy, 
 and complacency. And these are they who, amongst 
 all men, are the pious, knowing God, and are just, 
 knowing the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION L. 
 
 In what man's depravity consists, and in what consists 
 his restoration. In what Christian perfection consists. 
 
 Considering what I understand and know of the 
 nature of God, that He is impassible and immortal, 
 and that He is wise, just, and merciful, faithful and 
 true ; and considering what I understand and know 
 
CONSIDERATION L. 355 
 
 of the nature of man, that he is passible and mortal, 
 and that he is ignorant, wicked, revengeful, false and 
 deceitful ; and understanding, by the testimony of 
 Holy Scripture, that man primarily at his creation 
 was made in the image and likeness of God ; I come 
 to understand that there is as great a difference 
 between the state in which God created man, and 
 that in which he now actually is, as there is between 
 what I know of the nature of God and that which I 
 know of the nature of man. And knowing, by the 
 testimony of Holy Scripture, that man has, through 
 the first man's sin, deteriorated from that nature 
 which was perfect and like the nature of God, to be- 
 come, as far as the body is concerned, like other ani- 
 mals, and, as far as the mind is concerned, like evil 
 spirits, I come to understand that the evil brought 
 upon the human race by the first man's sin consists 
 in this : that from being impassible, he has become 
 passible, subject to cold and heat, to hunger and thirst, 
 and to all other bodily grievances ; that from being 
 immortal, he has become mortal, subject to death ; 
 from being wise, he has become ignorant ; from being 
 just, unjust ; from being merciful, revengeful ; from 
 being faithful, false ; from being truthful, a liar. I 
 understand that forasmuch as the evil which befell 
 the human race through sin, affects men in body and 
 soul, so likewise the grace which God has been 
 pleased to show to the human race, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, affects equally both body and soul. 
 And thus it is, that as soon as a man is called of 
 God he accepts the justice of God, executed upon 
 Christ, as His own, thus making himself a member of 
 Christ; he begins to participate in the first restoration, 
 which is that of the soul, and is effected by the death 
 of Christ. And it is moreover true, that the man 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 CONSIDERATION L. 
 
 who departs this life a member of Christ, will par- 
 ticipate in the ultimate restoration, which will be that 
 of the body, and will be by the resurrection of Christ, 
 and he will share in the general resurrection of all men. 
 So that they who are members of Christ, do by the 
 death of Christ have the evil done to their souls 
 remedied in this present life, if not wholly, at least in 
 part, and they have the evil done to their bodies 
 remedied, by the resurrection of Christ, in the life 
 eternal ; and then they will have entirely recovered 
 that image and likeness of God with which they were 
 created, being impassible and immortal in their bodies, 
 and being wise, merciful, faithful and true in their 
 souls, in which, as I understand, all our happiness 
 consists. 
 
 Having understood all this, I come to the conclu- 
 sion, that the proper duty of the Christian in the 
 present life is to be intent upon the reinstatement of 
 his soul, and the recovery of the image and likeness 
 of God, with which he was created ; and although, as 
 I have said, this reinstatement is in proportion, if I 
 may so express myself, to the extent of a man's in- 
 corporation into the death of Christ, nevertheless I 
 understand it to be a Christian's duty to exercise 
 himself to regain it in this manner. When, through 
 the depravity of his mind, he is tempted to sin, calling 
 to mind that God is righteous, he will say : ' No ; 
 the right thing for me is to be righteous, and not to 
 sin. ' When he is tempted to vindictiveness, remem- 
 bering that God is merciful, he will say : ' No ; duty 
 calls me to be merciful and not vindictive.' When 
 he is tempted to wrath, remembering that God is 
 long-suffering, he will say : ' No ; it is for me to be 
 patient and not irascible. ' When he is tempted to act 
 falsely and to lie, remembering that God is faithful 
 
CONSIDERATION L. 357 
 
 and true, he will say : ' No ; the right thing for me 
 is to be faithful and true. ' When he is tempted to 
 desire to be esteemed and appreciated by men of 
 the world, remembering that God is a stranger 
 and pilgrim here in this present life, he will say : 
 'No ; it is my duty to be a stranger and foreigner 
 here, my God being so, in order that I may be wholly 
 like Him.' And finally, when he is tempted to any- 
 thing that may in some way or another injure his 
 neighbour, remembering that God so loves men that, 
 to remedy the evil and injury into which they had 
 fallen, He gave His own Son to die for them, he 
 will say : ' No ; it is my duty to cherish love and 
 charity.' 
 
 And thus passing in review all the objects by 
 which a man through the depravity of his soul may 
 be tempted by his own affections, he will find in God 
 perfections with which he will be able to repress them, 
 and thus, by degrees, he will go on promoting the 
 progressive restoration of his soul, which is the first 
 operation, and he will ever be the better qualifying 
 himself for the restoration of his body, which is the last. 
 
 And I understand that Christian perfection consists 
 in this exercise. I mean to say, that a Christian is 
 more or less perfect in this life, just as, being more 
 or less engaged in this exercise, he gains more or less 
 of that part of the image and likeness to God in 
 which he was created, and which is attainable in this 
 life. And this I understand to be the reason why 
 Jesus Christ our Lord concludes His exhortation 
 upon Christian perfection by saying, ' Estote perfecti 
 sicut pater vester coelestis perfectus est : ' ' Be ye 
 perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect' (Matt. v.) ; 
 as if He had said : Finally I tell you, give all diligence 
 to be like to God in perfection ; He is perfect, do 
 
358 CONSIDERATION LI. 
 
 you strive to be perfect, even as He is. And this 
 is peculiarly a Christian admonition, for it proceeded 
 from Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LI. 
 
 Of the manner in which God causes Himself to be 
 
 felt, and of the manner in which God allows 
 
 Himself to be seen. 
 
 Having frequently stated that God causes His 
 presence to be felt by those persons, who, accepting 
 the grace of the Gospel, have entered into the king- 
 dom of God, and that He allows those very same per- 
 sons to see His presence, 'per speculum in senigmate,' 
 'in a glass darkly,' as St. Paul says (i Cor. xiii. 12), 
 I now proceed to state, that the favour which God 
 shows to them whom He allows to see His presence 
 is beyond all comparison greater than that He shows 
 to them by whom He causes His presence to be 
 felt ; forasmuch as he that sees it must necessarily feel 
 it, whilst he who feels it does not necessarily see it. I 
 mean to say, forasmuch as it is impossible to see with- 
 out feeling, but there may be feeling without sight. 
 
 To render myself perfectly intelligible, I say this : 
 I understand that a man may then feel the presence 
 of God when loving and believing, confiding and 
 hoping, and when praying, working, and understand- 
 
CONSIDERATION LI. 359 
 
 ing/he really and effectively feels that he is taught 
 and impelled by the Holy Spirit to love and to believe, 
 to confide and to hope, and moreover to pray, work, 
 and understand, feeling that it is the Holy Spirit that 
 inspires him to love and to believe, to confide and to 
 hope, and that it is the Holy Spirit Himself that 
 prays within him, works, and understands ; for it is 
 thus that in all these exercises, feeling the grace of 
 the Holy Spirit, he feels the presence of God. 
 
 Again, I say, that a man then sees the presence of 
 God when, through Divine grace, the manner is 
 shown to him in which God upholds all things .which 
 He has created, in the peculiar mode of existence in 
 which He created them, and in what way, God failing 
 them, or withdrawing Himself, but for a while, from 
 them, they would cease to exist. 
 
 To enter profoundly into this meditation, I bring 
 before the mind what is ordinarily seen in the Pope's 
 household, where all those who compose it are de- 
 pendent upon him, and are maintained by him in 
 the station and dignity in which he has placed them. 
 At the Pope's decease, the whole house is broken up 
 and ceases to exist, so that he that was secretary is 
 so no longer. The same may be affirmed of the 
 other officials of the establishment, all of whom at 
 the Pope's death lose the position which the Pope's 
 life gave them. 
 
 Proceeding further, I consider what is experimen- 
 tally understood of a man, who is such as long as his 
 soul remains in his body, which latter is wholly sus- 
 tained only in the interest of the former. I mean to 
 say, that the members of the body exercise their func- 
 tions as long as the soul remains in the body ; when 
 the soul is separated, the body dissolves, and returns 
 to dust, so that they which before were eyes are so no 
 
36o CONSIDERATION LI. 
 
 longer. I predicate tlie same of all the other mem- 
 bers of the body, all of which, when the soul has 
 quitted the body, lose the existence they had through 
 the soul's presence in the body. 
 
 With reference to the Pope's establishment, foras- 
 much as with my natural endowments and with my 
 own judgment I am competent to consider and to 
 see what I have stated, it is quite enough for me to 
 see and to consider the presence of the Pope, his 
 careful provision, his goodness, liberality and justice, 
 so far as he keeps his establishment in good order 
 and well regulated. And forasmuch as with my 
 natural parts and powers of discourse I am equal to 
 the task of understanding experimentally that the 
 soul, being separated from the body, the man ceases to 
 be what he was, each one of his members ceasing to 
 discharge the functions which it exercised, I am 
 moreover competent to understand experimentally 
 that the body's mode of existence is derived from the 
 soul, and that it is the soul which governs every one 
 of the members of the body in a proper manner, 
 making them render that peculiar service for which 
 they were respectively created. And thus I under- 
 stand that the mind is provident and discreet, and 
 endowed with all the other good qualities which are 
 annexed to it. 
 
 But with reference to God, forasmuch as neither 
 with my natural faculties, nor with my experience, 
 am I able to understand in what manner all things 
 depend upon Him, so that, were He to withdraw 
 Himself, they would fail, I am not able of myself to 
 understand what I saw in the Pope's household, nor 
 to understand that which I understood with reference 
 to man, although, by what I hear say, and by what 
 I read, I am able to imagine it, but, being unable to 
 see and understand by experience, I cannot be as- 
 
CONSIDERATION LI. 361 
 
 sured respecting it, until God Himself allows me to 
 see and to understand how this is, showing me His 
 presence, which consists, as I understand, in this de- 
 monstration and in this union. 
 
 More than this, I understand that it would be a 
 great satisfaction for a favourite servant of the Pope, 
 were the Pope to become unchangeable and immortal, 
 to see that his position and his maintenance in that 
 rank were derived to him from the Pope and 
 depended upon the Pope's life ; and I likewise 
 understand that it would be the greatest satisfaction 
 for a man to see really and practically in what manner 
 the existence and the maintenance of his body 
 depend upon his soul. 
 
 And I understand that the satisfaction, the glory, 
 and the contentment which those persons experience 
 within themselves to be beyond all comparison 
 higher and more exalted than in any of these pre- 
 ceding instances, who see the manner, whatever it 
 may be, in which God sustains and upholds all things, 
 giving them their nature and life, so that without 
 Him they would cease to exist and to live. For in 
 this vision they know and feel themselves to be 
 favoured by God, and by it they are tranquillized 
 and assured in their minds, understanding that they 
 are sustained and ruled by Him, who holds all things 
 subject to His power. And in this same vision, in a 
 novel mode, they recognise in God omnipotence, 
 wisdom, justice, mercy, truth, and fidelity ; and by 
 this knowledge they increase in love to God, in faith 
 and confidence in God, and in the patience with 
 which they await the life eternal. And thus that 
 comes to pass which I said at the beginning ; that 
 man, seeing the presence of God, commences in the 
 present life partially to relish that which he will fully 
 enjoy in the life eternal with Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
362 
 
 CONSIDERATION LII. 
 
 That the Christian ought to put an end to the affection 
 of ambition, which consists of the lust of acquisi- 
 tiveness, and likewise to that which consists 
 in maintaining possession. 
 
 Understanding that Jesus Christ our Lord tells 
 all of us, who are Christians, to learn ' lowliness of 
 heart' from Him (Matt. xi. 29); and understanding, 
 moreover, that St. Paul admonishes us, ' that we 
 subject our minds to what we recognise in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who, being the Son of God, humbled 
 Himself so far as to take the form of man, making 
 Himself man' (Phil. ii. 5 — 8) ; I learn that just as 
 humility of mind is that which is most profitable to 
 3. Christian, so likewise the passion of ambition, 
 which is its opposite, is that which is most pernicious, 
 which separates him most from Christ, and which 
 most makes him a member of Satan. 
 
 And I designate as the passion of ambition every 
 desire, every thought, and every effort, exerted by 
 man, to the intent of increasing his estate, his honour, 
 and his reputation, and of maintaining himself in the 
 possession of what he has acquired : so that the pas- 
 sion of ambition consists of two parts : the one, of 
 acquisitiveness ; and the other, of conservation. 
 
CONSIDERATION LII. . 363 
 
 Human wisdom judges those persons to be free 
 from the passion of ambition who impose a limit to 
 acquisition ; and in truth they are to a great extent 
 free from it. But they retain the other, which is so 
 much the more difficult to be got rid of, as human 
 wisdom does not recognise it as an evil, nay, judges 
 those to be vile and mean who are without it. But 
 the Holy Spirit, who does recognise it as an evil, 
 judges those to be ambitious who have it, and wills 
 that they whom He rules be wholly free from it ; 
 that they renounce it, and free themselves from it, 
 so that they never desire advancement in the eyes 
 of the world, nor are they preoccupied with the 
 studied maintenance of what they possess ; though 
 He does not demand of them that by their own acts, 
 and at their own suggestion, they should do things 
 whereby they may come to be degraded and impaired 
 in that position of honour and reputation in which 
 they happen to be ; training their minds to be con- 
 tented, with increase or decrease, according to the 
 will of God. And He likewise wills that they occupy 
 themselves, in everything and everywhere, both in 
 gaining increased favour in the eyes of God, and in 
 maintaining what they have gained. 
 
 And on this account, the pious Christian, who has 
 to learn humility from Christ, and to bring himself 
 to be like Christ in humility, finds it his duty to 
 quench the fires of ambition, divesting his mind of 
 every thought, aiming at- promotion in the things of 
 the world, or of effort to maintain possession of what 
 he has acquired ; thinking solely of advancement in 
 the things of God, confiding, hoping, and loving, and 
 endeavouring to maintain in himself all the confidence, 
 hope, and love that he shall have acquired ; inwardly 
 resolving that what remains for him to do is to 
 
364 CONSIDERATION LIII. 
 
 please God, and those who partake of the Spirit of 
 God ; and not the world, nor those who adopt the 
 opinions and counsels of human wisdom ; and doing 
 thus, he will become like Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LIII. 
 
 How it is that men of the world, in obeying the dictates 
 
 of honour, are less vicious than in obeying those 
 
 of conscience. 
 
 All men are generally malignant and perverse, 
 and so much so, that to go amongst them is nothing 
 else than to go amongst tigers and lions, and amongst 
 vipers and serpents, save so far as their fury and 
 madness are restrained by some fetters, amongst 
 which the principal and strongest ones are honour 
 and conscience, the former affecting the present life, 
 and the latter the future. 
 
 I mean to say, that the pursuit of this world's 
 honour restrains some men, who are neither so vicious 
 nor so licentious in their style of life as they would 
 have been in following out their natural inclination. 
 And other men are restrained by the fear of eternal 
 punishment ; for they think : ' If I do this, I shall 
 offend God, and He will chastise me with eternal 
 punishment ; ' and this is the work of conscience. 
 
 So that it may be said, that all men who are not 
 ruled by the Holy Spirit, are like so many lions 
 
CONSIDERATION LIII. 365 
 
 chained up, lest they should do injury ; and therefore, 
 should they break their chains, they in their fury do 
 injury by following out their natural inclination. For 
 men whilst they are bound with these fetters do no 
 harm, neither are they licentious ; when these chains 
 are broken, in their fury and madness they do injury 
 by following out their natural inclination. 
 
 Hence, considering that worldly honour is the 
 strongest of these chains with which men are bound, 
 and seeing that man more easily sets aside the dic- 
 tates of conscience than those of honour, I come to 
 understand that men who pursue worldly honour, 
 because they are bound with a stronger chain, 
 are, compared to other men of the world, the least 
 vicious, and the least licentious ; partly by their own 
 inclination, for being subject to the rule of human 
 wisdom, they highly esteem honour ; and partly, out 
 of respect for those persons of whom they take coun- 
 sel, for these being zealously devoted to honour and 
 understanding it, ever counsel rightly what honour 
 prescribes. The result is very different with regard 
 to conscience, since man is not of himself favourably 
 disposed to it, either because he believes nothing 
 beyond what he sees, or because he remains in a state 
 of hesitancy, or because he abandons himself to dis- 
 orderly courses. And as he is desirous of taking 
 counsel upon subjects concerning which he stands in 
 doubt, he consults other men, who have no regard 
 for conscience, neither do they understand it ; and 
 thus they are unable to advise rightly what con- 
 science prescribes. 
 
 That this is true, any one may clearly know who 
 will be pleased to examine himself, finding it to be a 
 fact, that men esteem honour more than conscience, 
 and that they are more determinately and more 
 
366 CONSIDERATION LIII. 
 
 virtuously counselled in a matter which is submitted 
 as a case of honour, than when submitted as a case of 
 conscience. 
 
 And this may serve to explain the reason why it 
 is said that the mode of life is less vicious and less 
 licentious amongst infidels than amongst those who 
 call themselves Christians : it is because the former 
 are in most things bound by honour, whilst the latter 
 are in many things bound by conscience. 
 
 I except from this sweeping statement men re- 
 generated, and called by the Holy Spirit, who, with- 
 out being put in chains, live modestly and tempe- 
 rately ; and are in this governed by the Holy Spirit, 
 which is communicated to those who believe ; in 
 whom this rule is so powerful, that without being 
 attached by any chain, for they do not fear dishonour, 
 nor have they scruples of conscience, they surpass all 
 men of the world, in that they are not vicious or 
 licentious, all their passions having been slain upon 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
36; 
 
 CONSIDERATION LIV. 
 
 That ■ Prayer and Consideration are two books, or 
 interpreters, for the sure understanding of Holy- 
 Scripture ; and the way in which a man 
 should make use of them. 
 
 I HOLD it to be a thing most true and most certain 
 -for the understanding of Holy Scripture, that the 
 best, the surest, and the highest interpreters that 
 man can find are these two — Prayer and Con- 
 sideration.* I understand that Prayer discovers 
 the way, opens it, and makes it plain ; and I under- 
 stand that Consideration puts the man into it, and 
 makes him walk by it. 
 
 Furthermore, I understand it to be indispensable 
 that these two interpreters, or books, be assisted by 
 God, Himself inspiring the man who prays, to pray* 
 
 * It would seem as though the almost universal mind of Shakspeare 
 had conceived the sentiment or argument of even this recondite work. 
 It is not very likely that he knew the work itself in Italian, yet had 
 he known it he could scarcely have expressed the scope and purport 
 of it more tersely and completely than he has done by these lines in 
 'Henry V.,' Act i. Scene i. : — 
 
 'CONSIDERATION like an angel came, 
 And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him ; 
 Leaving his body as a paradise 
 To envelope and contain celestial spirits.' 
 
368 CONSIDERATION LIV. 
 
 Because I understand, that he who prays without 
 being inspired to pray, does so at the suggestion of 
 his own fancy, of his own affection, and of his own 
 will ; and that, not knowing how to pray as he ought, 
 he is not heard in his prayer ; and he who prays, 
 being inspired to pray, prays to the glory of God, 
 and prays by the will of God ; and knowing how to 
 pray as he ought, his prayer is heard, and what he 
 seeks is granted. 
 
 As to Consideration, I hold it to be indispensable 
 on the part of the man who would consider of spiri- 
 tual things, that it be assisted with his own experience 
 of them. I mean, that he who considers should have 
 inwardly experienced those things of which Holy 
 Scripture speaks, in such a manner, that by what 
 he finds and knows in himself he comes to understand 
 what is written in the Holy Scriptures. And they 
 who consider without this experience, walk in the 
 dark and grope their way ; and although they some- 
 times almost divine, and at other times feel certain, 
 yet not having the proof of it within themselves, they 
 do not know whether they are certain, nor do they 
 relish what they do ascertain. Whilst those persons 
 Avho are aided '\n pt-ayer by the Holy Spirit, and in 
 consideration by their individual experience, fre- 
 quently attain certainty, nay, ordinarily do so ; they 
 know what they ascertain, and also relish it. To render 
 myself better understood, I shall adduce two authori- 
 tative passages, the one from St. Paul, and the other 
 from David, presuming to put forward the example 
 in myself I say, that reading that one of St. Paul, 
 Sicut testimonium yesu Christi confirmatum, est in 
 vobis (i Cor. i. 6), ' Even as the testimony of Christ 
 was confirmed in you ;' and being desirous to under- 
 stand it well, I shall first use the book of prayer. 
 
CONSIDERATION LIV. 369 
 
 praying God to open to me the way of apprehending 
 these words, and I remain instant in prayer as much so 
 as I am able to keep my mind fixed in it. Then open- 
 ing the BOOK OF CONSIDERATION, I begin to consider 
 within myself of such Christian things of which I have 
 any experience, and I begin, besides, to examine what 
 the testimony is which Jesus Christ bore to the world. 
 And finding in me the ruling of the Holy Spirit, 
 controlling me inwardly, and feeling myself justified 
 by the justice of God executed in Christ, which two 
 things are so intimately conjoined together that a 
 man can scarcely say of which of them he feels the 
 more conscious, whether the control of the Holy 
 Spirit or justification by faith; and understanding that 
 the testimony which Christ bore to the world, princi- 
 pally resolves itself into two parts — that is to say, 
 the one where he says (Matt. iv. 17), Appropinquat 
 regnum ccBlorum, or regnum Dei, ' the kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand,' or ' the kingdom of God,' as it is 
 rendered in Mark i. and Luke x., which is all the same ; 
 and in the other, where, speaking of His blood, He 
 says. Pro vobis etpro multis effundetur in remissionem 
 peccatorum (Luke xxii.), ' shed for you ; ' and in Matt, 
 xxvi. 28, 'shed for many for the remission of sins ;' 
 of which two parts, the one refers to the kingdom of 
 God which we begin to feel and to enjoy in the 
 present life, and which is continued and perpetuated 
 in the life eternal ; the other to the justification which 
 is through Christ; — and I arrive at the conclusion, 
 that St. Paul understood that the Corinthians were 
 able to testify, from their own experience, that Christ 
 spoke the truth in the testimony which He gave to 
 the world, as well of the arrival of the ' kingdom of 
 God,' as also of justification by the justice of God 
 executed in His most precious flesh. And I under- 
 
 B B 
 
m CONSIDERATION LIV. 
 
 siaifld a man to be warranted in calling and adjudging 
 hittiself a Christian just in proportion as he has this 
 testimony of Christ our Lord confirmed within himself. 
 
 ■Ji^Similarly, being desirous of understanding that 
 passage of David (Ps. xxxix. 12), Quoniam peregrinus 
 Mm ego tecum, 'for I am a stranger with Thee,' and 
 having opened the book of prayer, I open that of 
 consideration, and I proceed to examine in what 
 ikanner I am a stranger and pilgrim in the present 
 life ; and finding that I am so, inasmuch as I am 
 unknown, neither am I prized nor esteemed by the 
 World ; and inasmuch as I neither prize nor esteem 
 thfe world ; and finding likewise that God, in this 
 dspect, is a stranger in the world, because He is 
 neither known, prized, nor esteemed by the world, 
 and for that He neither prizes nor esteems the world, 
 holding it for what it is ; — I understand that David 
 riieans to say, ' Forasmuch, Lord, as the world does 
 t-hat with me, which it does with Thee ; I likewise 
 do that with the world which Thou dost' And the 
 saints that lived under the law were, as I understand, 
 ih this manner 'strangers with God,' and in this manner 
 the New Testament saints are so, and amongst them, 
 as their head, the Son of God, our Lord. 
 
 i And this is the manner in which, I understand, 
 man has to employ these two most divine books ; and 
 I understand that the one admirably helps the other ; 
 and I also understand that he who can consider, 
 availing himself of his own experience, always errs 
 when he sets himself to do so without having first 
 opened the book of prayer ; and I think that almost 
 always the impulse under which this man is moved 
 to pray is motion excited by God. 
 
 From all this I gather, that it being most true 
 
CONSIDERATION LV. 371 
 
 that the Tight apprehension of Holy Scripture is to 
 be sought by means of these two interpreters, or 
 books, viz., prayer and consideration, and that 
 prayer needs to be helped by the inspiration of 
 God, and consideration by the experience of the 
 man who considers, it is moreover true that the 
 pious Christian who occupies himself with the study 
 of Holy Scripture ought to live in the constant desire 
 that God would give him His Holy Spirit, that He 
 would mortify every fleshly emotion in him, together 
 with human wisdom, in order that quickening may 
 succeed mortification ; for they only within whom the 
 operations of mortification and quickening have begun 
 can possibly consider with the aid of their own 
 experience, for they alone are inwardly conscious 
 of God's spiritual gifts, which they obtain who believe 
 in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LV. 
 
 Against curiosity ; and how the Holy Scripture should be 
 read without curiosity. 
 
 The human mind would fain sustain its life and 
 preserve its vigour with divers kinds of food ; and 
 among them all there is, as I understand, none so 
 pleasing or so satisfactory to it as curiosity ; and 
 that, both for itself, and because it is ever associated 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 CONSIDERATION LV. 
 
 with ambition and vanity. And I understand that 
 this curiosity is so palatable to the human mind, that 
 it feeds upon it, in whatever mode this food may be 
 seasoned and prepared, provided it be curiosity. 
 
 Now, it being necessary that this human mind 
 should die in persons who make Christian piety 
 their aim, in order that the resolution be preserved 
 and maintained which they (knowing themselves to 
 be dead upon the cross of Christ) have made and 
 do make with the world and with themselves, it 
 is also necessary that the food of curiosity be taken 
 from them, not giving it to themselves in any form 
 or manner ; setting it aside, especially in those 
 things in which it might make pretensions to piety, 
 religion, and holiness, for these are the most prized. 
 
 And of these I hold the study of Holy Scripture 
 when read from motives of curiosity to be the most 
 dangerous ; because, although it ordinarily is an 
 effective weapon for slaying the human mind, yet 
 the mind, on the other hand, is so lively that it con- 
 verts Scripture into curiosity, gladly feeding upon 
 this alone, when it can get nothing else to feed upon. 
 And for this reason I understand that it is the pious 
 Christian's duty to be very vigilant and cautious, 
 with reference to many things that may involve 
 curiosity, that he may not have it ; and especially 
 in the study of Holy Scripture, in order that the 
 simplicity of the Spirit, which there is in it, be not 
 converted into fleshly curiosity, as happens to those 
 curious persons who read Holy Scripture only to 
 know and to understand. 
 
 In reading the Holy Scriptures I understand that 
 the pious Christian should only fix his attention upon 
 the inward experiences and feelings which God, by 
 the agency of His Holy Spirit, shall work in his soul, 
 
CONSIDERATION LV. 373 
 
 and with which, he, by their help, shall go on to try 
 the things of the Holy Spirit, so that, taking up a 
 book of Holy Scripture, he may aim to understand 
 his past experience. And thus, let him think that 
 he does not understand what he has not experienced ; 
 and thinking this, if he shall desire to understand it, 
 he will strive to experience it, and will not curiously 
 seek to know how, or what, others have therein 
 understood ; and directing his attention to his own 
 experience, he will likewise attend to the entire 
 mortification of his mind, divesting it wholly of 
 curiosity, and combining experience with mortifica- 
 tion, he will acquire the true apprehension of Holy 
 Scripture, and he will understand that Christians' 
 occupation does not consist in knowledge, but in 
 experience. And he will discern the error into which 
 those fall who think that they do not understand Holy 
 Scripture because they have not been ordained, nor 
 provided with scientific knowledge and human learn- 
 ing : understanding that they who have been ordained 
 and highly instructed both in science and learning, 
 find it necessary to renounce all these things and leave 
 them, in order to acquire the true apprehension of 
 Holy Scripture, which, as I have said, is not to be 
 acquired by knowledge, nor to be attained by curio- 
 sity, but is acquired by experience, and is to be 
 sought with simplicity, since God reveals His secrets 
 to those who are trained in, and adorned with, this 
 simplicity, even as is affirmed in Matt, xi, by God's 
 own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
374 
 
 CONSIDERATION LVI, 
 
 Of the most certain and assured way to attain perfect 
 mortification. 
 
 Having repeatedly said that the mortification of 
 all that is derived from Adam is highly necessary 
 to the Christian, it is only recently that I have un- 
 derstood the reason why it is necessary, and the 
 most certain and assured way to arrive at its attain- 
 ment And I have learned it from the Apostle St. 
 Paul, where he, having said that he strove to be 
 ' made conformable to Christ's death,' in order that 
 he might attain to participation in His resurrection, 
 labouring to apprehend Christian perfection, for 
 which he felt himself to have been apprehended of 
 Christ — he says that he did this^wholly forgetting 
 the things that were past, both those that could 
 give him satisfaction, as those which could cause 
 him annoyance ; and exercising his memory with 
 the recollection that he was called of God in Christ, 
 and that the call was a heavenly one, that is to say, 
 that he was called to the end that, by believing, he 
 should gain eternal life (Phil. iii. 8 — 1 1) ; nay, rather, 
 I understand this is the life by which the Holy 
 Spirit mortifies those persons who, being called of 
 God, duly respond to it. And thus it is that a man, 
 retaining this thought in his memory, comes to shun 
 
CONSIDERATION LVI. 
 
 and abhor everything which might tend to obs^tt^t 
 this call, and to seek and love everything which 
 tends to preserve and increase it. Coming thijsiJK?) 
 hate his passions and appetites, and knowing shit 
 these are the things which serve to impede his calipM 
 is led to mortify them, so that all that is derived ites® 
 Adam dying in him, and all that is from Ohs-ist 
 living in him, he becomes very like Christ. iA>ftd 
 thus his plan of action resembles that of an indiVii&ed 
 who, — invited by a mighty prince to a great feast, atid 
 fearing lest he should be impeded and divertdd"iie*i 
 his way by some delightful objects that might present 
 themselves to him, — adopts as an expedient to 
 liberate himself from them all and to pass freely by 
 them, the constant recollection that he has been in- 
 vited by that mighty prince, and that he has been 
 called to that great feast, in comparison with which all 
 the feasts that can be presented to him on the road 
 are no feasts at all, but merely child's play. I inli^n 
 to say that just as this person, keeping this thought 
 alive in his recollection, mortifies all the inward 
 desires which may arise within him, of seeing the 
 feasts which may present themselves by the wiay, 
 much better than if he made the resolution ^3 GfJt 
 seeing them at all ; because it might so happen, that 
 casually coming to see them, he might be obstfyptftd 
 and diverted by them, to that extent, that whefnjh'^ 
 should arrive to see the principal feast he might fysii 
 it already concluded. Exactly so, or rathecijsmeh 
 better is it, that the person called of God, kee^iag^ 
 alive in his memory the thought of his calling,^hoitil£i 
 mortify, and even slay, all his inward passioBsiiaad 
 appetites, which, derived from the old manijjiilghjj: 
 obstruct and impede his calling ; much better^, hmy, 
 than if he propose to himself always to oppos&thfem 
 
376 CONSIDERATION LVII. 
 
 because it might happen, that in being diverted 
 from his call, he might likewise be diverted from his 
 purpose. Nay, I will rather say, that in acting in 
 this manner, it is the Holy Spirit which mortifies 
 him ; and were he to act in any other manner, sug- 
 gested by human wisdom, all his efforts would never 
 succeed in accomplishing his purpose ; it being God's 
 ordinance that the Holy Spirit is to be the master 
 and guide of all them who are called to the grace of 
 the Gospel of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LVII. 
 
 Whence it proceeds that the flesh is mortified by the 
 knowledge and experience of divine things. 
 
 Day by day I acquire a stronger conviction that 
 the Christian should be concerned about experience, 
 and not about theoretical knowledge. I mean to 
 say, that his business is not learned by speculation, 
 but by experience. In the first place, I understand 
 that it is peculiarly the Christian's duty to exercise 
 himself in mortification. By persevering in it, he 
 feels that its usefulness consists in this : that by 
 mortifying his affections and appetites, man gradually 
 attains to the apprehension of that divine Christian 
 perfection of which he is himself apprehended by 
 union with Christ, a union brought about by faith. 
 
 Advancing a step further, I have learnt that the 
 
CONSIDERATION LVII. 377. 
 
 most certain and assured way by which the man 
 who is called of God attains to true mortification, 
 is, ever to retain firmly in the memory a fixed 
 thought that he is called of God, and that the call is 
 made in order to give him eternal life. 
 
 N ow I understand that this marvellous effect of mor- 
 tification, through retention of the call in the memory, 
 proceeds partly from the vileness of the flesh, and 
 partly from the energy of the things of God. I mean 
 to say, that the flesh being vile and wretched, and 
 being too abject, weak, and infirm to be able to retain 
 in itself the cognizance and experiences of divine 
 things, it comes to pass that by the inherent energy 
 of these the flesh is terrified and yields itself up 
 to fear, so that it is easily conquered and subdued by 
 the Spirit ; and thus it remains mortified, together 
 with everything which in man is corrupted by the 
 depravity of the flesh. 
 
 And because the recollection of God's call, aided 
 by the knowledge and experience of divine things, is 
 in men very powerful, whilst they are abject, weak, 
 and infirm in themselves, I understand what God 
 says in Exod. xxxiii., that men cannot endure the 
 sight of Him, either mentally or physically, and sur- 
 vive it ; for this perfect vision of God is reserved 
 for the just in the life eternal, when the flesh, having 
 been raised, shall assume a form capable of enduring 
 the vision of God. 
 
 In this manner, on the one hand, by the goodness 
 of God, the flesh is mortified in the just, not only 
 by the recollection of their call, but likewise by every 
 call and experience connected with divine things ; 
 and on the other hand, God continues to temper in 
 them this recollection, these varied kinds of know- 
 ledge, and these experiences, in order that they may 
 
378 CONSIDERATION LVII. 
 
 not die out, accommodating them to the weakness 
 of the flesh ; as we moderate the heat of the liquid 
 which we desire to preserve in a glass vessel, that so 
 the liquid may be preserved in the vessel without 
 breaking the glass. 
 
 And I understand that corporeal and outward 
 exercises, combined with other things of human de- 
 vice, help those persons who are called of God, to 
 sustain them in the condition in which a knowledge 
 or experience of some divine thing left them, and 
 that having passed through their trials, another is 
 given and communicated to them, which causes them 
 to advance in mortification. 
 
 So that I am justified in saying that the Christian 
 has not to busy himself in speculative knowledge, 
 but in experience. If it were science, it would have 
 the effect that other sorts of science produce, which 
 is to inflate and to puff up those who acquire them. 
 
 But because it is experience, it produces the effect 
 which other kinds of experience are wont to produce, 
 which is to humble and to cast down to the earth 
 everything that Is associated with human wisdom, and 
 to elevate and exalt to heaven all that is associated 
 with the Spirit. 
 
 I understand this to be the effect wrought in those 
 who, being called of God, are members of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
379 
 
 CONSIDERATION LVIII. 
 
 Of eight points of difference between those who aim 
 and endeavour to mortify themselves by personal 
 effort, and those in whom mortification is 
 wrought by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 This ever holds true, that all men, when they 
 devote themselves to religion, as well in the false, 
 which consists of superstitious observances, as in the 
 true, which consists in accepting the grace of the 
 Gospel of Christ, devote themselves also to morti- 
 fication. But in those who seek to attain mortification 
 by the Holy Spirit, I have considered eight notable 
 differences, by which a person may know whether his 
 mortification be the result of personal effort, or 
 whether it be wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The first difference is, that they who mortify them- 
 selves by personal effort are presumptuous and 
 ambitious, conscious of their own peculiar merit in 
 their mortifications ; whilst they in whom mortifica- 
 tion is wrought by the Holy Spirit are humble and 
 modest, unconscious of any peculiar merit of their 
 own in their mortifications ; for the Holy Spirit 
 operates in them that which a sharp attack of fever is 
 wont to produce in a man. I mean to say, that as by 
 the presence of high fever a man is as it were 
 
38o CONSIDERATION LVIII. 
 
 deprived of every carnal desire, the desire of health 
 being the only one surviving, so by the presence of 
 the Holy Spirit the man is deprived of everything 
 that is fleshly, spiritual desires being those alone 
 which survive. 
 
 The second difference is, that those who aim 
 to mortify themselves, are ever looking after new 
 modes and new inventions to attain mortification ; 
 whilst those who are mortified by the Holy Spirit 
 embrace the opportunities of mortification which offer 
 themselves, in whatever mode they may come, being 
 persuaded that God wills that they should be morti- 
 fied in them and by them. 
 
 The third difference is, that those who mortify 
 themselves, live always sad and discontented, because 
 they deprive themselves of their pleasures and bodily 
 satisfactions, and they are not soothed by spiritual 
 ones ; whilst they who have mortification wrought 
 in them live almost always cheerful and contented, 
 because they abhor, or begin to abhor, bodily 
 pleasures, and begin to relish spiritual pleasures. 
 
 The fourth difference is, that they who mortify 
 themselves, resemble a man whose head is cut off 
 with a jagged and rusty sword, forasmuch as all things 
 prove irksome and rough to them ; whilst they who 
 have mortification wrought in them resemble a man 
 whose head is cut by a sword with a fine edge, and 
 by an arm skilled in the operation, forasmuch as 
 mortification is wrought in him by the Holy Spirit 
 without his consciousness of the mortification. And 
 that this is truth, they know by experience who are 
 mortified by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The fifth difference is, that they who mortify 
 themselves, live ever in continual labour and cease- 
 less fatigue, like a man who, with great effort, acquires 
 
CONSIDERATION LVIII. 381 
 
 a very difficult and most distasteful science, and 
 finding in its elements much to disgust and annoy, 
 is only consoled with the thought that he is about to 
 succeed in that science ; whilst they who have mor- 
 tification wrought in them, neither labouring in, nor 
 wearying themselves by, mortification, resemble a 
 man who advances with delight and recreation in the 
 study of a science which he has already acquired, 
 who, finding few things that he does not understand, 
 finds few things to give him trouble. 
 
 The sixth difference is, that in those who mortify 
 themselves, the mortification is never real ; nay, they 
 are like quicklime, — for just as quicklime does not 
 smoke until water be thrown upon it, but which no 
 sooner has water been thrown upon it than the latent 
 fire immediately discovers itself ; so these, whilst they 
 have no opportunity to go astray, do not go 
 astray, but when the occasion presents itself, they 
 instantly discover life within them, by going astray, 
 or by being extremely tempted to do so. Whilst 
 they who have had mortification wrought in them 
 by the Holy Spirit, experience real mortification, 
 and resemble slaked lime, for just as slaked lime 
 does not smoke, however much water be thrown upon 
 it ; so these do not go astray, nor are they greatly 
 tempted to do so, however frequent the opportunities 
 for doing so may be that present themselves to them. 
 
 And thus it will be with this, the seventh 
 difference, which shows that they who mortify them- 
 selves fall in seasons of temptation miserably into 
 error, for, deceived by human wisdom, they are 
 always seeking to flee from conjunctures that excite 
 them to go astray ; whilst they in whom mortification 
 is wrought are refined, as is gold in the fire, by those 
 circumstances which present themselves as induce- 
 
382 CONSIDERATION LVIII. - 
 
 ments to go astray ; for, aided by the Holy Spirit, 
 they mortify themselves at the right season, not 
 fleeing from any conjuncture, and for this reason they 
 abide the same both when under temptation and 
 when free from it. 
 
 The eighth difference is, that they who mortify 
 themselves by personal effort, devote their principal 
 attention to the mortification of the flesh, scarcely 
 entertaining any purpose of mortifying the mind, not 
 knowing that all evil has its source there ; whilst 
 they in whom mortification is wrought by the Holy 
 Spirit, are mainly intent upon mortification of the 
 mind, knowing that all evil springs thence, and 
 knowing that the mind being mortified, the flesh is 
 so likewise. 
 
 Tested by these differences, a person may know 
 whether he mortify himself, or whether mortification 
 be wrought in him by the Holy Spirit, observing, 
 with reference to the latter, that there are three 
 classes of men in whom mortification is wrought by 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The first is, when th« Holy Spirit works mortifi- 
 cation in men without their being conscious of it, and 
 without their being aware that they have the power of 
 the Holy Spirit within them ; and to this class of 
 persons that belongs which was said in the fourth 
 difference. 
 
 The second is, when the Holy Spirit works morti- 
 fication in men, and they feel and know that they 
 have the power of the Holy Spirit within them ; and 
 to this class belongs what was affirmed under the 
 first difference. 
 
 The third is, when, through the absence of the 
 Holy Spirit, or through the unconsciousness and 
 ignorance of His presence, men labour to mortify 
 
CONSIDERATION LIX. 383 
 
 themselves with personal effort; and in this class 
 persons experience much of what has been affirmed 
 in the first, third, fourth, and fifth differences, as to 
 the feelings of those who mortify themselves by per- 
 sonal effort. 
 
 Most true it is, that to those who are mortified by 
 the Holy Spirit their efforts at mortification redound 
 to their advantage, that being in effect true which St. 
 Paul says (Rom. viii. 28), Diligentibus Deum om- 
 nia cooperantur in bonum, — ' that all things work 
 together for good to them that love God,' to the 
 glory of God, and of the Son of God, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LIX. 
 
 That in the impulse to pray, the Holy Spirit assures a 
 man that he shall obtain that which he asks. 
 
 When reading in Isaiah xxxviii., that death having 
 been intimated by God to the pious king Hezekiah, 
 he bewailed his lot, expressed his grief, and lamented, 
 entreating God with tears that He would not take 
 his life ; and reading, a little further on, that the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem, with the Babylonian captivity, 
 had been intimated by God to the same king, with- 
 out his either bemoaning or lamenting, and without 
 his entreating that God should revoke the sentence, 
 and that he acquiesced in the execution of God's 
 
384 CONSIDERATION LIX. 
 
 will, accepting it as a blessing from God that these 
 evils should not happen in his time ; and considering 
 that God prolonged the time of Hezekiah's life, and 
 that He executed His sentence upon Jerusalem, — 
 I arrived at the conclusion that pious persons being 
 ruled by the Spirit of God, particularly in their 
 prayers, since as St. Paul says in Romans viii., 'the 
 Spirit of God prays for them and in them,' they 
 scarcely ever pray to God for anything unless it be 
 the will of God to grant it to them, from which it is 
 evident that it is the Spirit of God which inspires 
 them to pray. 
 
 According to the judgment of human reason, it 
 would have been more just, and more suitable, that 
 Hezekiah should have bewailed and lamented, and 
 that he should have stirred himself to pray God for 
 the revocation of the sentence against Jerusalem, 
 than for the revocation of the sentence against his 
 own life ; yet Hezekiah, the pious king, moved by 
 the Holy Spirit, prayed for his own life, while he ac- 
 quiesced in the will of God with reference to what 
 concerned Jerusalem. 
 
 Whence I understand that it behoves pious persons 
 to attach high importance as to how they find them- 
 selves moved. I mean to say, that they ought to pay 
 great attention, when moved to pray for something of 
 God, to know whether the impulse be from the 
 spirit of man, or from the Holy Spirit. And I un- 
 derstand likewise, that the proper token by which 
 they shall be able to judge between these impulses 
 is the inward certainty or uncertainty which they ex- 
 perience in prayer. Should they find themselves 
 uncertain as to whether they ought to obtain of God 
 what they supplicate for, they will judge the move- 
 ment to be from the spirit of man ; but feeling them- 
 
CONSIDERATION LIX. 385 
 
 selves certain of obtaining it, they will judge the 
 movement to be from the Holy Spirit ; since the 
 movement of the Holy Spirit ever bears with itself 
 assurance, man judging after this wise, ' If the Spirit 
 of God, which has moved me to pray, had not known 
 that it is the will of God to grant me that which I 
 ask, He would never have moved me to pray for it' 
 
 I hold it for certain that Hezekiah had this as- 
 surance when he asked that his life should be pro- 
 longed, and I hold it for certain that it was through 
 his want of feeling this inward assurance that this 
 same Hezekiah did not ask that the sentence given 
 against Jerusalem should be revoked. 
 
 I see that Christ prayed with this assurance when 
 He raised Lazarus, and prayed for the preservation 
 of His disciples ; and I see that He prayed with hesi- 
 tancy in the garden ; and because He felt whence 
 that movement proceeded, He submitted Himself 
 in prayer to the will of God. 
 
 And if the very Son of God Himself experienced 
 these two impulses, and felt assurance in the one 
 case, and hesitancy in the other, every one may well 
 think whether he ought not to be watchful over 
 himself respecting them, for they only will know them 
 who shall be true members of the same Son of God, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 c c 
 
386 
 
 CONSIDERATION LX. 
 
 Whence it arises that the superstitious are severe, and that 
 true Christians are merciful and compassionate. 
 
 The severity and rigour which I observe and re- 
 cognise as common in persons whom the vulgar 
 hold to be devout and spiritual, but who are in fact 
 superstitious and ceremonious, with reference to the 
 chastisement of, or the desire to chastise the vices 
 and defects of men, proceed, as I understand, from 
 two causes. 
 
 The one is the peculiar nature of man, who is 
 prone to esteem and appreciate his own things, and 
 to condemn and depreciate those of others ; and 
 the other is the peculiar nature of superstitions and 
 ceremonies, with which severity and rigour stand in- 
 timately associated. And thus it is that such super- 
 stitious and ceremonious persons, desiring that their 
 superstitious and ceremonious mode of living be 
 esteemed and prized, are forced to be severe and 
 rigorous, both in deeds and words, against those 
 who, not being as they are, have outward vices and 
 defects, in order that their style of life, which they 
 hold to be virtuous, may be the more highly prized 
 and esteemed. 
 
 And it is moreover true, that superstitions and 
 ceremonies having their origin and beginning in 
 
CONSIDERATION LX. 387 
 
 some sort of law which men devise for themselves, 
 severity and rigour being intimately associated with 
 the nature of law, because it is by these that it 
 upholds and maintains itself, it comes to pass that 
 both they who are zealously intent upon the obser- 
 vance of the Law, or of the ceremonies and supersti- 
 tions that are derived from it, and they who are 
 intent upon having it obeyed by others, are severe 
 and rigorous against those who do not keep it 
 
 From this I understand the cause whence sprung 
 the severity and rigour among the Jews, and for this 
 reason I do not wonder if they, who in point of being 
 superstitious and ceremonious resemble the Jews, are 
 likewise severe against the vices and defects of men. 
 And what strikes me as of the higher importance is, 
 that I hereby understand why it was that God was, 
 under the legal dispensation, severe and rigorous, 
 manifesting towards men more severity and rigour 
 than compassion and mercy, although He evinced 
 towards them both the one and the other. 
 
 And it is of still higher importance to me hereby 
 to understand, that since God sent His only begotten 
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord into the world, men are 
 no longer under the Law, but under the Gospel, which 
 is alien to severity and rigour. It flows from this, 
 that they who are subject to the Gospel, being the 
 people of God, are not severe, nor are they rigorous, 
 against the vices and defects of men ; nay, on the con- 
 trary, they are compassionate and merciful. And 
 moreover it follows from this that God shows more 
 pity and mercy than severity and rigour. 
 
 So that a disposition in man evincing severity 
 and rigour is a mark of self-love and of a mind sub- 
 ject to the Law, to superstitions and to ceremonies, as 
 
 were the minds of the Jews ; whilst a disposition 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 CONSIDERATION LXI. 
 
 compassionate and'merciful is a token of mortification 
 and of a mind freed by the Gospel from the Law, as 
 are those of true Christians, members of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXI. 
 
 In what manner a pious person conducts himself in the 
 circumstances which befall him. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that every pious person governs 
 himself in the circumstances which befall him in the 
 present life in this manner. The incidents being of 
 such a nature that his own will does not concur in 
 them, if they be adverse and contrary, as the loss of 
 honour, or of property, or the death of some person 
 that is dear to him, he consoles himself by saying, 
 ' Thus it has pleased God ; ' and if they be prosperous 
 and favourable, as in the increase of outward wealth 
 and inward good, he does not swell with pride, for 
 he reflects, ' This has been God's work, and not mine.' 
 The incidents being of such a kind that his own 
 will does concur in them, if they be evil, as are his 
 own short-comings and sins, he embraces Christ, 
 saying, ' If there be in me short-comings^ and trans- 
 gressions, in Christ there is satisfaction and justifica- 
 tion ; ' and. if they be good and gracious, either in 
 outward works or inward feelings, he is not arrogantly 
 puffed up, because he sees in such things the goodness 
 of God, and not his own. 
 
CONSIDERATION LXI. 389 
 
 And I understand that the satisfaction which such 
 a person finds in the things which he does well, 
 resembles the satisfaction a person feels when he 
 makes a well-shaped letter, because his hand is 
 guided by that of another, a good penman. I mean 
 to say, that just as this person is satisfied at seeing 
 the letter formed by his hand, though not by his own 
 ability, attributing the ability to the hand which 
 guided his, and attributing the defects that are in 
 the letter to himself, knowing that the other would 
 have made it much better with his hand ; so the 
 spiritual person feels contented when considering 
 the works that God operates in him and by him, 
 attributing them to God, and attributing to himself 
 the errors that are in them, knowing that they 
 would be much better had God performed them 
 without him. That this is true, those persons will 
 understand from personal experience, who have that 
 relish of the things of the Holy Spirit, which they 
 acquire through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
390 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXII. 
 
 That human wisdom, has no greater jurisdiction in forming 
 
 a judgment of the works of those who are 
 
 sons of God, than it has in those of 
 God Himself. 
 
 In the same manner, and for the same reason that 
 St. Paul understood that they who are led (ayovTai) 
 by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Rom. viii. 14), 
 do I understand that they who are the sons of God 
 are led by the Spirit of God. 
 
 And I understand that just as human wisdom is 
 incapable of the knowledge of God, so similarly it is 
 incapable of the knowledge of those who are the sons 
 of God, and that just as human wisdom does not 
 fathom and apprehend the admirable counsel there 
 is in the works of God, so neither does it fathom 
 and apprehend the divine counsel involved in the 
 works of those who are the sons of God, for both 
 the one and the other are wrought by the Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 Moreover I understand that when human wisdom 
 assumes to sit in judgment on the works of those 
 who are sons of God, condemning and censuring 
 them, it acts with the same rashness which is 
 
CONSIDERATION LXII. 391 
 
 shown when it presumes to sit in judgment upon the 
 works of God Himself, condemning and calumniating 
 them. 
 
 I mean to say, that that rashness is no less with which 
 men who follow the judgment of human wisdom 
 take upon themselves to condemn Moses, because 
 of the Jews whom he slew when they worshipped 
 the calf (Exod. xxxii. 26 — 28), and when they take 
 upon themselves to condemn Abraham, because 
 he commanded his wife Sarah to utter a falsehood, 
 saying that she was his sister, and not his wife 
 (Gen. xii. 12 and 13), and to condemn St. Paul for 
 cursing Ananias, before whom he was standing for 
 judgment (Acts xxiii. i — ^5), and for excusing the 
 curse by saying that he did not know him ; and 
 similarly when they take upon themselves to sit in 
 judgment upon things like these which the sons of 
 God do, being guided by the Holy Spirit, which 
 according to the judgment of human wisdom are 
 absurd and reprehensible, and according to the judg- 
 ment of God are holy and good, — I say that this is 
 no less rashness than that with which they take upon 
 themselves to judge evil of God, because He favours 
 many undeserving people with worldly prosperity, 
 and keeps many good men destitute, and because 
 He does many other things which human wisdom 
 speaks evil of and condemns, and for which human 
 laws punish rigorously those who do them. 
 
 Since human wisdom has no greater jurisdiction 
 in passing a judgment upon the works of the pious 
 than it has upon the works of God, the latter being 
 done by God Himself, and the former by them who, 
 being the sons of God, are swayed by the Spirit of 
 God, and who on this account are free and exempt 
 from every human law, as God Himself is free and 
 
392 CONSIDERATION LXrir. 
 
 exempt ; I mean to say, that men would have been 
 no more justified in punishing Abraham, had he slain 
 his son Isaac, than in condemning God because He 
 cuts off many by sudden death. 
 
 But this guidance of the Spirit of God, is neither 
 known nor understood, save by those who participate 
 of this Spirit of God, as it is experimentally known, 
 and according to what is said of it by St. Paul, the 
 great preacher of the Gospel of God and of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXIII. 
 
 That the Holy Scripture is like a candle in a dark 
 
 place, and that the Holy Spirit is like the sun: 
 
 this is shown by seven illustrations. 
 
 St. Peter, in his second Epistle, chapter i. i9,judges 
 that the man who seeks to be pious, having no other 
 light than that of the Holy Scriptures, is like a man who 
 stands in a dark place, having no other light in it than 
 that of a candle ; and he judges that the man who 
 seeks to be pious, having obtained the Spirit of God to 
 guide him and bring him forward in it, is like a man 
 who stands in a place where the rays of the sun 
 enter, which make it bright and resplendent. Where- 
 upon I consider seven things. 
 
 The first, that as the man who stands in the dark 
 
NOTE TO 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXIII. 
 
 Page 392. 
 
 The teaching of Valdds, in Consideration 
 LXIII., as declared by Dr. Boehmer in his 
 article upon the Biography and Writings of 
 Valdds, in Herzog's Theological and Ecclesias- 
 tical Encyclopedia, is this : ' Vald6s would here 
 teach nothing other than that the Holy Spirit, 
 as the fountain of Holy Scripture, stands higher 
 than it; that He alone, from whom it is de-. 
 rived, opens its true understanding, whilst no 
 other spirit can do so, {compare Consideration 
 LXVIII.) That He, moreover, has reserved to 
 Himself the power immediately to reveal the 
 eternal truth there recorded, in order to be 
 read by the aid of His immediate inspiration ; 
 and that He actually exerts this inspiration ; 
 and that this knowledge taken at the fountain 
 head, is fresher than that got from the con- 
 duit, and more abundant than that which is 
 there meeted out. Whence it is evident that 
 any spirit, in contradiction of the Holy Spirit's 
 speaking in the words of Holy Scripture, would 
 not be a Holy Spirit but an Evil one.' 
 
CON^Sl DERATION LXIII. 393 
 
 place is better off with a candle than without it, so 
 the man who seeks to be pious, which is with regard 
 to him a dark place forasmuch as his reason and 
 human wisdom rather prejudice him with reference 
 to it than prove useful to him, is better off with Holy 
 Scripture than without it. 
 
 The second thing that I consider is, that as the 
 man in a dark place does not see the things that are 
 in it as clearly and plainly with the candle as he 
 would see them with the sun, just so the man who 
 is intent on piety neither understands nor does he 
 know the things of God, nor God Himself, so clearly 
 and plainly by Holy Scripture as he would be able 
 to see and know them by the Spirit of God. 
 
 The third thing that I consider is, that as the man 
 who stands in a dark place, with the light of the candle 
 only, is in danger of being left in the dark, should 
 anything happen to extinguish the candle, so the 
 man who, intent on piety, has no other light than that 
 of Holy Scripture, is in danger of being left without 
 light, should anything happen that would deprive 
 him of Holy Scripture, or of the right apprehension 
 of it 
 
 The fourth thing that I consider is, that as to the 
 man who stands in a dark place, where there is the 
 light of a candle, it happens at times, that desiring it 
 should give more light, he either snuffs it himself, or 
 gets some one else to snuff it for him, and it comes; 
 to pass that it is put out in the snuffing, and the man 
 is left without light ; just so it is with the man who 
 is intent on piety, being only aided therein by that 
 which he knows and understands of Holy Scripture ; 
 it comes to pass at times, that desiring to understand 
 more and better, either of itself, or through its in- 
 strumentality, he either interprets it himself, or gets 
 
394 CONSIDERATION LX3II. 
 
 some one else to interpret it for him, and it comes 
 to pass that in interpreting it, by converting Holy 
 Scripture into human composition, the man remains 
 . in the dark, although he may persuade himself that 
 he is not so. 
 
 The fifth thing that I consider is, that as it hap- 
 pens when the rays of the sun, by penetrating a dark 
 place where the man was using only the light of a 
 candle, enable the man to see there more clearly 
 than before, all the things that are in that place, — 
 the candle becoming dim and as it were without 
 brilliancy, so that when the man is desirous of 
 seeing the things that are on that spot, the candle is 
 that to which he pays the least attention: — just so, 
 when the Holy Spirit enters into the mind of a man 
 intent on piety, and availing himself to that end of 
 Holy Scripture, it comes to pass that the man under- 
 stands and knows the things of God and God Him- 
 self more clearly than he did previously, the Holy 
 Scripture being, as far as he is concerned, as it 
 were without light and brilliancy, so that now, 
 desiring to understand objects connected with piety 
 and to know God, what engages his attention least 
 is Holy Scripture, being fixed on considering what 
 is presented to his mind by the Holy Spirit, and not 
 what is recorded in Scripture. 
 
 And therefore it is well that St. Peter commends 
 the study of Holy Scripture, restricting it, however, 
 to the time during which man is shut up in the dark 
 place of human wisdom and reason, and desires that 
 this study last until the light of the Holy Spirit 
 shine into the soul ; understanding that when this 
 light has come, man has no longer need to seek that 
 of Holy Scripture, which goes out of itself, just as 
 the light of a candle goes out of itself when the rays 
 
CONSIDERATION LXIII. 395 
 
 ,of the sun force their way in upon it, and just in 
 the same way as Moses goes out at the coming of 
 Christ, and the Law at the presence of the Gospel. 
 
 The sixth thing that I consider is, that as the man 
 who enjoys the light of the sun, were he to know as- 
 suredly that it would never fail him, although he 
 would not throw the candle away on account of the 
 benefit received, but would, on the contrary, leave it, 
 in order that it might assist others in the way in 
 which it has assisted him, he would not therefore 
 avail himself of it for T)bjects with reference to which 
 he had previously used it; just so the man who enjoys 
 the light of the Holy Spirit, being assured that it can 
 never fail him, though he does not throw the Holy 
 Scriptures aside, nay, on the contrary, he leaves them, 
 in order that they may assist others in that wherein 
 they have served him, still for all that he does not 
 employ them as he previously did, as I have re- 
 marked in divers places already. 
 
 The seventh thing that I consider is, that as it is 
 not inherently essential in the sun, when it enters 
 the place where there is a candle, that it should show 
 and discover all that enters into the candle's compo- 
 sition, just so likewise neither is it of the essence of 
 the Holy Spirit, when He enters the mind of a man 
 who, intent on piety, avails himself of Holy Scripture, 
 to show and discover all the secrets that are involved 
 in it, although He shows and discovers that part of 
 them which God desires be discovered to the man 
 to whom the Holy Spirit is given. 
 
 The gifts of the Holy Spirit are diverse ; and the 
 Holy Scriptures being written by divers persons, 
 who had different gifts of the Holy Spirit, they thus 
 wrote differently ; it is, consequently, understood by 
 individuals who have the Holy Spirit, by one in one 
 
396 CONSIDERATION LXI\r. 
 
 part, and by another in anotHer part ; even as the 
 gifts are diverse which God communicates to them, 
 with the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXIV. 
 
 As to the manner in which our Lord Jesus Christ desires 
 to be followed and imitated. 
 
 Having already at other times alluded in these Con- 
 siderations to the mode in which I then understood 
 what our Lord Jesus Christ says in Matt. xvi. 24, 
 ' Qui vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum, et 
 tollat crucem suam, et sequatur -me' ' He who will 
 come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross and follow me,' I now proceed to say, with 
 maturer consideration, what I understand Christ to 
 express in those words, namely, ' Let every one who 
 shall desire to follow Me, who shall be desirous of 
 being a Christian, renounce that which human wisdom 
 teaches, saying, " That man should not be wanting to 
 himself, to his connections, nor to his honour, from 
 the motive of not being found wanting to God, to 
 His people, nor to the honour of God ; " and let him 
 take up his cross, which is his martyrdom, the shame 
 and the ignominy which he will suffer in the eyes of 
 men of the world, in being wanting to self, to his own 
 connections, and to his honour. And doing so he 
 will follow Me, who was wanting to Myself, making 
 
CONSIDERATION LXIV. 397 
 
 Myself of a son, a servant, in order not to be wanting 
 towards God ; and I was wanting to Mine own, in 
 not holding any to be Mine, save those whom God 
 has called and made Mine, making them holy and 
 just ; and I was wanting to My honour, in consenting 
 to die as a malefactor ; and he who, doing thus, shall 
 follow Me, will " be truly a Christian." ' So that, 
 properly, the prejudice and shame which result to 
 the Christian, by the denial of himself, in being 
 wanting to himself, to his own connections, and to 
 his. honour, is the Christian's cross and is the same 
 actually as following Christ. 
 
 I mean to say, that these words of Christ are tan- 
 tamount to this, as if I should say : He who will be 
 a Christian, let him esteem himself dead to the world, 
 so far as not to seek worldly fame or reputation ; and 
 let him aim at that at which Christ aimed, and let 
 him seek that which Christ sought, and in this mode 
 he will be a true Christian, as are they who, knowing 
 and feeling themselves to be bought by Christ, hold 
 and acknowledge Him for Lord and master, and such 
 persons worship the true God in Spirit and in truth, 
 who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
3^8; 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXV. 
 
 How that passage is to be understood in which St. Paul 
 says, that Christ reigns and shall reign until, the resur- 
 rection of the just being accomplished, He deliver 
 up the kingdom to His Eternal Father. 
 
 The men who are subject to rule in the king- 
 dom of this world, live under four very cruel tyrants 
 — the devil, the flesh, honour, and death. The 
 devil tyrannises over them, renders them impious 
 and enemies of God, and leads them on frequently 
 so to act that they, in different modes, kill them- 
 selves. The flesh tyrannises over them, makes 
 them vicious and licentious. Honour tyrannises 
 over them, renders them fickle, vain, and pre- 
 sumptuous, so that in living they die. Death 
 tyrannises over them, does not permit them to enjoy 
 their own prosperity and good fortune, but cuts them 
 off in their career. 
 
 This tyranny is not understood save by those who 
 feel it ; and they alone feel it who are anxiously 
 desirous to enter into the kingdom of God. They 
 strive after holiness, they labour to mortify the 
 flesh, and they would fain disengage themselves 
 from the world, they repudiate its glory and its 
 
CONSIDERATION LXV. 399 
 
 honour, and they meditate to prepare themselves and 
 to be contented to die ; but no sooner do they wish to 
 do this than they find difficulties ; they feel and ex- 
 perience death's tyranny, and they know that they 
 are tyrannised over. 
 
 These very persons, if their desire to enter into 
 the kingdom of God be a call of God Himself and 
 not their own caprice, accepting the justice of God 
 executed upon Christ as their own, do in this present 
 life escape from the tyranny of three of the tyrants ; 
 they pass from the kingdom of the world, and through 
 Christ enter into the kingdom of God. I mean to 
 say, that Christ reigns as the Son of God, He being 
 in those who are in His kingdom, and with them 
 properly, what the head is to the members of the 
 body ; for just as vjrtue and efficacy descend from 
 the head to the members of the body, they being 
 ruled by it, so virtue and efficacy descend from 
 Christ to those who are in the kingdom of Christ, 
 with which they combat the tyrants who despotically 
 rule other men. And thus they are ruled by Christ 
 in this present life, and through Him they shall 
 attain to the resurrection and life eternal ; and thus 
 they shall be brought from subjection to the tyranny 
 of the fourth tyrant, which is death, and shall enter into 
 the kingdom of God, where God Himself will reign. 
 
 In the meanwhile, they who have passed from the 
 kingdom of the world, having felt the tyranny of the 
 four tyrants, feel the charm and sweetness of the 
 kingdom of Christ ; experiencing inwardly the virtue 
 and efficacy of Christ and the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, and feeling themselves to be lords and masters 
 of their sensual appetites, and of the worldly affections 
 of honour and ambition; having determined their own 
 course of conduct, and their bearing to the world, 
 
4oa. -CONSIDERATION LXV. 
 
 forasmuch as being incorporated into Christ, they find 
 their flesh to be dead, and their regard for the world to 
 be dead Hkewise, and being assured of their resurrec- 
 tion, immortality, and eternal life. Such assurance 
 works this effect in them, that though they experience 
 death as far as the body is concerned, yet through an 
 assured hope of the resurrection they do not feel it 
 as to the soul. I understand the kingdom of Christ 
 to consist in this. 
 
 : And because when the resurrection of the just 
 shall have been accomplished we shall no longer 
 have to resist the devil, nor will it be necessary to 
 mortify the flesh, nor to oppose the world, nor will 
 it then remain to conquer death, I understand what 
 St. Paul says, that then ' Christ will deliver up the 
 kingdom to His Eternal Father,, and that God shall 
 be all in all' (i Cor. xv. 24 — 28), ruling and govern- 
 ing everything Himself So that the kingdom of 
 Christ, according to St. Paul, shall last until the uni- 
 versal resurrection, and the kingdom of God in men 
 shall then commence, and be permanent, men con- 
 tinually acknowledging the benefit received from 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 • As it happens to a thirsty traveller to whom a 
 glass of spring water is presented ; while drinking 
 he feels the use of the vessel which holds the water 
 given him, and having drunk, when the glass is laid 
 aside, he thanks the individual who gave him drink, 
 though he knows that he received that benefit by 
 means of the glass. And just as the grateful travel- 
 ler who is refreshed with a glass of cold water, 
 experiences, while he drinks, the use of the glass, 
 •and after he has drunk, feeling and acknowledging 
 the kindness of the individual who gave him the 
 glass, knows likewise the advantage of the glass ; so 
 
CONSIDERATION LXVI. 401 
 
 men, whilst they are in this present life, experience 
 the kingdom of Christ, knowing by experience the 
 benefit of Christ, and in the life eternal they will feel 
 and know the kindness of God, who has given them 
 Christ, and they will acknowledge the benefit ren- 
 dered by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXVI. 
 
 Whence it is that the Evil Spirit is more impetuous 
 than the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Being desirous of understanding which spirit is 
 the more impetuous in man, the Holy Spirit or the 
 Evil Spirit, I come to the conclusion that the Evil 
 Spirit is much more impetuous in the wicked man 
 than the Holy Spirit in the good man, being brought 
 to this conclusion by two considerations ; one of 
 which is founded on the peculiar nature of spirits, for 
 the Evil Spirit is by nature impetuous, and the Holy 
 Spirit is by nature gentle and quiet — so much so, 
 that if there be occasionally impetuosity or change 
 in the latter, such excitement is not inherent, but 
 owing to the liveliness of the man's flesh, in and by 
 whom the Holy Spirit operates ; and the other is 
 based upon the peculiar nature of man, for he being 
 more inclined to the movements of the Evil Spirit 
 than to those of the Holy Spirit, it comes to pass that 
 he is inclined towards those of the Evil Spirit by his 
 
 D D 
 
402 CONSIDERATION LXVI. 
 
 own peculiar nature, whilst he is by the very same 
 cause averse to those of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 So that the Evil Spirit being in its own nature im- 
 petuous, and being stimulated in the wicked man by 
 his own peculiar nature, and the Holy Spirit being 
 obstructed in the good man by his own peculiar nature 
 in so far as he is man, it comes to pass that the Evil 
 Spirit is more impetuous in the wicked man than the 
 Holy Spirit in the good one. 
 
 Whilst I understand that the Holy Spirit is wont 
 to be anything but impetuous in the wicked man, and 
 that the Evil Spirit is more or less impetuous in the 
 good man, according as he finds greater or less live- 
 liness of affections within him ; and I understand the 
 movement of the Holy Spirit to be more or less 
 efficient in the same man, according as his self-morti- 
 fication is greater or less, since the force and impetus 
 of the Evil Spirit are increased by the vividness of 
 the affections and appetites of the good man, and 
 are repressed and obstructed by mortification ; and as 
 it is moreover true that the movements of the Holy 
 Spirit are retarded and repressed by the liveliness of 
 the affections and appetites of the good man, and are 
 increased and developed by mortification. Under- 
 standing all this to be true, I understand -likewise 
 that the good man who shall desire that the move- 
 ments of the Evil Spirit be neither powerful nor 
 efficient within him, and that the movements of the 
 Holy Spirit be energetic and efficient within him, 
 must attend to the mortification of his affections and 
 appetites, earnestly seeking to slay in himself all that 
 is derived from Adam, and to quicken all that he de- 
 rives from Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
403 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXVII. 
 
 That as they alone who ai-e regenerated by the Holy 
 Spirit have any experience in divine things, so like- 
 wise they alone have assurance of them. 
 
 All that is done, known, and understood in this 
 life, is so either by natural instinct, or by experience, 
 or by information, or by divine inspiration and 
 revelation. 
 
 Animals have natural instinct and experience, as 
 all may know by consideration. Men are generally 
 endowed with natural instinct and experience as are 
 the animals, but of far greater excellence ; and they 
 are susceptible of information too, which I understand 
 to consist in what one man learns of another, having 
 thereby no greater assurance than the report which 
 is made to him, and this as much in divine things as 
 in worldly ones. 
 
 Those regenerated by the Holy Spirit are endowed 
 with natural instinct, experience, and information, and 
 in addition, with divine inspiration and revelation. I 
 mean to say, that regenerate nten know, are ac- 
 quainted with, and understand some things by natural 
 instinct, some by experience, some by information, 
 and some by divine inspiration, natural instinct being 
 less defiled and more pure in them than in other men. 
 They are experienced not only in natural and hu- 
 man things, as are other men, but likewise in things 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 CONSIDERATION LXVII. 
 
 spiritual and divine ; whilst they not only acquire in- 
 formation from other men, but likewise by inspira- 
 tion and revelation from God. 
 
 All men who are destitute of the Holy Spirit, are 
 without experience in spiritual and divine things, 
 having only that knowledge of them which is ac- 
 quired from the Holy Scriptures ; whence it comes 
 to pass, that just as in human and natural things of 
 which they have no experience, knowing nothing but 
 by report, they can but hold an opinion, and are 
 wholly destitute of certainty, just so in divine things, 
 being without experience, they can only hold an 
 opinion, but are wholly destitute of certainty. 
 
 Since where there is no experience there can be 
 no certainty, and since experience in the things of 
 God is reserved for those who have the Spirit of 
 God, they, having experience in spiritual things, know 
 that they know them, and that they understand 
 also natural and human things. 
 
 I mean to say, that there is as much difference be- 
 tween what regenerate men know, are acquainted 
 with, and understand of divine things, and what other 
 men know, are acquainted with, and understand of 
 the same, however wise they may be, as there is be- 
 tween what they who are only conversant with medi- 
 cine theoretically know, are acquainted with, and 
 understand of medicine, and what medical men know 
 and understand of it, who to theory have added prac- 
 tice. Hence I am led to infer that unregenerate men, 
 not having experience in divine things; can have 
 neither fixed and firm reliance, nor distrust, but only 
 an opinion such as they form in human things. 
 
 And hence the truth of what I have written in 
 another consideration (VII.), that God frequently 
 gives pious persons some things which they have no 
 
CONSIDERATION LXVII. 405 
 
 confidence of obtaining, while He denies them some 
 others which they confidently expect to realise ; but let 
 it be understood that this comes to pass when their 
 reliance and their distrust is based upon information 
 and opinion, and not upon experience and certainty. 
 
 Again, I come to the conclusion that regenerate 
 men, being experienced in spiritual things, have cer- 
 tainty in reference to them, and that, having certainty, 
 they attain also to both fixed and firm confidence 
 and distrust And hence that proves true which I 
 have written in another consideration (LIX.), that by 
 the certainty or uncertainty which pious persons find 
 in themselves in prayer, they are enabled to know 
 when they are inspired to pray by the Holy Spirit, 
 and when they are moved to pray by the spirit of 
 man, and consequently when they have cause to rely 
 and when to distrust 
 
 Hezekiah, the king of Judah, was experienced in 
 spiritual things,' and for this reason : being inspired to 
 pray in his sickness, he prayed, and his life was pro- 
 longed even as he trusted ; and the same king, dis- 
 trusting his ability to obtain by prayer that God 
 would revoke His sentence against Jerusalem, declined 
 to pray. Had he not had experience in divine things, 
 and had he been ruled only by information, he would 
 have prayed with so much greater confidence in 
 asking the revocation of the sentence against Jerusa- 
 lem, since by prayer he had obtained the revocation 
 of the sentence against his own life ; but having ex- 
 perience, he ceased to be governed by information, and 
 thus he stood firm in confidence, and firm in distrust 
 And if experience of divine things taught this to one 
 of those who had but Moses' spirit, how much better 
 will it teach those who have the Spirit of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord ? 
 
4o6 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXVIII. 
 
 The craving in man after knowledge is an imperfection, 
 
 though in the judgment of human wisdom it be 
 
 the reverse. 
 
 Human wisdom believes the craving after know- 
 ledge to be a great perfection in man, and the Holy 
 Spirit adjudges it to be a great imperfection in him. 
 Human wisdom confirms its opinion by saying that 
 it is matter of experimental observation that those 
 men have lived most virtuously in the world, who, 
 having the greatest desire after knowledge, have re- 
 signed themselves the most to this longing, and they 
 have known the most, and here it instances a multitude 
 of philosophers. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, confirms His 
 sentence by saying that it was through the craving 
 after knowledge that sin came into the world, and 
 through sin, death, and with it all the miseries and 
 all the trials to which we are in this life subject. 
 And that this is true He proves by the suggestion 
 of the devil, who said to Eve, ' Eritis sicut Dii, 
 scientes bonum et malum', ' Ye shall be as Gods, 
 knowing good and evil ' (Gen. iii. 5). 
 
 Still further, the Holy Spirit declares that it was 
 the craving after knowledge which destroyed the 
 Jews, for being desirous of understanding the pro- 
 
CONSIDERATION LXVIII. 407 
 
 phecies which speak of the Messiah, and seeking to 
 understand them by their natural capacity and by 
 human discourse, they imagined and portrayed to 
 themselves a Messiah, so contrary to Him whom 
 God sent them, that when He appeared they knew 
 Him not, and not knowing Him, they did not receive 
 Him ; and from their not receiving Him it came to 
 pass that not only did they not rejoice in Him, but 
 involved themselves in ruin and perdition. 
 
 Further, the Holy Spirit declares that the Gen- 
 tiles, craving to know the origin and beginning of 
 natural objects, tried to know them by their natural 
 ability and their own discourses. Whence that was 
 brought about of which St. Paul speaks, when he says, 
 ' Evanuerunt in cogitationibus suis' ' They grew vain 
 in their thoughts,' and worshipped created objects, 
 and precipitated themselves into things absurd, filthy, 
 and unbecoming (Rom. i.). 
 
 Similarly the Holy Spirit declares that many per- 
 sons craving to know the things pertaining to the 
 Christian religion, and seeking to do so by the light 
 of nature, have formed such strange conceptions of 
 God and of Christ, of Christianity and of the Chris- 
 tian life, that it may truly be said, that they have 
 nothing of Christ but the name ; committing, on the 
 one hand, the error of the Jews, inasmuch as they 
 read the Holy Scriptures, and desiring to understand 
 them, and endeavouring to do so not with the spiritual 
 light with which they were written, but with the 
 light of nature, they do not understand them ; and 
 committing, on the other hand, the error of the Gen- 
 tiles, inasmuch as, desirous of knowing what the 
 Gentiles knew, they read what the Gentiles wrote, 
 and feel what the Gentiles felt, and mould their 
 minds in a Gentile frame. 
 
4o8 CONSIDERATION LXVIII. 
 
 The Holy Spirit having justified His sentence 
 against the craving after knowledge with which men 
 are possessed, declares moreover that the virtue 
 which is acquired by craving to know, and by know- 
 ing what may be known by the Hght of nature, is 
 rather vice than virtue, since it makes men presump- 
 tuous and insolent, and consequently irreligious and 
 unbelieving. 
 
 That this is true, agrees with the fact, that they 
 who follow the light of nature, in proportion as they 
 are more virtuous according to the world, so likewise 
 do they place less trust in God, and so much the less 
 do they believe in Christ, and are for that very reason 
 the more irreligious and the more unbelieving ; so that 
 it is correct to state that the craving after knowledge 
 is in man a great imperfection. 
 
 I learn two things by this argument ; the first, that 
 human wisdom has no jurisdiction in judging of 
 man's perfection or imperfection. The second corre- 
 sponds with it, namely, that it is the duty of every 
 man who is called by God to the grace of the Gospel 
 to mortify and slay the inward craving after know- 
 ledge, let the mode of its manifestation be whatever 
 it may, in order to escape the fault of false Christians, 
 of the Gentiles, and of the Jews, and to avoid that 
 into which our first parents fell, and to arrive at 
 that perfection which St. Paul attained, neither 
 craving after, nor seeking to know anything, save 
 Christ, and Him crucified. Which knowledge we 
 ought to crave and seek after, but with prayer to 
 God ; we who, having accepted the grace of the Gospel, 
 are true Christians, incorporated in Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
409 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXIX. 
 
 That man should ever recognise himself to be incredulous 
 
 and wanting in faith ; and that a man's faith is in 
 
 proportion to his knowledge of God and of Christ. 
 
 When I consider the very great efficacy which our 
 Lord Jesus Christ attaches to faith, declaring that, 
 however small it may be, we might with it remove 
 mountains from one spot to another (Matt, xvii.), 
 reverting then to myself, and finding myself wanting 
 in faith of such power, I know how weak and feeble 
 my faith is ; and then I direct my spirit to God, say- 
 ing with the Apostles, ' Domine, auge mihi fidem-l 
 ' Lord, increase my faith ' (Luke xvii. 5), and saying 
 with the father of the lunatic, ' Domine, adjuva 
 incredulitatem meaml ' Lord, help my unbelief ' 
 (Mark ix. 24). And understanding that faith has to 
 come to me as the gift of God, and holding it to be 
 a thing assured, that I shall have faith in proportion 
 to my knowledge of God and of Christ (since men, 
 however well they may be informed by other men, 
 only confide in them to the extent of their knowledge 
 of them), I address myself to God, to ask of Him 
 that He would deign to make Himself known to me, 
 and that He would permit me to see Him, and that 
 it may be granted me to know and see Christ as 
 
4IO CONSIDERATION LXIX. 
 
 much as may be in this present life, in order that I 
 may have confidence, and that in this way my faith 
 may be strong and effectual. 
 
 Hence I consider the craft of the enemy of the 
 human race and the arch-enemy of Christ, who, for- 
 asmuch as he understood with what intent Christ 
 magnified the power of faith which led men, however 
 much they believed and however much they confided, 
 ever to judge themselves to be incredulous and want- 
 ing in faith ; Satan has brought it to pass, that it is, 
 among those who accept the Gospel of Christ, 
 honourable to believe, and dishonourable to be un- 
 believing or sceptical ; so that they, persuading 
 themselves that their honour is involved in their belief, 
 should not recognise themselves to be incredulous 
 and wanting in faith, and that thus they should 
 never come to attain what Christ insists upon that 
 they ought to attain, namely, the knowledge of God 
 and of Christ, and through knowledge, faith, and 
 through faith, justification ; and through justification, 
 glory and eternal life. 
 
 And the blindness and the ignorance of men who 
 see only through the eyes of human wisdom, is indeed 
 great in everything ; but greatest in this, for rejecting 
 hearsay testimony in secular matters, and admitting 
 only certain knowledge and personal experience, it 
 accepts hearsay as sufficient evidence in divine mat- 
 ters, both for itself and others, as carrying conviction, 
 not abiding by certain knowledge nor personal expe- 
 rience ; on the contrary, neither pretending to the one 
 nor striving after the other, and what is worse, re- 
 buking those who aim at certainty of knowledge and 
 seek experience, being dissatisfied with the hearsay 
 report of others. 
 
 Now I understand that those persons have cer- 
 
CONSIDERATION LXIX. 411 
 
 tainty of knowledge in divine things who know God 
 and Christ by revelation and inspiration, concerning 
 which things they alone can testify who have them, 
 and their testimony is true. 
 
 Others, if they give hearsay evidence concerning 
 them, their testimony is not true, for they do not feel 
 as they speak. 
 
 And I understand that those persons are experi- 
 enced in these things of God who find and feel within 
 them the results which the knowledge of Christ 
 works inwardly, which makes them righteous, and 
 consequently the results of piety and of justification. 
 
 The rest of mankind, when they give evidence in 
 these matters, not having the experience of them, 
 their testimony is not true, for they do not feel what 
 they speak. 
 
 I gather from all this, that man ought to judge 
 himself incredulous and wanting in faith whilst he 
 has not that faith which is sufficient to remove 
 mountains from one place to another ; and that, ad- 
 judging himself to be so, he ought to ask God to 
 give him faith, not contenting himself to testify of 
 divine things upon hearsay and by report, but with 
 certainty of knowledge and upon personal experience. 
 
 Further, I am brought to the conclusion, that man 
 has practically as much faith as he has the knowledge 
 of God and of Christ, and that by faith man attains 
 justification, and by justification glory and life eternal; 
 and that God being able to give man in an instant of 
 time so much knowledge of Himself and of Christ, 
 letting Himself be known and showing him Christ, 
 as suffices to induce belief, we ought never to des- 
 pair of the salvation of man, so long as there is 
 breath in the body, ever hoping that God may do 
 that which He is able and wont to do, letting Himself 
 
412 CONSIDERATION LXX. 
 
 be Tcnown, aiid showing him Christ, in order that 
 knowing he may believe and love ; and that believing, 
 he may enjoy Christian justification ; and enjoying 
 Christian justification, he may go to live and reign 
 with Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXX. 
 
 Of the nature of those three gifts of God, Faith, Hope, 
 
 and Charity ; and wherein their eminence amongst other 
 
 gifts consists; also the pre-eminence of charity. 
 
 Considering that the Apostle places Faith, Hope, 
 and Charity amongst the highest and most excellent 
 of God's gifts, I have frequently occupied myself in 
 examining in what this eminence consists, and not 
 having been able rightly to understand of what they 
 consist, it appears to me that I have not been able 
 to understand wherein consists their eminence over 
 the rest. 
 
 But beginning now, as it appears to me, to under- 
 stand of what they consist, I begin likewise to per- 
 ceive wherein their pre-eminence consists. 
 
 I understand that FAITH consists in this : that 
 a man believes and holds for certain all that is con- 
 tained in Holy Scripture, placing his trust in the divine 
 promises contained in them, as if they had been pecu- 
 liarly and principally made to himself. As to those two 
 
CONSIDERATION LXX. 413 
 
 parts of faith, belief and confidence, I understand that 
 the human mind is in some measure capable of the 
 one ; I mean to say, that man is self-sufficient to bring 
 himself to believe, or to persuade himself that he be- 
 lieves ; but I understand him to be incapable of the 
 other ; I mean to say, that he is not self-sufficient to 
 bring himself to confide, nor to persuade himself that 
 he does confide. So that he who believes and does 
 not confide, shows that his belief is due to mental in- 
 dustry and human ability, and not to divine inspira- 
 tion ; and he that in believing confides, shows that his 
 belief is due to inspiration and revelation. Whence 
 I understand that confidence is a good sign in a 
 man whereby to get assured that his belief is due to 
 inspiration and revelation. 
 
 I understand that HOPE consists in the patience 
 and endurance with which the man that believes and 
 confides, awaits the fulfilment of God's promises, 
 without impiously engaging himself in the service of 
 Satan, or vainly in that of the world, or viciously 
 in that of his own fleshly lusts. Like an officer who, 
 having been promised by the emperor that on his 
 arrival in Italy he would give him a commission, 
 although the emperor delays, and he is solicited by 
 many princes, who would avail themselves of his ser- 
 vices, he declines to accept any terms, awaiting the 
 emperor's arrival, fearing lest, if he should come and 
 find him in the service of another, he would be un- 
 willing to employ him. This hope presupposes 
 faith. I mean to say, that to wait involves necessarily 
 faith upon the part of him who hopes, by which he 
 credits what has been said to him, and places trust 
 in what has been promised him, for otherwise he 
 could not keep up his expectation. And that hope 
 properly consists in this, I understand from some 
 
414 CONSIDERATION LXX. 
 
 passages which we read in the Gospel, like that of 
 the ten virgins who wait for the bridegroom, and 
 that of the servants who await their Lord's return 
 (Matt. XXV.). 
 
 I understand that CHARITY consists in love and 
 affection, which the man who believes, confides, and 
 hopes, bears to God and Christ, and similarly to the 
 things of God and Christ, being peculiarly attracted 
 and enamoured by faith, confidence, and hope; so 
 that, because the man who has these three gifts of 
 God, is united to God in believing, hoping, and loving, 
 it is with great reason that these three gifts rank 
 above all others as the highest and most excellent. 
 
 Having understood in what these three gifts of 
 God consist, and what constitutes their pre-eminence, 
 and desiring to understand for what cause the same 
 Apostle places Charity above Faith and Hope as 
 being most eminent (i Cor. xiii.), I think and hold it 
 for certain that the pre-eminence consists in this : 
 that he who believes and confides will never be firm 
 in faith, unless he find pleasure and relish in believing 
 and confiding ; nor will he who hopes be firm in hope, 
 unless he find pleasure and relish in hoping. 
 
 Charity, then, being that which gives the taste and 
 relish with which Faith and Hope are sustained, it 
 plainly follows that charity is more eminent than 
 faith and hope, forasmuch as it maintains and sus- 
 tains the others, whilst unaided it maintains and sup- 
 ports itself; and inasmuch as Faith will fail when 
 there will be nothing to believe nor to confide in, and 
 Hope will fail when, Christ having comeagain and the 
 resurrection of the just having been accomplished, 
 there will remain nothing more to hope ; but Charity 
 will never fail, because it will always have objects to 
 love, and will always have what it can enjoy, for in 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXL 415 
 
 the life eternal we shall love God and Christ, and we 
 shall find pleasure and relish in the contemplation of 
 God and Christ ; we who in this life have lived in 
 Faith, Hope, and Charity, incorporated in Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXI. 
 
 On that most holy prayer, the Lord's prayer. 
 
 In that most holy prayer, our Lord's prayer, I find 
 occasion for the following reflections : — 
 
 First, that in calling God Father, it is right that I 
 bring myself to hope from God all that an obedient 
 son can hope from an exceedingly good and loving 
 father ; and this notwithstanding I am a disobedient 
 son, for God does not look upon me as I am in my- 
 self, but as I am in Christ, of whom I am a member; 
 and He was the most obedient Son, and through this 
 affiliation do I call God Father. If I should call 
 Hirn Father through ordinary generation, this would 
 imply my natural being ; but, calling Him Father 
 though individual regeneration does not imply my 
 being, except so far as to render me obedient or 
 disobedient, but, as I have said above, the being of 
 Christ, who was most obedient. And I understand 
 it moreover to be needful that I should bring myself 
 to be such with God, as a good and obedient son is 
 with his father. 
 
 Secondly, I consider that in saying ' Our Father ' 
 I presuppose that I hold all those for brethren who 
 
4i6 CONSIDERATION LXXI. 
 
 by regeneration have God for their Father, and that 
 I ought to bear myself towards them as brethren. 
 
 Thirdly, I consider that, forasmuch as God is 
 where He is known, the Holy Scriptures are wont to 
 represent Him as being in heaven, because it is there 
 that He is known. God is in all His creatures, but it is 
 not said that He abides in any, save in those who 
 know Him, or to whom He makes Himself known. 
 
 Fourthly, I consider that it is peculiarly the desire 
 of the devout Christian that God's name be sanctified ; 
 I mean to say, that God be esteemed and adjudged 
 by every one as holy and just in all His works, as He 
 in truth is. Human wisdom not finding either holi- 
 ness or righteousness in many things that occur to 
 men in this life, avoiding the impropriety of attribut- 
 ing injustice to God, falls into another, by taking from 
 Him His particular providence in all things. And 
 the Holy Spirit, knowing that holiness and justice 
 are ranged on the side of God in all things, does not 
 hesitate to attribute them all to God, desiring men 
 to subjugate the judgment of their human wisdom, 
 and to sanctify the name of God, in confessing and 
 in feeling that God does all things, and that holiness 
 and justice pervade them all. There are some men 
 who sanctify God in the things they deem good, with- 
 drawing "themselves from those which they deem evil ; 
 whilst there are others who sanctify God generally 
 in all things, but with the mouth, and not .with the 
 heart. But the desire of the devout Christian is, 
 that God be sanctified in all things, and that the 
 sanctification proceed from the heart, because God 
 wills that He be sanctified in this manner. 
 
 Fifthly, I consider the devout Christian's peculiar 
 and constant aspiration consists in desiring that the 
 kingdom of God may very speedily come, when the 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXI. 417 
 
 resurrection of the just having been accomplished, 
 Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to His Eternal 
 Father ; for that will be the kingdom of God in a 
 special sense, inasmuch as the just will be governed 
 immediately by God, seeing Him face to face. God 
 reigns in the Just, in this present life, but through 
 Christ, just as He gives light, but through the sun ; 
 and in the life eternal, God will reign Himself as He 
 Himself will then give light (Rev. xxi.). 
 
 Sixthly, I consider that devout Christians fleeing 
 from the will of God, which is associated with wrath, 
 and from that which is mediate, through what are 
 termed second causes, supplicate that that will 
 of God be done here on earth which is done in 
 heaven, understanding thereby that which is asso- 
 ciated with mercy and love, which is immediate, by 
 God Himself 
 
 Seventhly, I consider that pious Christians, feeling 
 that they eat the bread of anxiety and sorrow because 
 of the curse consequent on the sin of the first man, 
 pray God that, freed from anxiety and sorrow, He 
 would supply them with ordinary food, so that they 
 may, without anxiety and sorrow, be provided for 
 and sustained according to their necessities, they ac- 
 knowledging their maintenance to be due solely to 
 God's bounty ; and beginning herein to feel the 
 remedy of the first man's sin, they feel therewith the 
 benefit of Christ. 
 
 Eighthly, I consider that devout Christians ever 
 supplicate that He would pardon them those things 
 on account of which He might most justly punish 
 them ; not that they doubt of the general pardon 
 which they have had through the justice of God exe- 
 cuted upon Christ, for upon this point they are per- 
 fectly assured, but they rejoice in the recollection that 
 
 E E 
 
4i8 CONSIDERATION LXXI. 
 
 they are debtors, for such remembrance works humi- 
 lity in them before God. And I understand that they 
 allege the pardon which they have granted to those 
 who were indebted to them, rather to put themselves 
 under an obligation to pardon, than that God should 
 on that account pardon them. This I understand 
 from what Jesus Christ Himself adds in the Gospel, 
 saying, ' If ye forgive, ye shall be forgiven (Matt. vi.). 
 
 Ninthly, I consider that devout Christians, knowing 
 their weakness, fear temptation, forasmuch as it might 
 lead to a violation of the Christian character ; and 
 knowing at the same time their need of being mortified 
 by temptations, they pray to God, not that they be not 
 tempted, but that the temptations should be of such 
 a kind as not to lead them to forfeit their Christian 
 character. 
 
 Tenthly, I consider that devout Christians, being 
 aware how numerous the evils are with which the 
 righteous have to combat, fear lest they should suc- 
 cumb to them, and knowing the weakness of their 
 powers, they recur to God, entreating Him to deliver 
 them from them all. 
 
 I understand that devout persons persist and per- 
 severe in these petitions, not only from the outward 
 teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they find 
 in the narrative of His Hfe, but likewise from the in- 
 ward teaching of the Holy Spirit, who implants these 
 desires in their souls, and moves them to ask these 
 things ; and that they who pray, instructed by Christ's 
 outward teaching, but who are not inspired and have 
 not the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit, do not 
 pray like true and living members of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
419 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXII. 
 
 That man aspiring to acquire that part of the image of 
 
 God which did not belong to him, lost that part 
 
 which did belong to him. 
 
 In the creation of man I read that he was created 
 in the image and Hkeness of God ; and somewhat 
 further I read that, aspiring to gain the image of God, 
 he was disobedient to God, and was cast out from 
 the earthly paradise. Whence, understanding that 
 the image and likeness of God in which man was 
 created was different from that to which man in his 
 depravity aspired, I am brought to consider that the 
 image of God in which man was created, was that 
 which belonged to him as man, one compatible with 
 his being, and one which he might attain ; and that 
 the image of God to which man aspired is that which 
 did not belong to him as man, it being peculiar to 
 God, and incommunicable to the creature. 
 
 And although from the words which narrate the 
 creation of man it is only to be gathered that the 
 image of God in which he was created consisted in 
 the superiority which he had over all other creatures, 
 nevertheless, from what, as it appears to me, St. Paul 
 felt, and what I see fulfilled in Christ, and see begun 
 in those who are members of Christ, I understand 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 CONSIDERATION LXXII. 
 
 that beyond the superiority noted in Scripture, man 
 was like God, as to his mind, in piety, righteousness, 
 and hoHness, and as to his body, in impassibility and 
 immortality. 
 
 I am confirmed in this by bearing in mind that we 
 recover through Christ that which we lost in Adam. 
 Through Adam we lost piety, righteousness, and 
 holiness, and we lost in our bodies impassibility and 
 immortality ; and through Christ we recover, in this 
 life, piety, righteousness, and holiness of mind, and 
 in the life eternal we regain bodily impassibility and 
 immortality. And because I see Christ risen, already 
 impassible and immortal, I have said that I see in 
 Him the image of God, complete and perfect, which 
 man lost ; and because I perceive that they who are 
 members of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, 
 have piety, righteousness, and holiness, I have said 
 that I see the image of God which the first man lost 
 incipiently restored in them. 
 
 As to the image of God to which man aspired, 
 although I am unable to gather from Holy Scripture 
 that it consisted in aught other than in the knowledge 
 of good and of evil, nevertheless, from what I observe 
 in every man who has not attained Christian regene- 
 ration, and especially from what those persons in- 
 wardly experience, and know of themselves, who 
 have attained it, I understand that beyond the 
 knowledge of good and evil noted in Scripture, man 
 aspired to the image of God, which consists in the 
 peculiar nature of God, who is self-existent, and gives 
 being and life to everything that is and lives ; and 
 for this reason He loves Himself, and for His own 
 sake He loves everything, and it is His will to be loved 
 for His own sake, and supremely so ; and has ma- 
 jesty, glory, and omnipotence. 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXII. 421 
 
 And I think thus, because I understand that the 
 cursed suggestion of the enemy of the human race 
 still Hves in man, that the daring aspiration to ac- 
 quire that image of God, which pertains to God 
 only, and is incommunicable to the creature, still 
 survives. And hence I understand it results that 
 man is not willing to be dependent upon others, 
 but only upon himself, a point that he attends to as 
 diligently as possible ; and that he loves himself, 
 and loves everything else with reference to self, and 
 aims at his own glory in everything he possesses, and 
 fain would carry out his every wish. And I under- 
 stand that the other things in man which are akin 
 to these, such, for instance, as self-esteem, ambition, 
 vainglory, anger, and envy, proceed from the same 
 source. 
 
 I understand that in the men who through Christ 
 have attained Christian regeneration, the aspiring 
 after that image of God which does not belong to 
 them is constantly decreasing, whilst they go on to 
 regain that which does belong to them ; so that just 
 as piety, righteousness, and holiness increase in them, 
 precisely so self-love, ambition, self-esteem, arrogance, 
 and natural rashness gradually decrease ; this most 
 striking effect being wrought in them by the incor- 
 poration with which they are incorporated into Christ, 
 through which they come to be humble and obedient 
 sons, and not presumptuous and disobedient like 
 the first man. 
 
 The better to understand this, I set myself to conr 
 sider the relations between God, Man, Satan, and 
 Christ, as being identical with those between a father 
 and a presumptuous son, a wicked servant and an 
 obedient son. And I understand that God did with 
 man, in giving him His image and likeness, what a 
 
422 CONSIDERATION LXXII. 
 
 father does with his son, in giving him as much 
 authority in his house as is meet for a son to have ; 
 and that man conducted himself towards God, in 
 aspiring to His image, as a presumptuous son does to- 
 wards his father, when, discontented with the position 
 which he holds in his father's house as a son, he 
 aspires to and seeks the position which his father 
 holds. And the part Satan acted towards man in 
 persuading him to be disobedient to God, was that 
 of a wicked servant towards his master, when he 
 tries to seduce his sons from their obedience, in order 
 to annoy him, and ruin them. And I understand 
 that Christ acted towards God, in voluntarily suffer- 
 ing His justice to be executed upon Him, the part 
 which an obedient son acts towards his father, ac- 
 quiescing in his father's chastisement inflicted upon 
 him, which he would otherwise have inflicted on 
 another disobedient son, in order to bring him back to 
 his obedience, and to restore him to that position and 
 dignity in his own house which a son ought to have. 
 
 From all that has been said I infer two things. 
 First, that the devout Christian makes it his duty to 
 desist from all pretension to that image and likeness 
 of God which does not belong to him, and renounces 
 all craving after knowledge, every form of self-love, 
 ambition, self-esteem, arrogance, and presumption ; 
 and that he aims to regain wholly that image and 
 likeness of God which does belong to him, suppli- 
 cating of God greater piety, greater righteousness, 
 and greater holiness, and praying for impassibility 
 ■and immortality. 
 
 Secondly, that the devout Christian makes it his 
 duty to know that his restoration proceeds from 
 Christ's obedience, and that his depravity proceeds 
 from Adam's disobedience, and that hence he ceases 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 423 
 
 to imitate Adam, and is intent upon imitating Christ, 
 ' qui cum in forma Dei esset, non rapinam arbitratus 
 est esse se cequalem Deo, sed semct ipstim exinanivit, 
 formam- servi accipiens,' ' who, being in the form of 
 God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God : but 
 made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him 
 the form of a servant' (Phil. ii. 6, 7), wherefore God 
 also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him abso- 
 lute power and pre-eminence in heaven and on earth ; 
 of such value before God were the obedience and 
 humility of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 
 
 That the union between God and man is formed by 
 
 love ; that love springs from knowledge ; and what 
 
 knowledge, love, and union are. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that a man's union with God is in 
 exact proportion to the love he bears to God ; that if 
 the love be great, the union is great ; and that if the 
 love be little, the union is little. There are some 
 men who love God by report, but they do not live 
 united with Him, because they love themselves in 
 the first place before God, loving God for themselves. 
 There are others who love God, for that God Him- 
 self, desiring to be loved by them, has allowed Him- 
 self to be known and seen by them ; these are in 
 
424 CONSIDERATION LXXIIL, 
 
 union with God because they love God in the first 
 place before loving themselves, loving themselves for 
 God's sake. In these, as I understand, the union 
 they have with God is as great as is the love which 
 they have to Him, and the love they have to God 
 is as great as is the knowledge they have of God. 
 If the knowledge be entire and perfect, the love is 
 entire and perfect, and the union is entire and perfect ; 
 and on the contrary, in the same way, there is as 
 much perfection or imperfection in the union, as 
 there is perfection or imperfection in the love and 
 knowledge. The same holds true of the relation be- 
 tween love and knowledge. 
 
 Whence I understand that because the knowledge 
 which men have of God in this life is imperfect, 
 through the power of our flesh, the love they have 
 to God is also imperfect, and the union which we 
 have with God is imperfect ; and I understand, 
 moreover, that because in the life eternal our flesh 
 will not be vile, but glorious, our knowledge will be 
 perfect, our love will be perfect, and our union will 
 be perfect. 
 
 In the meanwhile, I understand that a pious person, 
 who, through God's grace, begins to know God, to 
 love God, and to be united with God, should aim to 
 increase in knowledge, in love, and in union, never 
 judging himself deprived'either of the knowledge and 
 love of God, or of union with Him, whilst he finds 
 any degree of true knowledge, any degree of love, 
 any degree of union within him. 
 
 As frequently before stated, I understand true and 
 effective knowledge to consist in certain perceptions 
 and apprehensions of the peculiar nature of God, 
 which pious persons acquire, some more and others 
 less, some with greater evidence and others with less 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 425 
 
 evidence, according to the will of God, which causes 
 such perceptions and apprehensions. Of these, they 
 alone can give testimony who have tasted of them, 
 and so such persons only understand this language, 
 it being wholly unintelligible to all others ; that being 
 most true which St Paul says (i Cor. ii. 11), that 
 ' man without the Spirit of God understands not the 
 things of the Spirit of God.' 
 
 I understand that real and effective love to God 
 consists In a yearning affection borne by man to God 
 and to all divine things ; In the desire that God may 
 be known, loved, and appreciated in the world In the 
 manner in which it is right that He should be known, 
 loved, and appreciated with such yearning affection. 
 I understand it to have been Christ's desire that Chris- 
 tians, His people, should utter that first part of the 
 Lord's Prayer, the scope of which Is wholly restricted 
 to the glory of God. I understand it to be from 
 this yearning affection that It comes to pass that a 
 man loves God beyond everything, loving everything 
 for God's sake ; all creatures In general, because they 
 are His creatures ; all mankind, because they are 
 God's creatures, and because it is His will that man 
 should love his neighbour, and every man of what 
 race, rank, or condition soever as his neighbour ; and 
 men regenerated by the Holy Spirit, both as crea- 
 tures of God, as neighbours, .and yet more to the 
 extent In which he recognises and sees in them the 
 image and likeness of God after the manner re- 
 peatedly described by me already. 
 
 Amongst creatures, the man who loves God loves 
 those most which most illustrate the glory of God, 
 and amongst men whom he loves as neighbours, he 
 loves them most whom he sees to be less depraved 
 and less impious ; and I say less, understanding that 
 
426 CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 
 
 in all who are unregenerated by the Holy Spirit., 
 there is found depravity and impiety. Amongst re- 
 generate men, he who loves God for God's sake, 
 loves those most whom he sees and knows to be 
 most conformed to the image and likeness of God, 
 and in whom he sees this image and likeness most 
 distinct and most natural. And the man who loves 
 God, loves himself as a creature of God, as a neigh- 
 bour, and in so much as he sees the image and like- 
 ness of God restored in himself, not endeavouring nor 
 wishing in any manner to be loved for himself, rather 
 despising and hating the love men bear towards him 
 when they do not love him for God's sake. In this 
 manner I understand that a man who loves God, 
 loves himself for God's sake, and loves all things for 
 God's sake. 
 
 And again I understand that the man who loves 
 himself supremely, loves God subordinately to self, 
 aiming to turn the love of God to his own advantage ; 
 he loves the creatures subordinately to self, loving 
 those best from whom he expects to gain most ; he 
 loves mankind subordinately to self, loving those 
 best who are the most useful and necessary to him ; 
 and his love with reference to those whom he thinks 
 to be regenerated Christians is subordinate to self, for 
 he loves those best through whose instrumentality he 
 hopes to be able to attain to piety, righteousness, 
 and holiness, and he determinedly strives and en- 
 deavours to be loved from personal motives, and to 
 be loved beyond everything, which, as I have fre- 
 quently said, is natural to man, who, in seeking to ac- 
 quire the image of God, seeks that which ill-suits him. 
 
 And here I understand that the man who has 
 brought himself to the point of not desiring to be 
 loved, save for the love of God, feeling, annoyed by 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 427 
 
 the love borne him from personal motives, may judge 
 himself to have made great progress in the knowledge 
 and love of God, and to be in union with Him. And 
 I understand this love to be of that sort and quality 
 which those persons have who are united with God, 
 which I understand man to have but in part in this 
 life, but which he will possess in its fulness in the 
 life eternal. And he who shall feel conscious of pos- 
 sessing but a fraction of it will have good cause to live 
 happy and contented, holding that part as an earnest 
 of its increase and its perfection in the life eternal. 
 
 Real and effective union between man and God 
 consists in what St. John says (i John iv. 16), 
 namely, that he who loves God, dwells in God, and 
 God dwells in him. The indwelling of God in man 
 may well be felt, as in fact it is felt, but they can 
 never be made to understand it who do not feel it. 
 Almost the same may be said of the indwelling of 
 man in God ; and I say almost, for it appears possible 
 to make the declaration intelligible, that he who ex- 
 ercises love to God is united to God, dwells in Him, 
 has God ever present to his mind ; just as he who 
 exercises love to a creature is united to it, dwells in 
 it, and has it ever present to his mind. It is very 
 true that not even by this is the abiding of man in 
 God to be understood. I understand by this union 
 that for which Jesus Christ our Lord prayed to His 
 Eternal and Celestial Father, asking Him, in John 
 xvii. 21, that those who were to believe in Him 
 should be one with Him and His Father, and that 
 they should be ' made perfect in one.' From that 
 divine union it comes to pass that man commits him- 
 self in all and everything to the will of God, divesting 
 himself of his own will ; and thus he brings himself 
 to will that which God wills, and in the manner He 
 
428 CONSIDERATION LXXIII. 
 
 wills it; to love that which God loves, and in the 
 manner He loves it ; and consequently not to will 
 what God does not will, and not to love what God 
 does not love. And the man who is brought thus 
 humbly to surrender himself, may rest assured that 
 he is united to God, and that God dwells in him and 
 he dwells in God, and he will understand that he is 
 to that extent united to God in which he is thus 
 humbly brought to surrender himself; if he be so to 
 a great extent, then the union is intimate ; if he be so 
 to a less extent, the union is less intimate. Moreover 
 from this divine union it comes to pass that such a 
 man is pleased and displeased with all that pleases 
 and displeases those that are in the same union, so 
 that there is between them the greatest conformity 
 of will, and the conformity between them is as great 
 as the union which they have with God, and with 
 themselves. This conformity is moreover a good 
 token by which a man may assure himself whether 
 he be united with God, and to what extent he has 
 profited by this union. 
 
 Having understood the mode in which the union 
 between man and God is wrought by love, and that 
 love springs from the knowledge that man has of 
 God, and having likewise understood in what the 
 union, love, and knowledge consist, I come to this 
 conclusion, that it is the duty of a person intent upon 
 piety to seek intently to attain the knowledge of 
 God, and with the knowledge, love, and with the love, 
 union, striving to attain all this by the grace of God, 
 occupying himself in attaining self-knowledge, that is, 
 a knowledge of man's weak and wretched being, dis- 
 enamouring himself of self, not willing to be loved 
 from personal motives, and striving to be loved by 
 God, and in disuniting himself from self, not desirous 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIV. 429 
 
 that things should be accommodated to his fancy and 
 will, but just as God shall present them to him, either 
 by Himself, or by the agency of man, or that of crea- 
 tures. And in this way he will attain perfect know- 
 ledge of God, perfect love of God, and perfect union 
 with God ; not however in the present life, because 
 flesh that has not been resuscitated is unequal to this, 
 but in the life eternal, where the flesh resuscitated 
 will be equal to become, as it then shall become, like 
 the glorious flesh which was resuscitated in the per- 
 son of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXIV. 
 
 That the experience of pious persons in spiritual things 
 
 is similar to that of the man in external objects, 
 
 who, having been blind, begins to see. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that the experience of the man who 
 begins to apprehend spiritual and divine things, and 
 to know them, is similar to that of persons who, 
 having through some accident lost their eyesight, 
 begin to recover it. I mean to say, that as these 
 persons advance in the knowledge of the forms of 
 things, in proportion as they advance in the recovery 
 of their eyesight, first confusedly (as occurred to the 
 blind man in the Gospel, who, when his eyes were 
 first opening so that he saw men, it appeared to 
 
430 CONSIDERATION LXXIV. 
 
 him that they were ' as trees walking,' Mark viii.), 
 and then less confusedly, until at length, by degrees 
 they come to see them and to know them in their 
 real character ; so likewise persons advance in the 
 knowledge of spiritual and divine things in proportion 
 as their minds are progressively purified by faith, by 
 love, and by union with God : at first they know 
 them confusedly, and then less so ; and thus, by 
 degrees, they advance in the knowledge of them, 
 until they arrive, I mean to say, until they come at 
 length to know God, and the things that are God's, 
 as well as we are capable of doing in this present 
 life. 
 
 And hence it happens, as I understand, that a 
 person destitute of the Spirit approves that as holy, 
 just, and good, in the things of God, which another 
 person gifted with the Spirit condemns and regards 
 as defective and bad. And hence likewise it follows 
 that what a person who has but little of the Spirit 
 esteems to be well ascertained, another more gifted 
 than he holds to be error ; going on thus, by degrees, 
 to increase the clearness of judgment which spiritual 
 persons form of divine things. 
 
 Hence I understand that the error of devout per- 
 sons, who form fixed notions about spiritual and 
 divine things upon their first apprehension of them, 
 without waiting for more clear and evident knowledge, 
 is not less than that of the blind man, who forms his 
 fixed conceptions of things by what they appeared to 
 him just at the time when he begins to recover his 
 sight, without waiting to see them better and more 
 distinctly. 
 
 Moreover, I understand that it behoves every 
 pious person to be very modest and very temperate 
 in approving or condemning things as pleasing or 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXV. 431 
 
 displeasing to God ; considering that God's judgment 
 of things is very different from that of men, however 
 spiritual they may be ; inasmuch as one largely gifted 
 with the Spirit frequently condemns that of which 
 another, who is less spiritually endowed, approves. 
 
 And I understand that only those things ought to 
 be approved as holy, and to be condemned as bad, 
 concerning which we have the sure testimony of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXV. 
 
 How it is to be understood that God communicates His 
 
 divine treasures to us through Christ ; how God 
 
 reigns through Christ ; and how Christ is the 
 
 Head of the Church. 
 
 Wishing to understand in what manner we who 
 are members of Christ obtain everything of God 
 through Christ, I consider that just as all men who 
 have the clear vision of their outward eyes know the 
 external forms of things through the aid of the sun, 
 in which God has placed His outward light, so all 
 men who have the clear vision of their inward eyes 
 know all inward things through the aid of Christ, in 
 whom, as says St. Paul (Col. ii.), ' God has placed 
 all the treasures of His divinity.' I mean to say. 
 
432 CONSIDERATION LXXV. 
 
 that just as God having placed all outward light in 
 the sun, this sun emits his rays, which take effect and 
 are potent in those things that are susceptible of their 
 influence, those animals only being deprived of the 
 benefit of the sun which want eyesight and seclude 
 themselves in dens and caverns where the sun's rays 
 cannot penetrate ; in the same manner, God having 
 deposited in Christ all the treasures of His divinity, 
 it is Christ who distributes these His treasures 
 amongst those who, being men, are clothed with the 
 same livery which He wore. These treasures are 
 efficacious in those persons whom God has drawn to 
 the knowledge of Christ, and who are thus members 
 of Christ ; those persons only being deprived of this 
 divine influence who have no knowledge of God, and 
 consequently are not pious, and have no knowledge 
 of Christ, and consequently are not just ; for in them 
 alone the divine treasures which Christ scatters upon 
 men are inefficacious, since they are as destitute of 
 the perception and knowledge of them as is the man 
 that is born blind of the perception and knowledge 
 of the light of the sun. And I understand that just 
 as it becomes him who finds himself suffering under 
 this defect to pray to God that He would open and 
 clear the sightless eyeballs, that he may likewise en- 
 joy the sunshine, for the sun withholds the enjoyment 
 of his rays from none ; so similarly he that does not 
 consciously feel the gifts of God, which are communi- 
 cated to men by Christ, ought to pray to God, to 
 capacitate and purify him, so that he may be qualified 
 and enabled to receive effectively the divine treasures 
 which Christ showers upon all men, it being assumed 
 that God has deposited them with Him in the 
 interest of all, and that He generally showers them 
 upon all, as St. John perfectly well understood when 
 
CONSIDERATION L'XXV. 433 
 
 he said, ' and of the fulness of Christ have we all re- 
 ceived, who are His members, grace and greater 
 grace ; ' seeing that God gave us through Moses only 
 the Law, whilst through Christ He gives us grace, 
 justifying us through the justice executed upon 
 Christ Himself, and He gives us truth, giving us 
 His Spirit, which teaches us all truth (John i. 17). 
 And forasmuch as all these divine gifts come and 
 will come to men in this life through Christ, and He 
 gives and communicates them, it is said and cor- 
 rectly so, that this is the kingdom of Christ, and that 
 it will last, until the resurrection of the just be accom- 
 plished, and that Christ deliver up the kingdom to 
 His Eternal Father (i Cor. xv. 24). 
 
 God reigns now, but through Christ ; just as God 
 sends His light, but through the sun ; and in the 
 life eternal, God will reign Himself, and will com- 
 municate His light. I mean to say, that in the life 
 eternal the divine gifts will come to men immedi- 
 ately from God, and light will come to men imme- 
 diately from God. 
 
 This is the way in which I understand the Benefit 
 of Christ to men and the kingdom of Christ in this 
 present life. I likewise understand the manner in 
 which Christ is the Head of the Church. I mean to 
 say, that I understand that just as vital energy de- 
 scends from my head to all my members, they being 
 each sustained and governed by it, so vital energy 
 descends from Christ to all those who belong to the 
 Church, they being each sustained and governed by 
 the divine gifts which are communicated to them by 
 Christ. 
 
 And I understand that those persons belong to 
 the Church, who, being called of God and brought to 
 the knowledge of Christ, are capable of effectively 
 
 F F 
 
434 CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 
 
 receiving the divine treasures which are showered 
 down most abundantly upon all men by the only be- 
 gotten Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 
 
 What constitutes offence, and in what manner Christians 
 ought to regulate themselves in relation thereto. 
 
 Considering what importance is attached to giving 
 offence in Holy Scripture, forasmuch as our Lord 
 Jesus Christ threatens the world on account of offen- 
 ces, admonishing us that we give no offence to any 
 who believe in Him ; and forasmuch as St. Paul 
 says, that not to offend a Christian, he would cease 
 to eat meat all the days of his life ; I have studied 
 to live here below in such a manner that I may not 
 be a cause of offence to any one, and such has been 
 my desire for those whom I love in Christ. And 
 considering, on the other hand, that it is impossible 
 to live in this world without giving offence to some, 
 since Christ Himself did so (Matt. xiii. 41, xv. 12, 
 xxvi. 31), nay, is even called a rock of offence 
 (i Pet. ii. 8), forasmuch as many, shocked at His 
 humility and low estate, have fallen, and fallen never 
 to rise again, — 
 
 First, I have considered that offence is identical 
 with stumbling-block ; and thus we are wont to say 
 that he is scandalised by what he hears said, or sees 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 435 
 
 done, who departs from, or is solicited and tempted 
 to depart from, that which he ought not, or would 
 not otherwise depart from. 
 
 Then I have learned from Holy Scripture that 
 God gives offence and is offended ; that God's saints 
 give offence and are offended ; that the world's saints 
 (that is to say, pseudo-saints, those whom men of the 
 world accept as such) give offence and are offended ; 
 and that men of the world, who utterly disregard 
 holiness, give offence, but are not offended. 
 
 God gives offence to His saints, when they, being 
 imperfect, set themselves with their natural light in 
 judgment upon God's works ; they are tempted to 
 judge ill of God, or not to believe in His providence. 
 That this is true appears from Psalm Ixxiii. 1-15, 
 ' Quam bonus Israel Deus.' God gives offence, too, to 
 the saints of the world in all things that do not con- 
 form to human reason ; for they, having no other light 
 than that of nature, and judging them by it, inculpate 
 and condemn them as bad ; and hence it is that they 
 are with difficulty brought to be willing to attribute 
 a particular providence to God, and that they are 
 unwilling to admit of predestination, unless after 
 their own fashion. 
 
 God never gives offence to those who judge His 
 works by spiritual light, nor to them who subjugate 
 their intellect to Him ; neither does God give offence 
 to men of the world, for. they do not take Him 
 into account, believing that everything happens 
 fortuitously. 
 
 God takes offence, or is tempted to do that to which 
 He is averse, being as He is merciful and pitiful, 
 when they whom He regards as His own, and whom 
 He favours as His own, distrust His promises or His 
 omnipotence and providence, to such an extent, 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 CONSIDERATION LXXVL 
 
 that by their distrust they provoke Hini to chastise 
 .them, almost as it were against His will. The Jews 
 offended Him in this manner in the desert, as appears 
 from history and in the 77th and 94th Psalms. 
 
 And God is offended moreover by the world's 
 saints in the arrogance and presumption with which 
 they prostitute themselves as saints of God : on this 
 account He is forced to chastise them with blindness, 
 as He chastised the Jews, and as He chastises false 
 Christians. 
 
 And God is offended by the wicked, when they, 
 by their sins and vices, show and discover their im- 
 piety and infidelity, when He is as it were constrained 
 to destroy them, as appears from many passages in 
 Holy Writ, and particularly by what St. Paul says 
 in Rom. i. 18. 
 
 God's saints offend Him in the manner above 
 mentioned ; and they give offence to each other, 
 when the perfect use their liberty more than is con- 
 venient in the presence of the imperfect ; by their 
 liberty the latter are tempted to judge ill of Christian 
 faith, or to do as do the perfect, not being sure and 
 certain that they are . not doing wrong. St. Paul 
 proposed to himself to be ever on his guard against 
 this kind of offence, as appears from Rom. xiv. 13, 
 and I Cor. viii. 1 3. These give offence to saints of 
 the world when they do not conform with them in 
 things which constitute in their eyes religion and 
 sanctity. The Scribes and Pharisees were thus 
 offended with Christ, as appears in Matt. xv. r. 
 And the Jews were offended with St. Paul, as appears 
 from this, that even at this day the saints of the world 
 are offended with the epistles which St. Paul wrote, 
 judging them to be prejudicial to Christian life. 
 And thus it may be said that the world's saints have 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 437 
 
 been broken, and are broken upon Christ, and upon 
 true Christians, and upon things belonging to them, 
 and in proportion as their resemblance to Christ is 
 greater. But the Christians, saints of God, need 
 feel but little care with reference to this offence, for 
 Christ cared but little, saying (Matt. xv. 14), ' Sinite 
 COS, caci sunt, ei dtices cacoruml ' Let them alone : 
 they be blind leaders of the blind.' The men of the 
 world are not offended by God's saints, for they do 
 not compete with them. The saints of God are 
 through their imperfection offended by God ; and 
 through the same imperfection the imperfect are of- 
 fended by the perfect, in the manner I have before 
 declared. And the saints of God are offended by 
 the world's saints, being falsely taught and counselled 
 by them ; and being persecuted by them with calumny, 
 with maltreatment, and with death, they are tempted 
 to sever themselves from the Gospel and from 
 Christ This is the offence on account of which 
 Christ threatens the world, and against which Christ 
 exhorts every one to be on his guard (Matt, xviii. 7). 
 
 The saints of God are likewise offended by im- 
 pious men (although they may conceal their offences), 
 for in seeing their irreligious and infidel conduct they 
 are tempted to the like, or are annoyed by them. 
 Lot was scandalised in this mode with the filthy 
 conduct of the men of Sodom, as appears from 
 2 Peter ii. 7. 
 
 The world's saints give offence to God and to 
 the saints of God in the manner aforesaid ; and they 
 likewise are offended by God and by His saints as I 
 have described. They give offence to each other, 
 for it is a marvel if one be found that approves 
 another's mode of life ; which might naturally be 
 expected from worldly sanctity, which consists in 
 
438 CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 
 
 superstitious observances. They are offended by- 
 men of the world because they conform to them in 
 nothing. 
 
 Men of the world give offence to God and to the 
 false saints in the manner I have stated ; but they 
 never give offence in any way to each other, for they 
 make no account of God, of religion, or of piety. 
 
 It is true that there is a class of worldly men, who, 
 by the conversation which they have with the world's 
 saints, affecting a certain kind of sanctity, give offence 
 to each other as do the world's saints, although they 
 are not so pernicious as these latter. 
 
 From the whole of this argument I conclude that 
 every Christian's mind has to be so inwardly moulded 
 as to be like that of God and of Christ, that it may 
 be wholly offended with those things which give 
 offence to God ; that is to say, with the distrust and 
 doubts of those who are the saints of God, but im- 
 perfect ; with the arrogance of the world's saints ; 
 and with the vices and sins by which worldly men 
 manifest the ungodliness and infidelity of their 
 minds. 
 
 The Christian has attentively to regulate his style 
 of life, that it may be like that of the life of Christ 
 our Lord ; that he give no offence in any way to 
 God, by distrusting or doubting His promises, His 
 omnipotence and providence ; that he do not in any 
 way scandalise the saints of God ; holding it lightly 
 that he scandalise the world's saints when the glory 
 of God, Christian verity, and the edification and pro- 
 fit of the saints of God are involved, as did Christ, 
 from what appears in Matt. xv. 1-12, and as did St. 
 Paul, and as have done, and continue progressively 
 to do, those who have followed and imitated, and 
 who follow and imitate Christ^ Let the false saints 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 439 
 
 stumble, fall, break their necks, rather than Gospel 
 truth or the saints of God suffer detriment of any- 
 kind. 
 
 Hence if any one shall doubt, saying, how ought I 
 to regulate myself, when I shall be constrained to 
 give offence, either to the saints of God, who, as being 
 superstitious, are imperfect, or to the saints of God 
 who never have been superstitious ? I shall say to him, 
 let him beware of doing as did St. Peter in Antioch 
 (Gal. ii. II, 12), who, showing greater regard to 
 those who were superstitious, gave offence, causing 
 those to stumble who had never been so ; — I mean to 
 say, that in showing consideration for the superstition 
 and pertinacity of the Jewish converts, he offended 
 and jeopardised the sincerity of the faith of the Gen- 
 tile converts, by feigning to observe the law, in op- 
 position to Christian faith ; — and I shall tell him to 
 do as St. Paul did at that time, who, being more 
 concerned that the faith of those Gentiles should not 
 be offended, than for the- superstition of those Jewish 
 converts, rebuked St. Peter publicly (Gal. ii. 11-14). 
 I mean to say, that if an individual, a Christian, who 
 understands Evangelical truth and is versed in the 
 Christian faith, shall find himself amongst those who 
 understand and are conversant with both one and 
 the other, accommodating himself to their incapacity 
 and weakness, he shall do as they do, endeavouring 
 with tact to bring them to the knowledge of both. I 
 say moreover, that in the instance where he shall 
 find himself in company with persons of both classes, 
 if he shall think that by dissimulating with those who 
 still hold superstitious notions to some extent, he 
 may give offence and induce the fall of those who 
 are free from superstition, (for that in seeing him in- 
 volved in superstition they may be led to hold the 
 
440 CONSID-ERATION LXXVI. 
 
 superstition as essential,) he ought not to dissemble 
 in any manner, even though he may think his life to 
 be thereby imperilled, being ever on the watch, that 
 Christian faith and Evangelical truth be upheld and 
 unshaken. I will here add this, that when a man, a 
 Christian, scandalises a Christian conversant with 
 Evangelical truth, in order not to offend another 
 Christian who as yet understands it but imperfectly, 
 if his error proceed from a regard to wealth or rank, 
 through the one being more wealthy or more influen- 
 tial than the other, his error is intolerable, and that 
 if his error proceed from indiscretion, or from weak- 
 ness and infirmity, it is tolerable. 
 
 From the above remarks I learn these thirteen 
 things. 
 
 First, what constitutes offence. 
 Secondly, that in order that I may not be offended 
 by the works of God, I must renounce my prudence 
 and human wisdom, and pray to God that He may 
 give me spiritual light, by which I may understand 
 His works. 
 
 Thirdly, that I offend God whenever I distrust 
 Him as to His works and promises. His omnipotence 
 and providence. 
 
 Fourthly, that I ought to guard myself as much as 
 shall lie in my power against the exercise of my 
 Christian liberty in the presence of Christians who 
 are weak and infirm in faith. 
 
 Fifthly, that I ought to feel but little the offence 
 which the world's saints receive from Evangelical 
 truth. 
 
 Sixthly, that the scandal which is injurious to him 
 that gives offence is that wrought by the world's 
 saints, in pretending to render service to God. 
 
 And here I learn that I ought to guard myself as 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVI. 441 
 
 from fire, against persecuting any one in any manner, 
 pretending in that way to serve God. 
 
 Seventhly, that I ought to hold it a good sign of 
 piety when the works proceeding from the impiety 
 and infidelity of men of the world give me offence. 
 
 Eighthly, that a good sign by which to recognise 
 the world's saints is the facility with which they are 
 offended by every description of person, and their 
 ostentation and manifestation of being so. 
 
 Ninthly, that it is a sign of impiety for a man not 
 to be shocked or offended at anything. 
 
 Tenthly, that it is right for me to be inwardly like 
 God and CTirist, in order that I may not take offence 
 save in that which offends God and Christ 
 
 The eleventh is, that I must needs live as Christ 
 lived, in order to give no other offence than that 
 which He gave. 
 
 The twelfth is, that I ought in no way to offend 
 any one to the damage of the Christian faith, although 
 I may know that the cause of offence is due to the 
 weakness and infirmity of imperfect Christians. 
 
 The thirteenth thing that I herein learn is, that 
 when I shall give offence to the prejudice of the 
 Christian faith through indiscretion, weakness, or in- 
 firmity, my error will be tolerable ; and when I shall 
 give offence to the prejudice of the Christian faith 
 through avarice or ambition, my error will be intoler- 
 able ; and I am sure that God will keep me from 
 this error, and furtherrnore that He will keep all 
 those whom He has called to the acceptance of the 
 grace of the Gospel, and to be heirs with Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
442 ■ 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXVII. 
 
 The contrarieties between those who live after the flesh, 
 and those who hve after the Spirit, 
 
 Considering that men who live after the flesh, in 
 their unguarded moments, beHeve Httle, confide less^ 
 whilst they love still less, which they themselves 
 know and feel to be the case, and which they prove 
 by their conversation, although not wishing to mani- 
 fest it ; and considering that these same men, when 
 they rely upon themselves, persuade themselves that 
 they believe much and confide much, and that they 
 love still more; and considering, on the other hand, 
 that they who live after the Spirit, when unguarded, 
 believe, confide, or love, little or much, according to 
 the measure of the Spirit they possess, as they them- 
 selves inwardly both know and feel to be the fact, and 
 as they evince by their conversation, speaking with 
 greater devoutness, with greater faith, with greater 
 confidence, and with greater affection of the things 
 of God, when they speak without excitement, and 
 when the impulse of the Spirit moves them to speak 
 of things affecting godliness, faith, confidence, and 
 love, than could all the men of the world together 
 when they with labour and effort set themselves to 
 speak of them ; and considering, likewise, that it fre- 
 quently happens that these same persons, when most 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVII. 443 
 
 self-collected, are unable to bring themselves to be- 
 lieve or even to confide, and still less to love ; I have 
 occupied myself in discovering whence effects so con- 
 trary proceed. 
 
 And I find that one part proceeds from what 
 Christ says (Matt. xii. 34), ' ex abundantia cordis os 
 loquitur', ' for out of the abundance of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh.' Whence it comes to pass that he 
 who lives after the flesh, not having in his heart 
 either faith, confidence, or love, cannot give of that 
 which he has not got, and consequently cannot un- 
 premeditatedly exhibit faith, confidence, and love ; 
 and because he that lives after the Spirit, has a heart 
 teeming with pidty, faith, confidence, and love, being 
 able to give of that which he has got, it is unavoidable, 
 however great his self-possession may be, but that he 
 gives forth piety, faith, confidence, and love, and for 
 this reason the Holy Scripture calls the mouth of the 
 just a vein or ' well ' of life (Prov. x. 1 1). 
 
 And again I find that the other part of these con- 
 trarieties proceeds hence : that the man who lives 
 after the flesh, disregarding the state of the heart, 
 persuades himself that he believes, that he confides, 
 and that he loves, at the time he but does so with 
 the intellect, since he knows that it is indispensable 
 for a Christian that he believe, that he confide, and 
 that he love, and he then persuades himself' that he 
 believes, confides, and loves. And they who live 
 after the Spirit, because they attach importance to 
 the state of the heart, dissatisfied with a faith, a con- 
 fidence, and a love, restricted to the head, cannot 
 persuade themselves that they believe, confide, and 
 love, unless they at the same time feel the effects of 
 confidence and love in their hearts. And forasmuch 
 as this conscious perception is due to the grace of 
 
444 CONSIDERATION LXXVIII. 
 
 God, who vouchsafes it not when man wills it, but 
 when it pleases His Divine Majesty, hence it comes 
 to pass that they who live after the Spirit find it 
 more difficult to believe, to love, and to confide just 
 at the time when they most earnestly desire to do so. 
 From this it is to be gathered, that a judgment is 
 to be formed of what a man has within himself by 
 what he shows outwardly in his unguarded moments ; 
 and further, it may be known whether his faith, con- 
 fidence, and love emanate from the head or the heart, 
 by the facility or the difficulty with which the man 
 persuades himself that he believes, confides, and loves. 
 And thus we come to this conclusion, that they who 
 without premeditation speak most like Christians, and 
 who find the greatest difficulty in bringing themselves 
 to confide, believe, and love at the time when they 
 with human diligence most desire to do so, are 
 thereby proved to be true Christians, incorporated 
 into Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXVIII. 
 
 Two kinds of sorrow — one worldly, and the other godly ; 
 
 and two kinds of weakness — one carnal, and the 
 
 other spiritual. 
 
 Just as St. Paul instances two sorrows, the one 
 worldly, and says that it worketh death, and the 
 other godly, and says that it worketh life (2 Cor. 
 vii. 10), so I instance two weaknesses, the one carnal, 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXVIII. 445 
 
 and understand that it worketh fear, and the other 
 spiritual, and understand that it worketh love. 
 
 And I bring them forward because I perceive them 
 in the sorrows which St. Paul sets jforth, understanding 
 that man experiences worldly sorrow when he is 
 overtaken by any mishap which causes him shame 
 or loss, or any other prejudice in the eyes of the 
 world, or social disparagement of his fair fame and 
 dignity. 
 
 And I understand that this sorrow works death, 
 forasmuch as the man who grieves after this sort, 
 unless he quickly remedy his sorrow, turns blas- 
 phemer against God ; for, attributing the cause of his 
 sorrow to Him, he complains against Him, and 
 through blasphemy against God, eternal death be- 
 comes his portion. 
 
 Similarly I understand that a man feels godly sor- 
 row when, overtaken by some mishap, he fears lest 
 he should be deprived of the grace of God, and of 
 the Holy Spirit of Christ, and of God Himself; and 
 I understand that this sorrow works life, forasmuch 
 as he who grieves after this sort, attains greater and 
 better self-knowledge, and thus commends and sub- 
 mits himself more cordially to God, and by commend- 
 ing and submitting himself to God it comes to pass 
 that resurrection and eternal life become his portion. 
 
 As to the two weaknesses instanced by me, I un- 
 derstand that man is then carnally weak when his 
 weakness springs from self-love, and I call that irri- 
 tation weakness which is felt at things occurring to 
 him that are beyond his control. I understand 
 that this weakness works fear, for whe/e there is self- 
 love, fear always coexists ; and I understand that this 
 weakness in Christians is free from censure, as being 
 no mark of impiety, but of imperfection. 
 
446 CONSIDERATION LXXVIII. 
 
 I understand, likewise, that a man is spiritually 
 weak when his weakness springs from the love of 
 God, feeling irritated when he sees himself cut off 
 from God and some particular divine things which 
 are calculated to promote in him the love of God 
 and trust in God. I understand that this weakness 
 works love because it proceeds from love, and is thus 
 converted into love, and is for this reason praise- 
 worthy, and a token of Christian perfection. 
 
 Carnal weakness, but not reprehensible as such, 
 was, I understand, what St. Paul felt at the reproba- 
 tion of the Jews (Rom. ix. 2) ; and spiritual weakness, 
 as I understand, was manifested in what St. Paul felt 
 through ' the thorn in the flesh ' (2 Cor. xii. 7), as 
 also in that which he felt when his friend ' was sick 
 nigh unto death' (Phil. ii. 27, 28), and that was more- 
 over a spiritual weakness which the Christians at 
 Miletus felt on account of St. Paul's departure, (Acts 
 XX. 37, 38). 
 
 Whence I gather that Christians should not grieve 
 much over their weaknesses which are after the flesh, 
 because in them they are tolerable, not being mortal, 
 and that these same Christians ought to rejoice 
 greatly in their spiritual weaknesses, since they are 
 tokens of perfection, and means of quickening, of re- 
 surrection, and of eternal life. 
 
 The children of this world feel worldly sorrow, but 
 they do not feel godly sorrow ; whilst the children of 
 God experience both, the one to the extent that 
 Adam lives within them, and the other to the extent 
 that Christ lives within them. The children of this 
 world have indeed carnal weakness, but they do not 
 all know it to be weakness, nor do they feel it as such ; 
 they neither have, nor do they know, nor do they 
 feel spiritual weakness ; the children of God have. 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIX. 447 
 
 know, and feel both the weaknesses, recognising in 
 carnal weakness the remains of the old Adam, and 
 recognising in spiritual weakness the renovation of 
 the new Adam, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXIX. 
 
 Of the fearfully perilous nature of the errors which men 
 commit under professions of piety. 
 
 I HOLD it as a thing assured, that of the errors 
 which we who are the children of God commit, 
 and whereby we offend Him, the most aggravated 
 are those which are committed under professions 
 of piety. That such is the fact, I discover as well 
 from the severity with which God has punished 
 those errors, the record of which we read in Holy 
 Scripture, as also from what appears in the same 
 Scripture, that God has kept back His own people 
 with His hand, not suffering them to fall into errors 
 of this character, whilst He has not done so with 
 reference to other errors in which they preferred the 
 gratification of their affections and lusts. 
 
 Of the severity with which God has chastised 
 those who have transgressed under professions of 
 piety, that man may be adduced as the most striking 
 example who, putting forth his hand to sustain the 
 ark of the covenant which appeared to him about 
 to fall, died instantly (2 Sam. vi. 7) ; whilst Saul 
 
448 CONSIDERATION LXXIX. 
 
 was deposed from the throne of Israel, and forfeited 
 for ever the grace of God, through the sacrifice which 
 he offered to God for victory obtained against certain 
 nations, with reference to whom God had com- 
 manded him that he should leave no living thing to 
 escape the edge of the sword (i Sam. xv. 3). 
 
 Whereupon should any one ask me, saying, why 
 then has not God exercised this severity upon others 
 who have erred more perniciously under religious 
 professions, as, for instance, on St. Paul, who, before 
 he was a Christian, under the profession of religion 
 persecuted Christians to the death ? I should an- 
 swer, in the first place, that up to the present time 
 God has not explained the subject to me ; and in 
 the next place I should say, that God does not 
 exercise this severity except upon those who are 
 of the number of His people. And St Paul, when 
 he committed this error, was not one of the number 
 of God's people, the Jews having already ceased to 
 be the people of God ; and for that reason his error 
 was not punished as was that of Uzzah, or that of 
 Saul. 
 
 To what extent God has kept back His elect 
 with His own hand, not suffering them to err in 
 their religious matters, although He has permitted 
 them to do so in other things, it suffices that I 
 adduce that most striking example recorded of 
 David, who, from religious motives, desired to erect 
 the temple at Jerusalem, and God would not consent 
 to his doing so, for it was not His will that he 
 should erect it to Him, and for this reason he 
 would have sinned had he built it. Whilst the 
 same man, in order to gratify his passion for Bath- 
 sheba, caused her husband to be slain, and succeeded 
 in his criminal design, to which conduct God placed 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXIX. 449 
 
 no impediment. Similarly St. Peter, not under a pro- 
 fession of piety, denied Christ, and God permitted 
 him to do so ; while professing piety he declined 
 to hold intercourse with Gentiles, but God over- 
 ruled him ; and likewise just as He would not allow 
 St. Paul to go where he, from a motive of piety, 
 desired to go, until that motive was no longer his 
 own, but the suggestion of the Holy Spirit that 
 dwelt within him. 
 
 And I feel assured that the temptation the longest 
 sustained and the most frequent, to which pious 
 persons are exposed, is this of pious professions, in 
 which ' a messenger of Satan is transformed into an 
 angel of light,' making that to appear piety which is 
 not really so. But pious persons have two things 
 wherewith to console themselves : the one is, that 
 to frustrate the temptations of the messenger of 
 Satan they have the illuminations of the Holy Spirit, 
 which discover the deceitfulness of the malignant 
 spirit ; and the other is, that God is wont to uphold 
 ■devout persons with His own hand, that they should 
 not fall into this kind of error, which is so contrary to 
 true piety. And besides, pious persons should ever 
 be on the alert, so that, when the messenger of Satan 
 shall come to them disguised as an angel of light, 
 they may know him and be on their guard against him. 
 
 Here three things occur to me. The first, that 
 since the error which is committed in pretending 
 to piety is so great, every man ought to set about 
 the performance of things with reference to which 
 he makes professions of piety, with greater cir- 
 cumspection than about the performance of those 
 which he professedly does for self-gratification. 
 
 The second is, that they who are God's elect do 
 not err in making professions of piety, through the 
 
 G G . 
 
450 CONSIDERATION LXXIX. 
 
 illumination which they have from the Holy Spirit, 
 and because God keeps them by His hand. It is a 
 great mark of piety and of God's election not to err 
 by making professions of piety. 
 
 And the third is, that a man then errs by pro- 
 fessions of piety, when he does a thing by which 
 of itself he thinks to give satisfaction to God, and 
 to bring Him under obligation; as, for instance, were 
 I to discipline my body, not with the intent with 
 which St. Paul says that he disciplined his, that 
 is to say, for the purpose . of keeping it under and 
 bringing it into subjection to his spirit (i Cor. ix. 
 27), but with the intention of acquiring merit by the 
 discipline which I inflict upon myself. By extend- 
 ing this comparison to all the outward things done 
 by men, it may be known when they err by pro- 
 fessions of piety. 
 
 And I conclude with saying, that he who shall 
 feel that he is led by that way, walking in which the 
 error of making professions of piety is avoided, may 
 rest assured that he is a child of God, and conse- 
 quently a brother of the only-begotten Son of God, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
451 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXX. 
 
 What God designs in requiring of men that which they 
 
 cannot of themselves render to Him, and why He 
 
 does not impart to them at once all that 
 
 He intends to give them. 
 
 Understanding it to be practically true, that they 
 who see with the eyes of human wisdom hold it to 
 be unjust and cruel in God that He should demand 
 of men things which, unaided, they cannot possibly 
 give, such as loving Him with all the heart, and this 
 even under the legal dispensation, and heartfelt faith 
 under that of the Gospel — two things which man, un- 
 aided, may as easily yield to God as he can touch 
 the sky with his hand ; and understanding it more- 
 over to be practically true, that the men who see 
 with the eyes of the Holy Spirit recognise the mercy 
 and pity of God in the requirement itself, and in the 
 manner in which it is put, and would recognise the 
 entire reverse in Him, had He only demanded things 
 which men might easily render Him ; and applying 
 myself to consider whence these two judgments, so 
 conflicting, should proceed, which human wisdom 
 and the Holy Spirit form of this requirement, I 
 am come to the conclusion that the judgment formed 
 by human wisdom proceeds from ignorance of God's 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 CONSIDERATION LXXX. 
 
 nature and ignorance of man's nature, and that the 
 judgment formed by the Holy Spirit proceeds from 
 knowledge of the nature of God and of man's nature. 
 
 And it is certain that from the ignorance in human 
 wisdom of God's nature it comes to pass, that, seeing 
 He demands that of men which they cannot give, it 
 judges that He does this in order to condemn them; 
 just as it would judge of a temporal prince who 
 should challenge of his vassals that they should not 
 sleep for a year, imposing a punishment upon them 
 if they slept. And from . ignorance in the same 
 human wisdom of man's nature it comes to pass, that 
 it would hold it to be better and more profitable for 
 man that God should ask of him what he can give 
 than what he cannot, precisely as it judges and holds 
 it to be better that a temporal prince ask of his vas- 
 sals rather what they can easily give him, than what 
 they could not give him even with difficulty. 
 
 And it is likewise true, that from the knowledge 
 which the Holy Spirit has of God's nature it 
 comes to pass, that, not judging of Him the same 
 as of temporal princes, it knows that in asking of 
 men what they cannot give, He does not do so to 
 condemn but to save them ; and from the knowledge 
 which the Holy Spirit has of man's nature it comes 
 to pass, that, knowing that he is of himself so arro- 
 gant that were God to claim of him, for his salvation, 
 things that he might easily and unaided give, he 
 would be so inflated with pride when he had given 
 them, that by the very way by which he might anti- 
 cipate to obtain salvation he would reap condemna- 
 tion ; he comes to know that the design with which 
 God asks of men what, unaided, they cannot possibly 
 give Him, is not, as human wisdom judges, in order 
 to condemn them, neither is it to throw obstacles in 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXX. 453 
 
 the way of their salvation, as the same human wisdom 
 judges, and on account of which it holds God to be 
 unjust and cruel, but it is to save them and to facilitate 
 their salvation ; God acting thus to the intent that 
 men attempting to love God with all the heart, and 
 upon their recognition of their impotency to do either, 
 they should have recourse to God Himself; in order 
 that He might endow them with the graces of love 
 and faith ; and they, in rendering both the one and 
 the other to God, might attain the felicity they long 
 for, not by any inherent" qualification of their own, 
 but by that with which God endowed them. 
 
 So that with great propriety, a propriety which in 
 its nature is divine and not human, they who see 
 with the eyes of the Holy Spirit recognise mercy 
 and pitifulness in God, when they consider that He 
 asks of men what they cannot, unaided, give Him ; 
 and they would recognise cruelty in God, were He 
 to ask what they could themselves render Him ; just 
 as any man of sense would judge, were he to see a 
 father commit the management of his estate to an 
 ignorant and imprudent son, that it was not the 
 father's intention to make his son the master of it, 
 but to cause him to lose it. 
 
 So different is the judgment which the Holy Spirit 
 forms of divine things, from that which human wis- 
 dom forms of the same. 
 
 And here I understand that for the same reasons 
 that God asks of men what they, unaided, cannot ren- 
 der Him, it comes to pass that to those to whom He 
 begins to give love and faith and increase in both of 
 them, by some experiences and feelings, and by some 
 tastes of spiritual and divine things. He withholds 
 that amount of evidence and that amount of clearness 
 which they would desire, and which would enable 
 
454 COITSIDERATION LXXX. 
 
 them to apprehend Him intellectually. I mean to 
 say, that just as He asks them that which they, un- 
 assisted, cannot render Him, in order that they may 
 avoid the pride into which they would fall, were He 
 to ask of them what they themselves could render 
 Him, and thus their salvation would be obstructed, so 
 He does not allow them fully to comprehend spiritual 
 things, and this He makes them feel occasionally 
 in order that they may not be puffed up with pride, 
 and thus obstruct their own salvation. 
 
 God knows that sin pervades our whole frame, 
 and, desiring our salvation, treats us as He sees we 
 ought to be treated ; acting in this respect towards 
 us as we do with a boy whom we desire should love 
 us and depend upon us. I mean to say, that just as 
 we do not give a boy at once all that he would desire 
 of us, and that we mean to give him, but of some 
 things we give him the whole, of others but a part, 
 and others we only show him, in order to waken up 
 a desire for them within him, and to cause him to 
 love them, in order that he may increase in attach- 
 ment to us, may follow after us and depend upon us, 
 knowing that, were we to give him at once all that 
 we purpose to give him, he would become inflated 
 with pride, and would neither love us, nor depend 
 upon us ; just so God does not give us at once all 
 that we crave of Him, nor all that He means to give 
 us, but of some things He gives us the whole, and 
 of others in part, and of others He lets us see as much 
 of them as suffices to create a desire within us for 
 them, and to make us love them, in order that we 
 may follow Him, may love Him, and may depend 
 upon Him. 
 
 God does this because He knows us to be just 
 such beings that, were He to give us at once all that 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 455 
 
 He purposes giving us, we should become proud, 
 and thus He would not have from us what He 
 desires, which is, that we should love Him with all 
 the heart, and that in the exercise of unwavering 
 faith we appropriate as our own the righteousness of 
 His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 
 
 Two weaknesses in Christ and in His members; and two 
 powers in Him and in them. 
 
 In Christ I consider two weaknesses : the one, 
 that which He felt inwardly ; and the other, that 
 which He manifested outwardly. I consider that 
 which He felt inwardly, in the tears which He shed 
 upon Jerusalem (Luke xix. 41-45), and in those 
 which He shed upon the death of Lazarus (John xi. 
 35), and in the agony with which He prayed in the 
 garden, sweating drops of blood (Luke xxii. 44). And 
 I consider that which He showed outwardly when 
 regarding Him as held to be base, plebeian, vile, 
 and even as a man, pernicious and scandalous ; 
 and when seeing Him scoffed at, outraged and 
 persecuted to the degree of being crucified for a 
 malefactor and as a malefactor. And I understand 
 that the weakness which Christ exhibited outwardly, 
 was beyond all comparison greater than that which 
 He felt inwardly. I mean to say, that the inward 
 
456 CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 
 
 weakness which He felt was not in degree equal to 
 that which He exhibited outwardly. 
 
 And in Christ Himself I consider two powers, two 
 virtues and energies : the one is what He felt in- 
 wardly ; and the other is that which He manifested 
 outwardly. The inward power which Christ exhi- 
 bited I consider as exemplified in the mode in which 
 He spoke to Peter, when He rebuked him for 
 having cut off Malchus' ear, saying to him (Matt, 
 xxvi. 52, 53), ' Thinkest thou that I cannot now 
 pray to my Father, and He shall presently give 
 me more than twelve legions of angels ? ' &c. ; and 
 I consider it in many passages which I read in St. 
 John, when Christ spoke of His union with His 
 Father (John xvii. 11, 21-23). 
 
 And the outward power which Christ had, I con- 
 template in the miracles which He did, and in the 
 authority with which He performed them, and 
 in the power and majesty with which He spoke 
 and taught. 
 
 And I understand that the power, virtue, and 
 energy which Christ felt inwardly was beyond all 
 comparison greater than that which He manifested 
 outwardly. I mean to say, that the outward power 
 which He manifested was not equal in degree to that 
 which He felt inwardly. 
 
 I consider almost the same in every individual of 
 those who are members of Christ which I consider 
 in Christ. 
 
 I will adduce an example in St. Paul, in whom 
 likewise I consider two weaknesses, one which he 
 felt inwardly, and the other which he showed out- 
 wardly. That which he felt inwardly is well known, 
 by what he says of his indwelling sin (Rom. vii. 
 20-23) ; and I understand that he speaks under the 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 457 
 
 influence of the same when he says (2 Cor. xii. 
 9, 10), ' Libenter gloriabor in infirmitatibii-s meis,' 
 ' Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities.' 
 I understand him to be under the influence of the 
 same when he says, ' Ckm infirmor, fortior sum', 
 ' When I am weak then am I strong' {Ibid). I under- 
 stand it to have been with reference to the same that 
 God said unto him, ' Sufficit tibi gratia mea, nam 
 •virtzis m£a in infirmitate perficitur', ' My grace is 
 sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect 
 in weakness' (Ibid). And what he showed out- 
 wardly is plainly manifested by the bad opinion 
 rwhich almost every one formed of him ; he was 
 persecuted by every one ; every one cursed him, 
 maltreated him, made him a martyr; as we read 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, and as he himself 
 writes in i Cor. iv. 9-13, and in 2 Cor. xi 21-29. 
 And I understand that the weakness which St. Paul 
 showed outwardly was much greater than that 
 which he felt inwardly. I mean to say, that the 
 weakness which St. Paul felt inwardly was not 
 weakness equal in degree to that which he showed 
 outwardly. In St Paul I consider two powers, two 
 virtues and energies : the one, that he felt inwardly ; 
 and the other, that he manifested outwardly. That 
 which he felt inwardly, he disclosed, saying in Phil. iv. 
 13, ' Omnia possum in eo (Christo) qui me com/ortat,' 
 ' I can do all things through Christ who strengthens 
 me ; ' and he showed it plainly enough in Rom. viii. 
 38, 39, saying that ' no creature was able to separate 
 him from the love of God.' And that which he 
 showed outwardly is seen by the miracles he per- 
 formed, and by the many nations he converted. 
 And I understand that the power which St. Paul 
 felt inwardly was much greater than that which he 
 
458 CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 
 
 manifested outwardly. I mean to say, that the power 
 which St. Paul showed outwardly was not equal in 
 degree to that which he felt inwardly. 
 
 That very same which I consider in St. Paul, I 
 consider in every individual member of Christ, more 
 or less, according to the measure of faith and of the 
 Holy Spirit possessed by each one of them ; under- 
 standing that St. Paul's resemblance to Christ in all 
 these particulars proceeded from his being a member 
 of Christ. 
 
 Again I understand that the consideration of the 
 two weaknesses as contemplated in Christ produces 
 this effect upon him who meditates upon them, that 
 it gradually diminishes the weakness that he feels 
 within him, inasmuch as his inward affections and 
 lusts gradually die out, whilst the weakness that he 
 manifests outwardly progressively increases in him, 
 in proportion as he is held to be more plebeian, 
 more vile, and more insignificant, and he is more 
 traduced, more outraged, more persecuted, and more 
 maltreated. 
 
 And I understand moreover that the consideration 
 of the two powers, virtues, and energies, as contem- 
 plated in Christ, produces this effect upon him who 
 meditates upon them, that it progressively developes 
 the power, virtue, and energy he feels within him, 
 inasmuch as he acquires greater peace of conscience, 
 becomes more spiritual, attains a higher range of 
 knowledge and more divine conceptions of God 
 and of divine things ; whilst the power, virtue, and 
 energy that is manifested outwardly progressively 
 decreases in him, inasmuch as he only shows it when 
 he is influenced and moved by God to do so. So 
 that in proportion as any one is like Christ he is 
 weaker in what is seen, and in proportion as he 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXI. 459 
 
 is stronger in what is not seen, is he weaker in what 
 is seen. 
 
 I will add, that the world's saints (that is, those 
 whom the world deems saints) recognise power in 
 God by the power which Christ manifested out- 
 wardly, recognising two weaknesses in God by the 
 weakness which Christ manifested outwardly. They 
 recognise power in God by the transfiguration of 
 Christ, and they recognise weakness in God by the 
 death of Christ. 
 
 And I understand that God's saints recognise, 
 beyond all comparison, greater strength in God 
 by the weakness which Christ manifested outwardly, 
 than by the power which Christ manifested out- 
 wardly ; and it is thus that they in fact recognise 
 greater power in God in the cross of Christ than 
 in His transfiguration, knowing in fact that it is so. 
 
 And thus it is felt that Christ's death resulted from 
 His manifesting Himself as weak; and from His 
 death on the cross has resulted the salvation of 
 the world, all the happiness and prosperity which 
 they who are members of Christ enjoy and shall 
 enjoy, together with Christ Himself, that being in 
 them which was and is in Him, to whom be glory 
 evermore. Amen. 
 
460 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXII. 
 
 In what properly the agony consisted which Jesus Christ 
 our Lord felt in His passion and in His death. 
 
 Having frequently heard speak of the agony, of 
 the fear, the horror, and the sorrow which Jesus 
 Christ our Lord felt in His passion and death, by 
 persons who pretended to show the cause why Christ 
 felt His suffering and death so intensely; many 
 having suffered and died, some as men and others 
 like Christians, some of them without evincing much 
 feeling, others not having shown any ; whilst others 
 apparently rejoiced and delighted in suffering, and 
 even in death ; and never having been satisfied in. 
 my own mind, either with what I heard them say, or 
 with what I read in books that treated of the subject ; 
 finally, coupling what I heard a preacher say with 
 what we read in Isaiah liii., and what is written 
 in I Peter ii., I came to this conclusion, that God 
 having laid all our sins upon Christ in order to 
 chastise them all in Him, and He having taken them 
 all upon Himself, and having known them all in 
 general and in particular, felt for each one of them 
 that confusion, that shame, and that grief which He 
 would have felt had He Himself committed them 
 all. Whence, seeing Himself in the presence of God, 
 contaminated and polluted with so many and such 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXII. 461 
 
 abominable sins, it came to pass that He felt all that 
 agony, all that fear, all that inward sorrow, and all 
 that shame and confusion, which would have fallen 
 to the lot of each one of us to feel, for each one of 
 our sins, had we been chastised for them. Hence 
 it was that He sweated drops of blood in the garden, 
 through the agony He felt, not at seeing Himself 
 about to die, but at seeing Himself in the presence 
 of God laden with so many sins, on which account 
 He prayed with His face to the earth, as a man 
 would do, who should be ashamed to look up to 
 heaven, knowing that he was burdened with so many 
 offences perpetrated against God. And this truly is 
 the reason why Christ manifested greater feelings of 
 sorrow in His passion and His death than did any 
 one of the martyrs who suffered for the Gospel, or 
 than did any one of the men of the world who died 
 from secular motives. And the man who shall have 
 found himself in the presence of some mighty prince, 
 interceding for the pardon of one who had acted the 
 traitor to him, may have felt some small spark of this 
 shame and confusion which Christ felt seeing Him- 
 self polluted with our sins, the Intercessor feeling 
 Himself the shame which it was the duty of others 
 to experience. Now, that it is true that God. has 
 laid all our sins upon Christ, and that Christ has 
 taken them all upon Himself, appears from Isaiah, 
 where He says : ' He hath borne our griefs and car- 
 ried our sorrows ; ' and a little further, ' He was 
 scourged for our rebellions, and beaten for our ini- 
 quities.' And further on, ' He bore the sin of many.' 
 And besides this he says, ' With the lividness of 
 His stripes we have been healed.' And this same 
 appears by St. Peter, who, feeling the same that 
 Isaiah felt, expresses himself almost in the same 
 
462 COXSIDEILATIOX LXXXII. 
 
 terms. And woe is me ! for now I clearly see the 
 evil which I have done in offending against God, in 
 not living according to the will of God ; since with 
 each one of my offences and of my sins I augmented 
 the agony, the fear, and the sorrow which my Christ 
 felt in His passion and in His death. 
 
 Here I understand two most important things. 
 The one, that if the rigoiu- of the justice which was 
 executed upon Christ, as well outwardl}- as inwardl)', 
 had been executed upon us all, each one getting his 
 own share for his own offences and sins, we all should 
 have gone to perdition ; there not being one of us 
 equal to bear upon himself that part of the chastise- 
 ment which he would have had to suffer as his share, 
 had Christ not satisfied the justice' of God for us. 
 And I understand that the goi-ng i'/ito pcrditicm 
 would have consisted in this, that no one of us would 
 have been equal to stand up nrm and steadfast 
 under the suffering without succumbing, and thus we 
 should have failed in our obedience to God And 
 therefore Caiaphas rightly said, if he had lut ri^dtly 
 felt it, • Expidit nobis, 'ut unus Jumw moriatur pro pct- 
 pulo, ct lum tota gciis pcrcat! • It is expedient f.r us, 
 that one man should die for the people, and that the 
 whole nation perish not ^ John >d. |, The other thing 
 that I understand here is, that it was more than ne- 
 cessar}" that He should be more than man. nay. that 
 He should be the Son of God, who had to reconcile 
 menwith.God. for havin< to h« chasrlsed for the sins 
 of all, knowing and feeling Himself charged with 
 them aU just as if He had committed them, all, that 
 He might be able to stand up against the agony. 
 fes.r. and sadness, the shame and corjusion. v. ithout 
 gi\Tng way. c r in any manner, or to any extent, failing 
 in obedience to God, persevering and standing stead- 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXIII. 463 
 
 fast and constant in it, as did«Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 who is compared to a lamb that is led to the slaughter, 
 as well on account of the innocence of His life, as of 
 the obedience with which He was pleased to be 
 sacrificed for us, being the Son of God, one and the 
 same essence with God, which obedience is and will 
 be to Him glory and honour evermore. Amen. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXIII. 
 
 Five considerations upon the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 In the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, I consider five things, which incite me greatly 
 to live in this life a life resembling that which I have 
 to live in the life eternal. 
 
 The first is, that jjjst as the agony which Christ 
 felt in His passion, was increased in the highest 
 degree by His having taken our sins upon Himself, 
 and by His recognising them as His own, just as if 
 He had committed them all Himself; so the glory 
 which Christ felt at His resurrection, was increased 
 in the highest degree by seeing that we all were 
 raised with Him. 
 
 The second, that just as God by slaying Christ's 
 flesh upon the cross slew ours in such a manner that 
 with reference to Him we are held and adjudged as if 
 we really and effectively were dead ; so God by raising 
 Christ again, raised us in such a manner that with 
 
464 CONSIDERATION LXXXIIL 
 
 reference to Him we ane held and adjudged as if we 
 were really raised again. 
 
 The third, just as the effect by which our incor- 
 poration into the death of Christ is known in this 
 present life by our mortification — not that which we 
 work out ourselves by our own devices, but that 
 which we attain by incorporation into Christ, wrought 
 by the Holy Spirit, which is communicated to us by 
 faith, causing us to detest the world, with all that is 
 of the world, and even ourselves, with all that is ours ; 
 so likewise the effect by which our incorporation into 
 the resurrection of Christ is known in this present 
 life, is our vivification which the same incorporation 
 into Christ, wrought by the same Holy Spirit, works 
 in us, regenerating us, renewing us, all and all together, 
 and causing us to love God and all that is of God, 
 and to love Christ and all that is of Christ. 
 
 The fourth thing that I consider is, that just as I 
 by my sins augmented Christ's agony and torment in 
 His passion, so I by my resurrection augment Christ's 
 joy and pleasure in His resurrection ; and just as I 
 grieve at the former, so do I glory in the latter ; nay, 
 the glory of the one causes me almost to forget the 
 grief of the other. 
 
 The fifth thing that I consider is, that only they 
 who are incorporated into Christ are certain of their 
 resurrection, having it upon the resurrection of Christ. 
 And on this account St. Paul, seeking to persuade 
 the Corinthians of the resurrection of the just, 
 founds his arguments upon the resurrection of Christ 
 (i Cor. XV.). 
 
 By means of these considerations we Christians 
 shall attain a heartfelt perception of the benefit de- 
 rived to us from the glorious resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
46 = 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXIV. 
 
 That incorporation into Christ is that which alone mortifies. 
 
 Reverting to consider that which I frequently have 
 considered, on various occasions (in Consideration 
 VI.), with reference to the two kinds of depravity 
 which are in man, of the which, one is natural and here- 
 ditary, and the other is acquired and gained, I come to 
 understand that both these kinds of depravity exist 
 in the mind, and exist in the body. I mean to say, 
 that all men inherit this of our first parents ; that they 
 are born with minds impious and inimical to God, 
 unbelieving towards God, and full of self-love, and 
 with bodies vicious and prone to evil, from their 
 birth. And I say, moreover, that by wicked practices, 
 by bad company, and by false doctrines, we gradually 
 aggravate both the depravity of soul, through which 
 we were born children of wrath, and that of the body, 
 through which frequently we are worse than beasts. 
 
 Human wisdom, neither knowing the natural de- 
 pravity of the mind, nor that of the body, nay, 
 knowing no depravity save that acquired by the 
 body, has never attempted to mortify in man aught 
 save that which it has recognised as evil ; and hence 
 it comes to pass that all the laws, doctrines, and 
 religions which men have invented, have exclusively 
 had for their object to mortify the depravity of the 
 
 H H 
 
466 CONSIDERATION LXXXIV. 
 
 body, and of this, solely that which has been acquired. 
 But God, having a thorough knowledge of our natural 
 depravity, and holding that of the mind to be the 
 worse, it was His design in the law of Moses to mor- 
 tify both kinds of depravity, and particularly that of 
 the mind, which is the more natural, and is the more 
 pernicious to men, being, as it is, more opposed to 
 God ; and therefore the law imposed the love of 
 God, the worship of God, and trust in God, and pro- 
 hibited every inward lust. That which the law of 
 God should have wrought on men, it never achieved — 
 not indeed through its own imperfection, but through 
 the imperfection of men — but incorporation into Christ 
 accomplishes it. For as soon as a man is, through 
 faith, incorporated into Christ, depravity, both natural 
 and acquired, begins to die, and continues to die as 
 the man's progress of incorporation into Christ 
 advances. And the man advances in his incorpora- 
 tion into Christ, in proportion as he is conformed to 
 the death of Christ ; and whilst he walks in this path, 
 his errors are not imputed to him, whether they 
 originate in natural depravity, or in that which is ac- 
 quired. And natural depravity dying first within 
 him, and of this, that of the mind more readily than 
 that of the body, the mortification of the acquired 
 depravity which cleaves to him is rendered easy, in 
 order to keep him, as long as he lives, constantly en- 
 gaged in mortifying it. And he mortifies it more by 
 consideration than by external influences. And the 
 consideration is of what Christ suffered, of man's 
 being dead with Christ on the cross, of his being 
 raised with Christ, of its being his aim to live with 
 Christ in the life eternal ; which considerations are 
 of such efficacy in the individual, as cause him to 
 lose the relish of all sublunary things, and to mortify 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 467 
 
 in him all that is of the flesh and of the world ; 
 although I do not think it wholly dies until the man 
 actually dies. From all which we may gather that 
 human wisdom knows nothing of mortification, and 
 that the law of Moses commanded it, but did not 
 give it, and that it is alone acquired through the in- 
 corporation with which we who believe are incor- 
 porated into Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 
 
 Four modes by which the Christian knows God through 
 the medium of Christ. 
 
 Having frequently spoken of the knowledge of 
 God as of a thing most important, and so much so, 
 that it involves in itself felicity and eternal life, and 
 having stated that there are three ways of knowing 
 God — the one, by the contemplation of the creature, 
 which is peculiar to the heathen ; the second, by the 
 perusal of the Holy Scriptures, which was peculiar 
 to the Jews ; and the third, through Christ, which is 
 peculiar to Christians — and never having remained 
 satisfied with this third one — I mean to say, as to 
 the mode of intelligence by which we Christians 
 know God through Christ — after having very ma- 
 turely considered it, I find four modes by which 
 we Christians know God through Christ. 
 
 The first, by the revelation of Christ. 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 
 
 The second, by the communication of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 The third, by regeneration and Christian renovation. 
 
 The fourth, by a certain inward vision. 
 
 I understand that the Christian knows God by 
 revelation of Christ, when Christ permits Himself to 
 be known by him ; because then in Him we know 
 God, He being the express image of God according 
 to that passage in John xiv. 9, 'Philippe, qui videt 
 Me, videt Patrem -meuml ' Philip, he who seetli Me, 
 seeth my Father also,' and according to what St. 
 Paul says, speaking of Christ (Col. i. 15), 'Who is 
 the image of the invisible God.' And that it is cer- 
 tain that the Christian knows God by revelation of 
 Christ, appears from the passage (Matt. xi. 27), 
 ' Neque Patrem quis novit, 7tisi Filius, et cui voluerit 
 Filiusrevelarel 'Neither knoweth anyman the Father, 
 save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will re- 
 veal Him.' I understand that this revelation is inward, 
 there being nothing in it that is palpable to sight, 
 and thus it pertains to the inward vision, and not to 
 the outward eye, and it presupposes the knowledge 
 of Christ. I mean to say, that the knowledge of 
 Christ, which consists in the knowledge of His God- 
 head, His humanity, His divine and human existence. 
 His glory and His ignominy, His dignity and His 
 lowliness, as also His omnipotence and His humility, 
 all this precedes the knowledge of God by revelation 
 of Christ. And it is certain that since I know 
 Christ to be the image of God, and see omnipo- 
 tence, justice, truth, and faithfulness in Him, I come 
 to know, not indeed by reference to the Holy 
 Scriptures, but by revelation of Christ Himself, that 
 in God is omnipotence, justice, truth, and faithfulness, 
 seeing that these things are in Christ, and that 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 469 
 
 Christ is the image of God ; so that he that knows 
 Christ after this manner, not by relation of man, but 
 by the inward revelation of Christ Himself, may say 
 with certainty that he knows God in Christ ; just as 
 a man to whom St. Paul, who possessed in himself 
 to a great extent the image of Christ, should have 
 discovered all his mind and all his inward thoughts, 
 would have been able to say with certainty that he 
 knew Christ in St. Paul. Not that this comparison 
 serves to demonstrate, but only to illustrate my 
 meaning. 
 
 I understand that the Christian knows God by the 
 communication of the Holy Spirit, because I under- 
 stand that the Holy Spirit is given to them who 
 believe in Christ ; and I understand by St. Paul 
 (i Cor. ii. 10), ' that the Spirit searcheth all the deep 
 things of God.' I understand likewise that we know 
 God Himself, and through Christ, inasmuch as through 
 Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to us, it being Christ 
 Himself who gives us Him by the will and command 
 of God ; just as, by the same will and ordinance, light 
 is given unto us through the sun. And certain it is 
 that the Holy Spirit is efficacious in me, who am a 
 Christian, to make me know omnipotence in God, by 
 the mighty power which He manifests in me, in mor- 
 tifying me, and in quickening me ; to make me know 
 the wisdom in God, by the wisdom which I acquire 
 by the Holy Spirit ; to make me know the justice in 
 God, for that He justifies me in Christ ; to make me 
 know the truth in God, inasmuch as He fulfils to me 
 what He has promised ; and to make me know the 
 goodness and mercy in God, forasmuch as He bears 
 with my infirmities and sins ; and thus I am brought to 
 recognise all these things in God, not indeed by rela- 
 tion of Scripture, but by that which the Holy Spirit 
 
470 CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 
 
 works within me, who communicates Himself unto 
 me through Christ. 
 
 I understand that a Christian knows God by re- 
 generation and Christian renovation, because I 
 understand that he who has been regenerated and 
 renewed by the Holy Spirit, who is communicated 
 to him by Christ, gradually rids himself of and 
 renounces the image of Adam, which is peculiar to 
 us by human generation, through which we are by 
 nature children of wrath, enemies of God, wicked, 
 rebellious, and infidel ; and gradually assumes and 
 recovers the image of God, which is peculiar to us, by 
 Christian regeneration, through which we, as it were, 
 naturally become children of grace, the adopted sons 
 of God ; we become friends of God, pious, obedient, 
 and faithful, and thus, by degrees, come to recognise 
 God within us, recognising those divine perfections 
 in ourselves which Holy Scripture attributes to God ; 
 and acquiring regeneration and renewal by the Holy 
 Spirit, and the Holy Spirit through Christ, it becomes 
 a thing assured that through Christ we recognise God 
 in ourselves ; and it is clear that we never should 
 have recognised truth, faithfulness, justice, goodness, 
 in God, unless that we had previously been true, 
 faithful, just, good, etc., ourselves ; it being natural to 
 man to judge of another according to what he knows 
 of himself. 
 
 I understand that the Christian knows God by a 
 certain inward vision, after that he has known Him 
 by the revelation of Christ, by the communication 
 of the Holy Spirit, and by Christian regeneration. 
 And respecting this knowledge, I refer to what I 
 have said in another Consideration, in which I in- 
 troduced certain comparisons by which the man that 
 shall not have attained this knowledge of God will 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXV. 471 
 
 be enabled in some measure to understand in what it 
 consists ; and if he attain to it, I am sure that he will 
 be seized with such a desire for this knowledge, that 
 he will be continually following after God, addressing 
 Him in these loving words, ' Ostende mihi faciem 
 tuam,' ' Show me thy face ' (Exod. xxxiii.) ; and I am 
 moreover sure that God will show Himself to him, 
 when He shall please, and in the manner which it 
 shall please His divine Majesty, accommodating 
 Himself to human incapacity, which is most inca- 
 pable of this inward vision. And because Christians 
 incorporated into Christ, who know God through the 
 revelation of Christ, through the communication of 
 the Holy Spirit, through regeneration and Christian 
 renovation, are themselves gradually rendered capable 
 of this inward vision, progressively approximating to 
 impassibility and immortality, it is said with truth 
 that we Christians come to know God through Christ 
 by a certain inward vision, but only in part, as far as 
 may be in this present life, our perfect and entire 
 vision being reserved for us in the life eternal, where, 
 seeing God perpetually, face to face, we shall expe- 
 rience the highest bliss with Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
472 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXVI. 
 
 To distinguish the inward movements of the soul, when 
 
 they proceed from the Holy Spirit, when from 
 
 the Evil Spirit, and when from a man's 
 
 own spirit. 
 
 I RECOLLECT having written in a letter as to the way 
 in which men are moved, in this present Hfe, in every- 
 thing, by one of these three spirits : by the Holy 
 and Divine Spirit, by a man's own and evil spirit, or 
 by the evil and diabolical Spirit. 
 
 And because I understand how important it is for 
 those who aim at Christian perfection to know how 
 to recognise by what spirit they are moved to act or 
 not to act, I am again brought to consider that we 
 know, those of us who aim at Christian perfection, 
 that in order to attain what we seek — that is, immor- 
 tality and eternal life — we must needs follow the 
 movements of the Holy Spirit and flee those of 
 the Evil Spirit, and resist those of our own spirit. 
 
 Again I consider that it occurs to many, that not 
 knowing how to distinguish between these impulses, 
 thinking to follow the Holy Spirit, they follow the 
 Evil Spirit, or they go after their own spirit. 
 Their error proceeds, not indeed from their not know- 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXVI. 473 
 
 ing whither they have to go, for they well know that 
 they must walk in the path of life eternal, neither 
 does it proceed from their not knowing the way, 
 for they well know that the way is that of piety, 
 righteousness, and holiness, but from their not 
 knowing in what piety, righteousness, and holiness 
 properly consist. For were that known, they would 
 easily distinguish when they are moved by the Holy 
 Spirit, when by the Evil Spirit, and when by their 
 own spirit. It being assumed that in proportion as 
 a man is better able to distinguish in what piety, 
 righteousness, and holiness properly consist, just so 
 his eyes are progressively opened to distinguish when 
 he is moved by one spirit, and when by another; with- 
 out which knowledge, the man who aims at Christian 
 perfection is very like the pilot of a ship, without 
 compass, in mid ocean, not knowing what course to 
 steer. 
 
 Having considered, then, how true all this is, 
 since there is not an individual amongst those 
 who aim at Christian perfection who cannot bear 
 some testimony to it, I am brought likewise to 
 consider that, since the man who aims at Christian 
 perfection knows that he is walking to life eternal, 
 and knows that the path is that of piety, righteous- 
 ness, and holiness, it is necessary he should know that 
 holiness consists in the election of God, that is, that 
 they only are holy whom God elects and accepts for 
 Himself; that righteousness consists in believing in 
 Christ, that is, that only they are righteous who, 
 by believing, make the righteousness of Christ 
 their own ; and that piety consists in approving 
 as good, all that God does, and in being personally 
 satisfied with it, that is, that only they are pious who 
 inwardly approve whatever God does, and are so 
 
474 CONSIDERATION LXXXVI. 
 
 satisfied with it, that they would not change or ahef 
 it were they able to do so. 
 
 For I understand, that this being known, man 
 begins to advance towards distinguishing the move- 
 ments of the spirit, when they are of the Good Spirit, 
 and when they are of the Evil Spirit, and when they 
 are of his own spirit. Since he holds all those 
 things for movements of the Good Spirit which 
 have a tendency to lead him to respond to the call 
 of God and to say with St. Paul, ' Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do? ' ' Domine, quid me vis facere ? ' 
 (Acts ix.), and with Ananias, ' Behold, Lord, here 
 am I,' ' Ecce ego, Domine' {Ibid); and all those 
 who are led to believe in Christ, say continually, 
 ' Lord, help mine unbelief,' ' Domine, adjuva incredu- 
 litatem. meant (Mark ix.), and, ' Lord, increase my 
 faith,' 'Domine, auge miki fidem ' (Luke xvii.) ; and 
 all they who are led to commit themselves in every- 
 thing and altogether to God, to suffer themselves to 
 be ruled and governed by God, approving and hold- 
 ing everything to be good that God does ; this same 
 man holds all impulses that are opposed to these to 
 be those of the Evil Spirit, and he holds those im- 
 pulses which neither oppose these nor thwart self to 
 be the movements of his own spirit. 
 
 In addition to this, I think that every person who 
 shall keep a strict account with himself will so nearly 
 approach to a true distinctive knowledge of the 
 spirits, as to understand with which of them he 
 has to walk ; and I think that he will approach 
 still nearer and better by personal assurance that 
 those are the movements of the Holy Spirit which 
 draw him to the imitation of Christ, especially in so 
 far as He was most obedient to His Eternal Father, 
 in so far as He manifested the most perfect charity, 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXVI. 475 
 
 and in so far as He possessed the profoundest 
 humility and the greatest patience, because it is 
 certain that the Holy Spirit in those who are 
 the members of Christ, being the same that was 
 in Christ, inspires and moves them to that to which 
 He inspired and moved Christ — Him as head, and 
 legitimate Son, and them as members and adopted 
 sons ; and by personal assurance, too, that those are 
 movements of the Evil Spirit which are opposed to 
 these, and that those are movements of the man's 
 own spirit which draw him to his personal interests, 
 to his own honour and glory, and to his own recrea- 
 tion and satisfaction. 
 
 And even with this I do not say that he may be 
 perfectly certain, when endeavouring to distinguish 
 the spirits by the knowledge of their movements ; 
 but I do say that a man may thus be nearly enabled 
 to do so, reserving the perfect and definite dis- 
 tinction to those to whom this particular gift is 
 vouchsafed of God, who know Satan, even when 
 he is transfigured into an angel of light, when he 
 offers and propounds to them things which are 
 apparently pious, religious, and holy, whenever they 
 specially need these intimations, it being prejudicial 
 in the highest degree that men should fall into error 
 in matters affecting piety. 
 
 Finally I come to this conclusion : that the man 
 who desires to make a prosperous journey heaven- 
 ward, strives to recover the image of Christ in this 
 present life, putting Christ before his eyes, and by 
 compelling himself to follow those impulses which 
 Christ would have followed, and to oppose those 
 impulses which Christ would not have followed ; and 
 this is the perfection which is propounded to all of 
 us who are members of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
476 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXVII. 
 
 That all creatures were ruined in the corruption of man, 
 
 and that they will be restored in the restoration 
 
 of man. 
 
 Reading St. Paul, I have found that he touches 
 upon many mysteries deserving of profound con- 
 sideration ; and amongst others I have deemed that 
 most deserving which in Rom viii. treats of the 
 restoration of the creatures at the glorious resurrec- 
 tion of the sons of God. In the consideration of this 
 mystery I have frequently occupied myself, and I have 
 found that the more I desired to understand it, the less 
 have I understood it. My mind indeed got far 
 enough to understand that just as man by his corrup- 
 tion ruined all creatures, so by man's restoration all the 
 creatures will be restored ; that the first Adam, by 
 subjugating all men to misery and death, ruined all 
 the creatures ; and that the second Adam, our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by bringing men to felicity and life 
 eternal, will restore all creatures. But as I have not 
 understood the mode in which creatures have been 
 ruined by man's corruption, so neither have I under- 
 stood in what mode they will be restored in man's 
 restoration, and in this consists the mystery to which 
 St. Paul adverts. It appears that Isaiah first under- 
 stood this mystery in chapter Ixv., where God pro- 
 mises to ' create new heavens and a new earth ; ' and 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXVII. 477 
 
 it appears that the same mystery was understood by 
 St. Peter in the third verse of the last chapter of his 
 second epistle ; and the same appears to have been 
 understood in Rev. xxi. 
 
 Then-I understand that God, having created man 
 in a state of immortality and of consummate felicity, 
 created all things with such order and with such dis- 
 positions that they all harmonised in making man im- 
 mortal and perfectly happy. 
 
 Again, I understand that man in subjecting himself 
 to misery by eating the fruit of the tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil, and in his self-committal to 
 deathj by disobedience to God in eating the fruit of the 
 tree against the commandment of God, it was neces- 
 sary that all creatures should lay aside their mode of 
 existence and the disposition with which they had 
 been created, to make man immortal and perfectly 
 happy, and that they should assume another mode of 
 existence and another disposition, with which they 
 should all concur in rendering man miserable and 
 mortal. And I understand that owing to this, evil in- 
 fluences proceed from the heavens, and that the earth 
 produces noisome and unwholesome things, all which 
 augment the misery of man. And it is because all 
 creatures have been concerned in making man miser- 
 able and mortal, that I understand St Paul to say that 
 they all anxiously desire to be set free. Understanding 
 this, I come to apprehend that man having to be im- 
 mortal and perfectly happy at the resurrection of the 
 just, all creatures shall be brought back to recover 
 that mode of existence, that disposition, and that 
 order with which they were created, to render man 
 immortal and perfectly happy at his restoration, just 
 as they perverted their mode of existence, their dis- 
 position, and their order, at his fall, in order to render 
 him miserable and mortal. 
 
478 CONSIDERATION LXXXVII. 
 
 I do not understand that good angels are compre- 
 hended in this category of creatures, because, not 
 having been ruined, they have no need of being 
 restored ; nor are wicked angels, because, not having 
 been ruined with man in order to render man miser- 
 able and mortal, they will not be restored with man 
 to render him immortal and perfectly happy. 
 
 And in this Consideration, more than in any other 
 which I have hitherto treated, do I see the exceed- 
 ingly great obligations which not only man specially, 
 but all the creatures generally, are under to Christ, 
 since by Christ's obedience man will be brought back 
 to that state of immortality and felicity which he lost 
 through Adam's transgression, and by the same the 
 creatures will be brought back to recover the mode 
 of existence and the most perfect disposition which 
 they lost by Adam's transgression. And thus this 
 remains impressed upon my mind, that Adam, by dis- 
 obedience to God, corrupted all mankind and con- 
 demned them to death, and ruined all creatures, and 
 subjected them, as St. Paul says, to vanity ; and that 
 Christ, by obedience to God, restored all mankind and 
 gave them immortality, and restored all creatures and 
 established them firmly in their mode of being. I 
 speak of what shall be at the resurrection of the just, 
 as if it had already taken place ; because, as far as 
 God is concerned, it already exists, since Christ is 
 already raised. And the more I recall this, the more 
 do I abhor every kind of disobedience to God, and 
 the more do I embrace every kind of obedience to 
 God ; and I feel that in proportion as I progressively 
 apply myself to this, so does the image of Adam 
 gradually fade in me, and there gradually is re- 
 modelled in me the image of Christ, and similarly 
 that of God, to whom be glory everlastingly. Amen. 
 
479 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXVIII. 
 
 The reason why God commanded man that he should 
 
 not eat of the tree of knowledge of good 
 
 and evil. 
 
 I HAVE on various occasions endeavoured to 
 understand why God, at the time that He placed man 
 in the garden of Eden, commanded him not to eat 
 of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good 
 and evil — not being personally satisfied with the 
 generally received opinion that God gave this com- 
 mand to man in order that he should recognise God 
 as his superior, which reason is to me inadequate, 
 although I do not absolutely reject it ; and as often 
 as this desire occurred to me, so often did I drive it 
 from me, holding it to be pruriently curious, as I 
 indeed hold all those desires to be curious which busy 
 themselves in prying into the works of God in order 
 to discover the motive. But it has occurred to me, 
 being now freed from this curiosity, when reading 
 the first chapters of Genesis for another purpose, to 
 have understood, as I think, that which I desired. 
 
 In the first place, I understand that God created 
 man in a condition entire and perfect, in which he 
 had spiritual light, that answered the same purpose 
 as natural light now does, and was identical with the 
 knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 Again, I understand that there were, in the midst 
 of that terrestrial paradise, two trees, of which, in 
 
48o CONSIDERATION LXXXVIII. 
 
 Scripture, the one is called the tree of life, and the 
 other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In 
 these I understand that God had placed this natural 
 virtue : that the one rendered those who ate of it im- 
 mortal, and that the other gave to those who ate of 
 it the knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 And I understand that just as immortality was 
 consummate felicity, so the knowledge of good and 
 evil was consummate misery. 
 
 I understand, by what I affirm of the tree of life, 
 that God having cursed man for sin, Holy Scripture 
 reports that He said that He expelled him from 
 terrestrial paradise in order that he should not eat of 
 the tree of life and thus live for ever. Nor did God 
 rest satisfied with the expulsion of man from para- 
 dise, but placed cherubim as a guard ; whence it 
 appears that that tree had this natural virtue, to 
 confer immortality. 
 
 As to what I affirm of the tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil, I understand from what I read, that 
 in that same instant in which our first parents, de- 
 ceived by the serpent, ate of the fruit of the tree, 
 they had the knowledge of good and evil, so that 
 their eyes were immediately opened to discover 
 defects in the works of God, for they knew that they 
 were naked. 
 
 Whence I come to understand that God treated 
 the first man as a mother treats her little boy. I 
 mean to say, that just as a mother who sees her son, 
 a child, with a knife near him, and fearing lest, should 
 he handle it, he might cut himself with it, desires him 
 not to go near it, telling him that if he go near it she 
 will punish him ; just so God, placing the first man in 
 the terrestrial paradise, and seeing the trouble into 
 which he would fall if he ate of the fruit of the tree 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXVIII. 481 
 
 of the knowledge of good and evil, commanded him 
 "not to eat of It, telling him that if he ate of it he 
 should die. Moreover, I understand that just as the 
 child, going near the knife and cutting himself, falls 
 into the trouble against which his mother cautioned 
 him, and his mother punishes him for his disobe- 
 dience, as she had threatened, so that the boy falls 
 into two troubles — the one, thatof cuttinghimself from 
 the property of the knife ; the other, that of stripes for 
 disobedience to his mother ; just so the first man, 
 eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
 fell into the trouble against which God had cautioned 
 him, and God punished him with death, as he had 
 threatened him ; so that the man fell into two troubles 
 — the one, that of having his eyes opened to know 
 good and evil, whereby he lost spiritual light and 
 acquired natural light, he lost divine knowledge and 
 acquired human knowledge and discourse, and that 
 from the peculiar nature of the tree which would 
 have had the same effect without the commandment ; 
 and the other calamity is that of death ; and that was 
 through disobedience, by which, disobeying God, he 
 ate the fruit of the tree. 
 
 Whence I am led to infer that God showed ex- 
 ceedingly great love to man, in commanding him not 
 to eat of the fruit of that tree. I understand that 
 He gave him that command not that he might fall 
 into the calamity into which he fell in the knowledge 
 of good and evil ; which calamity I understand to 
 be much greater than any that we can possibly 
 imagine. This is according to what St. Paul says 
 (Rom. v.), that sin entered through disobedience, and 
 death entered through sin, which has been visited 
 upon all the descendants of the first Adam, because 
 in his disobedience they all disobeyed, and thus they 
 
 I I 
 
482 CONSIDERATION LXXXVIII. 
 
 all sinned, and therefore they all died ; so, on the 
 other hand, righteousness or justification entered by- 
 obedience, and life entered by justification, to which 
 all the members of the second Adam, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, will rise glorious, because by His ober 
 dience all these have obeyed, and thus they are all 
 justified, and therefore they shall all rise to glory and 
 immortality. This explanation which I have given 
 of the virtue of these two trees satisfies me, for by it 
 the benefit of Christ is illustrated ; and as to the rest 
 I wait till I am better informed. 
 
 Some things present themselves to me in this Con- 
 sideration which I might desire to know, but which, 
 holding them to be merely curious, I leave until it 
 shall please God to make me understand them. And 
 this, I feel assured, will be when the desire to know 
 shall have been wholly mortified and deadened 
 within me ; for God wills it, that just as the first man 
 lost himself by craving to know, so we regain our 
 position by mortifying and slaying every desire to 
 know, being content only to know Christ crucified, 
 who is to us the tree of life, and to whom be glory 
 for ever. Amen. 
 
483 
 
 CONSIDERATION LXXXIX. 
 
 Six reasons why it appears to have been necessary that 
 
 the Son of God should have lived in the mode 
 
 and form of life in which He did live. 
 
 I FIND, at the present time, six reasons, the consi- 
 deration of which appear to me to disclose the mar- 
 vellous counsel with which the only-begotten Son of 
 God, made man, lived amongst men, in the form of 
 life in which we read that He did live. 
 
 The first reason is this, that God having deter- 
 mined to mock human wisdom by saving, not those 
 who are wise, but those who believe, as St. Paul 
 understands it in i Cor i. 19-21, it was necessary that 
 Christ should assume when on earth a mode of 
 living which could not possibly be recognised by 
 human wisdom. Had Christ adopted John the 
 Baptist's mode of living, human wisdom might have 
 found in that external austerity a reason for receiv- 
 ing Him as the Son of God ; and if He had adopted 
 the mode of living of Moses, human wisdom might 
 similarly have found in that external grandeur a 
 reason for receiving Him as the Son of God ; and it 
 was on this account necessary that He should assume 
 the mode of living that He actually took, in which 
 there was no demonstration either of austerity or of 
 grandeur ; and thus it comes to pass that the more 
 
 human wisdom considers it, the less does it find 
 
 1 1 2 
 
484 CONSIDERATION LXXXIX. 
 
 wherein to warrant its being brought to accept Christ 
 for the Son of God. And this harmonises well with 
 a Letter which I remember having written, intended 
 to show the reason why Christ occasionally discovered 
 His divinit)'^ and at other times veiled it 
 
 The second reason is this, that Christ's life having 
 to serve as a model-life for those whom He came to 
 make sons of God, it was necessary that He should 
 take that form of life which should be of all others 
 the easiest of imitation. Had Christ taken the form 
 of life of John the Baptist, He would have deterred 
 many by its asceticism and austerity ; and had He 
 taken that of Moses, few would have been able to 
 imitate it ; and hence it was necessary that He should 
 take that which He did take, so eas}- of imitation by all 
 classes of persons, that no man can excuse himself by 
 sa}ing, ' I am unable to imitate Christ ; I cannot live 
 as Christ lived."* I do not understand that Christ, in 
 assuming the form of life which He did assume, 
 meant that every one who should become a child of 
 God, had to imitate Him in that outward life, but 
 that it should be of all others the easiest to imitate 
 by those who should wish to imitate Him both in 
 His outward life and in His inward life ; as to the 
 inward, in obedience to God, in charity, in patience, 
 and in humilit}- of mind ; and as to the outward, in 
 living without austerity and without grandeur, but in 
 povert}-, lowliness, and ignominy. 
 
 The third reason is this, that Christ coming to save 
 people of all ranks, it was necessary that He should 
 take a form of life in which He might hold relations 
 and converse with men of all stations. Had Christ 
 taken the style of life of John the Baptist, publicans, 
 sinners, and harlots would have been ashamed to 
 speak with Him, nay, He would not, with a due re- 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXIX. 485 
 
 gard to propriety, have been able to speak and con- 
 verse with them ; and had He taken the style of Hfe 
 of Moses, the lower classes and the masses would 
 not have been able to hold relations and converse 
 with Him on account of His grandeur ; and hence it 
 was necessary for Him to take the form of life that 
 He did take, in which He could hold intercourse and 
 converse, as He did hold intercourse and converse, 
 with individuals of all classes ; so much so, that He 
 was on this account calumniated by those who made 
 a profession of sanctity. 
 
 The fourth reason is, that Christ coming to pro- 
 claim the kingdom of God and to put Himself in 
 possession of it, and the kingdom of God consisting, 
 as St Paul says in Rom. xiv., in righteousness, peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost, it was necessary that He 
 should exemplify in Himself a style of life best suited 
 to keep us in the righteousness and peace and joy of 
 the kingdom of God. Had Christ taken the form 
 of life of John the Baptist, which was approved of as 
 holy by the world (for the world is discreet enough 
 to esteem those who do not esteem it). He would 
 have placed His imitators in competition with the 
 world's saints ; and if Christ had taken the style of 
 life of Moses, which is emulated by men of the world, 
 He would have placed His imitators in competition 
 with men of the world ; and hence it was necessary 
 to take the style of life which He did take, which is 
 of such a quality that they who imitate it keep 
 themselves in their righteousness and peace and joy, 
 because, not coming into competition either with the 
 world's saints or with men of the world, they are not 
 stripped of the possession which they have in the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 *II3 
 
486 CONSIDERATION LXXXIX. 
 
 The fifth reason is, that Christ having to suffer for 
 our sins a death, cruel, ignominious and notorious, 
 unjust and involuntarj-, it was necessary that He 
 should assume a mode of living most likely to have 
 such an issue. Had Christ taken John the Baptist's 
 form of life, aldiough the reputation of sanctity would 
 hot have liberated Him from a cruel death, since it 
 did not save John the Baptist, it might have freed 
 Him from an ignominious public death, as it saved 
 John the Baptist ; and if Christ had taken the form 
 of life of Moses, although lofty station might not 
 have saved Him from a violent death, as it has failed 
 to save many of this world's great men, it might have 
 saved Him from an ignominious public death ; and 
 hence it was necessarj- that he should take that form 
 of life in which, dj-ing ignominiously, He ennobled 
 ignominy and a public death ; and he assures to us 
 all, who know it and believe it, our justification, of 
 which we need to be most assured. 
 
 The sixth is this, that Christ coming to proclaim 
 and to give regeneration and inward renovation, 
 which things presuppose mortification, it was neces- 
 sar}- that He should adopt a mode of life best suited 
 to mortification, to show in it and by it the proper 
 way of mortification. Had Christ taken John the 
 Baptist's mode of life, it might well have shown the 
 way of bodily mortification in asceticism of life, but 
 not of mental mortification, on account of the reputa- 
 tion that this style of life enjoys with the world ; and 
 had Christ taken the mode of life of Moses, He would 
 not have exemplified either the one kind of mortifica- 
 tion or the other ; and hence it was necessary that 
 He should have taken the mode of living which He 
 did take, in which man acquires mortification of mind 
 much better than by any other, and through that of the 
 
CONSIDERATION LXXXIX. 487 
 
 mind that of the body, inasmuch as the world holds 
 those to be vile who live holily, without making 
 profession of outward sanctity, and these it despises 
 as the vilest of things, inasmuch as mortification of 
 body follows upon this scorn ; and thus mortification 
 is both certain and perfect to those who imitate 
 Christ's form of life. 
 
 From these six reasons I learn six things : — 
 
 I. That he who will, by consideration of the life 
 of Christ, know Him for the Son of God, must needs 
 mortify the judgment of his human wisdom. 
 
 II. That no man can excuse himself by saying 
 that he cannot imitate Christ's form of life. 
 
 III. That the Christian has then a style of life 
 most like that of Christ, when it admits of his hold- 
 ing relations and converse with every class of 
 persons. 
 
 IV. That that form of living is best calculated to 
 cause a man to preserve for himself the possession of 
 the kingdom of God, which does not come into 
 rivalry with any class of men, either of this world's 
 saints or of men of the world. 
 
 V. That that form of life is the most like to that 
 of the Son of God which is most exposed to martyr- 
 dom. 
 
 VI. That that mode of life is the most proper and 
 able to attain Christian mortification, which is the 
 most despised in the eyes of the world, in which, 
 without making profession of outward holiness, the 
 man lives holily. 
 
 From all that has been said, I deduce this conclu- 
 sion : that they who live holily without making pro- 
 fession of outward sanctity are both very capable of, 
 and exposed to, martyrdom, that they keep themselves 
 rightly in the kingdom of God, are easy of intercourse 
 
488 CONSIDERATION XC. 
 
 with all sorts of men, imitating the form of -life that 
 Christ held, and they mock human wisdom. And 
 hence that to what St. Paul alludes in Col. iii. is 
 peculiarly applicable to them — ' Mortui enim, estis, et 
 vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deol ' For 
 you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in 
 God.' To whom be glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 I will add that Christ's maintaining that form of 
 life in which he was born, being at birth the Son of 
 God, up to the time that He died by the will of God, 
 teaches us that we shall do well to maintain that 
 form of life in which we find ourselves when called 
 to be sons of God ; provided that, when in it, we aim 
 to make it conform as much as possible to the mode 
 of life which Christ held upon earth, that so in us 
 may perfectly shine forth the image and likeness of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XC. 
 
 Of Christian perfection, consisting (as it does) of Chris- 
 tian duty and Christian propriety. 
 
 I HAVE often said that Christian perfection consists in 
 this, that man incorporated into Christ, into His death, 
 and into His resurrection, should live as prescribed 
 by Christian duty, observing Christian decorum ; 
 understanding that a man will acquire Christian 
 perfection in proportion as he shall live in the 
 
CONSIDERATION XC. 489 
 
 observance of Christian duty, maintaining Christian 
 propriety. 
 
 I now say that man then lives in the observance 
 of Christian duty, and in the maintenance of Chris- 
 tian propriety, when He occupies himself in those 
 things with which Christ would have occupied Him- 
 self; and consequently, I say that man then quits 
 the line of Christian duty, and ceases to maintain 
 Christian decorum, when he occupies himself in 
 things with which Christ would not have occupied 
 Himself. So that to him who would fain acquire 
 Christian perfection, from a desire to comprehend 
 dignity which appertains to him, it behoves such 
 a one to be intent on living in all things and 
 under all circumstances in the observance of Chris- 
 tian duty, and in the maintenance of Christian pro- 
 priety, keeping the whole life of Christ before his 
 eyes, making it the point of duty and of propriety 
 to be like to Christ in all things and under all 
 circumstances, doing only that which Christ would 
 do, and not doing in any way that which Christ 
 would not do. 
 
 Proceeding still further, I affirm that just as I 
 understand that men, whilst flesh and blood, cannot, 
 as Holy Scripture says (i Cor. xv. 50), possibly 
 attain such perfection as we recognise in Christ, 
 so likewise do I understand that all who know 
 and feel themselves to be incorporated into the death 
 of Christ, and into the resurrection of Christ, ought 
 to fix their aim on this lofty perfection, and strive to 
 attain it, and actually obtain it, for I understand that 
 the Holy Spirit qualifies and moves those to this end 
 to whom Christ is communicated. 
 • Here I gather two things : the one, that from this 
 day forth I shall attribute to the weakness of my 
 
490 CONSIDERATION XC. 
 
 flesh all I do that Christ would not have done, 
 and all I fail to do that Christ would not have 
 failed to do, and I shall attribute to the force and 
 efficacy of the Christian Spirit all I do that Christ 
 would have done, and all I refrain from doing that 
 Christ would have refrained from doing ; not excus- 
 ing myself in what proceeds from my infirmity and 
 weakness, nor priding myself upon what proceeds 
 from the power and efficacy of the Christian Spirit. 
 
 The other thing that I gather is that from this day 
 forth I shall not go about examining, so to speak, 
 'Quid liceat ?' ' What is lawful ?' holding that to be 
 acting like a servant and a slave ; but I shall go 
 about looking again and again, so to express myself, 
 ' Quid expediatV ' What is expedient?' (i Cor. vi. 12), 
 holding that to be acting like a son ; and I shall hold 
 it to be a thing expedient and agreeable to me, to 
 live as prescribed by Christian duty, and in the 
 maintenance of Christian propriety, contemplating 
 this duty and this propriety, as one might say, 
 ' in facie Chris ti,' in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 
 iv. 6), in all that is written concerning Him, and in 
 all that I shall be able to glean of His divine per- 
 fections, both from records and from my own per- 
 sonal experience. 
 
 And in these two things I understand two others 
 to be comprised : the one, that they know nothing of 
 Christian dignity who attempt to veil, under the pre- 
 text of Christian piety, those things which they do from 
 weakness and infirmity of the flesh ; and the other, 
 that they do not know themselves to be children of 
 God who occupy themselves in enquiring, ' Quid 
 liceat}' ' What is lawful ? ' for this is certain, that they 
 who comprehend Christian dignity, willingly manifest 
 and confess what is owing to weakness and infirmity 
 
CONSIDERATION XC. 491 
 
 of their flesh ; and that they who know themselves 
 to be children of God, are ashamed of enquiring-, 
 'Quid liceat? 'What is lawful?' and occupy themselves 
 in seeking out the ' Quid expediat ?' ' What is ex- 
 pedient ? ' attributing all they do, as well as all that 
 which they omit to do, to their own infirmity and 
 weakness, when attending to the ' Quid licet' and 
 leaving the ' Quid expedit,' which those persons 
 would fain never leave who understand Christian 
 dignity and know themselves to be the children of 
 God. 
 
 I understand that we all have weakness and in- 
 firmity, both of body and mind. I understand that 
 all those things wherein we minister to our bodily 
 necessities luxuriously and with delight to the body 
 pertain to weakness and infirmity of the body; and 
 I understand that all those things in which we pur- 
 pose to gratify the eyes of the world pertain to the 
 weaknesses and infirmities of the mind. So that, in 
 riding on horseback, I provide tenderly for my bodily 
 necessity, a thing which Christ ordinarily did not do, 
 and this is a weakness and infirmity of my body ; 
 and doing my best that the appointments of the 
 equipage be elegant and well turned out, I purpose 
 gratifying the eyes of the world, and this is weak- 
 ness and infirmity of my mind. This example 
 admits of being applied to everything else that 
 we have to do with in this present life. 
 
 Hence it would be well to suggest, that they who 
 begin to make their life conform with that of Christ 
 in outward and bodily things, incur the risk of never 
 attaining inward conformity, which is the essential, 
 and of falling into vainglory and presumption. And 
 hence it is necessary that every one called of God 
 to the grace of the Gospel, begin to conform himself 
 
492 CONSIDERATION XCI. 
 
 inwardly to the life of Christ, or as might be said, in 
 obedience to God, in patience, in humility of mind, 
 and in charity ; and afterwards, let him aim to con- 
 form himself likewise outwardly to the life of Christ, 
 but only so much as may help and assist him to 
 increase inwardly, because this is that which best 
 pleases God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCI. 
 
 That only the children of God have assured satisfaction 
 in everything. 
 
 No man arrives at anything save by one of three 
 ways, and this holds true in matters connected with 
 piety as well as in everything else : voluntarily, in- 
 voluntarily, and by the grace of God. In those to 
 which we come voluntarily, there is design ; in those 
 to which we come involuntarily, there is suffering ; 
 in those to which we come by the grace of God, 
 there is admiration. 
 
 The children of Adam never find any certain and 
 solid satisfaction in the things to which, aiming at 
 piety, they arrive by design, because their designs 
 are based on self-interest and self-love ; and having 
 this basis, when their designs fail them, they cannot 
 experience satisfaction, however much they may per- 
 suade themselves to be satisfied and would wish to 
 appear so to others. That such is the fact, those 
 persons know by personal experience who voluntarily 
 
CONSIDERATION XCI. 493 
 
 aim at piety, changing their mode of living, of estate 
 and of condition, or who occupy or exert themselves 
 more in one thing than in another. 
 
 The children of God find then satisfaction, both 
 certain and solid, in the things at which they arrive 
 voluntarily and designedly, when their design is to 
 promote the cause of mortification and vivification 
 upon which, by the grace of God, they have entered, 
 or whether it be to serve Christ in His members. 
 That this is true, those persons know by personal 
 experience who, esteeming themselves dead by the 
 cross of Christ, are intent upon mortification, with 
 the desire of mortifying themselves so as only to 
 live as being dead, since they are dead and their life 
 is hid with Christ in God (Col. iii. 3). 
 
 The children of Adam are but seldom free from 
 suffering and grief in the things which occur to them 
 involuntarily, such as troubles, sicknesses, death, and 
 dishonour, because they ignore the will of God in 
 such things, or, if they recognise it, they hold it to 
 be rigorous, and thereby adjudge themselves the 
 enemies of God. That such is the fact, we almost 
 all know more or less by experience. 
 
 The children of God are then free from suffering 
 and grief, in things which occur to them involuntarily, 
 when, recognising th w ill of God in them, they 
 bring themselves to conform to it, in which confor- 
 mity they find content and satisfaction in their minds, 
 although the flesh feel pain and suffering, when find- 
 ing itself in a predicament that it would not have 
 desired. And there is no marvel that under such 
 circumstances the flesh in these individuals should 
 revolt and suffer, for it revolted and suffered in 
 the person of the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
494 CONSIDERATION XCI. 
 
 The children of Adam are seMom brought by 
 God's grace under the influence of divine things, 
 and when they are so, they neither feel it, nor re- 
 cognise it, and hence they do not relish these things, 
 and not relishing them, they cannot find any inward 
 satisfaction in them. That this is true, those persons 
 know experimentally who, having been children of 
 Adam, are now children of God ; who can recall' 
 some things to which they were brought by God's 
 grace, but as they did not recognise God's grace in 
 them, they felt no relish nor satisfaction in them. 
 
 The children of God are frequently brought, by 
 God's grace, under the influence of divine things, 
 and when they feel and recognise it, then they 
 relish them, and relishing them, find satisfaction 
 therein, and are lost in admiration. That this is 
 true, the children of God themselves know experi- 
 mentally, being frequently brought to many things 
 without personal desire and without design, without 
 contradiction and without suffering, but specially by 
 the marvellous grace of God, so that they find them- 
 selves abhorring those things which they previously 
 loved, and loving those things which they previously 
 hated, without being aware themselves by what way 
 or by what mode they were led to do so. 
 
 This marvellous and gracious work, as I under- 
 stand, God brings about in His children in the 
 following manner. 
 
 By opening their eyes to recognise Christ's right- 
 eousness, which, because He shows them that it 
 belongs to them, causes them to abhor their own 
 self-righteousness, by which I mean all that men 
 do, striving to justify themselves in the sight of 
 God, from which they wholly cease, and which they 
 despise and condemn. 
 
CONSIDERATION XCI. 495 
 
 ' By ppening their eyes to the recognition of His 
 divinity, He draws them to the knowledge of them- 
 selves and of men of the world, and thus He dis- 
 enamours them of themselves and of the world, 
 and enamours them of Himself and of Christ. 
 
 By opening their eyes to the knowledge that God, 
 by slaying Christ's flesh upon the cross, slew at the 
 same time theirs. He leads them to hate their own 
 flesh, and brings it to pass that, with inward resolu- 
 tion, they love mortification and strive to attain it. 
 
 By opening their eyes to the blissful state of 
 eternal life, through the consideration of Christ 
 risen, He leads them to hate this present life 
 and all that is in it and belongs to it, and thus 
 they love the life eternal, and despise this present 
 life, and rejoice in parting with it. 
 
 Finally, God, when He wills to bring His children 
 to hate an evil thing, ever gives them, as I under- 
 stand, the knowledge of a good thing, because He 
 knows that, being affectionately attached to a good 
 one, they will hate the evil one much more quickly 
 than if He had but given them to see its badness, 
 just as I should bring myself, much more quickly 
 and with much greater ease, to hate a worldly life 
 by considering the happiness of a Christian life, 
 than I should do by considering the evil of a worldly 
 life ; which proceeds, as I understand, from the 
 natural constitution of the human heart, that cannot 
 cease to love something, so that to bring it to hate a 
 thing that it loves, it is necessary that some other 
 thing be proposed to it that it may love. 
 
 In this discourse there are, as I understand, ten 
 principal things. 
 
 The first is, that the children of Adam find no 
 certain or solid satisfaction in anything; whilst the 
 
496 CONSIDERATION XCI. 
 
 children of God find it in everything they do^ as the 
 children of God. 
 
 The second is, that my purpose will then be a 
 Christian one, when that which I do voluntarily, 
 shall be to aim at increase in that on which I began 
 to enter through God's grace. 
 
 The third is, that my mind will have cause for 
 contentment and satisfaction, in what is brought 
 upon me involuntarily, although the flesh may revolt 
 and suffer. 
 
 The fourth is, that in those things into which I 
 find myself transported without consciousness of 
 purpose on my part, or of violence on that of others, 
 I am to recognise the gracious hand of God. 
 
 The fifth is, that God by giving me the knowledge 
 of spiritual things, in their nature eternal and true, 
 leads me to hate things which are in their nature 
 material, temporal, and false. 
 
 The sixth is, that by knowledge of the life eternal, 
 I come to hate this present life. 
 
 The seventh is, that by recognising myself as dead 
 on the cross of Christ, I render mortification easy. 
 
 The eighth is, that by aiming at the attainment of 
 the knowledge of God, I am brought to the know- 
 ledge of myself and of the world, and to the abhor- 
 rence of myself and of the world. 
 
 The ninth is, that in attaining the knowledge ot 
 Christ's righteousness, I renounce and reject every 
 sort of self-justification. 
 
 The tenth is, that they who do not begin to hate 
 every kind of self-justification, and themselves, and the 
 world, and the present life, and things temporal and 
 false, have not yet begun to become children of God, 
 but are still the children of Adam ; although in them 
 who are only beginning to be children of God, they 
 
CONSIDERATION XCII. 497 
 
 begin to feel the germs of all these enmities to which 
 they are incited by just as many attachments. And 
 the children of God are they who, by believing in 
 the Gospel, are incorporated into the only-begotten 
 Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCII. 
 
 * 
 
 Of the manner in which mortification is the token by 
 which we know ourselves to be children of God. 
 
 Having frequently stated that the peculiar token 
 by which a man may know that he is a child of God, 
 being dead on the cross with Christ, and being risen 
 with Christ, is mortification, by means of which he 
 hates the world and himself; and understanding 
 that Satan, alike crafty and sagacious, might hence 
 take occasion to disquiet the children of God, by 
 giving them to understand that they are not so, since 
 they do not recognise in themselves such detestation 
 of the world and of themselves, but that they fre- 
 quently feel pleasure in gratifying the world and in 
 self-indulgence, I will now clear up the subject. 
 
 Understanding it experimentally, I say, that im- 
 mediately upon a man's being called of God to the 
 grace of the Gospel, and upon his initiation into it, he 
 is incorporated into Christ, and is thereby dead with 
 Christ, and raised with Christ — feels himself, and in- 
 wardly finds himself, to be wholly changed in his 
 
 K K 
 
498 CONSIDERATION XCII. 
 
 designs, resolutions, and desires, so that he hates 
 that which he previously loved, and loves that which 
 he previously hated. I am of this opinion, that 
 mortification and hatred of the world and of self is 
 the peculiar token by which the Christian knows 
 himself to be a child of God, and thereby heir to hfe 
 eternal ; but I do not understand that this mortifica- 
 tion, or this hatred, is all at once perfect and entire, 
 both in the body and mind of the man who becomes 
 a child of God by the acceptance of the Gospel, and 
 by incorporation into Christ ; neither do I understand 
 that they are perfect and entire even in the mind 
 only. But I do understand that incorporation into 
 Christ produces this effect upon the man who accepts 
 the grace of the Gospel : that just as he, prior to the 
 time at which he accepted it, took pleasure in and 
 enjoyed, both mentally and bodily, the honours and 
 dignities of the world, seeking and courting them, and 
 keeping his aim mainly fixed on them, neither relish- 
 ing nor enjoying those which are chief amongst divine 
 things, nor at all aiming at them, and hence, neither 
 seeking nor attaining them ; so, after he has ac- 
 cepted the grace of the Gospel, he hates in his mind 
 what he previously sought and courted, and loves 
 what he previously contemned and avoided, alto- 
 gether changing his purpose ; and even when the 
 body resists and withstands, not being thoroughly 
 mortified, it suffices that the mind be changed in its 
 purpose, being made conformable to his knowledge. 
 What I say of worldly honours and dignities, I 
 affirm likewise of worldly pleasures and delights ; 
 understanding that as the man who accepts the grace 
 of the Gospel is, before he accepts it, fully bent on 
 seeking and procuring the pleasures and gratifications 
 of the world delighting his sensuality, and would. 
 
CONSIDERATION XCII. 499 
 
 were it possible, have as many more bodily senses in 
 order to gratify and sensuously indulge himself in 
 creature uses, and laments and complains when any 
 one of these bodily senses fail him, or are in any way 
 impaired ; so, when he has accepted this grace, he 
 not only ceases to strive after that for which he pre- 
 viously strove, but, on the contrary, he is wholly intent 
 upon renouncing all that can give satisfaction and 
 contentment to his sensuality, and it pains him to be 
 obliged to gratify it in anything in order to sustain 
 life, and would therefore fain be bereft of the five 
 senses, and joys when he finds himself deprived of 
 any one of them, or if he find any defect in hifnself 
 with reference to them. 
 
 I say, that a man begins to feel all this in himself 
 as soon as he accepts the grace of the Gospel and 
 becomes a child of God. 
 
 Furthermore I say, that as a man advances in in- 
 corporation into Christ, so he advances in his mortifi- 
 cation, in his enmities both in character and number ; 
 in character, hating that which he has begun to hate 
 with a daily increasing hatred, for that he recognised 
 it as alien to Christ, and unworthy of a Christian 
 person incorporated into Christ; hating it equally 
 both in body and in mind, outwardly and inwardly, 
 as things which are in themselves filthy and deformed, 
 which even those men will hate, who, with but the 
 light of nature, pretend to be just and holy ; and in 
 number, hating many more things than those which 
 he began to hate. Because the spiritual light in him 
 begins to shine more resplendently, he continuing to 
 advance in distinctness of knowledge as to the things 
 which belong to the Christian and those which do 
 not, he goes on to hate more things, hating them at 
 first but with the mind, and bringing himself, by 
 
 K K 2 
 
500 CONSIDERATION XCII. 
 
 degrees, to hate them likewise with the body, and 
 labouring to develop his hatred of them, both that of 
 the mind and that of the body ; and this exercise is 
 peculiarly that of a Christian, lasting as long as he lives. 
 
 From the whole of this discourse this may well be 
 gleaned : that the token by which I know myself to 
 be a child of God, and that I am dead on the cross 
 with Christ, is not perfect mortification, nor perfect 
 hatred of the world and of myself with the mind and 
 with the body in everything ; but in this incipient 
 mortification and in these enmities, and in some main 
 objects, when it has come without having been striven 
 after, nor sought with human diligence, and when it 
 is seated in the mind, although flesh and sensuality 
 would fain seek and strive after the contrary, and al- 
 though it enjoys and delights itself in what is pre- 
 sented to it, the mind remaining unaffected by that 
 enjoyment and delight, feeling disgust and annoyance 
 in those things to which it is constrained by the 
 weakness of its flesh to take more than suffices to 
 supply its bodily necessities, so that the body may 
 receive those things, and not the mind, the man feel- 
 ing both satisfaction of the body and distress of mind. 
 
 And I understand the hatred which Christ wills 
 that those who shall desire to be His members bear 
 to their own life, consists in this : that a man takes 
 not more from the creatures than what suffices to 
 supply his bodily needs. And I understand that St. 
 Paul, experiencing this mental struggle, would not 
 allow his body to take more of created things than 
 sufficed to sustain life, whilst his body wished to 
 take more to satisfy and delight its own sensuality, 
 and thus felt what he writes to the Romans in the 
 seventh chapter of his epistle. 
 
 And since St. Paul went through what he tells and 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIII. 501 
 
 confesses in that place, no Christian need look upon 
 himself as alienated from Christ, or from Christian 
 adoption, because he feels the liveliness of his flesh, 
 and for that he does not feel in all and everything that 
 hatred of the world and of himself which he must 
 needs have to be perfect. For if he but partially 
 feel this mortification and these hatreds, he has, as 
 has been said, good cause to hold himself a child of 
 God, as incorporated into Christ and as dead on the 
 cross with . Christ, and to be so intent upon mortifi- 
 cation, that it may increase, until it is like that of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, who, as St. Paul says (Rom. 
 XV.), ' non sibi placuit,' ' pleased not Himself,' to 
 whom be glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCIII. 
 
 That that suffering is more Christian and more grateful 
 
 to God, in which the sufferer finds the less 
 
 consent of his will. 
 
 All that we who studiously aim at Christian per- 
 fection suffer in this present life, is either in body or 
 in mind, and is either by our own will or by the will 
 of another. We suffer by our own will when we de- 
 prive ourselves of our comforts and of our gratifica- 
 tions ; and we suffer by the will of another when we 
 are deprived of our comforts and of our gratifications 
 without the consent of our will. 
 
502 CONSIDERATION XCIII. 
 
 The human mind is, as I have often declared, 
 most arrogant, and being such, it seeks its own glory 
 and its own honour in everything belonging to it ; 
 and for this reason we feel more or less satisfaction 
 in what we suffer, in proportion as the human mind 
 is more or less lively within us. If the mind be very 
 lively, we find great satisfaction in what we suffer by 
 our own will, and little in what we suffer by the will 
 of another ; and if the mind be to a great extent dead, 
 we find little satisfaction in what we suffer by our 
 own will, and much in what we suffer by the will of 
 another ; and this greater or less satisfaction will serve 
 as evidence to us of our mortification. 
 
 The man who has his mind very lively, is ever quick 
 in feeling, and resents sufferings imposed on him by 
 the will of another, both because he does not think 
 that it is pleasing to God that he suffer them pa- 
 tiently, it appearing to him that it is from inability 
 to do otherwise, and because the human mind, being 
 most arrogant, cannot tolerate that violence should be 
 done to it. This same man, who has a very lively 
 mind, is ever well pleased and contented with suf- 
 ferings imposed by his own will, both because he 
 thinks that by suffering he may please God, and be- 
 cause, where he recognises his own will, he always 
 experiences satisfaction. 
 
 On the other hand, the man who has his mind 
 much mortified, ever esteems but little, and regards 
 with distrust, what he suffers by his own will, both 
 because the principal thing which he aims at is to 
 mortify his own will, ever distrusting it, and because, 
 being in the midst of his own glory, it is not easy for 
 him to be satisfied with voluntary suffering, knowing 
 that it always issues in the glory and honour of him 
 that suffers. And the same man, who has greatly morti- 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIII. 503 
 
 fied his mind, ever thinks highly of and is contented 
 with that which he suffers by the will of God, be- 
 cause he knows that which he suffers redounds to 
 the honour and glory of God, which is his highest 
 aim. 
 
 Amongst the things which a man suffers by his 
 own will, being able, were he desirous of doing so, 
 to escape the suffering, I place fasting, the various 
 modes of discipline, vigils, hair-shirts, with all their 
 accompaniments ; and amongst the things which a 
 man suffers by the will of another, I place acts of 
 violence and of dishonour, persecutions, martyrdom, 
 •sickness, death, with all their accompaniments. 
 
 Those persons who have experimentally known 
 what a lively mind is, and what a mortified one is, or 
 who have at least begun to mortify themselves, by 
 examining themselves in that which they have 
 suffered, and will suffer, in both these ways, by their 
 own will and by the will of others, they know how 
 true all that is which is here written, the know- 
 ledge corresponding with their experience, and 
 knowing it, they will be more intent than ever to 
 promote the still further mortification of their minds, 
 until they bring them to such a state, that in what they 
 suffer by their own will, they may aim at helping and 
 assisting those who are members of Christ, and at 
 the mortification which faith and the Holy Spirit 
 work in them, in the manner I have elsewhere fre- 
 quently described ; and in what they shall suffer by 
 the will of another, recognising the will of God, and 
 not that of men and of other creatures, so that in 
 everything which causes them to suffer, they may 
 rejoice and be contented, aiming to discharge reli- 
 gious duty and to maintain Christian propriety. 
 
 And I understand that the man who suffers by 
 
504 CONSIDERATION XCIII. 
 
 the will of another, then aims at Christian duty, when, 
 being brought, by whatever circumstances, into 
 poverty, he acquiesces contentedly in it. I say the 
 same of dishonour, of bodily infirmity, and of death, 
 with every other similar incident. And I under- 
 stand the same man, who suffers by the will of 
 another, then maintains Christian propriety, when, 
 suffering for Christ, he is content to suffer, ' glorying,', 
 as St. Paul says in Rom. v. 3, ' in tribulations.' 
 
 And I understand that those persons suffer for 
 Christ, who, whether in preaching the Gospel or in 
 teaching the Christian life, having the gift of an 
 apostle or of a teacher, are persecuted, maltreated, 
 dishonoured, and made martyrs ; and those who by 
 a Christian life aim at attaining the image and like- 
 ness of God, are on account of their imitation of 
 Christ despised, slandered, and rebuked ; and those 
 who, to relieve and satisfy others who are members 
 of Christ and are incorporated into Christ, deprive 
 themselves of their own comforts and gratifications ; 
 and this voluntary suffering I hold to be that most 
 becoming a Christian. 
 
 They who, in suffering by the will of another, 
 imitate Job, discharge religious duty by conforming 
 to the will of God ; and they who, in suffering by 
 the will of another and by their own will also, shall 
 imitate St. Paul, shall maintain Christian propriety ; 
 God having exhibited in Job a most striking example 
 of patience in suffering by the will of another in 
 natural things ; and in St. Paul a most divine ex- 
 ample of hardihood in suffering by the will of another 
 in Christian things. 
 
 And in this discourse I understand eight things. 
 The first is, that accordingly as my mind contents 
 itself, more or less, with that which it suffers by its 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIII. 505 
 
 own will or by the will of another, do I know its 
 mortification to be greater or less. 
 
 The second is, that in what I suffer by my own 
 will, if I do not suffer for Christ, I seek my own 
 honour and my own glory, my own interest and my 
 own profit. 
 
 The third is, that by acquiescing in what I suffer 
 by the will of another, I discharge religious duty and 
 maintain religious propriety, and by this I seek the 
 honour and glory of God. 
 
 The fourth is, that I ought to be assured that all 
 suffering, of whatever character it may be, which 
 presents itself to me without my will in this present 
 life, is by the will of God. 
 
 The fifth is, that I shall then satisfy Christian 
 piety, when in suffering I imitate Job. 
 
 The sixth is, that I shall then maintain Christian 
 propriety, when in suffering I imitate St. Paul, so far 
 as he imitated Christ. 
 
 The seventh is, that they suffer for Christ who 
 preach Him and who imitate Him, as do also they 
 who serve Him in His members. 
 
 The eighth is, that that voluntary suffering is most 
 peculiarly Christian, which results in benefiting those 
 who are incorporated into Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
5o6 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCIV. 
 
 Conscience has three bases ; the first resting upon natural 
 law, the second upon written law, and the third 
 upon the Gospel. 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that every man upon earth moulds 
 his conscience upon one of these three bases. 
 
 There are some who, by attending to natural reli- 
 gion, which consists in a man's wholly devoting him- 
 self and every member of his body to those things 
 (ends) for which he knows that God created him and 
 them, and that he avail himself of all created things 
 peculiarly for the purposes God had in creating 
 them ; and they mould their consciences upon the 
 law of nature, forming a good or bad opinion of them- 
 selves, according as they know their life to har- 
 monise with, or to vary from, the dictates of natural 
 religion. I understand that the more these persons 
 have their minds illumined to know the extent to 
 which they are brought under obligation by natural 
 religion, and the more they endeavour to discharge 
 that obligation, so much the worse opinion have they 
 of themselves, knowing that they fail much and in 
 many things belonging to the duties of natural reli- 
 gion, of which, owing to the depravity of original 
 sin, man can by no means discharge himself 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIV. 507 
 
 There are some who, by attending to the Jewish 
 religion, which consists in this, that a man Hve in all 
 and everything conformably with those laws by which 
 he is obliged, or persuades himself that he is obliged, 
 observing them according to the intention of their 
 Maker ; and these mould their consciences upon 
 what they know of those laws, and entertain a good 
 or bad opinion of themselves, according as they know 
 that their life concurs with, or varies from, that whiph 
 those laws exact of them. I understand that the 
 more these persons know the extent to which they 
 are bound by those laws, and the more they study 
 to fulfil that obligation, so much the worse opinion 
 have they of themselves, knowing that they fail much 
 and in many things belonging to the duties of the 
 Jewish religion which they would fain discharge, it 
 being impossible for them to do so, both on account 
 of the blindness of their intellects, with which they 
 cannot fathom the peculiar design of Him who made 
 the laws, and not knowing it, they can never be as- 
 sured that they have satisfied them, and from the 
 rebellion of the flesh, which, as St. Paul says in Rom. 
 viii., ' is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can be.' 
 
 There are others who, hearing the voice of the 
 Gospel, which promises remission of sins and recon- 
 ciliation with God to those who believe in Christ, 
 ceasing to profess natural religion and repudiating 
 the claims of the Jewish religion, embrace the Chris- 
 tian religion, which consists in this, that man incor- 
 porated by faith into Christ, regards himself as pious, 
 just, and holy, notwithstanding that he does not 
 wholly satisfy either natural religion or the Jewish 
 religion, and, moreover, even notwithstandmg he 
 should not wholly satisfy the duties and decorum of 
 
5o8 CONSIDERATION XCIV. 
 
 the Christian religion. I understand that the more 
 these persons have their minds illumined by the 
 knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ, and the more 
 they study to credit the Gospel, so much the better 
 opinion do they have of themselves, forming their 
 opinion, not upon what they know of themselves, but 
 by that which they believe of the Gospel that God 
 knows, who does not contemplate them in the 
 aspect of what they are in themselves, but what they 
 are in Christ. He does not hold them to be good 
 or bad by the degree in which they approach to, or 
 diverge from, the duties of natural religion or of the 
 Jewish religion, nor by the degree in which they main- 
 tain Christian propriety, or by that wherein they fail 
 to do so, but by the faithfulness or the unfaithfulness 
 with which they persevere in, or sever themselves 
 from, the Gospel and Christ. 
 
 Men who observe natural religion, being desti- 
 tute of the Christian religion, are wont to be vicious, 
 because the flesh works licentiousness in them. 
 
 Men who observe the Jewish religion, being des- 
 titute of the Christian religion, are wont to be 
 superstitious, and are over-scrupulous ; nay, all the 
 scruples and all the doubts in what they call cases 
 of conscience originate in this. For men being unable 
 wholly .to understand the purpose of the lawgiver, 
 it comes to pass, that man, not being able to be as- 
 sured that he has satisfied the law, persists in striv- 
 ing to satisfy it by superstitious observances ; and 
 after all, is beset with the gravest scruples, which 
 are greater in those who apply themselves to comply 
 with the requisitions of the Jewish religion ; whilst 
 moreover there are, with reference to the apprehen- 
 sion of the law's design, as many opinions as there 
 are persons who strive to understand it. In conclu- 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIV. 509 
 
 sion, so long as a man remains subject to the law, 
 having to mould his conscience upon the opinion 
 which he has of himself, he never comes to expe- 
 rience peace of conscience. 
 
 The men who attend to the Christian religion, 
 mould their consciences, as I have said, upon the 
 opinion God has of them, who considers them as incor- 
 porated into Christ, and not according to what they 
 know of themselves. In proportion as the Christian 
 religion assumes its sway in them, they daily advance 
 in the better observance of natural religion and of 
 the Jewish religion, not moulding their consciences to 
 their own satisfaction, but in maintenance of the duties 
 of the Christian religion and of the propriety of the 
 Gospel. These persons alone are not vicious, be- 
 cause the flesh does not work licentiousness in them, 
 nay, being dead on the cross with Christ, it is gradu- 
 ally mortified ; and these alone are free from super- 
 stitions and over-scrupulosity, because they know 
 that Christ has released them wholly from the law, 
 having satisfied it for them ; and, being free, they no 
 longer have anything to accuse them ; and because 
 they likewise know that God does not impute to them 
 their failings in duty to the Christian religion and to 
 the propriety of the Gospel, this affectionately obliges 
 them to be like God and like the Son of God Him- 
 self, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
5IO 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCV. 
 
 That men are incapable of comprehending the divine 
 
 generation of the Son of God, and the spiritual 
 
 regeneration of the children of God. 
 
 Amongst the instances in which human curiosity 
 manifests its audacity, I hold to stand forth, pre-emi- 
 nently, as the most glaring, the desire to know and 
 understand the divine generation of the Son of God, 
 the mode in which the Son is begotten of the Father, 
 the reason why the Word* of God is called the Son, 
 or the Son of God is called the Word. I say, that 
 amongst the other instances I hold this audacity to 
 be by far the greatest, because I understand that 
 the mind of man is as incapable of comprehending 
 the divine generation of the Son of God, from its 
 being, as it is, a subject most alien from anything 
 that he knows, understands, and experiences of his 
 own generation, as is the intelligence of a worm, 
 which is generated by the corruption of the earth, 
 incapable of comprehending human generation, that 
 is, how one man is the son of another man, or one 
 of the other animals is the young of its parent 
 animal, from its being, as it is, a thing most alien 
 from its own generation. And more than this, I 
 understand that were a worm to come to understand 
 in what mode a man is generated by another man, 
 
 * Verbum, or Logos. 
 
CONSIDERATION XCV. 511 
 
 and were it to wish to make it intelligible to its 
 fellow-worms, they would never be capable of com- 
 prehending it, it being a thing wholly alien from their 
 own generation ; thus, it being granted that a man 
 should come to understand the divine generation of 
 the Son of God, and that he should wish to make it 
 intelligible to his fellow-men, they would never 
 understand it, from its being, as it is, something 
 utterly different from their own generation. 
 
 And for this reason the presumption of the men 
 who seek to understand this most divine mystery by 
 their natural light only, is boundless, whilst that of 
 those who seek to understand it, aided by the text 
 of the Holy Scriptures, is likewise great. And it flows 
 from this, that although St. John understood the 
 divine generation of the Son of God, and wished 
 to render it intelligible to men, they are incapable 
 of it, not understanding the meaning of the words 
 employed by St. John, by which he wished to ex- 
 plain it, that is to say, what St. John meant by say-. 
 ing ' Logos', or ' Verbum ' (the Word). 
 
 Wishing to set forth still better the incapacity of 
 human intelligence to comprehend the divine gene- 
 ration of the Son of God, I think after this fashion : 
 that if it be incapable of comprehending the spiritual 
 regeneration of those who, incorporated by faith into 
 the Son of God, become by adoption children of 
 God, how much more incapable will it be of com- 
 prehending the divine generation of the Son of God ? 
 Now, that human intelligence is incapable of compre- 
 hending this spiritual regeneration, all they who are 
 regenerate know by experience, inwardly knowing 
 that they could never have understood this, divine 
 mystery if they had not experienced it, and know- 
 ing, moreover, that how much soever they might 
 
512 CONSIDERATION XCV, 
 
 labour to render It intelligible to those who are 
 without its pale they could achieve nothing, just as 
 the worm could do nothing, which, having acquired 
 the knowledge of the process of human generation, 
 should wish to make its fellow- worms cognizant of it. 
 I understand the same from that argument which St. 
 John reports as having been carried on between our 
 Lord Jesus Christ and that great master in Israel 
 named Nicodemus, who came by night to converse 
 with Him (John iii.). And thus it is that Christ, 
 speaking to him of spiritual regeneration, by which 
 man ceases to be a child of wrath and is converted 
 into a child of grace, ceases to be a child of Adam 
 and is converted into a child of God, Nicodemus, with 
 all his natural light, with all his human learning, and 
 with all his knowledge of Sacred Scripture, was 
 so incapable of comprehending this spiritual re- 
 generation, that Christ, as it were, astonished, said 
 to him, ' Tu es magister in Israel, et hcec ig- 
 noras ? ' ' Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest 
 not these things ?' and added, ' Si terrena dixi vobis, 
 et no7t creditis : quomodo, si dixero vobis ccelestia, 
 creditis ?' ' If I have told you earthly things, and ye 
 believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of 
 heavenly things ? ' meaning to say. If thou art in- 
 capable of comprehending this spiritual regeneration, 
 which, though it indeed is spiritual, is nevertheless 
 such, that it is wrought here upon earth, and upon 
 men made of earth, how much more incapable wilt 
 thou be of comprehending the divine generation, in 
 order to believe in- it, and of which I could speak to 
 thee, since it is that which is not wrought upon earth, 
 but in heaven, and is not wrought upon an earthly 
 object, but upon a heavenly one ? 
 
 Wherefore, let this be the conclusion ; that it 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVI. 513 
 
 being true that man, whilst he is man, destitute 
 of the Holy Spirit, with all his natural light, with 
 all his learning and doctrines human and written, 
 is not only incapable of understanding the divine 
 generation of the Son of God, but is likewise in- 
 capable of understanding the spiritual regeneration 
 of the adopted children of God ; let no one be so 
 daring as to presume that he understands it, or 
 to speak of it, without having attained spiritual 
 regeneration. Nor let any one be so rash, without 
 having attained spiritual regeneration, and having 
 been admitted to those divine mysteries to which 
 St John was admitted, when he said ' In principio 
 erat verbum, ' 'In the beginning was the word, ' 
 as to dare to desire to understand, penetrate, and 
 attain it by human ability and discourse : — holding 
 it to be a thing certain that they only are capable of 
 comprehending this divine mystery to whom, by 
 God's will, it shall be revealed by the Son of God 
 Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCVI. 
 
 That a man then knows himself to be a stranger in 
 
 the world, when, because God loves him, the 
 
 world persecutes him. 
 
 Man is wont to esteem himself a citizen of the coun- 
 try in which he was born, deeming himself a stranger 
 and foreigner in every other; the man who professes 
 
 L L 
 
514 CONSIDERATION XCVI. 
 
 to find his fatherland in every country, deems him- 
 self nowhere a foreigner ; the man regenerated and 
 renewed by the Holy Spirit is more than man, 
 deeming himself a citizen of the kingdom of God 
 and of the life eternal, and holds himself to be a 
 stranger in- every country upon earth. 
 
 The first, led by sense, obeys the dictates of the 
 senses ; the second, led by the light of nature, 
 obeys the dictates of prudence and human reason ; 
 the third, led by the light of the Spirit, follows after 
 faith, hope, and charity. The first delights himself 
 in what gratifies the senses ; the second, despising 
 what gratifies the senses, seeks his own glory and 
 his own mental satisfaction ; the third, contemning 
 both these, tenderly loves the honour of God and 
 the glory of Christ. The world loves the first ; the 
 world despises the second, although, on the other 
 hand, it values and esteems him ; whilst the world 
 scorns, hates, and persecutes the third. God dis- 
 owns the first ; God holds the second in abhorrence ; 
 whilst God makes much account of, loves, and 
 favours the third. And here I do not understand 
 that God highly values, loves, and favours this third 
 because the world scorns, abominates, and persecutes 
 him ; but that the world scorns, abominates, and per- 
 secutes him, because God highly values, loves, and 
 favours him. 
 
 Again I understand, that from such an one's feel- 
 ing himself on the one hand to be highly valued, 
 beloved, and favoured of God, and on the other 
 hand scorned, persecuted, and hated by the world, 
 it results that, following the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit in pursuit of faith, hope, and charity, he 
 esteems himself a stranger in this present Hfe, and a 
 citizen of the life eternal. 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVI. 515 
 
 Deeming himself a stranger in this present life, he 
 lives like a stranger, contemplating no inheritance to 
 be derived from this present life, nor the enjoyment 
 of that which they enjoy who are its natives ; and 
 thus he holds all these things lightly, not fixing his 
 affections on any one of them ; and holding himself to 
 be a denizen of the life eternal, he begins to live as 
 do they who are there, and contemplates an inheri- 
 tance in it, and to enjoy that which they enjoy who 
 are its denizens, and upon this he concentrates his 
 affections. 
 
 I understand that although the thought of death 
 may alarm this man's sense, and such of his affections 
 and appetites as are still quick within him, — yet so 
 far as he regards himself as a pilgrim in the present 
 life, and a denizen of the life eternal, it is to him a 
 subject of rejoicing and of satisfaction to consider 
 death as the end of his pilgrimage. 
 
 He that, though honoured, beloved, and favoured 
 of God, is not likewise dishonoured, hated, and per- 
 secuted by the world, does not yet hold himself to 
 be a stranger in this present life, not being treated 
 as a stranger, although he esteem himself a citizen 
 of the life eternal, forasmuch as he knows that he is 
 honoured, beloved, and favoured of God. It is in- 
 deed true that this self-estimate is not complete and 
 perfect in him, until the world, knowing him to be 
 honoured, beloved, and favoured of God, begins to 
 treat him as a stranger, scorning, hating, and perse- 
 cuting him* for then he, feeling himself to be treated 
 by the world as a stranger, flies for succour to Christ 
 and to God ; and being, as he is, more honoured, 
 more beloved, and more favoured by God, and more 
 enlightened in his perceptions of the life eternal, he 
 esteems himself a stranger and foreigner in the 
 
 L L 2 
 
5:6 CONSIDERATION XCVL 
 
 present life, — so that, though the world should after- 
 wards turn to honour, love, and treat him well, he does 
 not cease to esteem himself a stranger, and to regard 
 the termination of his pilgrimage as desirable. 
 
 Here I understand two things : 
 
 The first is, that God wills that those whom He 
 loves should live as strangers. And the second is, 
 that between those who hate the world, because 
 they have been persecuted by it for their personal 
 godliness, and those who hate the world from other 
 motives, there is this difference — that these latter, 
 although they hate the world, whilst they are de- 
 spised by it, and would be happy to leave it ; — when 
 the world resorts to honour them, they, loving the 
 world, would by no means wish to leave it ; whilst the 
 former, since they once hated the world, upon seeing 
 themselves scorned, hated, and persecuted by it, never 
 return to love the world again, however much it 
 may love and esteem them. This difference pro- 
 ceeds hence, that following the light of the Holy 
 Spirit, and being illumined in their apprehensions 
 of the life eternal, they ever regard themselves as 
 strangers in the present life, and as citizens of the 
 kingdom of God and of the life eternal, and on this 
 account they hate this life, and rejoice to quit it 
 Whilst the others, on the other hand, following the 
 light of nature, have no definite assurance of the life 
 eternal ; and if they had it, are without warrant of 
 their future welfare in it, and on this account they 
 entertain no hatred of this life, neither do they 
 rejoice in leaving it. 
 
 Christians will understand from this discourse 
 that they are to esteem themselves strangers and 
 foreigners in the world in this present life; and 
 that they are to esteem themselves citizens of the 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVII. 517 
 
 kingdom of God and of the life eternal : and 
 should the sense of extreme dread of death make 
 them know that they have not even arrived at this 
 point, of esteeming themselves strangers, they ought 
 to strive to attain it by continual prayer, being assured 
 that the more perfect they become on this point, the 
 more like Christ will they then be, and more like 
 God, who have been, and are in this present life, 
 foreigners and strangers, and have been treated as 
 such ; and it behoves every Christian to be like God, 
 and like the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCVII. 
 
 Whether justification be the fruit of piety, or whether 
 piety be the fruit of justification. 
 
 Wishing to examine which of these two gifts of 
 God — piety and justification — may be said to be the 
 fruit of the other ; that is, whether piety be the fruit 
 of justification, man being just before he is pious, or 
 whether justification be the fruit of piety, man being 
 pious before he is just, — and wishing to proceed 
 orderly in the enquiry, I say, in the first place, that 
 by piety I understand true divine worship, which 
 consists in worshipping God ' in spirit and in truth ' 
 (John Iv. 24), mentally approving all that God does, 
 holding it to be just, holy, and good. And it is in 
 this sense that I understand St. Paul uses the word 
 
5i8 CONSIDERATION XCVII. 
 
 'piety' (godliness), i Tim. ili. i6. And I say, that 
 by justification I understand the purity of conscience 
 which dares to appear before the Judge, such as was 
 that of St. Paul when he said, ' Reposita est mihi 
 corona jus iitiis' &c., ' There is laid up for me a crown 
 of righteousness,' 8z;c. (2 Tim. iv. 8). 
 
 Proceeding still further, I understand that in sum- 
 moning to this council the light of nature, prudence, 
 and human reason, in order to make this enquiry, it 
 will ever say and affirm that justification is the fruit 
 of piety, understanding that a man cannot be justified 
 and be pure in his conscience unless he first worship 
 God ' in spiritu et veritaie' ' in spirit and in truth,' 
 rendering Him that which as His creature he owes 
 Him : and that as soon as he renders God what he 
 owes Him, he is just, and has his conscience cleansed. 
 And thus it concludes that justification is the fruit of 
 • piety, since it results from a man's being pious that 
 he is just. 
 
 Again I understand that, summoning to council 
 the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, in order to make 
 this enquiry. He will say and affirm that piety is the 
 fruit of justification, understanding that a man can- 
 not have piety, worship God ' in spiritu et veritate,' 
 ' in spirit and in truth,' unless he previously be just, 
 accepting the Gospel of Christ, appropriating the 
 righteousness of Christ, and understanding that as 
 soon as he becomes just by believing, he begins to 
 be pious, worshipping God in spirit and in truth. 
 And thus He concludes that piety is the fruit of 
 justification, because a man is just prior to his being 
 pious. 
 
 Were that true which the light of nature, prudence, 
 and human reason say, it would follow from the same 
 reason that there never has been, is not, nor ever 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVII. 519 
 
 will be, a pious man — I mean to say, one who per- 
 fectly and fully renders to God what he owes Him. 
 
 And that being certain which the Holy Spirit, the 
 Spirit of Christ, says, it rightly follows that there 
 have been, are, and will be, a great number of just 
 men ; for there have been, are, and will be, many men 
 who have been, are, and will be justified by Christ, 
 accepting and appropriating the righteousness of 
 Christ. 
 
 The men who adjudge justification to be the fruit 
 of piety, witness by' so doing concerning themselves 
 that they judge by the light of nature, by prudence, 
 and by human reason, as Plato and Aristotle would 
 have judged, who never heard of Christ ; and in 
 truth I know not what they feel respecting Christ, 
 Christian affairs, and the Gospel. 
 
 The men who adjudge piety to be the fruit of 
 justification, witness by so doing concerning them- 
 selves that they judge by the Holy Spirit, by the 
 Spirit of Christ, as did St. Peter and St. Paul, who 
 knew Christ profoundly, and who possessed the 
 Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Such men form this opinion of Christ, that God 
 punished all our sins in Him — that is to say, all that 
 wherein we failed, and which, as God's creatures, we 
 were under obligation to render to God : they feel 
 with reference to Christian practice, that it is to live 
 under the government of the Holy Spirit, ' in sanc- 
 titate et justitia' ' in holiness and righteousness ' 
 (Luke i.) ; and they feel with reference to the Gospel, 
 that it is a bond that comprehends these two things, 
 remission of sins and justification by Christ, and the 
 rule and government of the Holy Spirit ; which two 
 things they enjoy who, bv believincr in Christ, accept 
 the Gospel. 
 
520 CONSIDERATION XCVII 
 
 From all this discourse it is to be gathered, that 
 they who understand justification to be the fruit of 
 piety, follow Plato and Aristotle : whilst they who 
 understand piety to be a fruit of justification, justi- 
 fication being^a fruit of faith, follow Sl Paul and St. 
 Peter. It is to be gathered likewise that this word 
 ' piety,' employed in the sense in which it is here 
 understood, is not applicable to God, for He owes 
 nothing to any one ; on the contrary, all are indebted 
 to Him ; and that which He does with us is not out 
 of piety, nor is it of debt, nor of obligation, but out 
 of compassion, mercy, and generosity. He being com- 
 passionate, merciful, and generous to us in every- 
 thing. Which we ought chiefly to recognise in this, 
 that He laid all our sins upon His most precious 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to invest us with 
 the righteousness of the same Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
521 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCVIII. 
 
 In what way that is to be understood which Holy Scripture 
 
 declares, attributing condemnation at one time 
 
 to unbelief, and at another to wicked works ; 
 
 attributing salvation at one time to faith, 
 
 and at another to good works. 
 
 Though Christians who have faith, and feel its 
 fruit within them, which is justification, and the fruit 
 of justification, which is peace of conscience, still they 
 are subject to uneasiness from statements in Holy 
 Scripture, which lead them to desire to review their 
 own opinions and their own spiritual experience ; and 
 I hold this to be foremost amongst those which are 
 most calculated to cause uneasiness — for feeling 
 themselves justified by faith, and consequently pos- 
 sessing peace of conscience, they cannot understand 
 for what reason Christ, speaking of the day of judg- 
 ment, says in Matt. xxv. 21-46, that He shall con- 
 demn some, because they will have done evil, and 
 that He will save others, because they will have 
 done good. Nor for what reason St. Paul says in 
 Rom. ii. 6, that ' God will render to every man ac- 
 cording to his deeds ;' and St. Peter, in i Pet. i. 1 7, 
 that ' God will judge every man according to his 
 
522 CONSIDERATION XCVIII. 
 
 works ; ' at which they marvel so much the more, 
 forasmuch as Christ Himself says (Mark xvi. i6), 
 ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
 but he that believeth not shall be condemned ; ' and 
 St. Paul himself says in Rom. x. lo, ' For with the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the 
 mouth confession is made unto salvation ; ' and St. 
 Peter himself (i Pet. i. 9) attributes the salvation of 
 the soul to faith. 
 
 And from their inability to understand this, it 
 comes to pass that every one of them thinks in this 
 manner : ' If God be about to judge me according to 
 my works, there is not the least doubt but that He 
 will condemn me, for in them there is no goodness 
 whatever ; nay, wherein they appear best, there is 
 the greatest contamination of self-love, of interest, 
 and of self-glory — so that if I am to be judged by my 
 works, it will go ill with me.' Wheince, desirous of 
 removing this uneasiness and this scruple from 
 Christians and spiritual persons, and of maintaining 
 the meaning. of the Holy Scriptures, so that there be 
 no contradiction in them, I think thus : that with re- 
 lation to good or evil works, God does not consider 
 quantity but quality, which is determined by the dis- 
 position of the man who does the works, as exhibited 
 in the objects upon which he exerts it. There is 
 scarcely any necessity to prove this to be true in 
 connexion with evil deeds. And that it is true in 
 connexion with good deeds, appears from what Christ 
 says of those who cast their money into the treasury 
 of the Temple, praising the disposition of the in- 
 dividual who did the works (Mark xii. 41-44). And 
 this likewise appears by what Christ Himself says, 
 speaking of the day of judgment, where, in Matt, 
 xxv. 21-46, He does not say that He will save those 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVIII. 523 
 
 who shall have simply been charitable, but those who 
 shall have been charitable to Him — that is to say, those 
 who by believing shall have been incorporated into 
 Him. Whence it appears that Christ would say that 
 He will save those who shall have practised charity 
 towards Him, and that He will condemn those who 
 shall not have practised it Now, it being clear that 
 they only can act with a pious disposition who are 
 themselves pious and holy, and that none can recognise 
 Christ in His members, to exercise charity towards 
 Him, save those who belong to the body of Christ 
 Himself, — it follows clearly, that only they can per- 
 form good works, working in a Christianlike manner, 
 who are members of Christ, who have the Spirit of 
 Christ, who are pious, holy, and just, and who believe 
 in Christ 
 
 And this being established, it is also proved that 
 the scriptural declaration that men shall be saved by 
 their good works, and shall be condemned by their 
 evil works, is equivalent to the declaration that they 
 shall be saved by their faith, and shall be condemned 
 for their unbelief Whence Christians have two 
 things to learn. 
 
 The one, that they alone are capable of performing 
 good works, because, holding themselves to be justi- 
 fied by Christ, they do not pretend to justify them- 
 selves by their good works ; and thus, in working, 
 they work purely from love to God, and not from 
 self-love, as do they who, not holding themselves to 
 be justified by Christ, pretend to justify themselves 
 by their good works ; and, working thus from self- 
 love, from self-interest, and not from love to God, 
 they do not perform good works, inasmuch as their 
 works do not please God, and cannot therefore be 
 called good works. 
 
524 CONSIDERATION XCVIII. 
 
 The other, that God judging them according to 
 their works, He will not bring the contamination 
 which He will recognise in them into their reckon- 
 ing, having pardoned original sin in them, with all 
 that is derived to them from that evil root ; and be- 
 cause He will bring into their reckoning the faith 
 which He will have given them, and the purity which 
 shall be in their works, few or many, forasmuch as 
 they will be the fruit of that faith. 
 
 And thus God will save them, showing by His 
 judgment, publicly notified, that He saves them on 
 account of their good works ; but saving them in 
 very deed by the faith which He will have given 
 them, God will justify the sentence with which He 
 will condemn the impious and superstitious, and will 
 save the pious and holy, alleging the outward works 
 of both parties ; the life of holiness and righteous- 
 ness of the one, and the life of injustice and impiety 
 of the other. But this will be for them who only 
 know and see the outside ; and in the same sentence 
 they who know and see the inside, the root, whence 
 springs the life and works of the one part, and the 
 life and works of the other, — being more than man 
 by Christian regeneration, they will know that faith 
 has saved those who shall be saved, and that unbelief 
 has condemned those who shall be condemned. 
 
 Here an impious man, wishing to traduce Holy 
 Scripture, and a superstitious one, wishing to canonise 
 his superstitious works, might say to me : ' If this 
 which thou sayest be true, what occasion could there 
 be to make mention of works ? Would it not be 
 better that Scripture had stood firm in declaring that 
 whosoever shall believe, shall be saved ; and that 
 whosoever shall not believe, shall be condemned ?' 
 And to them I will give these three replies : — 
 
CONSIDERATION XCVIII. 525 
 
 The first, their charge of inconsistency in the Holy 
 Scriptures is owing to their misapprehension of 
 them ; and they would find' none, were they to 
 understand them ; and they would understand them 
 did they not seek to understand them by prudence 
 and human reason, which is incapable -of understand- 
 ing the things of the Spirit of God, such as are the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 The second, that God having, as has been de- 
 clared, to justify His sentence before men, who see 
 nothing beyond the outside, it is necessary that He 
 allege the outward works, those which testify to the 
 faith of the believer, and of the unbelief of the un- 
 believer. And 
 
 The third, that all men being most prompt to do 
 evil and most backward to do good, it appears to be 
 necessary that Holy Scripture should employ this 
 mode of expression, to bridle the promptness to evil 
 and to stimulate the backwardness to good, in order 
 that, just as they who now feel regeneration and 
 Christian renewal depart from evil, and devote them- 
 selves to good, solely from duty incident to this same 
 regeneration and renewal, to maintain Christian pro- 
 priety, not to grieve, nay, but to please the Holy 
 Spirit ; — so likewise they who begin to experience 
 regeneration and renewal do the same, in order to 
 confirm their calling and to work out their salvation ; 
 and let them likewise do the same who know nothing 
 of regeneration or of renewal, from fear of being 
 condemned ; and thus these may be less wicked, and 
 those, being less wicked, may be better from self- 
 interest, until having begun to feel the effects of 
 Christian regeneration and renewal, they likewise 
 may be good, not doing evil, but doing well — not 
 indeed from fear and from interest, but only as the 
 
526 CONSIDERATION XCIX. 
 
 duty of Christians, incorporated into the Son of God, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory evermore. 
 Amen. 
 
 CONSIDERATION XCIX. 
 
 Whence it proceeds that men disbelieve that all our 
 
 sins were chastised in the person of Christ, or, 
 
 that they believe it •with difficulty. 
 
 Considering the very great difficulty with which 
 men are brought to believe the Gospel, the good news 
 of the remission of sins, justification and reconciliation 
 with God, through the execution of God's justice 
 upon Christ — since even they who believe by revela- 
 tion and divine inspiration find more difficulty in 
 believing this remission of sins, justification, and 
 reconciliation, than in all the other doctrines, taken 
 together, which the Christian church believes, — I 
 have frequently occupied myself with thinking 
 whence this difficulty can proceed. And at last I am 
 brought to this conclusion, that a man finds the 
 inward opposition of his wicked conscience to belief 
 in this remission of sins, justification, and reconcilia- 
 tion ; and hence it comes to pass, that it is with the 
 greatest difficulty that they who believe by divine 
 revelation and divine inspiration are brought to hold 
 themselves to be just ; whilst they who believe as a 
 matter of opinion and by report never are able to 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIX. 527 
 
 bring themselves to do so. They who do believe 
 through inspiration, do not give full credit to the 
 Gospel until they find peace of conscience, and 
 finding peace of conscience, their inward opposition 
 ceases, and the difficulty of believing in the Gospel 
 is removed. 
 
 They who believe through teaching, as they never 
 find peace of conscience, they never believe the Gospel, 
 because the inward opposition never ceases ; and it 
 never ceasing, so neither does the difi^culty of believ- 
 ing ever cease : nay, whilst the opposition lasts, the 
 difficulty may be called an impossibility. 
 
 Men easily believe, from the declaration of the 
 Holy Scriptures, that God is supremely omnipotent 
 and just: they believe that Christ is perfectly innocent 
 and free from every sin ; they believe that Christ 
 suffered by the will of God ; because in none of those 
 things do they find inward opposition adequate to 
 induce them to disbelieve what the Holy Scriptures 
 affirm ; and, not to exclude the benefit of Christ, they 
 moreover believe that Christ rendered satisfaction for 
 original sin, for they do not find opposition even in 
 this, inasmuch as their consciences do not accuse 
 them on the score of original sin ; and as they do not 
 recognise any personal blame attached to it, they 
 readily bring themselves to believe, that without per- 
 sonal merit that is pardoned to them which they do 
 not recognise as a personal failing. 
 
 But when it is propounded to them, as an article 
 of faith, that Christ rendered satisfaction to God for 
 the sins which they severally committed, — although 
 they possess the Holy Scriptures, which testify this 
 to them in the most ample manner, nay, they all pro- 
 claim this harmoniously, — they suddenly draw back, 
 because they find inward opposition in their own con- 
 
528 CONSIDERATION XCIX. 
 
 sciences, and thus they resolve to restrict the benefit of 
 Christ solely to original sin, understanding it in their 
 own fashion, or even extending it to their own sins, but 
 with the addition of their own satisfaction, as though 
 Christ had declared : 'I have rendered satisfaction 
 for the sins of you all, but with the covenant that 
 each individual render satisfaction for his own,' — and 
 they do not consider the insult which they thus put 
 upon Christ : and they do not consider it because 
 they do not feel it, and they do not feel it because 
 they do not know Christ. 
 
 They who, by the gift of God, believe God to be 
 supremely just, that Christ is perfectly innocent, that 
 Christ's sufferings were the work of God, and that 
 He suffered for original sin, are brought at length to 
 believe that they, through Christ's sufferings, attain 
 remission of sins, and are just, and stand in grace 
 with God, having been already reconciled to Him ; 
 considering in this manner : ' If God be supremely 
 just, if Christ be perfectly innocent, if that which 
 Christ suffered He bore by the will of God, and if 
 it were the will of God that He should render satis- 
 faction for original sin, it is also true that the men 
 who have obtained the pardon of all their sins are 
 just and are reconciled with God, since we are all 
 brought by original sin to be sinners, unjust, and 
 enemies to God, and we are all brought to perpetrate 
 that whereby we aggravate our unrighteousness and 
 enmity. With this consideration they pacify their con- 
 sciences and facilitate belief, and rest assured that they 
 who do not believe this, either do not believe that 
 God is supremely just, or do not hold that Christ is 
 perfectly innocent, or they do not believe that it was 
 the will of God that Christ should suffer ; because if 
 they did believe it, they would believe what is de- 
 
CONSIDERATION XCIX. 529 
 
 duced from it, that is to say, that He did not suffer 
 on His own account, but on theirs, and to the end 
 that they might hold themselves to be just. Here I 
 understand the following things : 
 
 First, the blindness of human wisdom, that is 
 incapable of understanding the truth which the 
 Gospel proclaims. 
 
 Secondly, the ignorance of men, who, not under- 
 standing whence incapacity originates, do not attempt 
 to remedy it, but to conceal it. 
 
 Thirdly, that Christ, rendering satisfaction for 
 original sin, rendered satisfaction for all the sin we 
 commit, through the wicked perverseness which is 
 natural to us and derived from original sin. 
 
 Fourthly, that the faith of those who believe, 
 only being taught to do so, neither soothing nor 
 pacifying their consciences, does not facilitate in 
 them the belief that all our sins were punished in 
 the person of Christ. 
 
 Fifthly, that the faith of those who believe, having 
 been inspired, by soothing and pacifying their con- 
 sciences, facilitates in them the belief, that all our 
 sins were punished in the person of Christ. 
 
 And it is thus that they who have this inspired 
 faith proving and experiencing in themselves the 
 truth that the Gospel proclaims, are brought to under- 
 stand experimentally what they first believed by 
 inspiration. They first believed that Christ was 
 punished on their account, because the Gospel thus 
 proclaims it to them ; and they are inwardly moved 
 to believe that this is true ; afterwards finding peace 
 in their consciences, they understand in what man- 
 ner Christ was punished on their account. They 
 who do not believe it, or believe it uninspired but 
 taught, never finding peace in their consciences, never 
 
 M M 
 
530 CONSIDERATION C. 
 
 understand it; the saying of the prophet Isaiah (vii. 9) 
 being fulfilled in them : ' Nisi credideritis, non ititelli- 
 getis,' ' Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand.' 
 
 CONSIDERATION C. 
 
 That the fruits, which in Christians at their first 
 
 incorporation into Christ appear to be of 
 
 the Spirit, are of the flesh. 
 
 Seeing by experience that almost all who, by ac- 
 cepting the Gospel, come to be incorporated into 
 Christ, find in themselves at their first incorporation 
 certain tastes and sentiments, and certain desires and 
 impulses, and certain apprehensions of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, of Christian relations and certain tears, all which 
 appear as though they were of the Spirit whilst they 
 are wholly of the flesh, and like carnal objects in the 
 course of time wither and perish ; and seeking to 
 know how this is brought about, I have considered, 
 that that befalls every individual incorporated into 
 Christ which happens to a bough, which having been 
 lopped from one tree, is grafted into another. I mean 
 to say, that just as this bough would not produce 
 the fruit which it yields, had it not been inserted 
 into that tree, since that first fruit is almost wholly 
 formed of the sap which it bore in itself from the tree 
 whence it was cut off, so the person incorporated 
 
CONSIDERATION C. 531 
 
 into Christ would not have the tastes, nor the senti- 
 ments, nor the impulses, nor the desires, nor the 
 views, nor the tears which he has, if he were not in- 
 corporated into Christ : but that is almost all flesh, 
 affection of the flesh, carnal complacency and satis- 
 faction, which, being still alive without being able 
 to satisfy itself, or to feel complacency, in carnal 
 things, takes complacency and satisfaction in spiritual 
 things. 
 
 Whence I understand that every person, who at- 
 tains to be incorporated into Christ, may rejoice in 
 those tastes and sentiments, in those desires and im- 
 pulses, and in those views and tears, forasmuch as 
 they assure him that he is incorporated into Christ, 
 since he would not have had any one of these things, 
 had he not participated in that incorporation : and I 
 understand that, holding them to be fruits of the 
 flesh, and not of the Spirit, of the sap of that root of 
 Adam and not of that of Christ, he ought to lop them 
 off and throw them away, not feeding himself in any 
 way upon them, because that would happen to him 
 which happens to many others, who, feeding upon 
 such food, persuade themselves that they live after the 
 Spirit whilst they live after the flesh. 
 
 And I understand that they ought to give heed 
 that nothing be found in them that is not spiritual, 
 and that does not spring from Christ as its root, in 
 which it is incorporated and as it were grafted, pro- 
 ducing as fruit, from Christ as its root, humility, 
 meekness, patience, self-abasement, abnegation of 
 self-will, obedience to God, charity ; for all these 
 things were seen in Christ, whilst in the body con- 
 versing with men. And God inspires us to aim at 
 these things, and the Spirit of Christ impels us to- 
 wards them, and they are resplendent in those who 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 CONSIDERATION CI. 
 
 are perfectly incorporated into Christ : and these 
 fruits redound to the glory of God and to the glory 
 of this same Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION CI. 
 
 Whence it proceeds that the impious cannot believe ; 
 
 that the superstitious beUeve with facility ; and 
 
 that the pious beheve with difficulty. 
 
 In the impious, I observe impossibility of belief: 
 and I call those impious who profess themselves to 
 be the enemies of God : such was Pharaoh, and such 
 were the Scribes and Pharisees, who were opposed 
 to Christ. 
 
 In the superstitious, I observe facility of belief : 
 and I call those superstitious who, not being pious, 
 make profession of piety, and believe themselves to 
 be pious. 
 
 In the pious, I observe difficulty of belief; and I 
 call those pious who, having through the Holy Spirit 
 accepted the general pardon which is offered us in 
 the Gospel, strive to be confirmed in it, and to live 
 in time a life similar to that which they have to live 
 in eternity. 
 
 The impossibility (of belief) in the impious I 
 understand to consist in this, that God blinds their 
 eyes, stops their ears, and hardens their hearts, to 
 
CONSIDERATION CI. 533 
 
 the end that, not recognising the general pardon 
 which is intimated to them, they do not beHeve it, 
 and thus do not attain salvation. It was thus that St. 
 John understood this, when he said (John xii. 39, 40) 
 — ' Propterea no7i poterant credere, quia iterum dixit 
 Esaias ; exccccavit oculos eorum", ' Therefore, they 
 could not believe, because that Isaiah said again (Is. 
 vi. 9, 10), He hath blinded their eyes ;' nay, Christ 
 understood this same thing, as appears from the 
 three Evangelists, Matt. xiii. 14, 15; Mark iv. 12; 
 Luke viii. 10 ; and St. Paul understood it, as St. 
 Luke testifies in verses 26 and 27 of the last chapter 
 of the Acts. 
 
 The facility with which the superstitious believe, 
 proceeds, as I understand, from their belief being 
 based upon human wisdom, from belief sustained by 
 opinion and by report, and from belief rherely of 
 habit and custom, holding hesitancy to be impiety. 
 That such is the fact is proved by this ; that along 
 with the truths which they believe, they hold much 
 that is false, and believe in the false more strongly 
 than in the true : nay, they do not believe that 
 which is the foundation of all truth, namely, the re- 
 mission of sins and reconciliation with God by the 
 justice of God executed upon Christ. And I affirm 
 that they do not believe it, for had they believed it, 
 by that very fact they would cease to be superstitious, 
 and would be pious. 
 
 The difficulty with which the pious believe, pro- 
 ceeds, as I understand, from human wisdom, from 
 an evil conscience, and from mobility of the mind 
 and from lasciviousness of the flesh. 
 
 It proceeds from human wisdom, for the more 
 they continue their efforts to attain assurance as to 
 their faith, the more does human wisdom continue 
 
534 CONSIDERATION CI. 
 
 to oppose and impede them in it. That this is true, 
 appears from this, that because they mainly en- 
 deavour to assure and confirm themselves that all 
 their sins were punished in Christ, it is in this point 
 that Christians find greater opposition than in all 
 the other things which they believe. 
 
 It proceeds from an evil conscience, inasmuch as 
 it accuses man as an enemy of God, and hence it is 
 with difficulty that he feels assured of that which the 
 Gospel declares, that God has already pardoned him 
 and holds him as a friend. That this is true, ap- 
 pears from this ; that so soon as the man has peace of 
 conscience, he is so confirmed in his faith that he is 
 but little tempted to doubt. 
 
 It proceeds from mobility of the mind and from 
 lasciviousness of the flesh, inasmuch as the mind of 
 man is prone to mobility and the flesh is prone to 
 sensuous indulgence ; these oppose faith most sharply, 
 understanding, or divining, that faith slays in man 
 the mobility of his mind, and mortifies the lascivious- 
 ness of his flesh. That this is true, appears from 
 this ; that in proportion as the mobility of man's 
 mind, and the lasciviousness of his flesh, continue to 
 die out in him, so does he experience increased 
 facility in believing : but it is not to be understood 
 that either death or mortification are the causes of 
 his facilitated belief ; but faith being that which slays 
 and mortifies us, our faith is inwardly facilitated, our 
 enemies' forces are removed. I call those enemies 
 which render belief more difficult to us. 
 
 So that human wisdom, an evil conscience, and 
 mobility of mind together with lasciviousness of the 
 flesh, are the three instruments of which wicked 
 spirits avail themselves to make it difficult for us to 
 believe, for us who believe by revelation and by divine 
 
CONSIDERATION CI. 535 
 
 inspiration. Nay, I understand that by these three 
 instruments belief in the general pardon is impeded 
 in the superstitious, who readily believe everything 
 else ; and by these same do I understand belief to be 
 rendered impossible to the impious, whom God has 
 made blind, deaf, and dumb : self-love being in all, 
 that is to say, in the impious, in the superstitious, 
 and in the pious, their chief enemy ; and certainly it 
 is true that from it proceeds the opposition of human 
 wisdom, from it the opposition of an evil conscience, 
 and from it the repugnance of the mobility of mind 
 and of the lasciviousness of the flesh. That this is 
 true, appears from this, that were it not from self-love, 
 man would not be so curious in wishing to be certi- 
 fied of Christian verity, nor would there be such 
 scrupulosity of conscience, nor would it be so averse 
 to the death of the mobility of mind, nor to the 
 mortification of the lasciviousness of the flesh, and 
 thus the contradictions would cease, and the contra- 
 dictions ceasing, difficulty of belief would cease too. 
 
 From all this discourse, the conclusion that may 
 be gathered is this ; that if the impious would be 
 liberated from the impossibility of believing, let them 
 attend to the renunciation of self-love, if they be able 
 to do so ; and if the superstitious would recognise 
 themselves as not being pious, that they do not be- 
 lieve as they ought to believe, nor that which they 
 should believe, let them attend to divest themselves 
 of self-love as much as they may be able ; and that 
 the pious who feel themselves annoyed by difficulty 
 of belief, and desire to remove the difficulty, and 
 thus facihtate belief, let them labour to disenamour 
 themselves of self and of the world, and to enamour 
 themselves of God and of Christ. This they will do 
 by considering the evil there is in themselves and 
 
536 CONSIDERATION ClI. 
 
 in the world, and the good there is in God and in 
 Christ. 
 
 I say that this consideration will be very profitable 
 to them, provided that it ever be accompanied with 
 prayer, supplicating of God that He disenamour 
 them of themselves and of the world ; and that He 
 enamour them of Himself and of Christ ; and that 
 He slay and mortify in them all that is carnal and 
 savours of human wisdom, in order that they may 
 possess such an amount of faith as may bring it to 
 pass that they never indulge in doubt nor vacillate 
 therein ; ever remaining, as they owe it to them- 
 selves to be, faithful and loyal to Him, being made 
 His children by the incorporation with which they 
 are incorporated into His only-begotten Son, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION CII. 
 
 That Christian faith needs to be confirmed by experience : 
 
 the nature of experience ; and the mode of 
 
 acquiring it. 
 
 Faith being the foundation of Christianity, which 
 consists in accepting the general pardon through 
 divine justice, already executed upon Christ ; it ap- 
 pears to be right that the Christian occupy himself 
 with the considerations that are connected with faith. 
 And thus amongst the other things which I have 
 
CONSIDERATION CII. 537 
 
 brought under consideration relating to faith, is this, 
 that man is never staunch, firm, and constant in the 
 Christian faith, until he has some experience of what 
 he beheves. And then it is certain that his stabiHty 
 bears an exact proportion to his personal experience; 
 and the same thing occurs to us who believe in the 
 Gospel, as that which we realise in reference to a 
 very learned and highly spiritual man. I mean to 
 say that, just as whilst we believed in the wis- 
 dom and spirituality of this man by the report 
 of other men, we are in such a state of mind, 
 that were other men to come and make us an oppo- 
 site report, we should change the opinion we held of 
 him, or should at least entertain doubts concerning 
 him, until having formed a close intimacy with such 
 an one, we know by experience that the report made 
 to us was true, for then no man would be able to 
 persuade us of the contrary ; so likewise, whilst 
 we believe what the Gospel says, that God punished 
 in Christ all our sins, from the report made to us by 
 those who preach the Gospel, we are in danger if 
 other preachers come, who declare the contrary, 
 of changing our belief, or at least of being made to 
 doubt of what we first heard preached, until, gaining 
 experience of what is preached in the Gospel, we 
 stand firm and constant in what we believe, all the 
 men in the world being unable to divert or alienate 
 us from our faith, by any means whatever, since it 
 would be established by our own experience. 
 
 Hence I understand that the first and main object 
 that we have to keep in view who accept the Gos- 
 pel, believing that God has punished all our sins in 
 Christ, is to acquire the experimental knowledge 
 of this, in order that being thus established in our 
 faith, no man may be able to divert us from it, nor 
 
538 CONSIDERATION CII. 
 
 to make us doubt or vacillate, which men may do, 
 as long as our faith is not established upon ex- 
 perience. 
 
 And if anyone ask me in what way experience of 
 faith is acquired, I reply to him that man has ex- 
 perience of what he believes, when he has peace of 
 conscience, when it seems to him that he could 
 appear before God in judgment, with the same 
 safety that he would have appeared, had he lived 
 with the innocence in which Christ lived, and had 
 he suffered, by the will of God, what Christ suffered. 
 
 Moreover I reply, that mortification and vivifica- 
 tion are the most efficacious forms of experience, by 
 which our faith is established, since only they who 
 believe know themselves to be justified in Christ, 
 are mortified and are quickened. 
 
 And should another ask me, saying. What shall I, 
 who believe, do to confirm my faith by experience ? 
 I should reply. Let him do two things. 
 
 First, let him divest himself of all Christless 
 modes of justification, both of those that are nega- 
 tive and of those that are positive, and, embracing 
 only the justification that is in Christ, which consists 
 in believing, let him strive in prayer to God, suppli- 
 cating of Him that He would cause him to feel 
 peace of conscience, that He would mortify him, 
 and that He would quicken him. 
 
 Secondly, let him keep the strictest reckoning with 
 himself, as to his works, and words, and thoughts, 
 for the purpose of knowing by all these things what 
 progress he has made in mortification, and what 
 in vivification, and with the design of mortifying 
 and quickening himself to a greater extent daily, 
 striving to acquire that Christian experience by 
 which Christian faith is established. 
 
CONSIDERATION CII. 539 
 
 And as to the man who is anxious to know what 
 he ought to do to get rid of his own modes of justi- 
 fication, both those that are negative and those that 
 are positive, I advise that he strip himself of those that 
 are negative, knowing that if he do not kill, if he do 
 not steal, if he do not act the fornicator, and if he do 
 not injure his neighbour, it is either because he is 
 not inclined to do so, or because he fears social dis- 
 grace, or the penalty which attaches to these crimes 
 in this life ; and he will be able to convince himself 
 of this, by considering that he does not refrain from 
 doing other things, to which he is inclined, that do 
 not involve social disgrace, and that are not punished 
 in this life, such as ambition, honour, self-pleasing, 
 and his own reputation. I will, moreover, tell him 
 that of these things that are positive, he must divest 
 himself of them, knowing, on the other hand, the 
 superstition which he has blended with some of 
 them, and, on the other, the self-love with which 
 he has contaminated and defiled the rest : and he 
 will in this way be brought to such a state, that, 
 knowing himself to be deprived and stripped of every 
 false mode of justification, he will be constrained to 
 embrace that which the Gospel offers him, showing 
 him that God punished all our sins in His only- 
 begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
540 
 
 CONSIDERATION CIII. 
 
 Of opposition to the imaginations which disturb our 
 Christian faith. 
 
 I NOW return to consider what I have frequently 
 declared, namely, that a man's being tempted to 
 doubt is a work of Christian progress ; because I 
 understand that such temptation originates in a man's 
 wish to believe, and in a desire to stand firm and 
 constant in the Christian faith, in the general pardon 
 which is intimated to men in the Gospel. 
 
 The ungodly are not tempted to doubt, because 
 they neither wish nor desire to believe ; nor are even 
 the superstitious tempted to doubt, because, believ- 
 ing with human and fleshly wisdom, they have no- 
 body to tempt them to doubt. They who have 
 made progress in the Christian life are little tempted 
 to doubt, for having confirmed their faith by much 
 experience, they have disarmed their enemies; I speak 
 of those who tempted them to doubt. 
 
 And here I understand that men are incapable of 
 possessing such an amount of faith in themselves, as 
 to be wholly freed from temptation to doubt, and for 
 this reason God gives them faith according to their 
 capacity. Just as we do not put water equally hot 
 into a glass vessel as into an earthen one, nor into 
 an earthen one as into a brazen one, but take into 
 
CONSIDERATION CIII. 541 
 
 account the vessel's capacity of resistance lest it break ; 
 so that great temptation to doubt remains only for 
 those who having renounced irreligion, and being 
 undeceived as to superstition, begin, by the Holy 
 Spirit's aid, to accept the general pardon, which the 
 Gospel notifies, and to bear fruit in Christian life, and 
 continue to make progress in it ; for they, though 
 desirous to believe, find human wisdom active within 
 them, of which the evil spirits avail themselves in 
 order to tempt them to doubt. 
 
 And it is thus that when one of these persons, re- 
 nouncing and deserting all manner of self-justifica- 
 tion, those which consist in doing and those which 
 consist in abstaining, desires to embrace the right- 
 eousness of Christ, which the Gospel offers us, when, 
 through his own imperfection, he does not see it so 
 clearly and manifestly as he sees material things, and 
 those which are agreeable to human wisdom, he is 
 presently tried and tempted to doubt of the truth 
 which the Gospel affirms. 
 
 Whereupon a person of this sort ought imme- 
 diately to counteract such a temptation in this way. 
 
 In the first place, let him regard his being tempted 
 to doubt as a certain token of his advance in the 
 Christian faith, and say, ' Had I not wished and de- 
 sired to believe, I should not be tempted to doubt, 
 as I was not tempted when I did not entertain this 
 wish and this desire ; ' and thus he will come to com- 
 fort himself with that by which the Devil seeks to 
 disturb him. And should fancy prompt him to say 
 that his doubts are of the same character as those 
 entertained by doubters who are destitute of the 
 Spirit, he will say, ' It is not so ; for the doubters 
 who are destitute of the Spirit feel no annoyance in 
 doubting, nor do they desire to be freed from it, 
 
542 CONSIDERATION CIII. 
 
 whilst I am annoyed by doubt, and desire to be freed 
 from it ; consequently, I am certain that my doubts 
 are not of the same kind as those of the doubters 
 who are destitute of the Spirit ; I mean to say, not 
 tried and tempted to doubt, because they desire to 
 believe.' 
 
 Secondly, he will think thus : ' If this Christian 
 faith were not a thing spiritual and divine, it would 
 not find in me the contradiction which it finds, just 
 as the things which are neither spiritual nor divine, 
 but superstitious and human, and of which I sought 
 to be convinced, found in me no inward opposition ;' 
 and in this rrianner, the opposition with which Satan 
 wished to disquiet him will prove a meat;is of calming 
 him. 
 
 Thirdly, he will think thus : 'If this Christian 
 faith were not the gift of God, I should not feel such 
 new inward desires to please God, to be for ever- 
 more united to God, to see Him glorified and sancti- 
 fied by all men : which desires I feel, since I have 
 resigned myself in earnest to the faith ; ' and with 
 the ejJperience of the love of God after this sort he 
 will be assured of the truth there is in what the 
 Gospel affirms. 
 
 Fourthly, he will think thus : ' If this Christian 
 faith were not a thirirg spiritual and divine, it would 
 not have given rise to that abhorrence of material, 
 human, and earthly things, which, if I indeed do not 
 wholly abhor, at least I am brought so far that I do 
 not love them, I do not pursue them, I do not desire 
 them as I was wont ; ' and in this manner (subjec- 
 tively) experiencing mortification he will be confirmed 
 in Christian truth. 
 
 Fifthly, he will think thus : ' If I knew any other 
 thing better than this, or at least equal to this, with 
 
CONSIDERATION CIII. 543 
 
 which I might appear before the judgment of God, I 
 might have good cause to doubt of the truth of it ; 
 but not knowing at present either an> thing better, 
 or equal to it, I have no cause to doubt.' And in 
 this way he will be assured that he is on the side to 
 win, and not to lose, and that by persevering in this 
 Christian faith, he cannot lose, but win. And were 
 fancy to prompt him to say, that he might lose much 
 were that untrue which the Gospel declares, as far as 
 it attributed that to Christ which is not due to Him, 
 and which, not being due to Him, would prove 
 offensive to the glory and majesty of God ; he will 
 instantly recur to experience, and will think thus ; 
 ' Since I know myself to be pardoned through Christ, 
 and reconciled to God through Christ, recognising 
 myself as dead with Christ, and raised again with 
 Christ, and expecting my glorification with Christ, 
 I know and feel, and find within me, germs of 
 mortification, through contempt of the world and 
 of myself, and I feel the germs of vivification, 
 through love and affection to God, to the glory 
 of God, and to the will of God, and these germs 
 are good ; and since it is true that a good effect 
 never does proceed from a bad cause, it is likewise 
 true that the cause is good whence such an effect is 
 derived, and therefore what the Gospel notifies and 
 affirms is most certain and true, that God, having 
 laid all our sins upon Christ, and having punished 
 them all in Christ, has pardoned us all of them, and 
 has reconciled us to Himself, which pardon and which 
 reconciliation all enjoy who believe.' 
 
 The Christian, who, being desirous of embracing 
 the righteousness of Christ, is disturbed with sugges- 
 tions which tempt him to doubt, will make a stand 
 here, and closing the door to those which threaten to 
 
544 CONSIDERATION CIV. 
 
 assail him, will commend himself to God, saying 
 with Hezekiah, as reported in Isaiah xxxviii. 14, 
 ' Domine vim patior, responde pro, tnel ' O Lord, I 
 am oppressed ; undertake for me : ' and let him be 
 sure that God will help him, and fulfil what He 
 promised by David, where He says in Psalm xci. 
 15, ' Cam ipso sum, in tribulatione eripiam- eum, et 
 glorificabo eum', ' I will be with him in trouble : I 
 will deliver him and honour him.' . 
 
 CONSIDERATION CIV. 
 
 That baptism through faith of the Gospel is efficacious, even 
 
 jn children who die ere they attain a competent 
 
 age to be able to approve their having 
 
 been baptized. 
 
 Availing myself of the opportunity given by what 
 St. Peter states (i Pet. iii. 20, 21), that the ark in 
 which Noah saved himself during the deluge was a 
 type of our Christian baptism, I have considered, 
 that as Noah, by giving credit to God's word, ' ' 
 believed that the deluge would come, and believed 
 that he and his would be saved in the ark, not by 
 virtue of the ark, which naturally was unequal to 
 effect this, but by the will of God, who employed 
 that ark as an instrument of safety for him and his ; 
 so we, giving credit to the Gospel of God, believe 
 that Christ will come to judge both the quick and 
 
CONSIDERATION CIV. 545 
 
 the dead, and believe that, our sins having been 
 punished in Christ, we and ours shall be saved at 
 that judgment, being baptised, not by the virtue of 
 the water, which naturally is unequal to effect this, 
 but the will of God, who employs water as the 
 means of our salvation. God could well have saved 
 Noah, in the Deluge, without the ark ; and it appears 
 that He selected the ark as a means, condescending 
 to Noah's weakness, who more readily believed that 
 he should save himself in the ark, than he could have 
 believed that he would have to save himself without 
 the ark ; not that he placed his confidence in the ark, 
 but in God's word, which promised to gave him in 
 the ark ; and thus faith saved Noah, and not the 
 ark, for by faith he made the ark, and lodged him- 
 self in it 
 
 Similarly, God could well save us at the day of 
 judgment without baptismal water ; and it appears 
 that He employs water as a means, condescending to 
 our weakness, which causes us the more readily to 
 believe that we are saved by baptism, than we should 
 believe that we had to be saved without baptism, 
 although we do not put our confidence in the water, 
 but in the word of the Gospel of God, which pro- 
 mised to save us by baptism : and thus we shall be 
 saved at the universal judgment, not because we 
 baptise ourselves, but on account of the faith with 
 which we do so baptise ourselves. 
 
 Wherein I understand two things. 
 
 The one, that it is the duty of us Christians, all of 
 us, to feel assurance with reference to the judgment 
 day, by recollecting that we have been baptised, just 
 as Noah felt assurance with reference to the Deluge, 
 by recollection of the ark, the ark being to him what 
 baptism is to us. 
 
 N N 
 
546 CONSIDERATION CIV. 
 
 The other, that we, who have been baptised when 
 children, have cause to be assured, we are then 
 really and effectively baptised, when having arrived 
 at years of discretion, and hearing by God's will the 
 voice of the Gospel, we so rejoice in having been 
 baptised, that had we not been baptised, we then 
 would be so. Our situation resembles that of a man 
 who might have been placed in Noah's ark whilst 
 he was asleep, who, on waking and finding himself in 
 the ark, should thank Noah for placing him there, 
 and declare that if" he had not entered it, and it was 
 possible for him to enter it, he without hesitation 
 would have £ntered it. So that, just as that man, 
 having been taken on board the ark, not by his own 
 personal faith, but by that of Noah, would have been 
 saved in the ark by his own personal faith approving 
 of his having been taken into the ark ; so we, who 
 have been baptised in our infancy, having been 
 introduced to baptism not by our own personal faith, 
 but by the faith of those who introduced us to it, 
 shall be saved in baptism by our own personal faith 
 approving and ratifying the fact of our having been 
 baptised. 
 
 Another thing may be affirmed, that just as the 
 animals which Noah introduced into the ark, 
 entered by Noah's faith, and were saved at the 
 deluge by Noah's faith, they having no knowledge 
 of good or evil to lead them to enter the ark, nor to 
 approve their introduction when they had been 
 placed there ; so the children of Christians, who 
 enter into baptism through the faith of their fathers, 
 and never attain the age to be able to approve or 
 disapprove what their fathers have done — these, for 
 that they have no knowledge of good and of evil, 
 shall be saved at the judgment of God by the faith 
 
CONSIDERATION CV. 547 
 
 with which their fathers brought them to baptism. 
 In fact, the power and efficacy of faith is most mighty, 
 I speak of that which, giving credit to the promises 
 of God, feels assured of their fulfilment, showing its 
 assurance by carrying out the external rite which 
 God, on His part, has commanded. 
 
 This faith saved Noah at the Deluge, by means of 
 the ark : and this faith shall save at the day of 
 judgment, by means of baptism, all those of us who, 
 believing in the Gospel, shall be baptised ' in nomine 
 Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanctis ' in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ' 
 (Matt, xxviii. 19), to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 CONSIDERATION CV. 
 
 Three sources whence the ignorance is derived whereby 
 men err against God. 
 
 Considering what St. Paul says, when speaking 
 of the sin which he had committed against God, in 
 persecuting the Christian church, in i Tim. i. 13, 
 ' Sed misericordiam Dei consecutus sum, qtiia ignorans 
 feci in incredulitate' ' But I obtained mercy, because 
 I did it ignorantly, in unbelief:' and considering the 
 prayer proffered by Christ, when hanging on the cross, 
 to His eternal Father, for the sin of those who crucified 
 Him; saying (Luke xxiii. 34), ' Pater, dimitteillis, non 
 enim sciunt quid faciuntl ' Father, forgive them, for 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 CONSIDERATION CV. 
 
 they know not what they do : ' and considering what 
 St. Paul says (i Cor. ii. 8) of the wise men of this 
 world : ' St enim cognovissent, nunquam Dominum 
 glories crucifixisseni,' ' For had they known, they 
 would not have crucified the Lord of Glory : ' I have 
 deduced three sources, from which, as I understand, 
 proceed all the errors which men perpetrate against 
 God through ignorance. The first is malice ; the 
 second, inconsiderateness ; the third, unbelief 
 
 Thus it was from St. Paul's being in a state of 
 unbelief from his disbelieving that Christ was the 
 Son of God, that He was the Messiah promised in 
 the Law, that He died for the sins of every one, that 
 He was raised for the resurrection of every one, that 
 He was glorified for the glorification of every one ; 
 it proceeded, that he persecuted and slew those who 
 believed and preached this, thinking thereby to 
 render God service ; as others successively have 
 done, and continue to do, from the same motive that 
 St. Paul did, who, like St Paul, have erred and do 
 err against God ; not through inconsiderateness, for 
 he and they are mindful of what they do ; nor from 
 malice, for they do not from self-interest hate those 
 whom they persecute ; but through unbelief, from 
 not believing in Christ. Whence I understand that 
 it came to pass, that God, exercising mercy towards 
 St. Paul, gave him to know Christ, and thus from 
 a notorious persecutor he became a most distin- 
 guished preacher ; which, as I understand, has hap- 
 pened to those who have erred as St. Paul erred. 
 
 From inconsideration of what they did, the Gentiles, 
 who were ministers and executors of the death of 
 Christ, in slaying the innocent erred inconsiderately, 
 as many Gentiles have erred, who have put many 
 Christians to death, not considering what they do ; 
 
CONSIDERATION CV. 549 
 
 for had they considered as they should have done, 
 there is no donbt that they would not have done it : 
 and for this reason, because they erred like irrational 
 creatures, the error is not charged against them. I 
 believe this, feeling assured that God heard Christ 
 with favour when He said : ' Pater, dimitte illis, non 
 enim sciunt quid faciuni,' ' Father, forgive them, for 
 they know not what they do;' and St. Stephen, when 
 he said (Acts vii. 60), ' Domine, ne statuas illis hoc 
 peccatum' ' Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' 
 
 From the fact that the minds of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees were incensed against Christ, as those 
 persons who resemble the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 and make profession of sanctity outwardly, but 
 inwardly are destitute of it, have been, and are, suc- 
 cessively incensed against the imitators of Christ, it 
 came to pass, is come to pass, and continues to come 
 to pass, that they maliciously slay those whom they 
 have recognised, and do recognise, as members of 
 Christ, who always have been hated by those whom 
 the world deems saints, because they ruin and 
 prostrate that sanctity of which the latter make pro- 
 fession. I do not understand that God exercises 
 mercy towards these, because, although they are, 
 like St. Paul, in unbelief, it is not unbeHef which 
 leads them to err, but their own malice and malig- 
 nity. Neither do I understand that Christ prayed, 
 nor do Christ's members pray, for these, because 
 their error does not spring from inconsideration, but 
 from malignant depravity. Nay, I understand this 
 sin to be that which Christ designates as being 
 against the Holy Spirit, which He declares, in Matt, 
 xii. 31, 'shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, 
 nor in the world to come ; ' and, as I understand, the 
 same sin which St. John declares to be 'peccatum ad. 
 
550 CONSIDERATION CV. 
 
 moriem,' ' a. sin unto death' (i John v. i6). The 
 men who, imitating the Scribes and Pharisees, err 
 through ignorance springing from malice, cease to 
 be men, and become fiends. The men who, imi- 
 tating the Gentiles* that slew Christ, err through 
 ignorance springing from inconsiderateness, cease to 
 be men, and become beasts. And the men who, 
 imitating St. Paul, err through ignorance springing 
 from unbelief, are men, in the real sense of the word, 
 to whom unbelief is as peculiar as inconsiderateness 
 is to the brutes, and as malice is to fiends ; and for 
 this reason the unbelief that springs from error, 
 without commixture of malice and inconsiderateness, 
 finds mercy with God ; for he is led to believe, who 
 errs from ignorance that arises from unbelief 
 
 Wherefore, should anyone ask me, saying: Whence 
 believest thou the ignorance of the Jews proceeded 
 of which St. Paul speaks in Rom. x. 3, ' Ignorantes 
 enim justitiain Dei, et suam qucerentes statuere, 
 justitice Dei no7t sunt subjecti', ' For they being igno- 
 rant of God's righteousness, and going about to 
 establish their own righteousness, have not sub- 
 mitted themselves unto the righteousness of God?' I 
 reply, that it owed its existence partly to malice and 
 partly to unbelief, through the hatred which they bore 
 to the Gospel. And that this is true, appears from 
 the fact that some believed, whilst others remained 
 in their unbelief 
 
 I give this same answer to him who asks me 
 whence sprang, and still springs, the error through 
 ignorance of those of whom Christ speaks (John xvi. 
 2), ' Utomnis qui interficit vos arbitretur se cbsequium 
 prastare Deo', ' That whosoever killeth you, will 
 
 * The Roman soldiers obeyed Jewish instructions. 
 
CONSIDERATION CV. 551 
 
 think that he doeth God service;' and so much the 
 more, inasmuch as it appears to me that St. Paul 
 was one of these, and found mercy, because his 
 error through ignorance originated in unbelief 
 
 From this discourse I learn that every man ought 
 to be on his guard, not to enter passionately into 
 things which pertain to religion ; I mean to say, in 
 defending one, and attacking another vehemently ; 
 in order that passion may not so blind him as that 
 he should come to err against God, through an 
 ignorance that has its source in malice. 
 
 Further I learn, that man ought not, without con- 
 sideration, to apply himself to any one of the various 
 things that may present themselves to him, and still 
 less to those which relate to religion, lest he should 
 come to be numbered amongst the irrational creatures. 
 Moreover I learn, that the man who finds himself 
 free from passion, and from inconsiderateness, that 
 he may not transgress against God, must recognise 
 himself to be in a state of unbelief, and hence pray 
 to God to be freed from it ; and in the meanwhile 
 he ought to abstain from the execution of those 
 things which might damage his neighbour, and 
 especially when they shall appear most holy and 
 most righteous before God. 
 
 And I learn, too, that only the regenerate Chris- 
 tian, being more than man, and having escaped 
 unbelief, does not err through malice, nor through 
 inconsideration, nor through unbelief, but errs only 
 through frailty. Inasmuch as he has not wholly 
 ceased to be man, neither has he yet fully compre- 
 hended Christian perfection, into which he is brought 
 through his incorporation into the death, the resurrec- 
 tion, and the glorification of the Son of God, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
55: 
 
 CONSIDERATION CVI. 
 
 That that which the Holy Scripture calls the knowledge 
 
 of good and evil, the worldly-wise of mankind 
 
 have called, and do call, natural light, 
 
 wisdom, and human reason. 
 
 By what I read of the creation and of the fall 
 of man, I consider that man was at first created in 
 the image and likeness of God, and was placed in 
 the garden called the terrestrial Paradise. And 
 afterwards, having eaten of the fruit of the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil, he lost the image 
 and likeness of God, and was expelled the terrestrial 
 Paradise, retaining the knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 And I understand, that as it is unnatural to man, 
 and foreign to his first creation, to remain excluded 
 from the terrestrial Paradise, so likewise it is un- 
 natural for him to possess ' the knowledge of good 
 and evil' And by what I experience in man's re- 
 storation, in his regeneration, and in his being made 
 a new creature, considering that, in order to accept 
 the grace of the Gospel, remission of sins and recon- 
 ciliation with God, through the execution of the 
 justice of God upon Christ, and thus to enter into 
 the kingdom of God, and recover the image and 
 likeness of God ; and to be under the guidance of 
 
CONSIDERATION CVI. 553 
 
 the Holy Spirit, he is constrained to subdue his in- 
 tellect, and renounce and mortify his wisdom, and 
 his human reason and his natural light; I understand 
 that what the Holy Scripture calls the knowledge of 
 good and evil, the worldly-wise amongst men have 
 called, dnd do call, the light of nature, wisdom, and 
 humatt reason. And thus I am" led to understand, 
 that man is constrained to subdue his intellect, to 
 mortify his wisdom and his natural light, which is 
 the same as to renounce the knowledge of good and 
 evil, in order to attain restoration, regeneration, and 
 Christian renewal ; for it is a thing most just, that he 
 who has to regain what he lost should first renounce 
 what he has gained — which is tantamount to saying, 
 that if he has to regain spiritual light, let him re- 
 nounce natural light. 
 
 And if we grant — what we needs must grant, both 
 from what we read and what we experience — that the 
 restoration of our human nature by regeneration and 
 Christian renewal consists in this, that man, accepting 
 the Gospel, and incorporated into Christ, gradually 
 advances in the recovery of the mode of being, the 
 position and dignity, in which the first man was 
 created, and progressively rids himself of the mode 
 of being, position, and dignity in which the first man 
 remained after he had fallen ; similarly we must 
 needs grant, that just as what we gain is foreign to 
 the mode of being we now have, so likewise that of 
 which we rid ourselves was not natural to the being 
 we received primarily at creation. 
 
 Thus we come clearly to understand, that the • 
 natural light which we now have does not date from 
 our first creation, but from that of our fall ; and 
 moreover, that the spiritual light which we gain 
 through Christ, dates from our first creation. And I 
 
554 CONSIDERATION CVI. 
 
 understand, that this spiritual light was as natural to 
 man at his first creation as the knowledge of good 
 and evil, and the light of nature, are natural to him 
 now. And I think, that the first man, not recogniz- 
 ing the spiritual light to be a thing peculiarly his 
 own, but communicated by the favour of God, 
 desired the knowledge of good and evil, pretending 
 that that would be natural to him, as indeed it is 
 (since the fall). 
 
 And I understand, that man acquires more or less 
 of this knowledge of good and evil, according as he 
 is more or less purged and purified from the affec- 
 tions and appetites which are according to the flesh. 
 Hence I think that the worldly-wise among men 
 have been led to believe, that the knowledge of good 
 and evil is a spiritual thing, and dates from the first 
 creation of man, not considering that this effect has 
 for its cause, that the knowledge of good and evil, 
 and the light of nature, constitute perfection in 
 fallen man, as spiritual light had constituted it in his 
 first state of creation, and does so in his state of re- 
 storation. Two things present themselves in oppo- 
 sition to what has been said. 
 
 The first, from what St. Paul says in Rom. i. 19, 
 20, that the Gentiles might have been able to know 
 God by the light of nature ; and by what the same 
 apostle states in Rom. ii. 14, 15, that they ought by 
 nature to have known the will of God, it appears 
 that the light of nature does not date from the fall 
 of man, but from the period of his first creation. 
 
 The second, that it being true that the saints of 
 old, as for instance David, and the saints of more 
 recent periods, as for instance Paul, have availed 
 themselves in their writings of the light of nature, of 
 -wisdom, and of human reason, they appear to be 
 
CONSIDERATION CVI. 555 
 
 neither bad nor to be renounced, neither to be got 
 rid of nor to be mortified. 
 
 I understand that it may be replied to the first, 
 that St. Paul being desirous of convicting the Gen- 
 tiles, forasmuch as they excused themselves by say- 
 ing, that they had not been able to know God, and 
 that thus they had not adored Him : nor had they 
 been able to know the will of God, and for that 
 reason they had lived viciously ; he shows them 
 that, — although they had not the knowledge of God, 
 so that they could adore Him, nor that of the will of 
 God, so that they could obey Him, which knowledge 
 being derived from spiritual light, was in the first 
 man before his fall, and exists in Christians in their 
 restoration, — neither having had the knowledge 
 which the Jews had through their Holy Scriptures ; 
 that having had the knowledge which is attainable 
 by the light of nature, in contemplation of the crea- 
 tures, and by the testimony of their consciences, and 
 not having lived up to this knowledge of God, and 
 of the will of God : — they were in fault, nor had they 
 any excuse whatever. So that it is not to be inferred 
 from St. Paul's statement that the Christian has not 
 to renounce his light of nature ; though the light of 
 nature suffices to know God after a certain fashion, 
 and to understand the will of God. 
 
 To the second Ij;onsider it may be avowed, that 
 the saints avail themselves, in their writings, of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, to the extent of its 
 powers, which is still more highly illustrated in them 
 through spiritual light, and that they have renounced 
 it and mortified it, in that wherein it is impotent, 
 that is, in justification through Christ, in reconciliation 
 with God, in the rule and sway of the Holy Spirit, 
 and generally in all things celestial, spiritual, and 
 
556 CONSIDERATION CVII. 
 
 divine. I well understand that the felicity and 
 perfection of man would be much greater, were the 
 knowledge of good and evil wholly extinct and dead, 
 and were the spiritual light wholly burning and 
 alive ; but I likewise understand that passible and 
 mortal flesh is not substance capable of such felicity; 
 and I understand that it will become so after the 
 resurrection, when it shall have attained impassibility 
 and immortality. In the meanwhile, saints must 
 needs avail themselves of the knowledge of good and 
 evil, and of the light of nature, forasmuch as they 
 hold converse and relations with men who avail 
 themselves of the same knowledge and of the same 
 light, following in so doing Christ's counsel in Matt x., 
 ' Estate prudentes sicut serpentes' ' Be ye wise as 
 serpents;' and what St. Paul says in i Cor. xiv. 20, 
 ' Sensibus autem perfecti estate', ' But in understanding 
 be ye perfect' 
 
 Here two things occur to me. 
 
 The first, that since the knowledge of good and 
 evil, the light of nature, wisdom, and human reason, 
 came into man's possession, by disobedience to God, 
 and are connected with his fallen state, it follows 
 that this knowledge, this light, and this wisdom, 
 never yield real happiness to man — nay, as Solomon 
 declares in Eccles. i. 18, that with the increase of 
 knowledge, light, and wisdom, affliction, sorrow, and 
 grief increase also, and therewith happiness is 
 diminished. 
 
 The second, that considering that Adam, prior to 
 his knowledge of good and evil, was not ashamed to 
 be naked, and that, subsequent to his" knowledge of 
 good and evil, he was ashamed of it and clothed 
 himself, — I come to understand, that whilst man has 
 spiritual light, and avails himself of it, he recognises 
 
CONSIDERATION CVII. 557 
 
 no defect in the works of God, nor does he pretend 
 
 to correct them and amend them ; and that whilst 
 
 he has the knowledge of good and evil, and avails 
 
 himself of it, he affects to discover defects in the 
 
 works of God, and pretends to correct them and 
 
 amend them. Such is the arrogance of the men 
 
 who glory in the possession of the knowledge of good 
 
 and evil, in possessing great natural light, great 
 
 wisdom, and great human reason ; and such likewise 
 
 is the humihty of the men who possess spiritual 
 
 light, who take their places in the kingdom of God, 
 
 upheld by the faith of the Gospel, incorporated into 
 
 the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 CONSIDERATION CVII. 
 
 In what manner, from man's ignorance both of himself 
 
 and of God, it is rendered impossible for him to 
 
 accept the grace of the Gospel. 
 
 The more profoundly I occupy myself in meditat- 
 ing upon the benefit of Christ, considering that He 
 is in all, and supreme in all those who accept Him, 
 the more do I marvel that all men do not run after, 
 and embrace, and enthrone Him in their hearts, since 
 remission of sins and reconciliation with God, and 
 consequently immortality and life, are offered to them 
 gratuitously with Christ. And having frequently 
 
558 CONSIDERATION CVII. 
 
 occupied myself in considering whence it could 
 proceed that all they who have been informed of this 
 matchless grace do not accept it, I understood that 
 its non-acceptance proceeded from man's ignorance 
 both of himself and of God. 
 
 And in effect it comes to pass, that being uncon- 
 scious of his inward impiety, malignity, and rebellion, 
 which, through original sin, are natural to him, man 
 does not distrust' himself as to his personal abihty to 
 satisfy God, and to be just before God. 
 
 In like manner it comes to pass, that man, not 
 recognising goodness, mercy, and faithfulness in God, 
 distrusts Him, and is thence unable either to per- 
 suade himself or to assure his mind, that the righteous- 
 ness of Christ can belong to him ; that God can 
 accept him as righteous on account of what Christ 
 suffered. 
 
 And if man did but know himself, considering 
 himself as impious, malignant, and rebellious, not 
 only as personally such, but through his being, as he 
 is^ a son of Adam, he would distrust himself as to his 
 personal ability of self-justification. And if he did but 
 know God, recognising in Him goodness, mercy, and 
 faithfulness, he would easily trust Him, accepting the 
 pardon which the Gospel offers him, and so much the 
 more, that, knowing himself, it would not appear very 
 strange to him that God should pardon, without 
 personal merit on his part, the ills and transgressions 
 into which he had consciously fallen, partly without 
 his own fault and partly by his own fault, springing 
 and derived from that foreign source, with reference 
 to which David excused his fault, saying in Psl. li., 
 ^ Ecce enitn in iniquitatibus conceptus sum', &c., ' For 
 behold, in sin was I conceived,' &c. 
 
 Whence I understand, that just as it is impossible 
 
CONSIDERATION CVII. 559 
 
 that man, neither knowing himself nor knowing God, 
 can accept the grace of the Gospel, or rely upon it ; 
 so it is equally impossible that man, knowing both 
 himself and God, should either pretend or think to 
 justify himself by his own works, or to shun the bad 
 or to apply himself to the good. And should any 
 one say to me, ' How then did the Jewish saints, 
 who knew themselves and knew God too, attempt to 
 justify themselves through the sacrifices prescribed 
 by the Law ? ' I answer, that the Jewish saints did 
 not base their justification upon their sacrifices, but 
 upon the word of God, which promised to pardon 
 them upon their performance of those sacrifices. And 
 here I understand it to have been much more 
 difficult for the Jewish saints, because they knew 
 themselves and knew God, to be induced to hold 
 themselves justified by their sacrifices, than it 
 is to Christian saints, who know themselves 
 and know God, to be induced to hold them- 
 selves justified by faith and acceptance of the grace 
 of the Gospel. Forasmuch as it is most certain that 
 the Jewish saints, in sacrificing, knew that they gave 
 God what they themselves, from their own natural 
 inclination, felt complacency in offering Him, and 
 what they knew, in and of itself, neither pleased nor 
 satisfied God, as appears from many passages that we 
 read in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, 
 and especially in the Psalms and in Isaiah ; and as 
 it is also most certain and true that Christian saints, 
 in believing, know that they render to God what 
 they, from natural inclination, would fain not offer 
 Him, and what God takes pleasure in and wills that 
 it be offered Him, as appears from the whole text of 
 the sacred Scriptures of the New Testament. Hence 
 I come to this conclusion : that the men who, under 
 
56o CONSIDERATION CVII. 
 
 the Gospel dispensation, aim to justify themselves 
 by works, testify concerning themselves that they 
 neither know themselves nor do they know God ; 
 whilst they who aim to. be justified by faith, testify 
 concerning themselves that they know both them- 
 selves and that they know God too. 
 
 Wherefore, calling to mind an allegory which I 
 have elsewhere written, representing that God did 
 that with the Jewish people, in giving them a cere- 
 monial law, which a merchant does, when setting 
 out for the East, and suspecting his wife's chastity, 
 and knowing her to be inclined to compose sonnets 
 and songs, desires her to write one daily upon in- 
 cidents that had transpired between them, although 
 he took no pleasure in sonnets himself ; and consider 
 ing that that happened to the Jews, who neither knew 
 themselves nor God, which might happen to the 
 merchant's wife upon the supposition that, not know- 
 ing either her own inclination or that of her husband, 
 she should think to justify herself to him by offering 
 him sonnets, having lost her chastity ; and consider- 
 ing that that happened to the Jews, who knew 
 themselves and who knew God, which might befall 
 the same woman, upon the supposition that, knowing 
 both her own inclination and that of her husband, she 
 should pretend to obey her husband by making son- 
 nets, not going astray, nor engaging in other practices 
 calculated to dishonour her husband ; I am brought 
 to know the excessive impropriety of those who, liv- 
 ing under the Gospel dispensation, pretend or think 
 to justify themselves by works, and in the doing of 
 that which has not been enjoined ; since they cannot 
 allege obedience as the Jewish saints could, whose 
 obedience was imputed to them for righteousness, 
 and held them in fellowship with God, without com- 
 
CONSIDERATION CVII. 561 
 
 mitting adultery against God, as did they who, neither 
 knowing themselves nor knowing God, pretended to 
 justify themselves by their sacrifices. 
 
 In this discourse I learn, amongst other things, 
 two of pre-eminent importance. 
 
 The first is, that, since it is true that God does not 
 ask men to offer sacrifices, in asking them to believe, 
 to accept the gi-ace, the remission of sins, and recon- 
 ciliation with God, which the Gospel offers them, 
 showing them that God, having laid upon Christ the 
 sins of all men, has punished them all in Him, and 
 thus His justice is satisfied, — the man, however 
 sinful and bad he may be, who shall not hold himself 
 as pardoned by and reconciled to God, and thus as 
 just, by that very fact, will testify of himself that he 
 does not know God, since he distrusts His word, 
 and that he does not know Christ, since he wants 
 assurance that he is justified in Christ ; and if such 
 an one shall pretend to justify himself by works, he 
 will testify concerning himself that he does not know 
 the natural inclination of man. So that I must either 
 know myself to be righteous in Christ, although I 
 recognise myself to be a sinner in myself, or I must 
 deny what the Gospel affirms, that God has punished 
 in Christ the iniquities and sins of all men, and mine 
 with theirs : or I am constrained to say that God is 
 unjust, punishing sins twice, once in Christ and again 
 in me. And because it would be an act of impiety to 
 say this, and to deny the other would be an act of 
 infidelity, it remains that I am constrained to hold 
 myself as pardoned by and reconciled to God, and 
 thus, as justified in Christ, making the natural light 
 submit to the spiritual light. 
 
 The second thing that I learn is : that it being 
 true that the impossibility which man finds in accept- 
 
 o o 
 
562 CONSIDERATION CVII. 
 
 ing this holy Gospel of Christ, proceeds from man's 
 ignorance of himself and of God, it is every man's 
 duty to strive very earnestly to know himself and his 
 natural inclination derived from Adam, and to know 
 God, mainly occupying himself with continued prayer, 
 praying to God affectionately and fervently that He 
 would open the eyes of his mind, so that he may 
 attain to both these kinds of knowledge, and praying 
 that if He has begun to open them for him, He 
 would continue to open them more every hour. And 
 in this manner, if he has not commenced to accept 
 the holy Gospel of Christ, setting himself about the 
 removal of the impossibility, he will begin to accept 
 it, and, if he shall have begun to accept, the difficulty 
 being removed which he finds in accepting it, he will 
 accept it more and better, faith working efficaciously 
 within him to mortify him and to vivify him. By 
 these things the Christian faith is confirmed in us, 
 which served as the foundation to that most divine 
 confession of St. Peter, when he said to Christ in 
 Matt. xvi. 1 6, ' Tu es Chris tus, filius Dei vivi,' 
 ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' 
 To Him be glory for evermore. Amen. 
 
56; 
 
 CONSIDERATION CVIII. 
 
 In what manner the evil derived from Adam's disobedience 
 
 affects all ; and in what manner the benefit 
 
 of Christ's obedience affects all. 
 
 From what I read in Holy Scripture, and from 
 what I know of myself, I understand that to be 
 brought to believe in the benefit of Christ's obe- 
 dience, and that in Christ's obedience we have all 
 obeyed, and that in Christ's resurrection we all 
 have been raised ; it is proper and necessary to 
 believe in the evil of Adam's disobedience, and that 
 in Adam's disobedience we all have disobeyed, and 
 that in Adam's death we all have died. I say, it is 
 necessary for each individual to believe in the evil 
 wrought by Adam, in order to be brought to believe 
 in the benefit wrought by Christ ; because I under- 
 stand it to be impossible for man to believe in the 
 benefit of Christ, unless he believes in the injury of 
 Adam : since if he do not believe it he will not feel 
 it, and if he do not feel it he will neither desire, nor 
 strive to liberate himself from it ; and neither desiring 
 nor striving to do so, he will never come to believe 
 the benefit of Christ, which is the proper medicine, 
 the specific against the injury done by Adam. But 
 if he believes the injury done by Adam, he will, 
 together with the belief, have the feeling of it, 
 
 002 
 
564 CONSIDERATION CVIII. 
 
 and he will discover his inward impiety, infidelity, 
 and hostility to God ; and as he will know that he 
 arrived at such impiety, infidelity, and hostility 
 without any fault of his own, he will thus easily 
 be brought to believe that he may be able to attain 
 piety, fidelity, and loyalty without any merit of his 
 own, whence he will believe in the benefit of Christ, 
 and believing it, he will feel it, conscious of increased 
 loyalty, and that he is, in Christ, a friend of God : 
 and then he will effectually know, that as the evil 
 incident to Adam's disobedience, when he disbe- 
 lieved it, and therefore never felt it, was effectual 
 in making him, and that of his own fault, more 
 impious, more unbelieving, and more hostile to God ; 
 so the benefit of Christ's obedience is equally effec- 
 tual, when he believes in it, and therefore feels it, in 
 rendering him personally more faithful and more 
 kindly disposed to Christ. Whence I understand, 
 that just as they who believe in the injury done by 
 Adam, free themselves from it, and those who believe 
 in Christ's benefit, enjoy it ; so they who do not 
 believe in the injury done by Adam do not escape it, 
 and they who do not believe in Christ's benefit do not 
 enjoy it. And true it is, that just as they who believe 
 in Adam's injury, and in Christ's benefit, are for a sea- 
 son subject to Adam's injury, and Christ's benefit is 
 with reference to them partially suspended, so they 
 who disbelieve in Adam's injury and in Christ's 
 benefit are affected by Christ's benefit, and Adam s 
 injury is, with reference to them, partially suspended. 
 Because they who believe are affected by the miseries 
 of this present life, and by death, which are things 
 derived from Adam's injury ; and whilst they are in 
 this present life, and whilst their bodies are in the 
 tomb, the benefit of Christ, with reference to them. 
 
CONSIDERATION CVIII. 565 
 
 IS partially suspended ; and because they who dis- 
 believe are affected in this present life by Christ's 
 benefit, enjoying many things in common with those 
 who believe in Christ's benefit, and in the life eternal, 
 because they will be raised again, Adam's injury will 
 with reference to them be suspended. Thus I 
 understand, that as Adam's injury was effectual 
 in bringing death upon us all, from which death, 
 however, they are free who believe; so Christ's 
 benefit is effectual to raise all again, which resurrec- 
 tion, however, they will not enjoy who are unbe- 
 lievers, for it will then go ill with them. In Adam 
 we all died, in Christ we are all made alive : and 
 all those shall remain subject to Adam's injury who 
 will not accept Christ's benefit, but assuredly none 
 shall remain in the enjoyment of Christ's benefit save 
 those who have believed, and who shall have accepted 
 and felt it. For, in fact, the resurrection of Christ 
 will only be glorious to those who, believing them- 
 selves to be dead in Adam, and made alive in Christ, 
 shall yield themselves up to live in this present life, 
 as dead and made alive, beginning even now to live 
 a life greatly resembling that which they have to 
 live in the life eternal. So that just as the being 
 quickened is an imperfect resurrection, so the Chris- 
 tian life in the state of being quickened is imperfect, 
 although when compared with living in a state of 
 depravity it is most perfect : and the portraiture 
 of a life in the state of the resurrection, so far 
 as it admits of imitation in a state of vivification, 
 we see in Jesus Christ our Lord, in His purity, 
 goodness, faithfulness, obedience, and charity. 
 
 And here I learn two things. 
 
 The first, that since man, by believing in the injury 
 done by Adam, frees himself from it, and by believing 
 
566 CONSIDERATION CVIII. 
 
 in the benefit conferred by Christ enjoys it, it is the 
 duty of everyone to beHeve in that injury and in 
 that benefit ; not, however, hoping to feel it in order 
 to believe in it, — for this would be to invert the order 
 established by God, who wills that we believe before 
 we feel, — but believing in order to feel it : for by 
 believing in both the injury and the benefit, the virtue 
 of the benefit will obviate the sense of injury ; 
 partially in this present life, and wholly in that 
 which is eternal ; since we shall then be wholly 
 freed from Adam's injury, and wholly absorbed in 
 the enjoyment of the benefit of Christ. 
 
 The other thing that I here learn is, that those 
 who do not surrender themselves to live as dead 
 and having been made alive, by their imitation of 
 Christ's mode of life, do not believe that they have 
 died in Adam, and that they have risen again in 
 Christ, however much they may declare and affirm 
 their belief in both of them : because if they had 
 believed, there is no doubt they would have laboured 
 to live as those who, having been dead, had been 
 made alive ; this being the peculiar virtue of faith, 
 to bring by degrees those who really believe them- 
 selves to be dead in Adam, and quickened in Christ, 
 to live as dead, and as made alive, not in order that 
 they may become righteous, but because they recog- 
 nise and feel themselves righteous in Christ, and 
 because they hope for the crown of righteousness, 
 which is immortality and eternal life. 
 
 And here I will add, that just as the acceptance 
 of the pardon which a king grants to those who 
 have fled, on account of some crime, out of his 
 kingdom, and entered the service of another king, 
 is sufficient to cause them to leave the foreign 
 kmgdom and the service of the foreign king, and 
 
CONSIDERATION CVIII. 567 
 
 to return to their own kingdom and to the service 
 of their own king ; so the acceptance of the Gospel 
 is sufficient to cause all those who accept it, to leave 
 the kingdom of the world and the service of the 
 world, and to enter the kingdom of God and the 
 service of God : and that ceasing to live after the 
 flesh, they should live after the Spirit. So they 
 who do not leave the kingdom of the world and 
 the service of the world, and cease to live after the 
 flesh, witness concerning themselves that they have 
 not accepted the benefit of the Gospel, however 
 much they may declare their belief in it : just as 
 those persons who do not leave the foreign king- 
 dom and the service of the foreign king, and return 
 to their own kingdom to serve their own king, 
 witness concerning themselves that they do not 
 accept their king's pardon, however much they may 
 declare that they do accept it and do believe in 
 it, since they do not obey the will of their king, 
 who wills concerning them, as God wills concerning 
 us, that is, that we leave the kingdom of the world 
 aiM the service of the world, and that we come to 
 the kingdom of God, to serve God in holiness, and 
 righteousness, and in the Gospel of His only-begotten 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
568 
 
 CONSIDERATION CIX. 
 
 Of the conception which I, as a Christian, now have of 
 Christ, and of those who are members of Christ. 
 
 Desiring to determine inwardly the conception 
 which I, as a Christian, ought to have of Christ, I 
 proceed to consider in Him two generations, the one 
 divine and the other human : and two periods, the 
 one of obloquy and the other of glory. 
 
 With reference to His divine generation, I know 
 that Christ is the Word of God, ithe Son of God, 
 of the same substance with the Father, one and the 
 same thing with Him : so like Him that Christ could 
 well say to Philip, as in John xiv. 9, 'Philippe, 
 qui videt me, videt et Patrem,' ' Philip, he that seeth 
 me, seeth the Father also.' I understand this per- 
 son to be that Word, with which God created all 
 things, even as Moses declares, in Gen. i. 3, 'Dixit 
 Deiis,fiat lux', ' God said, Let there be light : ' and 
 even as David says, in Psl. xxxiii. 6, ' Verba 
 Domini coeli firniati sunt' ' By the Word of the Lord 
 were the heavens made.' By this same Word I 
 understand, that God upholds all things, conformably 
 to that passage (John i. 4), ' In ipso vita erat,' ' In 
 Him was life ; ' and to that in Heb. i. 3, ' Portans 
 omnia verbo virtutis sinr, ' Upholding all things by 
 the Word of His power.' I understand this same 
 
CONSIDERATION CIX. 569 
 
 Word, whom, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, 
 God clothed with flesh in the womb of the most holy 
 Virgin, with the design of reinstating all things by 
 Him, even as He created them all by Him, and up- 
 holds them all by Him ; and I understand that this 
 Word of God was, as Isaiah declares in ch. liii. 10, 
 prosperous in Christ, inasmuch as that was accom- 
 plished which God purposed in Him and by Him : 
 and thus I understand that He is one and the same 
 Word of which St. John (i. i) declares, ' Inprincipio 
 erat verbum, et verbuTn erat apud Deum, et Detis 
 erat verbiLiu' ' In the beginning was the Word, and 
 the Word was with God, and the Word was God ;' 
 and further in verse 14, ' Et verbum, caro factum 
 est,' ' And the Word was made flesh ; ' and with that 
 of which St. Paul declares, in Col. i. 16,' Quoniam in 
 ipso condita sunt tiniversa in ccelis etin terra', ' For by 
 Him were all things created that are in heaven and 
 in earth.' 
 
 But setting myself to investigate in what this 
 divine generation of the Son of God, of the Word of 
 God, consists ; in what manner the Son is begotten 
 of the Father ; for what reason the Word is called the 
 Son, and the Son is called the Word ; I find myself 
 so incapable of grasping this knowledge, that I am 
 afresh confirmed in what I wrote in Consideration 
 XCV., declaring that just as the worms, which are 
 engendered by the corruption of the earth, are wholly 
 incapable of understanding the mode in which one 
 man is generated by another, so men that are be- 
 gotten by carnal generation are wholly incapable of 
 understanding, not only the mode in which the Son 
 of God was begotten, but likewise the mode in which 
 the sons of God are begotten by the Holy Spirit of 
 God. And had I understood in what manner Moses and 
 
570 CONSIDERATION CIX. 
 
 David, St. John and St. Paul, understood that God 
 created all things by His Word, I should understand 
 this divine secret upon the investigation of which I 
 am engaged, in which I proceed to consider the 
 power with which Christ did whatever He pleased 
 in the state of humiliation, being instantaneously 
 obeyed by His creatures, and obstructed by none of 
 them more than was jpermitted. 
 
 Should it please God to render me capable of 
 understanding this divine secret before I quit this 
 present life, I will add hereto what He shall teach 
 me, to His glory and that of Christ, and of those who 
 are the sons of God in Christ and through Christ. 
 Otherwise I shall content myself with this, that I am 
 certain I shall see with these bodily eyes, in the life 
 eternal, what I now desire to see with the eyes of 
 my mind : and, in the meanwhile, I rejoice in what I 
 know at present, that this Word of God is the Son of 
 God ; with whom and by whom God has created and 
 restored all things ; that He is of the same substance 
 with the Father ; that He is one and the same in 
 essence with Him ; and that like Him He is eternal* 
 
 * Here, in this ' Consideration,' we find the futile reason the Anti- 
 trinitarians made use of to claim Ju4n de Valdds as one with them- 
 selves in doctrine. 
 
 ' Johannes Valdesius, ' writes Judn de Valdds, a Spanish 
 
 S>3.n&ms,m Bibliotheca Anti-trini- nobleman, etc. The Ministers 
 
 tariorum, Friestadii 1684, p. 2, of the united churches in Sar- 
 
 ' Johannes^ Valdesius, Nobilis His- matia and Transylvania, in the 
 
 panus, etc. De eo Ministri eccle- third chapter of the first book, 
 
 siarum consentientium in Sarma- on the false and true knowledge 
 
 tia et Transylvania, lib. i. cap. 3. of one God the Father, Son, and 
 
 De falsa et vera unius Dei Patris, Holy Spirit, write these things of 
 
 Filii et Spiritus Sancti cognitione, him : — ' What must be said also 
 
 hcBc scribunt : De lohanne etiam of Juin de Valdds, a most iUus- 
 
 Valdesio, genere et pietate Claris- trious man both by birth and piety ? 
 
 simo, quid dicendum ? Qui scri- who, leaving to us in his public 
 
 ptis publicis sties eruditionis sped- writings examples of his learning, 
 
 mina nobis relinquens, scribit, se writes thus : — " That .he knew 
 
CONSIDERATION CIX. 571 
 
 I understand that the Holy Spirit, accommodating 
 Himself to our incapacity, in speaking with us, em- 
 ploys words in use amongst us, such as these, ' Word ' 
 and ' Son,' — not that we can, through them, compre- 
 hend the divine secret, but in order that we may 
 have some name for it. With reference to this 
 divine generation, I understand that Christ is the 
 first-born Son of God ; by His eternity, that He ever 
 has been Son, and that He is the only-begotten Son 
 of God ; by His individuality, that He alone is Son 
 by generation, all others that are sons being so by 
 regeneration. As regards this divine generation of 
 Christ, I understand that there has not been in Him 
 either decrease or increment : He was the same 
 prior to His incarnation, that He was at His incarna- 
 tion, and that He is in glory. 
 
 With reference to His human generation, I under- 
 stand that Christ was, by the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit, begotten in the womb of the most holy Virgin ; 
 but in what manner I do not know : it is sufficient 
 for me to know that the flesh with which the Word 
 of God clothed Himself in the world, was taken from 
 that most holy Virgin, because, according to this 
 flesh, I know Christ as the son of David and Abra- 
 ham ; and I see already partly fulfilled in Him the 
 promises of God, made to David, as to the perpetuity 
 
 de Deo ejusque Filio 7iihil alhid nothing else of God and His Son 
 scire, quam quod umis sit Deus than that there is one most high 
 altissimus Christi Pater: et unicus God, the Father of Christ, and our 
 dominusnosterlesusChristus ejus one only Lord, Jesus Christ His 
 filius, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Son,-whowasconceivedofthe Holy 
 Sancto in utero virginis : unus Spirit in the Virgin's womb : who 
 et ambormn Spiritus.' is one and the Spirit of each." ' 
 
 In this extract we see also the source or authority followed by Bayle, 
 Bock, Sandius, and the Biographical Dictionaries, copying one from 
 another, none of them having the books of Valdi^s, by which they 
 might have corrected the opinion, had they wished it 
 
572 CONSIDERATION CIX. 
 
 of the kingdom in his seed, and made to Abraham 
 as to the multiplication of his seed and as to his 
 inheritance of the world : and I expect to see them 
 entirely fulfilled in the life eternal, when the resur- 
 rection of the just shall have been accomplished. 
 
 With reference to this human generation, I re- 
 cognise in Christ two epochs, the one of shame and 
 the other of glory. 
 
 In the period of abasement, I recognise Him as a 
 man passible and mortal, with all the miseries which, 
 being connected with passibility and mortality, are 
 aggravated to the man who lives in poverty : and I 
 recognise Him with a flesh similar to my own, ex- 
 cepting that His was not sinful flesh, nor flesh subject 
 to sin, as mine. In this period I recognise Christ as 
 very lowly and very meek, esteeming Himself to be 
 what He was in that mode of being in which He 
 was clad in flesh, as one disguised amongst men, in 
 order that He might be treated as a man by men. 
 I recognise Christ at this period as perfectly obe- 
 dient to His eternal Father, perfectly free from all sin, 
 and at the same time perfectly righteous and per- 
 fectly holy ; so that He could safely say to those 
 who persecuted and calumniated Him, as reported 
 in John viii. 46, ' Quis ex vobis arguet me de pec- 
 cato ? ' ' Which of you convinceth me of sin ? ' 
 and St. Paul might well say, speaking of Him 
 (2 Cor. V. 21), ' Etim ^m non noverat peccatum,' 
 ' He who had known no sin ; ' and St. Peter, in 
 I Pet. ii. 22, ' Quipeccatum non fecit, neque est inven- 
 tus dohis iri ore ejus, ' ' Who did no sin, neither was 
 guile found in his mouth.' And the Scriptures are 
 everywhere replete with testimonies to this innocency 
 of Christ, as a fact most necessary to be understood 
 by all those who recognise themselves as righteous 
 in Him, and through Him. 
 
CONSIDERATION CIX. 573 
 
 In the period of exaltation, I recognise Christ as 
 man impassible and immortal, and I recognise Him 
 as perfectly glorious and perfectly triumphant, as the 
 person who has acquired absolute power in heaven 
 and on earth, having for God's elect acquired the 
 kingdom of God, and that they should be heirs of 
 God : having slain them all in Himself, raised 
 them all up in Himself, and glorified them all in 
 Himself, so that their state comes to be identical 
 with His. In this period, I recognise Christ as 
 Lord, as Head, and as King of God's people, of 
 God's Church, and of God's elect. 
 
 I recognise Christ as Lord of God's elect, because 
 I understand that He has redeemed them with His 
 precious blood, liberating them from sin, from hell, 
 and from death, in which the first man (Adam) had 
 placed them, and to which he held them obliged 
 and subject; and because the Apostles, in their 
 writings, exult in designating Christ as the Holy 
 One. 
 
 I recognise Christ as Head of God's Church, 
 because I understand, that God having placed His 
 Holy Spirit in Him, with all the treasures of His 
 Godhead, He communicates and distributes them 
 most liberally to those who, being incorporated into 
 Him, belong to God's Church, to every individual 
 according to his capacity : acting on them as my 
 head does upon my body, to such an extent, that 
 just as my hand, if it could speak, would declare 
 and affirm that it feels that a vital power descends 
 to it from my head, by means of which it lives : 
 so every individual of those who, incorporated into 
 Christ, constitute the Church of God, because en- 
 dowed with the faculty of speech, declares and 
 affirms, that he experiences a spiritual power im- 
 
574 CONSIDERATION CIX. 
 
 parted to him by Christ by means of which he 
 lives a spiritual life. St. John understood this when 
 he declared (ch. i. i6), ' Et de plenitudine Ejus nos 
 omnes accepimus, et gratiam pro grahd, ' ' And 
 of His fulness have all we received, and grace for 
 grace;' and St. Paul, in Col. i. 19, understood it so 
 where he says ' Quoniani in illo complacitum est 
 P atri\omnem plenitudinem\ inhabitare, ' 'It pleased 
 the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell' 
 
 I recognise Christ as King of God's people, 
 because I understand that it is He who rules 
 and governs them by His Spirit, not only in things 
 internal and divine, as Head, but likewise as God, 
 and in things external and corporeal, as King : in all 
 which things being, as they are, sons of God, 
 ' agmitur Spiritu Dei', ' they are led by the Spirit 
 of God;' as St. Paul says, in Rom. viii. 14. And 
 thus I understand, that the kingdom of God is 
 not called a spiritual kingdom, because it governs 
 us in things spiritual, but because, governing us in 
 things spiritual and corporeal, it does not govern us 
 with an outward law, but with an inward law, which 
 is the government of the Holy Spirit, the Christian 
 spirit. The Holy Scriptures abound with the men- 
 tion of this kingdom of Christ — Is. v. i et seq. ; 
 Mich. V. 4 ; Daniel vii. 9 — from which passages I un- 
 derstand that God reigns in this present life but by 
 Christ, and that in the life eternal God will reign but 
 by Himself, for then He will be all in all ' (i Cor. 
 XV. 28). ■ 
 
 In this manner I recognise Christ glorious as King 
 amongst God's people, as Head over God's Church, 
 and as Lord over God's elect : and I recognise Christ 
 as lowly, perfectly innocent, and free from all sin, and 
 abounding in every form of righteousness : and I 
 
CONSIDERATION CIX. 575 
 
 recognise the promises made by God to Abraham 
 and to David, as partially fulfilled in Him : and I 
 recognise Him as the first-begotten and the only- 
 begotten Son of God : and I recognise that He 
 IS the Word of God, by which God created all 
 thmgs : and I recognise Him as eternal and con- 
 substantial. And I hold for certain, that just in 
 proportion as the Christian faith shall become more 
 effectual in me, both in modifying and in quickening 
 me, will these recognitions of Christ go on to. become 
 clearer and more distinct, by which I shall advance, 
 day by day, in an ever-increasing knowledge of God, 
 to as much as may be known in this life : in the 
 meanwhile, this flesh, being passible and mortal, 
 is not a material able to support the vision of 
 Christ and of God face to face (i Cor. xiii. 12), 
 as I shall see Him in the life eternal. 
 
 Having thus determined the conception I ought 
 to hold as to Christ, I proceed to determine the 
 conception I ought to hold of those who are members 
 of Christ, considering each one of them severally as 
 a son of God, not a first-begotten one like Christ, who 
 ever has been Son, but as an adopted Son, through 
 Christ and in Christ ; not an only-begotten Son as 
 Christ, who is Son by generation, but regenerated 
 through Christ and in Christ, born a son of wrath, 
 but by the new birth a Son of God : not in a state 
 of glorification, such as that in which Christ is, 
 but in a state of abasement, such as that in which 
 Christ was : not Lord over God's elect, but one 
 of their number, who, being elected of God, are 
 servants of Christ, redeemed and bought by Christ : 
 not the head of God's Church, as Christ, but as a 
 member of the Church of God, of which Christ is 
 the Head : not King of God's people, as Christ, but 
 
576 CONSIDERATION CIX. 
 
 governed by the Spirit of Christ, by the aid of whose 
 Spirit I know that all the members of Christ are united 
 amongst themselves, and united with Christ Himself, 
 and in the meanwhile united likewise with God, they 
 being in God and God being in them. And thus I 
 see that prayer fulfilled which Christ made to the 
 Father for this union (John xvii. ii), saying, ' Ut et 
 ipsi in nobis tinuni sint' &c., ' And that they may 
 be one in us,' &c. ; and I understand how all 
 Christian perfection consists in this union. 
 
 I pray God that He may impress it in such a 
 manner upon my memory, that it may not seem to 
 leave it or to depart from it for one moment, in order 
 that I may never do anything that may be unworthy 
 of this union, which I recognise as instituted by my 
 Christ, who is my Lord, my Head, and my King; 
 to whom be glory, with the Father and the Holy 
 Spirit. Amen. 
 
577 
 
 CONSIDERATION CX. 
 
 That spiritual gifts are not understood, until they are 
 
 possessed. 
 
 The highest testimony to Christian life is this : 
 that in proportion as the Christian advances towards 
 perfection in Christian practice, so does he advance 
 in distinctness of Christian views. Nay, I hold it 
 to be certain, that the same Christian spirit which 
 ' leads him to progress towards perfection in practice, 
 leads him to distinctness of views, to such an extent 
 that it is scarcely possible to understand whether 
 the distinctness of views be assignable to the per- 
 fection of practice, or whether the perfection 
 of practice be assignable to the distinctness of 
 views : and therefore it is safe to say that both 
 one and the other are due to the Christian spirit, 
 which marvellously operates, both the one and the 
 other, in those persons who accept the Gospel of 
 Christ. I have stated this for the following reason, — 
 that having regarded the matter of Christianity not 
 as science, but as experience, I have endeavoured to 
 make this truth intelligible to individuals by nume- 
 rous illustrations. I never satisfied my own mind so 
 that it could appear to me, that I had expressed my 
 views in my own way, until now, when to my own 
 judgment, having apprehended it more distinctly, if 
 
 p p 
 
578 CONSIDERATION CX. 
 
 seems to me that I am better enabled to express 
 it : and thus I say, that I find the difference between 
 belief and acceptance of thp Christian graces, faith, 
 hope, and charity, with the human understanding, 
 or with the Christian spirit, to be the same that I 
 find between acceptance and approval of those three 
 natural virtues, magnanimity, courage, and liberality, 
 and the actual possession of them. I mean to say, 
 that just as there are men who, hearing these three 
 natural virtues, and their perfection, spoken of, 
 although they do not recognise them in themselves, 
 approve and receive them as good ; so there are like- 
 wise men who, hearing those three gifts of God, 
 faith, hope, and charity, and of their perfection and 
 efficacy, spoken of, although they do not recognise 
 them in themselves, approve and receive them 
 as good, believing that they who accept the 
 grace of the Gospel enjoy remission of sins and 
 reconciliation with God, through Christ, and ap- 
 proving the hope with which they may ex- 
 pect the felicity of eternal life, and the love 
 with which they love God above everything, and 
 love their neighbour as themselves. I say, more- 
 over, that just as they who approve of these three 
 natural virtues, whilst they do not possess them, 
 although they may be pleased to hear them spoken 
 of through the desire they have to possess them, 
 nevertheless it is not such as to give them full 
 satisfaction. Nay, when they look into themselves 
 and find themselves without them, they grieve 
 and are discontented, and so much the more, as 
 they appear to them the more perfect, because 
 so much the more they lose the hope of being 
 able to attain them : — precisely so they who approve 
 the three gifts of God, but do not possess them. 
 
CONSIDERATION CX. 579 
 
 though they may be pleased to hear them spoken 
 of, through the desire they have to possess them, 
 nevertheless it is not such as to give them full 
 satisfaction. Nay, when they look into themselves 
 and find themselves without them, they grieve and 
 are discontented, and so much the more, as the gifts 
 appear to them more perfect, because so much the 
 more they lose the hope of being able to attain 
 them. But proceeding further, I say, that just 
 as whenever it should come to pass that the men 
 who approve the. three natural virtues, but do not 
 possess them, should come to possess them, and to 
 recognise themselves magnanimous, brave, and liberal, 
 they would declare that they had never rightly 
 understood the merits of these three virtues pre^ 
 viously ; and they would far otherwise enjoy to hear 
 them spoken of, recognising them in themselves, and 
 though it might grieve them to find themselves 
 imperfect in them, it would not grieve them that 
 they should be as perfect as they are : — so likewise, 
 when it comes to pass that the men who approve 
 the three gifts of God, but do not possess them, 
 come to possess them, because God gives them 
 to them, recognising in themselves faith, hope, and 
 charity, they declare that they never had previously 
 rightly understood what these three gifts of God 
 were, and most fully do they rejoice, and feel satis- 
 faction in hearing them discussed, and so much the 
 more, as they that speak, speak the more highly of 
 them, because they recognise them in themselves : 
 and though they may grieve and be saddened, 
 when, looking into themselves, they recognise them- 
 selves as imperfect, it does not grieve them that 
 the gifts should be so perfect as they are; on the 
 contrary, they take pleasure in the fact, and were 
 
 p p 2 
 
58o CONSIDERATION CX. 
 
 it possible, they would willingly enhance their perfect 
 tion to a much higher degree ; so great is the 
 satisfaction they experience in the exercise of faith, 
 hope, and love. And this is the mode in which I 
 understand, that just as the individual is incapable 
 of being either magnanimous, or brave, or liberal, 
 until he has magnanimity, courage, and liberality ; so 
 he is incapable of believing, hoping, and loving, until 
 by the Christian spirit he has the gift of faith, hope, 
 and charity. And thus the truth, that spiritual 
 and Christian gifts are not understood until they 
 are possessed, becomes so palpable that a man may 
 almost put his finger upon it. 
 
 I understand this discourse to involve the follow- 
 ing things. 
 
 In the first place, it being certain that none are 
 capable of understanding the gifts of God save those 
 who possess them, it is the duty of every one who 
 shall desire to understand them, previously to ask 
 God for them, and not to think that he understands 
 them, until he recognises and feels them within him, 
 as the magnanimous man inwardly recognises and 
 feels his magnanimity. 
 
 Secondly, that persons are enabled to say that 
 they recognise and feel the gifts of God within them, 
 if they feel perfect satisfaction when they hear Chris- 
 tian topics discussed ; and though they may grieve 
 and be sad when they look into themselves as being 
 imperfect in these gifts, they rejoice and are in- 
 wardly content to be as perfect as they are, consider- 
 ing that the more perfect they are, the more does the 
 glory of the Gospel of Christ and of God come to be 
 illustrated, and the more does the baseness and vile- 
 ness, the infirmity and weakness of Man come to be 
 known. 
 
CONSIDERATION CX. 581 
 
 Thirdly, that just as for a man to be magnanimous 
 nivolves magnanimity, and to be brave involves cou- 
 rage, and to be liberal involves liberality : — so for a 
 man to accept the grace of the Gospel involves faith, 
 and he is righteous ; and to long for the day of judg- 
 ment involves hope, and he is holy ; and to love God 
 and one's neighbour involves charity, and he is pious. 
 
 Fourthly, that just as the magnanimous man does 
 not lose his magnanimity by two or three lapses 
 into pusillanimity, unless that he so far forget himself 
 that, unmindful of sustaining magnanimity, he become 
 pusillanimous, — and that which I affirm of the magna- 
 nimous, I affirm of the brave and of the liberal, — so 
 he that is justified through Christian faith does not 
 lose Christian justification through the commission 
 of two or three transgressions, unless he so far 
 forget himself, with reference to faith, that, unmindful 
 of his having been justified by faith, he become un- 
 just ; and that which I affirm of the justified one, I 
 affirm of the holy man as to hope, and I affirm of the 
 pious man as to charity. 
 
 Whereupon, should any one ask me whether I be- 
 lieve that he who, through the gift of God, possesses 
 faith, hope, and charity, may come to lose right- 
 eousness, holiness, and piety, which he has acquired 
 through faith, hope, and charity ? I shall reply, that 
 if it be possible for him to lose faith, hope, and charity, 
 it will also be possible for him to lose righteousness, 
 holiness, and piety, the latter being the effects of the 
 former. And I shall say, that I hold it to be more 
 difficult for the man who, by gift from God, possesses 
 faith, hope, and charity, to make himself so depraved 
 as to lose them., and that he should, with them, lose 
 righteousness, holiness, and piety ; than for the other, 
 who, through a natural gift, is magnanimous, brave, 
 
582 CONSIDERATION CX. 
 
 and liberal, should come to make himself so pusillani- 
 mous, so timid, and so penurious, as to lose magna- 
 nimity, courage, and liberality. And moreover I 
 say, that as it is a security for the man that is 
 magnanimous, brave, and liberal, to live watchful and 
 distrustful of himself, lest, becoming self-forgetful, he 
 should come to lose magnanimity, courage, and 
 liberality ; so likewise it is a security for the right- 
 eous, holy, and pious man, to live watchful and dis- 
 trustful of himself, lest, becoming self-forgetful, he 
 should come to lose faith, hope, and charity, and with 
 them righteousness, holiness, and wisdom. It is 
 indeed true that I should hold the man much more 
 secure, who shall be assured by the inward spirit 
 that he could not in any way come to lose his right- 
 eousness, his holiness, or his piety, than another, who 
 should always live carefully and self-suspecting; 
 because I understand that the sense of security, 
 which is in its origin divine, mortifies and slays 
 sinful lusts, just as that which is in its origin human, 
 quickens and incites them. And because I under- 
 stand, too, that to distrust is, as it were, almost to 
 fear, which, even when proceeding from the Holy 
 Spirit, being peculiar to the Jews, is a characteristic 
 of imperfect Christians : it being characteristic of 
 perfect Christians, of those largely endowed with 
 faith, hope, and charity, to say with St. Paul, in Rom. 
 viii. 35, ' Qttis nos separabit a charitate Christif 
 ' Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? ' 
 
 Here I will add, that just as liberality is so inti- 
 mately connected with magnanimity, that he cannot 
 be magnanimous who is not liberal ; so hope and 
 charity are so intimately connected with faith, that he 
 cannot have faith who has not hope and charity : it 
 being likewise impossible that a man can be righteous, 
 
CONSIDERATION CX. 583 
 
 without being pious and holy. But they are inca- 
 pable of understanding these Christian truths who 
 are inexperienced in Christian subjects ; and this 
 experience they alone possess who, through the gift 
 of God, and through the benefit of Christ, possess 
 faith, hope, and charity, and hence are pious, holy, 
 and justified in Christ, and are intent upon appre- 
 hending the piety, righteousness, and holiness in 
 which they are apprehended (Phil, iii.), being like to 
 God, and to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 END OF THE HUNDRED AND TEN 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 ^ 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO THK 
 
 ex. CONSIDEEATIONS, 
 
 Affections more Imrtful than Appetites, 
 
 Consid. XXXI. 
 Assurance, 325-7. 
 
 Baptism, Consid. CIV. 
 
 Belief and Unbelief, 231, 241, 442, 
 
 526-530, 551. 
 Benefit of Christ, Consid. XIII., 
 
 296-298, 318, 399, 417, 433. 
 Boehmer, Dr., 197, 392. 
 
 Christ, His agony, Consid. LXXXII. 
 
 — and His members, 668. — His 
 coming, 484-7. — His divinity, 
 431-5, 495, 670-573. — the image 
 of God, 208. — incorporation with, 
 466, 530. — kingdom of, 398. — 
 resnrrection of, 463. 
 
 Christian conduct, 244, 323, 388, 488. 
 
 — liberty, 302-6, 440. —perfection, 
 354, 488. 
 
 Comparisons : of an Alphabet, 294. 
 
 — an Amnesty, 236-240. — the 
 Ark, 544. — a Candle, 335, 392.— 
 a Courtier, 413. — a letter of Credit, 
 
 295. — a good Father, 270. — a 
 Merchant, 560. — a good Mother, 
 480. — a Painter, 210. — Letters 
 Patent, 313. — the Pope's house- 
 hold, 359. — Rebels, 236. — cross- 
 ing a River, 213. — a bad Servant, 
 
 296. — thirty Slaves, 278. — a 
 TraveUer, 335, 400. 
 
 Conscience, 506—9. 
 
 Consideration and Prayer, two books, 
 
 367. 
 Considerations, the CX. published in 
 
 Basle, by C. S.Curione, 1550, p. 201. 
 
 — carried to Italy by Vergerio, 203. 
 
 — originally written in Spanish, 
 204 — MS. of them at Hamburgh, 
 191. — editions of, 179-192. 
 
 Cross, the, 396. 
 
 Curione, C. S., letter of, 201-6. 
 
 Curiosity, 371, 510. 
 
 Death, fear of, 330. 
 
 Depravity of man, 354, 476-9, 563. 
 
 Election, 448, 472, 473. 
 Evil Spirit, 401, 406, 472. 
 
 Paith, 409. — Faith and Works, 521. 
 
 — and Experience, 536. — Faith, 
 
 Hope, and Charity, 412. 
 Ferrar, Nicholas, 197-9. 
 
 God, and the world, 248. — theo- 
 logians, their false opinions of, Con- 
 sid. XXXVII. — confidence in, 
 223. — how God makes himself to 
 be felt and allows himself to be 
 seen, 358. — image and likeness of, 
 207, 240, 298, 356, 419, 652. — 
 justice of, 233. — kingdom of, 217, 
 251, 296-298. — knowledge of, 
 557. — by Christ, 209, 555. —love 
 of, 265, 272. — promises of, 246. 
 
 Gonzaga, Giulia, 199. " 
 
 Grief, two kinds of, 444. 
 
 Health, 212-13. 
 Herbert^ George, 197-9- 
 Hypocrites, how to know, 336. 
 Holy Spirit, 269, 277, 307, 334, 376, 
 
 401, 403, 472, 653. 
 Human knowledge, 406. 
 
 Images, 292. 
 
 Inquisitors, wolves, 337 and note. 
 
 Inspiration, 340, 392, 418. 
 
 Jewell, Bishop, 200. 
 Justification, 324, 325-7, 473, 617. 
 
 Knowledge of God through Christ, 
 209, 467. — desire of, 406. — of 
 good and evil, 552. — springs from 
 experience, 376, 577. — of love and 
 union, 423. 
 
586 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Law and Gospel, 300. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, 416. 
 
 Love and Union, 423. 
 
 Letters : George Herbert to Nicho- 
 las Ferrar, 198. — C. S. Curione to 
 Christian Readers, 201 - 206. — 
 letter, 472, 484. 
 
 Man, in what consists his image and 
 likeness to God, 207, 209, 215. — 
 he lost this image, 207-8. — how 
 to recover it, 208, 216. — in what 
 consists his happiness, who teaches 
 it, and why he does not understand 
 it, 209. — that man is the child of 
 God, 211, 220. — why he is not 
 punished to the degree of his sin, 
 215-16. . — only in one case trusts 
 he in God, 218, 219. — difference 
 between the pious and impious, 
 219. — who is the pious man, 219. 
 
 — to what man God promises 
 assistance, 218. — two depravities 
 in man, 221. — what frees him 
 from the natural, 222. — his pride 
 ever increases in his resolutions, 
 225. — how to remedy this, 226. 
 
 — men of honour less vicious, 364. 
 Martyr VermigKo, Peter, 200. 
 Mortification, 281, 316, 339, 374, 376, 
 
 383. — human prudence knows not 
 what it is, 380. — the old law en- 
 joins it, but does not give it, 466. 
 
 — how only it is acquired, 466. ■ — 
 evidence of it, 497. 
 
 Nature and revelation, 317. — proofs 
 of nature, 260. 
 
 Pardon, general, 236, 240, 242, 418, 
 
 528, 541. 
 Patience, 295. 
 Persecution, 440-1. 
 Piety, how attained, 217. — privileges 
 
 of, 229. — who affect it, 447. 
 
 Poor in spirit, Christ commends them, 
 
 219 
 Prayer, 322, 340, 383, 416, 662. — 
 
 and consideration, two books, 367- 
 
 71. 
 Preaching, beginning, middle, and end 
 
 of, 219-20. 
 Predestination, 330-33. 
 Proofs of nature, 261. 
 Prosperity and adversity, 323-6. 
 Prudence and human wisdom, 235, 
 
 245, 308, 346, 363, 406, 451, 465, 
 
 633, 552. 
 
 Regeneration, 277, 470. 
 Resurrection, 226-8, 316, 463. 
 Revelation, 467. 
 Rich, the, 219. 
 
 Saints of the world, 435-9, 469."— 
 
 the true, 273-5. ^ 
 Sandius, 570. 
 Scandal, 434, 441. 
 Scriptures, the, 392. — and images, 
 
 292 
 Self-love, 387. 
 
 Sins and sinners, different, 260-3. 
 Sufferings, 501-3. 
 Superstitious, the, cruel, 386-8. 
 
 Two books, 367. 
 
 Two contrarieties, flesh and spirit, 
 
 442. 
 Two covenants made by Christ, 226. 
 Two depravities in man, natural and 
 
 acquired, 221. 
 Two modes of the will of God, 317- 
 
 21, 352. 
 
 Valdis, Juan de, 197, 199, 201-6.— 
 
 not an anti-trinitarian, 570 
 Valdesso, John, 198. 
 Vergerio, P. P., 203. 
 Venatorius, Thomas, 203. 
 
 ^ 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JUAN DE YALDES. 
 
 Acharo, 166 n. 
 
 Adrian VI., Pope, 13, 18, 19, 23, 48. 
 
 Affo, Ireneo, 115 «., 117 n. 
 
 AgeroUes, Jean, 167. 
 
 Aleman, Mateo, 61. 
 
 Aleman, Sr. Juan, 77. 
 
 Alexander VI., Pope, 14, 16, 24, 25. 
 
 Alfabeto Christdano, 95, 115 and n., 
 
 117, 119-137 and re., 166, 172, 173 
 
 and n., 174. 
 Angleria. (See Martir de Angleria, 
 
 Pedro.) 
 Antonio Nicolas, 5 n, 
 Anselm, Archbishop, ii. 
 Aranda, Pedro de, 16 n. 
 Ariosto, 110, 137 re., 162 and re. 
 Arndt, John, 162 and re. 
 Augsburgh, Diet of, 88. 
 — Confession of, 88-90 and re. 
 Aralos, Constauza, Duchess of Amalfi, 
 
 108 and re. 
 Aviso, sobre, etc., 166 re. 
 
 Babington, Dr. Churchill, 168 «. 
 
 Barbarossa, Hyradin, 113. 
 
 Basle, 164. 
 
 Bells, ringing of, 59 re. 
 
 Beneficio di Christo, 107 re., 163, 164, 
 
 168 and re., 169. 
 Bennett, Thomas, Clarencieux, 54, 55. 
 Bergenroth, Mr., 16 re. 
 Beza, Theodore, 160 and re. 
 Blastuses, three, 22. 
 Boehmer, Dr. Edward, ix., xiii., 40 «., 
 
 160 and re., 165 re., 168 re., 392 
 
 note. 
 Boetius de consolatione, 99 and re. 
 Bonfadio Jacopo, 107, 177. 
 Bradford, William, 84 re. 
 Bnonarotti, Michael Angelo, 109. 
 Buonaparte, Napoleon, 86 n. 
 
 Catharine of Aragon, 16 re., 28. 
 Cabeza de Vaea, Luis, 43. 
 Cabrera, Bishop, 77. 
 
 Caden, Michael, 85. 
 
 Cadeua, Fr. Diego de, 77. 
 
 Calvin, John, 160 and re. 
 
 Caracciolo Graleazzo, 106 and re. 
 
 Carew, Nicholas, 55. 
 
 Carnesecchi, Pietro, 107, 116-117, 
 
 162-165, 167 re., 169, 177-178. 
 Carillo, Fr. Juan, 77. 
 Carranza, Sancho de, 38. 
 Carraseo, Dr. Miguel, 43, 77. 
 Carvajal, Fr. Luis de, 38. 
 Caserta, Giovanni Francisco de Aloys. 
 
 106, 107. 
 Castillo, Nicolas, 43. 
 Castiglione, Baldassar, Nuncio, 5 «., 
 
 14 re., 48, 49 and re. — Letter to A. 
 
 Valdfe, 77-83, 84, 85. 
 Cervantes, Miguel, 60. 
 Charles the Fifth, Emperor, vi., 18, 
 
 22 and re., 27 and re., 28, 29, 32, 33, 
 
 35, 36, 37-8. 
 
 — Coronation of, 45-47, 48-64, 86 
 
 and re. 
 Chievres, Seigneur de, 22 re. 
 Chanceries of Spain, 22 re. 
 Ciruelo, Pedro, 42. 
 Cologne, Archbishop of, 46, 47. 
 Colonna, Ascanio, 112-113. 
 
 — Isabella, 111-116. 
 
 — Ludovico, 116. 
 
 — Vespasiano, Duke of Trajetto, 1 li- 
 ne. 
 
 — Vittoria, 108-9. 
 
 Commentaries on Eomans and 1 Corin- 
 thians, xiii., 140 and »., 163. 
 
 Comunidades or Country party, viii. 
 
 — Proyecto de la Constituoion de 
 
 las, 4 re., 13, 21, 39, 92. 
 Considerations, the CX., v., ix., xi.- 
 
 xiii.,13 re., 14, 20, 139, 160 and re., 
 
 160-3. 
 Cordoba, Alonzo de, 42. 
 Coronel, Dr. Luis Nunez, 39, 40, 61, 
 
 77. 
 Coste, Hilarion de, 112 n. 
 
588 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Covos, Francisco de los, 92. 
 
 Cranmer, Thomas, 104-5. 
 
 Cuenca, 2 m., 3, 6, 14. 
 
 Curione, Celio Secondo, 102 w., 108 
 
 and n., 164 and «., 166 n., 167 n. — 
 
 Letter of, 201-6. 
 Cusano, Benedetto, 105-6, 169. 
 
 Dialogo, DE Mbecueio i Gabon, 7-9, 
 51 and n., 52-54, 55-60, 165 and«. 
 
 — on the Sack of Rome, 14, 43, 51 
 
 and n., 60-83. 
 
 — DE LA Lengtja, ix., 4, 17, 21, 56 n., 
 
 94-5 and «., 95-102, 138, 139. 
 DiKo, Prancisco, xi., 86. 
 Doria, Andria, 84. 
 
 Enzinas, Prancisco de, 61, 91 and n. 
 
 Erasmus, Desiderius, ix. — Letter to 
 Juan de Vald^s, 5 and n., 21 and 
 n., 35. — Letter to Alfonso Vald^s, 
 36. — To the Emperor, 36-37.— The 
 Emperor to Erasmus, 37-38. — 
 Works of, in Spanish, 38 and n., 
 86,87,90-91,93,99. (SeeLETTEKS.) 
 
 Farnese, Cardinal, 84. 
 
 Ferdinand, of Austria, 91. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, 16 n. 
 
 Fernandez, Alfonso, Archdeacon of 
 Alcor, translates the Enchieidion 
 of Erasmus into Spanish, 39-42, 
 
 , 99-100 and n. (See Letteks.) 
 
 Ferrar, Nicholas, v., viii., 2, 14 n. 
 
 Flaminio, Marc Antonio, i06 and n., 
 107 n., 169. 
 
 Folengo, Giambattista, 106, 107-8. 
 
 Fondi, 113, 163. 
 
 Fonseca, Don Alonso de, 36. 
 
 Ford, Richard, 4 «. 
 
 Fornari, Simon, 137 «- 
 
 Foxe, John, 55. 
 
 Gabriel, M., 76. 
 Galeota, Fabio Mario, 105. 
 Garcilaro de la Vega, Father of the 
 Poet, 16 re. 
 
 — the Poet, 50, 103, 105. 
 Gattinara, Mercurino de. Chancellor, 
 
 4, 13, 21, 23 and re., 43, 48, 49 and 
 
 re., 50, 61, 77, 84-87, 92. 
 Geddes, Michael, 12 and re. 
 Geneva, 165. 
 Gibbings, Rev. Richard, x., 163 and 
 
 re., 164 re. 
 Gibbon, Edward, 12. 
 Gonzaga, Cardinal Ercole, 116. 
 
 — Don Perrante, 115, 116. 
 
 — Giulia, Duchess of Trajetto, vii., 
 ix., 96, 109-137. — Her motto, 112 
 and re. — Her death, 117 and n. (See 
 Lettees.) 
 
 Gonzaga, Luigi, 112, 113. 
 
 , — Yespasiano, Duke of Sabbionetta, 
 
 113, 116-117. 
 Gotha, Dueal library at, 165 n. 
 
 HaUam, Henry, 2. 
 
 Henry VII., 16. 
 
 — Vni, 27, 51. 
 
 Herbert, George, v., viii., 2 and re., 
 
 197-9, 
 Hernandez, Julian, 175 re. 
 
 Inquisition, the, 82-83, 91, 93, 116. 
 Instruction to the Sub-prior of Santa 
 
 Cruz, sent to England in 1498, 
 
 16 re., 24-26. 
 Irving, 'Washington, 12. 
 Itri, 114. 
 
 Jewell, John, Bishop of Salisbury, 
 
 104 re. 
 Julius II., Pope, 17. 
 Juana, Queen, 21. 
 
 Koldewey, P., x., 166 re. 
 
 Lac Spieituale, written by Valdes, 
 
 translated into Latin by Vergerio, 
 
 X., xiii., 166 re. 
 Laderchius, 169. 
 Lanoja, Carlo de, 113. 
 Law, Spanish, 9 re. 
 Lee, Edward, Ambassador to Spain, 
 
 38 and re. 
 Leo X., Pope, 17, 18, 30, 33. 
 Lerma, Pedro de, 42, 61, 77. 
 Lettees : Bonfadio, Jacopo, to Pietro 
 
 Camesecchi, 177. 
 
 — Castiglione, B., the Pope's Nuncio 
 in Spain, to Alfonso do Valdes, 77- 
 83. 
 
 — Charles V. to Erasmus, 37, 38. 
 
 — Curione, Celio Seeundo, to Chris- 
 tian readers, 201-6. 
 
 — Erasmus to Juan de Valdes, 5, 93. 
 
 — to Alfonso deA^aldes, 36, 87, 90-91. 
 
 — to the Emperor Charles V., 36-37. 
 
 — to Vald(is, 86. 
 
 — Fernandez, Alfonso da, Archdeacon 
 of Alcor, to Dr. Nuiiez Coronel, 
 39-40, 41-42. 
 
 — Martir de Angleria, Pedro, to 
 Mendoza, 14, 15. 
 
 — to Prancisco de Prado, 15. 
 
 — to the .Marqueses de Velez and 
 Mondejar, 30-32, 33-35. 
 
 — Nuremberg Deputies to their Bur- 
 gomaster, 89. 
 
 — Perez de Pineda, Juan, to , 43, 
 
 44. 
 
 Sepulvoda, Juan Gincs de, to, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 589 
 
 Lettees: Valdfe, Alfonso de, to Cas- 
 tighono, the Pope's Nuncio, 76, 77. 
 
 — to Erasmus, 36. 
 
 — to Pedro Martir de Angleria, 30- 
 32, 33-35, 45-47. 
 
 ' — Vald^s, Juan de, to Giulia 
 Gronzaga, 118, 154-169. 
 
 Llorente, Juan Antonio, 5 n., 20 n., 
 
 43 «. 
 Loaysa, Bishop of Osma, 86 and n. 
 Lopez de Zuniga, Diego, 38. 
 Luther, Martin, 17, 29-32, 33-35, 44, 
 
 67, 79, 90. 
 Luzero, Inquisitor, 20. 
 Lyons, 165. 
 
 M'Crie, Thomas, 107 n. 
 
 Magno, Marc Antonio, 95, 116, 118, 
 137, 169, 172. 
 
 Manrique, Isabella, 108. 
 
 Maurique, Don Alonzo, Inquisitor- 
 General, 36, 42, 43. 
 
 Manuel, Don Juan, 61, 77. 
 
 Martir de Angleria, Pedro, 3 «., 4 »., 
 10 and n., 11, 12 n., 13 and «., 
 14, 22 and «., 29, 30-32, 33-35. 
 
 Martir Kizo, Juan Pablo. (See Eizo.) 
 
 Martyr Yermiglio, Peter, 104 and n., 
 106, 160 n. 
 
 Mathkw, Vald^s translated, 166 n. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor, 27 m. 
 
 Medici, Giulio, 112. (See Clement VII.) 
 
 Medici, IppoHto de, 112 and n., 113. 
 
 Mendoza, Ambassador, 54. 
 
 Mendoza, Inigo Lopez de, Conde de 
 TendiHa, 10, 11 and n., 12, 14, 16, 
 17. 
 
 Mentz and Treves, Archbishop of, 46- 
 47. 
 
 Merenda, ApoUonia, 169. 
 
 MUano, GiuUo da, 105 and n. 
 
 Miranda, Master, 77. 
 
 MoUio, Giovanni, 106. 
 
 Morhof? Daniel G., 162. 
 
 NahaiTO, Torres de, 94 and n. 
 Naples, 61, 94, 113, 114, 117, 138, 
 
 160 re 
 Nassau, Henry of, 84. 
 Nicovarra, Castle of, 113. 
 'Non Moritura,' 112 and n. 
 Nuremberg Deputies, 89. 
 
 Ochino, Bernardino, 104-6, 108 and 
 
 n., 120, 135 and n. 
 Ocampo, Florian de, 13. 
 OgeroUes, Jean d', printer at Lyons 
 
 (see AgeroUes), 167 n. 
 Oliveqo, 76. 
 Orpoesa, Alfonso de, 42. 
 
 Ortenberg, Count of, 165 «. 
 
 Pacheco, Maria de, in., 11 n, 
 
 Padilla, Juan de, 4 m., 92. 
 
 Paleario, Aonio, 169. 
 
 Paris, 166. 
 
 Paris, Mathew, 59 n, 
 
 Paul IV., Pope, 105. 
 
 Perez de Pineda, Juan, 43 n., 44, 175 
 
 and n. (See Letters.) 
 Philip II., 92. 
 Pole, Cardinal, 107 and n. 
 Prado, Francisco de, 15. 
 Preseott, William, 12, 13 n. 
 Priuli, Liugi, 169. 
 
 Ramirez de Villaescusa de Haro, 
 
 Don Diego, 21, 23. 
 Eanke, Leopold, 14 n. 
 Eefoemistas Antiguos Espanoles, 
 
 viii. xi., 7, 21 «., 165-167. 
 Eelacion de las Nuevas, etc., 49 and«. 
 Religious liberty, 20, 161 «., 170-171. 
 Eizo, Juan Pablo Martir, 2 »., 3 »., 
 
 4 K. 
 Eobertson, Wm., Historian, 27, 29. 
 
 Sampson, Dr., Ambassador, 54 n. 
 San Vineente, Fr. Juan de, 39. 
 Santa Cruz, Sub-prior of. Instructions 
 
 to, 16 n., 24, 26. 
 Sauli, Theodorina, 107. 
 Sauvage, Grand Chancellor 1517-18, 
 
 his rapacity and death, 22, 23. 
 Savonarola, Jerome, 14. 
 Schepper, Cornelius, 88. 
 Schweisse, Alexander, 84. 
 Sebastiauo del Piombo, 114. 
 Sepulveda, Juan Gines de, 5 and «,, 
 
 94. (See Lettees.) 
 Servetus, Miguel, 161 m. 
 Silicco, Juau Martinez, 42. 
 Soranzo, Vittore, Bishop of Bergamo, 
 
 169. 
 Spalatin, 88, 89. 
 
 Tasso, Bernardo, Sonnets, 110 and n., 
 
 154 re. 
 Talavera, Hernando de, 12, 15, 20. 
 Tendilla, Conde de. (See Mendoza.) 
 Ticknor, George, 10, 95 re. 
 Toledo, Don Pedro de, 102 and n., 
 
 115. 
 Tunstal, Bishop, 54 re. 
 
 Usoz i Rio, Luis de, Editor of the Ee- 
 
 FOEMISTAS AnTIGUOS EsPaSoi.ES, xi. 
 
 Vald&, Alfonso de, xi., 4. — Twin 
 brotiier of Juan de Valdfe, 5 and 
 re,, 6, 7-9. — Latin Secretary to 
 
590 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Charleg V., 14 and n. — political 
 education, 13, 16-21, 23, 27, 29. 
 — on Luther, 30-32, 33-35, 36, 43, 
 45-47, 48-49 and n., 50-52. — 
 Letter to Castiglione, 75-83, 86-93, 
 94. (See Letters.) 
 
 Valdesius, Johannes, Valdesio, Val- 
 desso, Giovanni, Val D'Esso, Jan, 2, 
 90, 102 n. 
 
 Valdesao, John, v.-fii. 
 
 Vald^s, another brother, 86. 
 
 Vald&, Fernando de, Inquisitor Gene- 
 ral, 3 
 
 Vald^s, Fernando de, Eegidor, the 
 hereditary proprietor of Cuenca, 
 father of Alfonso and Juan, 3 and 
 K., 4 and «., 7, 14, 21. — death of, 87. 
 
 Vaides, Jci-N DE, mystery of his life, 
 1, 2. — birth and ancestry, 2-3 
 and n. — Camerero to Pope Adrian 
 VI., 6, 13, 14. — bom a Twin, 5, 
 6. — education, 6. — maternal 
 grandmother, 7-9. — political edu- 
 cation, 13-16, 21, 71, 83, 84, 93- 
 95 and n., 95-103 and «., 110 n., 
 115-118, 133, 136-137, 153, 159- 
 165 n. — list of his works, . 165- 
 167 and nn. — a reformer, 170. — 
 his owii book, 172-173. — not a 
 raystie, 174. — character and dis- 
 position, 174-178. (See Letteks.) 
 
 His Sentiments upon : 
 Bells, einginq of, 59. 
 Baptism, 146. 
 
 BuiLDirra Chueohes, 70-71. 
 Chivalet, Books op, 56 n. 
 Cheist, Coming of, 130. 
 Dying, 59-60. 
 Faith, the Chbistian, xiii. 
 Fasting, 57. 
 
 Five kinds of Peesons, 126-6. 
 God and Cheist, knowledge of, 
 
 129, 132. 
 
 Holt Spieit, 149. 
 
 Images, 74, 75. 
 
 Image and Likeness of God, 111 
 
 n., 121. 
 Inspieation, 123, 130. 
 Judgment and Genius, 99. 
 Justification, 144-6. 
 Law and Gospel, 123. 
 Libbety, Cheistian, 136. 
 
 — Religious, 20-1. 
 Living and Dying, 55-60, 61 and«. 
 Love and Self-love, 150-153. 
 MiNISTET, 143. 
 PiLGEIMAGES, 57. 
 
 Peayee, 134. 
 
 Pbayee and Consideration, 172. 
 
 Pbeachees, 142. 
 
 Peice of a Soul, 69. 
 
 Puegatoey, 147—9. 
 
 Relics, 72-4. 
 
 Rich and Pooe, 68. 
 
 scriptuees, 56, 140-141. 
 
 Self-examination, 172-3. 
 
 Self-love and Self-denial, 124, 
 
 128. 
 Self-knowledge, 127, 128. 
 
 SUPEESTITION, l'J-7. 
 
 Wae, 63-66. 
 
 Vallacoesa, 113. 
 Villalar, field of, 4 n, 
 Victoria, Francisco de, 42. 
 Victoria, Pedro de, 42. 
 Virues, Alonso, 42. 
 Vives, Fr. Alfonso de, 77. 
 
 Walton, Isaac, v. 
 
 Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 
 36, 54 n. 
 Wingfield, Sir Richard, 54 n. 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 28, 29, 51, 52-4 
 
 and n., 55, 83. 
 
 Zuinglius, 90. 
 
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