The life of pico della mirandola
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- GIOVANNI PICO EARL OF MIRANDOLA TO FRANCESCO HIS NEPHEW GREETING IN OUR LORD.
THOMAS MORE et al.
-51- GIOVANNI PICO EARL OF MIRANDOLA TO FRANCESCO HIS NEPHEW GREETING IN OUR LORD.
Happy art thou my son when that our Lord not only giveth thee grace well to live but also that while thou livest well he giveth thee grace to bear evil words of evil people for thy living well. Certainly as great a praise as it is to be commended of them that are commendable, as great a commendation it is to be reproved of them that are reprovable. Notwithstanding my son I call thee not therefore happy because this false reproof is worshipful & glorious unto thee, but for because that our Lord Jesu Christ (which is not only true but also truth itself) affirmeth that our reward shall be plenteous in heaven when men speak evil to us & speak evil against us living for his name.[36] This is an Apostles dignity: to be reputed digne afore God to be defamed of wicked folk for his name. For we read in the gospel of Luke that the apostles went joyful and glad from the council house of the Jews because God had accepted them as worthy to suffer wrong and repress for his sake. Let us therefore joy and be glad if we be worthy so great worship before God that his worship be showed in our rebuke. And if we suffer of the world any thing that is grievous or bitter: let this sweet voice of our Lord be our consolation. Si mundus vos odio habet, scitote quia priorem me vobis odio habuit . If the world (saith our Lord) hate you, know ye that it hated me before you. If the world then hated him by whom the world was made: we most vile & simple men and worthy (if we consider our wretched living well) all shame & reproof: if folk backbite us & say evil of us: shall we so grievously take it that lest they should say evil we should begin to do evil. Let us rather gladly receive these evil words, and if we be not so happy to suffer for virtue & truth as the old saints suffered beatings, bindings, prison, swords, & death: let us think at the least wise we be well served if we have the grace to suffer chiding, detraction, & hatred of wicked men, lest that if all occasion of deserving be taken away there be left us none hope of reward. If men for thy good living praise thee: thy virtue certainly in that it is virtue maketh thee like unto Christ: but in that it is praised it maketh thee unlike him: which for the reward of his virtue received the opprobrious death of the cross for which as the apostle saith God hath exalted him and given him a name that is above all names. More desireful is then to be condemned of the world and exalted of God than to be exalted of the world and condemned of God: the world condemneth to life, God exalteth to glory: the world exalteth to a fall, God condemneth to the fire of hell. Finally if the world fawn upon thee: unneth it may be but that thy virtue (which all lift upward should have God alone to please) shall somewhat unto the blandishing of the world & favour of the people incline. And so though it lose nothing of the integrity of our perfection: yet it loseth of the reward, which reward while it beginneth to be paid in the world where all thing is little, it shall be less in heaven where all thing is great. O happy rebukes which make us sure: that neither the flower of our virtue shall wither with the pestilent blast of vainglory: nor our eternal reward be minished for the vain promotion of a little popular fame. Let us my son love these rebukes, & only of the ignominy and reproof of our Lord's cross let us like faithful servants with an holy ambition be proud. We (saith Saint Paul) preach Christ crucified, which is unto the Jews despite, unto the Gentiles folly, unto us the virtue and wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world is foolishness afore God, & the folly of Christ is that by which he hath overcome the wisdom of the world by which it hath pleased God to make his believing people safe.
If that thou doubt not but that they be mad which backbite thy virtue: which the Christian living that is very wisdom reputeth for madness: consider then how much were thy madness, if thou shouldst for the judgement of mad men swerve from PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA -52-
the good institution of thy life, namely sith all error is with amendment to be taken away & not with imitation & following to be increased. Let them therefore neigh, let them bawl, let them bark, go thou boldly forth thy journey as thou hast begun, and of the wickedness & misery consider how much thyself art beholden to God: which hath illumined thee sitting in the shadow of death, and translating thee out of the company of them (which like drunken men without a guide wander hither and thither in obscure darkness) hath associated thee to the children of light. Let that same sweet voice of our Lord alway sound in thine ears. Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos, tu me sequere . Let dead men alone with dead men, follow thou me. Dead be they that live not to God, and in the space of this temporal death laboriously purchase themselves eternal death. Of whom if you ask whereto they draw: whereto they refer their studies, their works & their business, & finally what end they have appointed themselves in the adoption whereof they should be happy: either they shall have utterly nothing to answer, or they shall bring forth words repugnant in themselves & contrary each to other like the raving of bedlam people. Nor they wot never themselves what they do, but like them that swim in swift floods they be borne forth with the violence of evil custom as it were with the boisterous course of the stream. And their wickedness blinding them on this side: & the devil pricking them forward on that side: they run forth headlong into all mischief, as blind guides of blind men, till that death set on them unaware, & till that it be said unto them that Christ saith in the gospel, my friend this night the devils shall take thy soul from thee: these goods then that thou hast gathered whose shall they be. Then shall they envy them whom they despised. Then shall they commend them that they mocked. Then shall they covet to ensue them in living when they may not: whom when they might have ensued they pursued. Stop therefore thine ears my most dear son, & whatsoever men say of ye, whatsoever men think on ye, account it for nothing, but regard only the judgement of God, which shall yield every man after his own works when he shall show himself from heaven with the angels of his virtue: in flame of fire doing vengeance upon them that have not known God nor obeyed his gospel, which (as the apostle saith) shall suffer in death eternal pain, from the face of our Lord, & from the glory of his virtue, when he shall come to be gloried of his saints & to be made marvellous in all them that have believed. It is written. Nolite timere qui corpus possunt occidere, sed qui animam
. Fear not them (saith our Lord) that may kill the body: but fear him that may cast the soul into hell. How much less then be they to be feared: that may neither hurt soul nor body: which if they now back-bite thee living virtuously, they shall do the same nevertheless: if (virtue forsaken) thou were overwhelmed with vice: not for that vice displeaseth them but for that the vice of backbiting alway pleaseth them. Flee if thou love thine health, flee as far as thou mayst their company, and returning to thyself oftentimes secretly pray unto the most benign father of heaven, crying with the prophet. Ad Te Domine levavi animam meam: Deus meus in
[37] That is to say. To Ye Lord I lift up my soul: in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed, & though mine enemies mock me. Certainly all they that trust in Thee shall not be ashamed. Let them be ashamed that work wickedness in vain. Thy ways good Lord show me, and thy paths teach me. Direct me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art God my Saviour, in Thee shall I trust all the day. Remember also my son that thy death lieth at hand. Remember that all the time of our life is but a moment & yet less than a moment. Yüklə 0,59 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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