A CONFERENCE OF FAITH Written in Latin by SEBASTIANUS CASTELLIO Now Translated into English Mark 9.23 All things are possible to him that believeth Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ LONDON Printed by J. R. for John Barksdale at the Five Bells in New-street near Shooe-lane 1679. To his Friend D. of C. SIR I Confess I was glad when I heard you lately being with you in your well chosen Library Commend Castellio whose Dialogue De Fide I told you I had Translated and taught Ludovic and Federic to speak English I shall be willing as you mov'd me to do the rest if I see this does any good to the English Reader and serveth towards the plucking up of that vulgar noxious Error concerning Faith rooted in the hearts of our People so deep that there is need of more hands to joyn with yours for the Eradication thereof I commend your holy Studies to the Father of Lights Your Servant R. of N. Theodorus Zuingerus in Theatro vitae humanae p. 2808. SEBASTIANUS CASTELLIO a most Learned and most Holy man when he came from Geneva to Basil with his Wife was so pressed with poverty that he was near famishing unless JOANNES OPORINUS the Printer had sustained him by his Liberality and encouraged him to the Translation of the Bible Having then obtained the profession of the Greek Tongue he had greater relief of his poverty especially his Fame which yet he never affected as all good men can witness drew unto him Scholars from the remotest Nations At his death he left Riches worthy of a Christian man seeking his Treasure in Heaven Therefore his Scholars of Polonia were at the charge of his Funeral and they honored him with a fair Elogy He hath left ample matter for Pious and Learned men to exercise their liberality upon a good number of poor Children He deceased 4. Cal. Jan. An. Ch. 1563. Philip. Melanch to Castellio WHen I considered the Ornaments wherewith you are endowed I could not chuse but love you though we had no familiarity and here are many Witnesses of the honorable mention I do often make of you among my Friends A CONFERENCE OF FAITH The Persons LUDOVIC and FEDERIC The Argument What it is to believe in God What is the Vertue either of Worldly or of Divine Faith What are the Impediments of Faith By what means a man may be able to hate himself and to renounce himself by Faith and by the Spirit to kill the deeds of the Flesh In summ He that believeth in God and in his Son Jesus Christ is able by the Vertue of that Faith and by the Holy Spirit to mortifie his Flesh with the Lusts thereof and to serve God in Spirit and in Truth LUDOVIC I have willingly heard bost yesterday and to day your discourses Federic and I have learned out of them many things whereof I was Ignorant and that especially moved me which you shewed that God commands nothing which cannot be done For I was perswaded before as is it commonly heard and taught that we are not able to Obey God's Precepts which perswasion surely that I may confess the truth to you Federic made me slack in my obedience so that I never put my whole strength toward it FEDERIC And I have found the same by my Experience Ludovic nor could I apply my self truly and seriously to obey before I did believe it possible for us to obey Whence I learned the force and vertue of Faith For Faith drives a man to the study and resolution to obey To which study afterward when aid from Heaven is added a man is enabled to do what he believes possible to be done by him and so is saved by obeying as before he was lost by disobeying But 't is a small matter to believe obedience is possible unless you know also the way by which you may be able to obey without which obedience no man can be saved I would have you assure your self Ludovic ours and others Disputations are that I say no worse unprofitable except they bring us to obedience and to the new man Lud. These things are true Federic therefore to the End I may reap some profit from our Conference I entreat you shew me by what way I may be able to obey God since by this your Speech of the possibility of it I have conceived a desire of Obeying Fed. O my Ludovic would to God I my self were truly obedient that I might lead you to obedience as it were by the hand Now it cannot be that I should lead you further then I have gone my self Lud. Yet I believe and methinks I see it that you have made further progress than I wherefore pray shew me the way at least so far as you have proceeded Fed. I will gladly do it Ludovic as I am able God being my Guide But I fear least the difficulty and roughness of the way may deter you Lud. Be not afraid I hope I am ready for all things though difficult so that I may come whither I desire Fed. I pray God to confirm in you this Will and bring you to perfection To begin therefore Do you know what the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath Written That without Faith it is impossible to please God Lud. I know it Fed. Therefore it is first of all necessary that you believe in God if you will be saved Lud. Go on therefore Federic to other things for as to Faith I have ever from my Child-hood believed in God and truly I think there be very few if any at all which do not believe in God Fed. Indeed that is easie to be said and so they are commonly perswaded but I fear least it be said rather rashly and of custom than sincerely For I sometime also have believed the same both of my self and others but when I came to Examine I saw how far I was absent from it Lud. Do you think then that I have not Faith Fed. Ludovic I do not think that you have no Faith but I think you have so little that it cannot be truly called Faith or such as can save you And I pray be not offended For having said you are ready for all things though difficult it is fit you should suffer this first that I may shew you have not that wherewith you suppose your self to abound And indeed the first step to the knowledg of the Truth is to unlearn Error otherwise there will be no place for good Seed where all is full of Thorns Well then that we may examine your Faith When you were a Child Ludovic did you believe in your Father Lud. What do you mean by believing in my Father Fed. To have him truly for your Father and depend wholly upon him Lud. I did believe in him certainly Fed. Therefore if you had need of any thing as Shoes or Coat or Bread you did run to him alone and doubted not at all of his good Will toward you Lud. No more than I
to those that say Lord Lord have we not cast out Devils in thy Name Done Miracles Hast thou not taught in our Streets He shall answer I know you not Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity Really he will take those alone for Faithful who are well doers and obedient For they alone have true Faith of whom it is Written These are they which keep the commands of God and the Faith of Jesus Rev. 14. But Ludovic if you have not that Faith which may make you Righteous that is chast humble benign liberal and endued with the rest of such Virtues see how far absent you are from shewing those Miracles which Christ hath said should be the signs of Faith I do not here mean Corporal Miracles given for the Planting of the Churches Faith But this I require that the Believer in Christ beget in others the same Vertues which Christ hath begotten in him that is that he make of Drunkards Sober men of Riotous chaste of Angry Milde and of Unjust men Righteous For this is to cast out the Devils of Luxury Avarice Anger and the rest Likewise that he speak with new Tongues that is fiery and burning which no man may be able to resist such as is the Tongue of them who speak not what they have read but what they have seen with their Eyes heard with their Ears touched with their hands that is what they find throughly Imprinted on their Hearts and believe as surely as you do surely believe either that it is now day or that it will anon be night By these Tongues they are able truly and effectually to comfort the afflicted to encourage the tender to give hope to the dispairing to strengthen the weak to give counsel to the doubtful and to perform other things of this sort which I much prefer before the doing of external Miracles and pertaining only to the Body These things if one hath not himself nor can bestow on others truly I see not by what right he may challenge unto himself Faith except that perhaps which the Devils also have who believe there is a God and tremble Jam. 2. But I speak of true and justifying Faith which makes a man partaker of the Divine Nature and renders all things possible unto him I have shewed above how great force Faith hath in human affairs The same we may perceive also in Religion whether false or true The Turks believe they ought not to drink Wine The Jews believe they must abstain from things forbidden by the Law they do abstain There are found some men who pine themselves away with long Fasting some that Scourge their bodies I will not say severely but indeed most cruelly fetching blood Some that for Religion sake undergo very long pilgrimages wherein they endure beggary and many other evils and dangers What shall I speak of them that have castrated themselves What of the Circumcellions who as 't is related of them that they might be Martyrs and make other men also Martyrs killed themselves with many kinds of death and perswaded others to do the same And all these things they did by Faith For had they not believed they must be done they had never done them In a word whatsoever almost men believe ought to be done they are able to do Now if their false Faith and not only not founded in the command of God but plainly contrary to Gods command hath so great force I pray what will not the Faith be able to do which is both commanded by God and procured and confirmed by him Shall the Spirit of God have less strength in man than the Spirit of Satan Shall Darkness have more power than Light You see what was the power of St. Paul's Faith 1 Cor. 4. Even unto this presedt time we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are Buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labor working with our own hands 2 Cor. 11. Are they Ministers of Christ I am more in labors more abundant in stripes above measure in Prisons more frequent in Death often Of the Jews received I Forty Stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with Rods once was I Stoned thrice I suffered Ship-wrack a night and a day have I been in the Deep In Journeying often in perils of Waters in perils of Robbers in perils by my own Country-men in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils among false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides those things which are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak Who is offended and I burn not This Ludovic this is that omnipotency of Faith wherewith being Armed he was able to do all things by Christ who gave him strength And if we have the same strength to obey then we have reason to ascribe unto our selves the same Faith If not let us not perswade our selves we have that which we want least we be like him who Dreams he hath found a Treasure and being awaked hath not a farthing Lud. O my Federic I indeed have been in a Dream that I abounded in Faith and now being awaked with your words I see plainly that I and all the World are utterly void of it For I neither feel in my self that power of Faith nor find it in the World Fed. That you are void of Faith Ludovic is a thing indeed worthy of sorrow but being so you see you are such in this case you are not only not to be sorry but to rejoyce As a Disease is ill but the knowledge of the Disease is good for it cannot be cured unless it be known Lud. By what means then or by what Medicine may this Disease of my unbelief be cured Fed. The Impediments of Faith are to be removed Lud. What are they Fed. That you have heard already of me in our former Conferences but because you have not well understood it being perhaps new to you we are wont not to retain words nor things which we understand not I will declare it more plainly Attend what think you to be the reason that no man is admitted at a Tryal to be a Witness in his own Cause Lud. Because all men love themselves and therefore will always either speak for themselves or at least not against themselves Fed. You say right But if they will not speak against themselves neither are they willing to hear what is spoken against themselves For truth which is contrary to them doth not less displease them in the mouth of another than in their own mouth Lud. So it is Fed. And what they do not willingly hear they do not willingly believe For no man is willing to believe the things which he is unwilling to hear No man easily believes what he would not And almost all do easily believe what they would
but what Christ willeth And all this you shall do by Faith For unless you did believe you would not doe really 't is Faith by which men do all things Now we must understand what S. Paul meanes by that saying of his we must go from Faith to Faith There is a first and imperfect Faith whereby a man is driven to renounce himself This being encreased the man persevering becomes dayly greater till at length he comes to such perfection that he doth believe all Gods Words precepts promises threats as certainly as you believe it will be day after night Hence ariseth that Omnipotence whereby he removeth Mountains thus there is no pride so losty no avarice so great no luxury so vast briefly no vice at all of such a magnitude which this Faith cannot remove pull down and destroy But before a man can come to that compleat victory many sharp things are to be endured in the way in renouncing himself without which asperity there is no attaining of that virtue As a fig or a grape comes not to his sweetness but after sharpness Now Ludovic because I have not yet gotten the victory but sweat in the combat of renouncing my self and am yet far from the Crown I will say no more of the victory being a thing to me unknown But in the fight if you will be my fellow Soldier I will by Gods help give you the best assistance I can Lud. I truly though my Flesh trembles and is afraid am enclined by the Spirit of my mind and resolve to follow you For I see there is no other way of safety then for a man to go forth of his own Nature that he may put on the nature of Christ and to take care study contend and sweat that he may restore the image after which we were created Therefore to Gods glory be it and to my salvation at this instant I give up my self to be your companion in this way under the conduct of Almighty God Fed. And I give thanks to God for the good resolution he hath put into your heart praying him to finish the work he hath begun in you and bring you to this that as you have served unrighteousness so you may be henceforth the servant of righteousness Which he will do undoubtedly unless you grieve and by disobedience reject his Spirit Last of all I advise you to have a rich Faith being you believe in him who is rich in mercy Very often have men offended by too sparing and narrow a belief of Gods power and goodness Abraham and Sarah are reprehended for laughing as if it were ridiculous for God to promise them a Son being both aged and Sarah barren Zacharias the Father of John Baptist is struck dumb for a time because he believed not the Angels word We truly are more propense to imitate the weak Faith not to say incredulity of pious men then to believe with a rich Faith and compleat Why do we not rather follow them who dared to believe all things Elizaeus was bold to ask Elias Spirit to be doubled on him a great matter by the testimony of Elias himself yet he obtained it So sure it is no Faith can be so great but the benignity and power of God is greater All things saith he are possible to the believer And whatsoever ye shall ask believe you shall obtain and you shall obtain it Remember that saying of Elizaeus who bespeaks the poor Widow thus Go borrow vessels of thy neighbors as many as thou canst God will fill them all So let us Ludovic do our Endeavor and get a faith capable of all good things and let us confidently believe God is willing and able to make us love him with all our heart all our mind all our strength and will out of his goodness give us all things more abundantly then we can conceive in the name of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be all Honor and Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Lud. Amen Sebastianus Castellio TO Bonifacius Amerbachius A Famous Councillor BEing the admirable frame of Heaven and Earth and the perpetual vicissitude of Night and Day do continually set forth the Praises of God All-mighty and All-merciful nor is there any Nation of the World that doth not hear the Speech and Doctrine of them it followeth that the God who is Maker and Governor of this Vniverse ought to be Worshipped and Praised by all Men every where And had not men degenerated from that goodness of Nature wherein they were created they might have learned Piety and Religion from this making of the World and from so great and perpetual benefits of God towards them but because being corrupted by the transgression of the first man they run headlong into all Sin and so unto Death it pleased God in opposition to this license and mischief to deliver a Law of Holy living which whosoever would obey they might avoid the evil of Sin and punishment and attain unto a happy life Now because that Law neither was extant among all Nations nor was able through their obstinacy to retain the Israelites to whom was given within the compass of their duty God at last sent his Son into the World who might take away the Partition Wall and spred his Gospel amongst all Mankind and Redeem us by his Blood and by the instinct of his Divine Spirit sweetly draw us into the right and the good way and so conduct us to blessedness eternal Wherefore being obliged by so great beneficence of God 't is not only commendable but if we would be Saved neccssary for us to bear grateful Minds and to our power answer his benefits by doing our duty to him And our duty is as Christ our Master and Saviour hath taught us in Brief to love God with all our Heart with all our Mind and with all our Strength and to love men as well as we love our selves And whereas it is the part of humane love to do good to all as you are able and to hurt none Divine love because we can do no good to God exacteth at our hands that every day we be employed in celebrating his goodness and Singing Praises to his Name Whosoever is endued with this Love is carried unto God with such a strong inclination and desire that he esteemeth Riches Honors Glory for which others do and suffer all things nothing worth and is so much delighted in God's Law that he Meditates upon it Day and Night thinking all time lost which is not bestowed upon him from whom all good things descend If this were deeply fixed in our minds surely we should not lay out so great a Portion of so short a life upon those Arts and Matters which do so little conduce either to the Glory of God or the profit of Mankind but not do it our selves wholly to this heavenly Philosophy or Sophy rather that is to Wisdom For indeed this Discipline is not as some imagine such as cannot be well learned without the aid of profane Letters It were absurd if not impious being profane Wits whose Authors were not only ignorant of God but most of them evil men can be without this Heavenly Doctrine to say the Christian Doctrine cannot consist without them whose Masters pronounceth St. Paul foolish and unlearned For as God would have nothing in the Sacred Books which is not pertinent to his Worship so is there nothing wanting which is pertinent We must not believe a Master infinitely perfect to have furnished us with maimed and imperfect instructions Yet I say not this as if I thought the use of profane Letters were to be laid aside for if one learn in them the Nature of things and the actions of men to this end that he may adore and Honor God the Author and Governor of them he does well in my judgment and seemeth to be conversant not in a profane but a Sacred work because he so follows that Study that it may not hinder but serve and advance Religion But to have good manners and the right way of life may be learned either from the trifles of Poets or from Sentences of Philosophers being uncertain and most part false and contrary each to other this were all one as if men since the Invention of Guns would Fight Battails with their Fists I conclude therefore my honour'd Amerbachius that the sacred Scriptures are to be turned and studied Night and Day so studied that both we our selves may frame our lives according to their prescripts and teach others committed to our trust to do likewise Basil Aug. 10. An. 1547. THE END
believe him and believing come into the rest of Canaan But they came not all thither though that was the mind of God for some of them hardened their hearts Which I would it were not so in Christ We see it is so and that it may not be so the Author of the Epistle to the Heb. admonisheth citing that of the Psalm To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as your Fathers viz. hardned their hearts Therefore to return to our purpose whereas those things are by them so studiously selected to believe which God is to do and those refused which belong to the Duty of man I pray what a thing is this The beneficence and grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared How gladly is this received But that which follows teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world how few do embrace this Most men believe this is so performed by Christ that it is unnecessary for us to perform it Again Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin This all men easily believe But that which is subjoined and in whose Spirit there is no guile this they believe is not possible to be attained Again there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus This is pronounced with full mouth for 't is a most sweet sentence But that who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit is bitter and believed by very few Briefly men easily believe we shall mow with joy but if you say we most sow in tears this part they cast upon Christ Hence it is that false Prophets because they preach pleasing things and either feign pleasing promises of God or apply them to such to whom they do not belong easily find credit When the true Prophets because they urge the threats of God and teach the truth severely have place among the fewest as Esay exclaims Lord who hath believed our speech These things being so it is manifest Ludovic that men are hindred from believing the truth by the love of themselves But if selflove were quitted they would believe nothing so easily as Truth being naturally enclined to truth and owning it presently as our ally if there be no impediment Wherefore 't is necessary Ludovic if you are willing truly to believe truth that is God you must lay aside self love or rather conceive the hatred of your self Lud. O Federic you perswade me thus but 't is no small matter to hate one self nor do I see the way to atain unto it nor know whether I can do it so much do I love my self Fed. I know Ludovic it is a very difficult matter and above humane strength but here we ought to remember what the Lord said of Sarah when she could not believe she should be great with Child is any thing to hard for the Lord What is impossible to man is possible to God and under his conduct nothing is to be dispaired of Lud. I beseech you therefore shew me the way whereby I may attain unto it Fed. I will do so if God please Lend me your ear If I had a servant most pleasant kind and officious and one who provided dainties for my pallate but mixed with poyson to take away my life and you knew it Ludovic who love me what would you do Lud. Verily I would with all speed and diligence advice you to take heed of tasting those dainties or loving that servant for he would secretly take away your life Fed. What if I should say I am delighted with the obsequiousness of my servant and the daintiness of the dish Lud. I would admonish you not to value so much the present pleasure as to loose your life for it Fed. What if your friend were in love with a flattering and painted harlot one infected with the French disease and you knew it what would you do Lud. I would tell him of the disease and as much as I am able dehort him from her company Fed. What if he said I am delighted with her Lud. I would answer Fishes also are delighted with the bait But 't is a folly to buy so little pleasure with so great pain or rather with death Fed. What if he say I cannot chuse but desire the pleasure Lud. I would admonish him that if he cannot as yet quench his lust he would at least resist it and not obey it Fed. What if he obeyed it Lud. Then truly I should think him more foolish then the bruits and worthy of any Evil. For Fishes Wolves Foxes Kites though very hungry yet if they either see or suspect a hook a snare a trap they abstain from the prey Fed. You say well Ludovic Thus then Every mans flesh is as it were a harlot and that painted which allures and delights him with her enticements and flatteries drives him to sin and detains him in sin and at last casts him headlong into the death of his soul Now man ignorant of the poyson embraceth pleasures and gives himself to them Then there comes upon him his friend truth minding him that the wages of sin is death and demonstrates the flesh which the man took for his friend to be his capital enemy Wherefore if you desire to be saved you must believe that you have no enemy so pern cious as your self that is your flesh which hitherto because pleasing you have favoured and obeyed you must henceforth because noxious and deadly hate and resist Now if you cannot presently drive away the enticements of it as indeed you cannot for they cleave fast truth says to you as of old to Moses Go into Egypt for thou canst I will be with thy mouth I wili enable thee to do what thou canst not So truth speaks now to you Ludovic do what you are able God will make thee do more then thou art able For example Thou sittest at a full Table and hast eaten enough to renew thy strength and to satisfie thy hunger Then comes in some dish more delicate made to provoke the appetite Here thy flesh instantly riseth up and suggesteth to thee such a thought It is a delicate mess if thou eat of it it will be pleasant But the Spirit opposes the Flesh and thus admonisheth Take heed Ludovic of indulging thy pleasure there is poyson in it For first it calleth off thy mind from God then which evil no evil can be greater for whereas no man can serve two Masters thou canst not serve God and pleasure because pleasure oppresseth the soul and draws it down to the Earth and separates it from God Next intemperance hurts the body so that if thou hadst no soul thou oughtest even for thy bodies sake to abstain from immoderate eating I do not now require thee not to be tempted with the allurements of the Flesh but not to obey them But if you deny your self to have power not to obey them you shall easily be
refused Suppose a man did give you one Floren to abstain from such a dish would you not abstain And will you not abstain for the truth Do not you shew truth is of less value with you then a peace of mony or suppose one threatned you with a blow on the face unless you forbear Sure you would forbear See God threatens to strike thy soul and dost thou not abstain Dost thou not herein more highly esteem thy soul then thy body I say the same of the rest Thou wouldst fornicate but because a Child is present thou dost not see God is present and thou dost it Surely thou hast not so must regard to the presence of God as of a little Child But if thou abstainest for fear of humane punishment and not of Divine doest thou not prefer men above God Thou art angry with one and wouldst beat him but darest not for fear of the magistrate why doth not the fear of God keep thee in awe If thou dost esteem God as much as men why does the fear of God less prevail with thee then the fear of men Thou dost calumniate another God sees thy calumny and dost it thou If men did see thou wouldst not do it Run through all things Ludovic whosoever does more for the love or fear of men or of any other thing then of God he doth more believe in men then in God Lud. O my Federic my conscience witnesseth to me that the things you say are right and true and thence ariseth sorrow in my heart Fed. What when we conferred about predestination or free will did you feel any such sadness Lud. None at all Fed. I believe you Ludovic for science brings no sadness but rather gladness being that which leaves the old man unhurt For although you know all mysteries yet may you still serve the Devil Now when we treat of renouncing ones self the Flesh is sensible she must perish and she doth as harlots use to do when they are forsaken of young men they torment them with desire and by all meanes endeavor to retain them So that harlot the Flesh which hath bewitched all men with the cup of her impurity so often as she perceiveth a man willing to depart from her vexeth him with desire and leaveth nothing unassayed whereby she may hold him fast Hence ariseth grief as great as the love of the Flesh was So likewise if you must leave your country such as your love to your country was such will be your sorrow Sin is our country for in sin hath our mother conceived us which without sorrow cannot be renounced This sorrow is that cross of which he speaketh If any one will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And if any man come unto me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And he that beareth not his Cross and followeth me cannot be my Disciple That you may understand what the hatred of ones self is and what Cross it brings weigh it with the hatred of another If you Ludovic should have one in deadly hatred how would you be affected toward him or what would you do to him Lud. Truly I would heartily wish him all evil envy him all good grieve at his prosperity rejoyce at his adversity If one should tell me any ill news of him I should be glad and receive the Messenger curteously use him kindly and reward him Farther I would love and do good to my enemies enemies and I would hate and do ill to my enemies friends All the words and deeds of my enemy I would watch and carp and by all possible wayes and means yea often with my own harm would I hurt him Lastly I would kill him if I could not with an ordinary but most cruel death and blot out his memory from the Earth Fed. Now Ludovic turn this hatred upon your self For you are your own capital enemy and ought to bear a capital hatred against your self not against others who are not able to kill thee that is thy soul Wherefore you must wish to your self that is to your Flesh all evil even death it self and envy all good to it You must grieve at the welfare and rejoyce at the evil thereof If any one bring you ill news of the Flesh you must rejoyce in the Spirit and reward the messenger Further you must devise and act all things against your self which men use to do against such as they hate with an irreconcilable hatred and never rest till the Flesh be destroyed And because no man ever hated his own Flesh as S. Paul saith you must with all care make a divorce and put it from you that it may be no longer yours the Spirit being taken in the place which hath no more agreement with the Flesh than fire with water Lud. O my Federic let me confess the Truth you have seemed to me to speak stones Fed. I believe it Ludovic and it must needs be so But be of good cheer and now begin to love me in the Spirit because I am an enemy to your Flesh For this is for your good nor can you be safe while your Flesh is living Wherefore Ludovic take care as you tender your salvation to hate your self and renounce your Flesh And I will shew you an example of this renouncing If one deliver himself up to you to be your servant he renounceth himself that is his own liberty and will so that henceforth he serves not his own but your will and pleasure Often when he wouid sleep he must watch at his masters command he must stay within when he would go abroad work when he would play In a word he so looseth his own freedome that if he be asked what he is about to do or what is his will he answers what pleases the Master in whose power he is So it is with us Ludovic if we be Christ's who hath bought us with a great price we are not in our own power or at our own pleasure but Christ's Therefore we ought not to do what we please but what pleaseth him And justly For if he being the way the truth and the life submitted his will to the will of his Father so that he said not my will but thine be done what is it fit for us to do who are full of errors and mistakes Wherefore when you are ready to be angry without a cause restrain your anger at the command of Christ When you would indulge and give your self to pleasure you must abstain and bear grief If you would be revenged you must forgive if you would do evil to any one do him good You must weep when you would laugh fast when you would feast bear disgrace when you desire honor poverty when riches Lastly you must so depart from your own will that if you be asked what you would you may answer nothing