The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose TreatisesRolle, Richard, of Hampole
Religion
The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises
Rolle, Richard, of Hampole
Christian life; Rolle, Richard, of Hampole, 1290?-1349
The third and the last part of this book teaches a man to bear himself,
wheresoever he comes, and whatsoever he does: that it be to the praise
of GOD, and an example of good to all who see him: for thus the Apostle
counsels: "Let everything be done honestly and in order"; that is "all
that ye do, look ye do it honestly and orderly." Then at the first, let
every lover of GOD see that ye yearn not to mingle with the world, that
hinders and deceives all who deal with it, and hinders them from the
many good deeds they might do. And the man who will nowhere rest but aye
rake about; their eyes see many things, that the eye sends to the heart,
and such come not out easily when they are once imprinted. S. Bernard
complains of the harms that he felt in the world whilst he was therein,
and says "the world surrounded me and weighed me down": that is "The
world has besieged me on every side; and through the gates of my five
wits it shot at me and wounded me full sore; and through the wounds,
death presses in, to slay my sorry soul. Mine eyes look, and my thought
changes and kindles me in sin. Mine ears hear and my heart bows me
thereto. I smell with my nose, and it pleases my thoughts. With my mouth
I speak, and in my speech I please or beguile others: and with a little
over-soft feeling, lust kindles in my flesh; and the fiend, my foe, whom
I cannot see, stands ever against me with his bow bent." Therefore, if
necessity make man to go into this world, where are so many stirrings to
sin, with great fear shall he go, as into a battle to fight his foes. It
needs he be well armed against the arrows of his foe, that severely
shoots at him; and the more may he dread him because he cannot see him:
with foot-traps and snares is the way set full. Therefore, let him who
shall go forth, arm him with GOD'S holy fear. GOD warned His disciples
to be wary in the world when He said thus: "Soothly the world shall
withstand you with temptations." Therefore, if thou must go out, for
thine own profit or that of others, colour not thy going with any false
hue, to feign for thyself an occasion to dally with the world, for
pleasure or command, or to be known with praise before others....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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