get rid of that we should gain all but if it continue the Master it 's in vain we strive to become devout And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein as may if possible ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion Certain it is Man was born for Pleasure since he was created to be happy and happiness consists in the Possession of Good and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love and pleasure arises from thence that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God that it hath no more sense of its pleasures Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us The Soul has kept this sentiment that it was born for Joy and Pleasure insomuch as being disunited from its God it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures and the stricter it is united to these the farther off it is from them The ligament of this union o' th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body so it disunites it from God so that sensual pleasures cause this Disunion and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she returns to her Principle and to the fruition of those pleasures that spring from her union with God Let worldly people take the pains to consult their own heart and that will tell them what we are about to say They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose themselves to Prayer to the love and Service of God is because they are posses'd by their passions and inchanted by the delusions of Sense That is to say they are absolutely turned toward sensual pleasures and wholly taken up in them The Soul is pinch'd and contracted the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its vanities so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire find no room therein Indeed a very difficult work this is we undertake to persuade that those who would become Devout ought to renounce worldly pleasures Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank we distinguish them into two orders There are those which are call'd excesses enormities and crimes but these the World abandons and has not the face to defend There are others styled innocent Pleasures Dancing Play good Chear great Meals Feasts Play-houses Shows vain Conversations the commerce of Gallantry and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours The Church distinguishes Pleasures as well as the World Both agree that there are Innocent ones But the Church puts the greatest part of those which the World upholds to be innocent into the number of criminal pleasures Voluptuosness is an Idol to which the World Sacrifices both young and old Men and Women Children and old Men great and small rich and poor all ages both Sexes all conditions have their Pleasures Insomuch much as if we go according to suffrages we should lose the Cause Especially Young men cannot indure one should takeaway the use of Pleasure they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and vitiate Mens minds represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman or Man laid upon a Bed of flowers environed with all the Objects which are bodily pleasures The Passions that are wholly carnal and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses are in boiling youth The Flesh all brisk active and vigorous having received no manner of Mortification Hectors and Domineers with insolence Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Crasis The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them So that reason destitute of this Succour is easily vanquish'd by the Passions We may say also that Reason in this age conspires with the Passions and serves only to push on young people into the greatestexcess and extravagences After their own fashion they reason they are persuaded that wisdom and prudence doe not become them they say that these properly belong to old men and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man To every thing under the Heaven there is a season If any one has more happy inclinations he is not so hardy as to follow them he is stricken with a criminal shame he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop He cast himself into the crowd and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream And even those who are reputed Wise in the World if they dare not authorize these Irregularities at least they excuse them They are young say they they will come to it at length we must allow somwehat to Age we are not born wise we were such as they are they may be one day what we are But alas we do not stay there we do not renounce Pleasures as we leave our youthful years behind us the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages We go as slow as possibly or to speak better we go on not at all Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure but we seldom view those that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time and foreslow themselves from being carried off the Stage They forget nothing that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness They would deceive Men and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care and have a part in all its Pleasures When old age is come and has lain its Characters open in their meen they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible You see these Women Idolatresses of the World to bury their head under an heap of Powder that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cousening Ceruse they shadow the wrinkles of their forehead with false hair and paints and in which they are most prudent they imbalm their Bodies and cover them with Perfumes to corrupt the ill odours that arise from the Carkasses In this equipage
tasts it's chief Pleasure And if we please we may call this chief Pleasure the chief Happiness of man But men are terribly chows'd herein They are persuaded that the Soul is not capable of any true Pleasure without it be what comes from the Body Among men generally a spiritual pleasure and a chimerical pleasure are all one All those who make their felicity to consist in Contemplation and in Actions intirely removed from those which make up carnal pleasure pass in the World for visionary wights this Errour springs from the Heart and Senses And therefore I say that in the Judgment we ought to have of pleasures and in the choice we ought to make thereof we are not to consult either our Senses or our Heart This mistake I say is caused by the Heart and Senses because they believe nothing agreeable but what is agreeable to them We judge things good or evil only according to the relation they have to the Faculties whereunto they raise either pleasure or Pain And therefore the Heart and Senses which are corporeal cannot be touch'd by spiritual things They judge these cannot be agreeable because they are sensible of no Pleasure in them Just as a blind man if he would judge according to the report of his Senses undoubtedly he would judge that there are no colours or if there were they could not make any Impression upon his Senses This is then an Imposture which we must lay open and disperse First of all we ought to remember that Man is made up of two parts the Soul and Body Each of these parts hath it's separate and distinct Goods The Goods of the Mind are spiritual and those of the Body necessarily corporeal Of these two parts the Soul is infinitely the more excellent From this Man is properly denominated and the Body is but a Retainer to him so that consequently the Goods and Pleasures which belong to the Soul by its self are infinitely greater than those which come by the interposition of the Body Lastly 't is very easie to comprehend why the Senses and the Heart indge otherwise These being bodily Faculties we need not wonder they hold clearly for bodily things As for the Senses this is without dispute they are corporeal both in their Organs and in their Operations they perceive only the Superficies of Bodies This is no less true of the Heart it is corporeal too for I understand by the Heart the seat of the Passions and the Imagination 't is very evident that both these Faculties are bodily Faculties For the Imagination is the feat wherein are represented those Images that come from the Senses and offer themselves to our Mind in the absence of Objects The Passions also are corporeal because they are formed by Mechanical Movements This is manifest by those Characters they impress upon the Body as the motion of the Blood quick slow or precipitate Paleness or Ruddiness of Complexion the Fire and languishing which they impress upon the eyes The Senses and Heart which are corporeal being the Gates whereat Objects do enter and accost the mind bring nothing to it but bodily Images and raise in it only sensual Pleasures and the Soul hereby gets an habit of believing there are no other Pleasures besides these since it does not endeavour to disingage it self from the Body and to taste others But can it be possible we should be such enemies to our selves and so irrational as to believe our Senses touching a thing of so great Importance The Senses are unable to know the thousandth part of Bodies As soon as ever a Body ceases to have a considerable Extension we cease to see and feel it and would we make these very Senses to be judges of things absolutely Spiritual Certainly the Soul is very unhappy and very much a Slave if it cannot taste that Pleasure which is its sovereign Felicity but it must be beholden to the Body for it If Matter be the Spring of true Pleasure what do those Souls do I wonder that are separated from Matter what must be the Beatitude of Angels that have no Body Is it not true that their Pleasures ought to be as far above ours as Minds are above Matter Assuredly spiritual Pleasures spring from the knowledge of Truth from the practise of Virtue from our union with God by the tyes of Love and from that Action whereby God unites himself immediately to our Soul All this is intirely above the Senses they are not acquainted with Truth for their Office is to report the Appearances of Bodies They cannot judge of Virtue it is not under their Jurisdiction much less can they judge of that Union betwixt God and the Soul And yet although they make no report to us about any of these things we are not nevertheless to doubt of the real Impressions they make upon our Souls But from whence comes it say some that spiritual Pleasures are not so touching and make not such strong Impressions upon the Soul as bodily ones doe For you see not say they your devout People in those Transports of Joy and Pleasure as we see men have in the injoyment of Sensual Pleasures Is not this a proof that those intellectual pleasures are merely imaginary or at least that they are very weak and languishing This difficulty arises from that men know not how to distinguish the Soul from the body they believe it is concern'd in proportion to the greatness of the agitations of the Bodily Organs They are persuaded that it cannot receive an impression of Joy but by the interposal of these great corporeal motions But the thing is far otherwise 't is certain that in the great Pleasures which the Soul receives from the Body the great corporeal Agitations re'ncounter one another and it receives not those pleasures but by favour of these agitations and because the Bloud and Spirits are in a great heat and ferment But the Pleasures of holy Persons which are lock'd up in the Soul it self and which exert no external Characters do not fail to make very powerful Impression These Pleasures are so great and so touching that they carry the Soul out of the World And the Joy which springs from the possession of God from the Knowledge of his Truth and the imitation of his Vertues and Attributes must needs infinitely transcend all the pleasures of the Body Since that for these spiritual pleasures we not only renounce bodily ones but also expose our selves to all even the most sensible pains True it is the more the Soul is accustomed to let its self be moved by the Agitations which do cause corporeal Pleasures and Passions the more is it uncapable of tasting Internal joys and spiritual Pleasures And this is one of the greatest mischiefs that spring from the continual use of sensuality the Soul waxeth fat as the holy Ghost speaketh the heart of the Wicked is fat as grease he hath prophaned the Rock of his Salvation It covers its self as it were with
the love with which we love God and that by which we are beloved of him By this Love he is in us and we are in him because Love makes a transfusion of Hearts and the Soul is more in the Subject which it loves than in that which it animates As to the pleasures which spring from this union it is of the number of those things which cannot be conceiv'd without they be felt 'T is such that all the Pleasures of the World appear unsavoury to them that taste it 'T is so great as it hath often made the Saints to fall down who have been extraordinarily touch'd with its holy Extasies and Ravishments which seem'd to have entirely broke the Alliance betwixt the Body and the Soul Now without question it is that Devotion contributes and leads to this Pleasure It diminishes our union with sensual things disunites us from our Body lifts us up to God purifies our Souls in drawing nigh to him makes them partake of the Beams of that great Sun of righteousness and renders them as so many little Gods by communicating with the Glory of our great God Meditation NO wonder thou seekest Pleasure O my Soul thou seekest thy Good thou seekest what thou hast lost thou seekest what was given thee what thou once hadst and what thou shouldest have still hadst thou continued innocent Thy God created thee righteous and holy This holiness was the bond of his union with thee thou wert separated from him when thou becamest sinfull and thorough this separation thou hast continued void and deprived of Pleasure and Happiness Every where thou seekest the Good thou hast lost but blind as thou art thou catchest at Shadows for real Bodies Thou wanderest upon different Objects and if thou findest any one that flatters thee straightway thou embracest it with ardour as if thou hadst found that which thou hast lost and seekest for Thou disabusest thy self in a little time but it is to fall into an other Errour After having tasted bodily Pleasure thou perceivest that this is not the infinite Pleasure thou searchest after This Object being quitted thou dost cast thy self upon another thou Embracest this too and every day thou delightest to be fed with new and new Illusions Leave off O my heart leave off rambling and running after these Fantoms Be not decieved by thy Senses and Imagination Embrace thy God 't is to him alone thou owest this general Inclination which makes thee to love Felicity and Pleasure but thy blinded Eyes make thee love false Gods and fix themselves upon false Pleasures If thou wert not profoundly blind thou could'st not doubt that God is infinite that he is infinitely good and infinitely better than all the Creatures Thou could'st not also doubt but the pleasure which comes from Union with him and the Possession of him is infinitely greater than all the Pleasures of the World besides If the created Goods be so sweet how agreeable must the increated Good be The Good which is the Creator of all Goods the Good which comprehends the pleasure of all other Goods the Good which displays those Delights in our Hearts that are as far above all Pleasures as he himself is eminent above all Goods Herein thou art incredulous O my Soul because thou hast not relish'd the sweetness which springs from being united with God thou canst not believe them thou say'st with Thomas Except I should see except I touch and feel those Delights I will not believe Ah! how happy and blest is he who has believ'd before he hath seen who has overcome all the temptations of the Flesh and has desired to taste those divine Pleasures before he tasted them But that Person is incomparably more happy that hath believed and hath seen that hath tasted those Delights and felt those Pleasures which surpass all understanding which spring from the intimate presence of God If thou hast not yet been able O my Soul to feel such spiritual Pleasures the reason is thy God could not yet apply himself immediately to thee because of the Impurity wherewith thou art cover'd and defiled â—or his Eyes are pure they cannot behold Iniquity he is Purity and Light it self and thou art enwrapt in a dark Cloud of Ignorance and Unrighteousness How then could God joyn himself immediately to thee Therefore take away thy Veil this Wall of Separation cure thy own ignorances seek after the Knowledge of thy God and his Mysteries purifie thy self â—et rid of those ill Habits of Vice which â—â—rround thee like a Garment and thy God will invest thee with a Robe of Light and â—hen shalt thou perceive that the applying â—ensible Objects to thy faculties is not capable of raising in thee that Sense of Pleasure which thou mayst receive from God Then â—ilt thou have a perfect disgust to those vain Pleasures thou wilt wish to see thy God 〈◊〉 know him to embrace him that thou â—ayst be united to him Prayer O Father of Lights inexhaustible spring of Pleasure and Joy insinuate thy self into all the Faculties of my Soul fill up the emptiness of my desires and that vast extension of my Heart and make me to feel that Joy which thou communicatest to thy Saints and Favorites Vnto thee I discover my wants I confess my Nothing I languish after thee my True Good Without thee O Lord I should be the most miserable of all Creatures I should be plunged into an Abyss of Grief and Despair I should feel nothing but horror and anguish Thou comfortest me in this Valley of Tears thou feedest me with the bread of angels and makest me drink of thy Pleasures as out of a River The World is not acquainted with these delights the meats of thy Table to it are insipid it tastes nothing but the Flesh-pots of Egypt and knows not what iâ— the Honey of the Land of Promise I know it O my God but I do not know so as I would and ought to know I have learn'd of thy Saints that when thou speakest to thy children in their hearts this Sentiment is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb and that more pleasure is to be found in possessing thee than the covetous find in having the greatest abundance of Gold and Silver But alas my Soul hath not yet felt those divine Transports I begin to perceive that earthly Pleasures are uncapable of satisfying that hunger and thirst after pleasure and happiness whereof I labour but I have not as yet perfectly learn'd that thou alone art capable of quenching that thirst Taste and see how gracious the Lord is I taste thee as I see thee I see thee but imperfectly and as in a Glass I taste thee as covered from me Over thee indeed are no involving incumbrances for thou art all pure and single and whosoever is pure may taste thee purely But the veil is in my Flesh or rather it is my Flesh it self it is my corruption that separates me from thee Come therefore Lord Jesus come thou
of his Closet we may say he shuts the door to the World saying to himself Get ye gone ye worldly Thoughts retire ye Objects of Vanity and approach not near this place let me rejoyce in the quiet of this secure Sanctuary and suffer me to give my self wholly up to my God The pious Soul after this manner dies many times a day for Death does not more efface the Images of worldly things than Devotion when it takes a Christian out of the World This Soul may say at such a time The World is crucified unto me and I unto the World I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me We need not wonder if the World quits the place in this moment since I suppose that it before took up but very little Room in the Soul whereof I speak God comes to possess it wholly of which he had before the better for the devout Heart ventures to say The whole is in God and God is in every part In this state if by peradventure it casts its Eyes upon the World it looks down from on high and with an Eye of Contempt Alas What are these same Riches says the faithful Soul these Honours and Advantages which frequently terminate in eternal Death to compare with the Riches that God here bestows upon me But near to God himself whom I possess these earthly Goods will vanish and be lost but I will never lose him who holds me and whom I hold and Death which will disrobe the Living of their Pomp will invest me with new Glory The fourth Effect of Devotion is an Alacrity in running and advancing in the Practise of Piety A General flies to the Combat when he sees an assured Victory but the devout Person has other kind of wings which make him fly whither Devotion conducts him He knows not that 't is the drooping and weight of the Body that retains them who are call'd to Travel he has not the Sentiments of the Sluggard who rouls upon his Bed as a Gate upon its Hinges who fight Battles with his Boulster and wages Wars with Sleep and Idleness with a Design to be vanquished He is one of those Eagles of which some think our Saviour spoke Where the dead Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together He knows that he shall find his Jesus once dead but now alive either in the Church or in his Closet he flies thither with the Swiftness of an hungry Eagle nothing is capable of stopping him Friends Enemies Employs Occupations Prayers Menaces Fears and Dangers all useless for in posting he can surmount all Obstaeles in the way Another Effect of Devotion is a certain Elevation of Soul which I cannot term otherwise than a sort of Extasie whereby the Soul is as it were ravish'd from its self 'T is so knit to the Contemplation of Coelestial Objects that not only it has no more intelligence of earthly things but it has no Sense no Ears no Eyes it sees not it understands not St. Peter while he prayed saw the Heavens opened and a certain Vessel descending to the Earth as it had been a great sheet knit at the four Corners St. Paul in Prayer was ravished even to the third Heaven and the Devout even at this time of day have their Extasie They see with Stephen the Heavens opened they are lifted up to Heaven with St. Paul for they enter into a secret Commerce with God The Soul inwardly is so taken up that it sees nothing at all of what passes without and contributing its whole force to the Contemplation of God no Wonder it has no more for other Objects Blessed are they says St. Basil who are fill'd with and infolded in the Contemplation of this true Beauty since being bound to it by the Cords of Charity and of an heavenly and divine Love they forget their Parents Friends Houses they forget even the necessity of eating and drinking And now why should it not be so in the Offices of Piety when ev'ry day this happens to us in the Affairs of the World While we are strongly fixt to Reading to disintangle a crabbed and knotty matter while we answer an Adversary a thousand Objects pass before our eyes whereof we do not take notice The devout Soul is so shut into it self so well gathered up and compacted that no external thing is able to move it If it prays it is intirely in Heaven if it hears it is wholly tyed up to the Tongue of him that speaks if it reads its heart is always where the eyes terminate themselves if it meditates it is all over plunged in it's subject and if a Flock of Birds of vain and light Thoughts come to soil its Sacrifice as that of Abraham it scares them away incontinently This is that which I understand by the Extasie of Devotion otherwise if you take this term for effectual Ravishments which were the Priviledges of the Prophets and Saints of the first Order I must take an infinite deal of pains to believe that the Holinesses of the Roman Cloyster do oblige God as some would fain perswade us so ordinarily to communicate such extraordinary Graces Now a days we do not see those Devotions which lift up not only the Souls but make the Body to lose its Earth and raise it to the very Clouds Nevertheless if we would believe some who call themselves good Authors there is nothing more common The last Effect of Devotion that I shall mention is a certain Fire that warms the Heart One cannot well conceive it unless one had felt it and I cannot express it otherwise than in the words of holy men Did not our Heart burn within us while he talked with us and while he opened to us the Scriptures My Heart was hot within me while I was meditating the Fire burned then spake I with my Tongue We are told how the Faces of the Saints have been oftentimes seen to be bright and inflamed in the midst of their Devotions which could not proceed but from the glowing and fiery affection of the Heart which manifests it self accordingly in the Countenance This Fire we may call a Fermentation of the Spirits of Piety which not seldom make Impressions even in the eyes And hence it may be came the shining of St. Stephen's Face of which it is said that his Enemies saw it as if it had been the Face of an Angel his Zeal and his Devotion were evident in his Eyes and render'd 'em sparkling Now this Lightning is not without its Rain I mean that this Fire is ordinarily accompanied with Tears The Heart is heated blows up that Heat makes it grow bigger then it self grows tender and at last the Eyes melt into Tears St. Austin represents himself in one of these Illuminations or rather Inflamations of Heart After says he that a strong Meditation
had drawn out all my Misery from the bottom where it lay hid to present it to the Eyes of my Heart there arose a great Tempest which was followed by a great Shower of Tears This weeping does not always come from a Sense of Sin 't is sometimes caused by a jarring diversity of Thoughts and a confusion of good Emotions which cast the Soul into a sort of Disorder but which is much better than the greatest Calm Meditation HOW were it to be wisht that men were as holy as they are Eloquent and knowing pourtraicts they make but where shall we find the Originals I see plainly that the characters of true Devotion are curious and ravishing but alas the more I enter into this Meditation the more do I continue confus'd When I consider what I ought to be to be devout and I examin what I my self am I find that I am nothing or that I am not just what I should be I do not find in my self those ardent desires to be with my God and to converse with him by holy Prayer and Meditation My Soul languishes but it is not after the house of my God nor after the solitude of my Cabinet It languishes for it is feeble and weak in all the motions of Piety I do violence to my own heart in drawing it out of the clutches of the World to put it into the hands of God I enter into my Closet to do my Exercises of Piety rather to acquit my self of a Duty which I have imposed on my self than to follow my own inclinations Where is that Joy which I ought to taste in the Acts of my Devotion Where is that being unbound from the World renouncing of all carnal thoughts where is that Fervour and Alacrity the Extasies the Flames the Illuminations of that heavenly fire whereof I am a reading the description All is dead in me If I would quit the World to enter into my Closet I carry it still along with me In all the faculties of my Soul I feel a monstrous weight and dulness which arrests all my Elevations and makes me tumble down back again to the Earth my Jertings up are feeble and of a short Durance they hardly go half Way to Heaven Prayer HAve pity on my sad Estate my Father and my God Draw me and I will run after thee Why should I remain in the shadow of Death Thou Sun of righteousness that carriest healing in thy Wings raise me up and quicken me Let the East from on high visit me with the Bowels of his Mercy Let my heart burn within me whilst I read thy Scriptures and hear thy Word Let my Prayers be ardent and my Piety constantly sustained by the force and flames of thy Grace and loving kindness And thou my Soul do not attend this loving kindness with Arms across go meet it call and say Come Lord Jesus come quickly O God of my Salvation awaken my heart Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Life Chase away sloath let it no longer lye in the bed of security banish all coldness rid thy self of that burthensome weight that oppresses thee Take the Wings of an Eagle and to Heaven fly into the bosom of thy Saviour and thou shalt find Sweets which thou hast never yet tasted never seen never heard of and which never enter'd into thy Imagination to conceive CHAP. III. The great necessity of Devotion WHO can doubt on 't and is it not sufficient barely to know and to describe it to perswade us to it Devotion is the Soul of the Soul and the very Life of Piety 'T is that which sets a price and value upon the Duties and the Worship of a faithful Soul A due Preparation is necessary to every thing An Orator who is to speak in publick first amasses his matter together and then assays to put it into a good Form A Souldier being to fight prepares his Army and rouzes his courage He that goes to a Marriage puts on a Wedding Garment And why then do we take upon us to present our selves before God in Prayer in reading or in hearing his Word in imploring his Assistance or rendring him Actions of Gratitude without having the holy disposition of Piety and Devotion that are before him of so great Price We do ever that thing well which we do heartily but when the Heart is no Party in the business it avails nothing The Souldier who carries not his Heart along with him turns his back in the day of battle and the Orator whose Heart is not toucht with what he says will never touch that of others If without the Heart we cannot perform the works of the Tongue and of the Hand how shall the work of the heart it self be done without the Heart This is what I call the Exercises of Piety and the Service of God A Lute can it be plaid upon unless it be string'd and tun'd can a Bow shoot unless it be bent the Heart is an Instrument and a Lute the sound whereof charms the Ears of the Almighty but it must be strung with all its Vertues as with strings and Devotion must be to it a kind of Soul that makes every thing else to act Prayer is an Arrow that flies to the Heav'ns but Devotion only gives it both strength and Feathers Prayer is a Sacrifice and an offering of the Heart We must not therefore present common Riches to God without preparation and choice and the Passover-Lamb was separated from the Flock four days before its Immolation Let not the Sinner then offer to God dirty and soyl'd Prayers but pure and devout ones let him separate his heart from the vanities of the World and the Folly of his vain thoughts if he will be well-pleasing to God Without Devotion the Soul is dead the heart is but in its Body as in its Grave What rashness then to lay a dead and corrupted Beast upon the Altars of God will not God say I hate your Oblations the Peace-Offerings of your fat Beasts and the perfume of your Incense I cannot away with them Devotion is a Fire without which our Sacrifices could not be consumed It 's a Fire coming down from Heav'n it 's an emanation of the Rays of the Sun of Righteousness it s what must lift up the Smoak of our incense to Heay'n Assure thy self thou Christian Soul that thy offerings are in the right way and that the Flames of Devotion are alone capable of piercing those Clouds thickned by Iniquity that separate us from God The matter that makes thunder-bolts so massy and heavy would not alwayes be mounted in the middle Region of the Air from whence we see 'em hurl'd down upon the Earth were it not carried upon the Wings of some inflamed Exalations In like manner our Earthly Prayers as well as our hearts would not be able to mount the Skies did not the flames of Devotion lift them up So that we ought to put our
Heart of mine is made I think of Marble and Ice How is' t possible it should continue insensible amidst so many Objects which are capable to move it How can it be ungrateful when it is invironed with so many Favours from Heaven How is it possible it should not tremble before him whose Presence makes the Angels to tremble Why does not my Soul that is changed and destitute of all Good run with ardour to a Source so pure and so refreshing One Tear I cannot draw from my Eyes nor one Sigh from my Heart Every day I present my self before my God with dry Eyes with an humble Body but with a proud Soul and frequently with so great an Air of Negligence that the Tone of my Voice the Posture of my Members and generally all that is seen and heard in me speaks my Indevotion When have I insulted over my own Heart how often have I said to my self thou wicked Soul why dost thou not quake and shiver within me why dost thou not fear him whom none can fear enough and why dost thou not love him infinitely who has infinitely loved thee If thou lov'dst and fear'dst this God as thou oughtest this God soveraignly adorable whom the Angels love and fear thou cou'dst not be cold in his Service nor adore him in so languishing a manner Prayer ALas my God! thou seest how I groan under the burthen of my Corruption anâ— of my Indevotion Help me then to rid my self of 'em so that those motions of Piety and Zeaâ— which thou lovest so much may henceforth be as frequent in my Soul as they have been rareby till this preseâ—â— that the movements of my Devotion may not resemble those Sparks which flye up from a great company of Embers and then grow cold and are extinguished but be of those pure slames which burn perpetually even in the midst of Water and resist the Stormâ— and Tempests of Temptation Corruption and bad Examples And that being far from suffering my self to be carried away by the Torrent of Corruption and Indevotion which obtains even in the Sanctuary I may cause my Righteousness to shine like a Candle in the midst of Darkness CHAP. V. That Indevotion is a far greater crime than it is commonly thought TOuching the indevotion of the Profane I do no speak but of those that would be called thâ—t children of God I speak of all those neglects and coldnesses of all those distractions and vain and carnal thoughts which traverse the excercises of Piety The principal reason of the commonness of this crime is the opinion which people have that it is a very small fault There is nothing which they do not say and imagine to flatter themselves in this Vice One says 't is the nature of the Soul to be active and boyling we cannot fix it upon one only object it takes fire and evaporates even when we believe we can holdit It is say they a Malady of the Soul of which it self is not culpable Ah! certainly if it were an evil intirely unvoluntary it would very well deserve we should deplore the misery of the Soul 'T is a sign of a strange Irregularity and a proof that Sin is caused within by great disorders If you see a man in the midst of a discourse of good sense wander all on a sudden and speak a thousand impertinences and extravagant things will not you say he has a Desultory wit and an ill-biass'd Spirit Is it not a proof of a great Disorder in the heart to perceive ones self in the midst of ones devout thoughts to evaporate to go and take a leap from ones self and the Subject to fall into a thousand Chimerical imaginations But further I say there is as much of a crime as of misery in this Evil. It 's sufficient to know that Sin is the cause of this disorder to be assured there is sin in it The Product of a criminal cause cannot be Innocent and I fancy that the inferiour part of the Soul being corrupted by Sin is like to marrish and fenny places from whence Vapours are continually elevated to Heaven which oftentimes obscures the Sun Our passions 't is true do raise up the Clouds of vain and evil thoughts that rob our hearts of the Suns sight but what of this does it not follow that this is not a great evil do not all crimes come from this Source and are they therefore the less to be condemned We imagine that the mind of man cannot be fixt which is false and a thousand Experiments can shew us the contrary Were you to appear before a great Prince to defend your Life you would think so eagerly and earnestly upon the business that no other thing would be allowed admittance into the thoughts in speaking to him you wou'd not suffer the least Distraction The Niggard that counts his Treasures does not hear when any one comes to knock at the Door of his Cabinet A man that is upon an important Affair and gives up his mind to it never finds these wandrings of Imagination It 's true then that it is possible to hinder this Levity of mind whereof we complain as of an incurable evil Thus in the vice of Indevotion there 's a sort of Pride of being unwilling to humble our selves worthily before God in whose presence all Nature trembles I would fain know whether a King would take it well that in doing him Reverence one should turn his back upon him or that one should do him Homage with an air of disdain and this is what we do to God We give him not the very Moity of our heart To slight and despise him whom the Angels adore can it be call'd a Peccadillo The Lord reigneth let the Earth be moved are very rare words in our mouth And seeing that God does not immediately avenge himself on the great contemners of his Majesty without fear we take up an habit of defying him Unquestionably if there were nothing else in Indevotion besides the crime of Disobedience 't would be enough to render us worthy of all the most severe punishments We know mighty well that God commands us Ardour and Zeal and we cannot be ignorant how he calls us to take the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence We hear it said every day that he casts up the Luke-warm out of his mouth We read every where that the way of the Faithful ought to be in a swift Course and not a slow walk And in short we know very well that he would have us be eaten up with the Zeal of his House Maugre all these Commands and Orders still cold we are and languishing Who then shall be obey'd if God be not He who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire he who hath so many means to revenge himself upon Rebels and to reward the Obedient he lastly whose commands are ever just and ever holy Let no one tell me then that this is a light fault since 't is a
and which Death at least would have infallibly ravisht from thee Dost thou not know that the World and its Fortunes are all of Glass They shine but they are brittle The least blow shatters them and makes 'em to flye into a thousand pieces why then shouldest thou think it strange that Glass should break between thy Fingers Why art thou so sensible of Injuries and Offences And why dost thou make the malignity of another thy own misery why dost thou so bitterly lament the loss of some Persons that Death has taken up from thee they were not thine they were Gods who lent 'em thee and has retaken them In short Why art thou so prodigal of Tears whereof thou reapest no fruit that is to imploy ones Labour in that which profiteth not When thou bewailest O my Soul thy misfortunes thy tears do not make thy misfortunes to cease but mourn for thy Sins and thy Tears will destroy them They will whirl them away like a Torrent or a Deluge and they will be found no more Thy carnal anxieties trouble thy Devotion But the Grief which thou shalt have for thy Sins and Infirmities will augment it and God will comfort thee Prayer COme therefore thou Holy Ghost the Comforter who wert promised to us by the Son in behalf of the Father Come sweeten my bitter Anguishes by thy Delights and Mercies Come and recompence my losses by thy Riches Give me such joy as passes all understanding Give me Piety that I may have contentment of Mind and that the one and the other being joyned together may be great Gain to me and compose my soverign happiness Come and place my Soul in so firm a Seat and Posture that it may never be jogged or stagger'd even by the rudest blows Come and restore back to me what I have lost Goods Possessions Houses Husband Wife Children Kindred and my dearest Frinds Come my dear Saviour and let me possess thee perfectly instead of all things The World has taken away all it hath given me But it cannot ravish from me what thou shalt bestow upon me I make a Sacrifice to thee of all the Goods which I have lost If I have not lost 'em for thy Name yet at least I at present patiently suffer the loss of them for thy Name 's sake And therefore I hope thou wilt reward me as if I had lost them for thee In this Hope I banish my Cares and Troubles far from me to the end they may come no more to disturb and interrupt my Repose O my God make the Walls of my Closet impenetrable Ramparts such as cannot be pierced by the Darts of my persecuting Enemies So that I may be there in thy Presence as in a quiet and safe Haven against the Tempests wherein my Life is lost and that so the Commerce which my Soul would have with thee may not be interrupted by the remembrance of my Misfortunes but I may forget all my Griefs and Calamities in thy Presence CHAP. V. Of Excessive Business A fifth Source of Indevotion THIS is also another branch of the Love of the World and another let and hindrance to Devotion We love the World and give up our selves intirely to its Imployments One imploys himself in Traffique and thinks of nothing else Another he is oppressed with the Affairs of other men which he makes his own through interest He pleads as he saith for the defence of Justice but it is too often for iniquity and though he gains his Cause yet he loses his Conscience A physician Visits his Patients with a design to make 'em pay dear for his Services and Attendance The man of business is ever thumbing his Arithmetick The Mechanick exercising his Trade the Husband-man Agriculture And to these several ways goes the greatest and best part of their time And so much is the World corrupted as they think they deserve praises in that among the sundry ways of spending time this is the most innocent but it becomes criminal as soon as it robs us of our God and slackens our Piety The mind of man is so made as it cannot vigorously tend but to one Mark it cannot ardently will but one thing insomuch as if thou givest up the ardour and force of thy desires to thy Family and thy Occupations God will but partake of the Reliques of thy Soul and thy languishing motions I do not pretend here as if Persons of all conditions could give up themselves wholly to contemplation This contemplative Life is the Life of Angels and not of men and since that we are in part Body we must also live after a manner partly corporal A Bird let its wings be never so strong cannot always be flying A Soul has not strength enough to be evermore lifted up to Heaven I know moreover we ought to serve the necessities of Nature In a word I do not oppose the Order that man has received from God to eat his Bread by the sweat of his Brows and by his labour six days in the Week all I aim at is that the imployments of Martha may not hinder the work of Mary and that the Body being the worse Part of us may not carry away the better part of our time If there be any thing wherein we ought to laud and praise the great condescention of God to us it is in this all our time is his but he pleased to give us six parts in seven Six days shalt thou labour and on the seventh rest Seeing he has forgone so much we ought at least to be very exact to pay him this Tythe of our time one day in seven one hour in seven Six hours therefore should not slip by in a day without returning to God to give him the seventh Do more and imagine not you can do too much since you owe him all Why will you not have the same regard and consideration for the Soul as you have for the Body On it you bestow Refreshment and Rest and for this you intercept your most important Concerns that you may repair the decayed forces of Nature Take heed there be not made too great a dissipation of the Spirits of Grace call the Soul to its exercises of Devotion as to repasts which renders it vigorous and as to sleep during which it lyes in the Arms of its God labour often in this Divine Recollection and to withdraw the Soul from those wandring courses it makes in humane affairs Meals and repasts hastily taken are followed with a difficult digestion and very little nourishment and therefore we repose our selves while we eat let not any one tâ—en imagin he can serve God whilst he is doing something else These stirrings and turbulent Devotions are of ill consequence and instead of nourishing do load and clog the Conscience We must therefore in our ordinary imployments set aside some hour wherein our Souls may retire themselves as it were in an Haven to rejoyce over a Calm after a boysterous Tempest Whilst the Water
is rouling or stirring it can neither receive nor reflect well the Image of the Sun so a Soul in continual action cannot receive the impressions of Grace the beams of the glorious Jesus nor the likeness of our great God Thou raging and rouling Sea hold thy self then still and hust stop thy Surges to be the Looking-glass of the Heavens to the intent all those matchless and illustrious lights may penetrate thee and paint themselves in thee How can the knowledge of God said St. Basil enter into a Soul taken up with a crowd of carnal thoughts It ought to be master of its time and its self to be presented to God Pharaoh knew this well since he told the Israelites What ye say come and let us sacrifice to our God proceeds from that ye are Idle Certain I am God does not love slothful People and how should he love idle Lives that will take account of every idle word But yet neither does he love People over busie Martha Martha says he Thou art cumbered and troubled about many things Thy Sister Mary has chosen the good Part. She did not labour about Evil things but too many things She did even good works in doing what she did she served our Lord she prepared him meat and drink If there could be excess in these holy Employments when they hinder us from approaching often enough to the Throne of Grace what must we believe touching the imployments of the World what people will be excluded from the sacred feast of our Saviour Why those men of Business one of whom forsooth bought a yoke of Oxen and will go to try them another has purchased an House and he must needs go see it a third is contracted to a Wife and he will wed her Such Persons will find the Gate shut and barr'd they come not time neither will they find any one to open unto theâ— It will be said to them as it was to others go ye wâ—kers of Nothing I know you not Let us not say the such a way I must go to day to morrow another must do such a thing and finish such an affair afterwaâ— I will think upon God! O my Soul Thy great concernâ—â— to set thee well with thy God 't is to consult him often about the Disposition wherein he is with thee 't is to sollicite his mercy and implore the succours of his Grace 't is to pay him thy just Homages and place all thy inteâ—est in him It is the one thing necessary choose then thâ— good part which shall not be taken away from thee Thiâ— one thing I do forgetting those things which are behinâ— and reaching forth unto those things which are before 〈◊〉 press toward the Mark. Let not therefore the Indevout Person come with his Objection from the multiplicity of his Affairs the most busie steal their moments for Pleasure and whâ— can't they then for a Duty Let no one oppose us with the goodness and innocence of particular Imployments nothing is innocent that renders us culpable before God in estranging us from him But what shall we say of those Persons who create to themselves affairs of vast and mighty importance in the due setting of a Tower or accurate scituation of a Spot who consult their Glass an hundred times to place every thing in its proper order who imploy the best part of their lives in-these Idle Businesses and amidst all this find scarce a minute to consecrate to Devotion I say that these Women are to render an account of all and of the time which they have so miserably squander'd away and of their Beauty whereof they have made so bad a use and of the unjust Division they have made betwixt God and their own Idol seeing they have given all their Hours to the Service of this and to God only some moments of unadvised and hasty Devotion Meditation Wretched Soul how miserable art thou to be obliged to serve perpetually a Body that renders thee nothing but evil for all the good that thou hast done it Thou travellest after many things Thou runnest from one end of the World to the other Thou venturest upon the Tempests of the Sea thou exposest thy self to their fury Thy Body is burnt by the heats of the Sun From Icy Climates thou passest into the Torrid Zone For whole years thou sail'st upon the mouth of Abysses to seek Riches Gold Silver precious Stones and all manner of Delicates If thou dost not do this thou dost somewhat else which is no better and thou sustain'st as great Labours and which are no less vain and all for a Body that is Dust and must return to Dust True it is that to take care of thy Body is a Yoak that God has laid upon thee but thou thy self makest this Yoak infinitely more weighty The Body would be content with a very little if thou would'st serve it as it should be served and by consequence it would rob thee of but a little time but thou givest it all What blindness and what fury is this Whaâ— will return to thee of all thy Labours Thâ— Body for which thou takest so much pains will carry nothing away with it of these Riches which thou amassest for it except a winding-sheet an herse-cloth and perchance will have and hold a short while five or six feet of Earth O my Soul it 's of thee thoâ— ought'st to think and for thee thou ought'st to provide Thou art a Queen and thou becomest a Slave Thou should'st be served and lo thou servest Thou neglectest to gather the true Riches together and therefore thou art poor blind and naked I counsel thee then to get Gold Rayments and Nourishment of him who saith Every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters buy Wine and Milk without Mony and without price Prayer MAke me O my God to know that thou art the sovereign Good the only good worthy alone to be sought after and worthy alone to be loved that I may no longer run after the vain Shadows of Greatness and Glory Make me to know the true Goods so as I may bestow all my Love and Care upon them So as I may no more make the principal workings of my thoughts to respect worldly Employments So as I may keep my Body under as a Slave that hath an inclination to rebell but that I may serve thee as a Master whose inclinations are ever favourable unto me Let me with assurance first of all seek thy Kingdom and thy Righteousness and then all the rest shall be added unto me Suffer no Ingratitude nor Distrust in my Soul Nor let it doubt of the Goodness of him who has given so many marks of his Care and Tenderness over it How can it fear O my God that thou wilt let it want any thing thou who feedest the young Ravens that cry unto thee and the Lions Whelps that lay them down in their Dens It labours about this Life as if it were to be Eternal and it
To remember him to whom we speak Can we doubt also that our slackness does not come from the little love we have for God One friend does not visit another nor a lover his mistress with such an air of negligence as we show in Gods Service If we were kindled with Love all our motions would receive impressions from that heavenly fire In a word if the hope of glory had touch'd our hearts we should not go so slowly to him of whom we think to receive coelestial happiness But I know not whether this can be counted among the Sources of Indevotion since that the want of Faith Hope and Charity is Indevotion it self To conclude we must confess that we often find our selves in some certain Indispositions of Heart whereof we can render no account nor reason to day we are all Fire to morrow all Ice An upright Soul instantly pursues and awakens its self thinks on every thing that may inflame it It examins its own Conscience to see whether it hath committed any thing to dissorder its heart and grieve the spirit of Grace it finds nothing whereof it can accuse its self and knows not from whence it hath this coldness Whence then proceed these inequalities Perhaps from the changable nature of man who is not always himself and peradventure from the Temperament too as well as the disposition of the Air. As the Soul imprisoned in the Body does not act but by its Organs and depends extreamly on the motion of its humours it 's very manifest that Devotion also depends on these dusty Springs and Wheels whose pace is frequently seduc'd and spoyl'd And it may be the Devil finds his time and amidst the good seed sows his Tares in our field In some perhaps God's holy Spirit the author of every good thought has hid himself for sometime This drought and barrenness of the Soul may proceed from that God hath lock'd up the Sources of those Waters springing up to eternal Life However it be this mischief does cause much trouble to devout Souls We need not for a cure imploy any other remedy but Prayers and Tears The Soul must say Come Lord Jesus come thou Son of my Soul disperse this darkness make the morning Starr to rise in mine heart Why dost thou hide thy self I have sought thee in the night and found thee not Open thy fountains and make thy Rivers of Water to flow on me that I may quench my thirst and be refreshed make haste O God of my Salvation Meditation WHAT Negligence is this I find in my self I take a great deal of pains to do all things well which respect the present Life but I take very little care of doing the only and main thing well for which I ought to Labour To make a progress in an Art I exercise it often I consult Masters I make reflection on my Faults that I may not fall into 'em again But alass my Soul thou dost not use thy self so in the Exercises of Devotion Very rarely it is thou dost them And frequently without Reflection and therefore thou dost them ill Thou dost them rarely because thou dost them without Pleasure And thou dost them without any good because thou dost them in a careless Fashion and not with thy whole Bent of Heart Return to 'em often and thou shalt find such Delights in them as the Heart of Man cannot conceive Prayer O my God my divine Saviour open the fountains of thy Grace and let Rivers flow upon me Make me sensible of the advantage of possessing thee and the pleasures of enjoying thee so that I may not draw my self both seldom and difficultly to the places where thou speakest to me and I to thee in thy Temple or in the retreat of my Closet Draw me that I may run after thee When I design to approach thee by the actions of my Devotion be not thou far from me I know I am unworthy thou should'st come under my Roof 'T is not long since mine heart was a den of Thieves and the haunt of unclean spirits but these filthy Guests have left some remainder of Impurities behind them which render this Tabernacle unworthy of thy Holiness Nevertheless thou Sun of my Soul whose rayes cannot be soil'd nor defil'd by the impurity of the places through which they pass pierce even to my Marrow put thy Fire within me which may purge me and kindle me with the flames of thy Love If I sleep in security awaken me if I tumble into neglect and happen to break off the holy exercises of Piety so necessary to conserve Devotion knock at the Door of my heart to make me vigilant and watchful and if the hammer of thy word be not sufficient spare not even that of Afflictions Rent me in-pieces rather than leave me in my own natural hardness for thy blows will not wound my head they will be to me sweeter than Balm Come to my help O my redeemer to accomplish the victory over my Infirmities I am heavy and material make me spiritual and heavenly The motions of Grace and of Devotion which lift me up on high are opposite to the motions of Nature that pull me down In this Duel tost I am grievously and turmoild betwixt two contraries Nature hath the Insolence to oppose Grace and this Combat makes the exercises of my Devotion to be so few But render them O holy Spirit easy and pleasant to me that I may return to them frequently PART III. CHAP. I. That Pleasure is the mortal enemy of Devotion what are the Sentiments and maximes of the world about Pleasure and Voluptuosness WE have examined the Sources of Indevotion and have indeavoured to stop and stem them But among all the rest one there is more lively more green and more abounding in Impurites and by consequence more an enemy to Piety and that is the Spirit of the World and after having well thought on 't we find that this Spirit of the World is the love of pleasure and sensual voluptuousness Experience lets us see that this Spirit is such an enemy to Devotion as 't is impossible to be animated with it and to be Devout This perpetual use of sensual Pleasures does fix the Soul so strongly to Matter as it becomes incapable of any Elevation The more we have of union with sensible things the more we are disunited from God We ought therefore to turn on this side our greatest industry and indeavours to strive to bring the Soul back to God and make that strong application cease it hath for Material things so as it may lean and adhere to God and imploy its self about him Upon which account although the overgreat sensibility we have of earthly pleasures has had its Chapter above among the other Sources of Indevotion we believe we have not sayd enough upon so great and so important a Subject This is a monster too redoutable to be beat and quell'd by the By and with so much negligence If we could
art alwayes â—he slave of thy Passions and the drudge to thy senses In thy youth thou tookest pleasure to throw mony away but now thoâ— makest it a pleasure to get and hoard it up And what difference is there betwixt these two pleasures Are not they both pleasures of Sence and have they not both the same Source do not they produce the same effect and estrange thee from thy God hath a young brisk man in giving himself up to sensual pleasure any reason to think he deserve very highly because he does not now play at push-pin as he did in his child-hood Every age of life has its Passions and its Pleasures But all are enemies to Piety and Devotion Be not therefore in pain to knoâ— what makes thee sleep at Sermon 't is the Dâ—vil of voluptuousness that rocks thee asleep when thou ceasest to be attentive in thâ— prayers it is he who gets thy Ear and caâ—ries it elsewhere And thy insensibility 〈◊〉 to pleasure in the presence of thy God whâ— unites himself immediately to thee proceeâ— from thence that thou art buried in mattâ—â— and that being intirely turned towards coâ—poral things thou believest nothing Reaâ— but what strikes the sense and thou owne no true pleasure but what comes from seâ—sible things Reenter then o my Soul 〈◊〉 enter into thy self suffer not any longer bodily objects to blot out the very sight of thy Spirit Search after the presence of thy God Hear his eternal wisdom which speaks to thee within thy heart Resist the efforts the body makes to destroy thee Trust not the report of thy senses What they present thee take 'em not for true pleasures Regard not the things thou seest as worthy of thy application and esteem leave thy self to be filled with God and to be intirely taken up by him And if thou applyest thy self to him he will apply himself to thee and from this mutual application between thy Soul and thy God there will arise to thee such vast pleasures as thy Imagination can never be capable to conceive Prayer MY Lord and my God what shall I render unto thee for so many Benefits and how shall I do to atone for so many Ingratitudes Behold thou hast plac'd me in a Paradise where all sorts of good things abound and thou hast given me the use of all I see Thou hast made sensible Creatures that they may have accord and corespondence with my senses and that they may be an help unto me to lift me 〈◊〉 to things Intellectual But thorow my corruâ—tion they are become Snares and Sins unto 〈◊〉 I do not serve my self of these visible Creature to ascend to the invisible I use them to gâ— downwards within my self I wrap my self 〈◊〉 in matter there I stick and I bury my self 〈◊〉 corporeal things Thus I make my Mind thâ— slave of my Body Heaven Earth Air anâ— Sea are full of objects which should aid me 〈◊〉 know admire and â—raise thee but I use theâ— to offend thee All is full of such things 〈◊〉 flatter the flesh and raise sensual pleasures But o my God! thou dist make them with inteâ—â— I should not seek after sensible pleasures in them and overwhelm my self in carnal voluptuousness through thy profound wisdom and infinite power thou hast made Fishes in the Sea Fowls in the Air living Creatures on Earth Plants and diverse kind of Fruits the most delicious Liquours and all this for the taste Perfumes foâ— the smell Beauties for the sight harmonioâ— sounds for the Ears and diverse pleasuers for Touching I am sure O my God thou hast made this to save me and not to damn me If I had continued innocent and in the state wherein thou createst me I could not have abused so many goods in possessing them I should have â—ade such use of them as would not have abaâ—ed my mind to sensible things in seperateing â—ee from thee to whom I should become perfectly â—nited But now the Devil has spread his nets â—mong all thy Creatures he has fixt temptaâ—ons to all the objects of my Senses Thou berefore seest me o my God environed with â—empters on all sides I cannot open mine Eyes â—or Ears but some Image arrives that awakâ—â—s my besotted Imagination and foments my â—oncupiscence O my Saviovr be pleased to â—ard my Heart Make me vanquish all these â—mptations Give me the grace to reclame and â—fer thy Creatures to their proper use that â—may not abuse them in voluptuousness That â—e Knowledg of them may serve me to admire by Power and Praise thy Wisdom That from â—ese bodily Images I may draw spiritual Ideas 〈◊〉 that I may find in all things wherefore to gloâ—fie thee and my Spirit may return more and â—ore to thee O eternal infinite Spirit which â—t the Father of Spirits CHAP. II. That the Pleasures of the Senses neither iâ— their Vse nor in their Abuse do agree witâ— the spirit of Christianity and Devotion I Know very well that this Maxime must appeâ—â— strange to the greatest part of Mankind espeâ—ally to them who are forestalled by those Prinâ—â—ples which we have examined in the formâ— Chapter The Maximes of the Church are as oppâ—site to those of the World as Light to Darkness Tâ—â— World authorizes all the Pleasures of Sense the Chuâ—â— condemns almost all We do not here draw up a pâ—â—cess simply against those debaucht People whose naâ—â— is odious even in the Ears of the World We condeâ—â— those that repute themselves honest Persons who 〈◊〉 effect have some degree of moral honesty and whâ— life is shelter'd from the severity of laws but whoâ—â— sume and spend their life in the use of vain worldly pleâ—sures All those Pleasures that some believe Innocâ—â— are Enemies to Devotion and wholy disagree withâ— Spirit of Christianity as well in their use as in their abâ—â— Now if we cannot render this Truth victorious by pâ—rality of Suffrages at least wee will endeavour to renâ— it evident by strength of Reasons And first of all let us hear our Lord Jesus Christ speâ—ing from on high For where can we better find 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christianity than in Christ himself Let us hâ— him painting out the way to us that leads to life Wâ— is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destructâ—â— and many there be which go in thereat But strait is gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life If 〈◊〉 wouldest be perfect go sell all that thou hast and follow 〈◊〉 If any one would come unto me let him take up his Cross and follow me If thy right Eye or right Hand offend thee pluck them off and cast them from thee Blessed are the poor Blessed are they which hunger and thirst Blessed are they that mourn and are persecured The Disciples follow their Master and tell us likewise Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth If any one love the World the love of the Father abideth not in him Be ye sober and watch Conform not
Dream which vanisheth away a Smoke which is consumed in its lifting up And as it speaks of it with contempt so it would also that we have little care of it Take no care of the Body saith St. Paul to obey the lusts thereof Take no thought for the morrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of its self be in litttle pain for what ye shall eat or wherewithal ye shall be clothed As for the Soul the holy Spirit would have us turn all our cares on that side He would have us vigilant and sober because the Devil watches about it as a roaring Lyon seeking to devour it He commands us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and that we be in a perpetual solicitude about it He Orders us to nourish it with the milk of the Word sincere and without deceit and that we furnish it with strong meats He wishes us to entertain it continually in an holy joy He would have us search after those sovereign pleasures that are to be found in the possession of God which are only for the Soul The Gospel requires of us to imbellish it and that we labour to adorn it that it may be found a glorious Spouse not having spot or wrinkle worthy to be presented to its head the Lord Jesus Christ Examine the conduct of Voluptuous men it is quite contrary to this they act as if they were all Flesh and as if their Soul were only Salt to keep the Body from corrupting All the Ideas they have of Pleasure derive from the Senses and the Imagination and without a metaphor they are as they call themselves Men of Sense and they conceive no more what we call spiritual pleasures than blind men do colours As therefore they never tasted other delights than bodily ones they believe themselves oblig'd to the Body for all their Happiness And in effect so it is For at the time when they taste carnal Pleasures we cannot say they are unhappy since happiness consists in Pleasure and Joy and they have them at that moment So that because we intirely love what we consider as the source of our felicity we cannot think it strange that these worldly People love their body perfectly which they look upon as the only Source of their Pleasures We see also that these men have the same Sentiments for their Body as holy men have for God who is their sovereign good and in whom they find their sovereign pleasure They adore this Body of theirs they cherish they perfume it they offer Incense and Sacrifice to it If one should give a blow or a gird to this same Body Oh! how jealous they are on 't as of a Divinity More Indignation they have against him that should hurt this Flesh than against a Blasphemer or a Sacrilegious Person In a word their Body holds so much of a Divinity that they Sacrifice unto it even their very Conscience nay and God himself But nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than this Sentiment For the truly faithful ones are oblig'd to slight the Body to sacrifice it to God to see it torn in pieces for his name and to renounce all the pleasures of sense for his Glory The Spirit of the Gospel and of Devotion absolutely tends to the contempt of the World but the spirit of Voluptuousness and sensuality to the love of the World How must we love the World when it caresses us and is mighty kind and pleasurable to us if we love it when it persecutes us and steeps us in Gall The World is a mere Cheat and Gull and an undeniable Source of Delusions it masques it self and would be seen by us under the image of fleshly pleasure It imbraces us under the habit of Flowers but under these Flowers are a thousand Thorns We do not see these thorns we only smell the Flowers we are sensible of such pleasures and love that causes them But all the World knows nought is more contrary to Devotion than the love of the World and we have made it appear elsewhere so as by consequence nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than sensual Pleasure The Spirit of Christian Religion would inspire a contempt of the present and a desire after the other Life Now certain it is that nothing tyes men so much to Life as the pleasures of Sense the Saints say and ought to say I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better I know when this earthly house shall be dissolved we have an House eternal in the Heavens and therefore we desire to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven None of these things moving neither count I my Life dear unto my self As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God When shall I come and appear before God It 's impossible that men who live in a perpetual use of Voluptuousness should have these thoughts Every one wishes to be happy and when once he is or at least believes he is so he cannot renounce what he fancies the cause of his felicity these carnal-minded men think themselves happy at such time as they injoy their Pleasures they have no Idea of any other Beatitude but of that they injoy in this present life They can every day speak both about another life and another happiness But they have got an habit not to let themselves be touch'd but by sense and Imagination and so because this life and this happiness do not fall under their Senses nor can be imagined by them they cannot consider them but as imaginary Beings which have no relation to them because they have not any Idea of them in their minds Moreover their hearts meeting in this life with a fat Land that is much prosperity do take very deep rooting there Their affections being thoroughly ingaged in carnal pleasures bound themselves in the possession of Sensible Objects they wish for nothing more besides for that no body wishes for things which he does not know and whereof he has no clear and certain Ideas The Earth becomes their Country they naturalize themselves here every thing else is a strange and unknown Land Let people say what they please but questionless we have an ill preparation for Death in the continual use of those pleasures whose Innocence the World maintains O Death said a Wise Man how cruel is the remembrance of thee to him that lives quietly among his Possessions One lives indeed more commodiously in a Palace than in a Prison but one finds it more trouble to dye in that than in this How insupportable is the thought of Death his presence how affrightful to him who lives in the midst of Pleasures he looks upon Death as a Judge that comes to pronounce on him a dismal Sentence or an Executioner that seizes him to be lead to punishment But the faithful one who has ever held his Flesh
come near the number of thy Offences The moments wherein God hath made me to enjoy most of his Blessings have been those wherein I have render'd my self the most sinful by the abuse of my Prosperity And the least sin I commited in one of those moments deserves pains of an infinite duration Prayer ALmighty God who makest all things with a profound Wisdom I find nothing to say against thy Works All that thou hast made is good But I mourn for my Iniquity and bewail my Corruption Good is in the neighbourhood of Evil and the things which are permitted me are so near to those that are forbidden me that if I forget innocent Pleasures but a little I straight pass into sinful ones At all passages the Devil lies in Ambush and my Concupiscence lays snares for me every where Narrow is the way and borders on precipices I know Lord that thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not exact from me that I should be evermore in Grief thou allowest some grains to the Fesh as rebellious as 't is against thee But how difficult and dargerous is it to mark out precisely the Bounds that distinguish permitted from forbidden Pleasures If I give ear to my Concupiscence it will stretch the limits far beyond all Reason it will endeavour to persuade me that whatsoever is agreeable cannot be bad whether I eat or drink am asleep or awake am idle or at work I am always in the Temptation and Danger of falling into Excess Thy Providence willeth that I pass through all these Dangers Thou alone art able to conduct me safely through this difficult Path Let thy Spirit lead me as in an even Plain Let me turn neither to the right nor to the left Here are two Extremities to fly thou hatest carnal Pleasures but it may be thou dost not love excessive Austerities Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness has the promises of this Life and of that which is to come I know O my God that 't is much more dangerous to fall into one Excess than into the other All thou say'st of bodily Exercise is That it is profitable but to a few things but as to the other excess to wit of Pleasures it hurts and incommodes all things it makes havock of the Conscience it corrupts the Heart ruines the Body grieves the Holy Spirit and it separates the Soul from thee O Lord. 'T is incomparably more safe to renounce all Pleasures in general than to choose some and expose ones self to the danger of taking those that are unlawful O thou who holdest in thine hands the Heart of Men as the Rivers of Water turn mine into the safest way wherein I am certain not to offend thee and that is the privation of all sensual Pleasures Take from me that taste of all Voluptuousness wherewith I am inchanted Cast off from the Demon of Pleasure that Mask which covers him and that fading Beauty which charms me that I may see all his Vgliness and Deformity and detest and fly it Since the Body which thou obligest me to hale after me to nourish and conserve binds me to do Actions conjoyn'd with Pleasure give me the Grace to do those Actions to satisfie Necessity and not to serve Sensuality Discover to me the Snares that Lust lays for me under the Cloak of Necessity Let me not by an ill habit make that necessary which is superfluous according to the Laws of Nature and Reason that my Soul under thy guidance may keep its Body under as a Slave and not serve it as its Master CHAP. V. That we are not to consult our Heart and Senses in the choice of Pleasures That Devotion leads us to true Pleasure 'T IS observ'd that for the obtaining any thing we must ask much more than we have a mind to get and that to bring men to just Sentiments in withdrawing them from their Errours it is good to carry them a little into the other Extremity that in their return they may abide at least in a reasonable middle This perhaps has made so many Christian Authors and Preachers to imitate the style of the Stoicks upon the Nature of Pleasure and Pain These People say that Pain is no evil and Pleasure is not a Good We can say they be perfectly happy in the burning Bull of Phalar is and perfectly unhappy in tasting the greatest Pleasures This method is not it may be so good as we imagine We soyle and dishearten mens Minds by requiring too much of them and nothing is persuasive when Truth is invested with Paradoxes which awaketh curiosity but distemper the Mind After all we can never persuade men to the contrary to what they feel Cicero tells us of one of these Philosophers who had bin blinded by the pompous reasonings of his Sect But a great Rheum falling upon his Eyes which put him to horrible Tortures prevailed over the Illusions of his Philosophy and made him abandon it When we see one of these Sages cruelly tormented upon his Bed with the Gout or Stone and hear him say Thou mayst do as thou wilt O Pain but thou shalt never make me confess thou art an evil we cannot keep our selves from looking upon this as a Comedy and profound Hypocrisie Reason can do nought against Experience nor against a Sense so lively as that of pain The Martyrs I conceive might be happy amidst their punishments because they did not feel all their Pains For I hold that their Soul by the help of Grace was so strongly taken up with the Glory and Crown they were about to receive that hardly any Room remain'd to them for other Sentiments The Patience of the Faithful in their Calamities arises in my Opinion from no other cause than that their Souls being fixt wholly upon God and his Heaven the Object of their Hope do partly unite ' emselves from the Body and give less Heed or Attention to it's Annoyances Impatience on the other side is a motion of the Soul which turns it self wholly to the Body to be abandon'd to pain and to feel all its racks So that I conclude Pain is an Evil Which is to confess bodily Pleasure is a good 'T was my belief I owed this Confession to them whom we would prevail withall to renounce sensual and fleshly Pleasures that by this sincerity and plain dealing we may render them more attentive to our Reasons We do not entreat them to renounce bodily Pleasure as an evil in its self but as a petty and small good that brings along after it in its train an incredible Multitude of mischiefs and as a good which is unworthy of Man born for the most noble Pleasures and destin'd to the possession of the greatest Goods What ever we do we can never rivit out of the Mind of man this Opinion that Happiness consists in Pleasure I will not oppose this Maxime The chiefest beatitude consists without doubt in the Possession of the chiefest Good and in this Possession the Soul
flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
has been a long time abus'd But above all let us consider how strong the Habits of Luxury and Debauchery do become when we permit them to take Root and let 'em arrive even to old Age. The young Plant which might be pluck'd up with one hand is now a trunck of immense Greatness which resists the Hatchet and Wedge This little Monster the love of Voluptuousness which might have been easily stifled at its Birth is become so great and so terrible as there is now no attacking nor fighting with it Sins simply considered do not become more strong by Age their number is multiplied These are Snow-Balls that wax bigger and bigger in rowling these are Torrents which swell bigger the farther they remove from their Spring-head 't was an easie matter at first to pass over them on foot but now one cannot cross them by swimming Now the number of multiplied Sins augments the difficulty of Devotion and Conversion We read in the Life of the Holy Fathers That an Angel made one of those solitary Inhabitants of the Desart to see in a Vision an old Man that cut Wood in the Forest to get a Burthen for his Back with design to carry them away When the Fardle was extreamly big he essay'd to lift it up upon himself but finding it too heavy he let it fall to the ground and fell a cutting new Wood and added it to his Burthen whereupon he endeavoured again to lift it up but that was more impossible for him than before Nevertheless it tumbling down again he put more Wood to it still and this he did several times The solitary Person admir'd the Folly of this old Man till the Angel took up his Speech and said Thou see'st this old Man he is the Emblem of Worldlings they heap Sins upon Sins a design of lifting themselves up to God comes across presently they sink under the burthen of their Sins They begin again to commit new Crimes as if this burthen by encreasing would become much lighter When they have push'd on their Excesses a good way a new desire of devoting themselves to God overtakes them but the burthen of their Sins is become very great and consequently the motions of Elevation are the more difficult This Parable was composed for our Subject and against those unhappy People that dedicate their youthful years to the Pleasures of the World and remit the practise of Devotion and the lifting up of their Souls to God to another time St Austin in expounding the History of Lazarus his Resurrection asks why our Lord employs Sighs Tears Prayers and a loud voice to raise him again from the dead which he did not do for the others whom he reviv'd as for the young man of Naim whose biere he toucht only and Jairus's Daughter to whom he only said Talitha Cumi Maid arise 'T is says he because Lazarus had been dead four days Our Lord would give us an Image of the Difficulty to be met withall in a smners Conversion when he is confirm'd in his sin The first day says that Father is that of Pleasure which we taste in the sin The second is that of Consent The third is that of Love and Application to the pleasure of the sin and the fourth is mere Custom and Habit. When we are come to this we cannot be raised again we cannot be converted to God but by Cries and Tears and the Voice of the Lord fruitfal in Miracles This methinks makes us comprehend well the interest we have to think on God in due time and to consecrate our Youth to Devotion 〈◊〉 know very well that the end obtains the Crown but I know too that 't is of the highest importance to begin well that we may end happily An Arrow which wanders and slides from towards the Butt just as it parts from the Bow will be found at a monstrous distance from the Butt before it comes to its journeys end One that in his youth is plung'd into debauchery and abandons himself to sensual pleasures will find himself far remov'd from God in his old age he must take a great deal of trouble to bring himself back again from such an Aloof And therefore I conclude with the wise man Young man Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth Meditation WHY dost thou delay O my Soul after these Considerations Dost not thou apprehend the necessity there is of consecrating thy self without any shifting or lingring to the service of thy God Thou evermore sayest to morrow to morrow but this morrow never comes and the day of thy Separation from the body will come in an hour when thou lookest not for it When thy God calls upon thee thou tellest him the Words of a slothful and sleepy Person Presently I say presently St. August Confess l. 8. cap. 5. let me alone a little but one Moment longer but this presently never comes and this Moment is an everlasting one I see thou art displeas'd at obliging thee to give up thy self so soon to God This is too soon say'st thou to begin and will it not be time enough some years hence Wicked and ungrateful canst thou think too soon on thy God It is just thou shouldst think of him assoon as thou beginnest to be and to know thy self since he thought on thee and thy Salvation from Eternity His Essence had no beginning and his Love for thee had none too Both Eternal What didst thou do to this great God to engage him to love thee so long a while before He lov'd thee before thou wast amiable He saw thee in thy Nothing and in the Abysse of thy Corruption and from all Eternity he prepared means for thee to get out of that Abysse he prepared thee a Redeemer He did not reserve one moment in Eternity which he has not given thee and thou would'st retrench from him many years of this short and uncertain Life whereof thou hast the use here below Perhaps thou wilt say that it would not be unjust if thy time were divided betwixt thy God and thee and that it is hard to give all one hath without reserving any thing to ones self But dost not thou consider that thy God has given thee all things He has given thee the Heaven and the Earth the Fields Rivers Fountains Plants Trees and Fruits hath he reserv'd any thing to himself Has not he given himself too entirely to thee has he not given thee his only Son and still has not he given him up to Death it self for thee wouldst not thou then be very ungrateful O my soul if thou wouldst divide with God and rob him of any thing which thou hast But alas when thou thinkest and speakest thus thou dost not well understand thy own interests Thou supposest that thou losest from thy self all the time thou givest to thy God whereas on the other side thou savest only those moments from ship-wrack which thou consecratest to him All the rest of thy time is lâ—st being
coufounded in that mighty abysse of what is past But the Moments thou givest to thy God are put in reserve thou wilt find them they will come before thee At the great Judgment they will be put to thy account and for some moments of Devotion thou shalt receive eternal Glory Do not therefore hang in suspence any longer O my Soul delay no more to renounce all the pleasures and all the hopes of the Age for to follow thy God only In him is the Well of Life in his Light thou shalt see Light thou shalt be fatted with the fat of his House and quench thy thirst in the Floud of his Pleasures In thy old age thou shalt not regret the loss of thy Youth Thy days shall not rise up in Judgment against thee to condemn thee when thou shalt be old and on the brink of Death The thought of thy God shall not put thee into an affright Thou wilt not look upon him as a Judge who comes to demand an account of so many years consumed in vain Pleasures but a Deliverer who will come to break thy Irons and as a Rewarder bringing days of Refreshment instead of painful and dolorous years which the World would make thee pass thorough Prayer O Most gracious and merciful Lord thou Guide of my Youth thou Light to the blind thou Instructer of the ignorant who enlightenest the simple bringest back those that have wandered into the way of Truth and perfectest praise out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings teach me thy ways and draw me out of the paths of the World make haste that I may do so too leave me not any longer in the World and in Sin By the effusion of thy Grace into my Soul make my Heart to desire thee that in desiring thee it may seek thee and in seeking thee it may find thee in finding thee it may love thee and in loving thee it may find in that love a sovereign Joy It is now too long a time I have consumed my self in my vain desires I would go to thee but I find not strength to vanquish those Habits wherein I am engaged by Custom Come therefore and tear me O my God out of the arms of Voluptuousness suffer not these delays of mine and if I should say yet a little while stay a little longer draw me by thy Powerfull Word and say unto me Awaken thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light If words be not efficacious enough to raise me up touch the biere strike the Body wherein the Soul is as it were buried It sleepeth in its Tomb or rather it is dead bodily Pleasures have overwhelm'd or slain it Smite therefore the Body that the Soul may awake for it is better that I enter into Life having but one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell-fire It is better that my Flesh here below suffer some pains and that my Soul one day taste those infinite Pleasures which thou preparest for it on high I abide in Sodom and I love my abode thou sendest thy Angels to draw me thence thy Word and thy Mnisters to make me depart before the terrible day comes in which thou wilt tumble down torrents of fire and brimstone upon this wicked World but I ever find pretexts to delay Lay hold then of my hand and draw me out by the force of thy Grace that I perish not among the wicked Shew me the way of thy holy hill that I may save my self and thence without danger behold the deluges of Corruption which overspread the Country and the Torrents of thy Wrath and Vengeance which suddenly and amazingly overwhelm the World Alas If it would please thee O my God to make me taste the speritual Delights of thy Love I should not be so sensible of Earthly Pleasures and I should not linger so long to seek thee for I most ardently wish after happiness If therefore I knew that my Beatitude lyes in thee I should flye to find in thee that happiness which I seek O Lord since Pleasure is the only Load-stone capable of drawing my Soul make me taste a little of that Joy which I ought to find in thee make me to feel thy infinite Goodness that without delay I may run after thee and consecrate my self to thy service walking in Holiness and Righteousness all the dayes of my Life and setting my Affections on things above that when Christ who is my Life and Pleasure shall appear I may also appear with him in Glory PART IV. Of helps towards Devotion CHAP. I. The first General Advice is to will desire and ask Devâ—tion WE have seen from how many Sources Indevotion springs let us now try to vanquish those Difficulties by some Advices that may lead us to Devotion Those Advices I would give here are either general or particular But before I pass further we are to presuppose that he whom we would make devout must have a Mind himself to become so he that has not this Disposition will very unprofitably pass farther How many indevout persons have we in the World that do not desire Devotion for themselves and contemn it in others Of this sort we find some that are so hardy as to perswade themselves they have a Religion I am it may be says one as religious as another though I laugh at Devotion and devout Persons If they believe what they say most assuredly they cheat their own Heart and we must confess that these People are really profane Others there are that esteem Devotion in another and yet like it not for themselves it doth not fit right with the Spirit of the World which they make their Idol They approve the better side they admire it but they fancy as to their own particular they may be saved with less Trouble I know not whether these be better than the former yet they are a little nearer to the Disposition we seek after but still alas in how bad a Condition is their Conscience They are in this worse than the former that they sin against their own Sentiment they know their Masters Will and do it not They are afraid of doing too much provided they be sav'd it 's of no great Importance how What a thought is this Is not Paradise worth the purchasing at the Expence of some Tears some Prayers some hours of Humiliation And how can we imagine we can obtain Heaven by the less since we shall find a hard Task to arrive thither by the greater If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Vngodly and the Sinner appear Do ye believe ye backward and lukewarm Souls that a truly devout Person has too much Righteousness to open to himself the gate of Heaven Do not you know that all the World praises that Saying of St. Austin Woe to the most praise-worthy Life if it be examined without Mercy and what the Psalmist says If thou should'st mark Iniquities O Lord who shall stand I
speak of the Iniquities of the Righteous If those truly devout Persons have not over-much Righteousness you will strangely want it then who come so much behind them but ye say God will supply what is lacking for this did Christ Jesus dye that we might obtain his Grace and Favour in the midst of our Infirmities But how do ye know that the Blessed Jesus would this does not he do what-liketh him best with his own You ought therefore to take the surer side What assurance have ye that God gives his Grace thus to those that slight it Although you could do it the mercy of the Lord will have employ enough and your righteousness though pusht on to the extremity of your strength will still have need of Supplements to attain to Glory There are other Indevout People which are still a little farther off than the former They would have a good deal of Devotion but they are not yet come to desire it that is to say the motions of their Will towards it are very imperfect I would willingly become so says one but I cannot the World bears me away my Affairs wholly take me up the temper and frame of my Body and Soul have not the necessary Turn for the practise of this Virtue I do what I would not and what I would that do I not for the law of my members continues Mistress of the Law of my mind they are not much afflicted at the not having that which they wish and it is a certain proof that they wish it very feebly In this Estate how far from Perfection must the Conscience needs be This is not to love God with all the Soul this is to seek him with the least part of the heart and to desire him with a most imperfect Will To will Devotion at that rate is to take the way never to obtain it for the Soul does not surmount the difficulties but by heartning it self against them and by acting with all its might and vigour Judge then if an Heart in this looseness can attain one of the most difficult things in the World We have seen how many strong Passions ruine and destroy Devotion the Love of the World its Pleasures and its Vexations If to these passions so violent and head-strong you oppose I know not what imperfect desires it is but the Fight of Dwarfs against Gyants So that the first general Counsel I give to attain Deâ—otion is to desire it ardently Some will say that they who desire it have it already but that is no necessary conclusion Some motions there are whereof we are not the Masters and oftentimes we passionately desire a thing we are not able to effect although it depend upon our Will Most terrible is the tyranny of Habits and the cord of Sin are difficult to break St. Austin most divinely paints out to us the motion of such a Soul as would elevate it self to God but cannot I panted after the liberty of thinking only on thee O my God but I sighed being still tyed up not by foreign Chains but by those of my own will which were harder than Iron The Devil held it in his Power he had bound it fast I had a Will to serve thee with the purest Love and to enjoy thee O my God in whom alone is to be found a solid and true Joy but this new Will which was but still-born was not capable of conquering that other which had fortified it self by a long habit in Sin Behold the Picture of a Christian Soul that wishes to be truly devout would only think on God and love him but cannot Nevertheless how happy is such a Soul and near to Devotion When we seek God we are on the Eve of finding him This is that Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness to which the Lord promises a Refreshment These Desires are the effects of Grace but if Nature doth nothing in vain with much stronger Reason does Grace These Desires therefore cannot be fruitless they will obtain their end they will be filled one day There 's hardly any thing but wherein the vigour of the Soul and the force of the Desires hit their mark and hereby rather than by the strength of his Armies did the Great Alexander vanquish the World gain so many Battels take so many Cities and trample on the Necks of conquered Nations when things necessary to the Accomplishment of his Designs fail'd him the vigour of his Courage that is the force of his Desires served instead of them If the Desires can perform so much in things without us and independent on our Will what cannot they do in that which depends thereon and is vertually our Will it self To make these pious desires succeed we are to call God to our aid these are younglings that he has caused to be born and 't is his Interest to nourish them these be the Aurora of that Sun who doth not fail to come and fully enlighten us provided he be invok'd with fervour Here is therefore another Adviso which is but a Corollary and a Deduction from the former We must ask of God the grace of Devotion and in his presence groan after what we have not If there be any favour of our Vows and Tears if there is any Gift that comes immediately from Heaven 't is this Virtue for nothing is more pure and more elevated among â—he Christian Virtues If any of you lack Wisdom says St. James let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberalâ— and upbraideth not I know not whether there be â—y part of Christian Wisdom more desirable than this Of God we ask our daily Bread our Food and Rayâ—ent health of Body and cure of our Diseases but â—e Soul is sick poor and dying when depriv'd of Deâ—tion which is its Fire Soul Life In a word there is noâ—ing to which we may more assuredly apply the proâ—ise of St. James that God refuseth no body but gives â—o all liberally since it is the Prayer of the World â—hich is most agreeable to him because it tends wholâ— to his Glory and our own Salvation We ask of God â—hat he would please to enter into us and that we â—ay enter into him to be perfectly united to him by a â—tual tye And how cannot this be well-pleasing to God seeing our Lord Christ himself the model of our â—oughts and actions hath asked the same thing for us That I may be in them and they in me that they may be â—ade perfect in one Here therefore we ought to begin â—r Instructions and the Faithful are to begin their Work for if nothing can be done without God of what â—â—th not regard him how can we do that without him which depends immediately upon him and is terminated in him Meditation 〈◊〉 consult my own Heart to know whether I can truly 〈◊〉 say My Soul fainteth for the Courts of the Lord. As the â—art-panteth after the Water Brooks so my Soul thirsteth 〈◊〉 the living God My Soul is
ought to be the first thing in our Hearts so he must be the last too for he saith I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End Let him open the door of our thoughts in the morning and shut it up in the Evening This will be a Seal which the Devils will respect tho we be disarmed all while asleep they will tremble at our sight and will not dare to come near us The destroying Angel in passing by will reverence this Impression and this fruit of the Blood of the Lamb. These Evening-Devotions will be an holy Seed cast on good Land which will not fail to spring up in the morning since the heart will find it no trouble to begin the present Journey where it had ended the preceding one And in as much as 't is true that the Soul abandon'd to its self in sleep is naturally carried to the last Objects of its waking we need not doubt but the dreams will be happy and the Images which arise from those last impressions which Piety had made upon the Heart will be very sweet ones The night it self is perfectly a friend to Devotion 'T is there that recollectings are very easie the Soul being not dissipated by present Objects Nothing is sweeter than to fill the heart with God when void of other things God is well pleas'd if a faithful Soul makes an Altar of its bed and makes him its vows in a retreat where are no witnesses Let thy body be laid provided thy Soul be elevated and thou fall upon the knees of thy Heart as Clemens Romanus phrases it These nightly Communications with God seem more near and strict since laying our selves down in our beds we bid fare-well to the World and banish its cares and troubles from us to give repose to the body The Soul finds it self in a blest estate and at its waking being disengaged from the World it hath all manner of Liberty to mount up to God Thus we see that a great â—â—rt of David's Psalms were compos'd in the night I will bless the Lord says he in the sixteenth Psalm who â—ath given me Counsel my reins also instruct me in the night â—eason He assures us in the sixth Psalm that he waters is bed with his Tears and the spouse saith by night I â—ught him whom my Soul loveth In a word we learn â—â—om History that Antony the Patriarch of the Hermits â—omplain'd very frequently of the Sun's return very â—ear in these Terms Why comest thou O Sun to trouble the rest of my Soul why risest thou so soon to tear me away from the service of my God why comest thou to rob me of the sight of my true Sun Meditation THE measure of God's love is to have neither measures nor bounds it is to contain all the degrees of Love The true rule for the hours of Devotion is to consecrate all our hours to him This is what thou oughtest to do O my Soul but thou canst not For thou draggest after thee a bodily prison which is an hindrance to thee Thy Affections cannot be tam'd so far thou art subject even to worldly necessities which will not suffer it How happy wilt thou be then when thou art in such a place where thou mayst give up all thy hours to thy Creator and Redeemer There being deliver'd from the bonds of Flesh thou wilt serve the father of Spirits in perfect Liberty But now thou dividest thy time betwixt thy Employments thy Divertisements thy Repasts and thy Devotions But then these four things shall not be distinct they shall all be blended together Thy continual occupation shall be to sing the praises of thy God and to contemplate his Glory Thy meat and drink shall be to do the will of thy Father which is in Heaven Thy Pleasure and Divertisement will be in a most intimate injoyment to possess him who is the Source of all Joy Thou shalt have no more hours of Devotion for this fourth thing will be mixt in the three others Thou shalt be ever all Flame and all Fire for the service of thy God in this will consisithy chief happiness wouldst thou then here belowâ— approach near the Glories of Paradice multiply and continue as far as thou canst thy Commerces and Communications with God If thou wert always with God God would be always with thee Now where God is there is Paradice When thou enterest into thy Close with most devout Dispositions God enters there with thee and after him a whole troop of Angels Cherubims and Seraphims for he incamps his Angels about them that fear him and especially at such times as they fear and serve him No Object is more charming to the Angels who seek the good and well-sare of Men than to see a person truly devout falling on his Face to the Earth bathing his Couch and Bosom in Tears breathing the most ardent sighs towards Heaven carrying his Eyes thither where his heart is and stretching forth pure hands to God that he may embrace him There is Joy in Heaven for one devout Soul as well â—s for one penitent sinner Wherefore it is Heaven seems to descend and come down as it were to this Spectacle Labour then O my Soul to be ever prastising Devotion as well as Repentance that Heaven may be glad and thy God come often to thee By these frequent Communications thou wilt become right like the Face of Moses The rays of that divine Sun will peirce and illuminate thee they will baâ—ish the Darkness out of thee and melt the Ice and Coldness that makes thee so heavy and neglectful And â—y beholding him often thou wilt become his Glass â—nd wilt be changed into the same Image from Glory 〈◊〉 Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Prayer O Sun of my Soul I seek thee with all my Strength hide not thy self from me and suffer no Eclipse disperse those Clouds which cover and separate thee â—â—rn me and rob me of the view of thy Light My sins â—confess continually raise thick filthy and malign vapours which may grow into Clouds and these Clouds afterwards â—â—duce the Storms and Thunders of thy severe Justice 〈◊〉 thou wouldst punish me as I deserve But from hence â—â—â—th O Lord hinder these Vapours from arising and dry 〈◊〉 their Source Let not my Heart be any more as a â—â—arsh full of unmoving and putrified Waters but let it be a living and pure Fountain Let it be no more an accursed Field abounding in Poysons but a fertile one in Flowers and Fruits of good-living and let none fly up to thee but sweet and kind Exhalations Prayers and giving of thanks that may cause a sweet-smelling Savour of atonement Let those sweet vapours be chang'd into sweet dews and let thy Grace falling upon my Soul like rain upon a thirsty Land make it to rejoyce and flourish and bring forth fruits of Righteousness Thou art my Light lighten me in the Darkness of the Night when I call upon thee in
my bed Come and honour me with thy presenceduring the absence of all other Objects that I may possess thee only and nothing may rob my Soul of thee Cause the sweetness of this rejoycing to display an heavenly fire in my Eyes and an holy gayety over my Countenance which may accompany me all ways and defend me from those many troubles and vexations whereunto I am exposed Let me lye down aâ— night as in thy bosom and let me cast my self betwixt thâ— arms that I may be afraid of nothing which is ghastâ—â— or terrible in Darkness CHAP. VII The second particular Help Solitude and Religious Aâ—semblies WE cannot but own with a great earnestned of mind that Devotion requires Solitudy We have our Master's word and decisiâ—â— in the case When thou goest to pray sayes he enter in thy closet Very strange Prayers were those of the Phyrisees that prayed in the corners of Streets or in tâ—â— Market-places Our Lord Christ had good ground 〈◊〉 indict them of Hypocrisie Solitude is necessary 〈◊〉 only to avoid that Pomp and Parade which God 〈◊〉 much detests in all things and especially in Devotioâ— but also to make our Prayer more pure and perfeâ— How should the Soul I wonder be recollected into it self if a thousand Objects lay hold on the Senses and draw it abroad We must therefore be in such a place where we need not defend it against the Assaults which sensual Objects make upon it Let us retire never so far from the World we shall be sure to carry enough of the World along with us and the Images of its Objects will persecute us sufficiently without being voluntarily exposed to the persecution of the Objects themselves Yes the Commerces of the faithful Soul with its God require a secret retiral Our Lord is its Beloved who casts not his Favours upon the Crowd and exposes them not to the sight of men as St. Bernard sayes He loves Shadow and Retreat And therefore the Spouse will not let him go whom her Soul loveth until she has brought him into her Mothers house and into her closet If we have a design to do any thing wherein is need of Application we seek a Retreat that we may not be distracted We are therefore to seek it for Devotion since nothing in the World asks a more fix'd Consideration Far from all Witnesses must the truly Devout Person be to be intirely Free in all respects Devotion has its Actions and its Words it impresses its transports and motions upon the Soul â—nd the Body frequently may have its too so that it should not be expos'd to the view of men who make so ill Judgments thereof If these Reasons have need of being upheld by Examples we have that of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom the Mountains did not seem secret or solitary enough since he added to them the darkness of the Night That of Daniel who shut the door of his Chamber to pray That of St. Peter who went upon the House-top to perform his Devotions But this Subject is so little disputed and indeed so little disputable as we need not dwell upon it longer The necessity of Solitariness for Devotion may give â—â—s more extensive Prospects There have been many great men and I would believe many great Saints who have thought Devotion and Solitude were so inseparable as that not only the truly devout were to set aside some hours of Retreat but their whole Life ought to be consecrated to it And 't was this Sentiment which sometime peopled the Desarts of Thebes and of Syria with so many Anchorites They fled the World to lift up their Souls more easily to God and to acquire an habit of more pure and ardent Devotion And hence perhaps might come the very name of Devotion which is deriv'd from vowing ones self to a thing because those Christians by a Vow in a particular manner consecrated themselves to God 'T is a matter extremely difficult to pronounce upon this sort of Life I would not condemn all those that follow it I do not doubt but many were led by the Spirit into the Wilderness as our Saviour was but I dare boldly say that this Estate is subject to as great Temptations as a worldly life is In my opinion it 's very much to presume on one's own Strength to go and lye exposed to the strokes of an Enemy so potent as the Devil In Society if one falls another helps him up again but in the Wilderness he must sustain himself he must stand upon his own bottom he must be his own Pastor Guide and Director of Conscience and he that believes he has Light enough to furnish for all these Duties hath too high an opinion of himself I would speak here nothing more forcible against this way of living than what St. Basil himself a great Lover and Admirer of the Monastic Life hath writ thereon He believes that that sort of Life is no more charitable than it is prudent They have either need of succour themselves or they are in a condition to give it to others If they stand in need themselves 't is an imprndence to be confined in a place where they can receive none If they can afford it to others this is to want Charity and to rob Society of what might be useful to it And with good reason he sayes that this is to deprive ones self of the Hope to hear one day those words from our Lord's Mouth Thou gavest meat to him that was an hungred drink to him that was thirsty thou clothedst him that was naked and visitedst him that was in Prison In short I fear the Remark of this Father in the same place is not over true that this Life so far out of the path of Humility is not a Stair-case to Pride for these men comparing themselves to themselves as St. Paul speaks and seeing nothing more accomplisht than themselves persuade themselves they are Perfect Every one sees himself too near to know himself well and does not know himself thoroughly enough to correct himself and therefore an Anchoret who uses not the eyes of another to examin himself le ts many sins without doubt escape him to which Judges more severe than we are to our selves would not have done that favour To be brief I have said that so far is this kind of living from any great use to Devotion as I believe 't is an impediment to it because it is depriv'd of exercising the Works of Mercy which are so necessary A man in the Desart hath his distractions and if he have not a Soul of an extraordinary temper 't is to be fear'd they are more dangerous than those met withall in the World A mind abandon'd without any Guide makes oftentimes strange slips The wide World and a narrow Lowliness are most assuredly two very dangerous Extremities There is need of extraordinary Grace to thrive well in either Conditions so that those who have receiv'd indifferent Gifts from Heaven
whereas in Religion all is divine and intellectual the Object of their Worship is mostly an Agnus Dei a Relick or an Image and God who ought to be the sole Object of our Devotions has scarce any share in their Veneration I do'nt require our Christian to be learned and that he have prey'd either into the Secrets of Nature or also into the highest mysteries of Grace by an over-exact and curious Research I hold that that is more disadvantageous than prositable to Devotion but the devout Soul must be spiritual enough to lift it self up above the Senses by Meditation Meditation is an excellent Operation of the Soul whereby it penetrates the out-sides of Objects and sounds them to the very heart 't is a reflected Action that rouls its subject upon the Heart till it makes deep Impressions 't is an happy Prospect by which the Soul every moment discovers more and more Wonders in that which it is about but these Discoveries are not nice Speculations to be communicated to others they are particular Sentiments and Applications which the Soul makes and which are only for it We cannot doubt but this is of absolute necessity to Devotion for this does not embrace it's Subject but proportionably as Meditation makes it to enter therein Devotion is an agitation of a vigorous and lively Soul whereby we are lifted up to God and to our sovereign Good and therefore the more Devotion applies us to this great Object and lets us see the depths of his Goodness the more ardent doth Devotion become so that this is to be the principal Subject of our Contemplations God is good either in himself or in respect had to us in himself because he is great majestic bounteous merciful if we did not partake of the Fruits of these Divine Vertues nevertheless God would not cease to possess them and consequently he wou'd be infinitely amiable We cannot think too often on these Attributes of God this is one of the most efficacious means which David uses to awaken his drowsie Devotion Awake O my Tongue saith he and thereupon he sings God Almighty's Power in his Works his Majesty shining forth in the Heavens his Justice in his Judgments his Wisdom in the Government of the World his Mercy towards Man But because Interest has so great a sway with us we are to joyn to this Confideration that-of-God's Benefits to descend into the Abysses of his Love and to consider him in Jesus Christ reconciling the World unto himself we must essay to dive if possible it be into the depths of his Mercy which are found every where and in all parts of the Dispensation of our eternal Salvation above all we cannot fix our selves too much upon the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we shall see there a thousand Objects able to mollifie our Soul fince God's Love to Mankind appears there in all it 's Extension From general Considerations it is good to come to particular Applications We ought to conceive how much we stand indebted to God for freeing us from so many Miseries to raise us up to such glorious hopes in short and to speak all in a Word the Object of our Meditation is as vast as God Nature and Grace altogether for there are no Flowers in the World but we may gather Honey from 'em we need not fear therefore that we can drain a Subject of so great a Bigness But how comes it to pass then our Meditations are frequently so dry and our Recollections so barren It is not from the Seed but from the bad Ground Whence comes it saith an Ancient Father that our Mind is found destitute of good Thoughts as if there were nothing well-pleasing to God wherewith we cou'd entertain our selves This comes not says he but from a carelessness of Spirit for the subject is inexhaustible and if the Eye cannot reach the end of Wonders to be seen much less can the Mind attain it in those that are to be conceived If the Eyes cease to see the Light when it is day 't is not for that the Light is exstinguish'd but it proceeds from the dissipation of the Sight If you pierce and open a Field in all â—arts with a Plow-share it will render you an abundant Harvest otherwise 't will continue barren and even if you penetrate very deep you may find springs of living Water In like manner if you open this great Subject to wit God and his Works by profound and frequent Meditations there will proceed from thence Sources of Consolations and Instructions Lastly make no difficulty to repass oft upon the same subject for to make it familiar to you Our Soul is depending upon the Body during the time we are upon Earth and the most spiritual Idea's are form'd in us by bodily motions so that it is highly useful to let the Thoughts of things divine pass and repass frequently in our selves to the intent we may give an Inclination to the Animal Spirits which may carry 'em that aways and at length we shall find they will go naturally in that Road in such sort as without design and before we are aware we shall think on good things I shall say one Word more for the comfort of those Minds which are not capable either of a piercing Infight or a strong Application and that is That they are to be griev'd if they do not find themselves forcible enough to drive on their Reasonings so far and if Conceptions fail them provided this comes not from any Coldness Some short but frequent Meditations whereby a faithful Person of the meaner sort does often apply his Mind to the Author of his Salvation and Gods Benefits may serve instead of long Reflections when one is not capable of them To help Devotion we are without doubt to call in the reading of good Books for we must not imagine we can draw all from our own Well and among those Books the Holy Scripture is as much above all others as God is above Men and the Sun above the Stars of the sixth Magnitude This is that Word which is as powerful and piercing as a two-edged Sword this is that Fire which can warm our Entrails and make us say Does not our Heart burn within us One only Passage in St. Paul Let us walk honestly as in the day not in Riotting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ wrought the Conversion of St. Austin In every Page of this Book we shall find Gods Benefits and his excellent Promises so proper to awaken Devotion we shall find there many Examples of heavenly Meditations fit to lift up the Soul and guide us in our own Especially the Book of Psalms is an inestimable Treasure for devout Souls and if we could prize it and say of it beyond what the Ancients did we could never say enough 'T were to be wish'd that this Treasure were laid up entirely in our Memory
duties of Piety we cannot be in the Kitchin and the Closet at the same time and while the Soul is employ'd in its Rooms about seething and digesting its Victuals and distributing its Nourishment it is not in a state to be transported in places destin'd to Contemplation and Meditation It lyes groveling beneath thick Clouds and foggy Vapours which render the heart unfit to lift it self up The abundance of delicious meats says a Father send smoky Exhalations like Clouds that interrupt the Illumination which is made in the understanding by the Holy Ghost Wherefore Moses that he might see God without a Cloud stayed forty days upon the Mount without eating or drinking with design that the superiour part of his Soul might remain disengag'd from Trouble and the Obscurities of the lower part Ease and Abundance of Bread cause the sins of Sodom and Uncleanness of of Life is the consequence of the mouth 's Excess After the use of many delicate meats and drinks the blood is all over inflam'd which gives a Disposition to all carnal Actions and an Inclination to worldly Joy which is ever immoderate The People sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play We must therefore of absolute necessity observe the Rules of Sobriety and nourish the Body only for Life's sake We must give it what is necessary and deny it superfluities that it be never able to rebell against us And frequently we must retrench even the necessary things that we may master it the more for the Flesh when kept under contributes much to make the heart contrite and the less tye the Soul has to the Body the more easily it lifts it self up to God When we fast our Devotions are not interrupted by sleep they are not corrupted by involuntary Motions they are not viciated by dishonest Thoughts In the mean while touching the practice and use of Fasting divers advices may be given First we are not to hold it for a part of Devotion and as a worship wherewith we serve God For the Kingdom of Heaven is neither meat nor drink it is only an help to Devotion This first consideration furnishes us with an other which is that we use not fasting as Devotion it self for to fast whilst we are travelling or about our Employments is no work of great merit or great use The first consideration has a third still that springs from it and that is that Fasting is not to be employ'd no farther in Devotion than as it may be an aid to it and by consequence we cannot give any certain rules either for the Practice or the Duration of it Some tempers there are so weak that fasting is so far from being an help to Devotion as it may be a great lett to it because it immediately casts the body into a certain negligence which hinders the Soul from soaring up Again there are those can't be tamed but by long mortifications and these ought not to spare themselves Others master ' emselves more easily and these must know themselves but nevertheless they are to take care that the weakness of their body do not serve for a pretext to dispence themselves from necessary mortifications Yet we cannot approve those cruelties which some use towards the body in treating it like a declared Enemy without sparing either Fire or Sword We put not on here the Spirit of Controversie we leave every one to his own Conscience We say only that altho those excesses be not new they are never the better for all that Eccesiastical History supplies us with examples enow I confess of these extravagant Mortifications But I had rather stand to the dicision of St. Basil who is not to be suspected in this cause since he was a great Associate in Fastings and Mortifications However he repeats many times the precept of Mediocrity and insists very long upon it He denyes his Virgins and his Hermits the use of excessive Mortifications even to his saving in the Book of Virginity that the burthen of heavy and excessively pamper'd Flesh does not bring more incumbrance to the elevation of the Soul than the weakness of a sick Body thinn'd by a long and excessive Mortification And therefore he expresly orders That necessity be the rule of Fasting and Abstinence And now follows another necessary Direction upon this Subject That bodily Mortification and Fasting does not reach to the very bottom of the Soul nor mortifie all sort of Vice An Ancient said That the Devil being not able to lay hold or take Possession of a Body master'd by great Mortifications seizes upon the Soul all naked and by it and in it begins and consummates the carnal Desires If the Soul without the Body be capable of acting and committing bodily Sins though Mortification be in the way how shall it heal it self by this means of those Diseases which are intirely in it as Envy Pride and Self-love So we see these Passions reign very often and very imperiously in those Men of Scourges and Sackcloth This so bloody War which is wag'd against the Body and in appearance renounces all Self-love can be no more in the most part than a Self-love very delicate which leads to Glory by extraordinary Paths that it may arrive there the more surely From all this I conclude that the Mortification which St. Paul requires of us when he says Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth and that which we have judged necessary for Devotion goes much farther than bodily Mortification To stifle that Self-love that Pride those Jealousies Harreds Envyings and even Ambition and Covetousness there is need of another sort of Fasting that is an Abstinence from all Actions which may nourish those Vices So I conclude this Chapter with those incomparable Words of the Father Beware of defining the excellence of Fasting by a sole Abstinence from Meats and Drinks for true Fasting consists in abstaining from Evil. Thou dost not eat Flesh but thou tearest thy Brother in pieces thou abstainest from Wine but thou abstainest not from doing Outrage thou waitest till the Evening to eat but thou spendest the day in a Law Suit Woe to those that are drunk though not with Wine Anger inebriates the Soul and as well as Wine casts it out of the limits of Reason Meditation THIS of wine I confess is a most dangerous Drunkenness and Gluttony is a most filthy sin These sins are great Enemies to Devotion and therefore Fasting Abstinence and Sobriety are very necessary to succour and nourish Piety But O my Soul take care of thy self these vices regard the body chiefly There is another sort of Drunkenness and Gluttony which immediately concerns the Soul and is it may be still more dangerous this Drunkenness is Pride and this Gluttony is Avarice and Ambition How many Souls do I see in the World made drunk with Vanity and an high Opinion of themselves They are fly-blown with Pride that all the Earth cannot contain them they stretch themselves so far