sweat from his body as the press doth wine frō the bunch of grapes If any one should have sufferd all the torments of Martyrs all the diseases and anguish of all men even from the first day of Adams transgression til such time as Christ comes to judgment all this would not be equivalent to his paine which also upon this score that it was spiritual was bitterer in its kind then any corporal affliction whatsoever The fulnes of the Divinity resided in Christ and the clear vision of God did illustrate him which nevertheles obstructed not some effects but it was miraculously so orderd least by it a tyde of joy should over flow his whole body and the inferiour portion of his soul that place might be left for sorrow as it fel out in his sacred Passion But in the hart of IESVS grieving for our offences it did not only give way to extreme sadnes but did extremely augment it by reason of his perfect knowledg of God offended for how much more perfect this knowledg was it causd a sorrow so much greater and CHRIST alone had a more perfect intuitive knowledg of God then all the Cherubins Seraphins then all the other Angels and Saints in heaven Christs love also towards God offended was corresponding to the vision of the divine Majesty wherfore his sorrow exceeds the comprehension either of word or thought for he let no opportunity slip of suffering as much as he could and was beseeming him to suffer yea prodigious miracles were wrought in his most holy soul that sorrow might have its ful effect Why then are we so sollicitous to compass joyes and rack ourwits so much in the search of new pleasures if IESVS sufferd all this in his hart which none ought to think upon without teares and each good Christian ought to make it the theam of his thought How darest thou o my hart slacken the raines to joy consider the cause why thy IESVS sufferd it was for thy offences that he might work thy salvation Because I trespassd therfore he loves me so tenderly and confers blessings upon me Why doth not this lover of me and benefactour to his enemies heap coales of fire upon my head make me blush at my own proceedings why doth he not heap coales of fire upon my hart that I may burn with love of him and a desire of his imitation I wil place the sad hart of IESVS upon my obdurate hart that he may find me at length according to his hart a frend and desirous of suffering Compassionate o my hart with the suffering IESVS and comfort him in his sufferings How wilt thou obtain mercy by the sufferings of Christ if thou hast not compassion over Christ suffering be not unmindful of such a courtesy from thy suerty S. Iames Guisay not to be unmindful of it besides his daily meditation and other devotions to it carried it alwaies about him written in a little Book in token that it was engraven in his hart and faild no day to read it over This memory of his Saviours cross was so acceptable to Almighty God that he vouchsafed him after his entrance into the Society a true conformity with it that is to be crucified for his sake and by his sufferings to adumbrate the death of his B. Son and Christ was not backward in recompensing the devotion of the Saint for upon the place where he and many other Saints were crucified miraculous lights were seen every friday in the ayre approving and attesting the comformablenes of their suffering with that of Christ The memory of his Passion is grateful to him and that we might have a perpetual memorial of it before our eyes he instituted the admirable Sacrament of his most holy Body But if thou be midful of Christ suffering why art thou not unsufferable to thy self and hartily angry at thy own proceedings The king of Moab sorely straitned by the siege of the Israelites being quite out of hope of all relief took his eldest Son who was to succeed him in his throne and offerd him in holocaust upon the wals and it causd such a commotion indignation in the Israelits camp that forth with they raisd their siege and departed Behold the holocaust of the first and only begotten Son of God upon the altar of the cross why art thou not replenishd with disdain against thy self quitting all self will and pleasure we use to compassionate even externs yea even brute beasts why do we not so to our God to our Father to our brother o our shameles obstinacy who insteed of commiserating him crucify IESVS again by new offences remember that God is thy Father not thy foe that he suffers for thee his foe not for the beasts of the field or their salvation for thee not for himself the bitterst of all punishments wounded in all his members not only afflicted with some smal ach of his head or stomack because he did thee and the world a good turne not because he put cities into combustion publickly on a day of solemnity and in a mountain betwixt two thieves as their captain and ringleader not in a by-corner and secretly the object of all mens hatred disgrace and scorne in so much that the mercy of men was wanting to him alone who is mercy it self Nevertheles he suffers willingly and lovingly not forcedly not frettingly not complainingly because it was for thee of his own people not of barbarians and Scythians for the space of 33. yeares not for an hour or two Compassionate then with IESVS and make not all he has done fruitles forbear to offend him begin to imitate him and that his Passion may truly benefit thee make it the model of thy imitation The VI. Chapter How far we are to follow Christ GOD doth not tempt us though he hath made our salvation ful of difficulty Nothing is more acceptable to him he having done and sufferd so much then that we imitate him The words of a man placed in autority are held for lawes and must be fulfild why are the deeds of God less observable he that sets the humble and most sorrowful hart of Christ as a signet upon his own let him set it also upon his arme that he may imitate what he commiserates Love is not soft and effeminate but strong and masculin and the cross of Christ will crucify Gods zealot by compassion and emulation The imitation of Christ is harsh and unsavory some have it in as much hatred as hell it self but for all that we cannot emulate better graces Fear no cosenage when he perswades thee to take the cross for thy delights disgrace for thy honour poverty for riches he is the prime and undoubted truth The eternal wisdome and divine intellect hath so orderd hath judgd it expedient Be not diffident he is the supreme goodnes and highest power by these nevertheles he redeemd thee and by the same thou must complete thy salvation that work is begun accomplished
our admiration and love towards him to decrease upon that pretense A very forcible motive also to make us love God is because he is of a loving nature No ingredient is more operative in producing love then love it self we carry a good wil towards wicked men merely upon this score that they seem to love us and we take a kind of complacence in being loved by dogs although God were not good nor our benefactor nor Creator yet because he loves he were to be loved and chiefly because he is such an ardent lover The greatnes of which love is renderd perspicuous by the greatnes of its guifts what a love must that be by which he so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son for its redemption o men what can you admire if you do not admire this that God should love the meanest of creatures with such a tender and feeling hart But let us grant that God neyther had lov'd â—s nor made us nor been beneficial to us it is our part at least to love him because he was so to others If the vertuous actions of men deserve praise at the hands even of a stranger or Barbarian and force a kind of benevolence from them shal so many feats of Gods beneficence deserve les their excess both in number and quantity amounting to an infinitude an upright and beneficial man is loved by every one even those that have not tasted his beneficence but although God had left no great monument of his liberality to others yet because he hath towards us although it proceeded not from the motive of love which cannot be done without some love we were still bound to love him yea although he were neyther good nor loving nor beneficial to us or others which nevertheles implyes an impossibility for that sole reason that he made us he were worthy of all love and respect Our Parents although they be wicked though they themselves nursd us not up yet they are to be loved and reverenced souldiers spend their lives and blood for their lawful king though otherwise notoriously naughty God is Father of all things and the lawful head of the world Neyther is his patience a light shaft to wound us with love he tolerating and pardoning us by it while we play the impudent delinquents The patience of an offender and harmer in accepting punishment and standing in a preparation of mind to admit revenge and penalty for the wrong turnes the anger of the party offended into benevolence and how can the patience of an unjust offender force benevolence from one justly displeased and not the patience of the party offended obtain love of him that offends unjustly O Lord with how good title doth my ingratitude and thy pardon exact my love but if this alone be not weighty enough to sway the ballance add to it that he is our Father our benefactour yea and beneficial towards all how much am I bound to love thee whose merits on my behalf are innumerable and love boundles But these impulsives are not the most convincing though they be severe exacters of my love I am much more engaged to love thee for thy sole benevolence wherewith thou lovest me then for all thy other benefits besides for that is the source of them all and consequently more to be prizd and thy love is so far from being exhausted that it is forcible enough if need were to redouble thy benefits and multiply them without stint if they which already abound suffised not for my salvation Thy love is equivalent not only to thy benefits already conferd but even to those in possibility if any greater be possible and comprizeth them all in it self yea if we may use the manner of speech even impossible ones for true love is not confind to the limits of a real power but imaginary wishes which though they have no place in God by reason of the perfect fecundity and allpowerfulnes of his nature the excess of his love is not therfore any whit diminished but â—e are as much endebted to him as if they were The sole love then of God alone is a more convincing motive of love then his boundles beneficence for that comprehendeth all his benefits not only now actual but possible and impossible if any such were unfesible to God There is yet another more pregnant cause of loving him then all the precedent for if we owe him more love for his love to us then for his benefits because these are only its issue and so many sparks leaping from that glowing furnace of divine charity much more must we love him for his goodnes this being the cause of love How great must that goodnes be which is mother of so numerous a progeny of loves and the stock from whence sprout so many benefits yea we owe not only incredible love to the divine goodnes for the present affection he beares us but much greater on our parts for the love he would bear us if we would but dispose our selves better and become less ungrateful and consequently more capable of a more ample charity We are not only endebted to the goodnes of God one infinite love of God but as it were infinitudes of love to an infinite God Wherefore we must love him more ardently for that he is good in himself then for that he is good and beneficial to us O Lord I love thee for thy benefits because I read reverence and embrace in them thy love and I also love thee for thy love because in it I behold adore and love thy goodnes The love of God is one perfection in God but there are many more for which he is amiable all which are comprized in the infinite divine goodnes and perfection which is for infinite respects most worthy of love I see not o Lord how my hart can cease or suffer any interruption in loving thee since thou who art infinite purely out of thy own goodnes lovedst us so incessantly from all eternity The V. Chapter That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God HOw do I loose my self o Lord in the consideration of thy goodnes which neyther pen nor tongue nor thought is able to comprehend if all the spirits both of heaven and hell all soules created and creable should make it their task to describe it and if each one had a sea for their inkhorn and a heaven for their paper both the one and the other would be exhausted ere they could make a fit expression of its least parcel If each star and drop of rain were so many tongues their breath would fayl them and they grow mute eer they could utter a congruous elocution If all the minute sands of the sea were changd into so many intelligences all their conceptions would prove but shallow even in respect of its least particle But what am I doing while I dare declare thy goodnes by these similitudes I confess o infinite God that all these exaggerations are ridiculous
Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
others stile or think thee such A sick man is not cured by being said to be cured Which wouldst thou rather chuse to be in very deed able and strong in health although others did think thee infirme or rather to be truly sick and esteemd by others sound and robustious Why dost thou chuse to be held good since thou are so very bad yea it would be highly displeasing to one that is sick or in payn even more then the malady it self if others should say he did but counterfeyt and loved to complain without cause why takest thou complacence in being accounted upright when thou art the quite contrary sick people are so far from desiring to be thought sound if they be not so that they themselves are wont now and then to aggravate the disease and love that others do so too so one that is truly humble exaggerates his own unworthines and is glad when others do the same augmenting his contumelyes and disgraces therfore the conclusion is he that seeks to be praysed seeks not only an impossible but ridiculous thing Thou wilt commit a piece of injustice if thou be desirous of prayse and not of disgrace since a plurality of votes conclude thy contempt If thou ballance thy self thy misdemeanours and innumerable defects will preponderate thy good deeds they being very few and depending upon others Wilt thou know in plain tearmes that it is impossible for thee to deserve prayse it is impossible for thee to have any thing of thy self for which to be esteemed And hence thou mayst gather mans insufficiency for labouring to gain credit by what is anothers which if he had them of his own he would never glory in another mans right as worldly men are wont to do for having brave horses faythful servants or rich apparel generosity being onely the quality of the horse and a generous horse may have a vicious or base minded owner Fidelity is the glory of a servant and a good servant may have a very naughty master Splendid apparrel is a commendation rather due to the tayler or weaver and a fine coat may cover a foul body and ulcerous conscience By the same vicious manner of proceeding men appropriate to themselves what is only proper to God even those who have abandoned the world while they do not wholly abandon themselves The XVI Chapter Of the basenes of man IF thou desirest peace with God humble thy self beneath all men and all things It is a terrible saying God resists the proud neyther is that les terrible the proud resist God God resists the proud that they may not commit wickednes the proud resist God that he may not do good God resists the proud that they become not evill and wholly bad by their pride for which end he seeks to humble them the proud resist God that he be not good and beneficial by stopping the current of the divine blessings Make hence an evident conjecture that thou art extreme base that is extreme proud since thou resistest God otherwise he would have enriched thee with innumerable benefits graces and vertues It is palpable that a cloud hangs over thee which keeps off the sun if at midday in an open Champian his beames do not forcibly beat upon thee thou wilt as then be all in the shade although thou seest nothing that can overshadow thee None is more vile and defectuous then he who acknowledgeth in himself no vilenes or defect because his mind raisd above it self stands in opposition with God and his clarity There is no more evident sign of our pride then the surcease of the divine beneficence because it puts a stop to Gods ardent desire of communicating himself it impedes the efficacy of Christs Passion the intercession of the Virgin and the prayers of Saints Great is my malice and bottomles my misery since I being but one can resist so many obstructing as much as in me lyes the 5. Fountains of Christs blood and the torrent of the divine liberality Although we were so mad as not to acknowledg any sin or defect in our selves we ought to take this for a most pregnant token of extreme pride and basenes nor were our sins insufficient ought any thing els to keep us more in humility not the wormes in which we are to end not the clay of which we are moulded not the ordures with which while we live we are stuffed not the miseries of our body which insult so over us nor the ignorance of our mind which thwarts and frustrates our counsels It is more then enough to humble us beneath all things to see God communicate himself no more to us and permit as he doth our defects O humble Majesty of God! how deare and desirable is our humility to thee Christ dyed for our sins but he permits them for our humiliation Did the humility of man cost dearer then the life of God Did IESVS prize our humility more then the benefit of his redemption since he carries himself permissively towards our sins for the cancelling wherof he spent both his blood and his life and humbled himself by descending from heaven that he might give redress to our pride and he that redeemd sin by his own humiliation and death makes sins themselves as it were the purchase of our humility what is this which seems almost incredible that God should do incredible things to make us humble it seeming otherwise inconceptible that ever we can conceive thoughts of pride for it is impossible to find what may source them We are nothing and we have nothing Nay though we were some great matter considering nevertheles how we have behaved our selves I see not how we can with confidence lift our eyes up to heaven We are in all respects most vile both for what we are and for what we are not both for what we have done and for what we have omitted both for what God hath done for us and for what he hath not done in us And because he is so great and we such a nothing who is there that considering the sins which he hath committed will not debase himself to the center of humility And yet he must no les do it for the trespasses he hath not committed For there is no share of this ours and least of all is it to be attributed to us that we did not trespass and for as much as concerned us we had trespassed Vpon this account thou art as much obliged to God with whose grace thou didst not cooperate and hast equal cause to humble thy self as if thou hadst trespassed Things are not to be prized according to their actuality but their intrinsecal vertue A sword is not sold dearer for having slain many but because it could and is fit for such a piece of service thy malice was sufficient for so many trespasses that it did not actually compleat them is not to be ascribd to thee but God Others offences ought also in good reason to humble thee as
thou being therby refined and purified thy spouse trimming thee up in such a dress as may wel beseem his bedchamber If he leave it then wholly in thy power to love God what cause of tergiversatioÌ„ since he leaves arbitrary to thee what thou wishest and desirest where thou hast opportunity to suffer and love there is no just ground of complaint If it were put to thy choise whether thou wouldst sleep or die for half an houres space a soul truly inflamed with the ardours of charity would of it self prefer death that it might not be reduced to a cessation of love yea it would not thirst more after the resurrection of the body then after avoiding all unnecessary excess of sleep though but for a quarter of an hour as much as might be without impairing its corporal health For the mean of discretion is every where to be observed and we must take a necessary repose though against our will that the functions of our mind may be vigorous and masculine fitly disposed for all enterprizes to Gods glory as also for praier least if we indiscreetly deprive our selves of it we be heavy at our devotions too drowzy and languishing and so by little and little quite benumd and what then wil be the issue but that we perform them with little fruit But to be too indulgent to sleep beseems the dead rather then the living and a soul weighing things in themselves that is with an impartial ballance and siezd with the heat of divine love to avoid this inconvenience all acts of love and prayse surceasing for that interim it would perchance rather make choise of a perpetual death of the body because in that case one may love enjoy God which alone sufficeth and is the chief desire of an enamoured soul but being so charmed and stupifyd it cannot although one wil not easily conceive this who doth not experience in himself the avaricious incentives of divine love and its restles longings and motions nor how contemptibly an enflamd hart spurns at all self commodity But we must not measure the ardour of true love and a devoted affection by the ell of our lukewarmnes rather by what we behold in those that fondly doat even to madnes upon a perishable beauty we may guess at the feelings and flames of a pretender to an eternal and never fading one But if thy breast harbour not fuel for such a heat shun at least as much as thou canst the chilnes of tepidity and sleepines If it were intimated to thee that forthwith thou must be annihilated such tydings would fil thee with horrour why then wilt thou so joy in sleep it being all one as if for such a respit thou wert annihilated Apprehend the incommodities of sleep which is an evil manifold death it being very opposite to a 4. fold life for sleep deprives us of the chief life of our body in which it is equivalent to death it self it takes away the life of our soul which is then as if it were not at all in this it surpasseth death sleep is also in some sort injurious to the life of grace and the eternal life by causing such an interruption of merit What then can be more prejudicial to us wherfore one that burnes with the true flame of divine love and is siezd with an ardent desire of praysing so great a good is hugely covetous of the least advantages of time and deems any unnecessary expense in that kind an irreparable loss and consequently he goes to sleep with much regret accepting with patience this necessity imposed by God upon life and making to him an oblation of it taking in good part since his holy wil is such to be deprived for this interim of what he much more covets which is to love prayse God and be restles in his service and as much as in him lyes he covets not to sleep but rather busy himself in the former actuations thinking every hour a day til he return to his wonted employment Thou also must put on this disposition of wil and offer it to God compose thy self like one ready to give up the Ghost saying with Christ into thy hands o Lord I commend my spirit By thus behaving thy self thou shalt after a manner merit by that death and vacancy of sleep so untoothsome and distastful to thy rellish Conceive also ardent desires of that ever during life when without interruption thou shalt enjoy God and bewail the miseries of this life since thou must seek repose and relaxation for thy exhausted spirits in a thing of all others most burdensome to thee and prejudicial to all to wit sleep How can life it self chuse but be noysome its very rest being so restles and its advantages so disadvantageous it is a lamentable thing that life must be repaird at the very charges and expenses of life since the lover of God esteems somtimes a short sleep more dammageable then the loss of a long life When thou art laid to repose endeavour to seal up thy eyes and hart with the ferventest act of love which ever thou didst make in thy whole life and even before thou fallest a sleep desire to rise as soon as may be purposing at thy first waking to unseale thy hart and actuate it in more fervent eâ—aculations then hitherto thou hast done so to compass in that instant a new purchase of grace It wil not a little conduce to this to beg the concurrence of thy Angel Guardian as also to use a spare and frugal diet Strike up this bargain with thy body in the meane while repose take thy penny-worths but be sure to rise as soon as the bell calls thee to work Like as the soul for the good of the body dies as it were by night and is buried so must the body die by day for the good and benefit of the soul while it is awake let the body be dead to this world as when the soul is a sleep it is dead for that respit to heaven that is to meritorious actions and pious thoughts Procure in the meane while that thy body as much as may be supply the elevations and obsecrations of thy soul the which not being as then in a capacity to pray the body must do it by lying modestly in a be seeming posture and for more decency not right upward We compose coarses and embalm them against corruption though they must shortly be the food of wormes and spoile of time so let us compose and dispose our selves in this death of sleep that we may be fit for the chast embracements of Christ Lye with thy armes or fingars a cross such treasures as these must thou coffin up together with thy self till the morning revive thee for treasures were wont to be buried and deposited with the dead Be sure thou never desert the cross but whilst thy mind cannot cling to it thy body must carrying alwayes about with it the mortification of IESVS Christ when
Of evill many become good we must not disdain them this is to love all for goodnes this is to love all in God when we love for that which cannot be loved without God as goodnes justice vertue and the like If thou didst love the goodnes of God thou wouldst love all in God and covet that all loved him and wouldst put to a helping hand and be sollicitous in this behalf Of a much different strain is the zeal of humane and divine love Humane goodnes is finite and narrow bounded not suffising for all nay not even for many but les wil fall to each ones share therfore men endeavour what they can that none els love what 's dear to them but because the goodnes of God is infinite and more then abundantly sufficient for all and our love of such a limited condition that it cannot correspond to so great goodnes therfore Gods desire is that each one love it and approve our love and cooperate towards it to the end they may discharg and satisfy for that goodnes which we are not able with any love of ours to equalize Thou lovest God imprudently unles thy desire be that all love him for thou must love him more then thy self thy desire is that all love thee though thou be so very bad why are thy wishes on Gods behalf more barren and bounded he being so extremely good O infinite goodnes of God who loved me so much the meanest and very outcast of sinners that being not content to love me thou wouldst moreover that all should love me and commanded it too why shal not I covet that all love thee and procure it to the utmost of my power yea thou hast obliged all by thy precept blood that they should love me no less then thou lovedst me and every one loves himself Give me grace that I also may observe these examples of love that I may love all Thou saidst this is my precept that you love one another as I loved you And again thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Thou o Lord lovedst me eer I loved thee thou o Lord lovedst me not for any commodity redounding to thee but to me thou lovedst me with an immense love for none hath greater charity then this that one give his soul for his friends thou didst love me with a perseverant love thou art he who when he loved his who were in the world he loved them to the end These are the conditions with which thou lovedst me and must be the rule conformably to which I must love others O my soul learn love from the love of Christ love them as thy own life whom Christ loved more then his and wil in then be loved and worshipd If Christ lay sick in bed thou wilt not deem it indecency that he be supposed languishing for our good who for our salvation took really upon him our languours or pinchd with hunger and some other poor body lay also sick in another bed and were pressed with the same want and thou shouldst demand of Christ whether of the two he would have thee to relieve first himself or that other party I believe he would piously answere that other for Christ himself would defraud his own mouth of meat to asswage a poor mans hunger Serve then and reverence Christ in such a one if thou canst not do it in fact do it at least by prayer and compassion not only in corporal necessities but much more in spiritual God prizeth so highly an almes bestowd on the body that he promiseth heaven for its reward nor assignes any other cause of acquitting them in the dreadful day of doom how much more wil he esteem an almes bestowd on the soul for which he daignd to dye o the infinit charity of God o most loving Saviour who gavest thy soul for sinners grant that I may love their soules as thou lovedst them I wil take a pattern from thy love to know how I am to love those whom thou lovedst and not from my own neyther wil I love my neighbour as I loved my self for then I shal love him but untowardly I knew not how to love my self how can I love others How could I love my self who loved my own wil who loved iniquity but I wil love my neighbour as I ought to love my self desiring thy wil may be accomplishd in him and he more plentifully enrichd with thy grace that all may serve thee most fervently and adore thee in spirit and truth THE IV. BOOK The I. Chapter How ungratefull we are to God HOW unhappy is our hart in thy benefits o happines of Saints since a slender courtesy afforded us by some poor miscreant yea even by a savage creature stirs us up to an act of benevolence and yet we are not struck through love into an amazement of the immense beneficence of thy benefical nature how comes this to pass that if a man had done it we should deem it a huge favour and for this very reason that God does it though he do incomparably more we sleight the benefit and seek not to shew our selves grateful doth water loose its nature because it is in its center the sea and not in some sorry vessel shal it forfeit the nature of a benefit because God is the authour of it whose nature is to be beneficial we should rather argue thus it is water because it is drawn out of the sea Can heat because it is in the fire be thought not to becalefactive and that only to be so which is in a forraign and violent subject the ardour of fire is more effectual and warmes more intensely then heat in wood so the blessings from God are more benefical then those from men because God sourceth them It is the nature of gâ—â—â—nes to be benefical as it is of fire to heat â—â—neficence in men is nothing so vigorous or taking because it is not so proper to their nature indigence only being connatural to them Water is purer in the fountain then in the stream and benefits derived from God are more refined then those from men who for the most part mar the nature of a benefit Why then shal blessings loose their prerogative and respect because they are imparted by God which though much meaner if they proceeded from any contemptible man unles we expressed our gratitude for them we could not have the face to appear before men but should blush with confusion so far as to be ashamed of ourselves and become infamous in our own conceit and yet because they are from God we hold our selves priviledgd to be ungrateful and dare without blushing appear before him and his Angels Why are guifts les valuable and of an inferiour rank because they come from God since in them alone are verified all the conditions of being truly beneficial and giving us relief in our greatest distress is a benefit more unhappy for flowing from the fountain of all happines Why do we
wishes and desires for nothing befalls us more agreeably and to our harts-content then what is given without the expense of so much as a wish now what must that needs be which forestals all kind of expectancy what wil that be which could not so much as enter into our thought such a one is this benefit and unexpected Sacrament of our redemption which if any one before it was intimated to us had begd to be done after the manner it is done his prayers would have been thought blasphemy his hope a mad rashnes his wish a sacrilegious wil his fancy impiety An unexpected guift is most grateful what wil that be which was never so much as conceyted thy beneficence indulgently granted what our indigency fancyd impossible But above all the frontispice and inscription of love which this benefit carryes engraven that being the prizer and taxer of guifts doth most affect me all guifts are testimonials and credentials of love what more creditable then this Guifts are not rated according to their bulk but the remonstrance of love that accompanies them This is an immense favour which that it may stand in the rank of benefits not of disgraces it carryes in its front in capital letters the immense love of God O Lord if I be endebted to thee whatsoever I am for my creation what shal I owe thee for thy love I acknowledg my self to owe more then my self yea as much more as thy greatnes exceeds my nothing thou who gavest thy self to me in thy nativity in thy life in thy death in thy resurrection and lastly in that sacred banquet of thy most holy body Effect that whatsoever was thine by creation and thou repairedst by redemption I may make it all thine by love I were not able to make condigne recompense for the least of thy benefits though by way of thāksgiving I should endure all the paines of hell for all eternity the reason is because it proceeds from the infitude of thy love which infinitly exceeds any infinity of recompense from creatures what then shal I be able to do for so many those so signal and chiefly for this in which thy boundles charity reflects more perspicuously then do the sun-beames The IV. Chapter How deservedly God is to be loved and chiefly for himself I Wil sum up the titles by which thou most justly exacts my love and the delinquencies of my tepidity and ingratitude I ought with all ardency to love thee o most amiable Lord both because thou art good and because thou art loving both because thou art a benefactour and my benefactour both because thou art my maker a patient endurer of my imperfections God is so good and beautiful in himself that though he had not made us the object of his love nor the subject of his beneficence nor the issue of his creation yet he were to beloved above all lovers benefactours and Creators whatsoever yea although he should hate us and be injurious on our behalf for that bottomles Ocean of goodnes beauty would expiate any injury whatsoever and much more effectually then doth beneficence If God had beheld thee hereto fore as an object of hatred and being at enmity had offended and sought revenge wouldst thou not pardon and even love him he making so large satisfaction by so many benefits so far as not to spare his own son but give him up to death suffering a privation of that the absence whereof causeth the greatest grief one must pardon an injury in him who is beneficial for the force of a benefit ought to extinguish revenge and anger but Gods previous merits being so great he deserves more then pardon If then his beneficence would suffice to clear him of alinjuriousnes much more would his goodnes the cause of beneficence it being more noble and sufficiently effectual to make amends for all losses and injuries sustaind by him Gods goodnes is greater then his beneficence because this flowes from that and effects rather fall short of their cause then otherwise One said of an ill deserving man I have receivd no good from thee but much harm and yet for all that I cannot but love thee O true goodnes let me rather say of thee then thy image of clay I cannot but love thee although I should receive no good from thee but much evil what then shal I say now when thou lovest me without meane and art beneficial above measure We sometimes love men whom we never saw nor heard off nor they us nor do they rank us in the legend of their love but we affect them merely for the report of their honesty we could take content in their conversation rejoyce at their sight and honour the very memory of them can the goodnes of God be unworthy of that which a mere humane goodnes claymes as its due A mans honesty may be such as to deserve love without any obligation of piety he not being our parent without any obligation of thankfulnes he not being our benefactour without any obligation of love he not loving us at all and shal not the authority of the divine goodnes suffice of it self to the same effect who is not moved with some sense of benevolence towards Ionathas for the loyalty of his friendship notwithstanding the emulation of his Fathers kingdome or towards David for his clemency in sparing the life of his enemy Saul though it had purchased him no les then a good empyre who hath not some affection for Iudas Machabaeus for his singular love towards his law and country and it is not any allyance with them or other particular interest but mere vertue that gaines this good wil. Sum up into one man the perfections of all others and suppose him composed all of miracles let him have the wisdome of Salomon the fortitude of Sampson the beauty of Absolon the fidelity of Ionathas the meeknes of David the fortune of Iosue and as loving towards his people as Moyses who would not be ambitious of that mans friendship or covet once at least to treat and converse with him of how dul a rellish would that man be thought who did not take gust in his acquaintance even prescinding from all hopes of gain o immense God thou art an aggregate of all good things and the total sum of all goodnes why do not we love thee and aspire to thy familiarity o Lord he that loves not thee upon the mere score of thy goodnes how ill-rellished is he how baseminded how unwise he that admires not it alone to the full how ridiculous let us suppose our selves created independently of God and that we should hear of him as of one that ruld in another world what we now believe who would not covet to have such a God who would not admire and love his goodnes and carriage towards the men of that his world whose happines we might wel envy his goodnes then is not one whit the les for his being Creatour neyther ought
of the divine honour thou oughtst in all reason to be more immeasurably cruel against thy self then against any enemy or the whol camp of hel although in effect and in the exteriour maceration of thy body a discreet mean is to be held according to the direction of thy superiours and ghostly Father and the prescript of right reason to the end that in this also thou maist seek Gods greater glory for whose sake it is expedient not to be immoderate in chastizing thy self as for the same reason and our own salvation we are forced to pardon our other enemies and afford them a place in the list of our charity for that which God exacts chiefly of us and wherein we ought to take revenge of our selves is the death of our will not of our body And according to this I say it is most evident that thou hast more reason to be displeased with thy self then all thy enemies and ill-wishers whatsoever Suppose a man who had many capital foes who sought his life were delivered into a strong and safe castle there to be kept and defended by his intimate friend one assured to him by all the tyes of alliance and friendship who alone were both esteemd and should be most faithful to him and that there were no sanctuary elswhere for that man nor place of refuge and that it were in his power to let no enemy hurt him nor wrong the least haire of his head unles that friend did introduce him thither and deliver to him the keyes of the castle giving his consent by subscribing letters with his own hand If he who ought to be both faithful and friendly should prove so perfidious as to unlock â—he gate to all his persecutours and give â—hem entrance with intent to let them abuse him wrong him and exercise the utmost of their cruelty upon him and he himself moreover who were to shield him should be more raging and malicious then the rest should impede any benevolence that were intended him permitting nothing good nor conducing to his health to come to his hands which he intoxicated not first with poyson or some other noxious ingredient against whom then ought this miserable man to conceive a spleen against some one of his enemyes or that friend and allye who proves so treacherous whose malice alone is equivalent to all the rest it being certain that without him all their hatred would have availed nothing at all What an incredible brand of perfidiousnes cruelty in humanity would fall upon that man he would incur the detestation of all as being much more blame worthy then all O most beneficent truth thou hast committed my safety only to my own trust as who would be trustyest to my self but I prove most dangerous above all others divels men hell the world all of them are my sworn enemyes but they all remain disarmd if I my self do not arme them they all wil be innocent if I to my self be not nocent All the prejudice I can receive is within the reach of my own power neyther can any body really hurt me but by my permission unles my wil be such unles I betray my self I alone am the Architect of all the injuries which befal me from others though I impute them falsely to others I stop the influences of Gods beneficence I hinder the effects of his guifts I infect his graces and corrupt his vertues abusing both the one and the other how then shal I flatter my self who am so burdensome to my self how shal I cherish and sooth my self who am such a mortal enemy to my self All the hatred I can vent is not equivalent to my own injuriousnes How often have I cheated my self how many faults have I contracted I have defrauded my self of heaven I have neglected the blessings of Gods grace and not to number up all my spiritual losses which are without number what pensivenes of hart what affliction of mind what disasters in my goods what losses in my temporals how many bodily diseases contempts revilements derisions have I brought upon my self by the disordinatenes of my passions by my little circumspection and following the gust of my appetite If just occasion being given any one contristate me I am highly offended and why am I not so with my self since upon alloccasions I am injurious to my self If thou o lying man hadst but once catchd one in a lye thou wouldst never trust him afterwards and having so often belyed and cozend thy self thou yet trusts thy self and art not at all suspicious of thy proceedings But why do I recount my own injuries it is a sufficient motive to make me abhor and prosecute with a pious hatred whatsoever is mine for that all have proved as so many obstacles to retard my endeavours in loving God O most holy faithful truth I ought to loath and hate my self for being so wicked and disloyal to my self how much more for being wicked and perfidious to thee for my own sake it behoovd me to detest my self how much more o Lord for thine because I loved not my self orderly I should in reason have hated my self how much more because I loved thee not at all who alone should be loved in all I loved not thee because I knew not how to love my self yea I loved not my self because I loved not what in reality I was but some what else les considerable I loved not my soul which is my chief and noblest portion but only my body as if I were nothing but it which is absurdly false for I have also a soul for whose ransome the Son of God by way of exchange gave his To love a part of my self I loved not my whole self and what is more to be lamented I loved not that which to me is all in all God my Saviour If thou be carried with a zeal towards God o perfidious man thou canst not but be fraught with hatred towards thy self I permit that so far as thou hast prejudiced or wrongd thy self thou be indulgent to thy self there remaines yet sufficient cause of selfrevenge for not loving God and transgressing his commands Thou art not a litle moved when thou hearest the perversenes of Caiphas and the treachery of Iudas and the very naming them puts thee into chollar why then wilt thou be partial and soft-natured to thy self tel me o proud spirit if thou hast but one dram of true humility that is of truth dost thou not hold thy self the worst of all sinners nay this is nothing extraordinary since S. Paul framed no better conceit of himself Wherfore thou must deem thy self the perversest of creatures when thou hast done so thou proudly rankest thy self above thy degree Nevertheles I demand of thee if thou holdst thy self such then by consequence worse then Iudas or Caiphas or any other but if thou judgest so in very deed proceed consequently lest thou be taxed and derided by the Angels and either out of