first fruits of life to the Authour of life presenting thy self in the morning before him We must prevent the sun to thy benediction and adore thee o Lord at the rising of the same in the midst of our sleep it being as yet night when the pulse of the bel or some inspiration calls us to rise and behold thou our spouse comest and it is requisite to go forth to meet thee To make this encounter fruitfully it conduceth not a little to prepare oyle over night least the lamp of thy love o my soul want fewel to feed its flame and thou like a foolish Virgin be shut out which is too terrible Premeditate what language shal deliver thy first salutes to thy spouse and what affaires thou art to negotiate in time of prayer this being done if thou betake thy self to rest with sorrow thou wilt rise with cheerfulnes if thou hast a loathing of sleep thou wilt covet watching with much alacrity How can a soul enamoured upon God chuse but grieve that it must cease to love him prayse him improve its stock of merits and that all advantages of increasing his glory and its love towards so dear a spouse must be suspended how can it endure to see it self sustained by God loved by him and regaled in this interim with innumerable benefits and not to be able to relove him or as much as be thankful for such high favors Wherfore it is requisite both before and after sleep to make amends for that suspension of love and merits with more ardent affections and celestial desires supplying that loss of life wherin we cannot power out our whole harts upon God and be absorpt in him We must procure by this very cessation of merit and love to merit as much if it were in our power as if we were awake Vsurers even while they sleep increase their mony and thou wilt do the same if conforming thy self to the disposals of heaven with obedience and resignation thou make an ardent oblation of thy self and beare with patience this misery and the incident necessities of mans life He that embraceth patiently a necessary death whether it proceed naturally from some disease or be violently caused by another man he merits by it and so shalt thou if it be harsh and noisome to thee to repose and sleep as it is to those that serve love God fervently if I say thou accept of this necessary burden with equanimity it being wisely so ordained by the author of all wisdome Perchance if thou consider things in themselves and how much more burdensome sleep is then death to a true lover of God thou maist merit by sleeping patiently for his sake as by dying for patience Merit resides amidst great patience and patience is there greatest where greatest aggrievances are born most patiently Among all the burdens of mans life and all the annoyances which besiege it so closely none is greater then that of sleep or more worthily to be repented sin being excepted Other calamities are only tormentours of life sleep for its interim bereaves us of it other calamities are only opposite to the commodities of life sleep for a time impugnes its substance other calamities are in such sort noisome to our temporal life that they exceedingly conduce to eternal by affording matter of merit by raysing our minds towards God and drawing our affections as by an attractive quality sleep in it self during its raign is an enemy both to corporal and eternal life for as much as it causeth a vacancy both from merit and all thought of heavenly things other calamities are most welcome to Gods zealot because in them he doubles his spiritual advantages love is put to the rest God is glorified but sleep hath nothing at all desirable a cessation both of loving and honouring God attending it step by step wherfore sleep is more noisome and for a two fold yea manifold reason more burdensome then death it self to one that is enamoured upon God Death tyrannizeth only over the body sleep over both body and soul sleep on this behalf seems so much worse then death by how much the soul is better then the body nay much more to wit as much as the whole man soul and body is better then the body alone for death only deprives thee of thy body but sleep of thy soul also as wel as of it Death aymes only at the destruction of our body a thing frail and corruptible sleep at the soul also a thing eternal immortal which gives life to the body it being wholly insensible but for it death destroies a man sleep doth as much for a space of time as annihilate him Death is not to be dreaded for it leaves the best part of man untouched to wit his soul which makes him a man by which he loves God and apprehends his mercy and goodnes which is the glory of a man and ought to be his sole content and joy yea it leaves it more refined without impediment that it may honour love God more expeditly sleep overwhelmes and enters the noblest part of man unsouling as it were the soul it self Tel me I pray which wouldst thou resent most to die or to be annihilated if thou give glory to God by dying because such is his B. wil wilt thou not do the same if thou covet upon the same motive to be annihilated therfore if a patient acceptance of death be meritorious so wil also a patient acceptance of sleep if thou relish it as an equal burden If thou merit by embracing with patience the vexatious incumbrances of this life why shalt thou not also merit by sleep if it be the greatest incumbrance of all yea it being the sole and only thing which living and dying we must deem cumbersome for neither in this life nor after death is there any thing sin being set aside more burdensome to one that is feelingly devoted to the service of God What are accounted the burdens which press so heavily upon this life but its sufferings and miseries but one should be so far from esteeming sufferance a burden that it ought to be the scope and but of his desires next after God there is nothing more expetible then to suffer for God exhibiting this as the credentials of our love for by so doing we perfect the knot of true charity being more straitly united to him we dilate the confined raies of his glory and merit to be partakers of the same No body knowes throughly how burdensome sleep is to us besides him who is able to make a true estimate of the immensity of Gods glory the invaluablenes of his love and the least degree of grace in order to all which for this interim there is a dead surcease a suspension of all traffique for new merits After the cloze of this life what is noisome to the just besides purgatory but if thou be then in a condition of suffering it ought not to be resentive at all
be perpetual combining in the same thing a penalty and a benefit justice mercy Therfore because death is so great a good so proper and secure an effect of his goodnes he would not have it lyable to mans free wil or the hatred of an enemy For although it be in any ones power to bereave thee of life no body not even the uncon troulable violence of kings can bereave thee of death This is the property of things of the best quality to be out of the reach of humane power not to be obnoxious to anothers pleasure If one were entangled in any one danger or incumbrance it would be no smal content to find a meanes how to evade it why do we then grieve or dread death which is the gate wherby we may rid our selves of the hazards and incumbrances of this life Many for a meer puntillio of worldly glory have sought and covetted it at least for the glory of heaven let us not fear it O immortal God who wast born not to live for thou wast life eternal as now thou art but to dye a most mortal and bitter death for me why should I that am mortal be unwilling to dye to live a vital eternal and most pleasant life with thee and for accomplishment of thy wil since the desire of a christian is to be with Christ I know not why he should not desire death since but by it he cannot come to that fruition What misery can death bring or what happines can it bereave him of who is not besotted upon the world but hath placed all his felicity in heaven but besides this ocean of content which flowes from the sight and fruition of our beloved it hath moreover this advantage that it puts us out of further danger of offending God Death then is not evil which takes away all evil But if it be evil and an enemy to mankind why do not men treat it like an evil and as one would treat an enemy I wish we would proceed in this manner with it and deal no otherwise then with a foe forecasting that we carry nothing about us which he may make booty of or give him cause of triumphing over us Souldiers are wont to secure their provisions and baggage or els quite spoil them that they may not be serviceable to their enemyes We must leave no plunder for death but if there be any thing subject to its rapine it must eyther be wholly abandoned or sent before us with a safe convoy to heaven where all will be throughly secured We must keep no spoiles about us in which it may glory but the luggage of our flesh and we must extenuate it by fasting labour and other pennances that he sieze it not entire If death be evil and adverse to us let us resist it and object a buckler by relinquishing things and all affection to them that its wounds may bite the les upon us if death be evil let us make it good by doing good Why should we dread death more then our selves since it cannot be worse then we are evil yea it is we that make it bad because we do not become good Let us do this now when we have time and may do what we shal wish at its hour we had don and cannot A little respit only remaines for labour and in comparison of eternity not so much as an instant Behold now so many years of our life are past and those which remain are no longer But death is not evil in it self but rather good and we should be very good if we did imitate it and practised what it puts in ure by dispoyling our selves of all things so that if nothing were grateful and delectable in this world it would be pleasing and savory to our pallat He only needs fear death who loves other things and not Christ He is not a faithful servant who refuseth to appear in the presence of his master If I did love thee o Lord I should not have such a horrour of death for it would be contentiue to me to behold thee face to face and cast my self into thy embracements rejoicing that thy wil were accomplishd in me otherwise I play but the hypocrite when I daily beg that thy wil may be done in earth as it is in heaven Thy pleasure was to dye not that we might be immortal in this mortality but that we might dye wel by leading a better life Grant me grace that as thy wil is to be fulfilld in my death though against my wil so I may wil and death fulfil it in a good death by a better and more perfect life I give thee thanks o most benign Lord for this benefit of death as thy wisdome hath disposed it I give thee thanks that I am to dye and that I know not when or where or how I am to dye The certainty of death is good and comfortable to me it being a secure passage to bring me to thy sight and rid me of the miseries of this life and make me despise its deceitful and counterfeyt goods What man if he have but any one grain of wit although he were sure never to experience any adversity but were to be successful in all the contingencies of this life would not contemn it and all its goods since he must needs see that he is to quit them all in death which is wholly unavoydable In which moment all past joyes all present goods now to be relinquishd are no more then if they never had enjoyd a being nay they are les conducible for their very relinquishment wil prove a torture That only which man neyther loves nor possesseth wil not afflict him in that hour of affliction The uncertainty also of the manner place and time of dying is acceptable to me that I may more certainly serve thee o God in all requisite manner time and place as thy worth and dignity doth require This is a divine disposal which breeds in us a certain sollicitude of a better life by reason of the uncertain condition of a contingent death I am throughly perswaded o Lord that I know not whether I am worthy of love or hatred and how it wil fare with me after this life neither do I covet to know because it is expedient for me to be ignorant of it according to the ordainment of thy wisdome But I will not therfore more dread death then desire thee and confide in thy mercies I accept most willingly its great uncertainty this being most certain that it is enough for me that thou art most merciful and a cordial lover of me and both canst and wilt save me if I but humbly trust in thee What imports it that I know not how and when and where I am to dye if I be assurd that thou dyedst for me and dyedst the death of the cross and at noon day and betwixt two thieves upon Mount Calvary to clear all doubt of thy love towards me that I may
his own Son so pretious to him The XIII Chapter How Penances and Corporal afflictions help us THorns conserve plants in a garden austerities grace in a just man A fresh vigour of mind flourisheth many times in a tottering and witherd body That Physitians may cure the body they more and more afflict it by bitter potions by abstinence by breathing a veine by searing it and other wayes yet more penal if it be exacted of thee to afflict it in some sort for the good of thy soul no great matter is demanded He that is ill at ease amidst his gripes and paines casts up what annoyd him so the peccant humours of our soul are not purgd by living pleasantly since the maladies of our bodies are not curd without annoiance A flint being beaten yealds flashes of light and the flesh by chastisements illuminates the mind That soul shewes it self a very beast which treats not its body like a beast Even as afflictions and crosses sent by God make men relent think upon him indoctrinate them enkindle fervour increase familiarity with God and raise their harts so voluntary austerities have like effect they make man have a more frequent recourse to God and being voyd of sensible gust they dispose him better for divine illustrations The curbing of nature is a fit disposition for increase of grace this is the ayme and endeavour of grace to divorce us from temporal corporeal and visible things and a penitential life finds this half done to its hand supposing it be accompanyd with divine grace without which nothing is beneficial to us nothing profitable The depth of our humiliation together with bodily austerity is the throne and kingdom of grace and a step to glory and the crucifying of our flesh the exalting of the spirit Thou armest thy self with voluntary afflictions against necessary ones learning thus in the school of patience how thou art to embrace those which are sent thee from God By these skirmishes thou art taught to overcome thy self and consequently disable thy greatest antagonist by whom the rest assaile thee thou also findest a more speedy redress at the hands of God in thy addresses to him Although Christ crucifyd be a sufficient warrant for our penitential austerities yet we might specify many more and principally our innumerable defaults and penalties due for them that we may make amends for what is past and lessen future misdemeanours Thy soul must be the executioner of thy flesh for this end through the great mercy of God it is repriev'd and rescued from the paines of hel fire Sometimes it happens that of two criminals sentencd to death the one partner is quitted upon this condition that he execute the sentence of death upon his companion becoming his hangman for want of another Our soul and body are joynt sharers in sin let the soul be the executioner of divine justice over the body and punish it in a due manner she when she first sinned being repriev'd from eternal damnation Suffer nothing to pass unpunished make thy self formidable to thy self as one that can be cruel against thy self a most impartial and severe chastizer of all the delinquencies and soothings of the flesh all must undergoe their due penalty There 's no citty wel governd unles its penal lawes be in force and vigour nor can that conscience be wel orderd where so many depraved affections are on foot without its courts and sword of justice The punishment thou inflictest upon thy self must be corresponding to thy fault beware God call thee not to an account for contemning corrupting justice Take pennyworths of thy self both because thou pleadest guilty hast playd the naughty judge in acquitting thy self so often by being indulgent to thy self Iustice is exercisd in cityes rather to terrify others by such an example from offending then to lessen the guilt and punishment of him that is nocent but thou reapest more ample fruit by chastizing thy self thou shalt not onely henceforth deter others from offending but thy self that thou mayst not commit new ones and diminish the punishment due for the committed Thy severity is not a piece of justice but indulgence for mans revenge works Gods pardon Yet in all thy proceedings be mindful how prayse worthy is obedience and how profitable discretion least thou practise austerity unadvisedly with decrease of thy own profit and les increase of Gods honour and service for the divel is ready to catch at all turnes Nevertheles be careful above all and at all times rather to chastize thy will then thy body but as far as a prudent circumspection divested of self love and the advice of thy superiour with regard to each ones age condition strength inclination employment and necessity shal permit such austerities thou must without mercy and self-flattery not be sparing in inflicting them O mercyful truth how can I flatter and pamper my self if I call to mind the hardship and torments which my most innocent IESVS sufferd for my sins and the paines that are indured by the soules in Purgatory It would be accounted a huge priviledge if God should permit a soule in those scorching flames to redeem its sufferings as we now may by undergoing voluntary afflictions Let us now make use of this his indulgence If a creditour should remit to one a debt of a hundred talents upon this condition if within a prefixt time he payd him only one would he think you refuse so gainful a bargain What a madnes is it in us to chuse rather to pay a hundred in the other life then one in this But what need of remission of these terrifical paines the gracefulnes and beauty which accrues to our flesh in the life to come is a sufficient incentive Remember how glorious and seemly our bodies will be in the future resurrection which shal share of comelines and splendour according to the rate and proportion of their now-present sufferances The robes which are to vest them in eternity are woven by the home spun temporal afflictions of this life Some not to appear deformed to the eyes of men have sufferd their limbs and bones to be cut and rackd half the tearm of their short life eternal beauty is purchasd at a far easier rate it is not requird that we cut them but only that we do not pamper them a litle vex annoy them Our H. Patriarch S. Ignatius understood this excellently wel who being not as yet converted to almighty God to avoid deformity commanded a bone to be cut out enduring the pain without a tear without a sigh without the least sign of grief or torture but after his conversion he judgd it an act far more heroical upon consideration of a future comelines that is to invest us in the resurrection to undergoe austerities to fast for whole weeks together to disciplin himself thrice a day to make prolix genuflexions lying on the bare ground wearing a rough hair-shirt clad in sackcloth going barefoot treating his
body in the harshest manner he could both for apparrel and rigour of fare The austerities also of barbarous hethens destitute of our hopes may make us blush at our own tepidity they wore shirts of iron which goard their bodies on all sides with sharp pricks they shretchd themselves upon tenter hooks singing the whilst hymnes in praise of their God they cast themselves under the wheeles of the chariots which carried their Idols and sufferd themselves to be bruizd to pieces they abstaind from meat for many dayes together Let it confound us that superstition is more powerful then religion and the phantasticalnes of men then the love of God The XIV Chapter That too much love of our flesh hinders the spirit IF our flesh although it be born with us and the blood which enlivens us be such domestique enemies as to hinder the life of our spirit can flesh that 's only alli'd and consanguinity much avail The spirit ought to blush at the name of alliance how much more at the allies of a fond and disordinate love If the flesh be ashamd of its kindred of the same flesh if it disclaime from obscure kinsfolks and progenitours how much more ought the spirit to be ashamd of all flesh and blood and such like affinity The soul ought to renounce her own flesh which she animates and why doth she disordinately love anothers and that void of life which servd others and perchance serves now only for food and lodging for wormes The noblenes of grace and our alliance with Christ should in all reason be forcible enough to make us forget and blush at our nature without needing the incentives of its basenes corruption and loss of allies O divine truth thou commandest me to hate my kindred that I may become thy disciple If I love them more then thee how shal I become thy spirit adhering to thee one spirit with thee Grant me by thy blood that I may not love my blood but in thine let the blood of Christ obtain so much at our hands that we love not too much the blood of sinful men Christ by his sacred blood would redeem us and become our allie by blood for he was not ignorant of the taintures and defects of our blood and our allies by blood and therfore vouchsafed a reparation The spirit is not bound to follow the lawes and dictamens of the flesh see then o my soul that neernes of blood do not taint thy love God commands thee to hate thy self and thy own flesh and blood how canst thou then love thy friends and kinsfolks otherwise then for God and according to the prescript of vertue Thou mightst with as much reason love gnats or flies as thy allies which nevertheles thou seek'st to destroy Wormes are engenderd by the same carnal parents with thy brethren why adhor'st thou them with such a loathing of stomack more then all and lovest thy kindred with such affection of hart more then God If the ground of this extraordinary love beyond the dictamens of vertue be for that they are engendred of the same Parents wormes have more from them then thy brethren for they gave not these their soul nor are they totally producd by them as the others are Hence kinsfolks and parents love and regard only the bodies of their kindred being little sollicitous for what concerns the good of their soul it being Gods handywork not theirs Yea neither didst thou receive thy body from thy parents but by them from God What lovest thou thy allies because they are parts of thy common progenitours by the same reason thou oughtest to love any of their disseverd members yea though infected with a loathsome canker If thou lovest them for resemblance sake by the same consequence thou mightst love their statua or any other ordinary man What is it to descend from the same family but only to have drawn a litle stenchy matter and corruption out of the same stinking fountain and what is worse sin also Can two with any reason boast because they fel together into the same puddle and were bemird with the same dirt Thy parent begot nasty wormes of a purer nature then thee they being void of sin and thou staind with the filth of original neither wert thou sooner partaker of life then guilty of death He that vainly glories in the nobility of his carnal pedegree seeks to entitle to honour the disgrace of common nature What els is disordinate affection to kindred but a vaunting of that common basenes which we should be ashamd of and a complacence in the ignominy of sin The viciousnes of our nature takes growth and increase by flesh and blood and our misery prospers gaines ground thence the flesh is maximd in principles wholy repugnant to the spirit Our soul no sooner begins to be but by meanes of the flesh it is infected with sin and the contagiousnes spreading still more and more it is the prime cause of all our sinful mortalities We must renounce both blood and kindred that we may be freed from this death of sin by the eross of Christ which we must carry We shal not meet with such harsh encounters as many children and youths have done who by vertue of his cross trampled under foot all flesh blood S. Iohn Goto a Iaponian of our Society at the place of his martyrdome beholding at an equal distance on the one hand the teares and sighs sweet embracements of his weeping parents on the other crosses and gibbets bloody executioners nothing dismaid with such ensignes of cruelty chose rather to cast himself into the armes of the cross then those of his kindred and sleighting couragiously all their enticing allurements â—ann to that which stood prepard for him where dying he purchasd the kingdom of God which is not bought by flesh and blood The XV. Chapter Of the loss of temporal things THe spirit is not much troubled at the loss of temporalities for which it hath more reason to rejoyce One that lies groaning under a heavy waight would he lament if a friend should remove it That which is to be taken away it s much better that God take it then death If divested of all thou be pleasing to God and he pleasd with thee to what purpose seekest thou by the access of creatures and cares to become grateful to him Let himself alone content thee without his guifts and the assurances of temporal commodities God loves not what is thine but thee do not thou love so much what is Gods as God himself Christ dispoild of all mounted the cross dispoild of all he came out of his sepulcher there he left his shrowd behind him naked also he took the citty of heaven and enterd it triumphant For love of thee who art naked he dâ—â—d naked not for love of thy goods and fortuâ—es therfore he seeks thee not them and because he seeks thee he takes these things from thee expecting thee naked in heaven
tasting gall and the whole series of his bitter Passion It s consideration is so feelingly efficacious that it made Christ himself become irksome and fearful so far as to sweat drops of blood What more efficacious to debar us of all gust then to compassionate with the sorrowful IESVS It was not without mystery that those who so perseverantly persisted with Christ upon the Mount Calvary and jointly suffered there with him concluded their life with no other Martyrdom wheras the rest of the Apostles and Disciples were crownd by the hands of persecuting tyrants For the most B. Virgin Mother of IESVS S. Iohn Evangelist and the Magdalen dyed not Martyrs a greater sorrow then any death or passion tormented them by meer compassion and was in lieu of a cruel martyrdom Let us then suffer jointly with IESVS and let our sufferings be joyfully voluntary IESVS is the way the truth and life what way will we take to arrive at a life truly happy but the life of IESVS which was a continual death and perpetual crucifixion It might suffice to make us eternally condole compassionate with IESVS and loathingly abhor all self-seeking appetites if we considerd what torture he sufferd that last night and day of his life in all his members there being no whole bit to be found in him from the sole of the foot to the crown of his head His tongue which the torments left untouchd that it might not go scotfree seems to have shard as deeply as any of the rest for the most patient IESVS complaind of no disjoyntings anguish of his limbs but only of his thirst to let us understand that even those parts which seemd to be vacant wanted not also their torment Neither did the intensenes of the pain stupify or benum them but all were preservd strong lively and vigorous that they might be more able to suffer and therfore he being ready to give up the ghost cryed out with a loud voice wherby also he gave a remonstrance of the never-relenting fervour with which he sollicited our cause amidst such bitter torments and of the humble acquiescency wherewith he accepted death by the bowing of his head and the profound respect and reverence he usd in fulfilling his Fathers precept so ful of difficulty Notwithstanding all this we ought to resent most feelingly what he sufferd all his life long in that one little member of his most holy Hart whose paine was unsufferably great even from the first moment of his conception and continued so all the time of his life It was his hart that did first and last partake of torment It was so much the more feelingly ressentive by how much the unsupportable anguish of all the rest of his members met in it the most delicate of all others as in their center No les affliction harbourd in the hart of IESVS from that moment then he felt in the garden when he swet blood through his whole body And even as there he was siezd after an unwonted and frightful manner with a lively apprehension of all the anguish and paines of his passion so also no les intensely did he apprehend the same in the womb of his most loving mother For Christs knowledg was not obnoxious to any imperfection at that time especially when he took upon him the grand affair of our redemption and all the difficulty he was to undergo and break through was without any dissimulation clearly represented to his understanding He did there most perfectly apprehend all the series of his sufferings the innumerable labours of his whole life his contempts and revilements and from that time this knowledge was as afflictive and perchance more if there could be any inequality as it was afterwards in the garden for there the sense of paine broke out and diffusd it self through all his body in such sort that the anguish dispersd through the whole did remaine les pungent in the hart but in the womb of the most glorious Virgin the whole sea of grief was confined within the narrow channel of one smal member the little tender hart of the infant IESVS When one sheds teares he is les sensible of an affliction then when the anguish is shut up and smotherd in the hart the eyes remaining dry and tearles so Christ when he did not sweat nor the blood trickld out sorrowd perchance more because no particle at all of that sorrow did evaporate nevertheles it was behoofful for our instruction to shew once exteriourly how much he continually sufferd interiourly That grief accompanyd him all along through the whole course of his life IESVS enjoyd alwaies a most perfect and intuitive knowledg of all things as they are in themselves Vnles by divine priviledg and dispensation he had bin particularly assisted the intensenes of the pain had causd death in that first instant he began to live and therfore his whole life was a signal and continual miracle Neither did his own Passion alone afflict him but much more his compassion over others he was moved to it while he considerd the distress of his most loving and innocent Mother he was moved to it in behalf of us he resented more feelingly the torments of Martyrs the austerities of confessours the discases and maladies of his Saints then they themselves who did undergo them If an affectionate Mother do more grieve at the sicknes of her child then the child himself who can deny but Christ loved his more tenderly then any mother doth her only child He did truly bear our labours our griefes did he sustain How great then must his pain needs be if it surpass that of Martyrs Penitents and sick folks comprizd in one But above the rest he was touchd with a lively compassion over us for all and each particular sin of all and each particular man who hath been or shal be to the worlds end The immensity of this pain will strike him that considers it into amazement it being able if it had not been miraculously suspended to have a thousand times bereaud him of life If some men have sorrowd so intensely for their sins that the vehemency of their contrition causd death how could it be but that the sorrow of IESVS for one alone and that the least venial sin of any one man must needs extinguish life in him he penetrating so perfectly the deformity of the fault as also the majesty of God his Father who is offended and the basenes of man the offender and loving so ardently both the one and the other as no body can reach the hight of this his charity so neither can any sound the depth of his sorrow If he conceivd so great griefe for one venial sin how much will he conceive for all and every venial and mortal so horrid and abominable he bore an unsupportable weight of sin who imposd upon us a sweet yoak and a light burden and we charge IESVS with the abominable fardel of our iniquities which forced a bloody
he would be touched with a sense of compassion and how much more if he did see his own child in such a calamity o most mercyful Father how can that venial fault be tearmed little which it is unseemly for thee to compassionate though thou seest thy own children by grace whome thou affectest so tenderly so scorched and tortured in that piaculary fornace and yet for them it was thou gavest thy life pretious blood Neither paternal bowels replenished with pitty nor infinite wisdome was wanting in thee thou art not an ignorant God who can be deceived in the estimate of a fault nor a cruel one who takes content in punishing but against thy wil wherfore if thou tormentest him so rigorously whome thou lovest so tenderly it must needs be a vast evil towards which mercy it self is so unmerciful Let us imagin a man void of all knowledg of hel or purgatory and beholding only by revelation the state of some one soul pittifully afflicted by those flames for a venial sin but wholly ignorant what might occasion such a punishment what I beseech thee would he guess to cause it any smal or petty trifle or rather some huge exorbitancy which so benigne a God resolved to chastize with so much rigour Again shal that be tearmed little which he in this life punisheth with the greatest of all punishments death If God cannot err in inflicting penalties since he inflicts so dreadful ones how great must that needs be for which he inflicts them behold for one venial sin he punished his own servants Moyses and Aaron with death for one venial sin also as is probably thought Oza and lots wife were suddainly struck with the like disaster For one venial sin the Abbot Moyses was deliverd over to the divel and for a space possessed by him and in very deed it were a les evil to have a thousand legions of divels in ones body and be vext by them then to have the least venial sin in his soul and take complacence in it The divel laboured tooth and nail for 40 yeares together to make a certain servant of God commit but one venial trespass Is the divel such a fool that he would wait and lie in ambush so long to surprize him for a matter of smal moment why shal not we be watchful at least one day to avoid so great mischief o most pure truth purify my impure spirit from such an evil and illuminate me that I may not esteem it light because I regard it but lightly since the divels themselves take it so to hart but let me esteem that great which is done against a God so great nor let me repute that contemptible and sleight which I a contemptible sleight and inconstant creature commit by sinning upon all occasions and constantly but therfore let me hold it great because I who am vile and contemptible dare do it against a God the best and greatest How great must that needs be which rather then we must but once commit deliberately it is better to embrace a thousand deaths it is better that heaven and earth returned to their first nothing and all mankind were sentencd to damnation If choise were given to the Virgin Mother while she stands at the foot of the cross bewailing the torments and death of her beloved Son whether she would have him released from these paines and disgraces and behold him presently seated at the right hand of his Father and the salvation of a thousand worlds accomplished at that instant or consent to one sole venial sin she would chuse not to do this latter and would also perswade me to do so too nay rather then this she would chuse to see her Son and the Son of God once more naild to the cross yet without any default at all and if it were needful and lawful would strike in the nailes with her own pious hand and sacrifice him with greater charity then Abraham did his Tel me I pray would it be a slender courtesy and comfort to the Virgin her Iesus if some one man were found who would put himself upon the mount Calvary in the room of Christ and be crucified and suffer in his steed perswade thy self for all this that they would rather desire a greater comfort at thy hands which is to eschew all venial sin Consider now whether that would be little which should preponderate such a piece of service nor do thou deny this solace to thy suffering Christ and his compassionate Mother Let us then cancel and abolish this opinion that that evil can be light or little which the Virgin Christ God his Father deem so great and punish so exemplarly That is not little which hinders things orderd to a great and sublime end which lessens the love of God in this life and delaies his vision in the other It is no smal rub which puts as it were a stop and let to the most speedy and powerful mercy of God and his desires Would it be accounted a smal violence that should suspend a millstone falling from heaven in the aire while it were poasting to the earth its center it is therfore no smal sin which suspends the divine munificence and the ardent desires of an enamoured soul that they cannot reach their center God and the promisd holy land of beatitude but detaines it in the flames of purgatory That is not a little displeasing to God which hinders him from giving out of hand what he hath such a mind to give and we so willingly would receive That is not little which stops the current of Gods great favours and even in this life obstructs the outlets of his profuse liberality Let us tremble at such an evil and to the very utmost of our power use all possible diligence to avoid it not enduring to brook the shame and disgrace which the name of a fault imports How can that soul take complacence in the name of a servant or a child or a spouse which is not carefull to please God and comply in all things with his sacred will how naughty a servant would he be thought that would do nothing as he ought unles his master threatning death stood over him with a drawn sword and can upon no other tearms neither by faire meanes nor foul be brought to his duty how untoward a child who is allwaies crossing his parent and seeks to please him no further then meerly to keep himself from being disinherited for the rest is wholly wrechles in accomplishing his wil and desire and is lead in all with a spirit of contradiction how disloial a spouse who should only so far forth shew her self faithfull and loving to her fellow spouse as not to provoke him to take her life in other things perpetually crossing and vexing him and were she never so often corrected shewd no signes at all of amendment what argument of love would it be in a child or spouse to say I really love my parent or fellow spouse
but little regard notwithstanding what affront I put upon him besides death or a deadly wound I will uncontroulably do what I think good nor ever labour to humour him further then may serve to save my life and secure my inheritance Who could have patience with one that should speak thus do accordingly Iust thus proceeds he who contemnes venial sins and serves God meerly to avoid the death of his soul or forfeiture of heaven by a mortal Is there think you any master of a family to be found who would give house room to such a servant or Son or spouse this is the prodigious patience of God who tolerates us even while we abuse his toleration Let us then not misprize these faults as little which although they were so yet are they many and God is great and but one Grains of sand are smal yet they may be so multiplied that they wil overwhelme one sooner then a great stone One locust is an inconsiderable creature yet what greater destruction to the fields then their multitude great citties are delugd by smal drops of raine If we had so many little wounds or pricks in our body so many pushes or blisters in our face so many rends or holes in our garment as we commit venial sins we should be halfe dead loathsome to the eye and almost quite naked and why do we suffer those miseries in our soul but because we are less ressentive of its harmes then what concerns our body and apparrel O how dare we appear before God so replenished with confusion but why do I insist upon the number one sole fault is to be dreaded because one cannot think any thing little who thinks God to be infinite nor will he account it smal whose love is great what love resides in him who makes no reckning of displeasing God he that displeaseth him in a little really displeaseth him he that displeaseth him transgresseth the lawes of an ardent love The XIV Chapter Of exactnes in small things GOd is immensly great in his service thou must esteem nothing little he were not great enough unles he exceeded all littlenes If thou lovest him true friendship is tried in the least duties Art shewes it self in little things the perfection of vertue is no les polite and therfore it stands not altogether upon ample subjects Nature is most admirable in the least things it is most tender over the minutest creatures Grace is no whit more dul nor ought to be more backward Those things which seem more minute are to be more nighly regarded Since God is so great nothing is little which eyther pleaseth or displeaseth him In good evil there is no minutenes Whatsoever is good for that very respect is great whatsoever is bad upon that very score is not little An infinite goodnes exacts by claime all our forces he that owes all doth an injury if he deny any thing Vse not these manners of speech what makes matter for this this imports but little this is of no moment at all Yea this which thou deemst nothing is a busines of great concern because what thou thinkest much or of great moment is nothing in comparison of Gods greatnes and thy obligation O immense truth how can any thing be thought little or great if the measure of my obligation diligence be thy immensity where there is no little nor great but an excess of all meane How can I say this is little if whatsoever I do for thee is nothing It is not little which is held the least since perfection consists in the least Little things are not to be sleighted because greater are contemned If thou let a spark of fire fal into a pile of dry sticks which thou keepst under thy roof a great flame will be raisd which will consume the whole edifice Our corrupt nature is as apt to take the infection of malice as a little dry flax to take flame If thou sleightest smal things by little and little thou wilt be perverted Regard not the littlenes which appeares at first but by the beginning measure the end Seeds are allwaies extreme little and yet there is more vertue and efficacy in them then in any part of the whole plant The parting of two high waies insensibly protracted into length ends at last in a great interval of distance and may proceed to an infinitude though at first les then a step would have concluded the difference If thou once swarve from thy good purposes and remit that vigour of mind thou wilt by degrees find thy self very remote from thy former fervour Great things take their beginning from little wherfore a little is not the least if it be but the beginning The beginning of every thing is its chief and principal part yea it is not calld a part but the half of the whole Our H. Father S. Ignatius did with reason hold that it was more dangerous to contemne little things then greater the dammage of these latter is more patent and may forthwith be remedied but the prejudice we sustain by the former is not perceived but by length of time when being inveterated by custome it is scarse capable of redress The very nature and enormity of sin makes us abhor detest great ones but little defects because they seem little for this very reason are contemned and this being so our mind is not bent against them Our concupiscence is sharpend and set on edge by little things as thinking that it may wander in them without any great danger when it is not so venturous in great ones it being curbed and kept in by the apprehension of a patent ensuing harm but when our desire is once enkindled a little traind up how wil it then lash forth what wil it not encounter and for this reason we must sometimes proceed with more warines and sollicitude against smal defects then great Custome which gaines prescription upon vices breeds from little things not from great because they are less frequent nor shal we find it an easier task to resist custome then nature One shal sooner have an action in law against a publick invader and forcible seizure of our goods then one that hath had them by long prescription Those things which seem light take from us all remorse and shame of committing them that towards God being once cast of what good can be expected from us past shame past grace Be ashamd to refrain from great things and yeald to little for it is disgraceful and a sign of a coward to be foild by a dwarf or weak enemy That little is not to be sleighted in which great worth may be comprized A pearl is not contemned by reason of its littlenes nay for this respect it is valued the more as containing great worth in a little body why dost thou sleight that little wherin perchance thou maist do God a piece of better service then in greater Obsequiousnes and diligence in small things gaines greater
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
lives and most remote from a soul endowed with reason how much more from a spirit which breaths God A dog will hear his masters call so will not an oak or fig tree the husbandmans nor he that over feeds himself the voyce of God He to keep Adam to his duty enacted the first law of fasting the only one of that most happy state so to recommend more earnestly to us the vertue of abstinence as if it alone were sufficient to preserve innocency and other vertuous endowments putting man in a fit disposition to hear and adhere to God Our Lord would commit the tuition of his beloved child Adam and his Benjamin of creatures to no nurse but fasting into whose faithfull hands he entrusted him that it might be the foster-Father of man and his instructer to obedience But this precept being violated Adam forth with fled from the voice of God caring so little to adhere to him that he would not only not seek nor approach him but sought to avoid God who sought him He renders himself wholly unfit for all who is not abstemious he will resist Gods holy inspirations and withdraw himself from his familiarity being weand as much from the divine breasts as he yealds to these sensual appetites What commerce betwixt God and ones belly how can God affect him who affects only his gut as his God How canst thou endure o divine truth to dwel in him who is such an arrand idolater it was anciently held a high strain of folly for men to kneel by way of worship to those things that were the handy-work of men and how fond a thing is it for thee an intemperate man to set thy hart upon that which thou destroiest and wil destroy thee towitt meat and its rellish How intendest thou to feast with God to lead a celestial kind of life to fly with him upon the wings of the winds to immortality if thou takest complacence in the life of those things which stick to the earth and are rooted and half-buried in it The life of self-pamperers is extremely mortal for such is the life of plants which are in part overwhelmed with earth Those that feed their belly increase their mortality by fatning what is mortal in them becoming more mortal by hindering eternal life by defiling their mind and so contracting their soul as to render it only corporeal Adam by breaking his fast became forthwith mortal thou becomest every day more mortal by stuffing thy self with dead things and feeding greedily on slaughterd creatures and seasond for this end that they may be entombed in thee but so much more happy shalt thou be by how much thou partakest of immortality and thou shalt partake so much the more of it if thou inure thy self to a spare dyet and to feed on unsavory meats All our life in this world is bitter full of labour and afflictions wherfore it is impertinent to go about to repayr maintain it with sweet things Eat only that thou mayst live let thy meat be such as is the rest of thy life Thou livest not to eat but to dye and thou eatest that thou mayst not dye quickly Death assailes him sooner that feeds too plentifully and delicately Food must be the medicine of life not its poyson and destruction Let thy own hunger and the gall and vinegar of Christ be all thy sauce and seasoning who for that end drunk it upon the cross because whosoever combats against sin must not seek after savory meats and the adjoyning of hyssop with a spunge signifyes the vertue of cleansing that we might have a model how to purge our soules By frugality and untoothsome meat the divine character which is engraven in us becomes more resplendent and the holy purity of our mind is refind that it may be united to God made more capable of divine impressions for if fasting drive out the stubbornest dive is from anothers body much more forcibly wil it attract God so facil and benign into our own If such be the vertue of fasting that by it thou canst purify others much more wil it sanctify thy self He breaths somewhat divine who breaths abstinence and hunger the body it self is in a certain manner elevated by the force of a disengagd spirit Iron is ponderous but it becomes light by the spirit and vertue of the loadstone and if thou also fasten and hang thy self upon God he wil sublimate thy body by the vigour of thy spirit rendring it intellectual and incorporeal The composition also of thy body is rarefyed by abstinence in such sort that divine irradiations penetrate more easily into the soul and she more dextrously steers the other squard more fitly to it by a proportionable demolishment as being disbarked of that fat rind that environd it for a great weight is no wayes weildy or commodiously mannageable Lastly abstinence containes so great a good that there is nothing to which it is not extreme beneficial Other vertues adorne the soul but abstinence is salutiferous both to body and soul Both Saints Philosophers by embracing it protracted their life to a faire old age We men designd to be immortal had contented our selves in that most happy state of innocency to feed only upon hearbs the fruits of the earth now temperance also restores to man that golden age Spare diet conduceth to the health of the body it is a natural restaurative an universal medecine fit to be applyed to al kinds of diseases The skilfullest Physitians prescribe it for the first recipe in all maladies for oppletion is the metropolis or head-city of diseases and deaths chief sergeant All the untimely deaths of yong people are in a manner caused by excess in diet But if frugality be effectual against all the indispositions of the body it wil also give redress to those of the soul Hunger makes the proud to stoop the covetous to disburse the lazy slouthful it forceth to work it renders the luxurious chast the angry man calmely patient If then frugality even when it is forced makes head against all vices if when it is no vertue it can engender vertues what remaines when it is a true and sincere one but that must needs associate God to a soul and make him its constant sejourner God took complacence in conversing with Moyses and Elias when they were both in a long fast But after the same manner that it expels puts the divels to flight saturity bereaves us of God Vnles thou resolve to banish this vice and establish in thy soul the vertue of temperance thou maist wel dispaire of the rest It wil be the same as if one being desirous to beat away a troublesome dog should in steed of a stone throw at him a crust of bread A domestique enemy must first be vanquishd ere we can fal abord with a foraign The XIII Chapter That one must take account of his proceedings by a frequent examen of himself MEN do seldome cast a
it Where is our ambition our desire if it do not display and power it self forth upon this harvest of joyes and magazine of true riches I should take it for no smal dignity to be a sharer of Christs ignominy what then wil it be to partake of his glory if the ignominy of IESVS be glory the glory it self of God what wil that be if he so magnifyd the contumely of the cross as to exalt it upon the diadems of Emperors if he did so honour his torments what wil he do to his faithfull friends if he impart greater honour to the bones of Saints here among us then all the Monarchs of the world enjoy how much â—il he impart to their soules while they are reâ—â—dent with himself wilt thou make a rude â—ssay of the greatnes of glory how much it â—xceeds our labours Calculate how much â—he celestial globe exceeds in magnitude the â—errestrial this latter being but a point in regard of the first heaven and the first heaven another point or rather nothing in regard of the highest in whose circumference to one fingers breadth of earth so vast is the disproportion thousand thousands of miles are corresponding in that heaven The self-same God is author both of grace and nature and in point of bounty he would have his guifts in heaven much exceed our labours on earth Let the expectation of this so great a good be to thee alwaies a satiating repast Whatsoever thou seest good on earth contemn it as perswading thy self that thou shalt enjoy others in heaven excessively greater What evil soever annoyes thee fear it not as hoping to be out of its reach for all eternity Whatsoever is violently plunderd from thee grieve not as believing that all is depositated for thee to be made good out of the treasures of heaven Whatsoever thou dost contemn or relinquish for the love of God deem it not lost or cast away as supposing that it is not onely to be layd up but also restord with a hundred fold seek not to shun transitory labour thou who hopest for a permanent good Thou whose desire should animate thee to suffer in conformity with Christ upon the Mount Calvary without all hope of quitting cross be sure not to quit patience that thou mayst be conforme to God in glory with an assurd confidence of arriving to so great joy If we believe all this to be true why put we not hand to work but stand like people in a dream How is it possible to have terrene things in any esteem if we make heavenly things a part of our belief Perchance we believe not so rightly as we ought Wilt thou know how thy mouth belyes thy hart when thou affirmest that heavenly things are only great if thy fortunes amounted to the value of a thousand pounds wouldst thou not willingly give them all if thou wert perswaded that by so doing thou couldst enhance them to a hundred thousand but how doth it appear that we hold heavenly goods more valuable since we are loath even being put in mind of the advantage to give what men both joyfully and of their own accord give for the base trumpery of the earth a hireling toyles all day long for a poor salary a souldier exposeth himself to a thousand deaths for anothers kingdome and we for the glory of God and our own purchase of the Empyre of heaven cannot watch somtimes one hour pray with Christ as it behooveth Let us despise base petty trifles that we may receive immense rewards It is not so estimable in it self to receive litle as to expect great matters O lover and zealot of God be sure to thirst breath after so great a good but regard not so much thy own repose and commodity as that thou shalt there securely love God without fear of interruption and the greater thy glory is the more shalt thou love him I am bound to thank thee o God of truth for joyning the reward of our labours with the love of thee and the desire of my wil which is nothing els but thy love The VII Chapter Of suffering death HOW much o Lord doth thy beneficence transcend mans hope and expectation since those very things which he accounts the greatest of evils and natures penalty prove to thy faithfull an unparalleld benefit He esteems it the worst of evils to dye and it is a great good without which we shal never arrive to the fruition of all good Thou dost very fondly o man in declining death which is indeclinable and not declining tepidity and faultines which may be declind For death hath no evil it which life gave not the sin of Adam caused in death but was not so powerful as to make it evil this dammage only proceeds from thy sin Avoid sin culpable negligence death wil be a thing desirable Men fear little and regard les the death of the soul which only is evil and may be avoided but the death of the body which is not evil and cannot be avoided they seek to shun though it be rather to be desird then that we adhere to this wicked world O the madnes of men who abuse play as it were bopeep with that precept of Christ about loving our enemyes while they care for none but the world who hates us is our professd enemy why do we affect this fleeting life which flyes us and do not affect that permanent life which expects us Why are we so sollicitous for our temporal life which we cannot retain and neglect eternal which we may obtain we may have life everlasting if we wil we shal loose this transitory whether we wil or no and notwithstanding all this men wil not do profitably for eternal what they do unprofitably for this temporal they covet not the first and they dread the death of this second as one would do a mischief Death moreover is a rare invention of Gods mercy for it easeth us of all the molestations of this life and takes away an eternity of miseries What a pittiful thing would it be if we were for all eternity subject to the necessities of rising daily and going to bed of eating of cold and heat of toyl and sicknes of seeking our sustenance of carking caring of suffering affronts or spending our whole life in a sordid and laborious drudgery what a misery would it be if one were to be a â—orter another a husband man a third a smith a fourth a servant and this for tearm â—ithout all end or respit many that were â—otoriously wicked sought death and made away with themselves merely to avoid these inconveniencies at least let us not dread it that it may be a passage to future felicity and for both these respects let us patiently accept it When God beheld us involved by the sin of Adam in such a labyrinth of woes he in his most indulgent clemency invented for our good the devise of dying that our calamities might not
fear thou art capable of doing all evil why dost thou not dread thy own condition thy own very essence is not thine but Gods yea what thou hadst before thy being was none of thine neither thou hadst then a mere nothing which had a possibility of being and even that thou hadst not of thy self but from God who if he were not thou couldst not be Why reputest thou thy self great since the very nothing which thou hadst before thy creation was not of thy self Therfore thou owest more then thy self to God for this also is a part of thy debt that when thou wast nothing he gave thee a possibility of being Thou receivedst the benefit of creation tell me what member was moulded by thy designment or to what joynt of any one fingar didst apply clay or afford materials wherof to frame it or by what prayer didst thou obtain of God to be created and calld out from among infinite natures and better individuals which sleep still in the dust of their own nothing what diligence of thine prevented that thou wert not born blind lame frantick or some savage barbarian dost thou glory in thy talents of wit handsomnes of body noblenes of birth yes thou mayst lawfully do so if God at thy suggestion made thee such But thou wilt say I glory not in being created but in being created such a one so industrious so witty and so toward of behaviour Tel me I pray if thou didst not advise God in the point of thy creatiō couldst thou advise him to create thee so witty and after such or such a manner if thou didst not suggest to him to endow thee with such a mind why dost thou boast of its piercing subtilty didst thou make choise of that mind and cunningly sift into that bottomles abyss of things possible extracting thence the best qualifyd I do not wilt thou reply brag of my natural endowments but of the vertuous practises I embrace while others sleight them I glory that I am better then they an upright man and one that fully complies with my duty Nay be ashamd that scarse once thou compliest with it and hast been neglective a thousand times O unjust and partiall sharer thou allottest to God the worst share to him thou attributest thy being and clay mest to thy self thy being good it is more to be good then only to be Why dost thou play the usurper in the better half since thou canst challenge no interest not even in the worst there is a larger distance betwixt being good and being a man then there is betwixt a man and being nothing God could make thee a man out of nothing only by commanding by acting by living but of a man to make thee good he was to serve to suffer to dye Thou art a most unjust distributer who ascribest nature to God and grace to thy self I never saw any body proud for his existency but almost all are for their being good and better and yet the former arrogance is more excusable for thou hadst had more supposing thou hadst any thing by having a being when thou wast not then after it in being good and just for we only not contributed to our creation but we moreover put a let and obstacle to our justification O most patient truth of God! how canst thou tolerate our lying arrogance were it not for its ridiculousnes while we make our selves the authors of what we most oppose and seek by all meanes to destroy If we carry our selves so modestly towards those things which are left in their nothing as not to vaunt over them for our being why are we so impudently vain-glorious against God for our being good and against men for our being better then they why takest thou pride o my soul in that which ought to put thee most to confusion for thy being nothing thou hast no reason to be confounded it is enough thou be not proud for that hath nothing of ignominy in it but thy being an impediment to God by thy sins that affords matter enough to plunge thee in a deep sea of shame and confusion The self-same that gave thee a being wil give thee a good being As thou hadst nothing of thy self towards thy existence so being created thou hadst nothing towards thy being good If thou hast nothing of thy self and in thy self towards nature so neither hadst thou towards grace Yea although thou didst nothing to deserve a being thou didst no evil to deserve a not being but to be good thou didst contribute nothing of thy own and not to be good thou didst contribute much evill Although humane nature had still remaind in that integrity and dignity in which it was created it would not preserve it self by it self but by God wherfore if it could not of it self preserve the grace which it received how can it repair what it lost and glory in that reparation Remember the infamy and corruption of our nature after its fall by sin if when it stood intire and in a flourishing condition it could do nothing of it self being now weakned and renderd contemptible what wil it be able to do A pot glories not in the presence of the potter of its forme and use fullnes though wel it may of its matter in which he had no hand thou hast nothing at all before God wherof to glory thou being moreover made of nothing why then dost thou glory of thy forme and usefulnes who mayst wel be confounded at thy misusage and canst not glory in thy matter because thou proceedest from nothing Thou hast no source which can derive any goodnes into thee because of nothing nothing is made as by way of causality If thou be nothing of thy self thou canst do nothing nor operate any thing of thy self for operation followes the being If thou be nothing of thy self if thou canst do nothing nor operate of thy self how much les any thing that 's good if what is nothing of it self have or can do nothing of it self then it is only powerful to sin which is a defect and nothing yea les and more contemptible then nothing The eye of it self hath capacity to darknes and to exclude sight or not to see but in order to actual vision it can do nothing without the assistance and concurrence of light That which is above nature and above thy self to wit an abnegation of nature and thy self thou canst not have immediately of thy self and nature but from God who is above both thee and nature If thou believest not reason in this point believe faith thou art nothing but imposture and sin of thy self is only thy perdition we are not sufficient to think any thing of our selves as of our selves but all our sufficiency is from God If we cannot so much as have a congruous thought how shal we be able to performe meritorious actions it may be born with that thou wouldst seem foolish but I cannot be perswaded that thou wouldst be
held an heretique why I pray dost thou dispise the world and conceive a love of things eternal because thou hast experienced the inconstancy of temporal things and beheld unexpected calamities as the death of wealthy and powerful men and the like Was it thou or God who combined things into such a series didst thou forecast the death of that king or Potentat which moved thee so feelingly by beholding the instability of humane things besides these self-same things passed in publick and were known to others why were not they as wel as thou stird up to a contempt of the world why when one is reclaimed doth another stil persist in his wicked courses thou must needs acknowledge some supernatural cause of this difference which neither is in us nor of us alone Perchance thou gloriest for thy being moved and not others as if it proceeded wholly from thy self Tel me I beseech thee how often have such like casualties nay more forcible then this happened and yet thou felst no such motion therfore that now it is effectual to thy conversion proceeds not from thy self but from some hidden and provident vertue from his love and sollicitude over thee who would not have thee detaind any longer in an error but excited thee sweetly to an acknowledgment of the truth and orderd things so as he knew they would move thee efficaciously Thou wilt reply that therfore now and not before thou art moved because some hurtfull friend of thine was absent or dead by whose company thou wert drawn to thy invererate and sinful proceedings or because a fit opportunity of committing them was not presented Wilt thou perchance acquiesce in this was the death or absence of thy wicked consort or this opportunity in thy own hand or was it not rather God who disposed things so and moreover furnished thee with vertuous company that thou mightst be incited by its imitation In like manner what good soever thou hast or dost or what evil soever thou wantest and shunnest it is because God disposing things for thy good removed all obstacles and seasonably gave thee incitements to goodnes moreover infused supernatural habits and helps to very many things which exceeded altogether the reach of nature What share hast thou in these if thou findst none what insolency is it to ascribe all to thy self eyther thou must acknowledg the grace of God and thy own nothing or together with Epicurus confine God and remove him from the government of the world leaving him no part of providence O most wise truth take compassion upon me most senseles who am like to doat much more then that Philosopher who never was so fond as so say that his own providence mannagd and orderd things for â—â— he would make himself better then God â—ut he that presumes upon his own force in a â—eritorious action besides that he takes away all providence from God he necessarily usurps it to himself because if there were another concurrence of things he would not exercise a good act but a vicious and although things were contingent by mere chance or carried with an inevitable destiny yet he had no reason in the world to attribute any thing to himself He that applauds himself only in the goods of nature denies that he is created by God but he that glories in his talents of vertue denies that the whole world and all creatures in it are made by him and disposed and ordaind for our good in the first he deprives God of the dominion of one only nature to wit his own in the latter he deprives him of the dominion of the whole universe in the first he robs him of his omnipotency in the latter of his wisdome also and goodnes denying that his fatherly providence had with due forecast orderd things so for our advancement towards salvation What shal I say of them that glory in those vertues which are above all nature being rankd in the highest class carry a kind of proportion with God eyther make us as it were Gods in a divine degree or at least suppose us such by a sublime participation of the deity it self as also in those which have God for their immediate object faith hope charity in which whosoever glories he must necessarily eyther deny God to be above nature or think himself of himself equal or better then God The XIX Chapter That man must not only esteem himself nothing but also a great sinner THOV art far short of being truly humble if thou thinkest only that of thy self thou hast no good thou must also hold thy self very bad Saint Paul stild himself the first of sinners and that mouth of the H. Ghost could not tell a lye wilt thou perchance hold thy self better then such an Apostle or think thou speakest very modestly or with exaggeration if thou call thy self the ring leader of the wicked esteem thy self in good earnest the first among sinners and the last among creatures because thou must prefer thy self before none at all No body ever had meaner perswasives tâ—â—n thou to incline Gods mercy towards thee do not esteem it an act of modesty to think thus for divine faith teacheth that no good at all preceded Thou hast no ground nor reason to think that any other who had experienced the like mercy and favors from God that thou hast done would have been les grateful then thou art neither is it lawful to judge so rashly of another who shouldst hold it almost impossible that greater ingratitude can be found any where then thou evidently acknowledgest in thy self If thou wert truly compunct for thy sins thou wouldst be seriously of this opinion He that is tormented with an intense and stinging pain thinks no other so great as it and that no body els suffers such anguish the affection to wit inclines and overwayes the judgement If thou didst bear any love to humility thou wouldst easily judg thy self the worst of all others The proud man out of a desire of being exalted prefers himself before all as also because he regards not so much in others their perfections as defects thou if thou wert truly humble wouldst account thy self the worst of all thou wouldst consider thy own imperfections not anothers fixing thy eye wholly and solely upon their vertues O majesty of the supreme truth what needs any interpretation I consess before thy Angels before men malign spirits without any tergiversation that I am the unworthyest of all creatures the moral dignity of a rational creature which grounds his chief praise worth and vertue consists in the knowledg and advertence of his obligation and his proceeding according to it these in no body are obnoxious to greater abuses then in me Although many vertuous men have been more illuminated and some to the outward appearance have for number outgone my sins but this juncture to have sind more grievously and les cooperated with my obligations in such knowledg of them such remorse of conscience such