I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
the aforesaid separation then break forth into these-like expressions O rich treasury of all vertues What contentment doe I feele that all good is derived from thee and by thee onely and that all goodnesse compared to thy Divine perfection is a meer nothing 8. Stretching forth thy hand to Also when thou undertakest any action any action imagine thy Lord God to be the first cause thereof and thou onely the living instrument of his Divine Majesty to whom thy Soule may thus powre forth it selfe O Soveraigne Lord of this Vniverse how truly doe I rejoyce that I can doe no one thing without thee and that thou art the prime and principall agent in all good actions 9. Taking any refection of Meat Or refreshest thy body with meat and drink or Drinke reflect who gives that gust and savour to that Creature and taking no other content than in him onely say Be joyfull O my Soule that there is no true satisfaction out of thy God and that in him onely thou hast a full abundance of all pleasure 10. If some delicious smell be Or smellest delicious odours welcome to thy sense stay not there but ascend to him who is the source of all sweetnesse and with a heart softned with comfort say Alas O my Lord as I am truly glad that all sweetnesse proceeds from thee so grant I beseech thee that my Soule being truly despoiled and uncloathed of all earthly pleasure may purely soare up to thy delicious Paradise and render a perpetually pleasing odour to thy Divine Nostrils 11. When thou art taken with the Or art delighted with musicall harmony Musicall harmony of some excellent voyce or instrument turne thy soule to thy Saviour and speake to him O my Lord and my God how doe I joy in thy infinite perfections O what an admirable harmony doe they make not onely in thy self but also in the heavenly Citizens and in all other thy Creatures 12. Thus mayst thou my dearly Or any other sensible object Beloved raise up thy spirit from all sensible objects to the contemplation of the divinity as hath beene hitherto declared It remains that thou be now in like manner instructed how to passe from the same sensible objects to the meditation of the Word incarnate by frequeâ—t reflexions upon thy Saviouâ—s Life How to raise thy Soule by the same objects to contemplate the Word Incarnate and Passion And to this effect all things of the whole Universe will conduce by considering in them as before that Soveraigne and Supreme good which is the efficient cause of their whole being and beauty and thence passing on to the admiration of his immense goodnesse and greatnesse who being the absolute Lord of all these things would vouchsafe to descend so low as to become man and to dy for man permitting his owne Creatures to arme themselves against him their Creator Many things will also particularly represent to the eyes of thy Soule these sacred mysteries and put thee in mind of the severall instruments of his severe sufferings As for example by the sight of poore cottages Of Raine Poore cottages will remember thee of thy Saviours stable and cribb If it raineth thou wilt reflect upon that Divine moysture distilling from his Body in his bloody agony The â—tones which thou beholdest will Of Stones put thee in minde of the Rocks rending in sunder at his Death the Earth Of the Earth will seeme to tell thee how it then trembled and the bright-shining Sun how it's light was then obscured Of the Sun Of the Water c. If thou considerest the water thou wilt fall into contemplation of that which issued out of his opened Side and the like of all other objects So when thou tastest Wine thou mayst thinke of Christ's In tasting Wine Vinegar and Gall when sweete odours delight thee how ill savour'd In sweete Smells were the carkasses upon Mount Calvary where thy Saviour suffered Cloathing thy selfe reflect how the In cloathing thy self eternall Word put on our humanity to adorne thee with his Divinity In uncloathing thy self In hearing Noyses Uncloathing thy selfe how he naked was naild to the Crosse Hearing a noyse or acclamations of People remember those abominable outcries Away with him Crucifie him When the Clock strikes the houre In hearing the Clock thinke how thy Saviour's Heart panted in the Garden at the apprehension of his approaching passion or seeme to heare and count the cruell stroakes of the scourges or blowes of the Hammer fastning the Nailes through his Body to the Crosse If In time of Sadnesse sadnesse and sorrow seize thee whether by reason of thine own sufferings and sicknesse or out of compassion to others conceive alas how litle is all this compared to the incomprehensible Anguishes Distresses and Dolours which pierced the Body and Soule of thy deare Saviour 13. Having thus shewed thee the Other wayes to meditate upon sensible Objects way how to elevate thy understanding by meanes of all sensible things to the Divinity and to the mysteries of the Word incarnate I will now adde other means and methodâ— of meditation drawn from the same sensible objects that as the Soul's gusts are various so the spirituall diet may bee diversly dress'd and serv'd up for their sustenance though this variety may be also very usefull not onely to the simple but even to elevated Soules well advanced in the way of the Spirit which are not alwayes equally disposed to sublime contemplations Neither need'st thou feare that this variety will any way confound thee if thou art â—overned by the rule of discretion â—nd the direction of thy ghostly Father which thou art carefully and â—umbly to follow not onely in â—his but in all other thy underâ—akings 14. When therefore objects most By considering how mean the best of them are in themselves pleasing to the eye delicious to â—he sense and desirable to flesh and blood shall be represented unto thee mark well how meane these things are in themselves though never so highly courted and cherished extolled and esteemed by worldlings how the best of them is no better than dirt and dung in respect of Heavenly happinesse for which thou art designed which thou desirest and to which thou aspirest 15. When thou gazest on the As the Suns brightness Suns glorious splendour know for certaine that thine owne Soule is far more bright and beautifull than it if shee be in her Creatours grace and favour otherwise that shee is more obscure and abhominable than darkesome and dismall Hell it selfe 16. When thou castest up thy corporall eyes to the Heavens elevaâ—â— The Heavens greatnesse those of thy Soule to those higher holyer mansions of the blessed Sainâ—â— and Angelicall spirits and there fix and feast thy thoughts as in the happy mansion prepared for thy eternall abode 17. When thou hearken'st to the The Birds melody Birds warbling notes or other
them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as dross among metalls chaff among grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the children of God I acknowledge my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the world the devil and hell it self can inflict upon me 2. And to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee ô my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty and a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence ô my Lord and my maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthyest element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction be ashamed to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceived in concupiscence nourished with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am ashamed to own my own beginning which is so horrid and lothesome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the ground-work of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time what nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and wofull thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgement of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. I came into this world ô my Lord with groanes and tears I live in it with griefs and cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horror to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of veâ—min and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay and ashâ—s why shouldest thou look to be so highly priz'd so daintily pampered thou stinking puddle Dust thou art to dust thou must return Hast thou not alwayes before thy eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and maker What thou â—â—st hitherto been I wel know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace and love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtfull of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came ô my Lord into this world in originall sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace ô merciful Lord God to avoid sin since I cannot eschew death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly sin 4. What art thou then ô my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou ô N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor nothing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not received Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledge my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdraw from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own Nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledge and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body soul will judgement memory understanding affection senses meat drink company habit books prayer Sacraments all creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honor the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. What creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in heaven if it had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountifull Lord God and made so little and bad use of them as I have done If I deny all this my conscience witnesseth against me If I confess it oh why am I not more humble Finally If such great troubles temptations and tribulations had hapened to me as have done to others I should by consenting have ere now burned in hell fire but thou O meek and merciful Creator hast spared me because thou knowest my weakness and sent me small crosses because I cannot bear greater c. Wherefore Not unto me O Lord but to thee be all honour for time and eternity O that I could know thee and know my self O that I could truly see my own nothing and totall dependancy on thee my misery and malice and thy perfection and total goodness Ay me weak and wretched N What are my forces that I should rely on them I have nothing O my Lord but what is
confession into my mouth prayers into my lips remorse into my memory resolutions of amendment into my will T is Thou O gracious God who chiefly actest all this good in me by me and for me O my All do then all in me that thou desirest And particularly overwhelm I beseech thee my whole interiour with perfect contrition not coming from a slavish and servile fear but from a faithful and filial love Grant me a true and intire grief for having offended thee not because of thy promises or threats but because thou art in thy self good amiable adorable 3. Or if mercenary interest do yet more move thee O my sensual and sinful soul For how hainously dost thou take a small injury how deeply dost thou resent a little disgrace the loss of a dear friend of health of honour or the like temporall and perishable commodities O whence is it then that thou so little apprehendest thy loss of grace and thy eminent and imminent danger of eternall damnation Is it a small matter to be Gods enemy To lose the good will of all heaven To destroy Gods image To cut up life root and branch To side with the accursed devils thy Creators sworn enemies to hatch Treason enter Conspiracie with the damned Yea and to kill as much as in thee lyes him who by his own death gave thee life O brutall and unnatural ingratitude Surely the annihilating of heaven The reason is Because the least degree of a higher order surpasses the highest degree of the lower order earth Angels men and all Nature cannot be compar'd with this malicious evil and willfull destruction of thy grace O Lord in my soul O eternal God! what a monster have I then been in grace what a prodigie in nature who have so little car'd to commit such enormous sins But O my Lord I will even now change my life I here detest all sin I make firm purpose of amendment I have a ful confidence in thee my Creator a good wil to do satisfaction and a totall resignation to thy divine pleasure 4. I am the woful criminal O just judge of my soul and I will be also the accuser and witnes the advocate and executioner in this tribunal I summon you therefore O detestable pride O abominable envy O execrable avarice O beastly lubricity and all you accursed crew of sins how long will you reign on earth how long will you dispeople Gods inheritance who brought you in amongst Gods children T is the perverted Will of man O dread Soveraign which hath done all these mischiefs Rectify ô my Lord I beseech thee this my crooked Will and murder these horrible monsters in me and grant that I may henceforth rather expose my body to a thousand deaths than my soul to one deadly sin Thy Saints will rejoyce ô God at my amendment and thy Angels will make a Feast but thy own resentment of joy will be infinite because thy love is infinite which goes hand in hand with thy essence and comprehends all love in supream eminency I will therefore expect from thee O heavenly Father the exact remembrance from thee my Redeemer the perfect knowledge from thee ô holy Spirit a true repentance and from thee ô Sacred Trinity an intire absolution and plenary indulgence from all my iniquities The grief I feel for my past offences the hatred I have against each sin at this present and the resolution I make to avoid all iniquity for the future are not equivalent in me to their enormity and hainousness I therefore humbly crave ô holy Lord God! that thou wilt accept thine own hatred against sin for that which I should and would have and in stead of the sorrow I want I offer that of thy Son my sweet Redeemer with the Sacrifice of his immaculate life and innocent death And since I cannot be impeccable by nature O my Lord nor dare presume to ask to be so by grace give me leave to prostrate my self before thy infinite bounty and clemency and beg by the merits of Jesus Christ thy dear Son and by the desires of thy essential love the blessed holy Ghost that though I may not be impeccable yet I may never sin more and if I must somtimes sin through my frailty yet that I may never sin mortally This thou desirest O Lord this thou demandest this thou commandest O give me what thou commandest and command me what thou pleasest 5. O my good Lord Jesu who art Lord of my life and shouldst be the love of my soul had I not like an ungracious and ungratefull wretch given my heart and sold my affection to fond frail filthy and fading creatures and comforts which are so far from bringing me eyther quiet of mind peace of conscience purity of soul or perfection of spirit that they leave me nothing but trouble confusion and remorse with a world of disquiet and desperate thoughts violent passions and vitious inclinations I find no other refuge or remedy but to return to thee my Centre to convert my self to thee O my good Lord and Master to cast my self in all humility at thy sacred feet and heartily to beg thy mercy pardon and reconciliation O mercifull Father I truly acknowledge my prodigality and humbly confess my treachery and am sorry from my heart that ever I offended thee who deservest so much love and service from me Beseeching thee as a guilty prisoner to be pitifull to thy poor creature and mercifully to forgive me the manifold rebellions and grievous iniquities that I have committed against thy Divine Majesty and goodness and for the love of thee I freely forgive all them who have any way offended or contristated me sincerely acknowledging that I deserve no comfort from any creature but all contempt and confusion and not only to be troubled by all on earth temporally but even to be tormented by the Devils in hell eternally 6. O how ungratefull a child have I been to offend so often and so grievously so loving and liberal a Father so meek and mercifull a Redeemer and so â—weet and soveraign a Majesty who hath always shew'd himself so benigne and bountifull to me tolerating me in my sins and expecting me to his mercy wooing me to his love and calling me to his service by a thousand means all which I have either rejected or neglected and still nevertheless given me time and opportunity to do penance O my poor soul how blind and bewitched hast thou been to leave the bread of Angels and to feed on the husks of swine for vanities villanies shadows and nothings to abandon God and all goodness on whom depends all thy hope and happiness quiet and comfort for time and eternity O blindness O folly O frenzie Would God I had never sinned Oh that I might never sin more O my God what have I done Would I had suffered on the Cross pains of body and pangs of soul when I thus N. sinned Oh what can I say or do more
and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions disgest injuries the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence The end thou aymest at is perfection the reward of thy conqucst is eternall love eternal life eternall happiness Behold ô my Lord my strength and my salvation I am fully resolv'd to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveagling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disordered passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. I know Lord that it is bootless to study perfection without the practice of mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather ô my Lord the dispersed forces of my soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my understanding will memory imagination and all my inward and outward sences from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform ô my Lord all the naturall corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spirituall infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy divine will and pleasure 4. To this end O bless my weak endeavours al-mighty and al-merciful Lord God I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensuall and subject to sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward senses the windows by which death steals into my soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divine fire cooled and quenched not only by sin but also by the distracting images of outward objects I will keep a speciall and strict watch over my tongue on which depends my spirituall life or death and cheerish thee ô beloved silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferior This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct themselves according to Gods Spirit nature with all it 's evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope Anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the laws of reason and thy divine inspirations ô my Lord and my God Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous and my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the citadell from whence sin assails me and Satan fetcheth his forces to fight against me Grant good Lord that I may Therefore every one must strive to know his own natural inclinations and then imploy all his forces and apply all his prayers and spiritual exercises to quel them never yeild to this wicked Eve persuading Adam my Superior will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawfull pleasures O that I could tame these cruel beasts my naturall passions how soon should I be master of all morall vertues O that I could so till this vineyard so delve this garden so purge it from all ill weeds of affections and prune all superfluous surgeons and shoots of passions that the seed of thy grace ô heavenly husbandman might only there take root increase and fructifie 5. I will also mortifie my Superiour and rationall part with all the curious and fruitless speculations of my Understanding all conceits of self-wisdom naturall prudence proper judgement and good liking of my own proceedings All vain and foolish reflexions of my Memory And all petty desires and affections of my Will which relate not to thee the only object and Lord of my love I am resolved ô my Lord to nip off each budding passion as soon as it peeps up in my soul to trouble it in its true repose and to hinder its liberty and tendance to thy love I will by thy gracious assistance proceed faithfully and sincerely in the hatred denial and mortification of my self and in the prosecution of thy divine love And in order to this only end and aym I make in thy presence and from the very bottom of my heart and soul these particular acts following I renounce ô my Lord for the pure love of thee all affection to worldly things Give them unto me ô gracious God or take them from me as best liketh thy divine Majesty I resign up all my interest in any thing though never so near and dear unto me Behold ô my Lord and lover I uncloath my soul from all affections whatsoever to creatures and desire nothing but thy self-alone O happy nakedness O rich poverty of Spirit O pure obedience to the divine will in all things Be you my hearts delight my whole pleasure and patrinony 6. I renounce all self-seeking Ah! my corrupt nature I abhor thee Adieu all private-interest profit praise and preferment I will henceforth performe all my actions and exercises O my Lord God for thy only pure perfect love I will seek to please and praise thee with an inward ardent and amorous affection for thy self only and not for thy gifts or graces I renounce all sensuality whether it be in meat drink sleep apparel curiosity of my five senses or any thing else whatsoever O my Lord I will make no other use of any thy creatures than I am absolutly compell'd to by necessity of nature I look for no solace but from thee alone My only comfort and content I renounce all
musicall charmes soare up in spirit to the sweete harmony of Heaven where Alleluja's do forever resound and beg of thy deare Lord that thou may'st become worthy to chant forth his perpetuall prayses amongst those heavenly quiristers 18. When thou walkest on the way Walking abroad ponder how each one of thy paces is a step towards thy death 19. When thou markest the Fowls Marking the swift flight of the Fowls of the Aire how swiftly they glide through that yielding Element and the running Waters hastning to their originall Ocean thinke how thy life slips away and thy Soule runs on to eternity with greater speed and celerity 20. When impetuous Winds are In time of Winds Thunder Stormes rais'd or Thunder and Lightning rage in the Skyes remember the â—earefull day of Judgement and â—rostrating thy selfe at the foot â—f the Crucifix adore thy Saviour â—nd implore his gracious assistance â—hat thou mayst now make such good use of the time hee lends thee â—hat thou mayst be then prepared â—o appear couragiously before his dread Majesty 21. As concerning divers Accidents Also upon all other Accidents and Occasions As of grief sorrow which are personall and peculiar to thy selfe thou mayst thus behave thee When Griefe or Sadnesse hath seized thy Heart when melancholy oppresseth thy minde or when any inconveniency troubles thy body raise up and resigne thy spirit to the supreme and eternall Will of God who is pleased this molestation should even now and thus touch and torment thee for thy good and his owne glory and bee glad of this occasion to serve him according to his owne Decree and Disposition 22. When thou castest thine eyes When thou lookest upon Christ crucified upon Christs sacred Crosse consider it as the banner of thy warfare from under which thou maist not step aside without eminent danger of being surprised by thy sworne enemies but following it closely and valiantly thou hast certaine hope to conquer them and climb up to heaven loaden with their glorious spoils and trophees 23. When thou seest the image Or the image of the Blessed Virgin representing the holy Virgin mother turne thy heart towards her now reigning in Paradise and give her thanks for having been ever ready to performe the divine will for bearing and bringing up the Redeemer of the world and for never denying her favour and succour to thee and all spirituall combatants humbly imploring it 24. So let the pictures of Saints seeme as so many representatives of And the pictures of Saints stout champions and Soldiers who by their courages and conquests have made thee a free and safe passage to follow them imitate them overcome with them and be crowned with them in eternall glory 25. Let the Churches which thou Or entrest into Churches frequentest put thee in mind that thy soule is Gods temple and should be therefore kept most purely and prepared most perfectly for his comming 26. Finally let each creature all Finally make all objects accidents instrumeÌ„ts to thy perfection objects and every accident be so spiritualized and distilled by thy understanding from their earthly and materiall drosse that they may serve thee as true instruments to the perfection of thy soule and become powerfull helps to thee contrary to thine enemies intention in thy tendance to divine union which is the onely end thou aimest at How to regulate the Tongue 1. And because the tongue hath a neere assinity with our senses for we willingly discourse of those things wherein we take delight I will here before I descend to the following doctrine briefly shew thee how thou art to regulate bridle and master this unruly member 2. Much pratling proceeds ordinarily Much talk proceeds from presumption from a certain presumption which perswades us that we are very knowing in the things we talk of and so pleasing our selves in our own conceptions we endeavour to imprint them in the hearers hearts with soperfluous repetitions and replications of the same subject to appeare thereby more masters of Reason than others and as if they stood in need of our instruction Few words cannot expresse the evill which ensues upon over-much talking for it is the parent of idlenesse an argument of ignorance the dore of detraction the instrument of falsehood and the blaster of all true devotion and spirituall fervour 3. Wherefore I advise thee in the Therefore avoid long discourses first place not to enlarge thy selfe in long discourses before unwilling hearers which is to break the lawes of civility nor yet before them who are willing to hearken to thee lest thou exceed the bounds of modesty 4. Avoid also all patheticall and And passionate expressions passionate expressions and an over-high elevation of voyce for both these are generally odious to the hearers and alwayes arguments of thine owne vanity and presumption 5. Speak not at all of thy selfe of And all talking of thy owne affaires thine owne affairs of thy patentage or kindred unlesse in case of evident necessity and then also with all possible brevity simplicity sincerity and modesty and if another seeme superfluous in such speeches concerning himself be thou edified thereat but imitate him not though his words tended to his self-abjection and accusation 6. Discourse not of thy neighbour Or of thy neighbours nor any thing concerning him unlesse a just occasion urge thee to defend him or speak well of him 7. Shew a willingnesse to talke But speak willingly of God alwayes of God and particularly of his love and liberality yet still with profound reverence for fear of failing and therefore take more content to hear others discourse than to talk thy self and conserve what good words are delivered in the cabin of thy heart 8. As for all other discourses let the only sound strick thy eares but keep thy mind fixed upon thy God And if thou needs must lend an eare because thy answer is expected yet let thy souls eye glance up to heaven And ponder in thy heart what thy tongue is to utter where thy Lord and love is and first examin briefly in thy heart what thou intendest thy tongue should utter wherby thou wilt quickly resolve whether speech or silence be now more to the purpose 9. Lastly thou wilt find by experience my dearly beloved that The praise and profit of Silence Silence is an excellent and usefull weapon for thy spirituall combat giving courage to fight constancy to continue and confidence to overcome It is his sure friend who distrusts himself and trusts in his God it conserves us in devotion and comforts us in the exercises of our duty And surely the bare consideration of the disasters caused by inconsiderate talking is a sufficient motive to make us in love with silence to which that thou maiest habituate thy selfe make frequent use of solitude and retirement from fruitlesse company and frivolous conversation whereby instead of men thou shalt
If monstrous have recourse to Gods secret judgements from a perverse and obstinate heart turne thy thoughts to Gods secret severe judgements where thou wilt find some whose works seemd to speak them highly wicked to have afterwards shew'd evident signes of holinesse and died with opinion of sanctity and thou wilt also find others who were thought to have touch'd the top of perfection tumbled downe into the miserable precipice of eternall damnation It is And tremble at the proceedings of his Providence therefore thy part to tremble at these unperceiveable proceedings of divine providence and to remaine alwayes carefull and fearefull of thine owne condition not intermedling with that of others which is concealed from thy knowledge 5. Finally beleeve it for a certainty And know that all Charity proceeds from God's good spirit that all the good and charitable constructions thou puttest upon thy neighbours actions are the assured effects of the holy Ghost and that all contempt rash censures and bitternesse of mind against them are derived from thy owne malice and and all bitternesse from the Devill thine enemies suggestion wherefore raze out of thy soule with all speed and diligence such impressions as glance at thy brothers imperfections and shut not thine eyes to sleep before thou hast excluded all such thoughts out of thy heart Of the meanes to shield us against the attempts of our Enemies at the time of death 1. Though the whole course of our life is a continual warre yet the The way to be conquerours at our death most signall and important day of battaile is the day of our death and whosoever is conquered in that last and inevitable skirmish remaines hopelesse of the victory for all eternity wherefore that thou mayst be then ready to beare this fatall brunt with constancie fight now and fall upon thine enemies before hand Is to fall now upon our enemies before-hand couragiously for he that is a stout combatant duting his life is most like to be conquerour at the poynt of death as having by long practice gotten the true use of his weapon 2. Thou art also to make death familiar to thy thoughts by frequent and attentive conference and consideration for so thou wilt lesse feare it when it comes and be freeer to resist what will then so fiercely assault thee Worldlings heare not willingly this doctrine because it interrups them in the cariere of their pleasure which they follow with over-much passion and affection and consequently leave it not without great griefe and affliction But doe thou my dearly beloved make timely preparation for a matter of Therefore make timely preparation so high importance and to this end imagine thy selfe to be sometimes all alone helplesse and comfortlesse struggling hand to hand with death and there represent to thy soule these things following which as I conceive will then most afflict thee and consult with thy own heart how to remedy all things before it be to late that so thou maist readily make use thereof in thy latest and greatest And now study thy answers to the four challenges which thy enemies will then send thee necessity For that which can once onely be acted ought in all reason to be very exactly studied before-hand lest a fault be committed which can never be redressed Of four assaults which our enemies make against us at the time of Death And first Of their assault against Faith and of the meanes to defend our selves 3. Our subtill enemies make ordinary The First is against Faith their strongest opposition when we are in the weakest condition and therefore they raise four maine batteries against us from whence they let fly their empoysoned darts at us into our death-beds assaulting us with temptations against Faith with Despaire with Vain-glory and with Illusions 4. As for the First When the Devill sets upon thee with false arguments The remedy is to retreat from thy Understanding to thy Will to batter downe thy Faith make a speedy Retreat from thy Understanding to thy Will saying Avoid Satan thou Father of all falshood I will give thee no audience for it sufficcth and satisfies me to beleeve that which the Catholique Church proposeth unto me Take heed therefore of admitting any fancies concerning thy Faith though they appeare never so friendly but take them all as indeed they are for deceits of the Devill to ingage thee in a dispute with him But if thou art so sodainly intrapped that thou wantest time to retreat stand strongly upon thy firme ground and never yield either to the reasons he allegeth or to the authorities of Scripture he citeth assuring thy self that they are either â—ull of fallacies or corruptly quoted or ill applied or falsly interpreted â—hough they appeare never so clear and evident 5. And should the subtill Serpent fall upon interrogations to intrap And to give no answer to thy enemies questions thee in thy answers As What doth the Church beleeve vouchsafe him no reply but frame an inward act of lively and firme Faith or undauntedly tell him that the Church beleevs the Truth If he againe proposeth And What is this Truth Say it is even that thing which this Church beleeveth 6. But above all things keep thy heart and mind fix't and attentive But to fix thy thoughts upon Christ crucified upon the contemplation of Christ crucified where sweetly discoursing with thy Lord and love say O my God ô my Saviour ô my Creatour succour me speedily abandon me not in my necessity let me not swerve one tittle from the truth of thy Church and grant me I beseech thee this grace that as I now live in it so I may constantly dy in it to thy glory and my owne eternall comfort Of their Second assault of Despair and the Remedy against it 7. The Devills next Engine wherewith he strives to ruine and destroy The second assault is of Despaire us Is the fright he puts into us upon the thought of our â—normous offences whence he would cast us down headlong into the guâ—ph of despair In which cruel danger stand Where thou art to observe this certain Rule fast to this certain Rule That all reflexions upon thy sins proceed from Gods grace and tend to thy good if they be followed with effects of humility with true sorrow for having offended so good a God and with a firme confidence in his goodnesse But when this reflexion disquiets thy mind makes thee doubtfull and distrustfull peevish and pusillanimous then although thy sinnes appeare indeed sufficient to make thee think thy selfe justly and eternally damned and that there can be no reason for thee to hope after Salvation assure thy selfe they are clearly the effects proceeding from Satans suggestions And therefore And to have a perfect humble thy selfe so much the more and be more hopefull and hope and humble confidence in God confident in thy God whereby thou wilt confound and
by the means of the most glorious and ever-blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ Wâ—ich thou mayst thus easily practise First fix thy mind and meditation upon God the Eternall Father then upon Jesus Christ his deare Son and our sweet Saviour and lastly upon Mary the First fix thy minde and meditation upth ' eternall Father ever-blessed Virgin-Mother 2. In thy meditation of the Eternall Father take these two points for thy subject and offer them up to his Divine Majesty First the great liking and content hee had in himselfe from all eternity concerning this perfect creature the Virgin before she had a being Secondly the wonders hee wrought in her and the content he took in her when she was borne into the World 3. And as for the first of these considerations Soare aloft and Considering the content he had in himselfe concerning her from all eternity exalt thy thoughts beyond all time and above each thing created penetrating the very eternity of the Deity and then consider what celebrity of joy and delight the Divine Majesty had within himselfe concerning this sacred Virgin and her high perfections And there finding thy Lord amidst these joyes and delights lay hold of the opportunity and addresse thy Petition unto him with full hope and confidence that for this his great joys sake hee will impart bountifully some Grace Strength and Courage unto thee whereby thou mayst be enabled to encounter and conquer thine enemies especially this vice which now chiefly tempts and troubles thee 4. Hence proceede to the consideration of those admirable vertues great gifts and singular graces conferr'd upon this most glorious Virgin And the wonders he wrought in her when shee had a being and sometimes present the whole bulke of them to the view of the eternall Father other-times choose out some particular perfection to lay open before him imploring and intreating for his owne boundlesse goodnesse sake and in respect of these vertues and merits of this his dearly beloved Spouse that hee will graciously heare and mercifully grant what thou so greatly needest 5. Then turne thy thoughts towards the Sonne of God our Lord Secondly upon God the Son Jesus and represent before him the sacred wombe of his Virgin-Mother which enclosed and carried him for nine moneths space as also the singular reverence wherewith shee received him from her wombe into her bosome when he first appeared in the World assisting him and acknowledging him true man and adoring him as eternall God as her own poore child and as her powerfull Creatour Put him further in minde of her eyes of compassion towards his poverty of her sacred Armes which so often embraced him her Kisses wherewith shee cherish'd him her Milk wherewith shee nourish'd him her labours suffered for him all his life time and her dolours at his Death by which and the like relations from the deare Mother thou shalt use as it were a certaine violence to her beloved Son to grant thy Petition 6. Lastly come to the sacred Virgin Lastly come to the sacred Virgin her selfe lay open before her her owne privileges prerogatives and perfections how shee onely amongst all Virgins and Women was especially elected by the eternall Power Prudence and Goodnesse of God to be a Mother of Gâ—ace and of pitty to be an assistant and advocate of all mankinde and that next to her dearly beloved Sons humanity wee can apply our selves to none but her for better supplies of our necessities or truer solace in our sorrowes or greater hopes of happinesse Tell her also of that true and tryed saying that no one did ever faithfully call upon her who received not a mercifull answer and present assistance by her holy Prayer and Patronage Lastly put before her eyes all her Sons sorrowes and sufferings upon Earth and beg of her for his sweet sake for his onely honour and for his glory that thou mayst impetrate by her pious intercession the effect of this thy Petition which that thou mightst obtaine he patiently underwent his so bitter Death and Passion CHAP. XXVI How to pray and meditate by means of the holy Angels and Heavenly Citizens 1. ANother powerfull meanes to obtaine thy Petition is by the Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven which is also practised two manner of ways First apply thy thoughts First addresse thy selfe to the eternall Father to the Eternall Father and present before him the Love Honour and Praise wherewith his Heavenly Court worshâ—ps and exalts him and withall lay open all the miseries labours and molestations which his Saints suffered and by his grace surmounted here upon Earth 2. The other way is by applying thy selfe to these glorious spirits as Next unto the glorious Angels and Saints themselves to them who not onely remember us amidst their joys but earnestly desire our perfection beg therefore their faithfull assistance in thy fight against vices and sometimes implore their ayd and assistance at the houre of thy Death against thy dreadfull enemies 3. Other times reflect upon those excellent gifts and graces wherewith their Lord God indued them exciting in thy soule a lively feeling of love and joy that they possesse these high perfections as much yea more than if they were thine owne since such was the good will and pleasure of the Divine Majesty 4. And that thou mayst more Dividing them into Quires according to the days of the weeke easily and orderly performe and practise this pious exercise divide the Quires of this blessed company according to the week-days in some such manner as followeth Upon Sunday meditate upon the nine Quires of Angels Upon Monday of the holy Apostles Upon Tuesday of the glorious Martyrs Upon Wednesday of the blessed Bishops Upon Thursday of the holy Doctors Upon Friday of the holy Confessours Upon Saturday of the sacred Virgins 5. But let no day passe without But every day praying to the B. Virgin To thy particular Patron some speciall devotion to the most glorious Virgin Mary to thy Proper-Angel and to that particular Saint and Patron to whom thou owest singular duty and Veneration EXPLICATION AMongst which I perswade thee to place S. Joseph the deare Spouse of the sacred Virgin who as experience and contemplative persons testify will assist thee by And to S. Joseph his holy Prayers in all thy temporall and spirituall necessities and particularly advance and direct thy Soul in its spirituall Exercises of Prayer and Contemplation And surely if our loving Lord so highly esteemes his other Saints because they yielded him his due honour and obedience upon earth how much more doth hee value this most humble and happy Saint and how prevalent are his prayers like to be with that Divine Sonne who honoured served and obey'd him upon Earth as his Father CHAP. XXVII How to meditate upon the holy Crosse and Christ our Saviour hanging thereon to excite and move our affections 1. I Have before shewed thee O my
future And for an acknowledgment of thy extraordinary obligation for thy Saviours sufferings undergone for thy sake with a resolution of amendment thou wilt resolve to serve him love him and suffer for him hereafter The third profit is that thou wilt fall out with thy perverse inclinations The third a persecution of our passions The fourth an imitation of Christs vertues and passions and persecute them to death be they never so little The fourth is that thou wilt force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to imitate the virtues of thy deare Saviour who endured all this not onely to save thee and satisfy for thy Sinnes but also to give thee an example to follow his sacred steps Another way to meditate on the Passion And now my beloved I will here declare unto thee another method of meditating upon Christs passion which thou maist make use of as thy devotion and occasion shall suggest unto thee If thou desirest for example to obtain patience in imitation of thy Redeemer consider these points following First What the afflicted soule of thy Saviour doth towards his heavenly Father By considering Secondly What the Father doth towards this soule of his Sonne Thirdly What this soule doth towards it selfe and its sacred body Fourthly What doth thy Saviour towards thee Fifthly What shouldst thou doe towards thy Saviour First therefore Consider how the soule of Jesus Christ being totally First how Christs soule carries it selfe towards his heavenly Father intentive upon God Is amazed to behold this infinite and incomprehensible Majesty in respect whereof all things created are as a pure nothing submitted though immutable in his glory to the sufferance of such unworthy usages upon earth for man from whom he never received any thing but disloyalty and injuries And how it afterwards adores thanks and offers up it self intirely to the disposition of the divinity Secondly how the Father towards him Secondly Consider how God willeth and exciteth the soule of thy Saviour to suffer for thy sake all those blowes buffets scourges spittles blasphemies thorns and death upon the Crosse giving him to know how well it pleaseth him to see him thus replenished with all sorts of affronts and afflictions Thirdly passing on to the soule of thy Saviour Christ Consider how with his understanding which is all Thirdly how the soule towards it selfe and its sacred body light knowing how highly his passion pleased God and with his will which is al fire loving the divine Majesty beyond measure which thus invited him to suffer for thee he disposeth himself readily joyfully contentedly to obey his sacred will and pleasure And who can dive into the depths of those desires which this pure and loving soule of thy Saviour had to suffer for thy sake It found it selfe as it were in a Labyrinth of troubles casting about to encounter new wayes of sufferings and therefore freely gave up it selfe and it 's innocent body as a prey to the pleasure and cruelty of the most lewd and worst sort of villains Fourthly Consider in the next Fourthly how thy Saviour carryes himselfe towards thee place thy sweet Saviour amidst his bitter torments fixing his eyes full of teares and tendernesse upon thee and conceive thou hearest him thus expostulating with thee Behold my Child whither thy immoderate desires and unmortified affections have brought me because thou wouldest not use a little violence to thy selfe See and consider how much and how willingly I suffer for thy love and to give thee a pattern of perfect patience I beg of thee ô my deare child and I conjure thee by all these my sufferings and sorrows that thou wilt willingly embrace and cheerfully carry this Crosse and any other which I shall think fit to lay upon thy shoulders and that thou abandon thy selfe intirely into such hands as I shall permit to persecute thee in body or fame how vile contemptible and cruel soever they be O didst thou but conceive the greatnesse of the comfort I should receive in this thy patience and courage But thou mayst read it in these my wounds wherein my love to thee is written in bloudy characters and which I willingly receive as so many precious pearles to enrich thy poore soule with all sorts of vertues and perfections because I love it above all things created And if I thy Lord and Creatour am reduc'd to this extremity for thy love why ô my deare Spouse wilt thou not consent to endure a little to satisfie my hearts desire to supple my wounds and to mitigate these my pains caused by thy impatience which more afflicts my soule than these grievous torments doe my body Fiftly Consider well who he is Fiftly how thou shouldst carry thy selfe towards thy Saviour that speakes thus unto thee and thou wilt find that he is the King of glory Iesus Christ true God and true Man Mark also the greatnesse of his grief the variety of his torments and the manner and indignity of his disgraces too bad for the worst of men or most infamous malefactor in the world Yet thou seest thy Saviour amidst all these affronts and afflictions not onely unmoveable mild and patient but even joyfull and content as if hee now kept his marriage-banquet And as a little water rather strengthens than extinguishes a full kindled fire so by the increase of his torments which were small in respect of his excessive love his content and desire of suffering farre greater was more and more enkindled and augmented Consider further that he endured all this by no externall violence nor for any self-interest but as he told thee for thy love and that thou mightst imitate him and exercise thy selfe in the vertue of patience And then penetrating into that which he desires thou shouldest doe and into the content thou shouldest afford him by this thy practice of patience produce acts of a passionate will to beare not onely this Crosse patiently and joyfully but any greater that so thou maist imitate him more perfectly and content him more abundantly And imprinting in thy mind a lively image of these his sufferings and of his constancy therein be ashamed to thinke thy patience so much as a shadow of his or that thy affections are really any at all being compared with his and tremble that the least thought of not enduring for the love of thy Lord should remaine in thy heart Thy Crucified Jesus my beloved is the best book thou canst read in Christ crucified is the best book to read in and the liveliest image thou canst look upon to draw the perfect pourtrait of all vertue For it being the book of life it not onely informs thy understanding by words but also inflames thy will by example The world is full of books yet all of them together cannot so speedily and perfectly teach the true means of obtaining all vertues as doth the right contemplation of Christ upon his Crosse But they And to learne all
honour is to him For to suffer for God is the best prayer and makes thee truly devout the most acceptable prayer And therefore to endure this drynesse with perfect patience and humble resignation makes thee truly devout because true devotion consists in no other thing than to have a ready will to follow Christ thy Lord with thy crosse on thy shoulder whither and which way hee pleaseth having and desiring God only for God and sometimes leaving God for God 9. If therefore spirituall persons especially Religious men and women would seeriously examine and measure their progresse in the way of perfection and piety by this Rule and not by the feeling of sensible devotion which many doe chiefly And not sensible devotion regard they surely would make better use of sensible comforts in their exercises of devotion which their loving Lord affords to make them more zealous in submitting to his sacred will which disposeth all things in order to our salvation and benefit Wherein many are deceived 10. And in this also many are much deceived that when they are troubled with impure and perverse thoughts they presently become fearfull and faint-hearted and as if God had utterly forsaken them thinke it impossible that his holy Spirit should inhabit a heart so troubled and tormented And they so intricate themselves in these fancies till by degrees they fall into a grievous dislike of themselves and lastly into a certain dangerous despaire Which they no sooner apprehend in themselves but they presently run to their wonted wayes to recover their quiet But hereby they shew themselves little gratefull to God who therfore permits them to be thus troubled and tempted to bring them to the cleare knowledge of their owne nothing that so as wretched frail and desolate creatures they may more seriously seeke him and more diligently draw near him 11. Wherefore ô my beloved What thou art to do in this distresse that which thou must doe in such a distresse is this Enter straight into a profound reflection upon thine own basenesse and there humble thy selfe and confesse thy peevish affections and passions and acknowledg thy pronesse to fall if left to thy selfe into all manner of wickednesse and that without thy loving Lords care and custody helpe and defence thou wouldst be cast downe headlong incontinently 12. This done raise thy heart with a good hope and confidence in thy Creatour seeing it is hee only who permitted thee to fall into this adversity that thou might'st take hold of the occasion to draw neerer unto him by humble prayer and therefore thou art obliged to render gratefull thanks to his divine Majesty for these-like troubles and temptations And take this as a certainty That all such perverse thoughts are sooner expelled with meeke sufferance and patience than with much solicitude and study CHAP. XXIX That the worthy frequenting of the most Blessed Sacrament is an efficacious meanes to conquer our passions THe sacred Communion or most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is received by devout Christians for divers ends But if thou desirest to take it for the particular strengthning of thy soule against the assaults of evill inclinations attend to what I shall now teach thee 2. The day before thou intendest Meditate the day before thy Communion of thy Saviours desire c. to come to thee to communicate meditate if thy leasure give thee leave of the great desire thy dear Saviour hath to unite himselfe to thee by the meanes of this Sacrament and thereby to root out thy vitious affections For this his desire is so immense that no created understanding can comprehend it 3. But that thou maist have a small glimps thereof consider these two things First What pleasure our Lord takes to dwell in us since the holy Scripture calls this his delights and in My delights are to be with the children of men Child give me thy heart And how much he hateth sin requitall of this love he only requires our hearts Secondâ—y how much he hateth our sinnes which â—â—â—der his nearer union with us and are directly opposite to his incompaâ—â—ble perfections For he being the â—â—ely and chief good the purest light â—â—d most perfect beauty cannot but detest that which is meer darknesse frailty and the corruption and Canker of our wretched soules 4. And that this loving desire of thy dear Lord may take yet deeper impression in thy mind meditate often of his mervailous works related in the Old and New Testament especially of his most bitter Passion and cruell death which he did expresly suffer to deliver thy soul from sinne and to cleanse it from such affections as are contrary to his divine Majesty Concerning which point all the illuminated Doctours of Gods Church doe unanimously conclude and teach That Christ our Saviour would againe if it were needfull exposâ— himselfe to a thousand deaths to free us from the least evill passion or affection 5. By such considerations thou And move thy soul to a reciprocall desire and affection towards him wilt easily gather the great desire thy deare Saviour hath to dwell with thee and from thence conclude how fitting it is that thou shouldst reciprocally stirre up in thy selfe an ardent affection to receive and entertain him Which thou mayst do by these and the like jaculatory prayers Come ô my Lord and my love helpe thy caitif creature to conquer her enemies When ô when my deare spouse will that happy hour come that I may receive thee the bread of life and being comforted and encouraged by thee may fully conquer my selfe and totally subdue my owne evill passions and disordered affections 6. And when thou art hightned And then provoke thy passions to battail with the hope of thy sweet Saviours comming into thy soule then provoke thy passions to battaile call up thy affections and curb them againe and againe with perfect hatred and disdaine and this done produce acts and desires of the vertues which are opposite to these vices And let this be thy evenings entertainment and mornings â—mploymâ—â—t 7. But when the hour of sacred Being near the time of Communion thou art to fear communion draws neare think seriously of thine owne faults failings and unfaithfulnesse to thy Lord God since the time of thy last approach to the sacred table for which ingratitude and unworthinesse thou tremblest with fear and confusion before his dread Majesty But then againe encourage and comfort thy But also to have courage and coÌ„fidence selfe with the consideration of his goodnesse his readinesse to pardon and his inclination to mercy and with a pious confidence that he will have thee receive him notwithstanding thine own indignity go on with alacrity of spirit to the holy banquet and joyfully embrace thy Lord God in thy soul 8. The Sacred Communion thus After Communion discover thy wants performed presently shut up thy self within the closet of thine own heart and discover to thy Saviour thy
wants and thy weaknesse saying in thy mind Thou seest ô my sweet Saviour how I am possessed with this passion and pestred with this perverse affection Thou also well knowest ô my Lord my weaknesse to resist it and that â—â— is not possible for me by my owne diligence to be delivered Therefore this battail is thine I resigne this my quarrell against these enemies into thy powerfull hands and from thee alone I look for the victory 9. After thou hast thus silently And constantly hope for the divine helpe prayed turn thy selfe to the eternall Father and piously present his deare Sonne Jesus unto him for the same effect for which thou now receivedst him into thy soul And expect with constant hope his divine helpe which although thou presently perceivest not yet thou shalt infallibly and plentifully receive when it shall be most expedient for thee CHAP. XXX How to excite in us the affections of love by the sacred Communion IF thou desirest to stirre up in thy soule by meanes of this most holy Sacrament that fervent love of thy Lord God which destroyes and consumes all self-will and selfe love within thee Settle thy selfe in the evening which precedes thy communion to meditate upon thy Lords immense love and liberality towards Consider Gods love and liberality thee unworthy wretch the worke of his owne hands how not content to have formed thee of nothing to his image and likenesse and to have sent his onely Sonne from heaven to inhabit our earth and to serve thee for the space of three and thirty yeares in continuall labours and travails and lastly to undergoe his most bitter passion and ignominious death for thy redemption He would further bequeathe this his Son unto thee in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist for the perpetuall food and refreshing of thy soul 2. And that by the due consideration Especially shewed in the sacred Communion of this speciall benefit of sacred Communion thou maist become all fire and love thou shalt thus order thy devout exercise Consider in the first place Who it Weighing first who it is that comes thus unto thee is that conferres on thee this so large and liberall gift Surely it is thy Lord God himselfe the divine and increated wisedom and goodnesse whose worth and perfection infinitly exceeds the reach of all created capacity 3. Then looke upon the gift it self 2. What he gives thee which is the true and onely Sonne of God of equall height nature and substance with the heavenly Father and holy Ghost Now if a small gift proceeding from a King hath its high value in respect of the giver how highly is this gift to be valued by us which is God and given by God himselfe as a token of his true love and a perpetuall memoriall of his tender affection towards us 4. Again reflect upon the eternity 3. The eternity of his love of this love by which it was decreed by his most divine most hidden and most holy wisdome that he would thus give thee himselfe for thy food and refection and hence begin with joy and jubily of heart to sing and say within thy selfe O infinite goodnesse of my God! and is it even so that thou lovedst me in thy endlesse eternity didst thou ô my Lord and my God so much value me thy poor and unworthy creature that thou remembredst mee in thy blessed eternity and hadst an ardent affection and desire to give me thy self for the food of my soul 5. And finally looke into the purity 4. The purity of his love of this love which so great a Lord shewes unto so mean a worm How different is it from all earthly affection how free from the least mixture of profit and selfe-interest How farre is it above thy merits and how purely is it a worke of his onely mercy and bounty 6. Having thus seriously and sweetly with affection and admiration meditated of the divine goodnesse Thy heart may breake forth Hence break forth into admiration into these raptures Whence is it O my Lord that thou so lovest me an abject creature Why O King of glory wilt thou so nearly joyne me to thy selfe who am but a litle dust and ashes I well conceive thy designe O my deare Lord this thy excessive love towards me It is to win me reciprocally to thy love O the purity of divine love Thou lovest me ô my God and givest thy whole selfe unto me for no other end but that I may in gratitude give thee my love life and all entirely and this for no need thou hast of me but meerly for thy mercies sake and for my advancement and profit that by this sweete tye and happy union of love my earthly heart may be raised up to become one with thy divine heart ô my Lord and my God EXPLICATION HEre all ravisht with joy to see And ravishment to see thy self so highly prized thy selfe so highly prized and beloved of thy Lord God withdraw into the secretest part of thine owne heart and there acknowledging that all this powerfull love is to intice thy poore and inconsiderate selfe unto his divine Majesty make so And make an intire oblation of thy self to him absolute an oblation of thy selfe unto him that thy memory may scarcely thinke of any thing but thy God thy affection may abhor all content which comes any way without him and thy Vnderstanding may admit of no other object for its continuall entertainment than him who is the onely satiety and satisfaction of all thy inward faculties and outward senses And since there is no action amongst And this being the chief act of Religion all them which concern our Religion and loyalty to God which can compare with this of receiving him worthily in the most holy Sacrament either in appeasing Strive to perform it most perfectly his anger or uniting us to his love Force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to prepare purifie and open thy heart unto him and to shut it against all things created 7. Then offer and dedicate thy self humbly and wholly with heart and Text. affection to the divine pleasure Dedicating thy self wholly â—o him and retaine an ever ready and inflamed desire to please God and follow his blessed will And when this holy desire and affection shall be throughly enkindled in thy soul thou wilt see me to move thy Lord God also to be so much enamoured with thee that he desires thou shouldest freely open thy heart to him that he may the next morning enter And freely open thy heart to him in unto thee feast with thee and take his full delight in thee Then doe thou also declare thy mutuall desire to receive him with these kind of Jaculatory prayers O heavenly and divine manna when will that wished houre come that I shall to thine owne content receive thee into my soul Ah when shall I be surely united unto thee by
sincere affection When shall I O onely life of my soul relinquish all self-will and vanquish all my passions and imperfections 8. In these and the like devotions thou maist spend the evening and morning to excite cherish and encrease thy desire to receive thy deare Saviour that so thou maist perfectly please him and be most happily united unto him And in thy pious practices of these things take this Caveat Be sure to keep each power and faculty of thy soule pure and But take heed of vanity and curiosity free from all curiosity of worldly things and from all idle and vaine thoughts Take also the like care of thy outward senses lest thy heart steale out by them and so thou lose all thy devotion EXPLICATION THe time of the sacred Communion At the time near the Communion drawing nigh think thou art to receive the Lord who created this great Universe and thee to his owne likenesse the Sonne of God who died for thee nâ—ked on the 1. Think what thou art going to doe Crosse that increased goodnesse which hath so often freed thee from danger death and damnation which thy sinnes deserved Thanke him with most profound Thank humility and adore him uniting Adore Implore all thy spirits and forces of body and soule togeather as true God and true man Beg also his pardon for thy faults and that the same love which moves him to grant thee this great gift may also induce him to purge thy soule from the staines of all sinne and uncleannesse thereby disposing it to a more pure and perfect union with his divine Majesty When the Priest pronounceth those sacred words Domine non When Domine non sum dignus is sayd sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy accompany him with these following and speak to thy Lord and love from the bottome of thy heart I am not worthy to receive thee ô my great Lord before whose Majesty the Angels of heaven tremblingly confesse their owne nothing I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest enter into my heart who am one of the meanest weakest and ungratefullest creatures upon earth I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest lodge with me because I love thee not and I remember thee not though these are prime reasons of thy instituting and remaining in this most blessed Sacrament Thus humble confound and abisme Humble and Confound thy selfe thy selfe at the serious consideration of thy sinnes malice and misery but then raising up thy heart with hope by the following words Sed But still raising up thy heart with hope tantum dic verbo sanabitur anima mea Doe thou onely speak the word ô my Lord and my soule will be saved Enter ô my love into this unworthy harbour and make use of thine infinite power and goodnesse in pardoning my sinnes supplying my defects and protecting me from my enemies 9. And after thou hast received Text. Having communicated entertaine thy guest with amorous expressions this divine Sacrament betake thee presently to the innermost closet of thy heart and there enter into communication with thy holy guest using these or the like loving and respectfull expressions What hath moved thee O great King of Kings to enter in to me who am nothing but a miserable despicable vild blind and naked creature And he will answer thee Love for thou art my dove my friend my sister my spouse and my dearely beloved Then thou maist reply O increated love ô sweetest dilection ô friendly and faithfull charity what wouldest thou have me doe what demandest thou what desirest thou I ask nothing saith he but love I would have nothing burne in the harth of thy heart but the fire of my love that it may devour all forraine love within thee and destroy all self-wil and seeking This this is my desire because I would be truly thine and would have thee likewise be totally mine Which can never be compassed untill thou freely deliverest up thy selfe to my will and pleasure For without this entire resignation thy fancy will be alwaies fastned to the loving and liking of thy selfe and thine owne actions be they never so meane I desire therefore that thou shouldest hate thy selfe that thou maist have the love of me I demand thy heart for my habitation that I may joyne and unite it unto mine for to this end was my heart opened to thee upon the altar of my Crosse My will is I say ô my dearly beloved spouse that thou desire nothing think nothing understand nothing see nothing feel nothing but my selfe onely that so I onely may be in thâ—e and thou totally turned into me and that thou maist possesse in me perfect quiet and I in thee pleasant context 10. Lastly thou shalt offer the holy And Lastly offer up the divine Sonne to his heavenly Father Sonne to his heavenly Father for thy selfe for the whole world and for the soules departed in memory and union of that divine oblation which he offered upon the holy Crosse presenting in like manner all the unbloody sacrifices to the divine Majesty which are that day offered up in his universall Church CHAP. XXXI Of Spirituall Communion ALthough my beloved thou canst receive thy sweeet Saviour 1. Thou maist thus often Communicate sacramentally onely once a day yet thou maist receive him spiritually every houre and moment For nothing can hinder thee from this but onely thine owne fault and negligence And this spirituall Communion may sometimes prove more profitable to thy soule and pleasing to thy Saviour than the sacramentall especially if there be a defect in thy due and diligent preparation 2. For as often as thou desirest By frequent desires to receive thy loving Lord God thus spiritually into thy soule thou shalt find him ever ready to feast thee with his owne sacred hands and thou mayest thus easily dispose thy selfe unto it Turning thy selfe to thy Saviour to this end reflect upon thine owne frailty and frequent failings and conceive an inward sorrow and detestation of thy defects then make thy supplication with a loving affection that he will not disdaine to enter thy poor cottage and feast thee with his owne true body and blood 3. So also when thou art moved And it is an excellent exercise against passions with a pious zeal against any perverse Passion and desirest efficaciously to mortify it or to plant some vertue in thy soule make use of this spirituall communion by converting thy thoughts towards thy Lord God and invoking his aid with ardent prayers beseech him to enter and possesse the secret part of thy soule Or calling to mind thy last sacramentall communion speak to him with an inflamed desire When ô my good God shall I againe welcome thee into the closet of my heart Come now O my Saviour and comfort me spiritually with the like strength and vertue EXPLICATION IF thou wilt practice this pious How to make
source of all goodnesse thank him for all his benefits and blessings for the inspirations he hath sent thee and the good desires of vertue he hath given thee for his deliverance from dangers and defence against thine enemies CHAP. XL. Being a Conclusion of the whole Worke. 1. MUch more might be said of This short booke weâ—l practised is sufficient these important matters but let this which is here delivered according to my poore Talent suffice for the present which surely if thou endeavourest to keepe in thy memory and accomplish in thy actions thou hast sufficiently learned and laboured 2. But in respect of thy weake capacity and my proposed brevity it will be necessary that thou use a studious diligence in often revolving and meditating upon these foregoing Precepts For by frequent consideration and continuall exercise thou wilt certainly increase thy inward strength whereby to conquer all thine enemies EXPLICATION ABove all things beg incessantly of the Divine Goodnesse the gift of perseverance in thy unwearied endeavours against thy passions and imperfections it being the chiefe weapon in this spirituall warfare against thy never-dying enemies which like ill weeds are ever budding and breaking forth so long as the Earth hath any life in it to nourish them 3. Resolve therefore to betake thy Texâ— If thou resolvest to fight manfully selfe to these proposed Armes of defence and to fight stoutly manfully and constantly because no man can avoid this combat without endangering the losse of the conquest Nor can there be any hope of Peace with such enemies which endommage them most who most dâ—sire to enter league and friendshâ—p with them 4. Neither be thou terrified at And not to be terrified at thy enemies power their seeming power and cruelty since all their force and fury is in the more powerfull hands of that Supreme Captaine for whose honour thou art ingaged in the battail wherein none can be vanquished but they that will themselves And if thy Lord for whom thou wagest this war doth seem sometimes to withdraw his Assistance and delay thy conquest over thine enemies for a time yet be not thou faint-hearted but fight on couragiously being most certain and secure that his Goodnesse Power and Providence directs all events and more especially all adversities to the best profit of his souldiers 5. These thoughts will beget in Though the victory seems to come slowly on thee a generous spirit and a constant heart to resist and fight with courage and therefore though the victory comes slowly on beleeve firmly that this deferring is either to free thy soule from secret pride and conserve thee in true humility Or else to perfect thee in vertue and to teach thee to become a tryed Souldier by these long continued conflicts Or surely for some other good of thine which thy Lord then conceales from thee for thy greater merit and improvement 6. Go on therefore O my dearly beloved and enter these lists with a cheerfull and heroick minde lest thou seem ungratefull to thy loving Lord God who so much tendred thy good that he suffered death for thy sake And attend carefully to every Counsell and Command of thy Captaine Christ Jesus that thou mayst totally rout and ruine all thine enemies For if thou permittest but one only to live and lurk in thy Soul it will be as a moat in thy eye and as a Launce in thy bowels and prove a perpetuall impediment in the progresse of so glorious a Victory APOC. 2. 7. To him that overcommeth I will give the hidden Manna 1. KINGS 15. 18. Thou shalt fighe against them untill their utter destruction The generall Table containing the severall Chapters of this Treatise as they stand divided into numbers And being a brief compendium of the whole worke The Spirituall Conflict Or The Arraignment of the Spirit of Self-love and Sensuality at the bar of Truth and Reason Chap. I. WHerein Christian perfection consists The importance of this knowledge is very great Numb 1. Some place perfection in austerity 2. Others in reciting many prayers 3. Others in exact observance 4. All which are good meanes but not directly tending to perfection 5. And they that rest in these lower exercises are in great danger 6. As may appeare by the rest of their actions 7. And especially by their want of resignation in time of affliction 8. True perfection therefore consists in the knowledge of God and our selves In the love of God and hatred of our selves In resignation to God's will and denying our owne 9. All which Christ hath taught us by word and example 10. And we must also do it if we meane to purchase victory 11. Nor is there any thing more glorious to our selves or more gratefull to God 12. But to obtaine it we wust provide foure necessary weapons 13. Chap. II. First Distrust of our selves which is gotten by a deep sense of our owne nothing 1. By Prayer 2. And by often reflecting upon our owne weaknesse 3. And this self-knowledge is a lesson must be well learn'd 4. And we must be carefull to rise speedily after our fall 5. The great necessity of this distrust in our owne strength is inforced by the corruption of our nature and the frailty thereof and by considering how much this acknowledgment pleaseth God and presumption displeaseth him 6. Chap. III. Secondly Confidence in God which is obtained 1. By prayer 2. By considering the divine power wisdome and goodnesse by which he can knowes how and is willing to help us 3. By meditating upon holy writ 4. Another means is by thinking on our owne frailty and Gods omnipotency at the beginning of each action Whereby we shall not be foolishly dejected at our frequent failings 5. A necessary Caveat for all spirituall people 6. By Gods assistance we can doe all things But many are deceived in presuming upon their owne strength 7. Chap. IV. Thirdly Continuall Exercise 1. Which consists in the right use of the Understanding 2. Which is to be kept from Ignorance by prayer and by a diligent discussion of our own actions judging things according to their true worth And this will open our eyes to see the meannesse of all worldly vanities 3. A necessary caution to keep the will from sixing its love untill the Understanding have first pondered the object 4. And the same caution is necessary also in holy things 5. The understanding is to be furthermore weaned from curiosity 6. How highly this conduceth to perfection and how cunningly the Devill plots against it by suggesting pride to our Understanding 7. Which is farre more dangerous and more difficultly cured than Pride of the Will 8. Chap. V. Of the Will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions A will to doe well sufficeth not But our actions must also be performed onely to please God 1. Which to attaine to Apply thy Understanding to know Gods will 3. And take heed of being deceived because nature is
subject to seek her selfe 4. This intention of doing all for God is to be always made in the entrance upon any work And to be renewed in the prosecution of it 6. Lest self love creep in and so change and corrupt it 7. He that doth all things to please God remains in perfect indifferency and hath alwaies what he desires whâ—ch shews the high importance of this pure intention 8. And it may be kept even in things ayming at our owne good Finally it puts such a worth upon our actions that the best of them without it is lost and may be sinfull and the smallest with it is most acceptable to God 9. If this exercise seem hard at first yet use will render it easie and soone beget a habit in our soules 10. Especially if we consider how dearly our Lord hath loved us as appears in our Creation Redemption Preservation and his other benefits which are so great that none but God himselfe can comprehend them 11. Chap. VI. There are in man two wills The Rationall seated between Gods grace our sense 1. And the sensuall 2. The truly vertuous persons yield promptly to Gods will vitious to their sensuality But they who of sinners are become converts have the greatest conflict 3. Who must therefore resolve to bear patiently the losse of their pleasures There are divers sorts of unmortifi'd souls seeming good but full of imperfection ignorance and blindnesse 4. A danger in the choyce of spirituall Exercises discovered 5. Chap. VII Of the fight against Sensuality and of the inward way of the Will to acquire Vertues When sensuality rebels 1. Look strictly to thy reason that it consent not and recall that motion againe and againe and as often conquer it 2. Also produce acts of those vertues which are contrary to these vices 3. But beware of thy cunning enemy who sometimes suppresseth these motions 4. For then it is thy part to excite them and fight afresh with them 5. Till thou hast gotten a perfect hatred of them 6. And the way to plant vertues is to practice acts contrary to those defects The reason whereof is because as long as the root of vice remains alive in us it will still bud forth and choak up our plants of vertue And therefore we must make many Acts contrary to the vicious habit to implant the habit of vertue 7. And though this be full of paine yet it is also full of profit 8. The like diligence must be also used against the least evill motion 9. Yea and against lawfull affections when they are not absolutely necessary 10. And this is the way to become truly spirituall 11. Because all vice springs from the yielding to sense and all vertue by subduing and submitting our will to Gods 12. Chap. VIII What he must doe who feels his Reason conquered by Sense So long as thou consentest not to Sensuality fear not 1. For victory consists not in feeling no motions but in not yielding 2. But if thy enemy surpriseth thy Reason then give back to gaine time and strength 3. And if thou hast time help thy selfe with consideration 4. Whether thou hast deserved this affliction If so rest contented If not think upon thy former sinnes not yet fully punished 5. Yea though they were yet self-deniall and sufferance is the way to heaven 6. And if there were another way yet thy duty to God binds thee to cbuse this 7. As being most gratefull and pleasing to his Majesty 8. Chap. IX That we must not shun the occasions of these Combats The way to get true vertue is not to avoid but to seek the occasions of combat As for example To get Patience shun not the company 1. Or the imployment which is tedious to thee 2. And the same rule is to be applied to troublesome thoughts 3. Yet a yong Scholler must be wary in waging this war but never desert the Field for then he will still be unprovided This is good in all cases except that of carnality 4. Chap. X. Of the fight against sudden Temptations and Passions First ponder them in thy understanding 1. And forsee what is like to befall thee 2. But if some other crosse happens not foreseen fly to the thoughts of Gods Love and Providence 3. Who sends or permits it 4. and be constant though almost conquered 5. But the best remedy against sudden motions is to cut off their causes 6. XI Of the fight against fleshly Concupiscence In this warr thou art to change thy weapons 1. And therefore before the temptation assails thee call it not but avoid all occasions procuring it This enemy assails us sometimes by stealth and upon pretext of lawfulnesse c. but Sensuality may mix it selfe with thy affection and ruine thy Soule 2. The occasions are commonly five Conversation Aspects Idlenesse Disobedience Vain complacency 2. In the time of the temptation marke the cause of it whether externall and fly from it 3. Or internall and prevent it by fit chastisements of the body and by hearty Prayer 4. Yet not as some Bookes prescribe for feare of giving new occasions to impurity 4. But by meditating on Christs Death and Passion 5. Dispute not with carnall temptations but discover them to thy Ghostly Father 6. And make no actuall and particular reflexions upon these temptations 7. After the temptation is past stand still upon thy guard 8. Chap. XII How to fight against slacknesse and Negligence Follow holy inspirations speedily For this is of great consequence to conquer Sloath and having couragiously set upon thy worke carefully prosecute the same 1. The fruit whereof must be discovered 2. And the pains disguised 3. Unlesse there be a reall disability 4. But the best way to get a custome of induring is to expect Crosses continually and not to seeke how to avoid them 5. How prejudiciall Negligence is to perfection and the most alluring hait of our enemy therefore take timely care to prevent it and account that day lost in which thou hast done no good action 6. Chap. XIII How to govern our Sensuality Keep thy heart disingaged from earthly creatures 1. And contemplate thy Creators greatnesse reducing all created perfection to him the fountaine 3. And all worldly beauty to heavenly glory 4. Marking wel the craft of the Devill 5. But in things displeasing to sense think upon Gods eternall decree 6. So likewise in any sudden or dismall chance and in all self complacency 7. A larger Declaration of this Doctrine The appetite is violently bent to seeke its pleasure and makes use of the Senses to obtain it 1. The antidot against this poyson and how to curb the senses roaming abroad by separating the spirit of each object from the materiall thing it selfe 2. Whether it be a creature which hath only a being 3. Or hath a vegetation and increase 4. Or hath sense and feeling 5. Or is indued with rare beauty 6. Or excellent perfection 7. Also when thou undertakest any action 8.
of for your own satisfaction And look down with your other eye upon your bottomless nothing see there your own base indignity and brutish ingratitude your great impurity and gross impiety and be ashamed to desire any temporal esteem who so truly deserve eternal damnation 6. Other knots of the same To self-love appertain also all the passions of our inferiour nature love hatred c. snare are all those passions which have their residence in our inferiour nature love hatred joy grief hope and fear with their severall attendants these raise up broiles to disturb our inward tranquillity to discompose our Reason and interpose their earthy exhalations between our superiour will and the grace of God Peace of heart is the secure refuge To which we must oppose Peace of heart against all these peevish Passions do but cast your whole care upon your Creator and call away your inordinate affection from creatures and what then can punish or perplex you Remit and refer all accidents whether adverse or prosperous sweet or sowre good or bad to Gods high power and holy providence comfort your selves in his mercy content your selves in his all-sufficiency and quiet your selves in his love Ah! how poor how vain how vile how unregardable Read the 4. ch num 3. of the conflict are the best of worldly blessings how is it possible that things in themselves so contemptible can have the least entrance or admittance into a soul setled in Gods pure love and presence O let the children of this world who place their final felicity in such fading fooleries who have their souls buried in this earth and swallowed up in sensuality be solicitous to seek them glut and burst themselves in the enjoying of them and be dejected to be deprived of them but we O souls aspiring to perfection whose master is God whose aym is vertue whose reward is heaven what have we to do with these inferiour passions Away with these Mammons My heart is signed with the signet of Gods love my hatred is only bent against sin and my self my joy is in God my Saviour my grief is that I am not all his my fear is to offend him and my hope is to enjoy him 7. Lastly all adhering to our proper will and judgment appertains to this ambush of our enemy The adhering to our own wills and preferring of our own judgments are also points of self-love Read the 5. ch of the Conflict This draws us off by degrees from doing our duty diverts us from following divine motions and superiours commands daunts us from relying entirely on Gods providence and fulfilling perfectly his holy pleasure we dare not disobey this master nor will we venture to destroy this Idol of our hearts 't is death to be cross'd in our conceits or contradicted in our exercises which we have chosen according to our private fancy accustomed with self-complacency and keep with unpardonable propriety Perfect obedience breaks through Which must be cured by obedience submission and resignation this snare and a totall resignation to Gods good will pleasure is the secure refuge against this deceit How can a soul be disquieted to receive or refuse act or omit that which she truly conceives to proceed both in substance and circumstance from the divine providence and permission How can that person go astray who is perfectly obedient to God and his superiour gives up himself wholly to the guidance of Gods holy Spirit and the government of a discreet directour observes each beck of the divine call first examined and approved by them who are incharged with their souls and waits upon the divine will as the shadow on the body 8. Where you are to take notice Note a triple obediencâ— 1. Of vow of a triple obedience One is of vow another of conformity and a third of union The first concerns all religious people and imports an external exact and necessary performance of that which is commanded The Second concerns all spiritual 2. of Conformity souls and consists in their inward promptitude and readiness to execute Gods will manifested by faith and their ghostly guide purely for himself and precisely for his own sake without the least touch of proper interest or self-seeking The Third concerns all perfect 3. Of Vnion persons and consists in so entire a connexion of their wills to the will of their Lord God that they seem both one hence it is that they embrace all that happens to themselves or others good or bad life or death for time or eternity as immediatly proceeding from his divine goodness and as the very best that could happen Here the soul elevated above it self and all things into God and stedfastly fixed in divine contemplation patiently expects and obediently attends to what he speaks wills and acts within her remaining ever ready and really resigned to suffer outward pains or inward pressures to receive comforts or endure crosses as the supream providence best knows permits and pleases being fully content with all and faithfully constant in all The Second Ambush Immoderate affection to creatures 1. THis infects distracts disquiets and diverts our minds from their pure and perfect tendance to our Creator Ah! what have we whose inheritance is heaven to do This affection to creatures distracts us from our Creator with the poor and perishable commodities of this world yet our subtil enemy strives to make us serious in searching after them solicitous to keep them and impatient to part with them Against this we must provide true poverty of spirit which consists Again which must prâ—vide Poverty or spirit in a perfect denudation of our souls from all propriety of love to any corruptible creature whatsoever we must use them only and not rest in them we may enjoy them but take no joy in them if Superiours command them from us we must cheerfully part with them if any accident bereave us of them we must willingly let go our hold saying Our Lord gave them our Lord Read the 13. ch of the Conflict hath retaken them his name be ever praised his will always performed Farewel uncertain and unsatisfying profits wellcome sweet and secure poverty We must throw away couragiously all such cloggs as retard our soul's flight to perfection Away with superfluities Oh! that we could live with the only love of our naked and crucified Jesus That we could support our feeble Nature without the supplies of any creatures that so our souls disingaged from the depressing necessities of flesh and blood might soar aloft and sweetly repose in the bosom of divine love 2. Nor is the overmuch tenderness of affection to any person Affection to persons corrupts our judgements whomsoever under what pertext soever any other thing than a meer ambush of our enemy for it corrupts our purest actions and vitiates our most pious intentions it is the bane of Gods love the poyson of our hearts and the venome of
my only Lord and love Cleanse my Will from all self-seeking Keep my Memory from all superfluities Close up my Senses fâ—om all vanities that my happy soul separated from all sensible images may quietly tend to thee only sweetly repose in thee and continually enjoy thy blessed presence O let thy pure and perfect love dear Lord Iesu be the faithfull scout-watch over all my proceedings that no forreign affection no sinister intention no self-liking or self-seeking may steal into my heart and defraud or disturb it's happy enjoyment of thee and holy unity with thy divine Spirit Grant O my Lord that I may prudently turn all good events and all bad accidents to my spirituall profit by reflecting wherefore they befall me of what they warn me and how far they concern me Let me learn thereby gratitude to thy goodness fervour in prayer contempt of my self humility of spirit care of my actions resignation to thy will amendment of my life or what else thy holy Spirit shall please to intimate by these fatherly visitations O sacred Head of my crucified Saviour be thou my certain succor during my lives conflict and my sure place of retreat in my last agony with death 7. And lastly I reverently approch to thy dear Heart ô amiable Lord Iesu opened with a cruell launce in the sight of thy blessed Mother and thy beloved Disciple for the love of my soul O my Iesu I here implore thy pardon for all my perverse affections and irregular appetites Give me thy leave ô my loving Lord to creep into this sweet hole of the rock this sacred cleft of the wall this unlock'd closet of heavenly treasures this saving Ark of the new Testament and shut thou O Iesu the door from without that free from the deluges of all wickedness and dangers of the world flesh and devil I may sit solitarily silently and sweetly hearkning to thy divine whispers in my elevated soul Purge all my impurities ô my dear Saviour in the pretious blood streaming from thy patent side and replenish my heart with thy perfect love Oh! drown me wound me burn me and consume me in thy divine flames of affection that I may love thee strongly purely perfectly perseverantly O grant me to leave all things with alacrity for thee my beloved Iesu though never so great to lothe all things joyfully for thy love though never so good to do all things contentedly for thy honour though never so hard to suffer all things patiently for thy sake though never to painfull and to persever constantly in my pious practices for the sole satisfaction of thy holy will and accomplishment of thy blessed pleasure O let me be incessantly calling and knocking at this sacred gate of mercy Let me be still sighing and seeking after thee my Iesus my Saviour my Lord and my love Let me be alwayes thinking ever talking and perpetually tending to unite my heart to thine to conform it unto thine to transform it into thine that I may be all thine and thou all mine for time and eternity Grant also dear Iesu that I may truly love all others in thee and for thee O inflame my charity quicken my faith rectifie my intentions strengthen my confidence in thee destroy all complacence in my self establish me in all these my good purposes and let me be as often minded of my now-promised duty and incouraged to proceed forwards in the path of perfection as I shall eye the sacred image of thy crucified humanity Elevate my desirous soul unto thy self ô Iesu my Lord above all chances changes and creatures Oh! let it be so totally attentive to thy presence so intirely taken up in thy contemplation and so wholly absorpt in thy love that no outward objects may touch or trouble it no inferiour cares or cogitations may intangle it nothing may impede the free intercourse of thy heavenly friendship nothing may stop the sweet influence of thy divine graces or any way interrupt it 's happy quiet and holy tranquillity O dear and opened Heart of my dying Lord Jesus be thou my sweet comfort during this lives pilgrimage and my sure Sanctuary in it's last period FOR SVNDAY Of perfect Union with God The Seventh Exercise 1. O Infinite immense and unmeasurable abyss of all bounty O ever-flowing fountain of mercy O undraynable Sea of love O my Lord my Soveraign my Saviour and my Sanctifier Behold I return into thee the sweet source of my beginning I run into thee the gracious preserver of my being and I desire to rest in thee the only hope of my souls happiness Be thou henceforth O my Creatour the sole subject of my thoughts and the only object of my love Be thou ô God of my heart heart of my life life of my soul and soul of my love my part and my inheritance for ever I choose thee only I offer up my self wholly I consecrate my self heartily and dedicate my self eternally to thy love honour and service Ah good God! where dwellest thou which is the pleasant plaee of thy abode ô King of glory and comforter of my soul I seek nothing but thy lovely presence I desire nothing but the presence of thy love My soul sighs to see thee my heart covets to have thee my love longs to enjoy thee and I can expect no perfect content untill I am totally united unto thee If I now beg a glimpse of thy divine face O my glorious Lord then a drop of thy heavenly grace and afterwards a dram of thy dear affection Yet in all this it is thy self O sweet God which I demand thy whole self is the only satiating object of my boundless desires and unlimited affections 2. I desire to love thee ô only amiable Lord God by all means and beyond all measure until I am totally transformed into thee by love O do thou freely and fully possess my spirit guide it govern it inlighten it inflame it elevate it inform it and transport it how and when thou pleasest Oh! Let all adulterate love be quite banished all multiplicity vanish away and all impurity and self-seeking swallowed up Let thy love be my light my liberty my life Lord I desire but two things in this world To love see tast and enjoy thee my best beloved and to be humbled despised rejected and esteemed a reprobate for thy love O sweet life O loving Jesu what a heaven what a happiness is it to love thee O how lovely how loving and yet how little loved is my God O source of all goodness and centre of all good souls What is the greatest love of mother friend life or any thing else Art not thou my God all this to me and all in all Ah my soul what didst thou ever best love And didst thou love thy Lord God as much I blush O my dear Lord I sigh and am ashamed to answer I will henceforth do any thing suffer any thing and leave all things for thy love I will not live but
the soul is wounded with love fick of love and languishing for love after a long experience in the way of the Spirit and a serious application of her self to the practice of solid vertue having truly gotten into her own interiour and happily ascended the steep mountain of Perfection is become deeply wounded with love sweetly sick of love and heartily languishing after love So that she crys out with that fainting Spouse in the Canticles O tell my beloved that I languish with love This infirmity is not to death but for Gods glory for the Soul in this state defyes all sin deserts whatsoever is not God and desires him only she grows weary and sick of all creatures and aspires after the embraces of her Creator And as an infirm person loseth appetite and loathes all the wonted contents of nature so here the soul feels no gust takes no pleasure findes no comfort in any earthly objects Shee lyes sick and seized on by this mystical feaver caused by the violent heat of heavenly love and here she is in the degree of contemplative purgation when she findes no support no stay no tast no quiet no content in any thing whatsoever And therefore she â—oon soars up from this Step to the next The Second Degree of Love WHerein she rouseth and raises In the 2 she seeks her Physician up her self and casts about which way she may seek and find her loving Physician who can only cure and comfort her she gets up early and eagerly enquires after him without intermission or cessation whom she failed to find in her bed at night in the first degree She faithfully follows the prints of his steps turns over natures book dives into all creatures questions all she meets Oh! have you seen him whom my soul loveth Yet she stays no where stoops not to the lure of any created object she demands and passes on she leaves all for him whom she only loves and longs after She holds no discourse with Angels themselves but listens only to his heavenly voice and desires nothing but to see a glimpse of his beatifying countenance O shew me thy face let thy sweet words sound in my ears Here love bears all the sway and hath made so deep an impression in the pious soul that she is perpetually solicitous for love ever sighing after love and still carping caring and seeking for her well beloved in all things All her throughts tend to him all her discourses drive at him all her affairs end in him If shee sleeps she dreams of him if she wakes she talks of him Finally she is always in all things in all places transported into this object of her love and swayed towards this Centre of her life And recovering new strength ascends upward to a further Degree The Third Degree of Love WHerein she works with more heat and vigour and of which the King-Prophet speaks In the 3. she fears her own unworthiness and the loss of her beloved Psa 111. Blessed is that person who fears the Lord for he will exceedingly desire to fulfill his holy laws Whence may be inferr'd that if Fear which is Loves daughter cause such effectual desires how efficacious will those desires be which proceed immediately from Love it self The Soul in this Degree beleeves that her best works done in the behalf of her beloved are very base inconsiderable she runs over her Registers of accounts sums up her numerous exploits measures her long suffâ—ances and surveys her high services and they seem at best but poor and mean performances of a greater duty she finds them nothing worth by reason of the excess of affection which inflames and consumes her If Jacobs love to Rachel had so powerful an influence upon his spirit that his twice seven years apprentiship seem'd to him but a Gene. 29. 20. few dayes by reason of the ardour of his desire What admirable effects will the Creators love produce in that Soul which it hath absolutely seized upon entirely possess'd and throughly penetrated in this third Degree She will be piously troubled and angry with her self that she doth so little for so great a Majesty and if she might lawfully she would most willingly give up her self to be minc'd into a thousand morcels for his love honor and service and receive therein full comfort content joy and satisfaction It truly seems to her that shee troubles the earth she treads on and the ayr she breathes in and that she unprofitably takes up a place in the world as a barren tree which brings forth neither flowers nor fruit Hence springs a further admirable effect that she verily thinks her self the worst of all things created considering what she owes and calculating what she pays for Love teacheth her how much God deserves and Humility tells her how little she doth and because shee finds that all her best endeavours are full of defects and imperfections and that her highest way of corresponding to the love of her heavenly Lord is so low and unbeseeming his Majesty she is inwardly pained and confounded in her self A soul in this state is far from any puff of pride presumption vain glory or censuring of others and is therefore duly disposed to mount up to the next Degree The Fourth Degree of Love WHich is of suffering for her In the 4. she willingly suffers for love beloved freely and cheerfully without the least repining or reluctancy because true love makes the heaviest burdens seem light and the greatest labours easie In this estate was that Spouse when she spake to her beloved Place me as Cant. 8. 6. a signet upon your heart put me as a seal upon your arm because love is strong as death c. The Spirit hath here such a vigour that it absolutely subjects and subdues the flesh and as much slights all motions of sensuality as a well rooted tree doth the wagging of one of his little leaves Here the soul seeks not at all her own gust or comfort either in God or any of his gifts nor demands any grace in order to her own solace or support but all her care is to cast about her which way she may render some acceptable service to the Divine Majesty and how she may content and please him in any thing which she can do or suffer for that he deserves it for his love and goodness Many seek their own content in God But Few seek to give God content towards her though such her services cost her never so dear Ah! Good God how many of your followers seek in you their own content and comfort sigh after your favours expect your cherishings and run after your gifts and graces But alas how few are they who strive to give you content and to present you with any worthy donative at their own cost and charges without some touch of self love or proper interest You are ever open-handed ô bountifull Creator and ready to showre your heavenly benefits
possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy all if I could embrace crosses as crowns and swallow down all contemprs and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all foâ— One to be left by that One who iâ— my All and so remain quiet iâ— my own nothing How long shall I he wallowing in flesh and blood how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me aâ—l dross of self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee â—ternally Lord let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble sorrow for our sins ingratitâ—des disloyalties tepiditie c. O my God! how little did I love 3. Part. 1. Contrition thee when I so carelesly offended thy Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediately O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy sacred will and commandements Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future fallings How great ô Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferr'd thy benefits bestow'd and thy love powr'd out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my sins that my heart might break with sorrow Hide not ô Lord thy face from me shut not up thy mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolv'd upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thâ— mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our wanâ—â— wishes desolations and distresses â—â— the divine will and pleasure I am indifferent O my dear Lord 2. Resignation to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou â— my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledge my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all light all liberty all love all comfort all content yea even all vertu peace and perfection so long as it shall please thee O father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and confidence the first that our God is what he is the next that he will heal our wounds supply our wants satisfie our wishes and turn all to our good I am glad ô my glorious Lord 3. Complacence and Confidence God that thou art so worthy of all love though I of all others am not worthy to love thee I am as joyful for what thou art o great God as if all thou hast were all mine and I will love thee in all I am and have as being all thine Thy Cross is my comfort thy Will my well fare and thy love my life so that if I can but suffer for thee do thy will and follow thy love I shall do all that is necessary I am indeed dry dark and desolate but since it is thy will I am sure it is my good and therefore sufficient for me and satisfactory to thee I hope thou wilt one day compleat thy own heavenly design in my soul healing my wounds supplying my wants fulfilling my desires and filling my yet empty heart with thy sweet presence and perfect love In the mean space I will say and sing Live Jâ—sus Live my Lord my love my life my all whose name bâ— blessed by all whose will be accomplishâ—d in all whose honour be advanced above all An advertisement touching the precedent Exercise 1. We must perform it dayly diligently discreetly and with great confidence and courage 2. Yet without propriety that it may neither hinder the operation of the Holy Ghost within nor works of due obligation and obedience without 3. If in the practise of this introversion we find dryness and feel little devotion we may somtimes fitly resume in lieu of the second part or consideration our wonted exercises whereto our minds are more addicted ending the same with the Conclusion here prescribed being ever duly disposed to follow the holy Spirits invitation to higher matters If we faithfully observe these things we shall infallibly receive comfort and speedily perceive our own unspeakable profit and progress by the practise of this pious exercise as being indeed the end of all other externall devotions and the short sure simple and Râ—gia via leading to a spirituall devout and divine life The third Maxim That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable FOr the end and drift of all discoursive Prayer is to move inflame and enkindle our affections in the love of God and vertue and therefore all discourses must be left by little and little as our souls can more and more live in Faith and simplifie themselves from materiall objects images and conceptions and only tend to God by a sweet and secret motion of the will an amourous correspondency to the Divine operations and inward impulses of his holy Spirit treading down and transcending all things under God by discreetly forgetting and unknowing them The fourth Maxim That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God PRayer in generall according to As is more amply declared in our Introduction to the Spiritual Pilgrimage the known division is either Vocall or Mental Mentall Prayer is An Elevation of our spirits into God For as our Creatour is elevated above all creatures so our souls cannot see talk and treat with him purely and perfectly but by leaving them all and lifting up themselves above them all This Elevation is by means of Meditation Contemplation Thanksgiving and Petition Which
the morning and the other in the evening to his particular honour 4. That we must frame an act of pure Intention at our entrance into Recollection as thus I intend ô my God to employ each moment of the short time I shall remain in thy presence in adoring thy Majesty admiring thy goodness begging thy pardon for my offences thy mercy for the souls in Purgatory thy succour for the Churches necessities thy assistance in such an extremity thy strength against such an inclination thy grace for the getting such a vertue I am here on my knees ô Lord to perform these homages and present these petitions This Intention will virtually endure the whole time of prayer and make our seeming idleness and stâ—lâ—ess active and meritorious 5. That we must briefly examine our Consciences and produce acts of Contrition self-confusion humility and resolutions of amendment Saying from the very bottom of our hearts in this or the like manner O my Lord my God my 〈◊〉 thou deservest all praise honour and service because thou art good gracious and glorious I will henceforth rather lose all than leave thee ô my God without whom all is nothing and since thou art so good in thy self and so good to me I will by thy grace never more offend thee I will confess my sins amend my life perform my penance walk carefully humbly obediently resignedly in thy presence to all which I am principally moved by the infinite greatness beauty and bounty of thine own divine being and perfection In the particular examen of our consciences which must never be omitted in the beginning of our Recollection we must mark to what vice we are most inclin'd and wherin we are most frail and then trample Read the Spir. Confl c. 7. n. 1. 4. that down violently and resolutely for this Captain-imperfection being conquered the rest will soon yield and submit And in the next examen we must impartially search and censure our selves and see whether our falls in that kind are still as frequent as they were formerly and so set upon our enemy again with fresh fervour vigour courage and constancy till we have gotten the compleat victory 6. That we must also make an Act of perfect Resignation before we fall upon this Exercise Leaving our selves intirely in Gods hands He is our father let him dispose of his children and all that concerns them as he best pleaseth saying O my Lord my father my lover do with my life my health my temporals my spirituals my body my soul all all as thou wilt I come not hither to receive my own content but to learn how to conform me to thy will in all things and to remain in that very state neither more nor less nor otherwise which best pleaseth thy divine Majesty 7. That we must bring with us some theam subject or groundwork of our Prayer and Recollection As some mystery of our Saviours life death Passion mans last ends some vice to be conquered some vertue to be attained some divine perfection to be admired or some jaculatory sentence to be so long stayed on and chewed till our souls feel themselves inclined to quit all discoursing and acting and to remain quiet in an exercise of pure Faith and perfect Resignation as followeth 8. That we must look on God by Faith and leave off all discourseâ— When lively conceiving by Faith that our Lord is in us and in all things we humbly beg him to teach us the holy lesson of divine love and so keeping our selves in his presence bidding good night to all creatures objects and images whatsoever as at this time nothing concerning us we only and immediately eye the beloved object of our souls and rest quietly contentedly silently and sweetly absorpt into the Diviniâ—y 9. That we must carry God with us from our Prayer Let us not leave our dear Lord in the Oratory when we rise from Recollection but bear him along with us continually in our hearts talking still with him and of him eating and drinking in his company sleeping with him in our arms negotiating walking recreating doing all things with him in him for him and ever praying and praysing him whom we have with us and within us in the closet of our souls 10. That we must put on Christ and imitate his example in all our actions Our Saviour Christ is our Master let his life therefore be our modell and his practises the patterns which we always study to express and imitate Let us comport our selves in eating drinking sleeping speaking praying and doing all things as we conceive Christ did or would do upon the like occasions if he were now living upon earth in his humanity Let us study to have this Rule of three alwayes at our fingers ends 1. To think as Jesus did 2. To speak as Jesus did 3. To do as Jesus did So striving to become as it were a Jesus Christ by imitation Thus briefly we have the whole manner and method of this transcendent Prayer and divine exercise of Recollection to wit 1. To get into our retreat 2. and there placing our selves on our knees 3. Twice every day 4. to frame an act of pure Intention 5. To examin our consciences and produce acts of Contrition 6. and Resignation Then to 7. think on the subject of our prayer 8. Leave off all discourses and look on God by faith 9 Carry God with us from prayer and 10 lastly put on Christ by imitation Which is the short and secure way to divine union and Deiformity being faithfully performed discreetly practised and carefully accompanied with profound humility perfect obedience and an absolute submission to our spiritual director as shall be more fully deduced in the subsequent Maxims The sixth Maxim That for this pure perfect and Transcendent prayer no certain Rules can be prescribed THe ground of all Prayer even purest is as hath been said some mystery some devout sentence some vertu or some jaculatory dart c. untill our affection be moved Now if by continuall Introvâ—rsion and peculiar grace our Wils are drawn incontinently by the simple view of our beloved Lord it is needless to use this ordinary means When our affections are thus enkindled they break forth into flames of love and aspirations Then the heat increasing our Prayer grows more inward our sighs deeper our love greater our hearts more ardent in their desires of Union which is active Contemplation Wherewith our souls being overcome and drowned in tâ—eir lovers presence leave him to speak move act all things with us and within us and so we sleep in passive Contemplation freed from all objects of creatures and sweetly united by pure love to our Creator The degrees therefore of Prayer in generall are these 1. Devout reading or mix'd Prayer The degrees of Prayer in generall 2. Vocall Prayer 3. Meditation or consideration 4. When the affection is excited Vocall aspirations 5. The heat and light encreasing mix'd partly Vocall partly Mentall
into the divine light shee may confidently rely and repose And without this prop the higher shee ascends the lower will be her fall back again The tenth Maxim That in this high Exercise of Recollection the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity must perfect and possess the three powers of our souls Vnderstanding Memory and Will IT is in the first place to be observ'd as an undoubted truth that a foul cannot in this life bee united to God immediatly by her understanding memory will imagination or any other sense power or faculty whatsoever but only by the means of Faith in her Understanding by Hope in her Memory and by Love in her Will. These three vertues must therefore Read F. Cisnerius ch 65. be introduced by our cooperation with the divine grace into the said three powers of our souls in the purest and perfectest manner that is possible if we will arrive at the height of divine Union 1. Faith must so possess our Understanding as to deprive it for that present of all other knowledge than that of God only 2. Hope must blot out of our memory all images and thoughts of possessing any thing but God only 3. Charity must uncloath our Wills of all affections joys contents satisfactions in any thing that is not God only For Faith tels us of things which cannot be understood by naturall light and reason Hope looks upon such things as we have not hold not possesse not and Charity retires our love from all creatures to employ it all on our Creator The three powers therfore of our soul must bee perfected by these three vertues our Understandings must bee informed with this pure Faith our Memories uncloath'd of all possession by this pure Hope and our Wils fill'd with divine affections by this pure Charity Thus refusing denying and emptying our whole souls of all that is not this perfect Faith hope and charity In this divine practice is found an absolute assurance against all the subtle snares of the devill and self-love for a soul which is thus entirely denuded and stripp'd of all active knowledge possâ—ssion and love of things created must needs remain in God in a certain tranquillity passivenesse cessation sleep annihilation absorption so that there can nothing be found out of God for Satan sin or sensuality to attempt against But to facilitate the intelligence and practice of this high matter upon which foundation stands the whole edifice of this holy Recollection and divine Union let us particularly deduce and exemplify how the Understanding is to bee placed in pure faith the Memory in pure hope and the Will in purâ— charity The eleventh Maxim That our Vnderstandings muâ— be setled in pure Faith THe practice of this point is thuâ— F. Cisnerius ch 28. Having conceived some mysterâ— of our Saviours Passion or the like for the subject of our prayer we ruminate a while upon it not â— much to admire our Lord Jesus aâ— imitate him and we desire to know his vertues that wee may practiâ—e them in our own particular by hiâ— perfect example Then we make an Act of Faith An act of Faith saying I firmly beleeve that this my suffering Saviour is not only a man but also my Soveraign Lord God I beleeve that he being Almighty submitted himself to Pilat being the creator became a creature being immortal became mortal and that in as much as he iâ— God he is with me within me without me about me above me beneath me and so in all creatures which have a being Afterwards we speak further to our Saviour O my dearest Lord and lover Teach me now my lesson that in requitall of what thou hast done for me I may keep thee company in thy sufferings And then we quit all discourses thinking we have no understanding at all left and looking on our sweet Saviour only by Faith which hath this property says S. Thomas to S. Tho. of Aquin. elevate the soul to God and free it from all creatures For so long as there are discourses in our Understanding images in our Memory joys or tenderness in our Will these powers have not pure God but sensible things for their object because God being above all sensibility must bee found without all creatures and consequently if we can be totally abstracted from all things created we shall infallibly lay hold on our Creator 'T is therefore impossible say's St. Denys the divine S. Denys to be truly united to God unlesse we leave all materiall operations both in sense and in spirit that is unlesse wee lay aside all senses all discourses all imaginations and all waies of humane wisdome Till wee can doe this let us not think to become perfect Contemplatives The twelfth Maxim That our Memories must bee setled in pure Hope WHich is done by forgetting all things created heaven earth our selves all being wholly taken up with God and absorpt in the Divinity So that by a simple remembrance that we are with God without looking back to reiterate the same reflexion we repose and slumber sweetly in him staying upon no image whatsoever even of our Saviour himself for as he in as much as concerns his humanity call'd Joh. 14. 6. himself the way so he thereby insinuated that we were not to remain in the way but to march on to our ways end which is his Divinity No mervail then if we find in The doctrine of mystâ—call Divines explicated the prescripts of mysticall Divines this doctrine That to arrive at the height of Contemplation we must leave off all sort of Meditation though it be on the life and death of our Lord and Saviour because in all Meditation there is ever something that is sensible to which nature applying it self hinders our souls from soaring up to the fineness and quintessence of Contemplation which is and can be only a pure spirituall and insensible thing 'T is true that the consideration of the life and death of our loving Saviour is a most powerfull means to mount up to this contemplation of his Divinity but let us not make that the end which is but the means and way to it The thirteenth Maxim That our Wills must be setled in pure Charity THis is done by withdrawing it from all sort of Joy proceeding from any natural supernatural or moral good Joy is a certain content which our wils take in somthing we prize How all Joy is to be quitted and this Joy is either Active when we may leave it or Passive when it is not in our power to quit it Now to take Joy and content in naturall goods as health wealth friends c. Or wit sagacity discretion c. Is a plain vanity To joy in moral goods as in the exercise of vertue c. Is to imitate the Pagan Philosophers who lov'd vertue for vertu's sake and made that their end which is only our way to it Supernaturall goods are either the gratuite gifts of God
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
Surely the proud have no true Isay 48. 2â— rest there is no peace to the wicked Let us Remedy it therfore by learning of Christ true humility and meekness out of which there is no hope of quiet 5. An indiscreet Zeal and 5. Indiscreet zeal over-greediness of perfection which makes us eat more than we can disgest and so cast it up again with great pain undertaking austerities exercises introversion c. beyond our capacities without counsel and so we remain afflicted being unable to go forward and ashamed to go backward Let us Remedy this by humble obedience to a discreet guide 6. Want of fervor in our vocation 6. Instability of heart instability of heart and inconstancy in our exercises leaving changing interrupting them through laziness or lightness This leaves a worm gnawing upon our conscience with continual disquiet and sadness Let us Remedy this with S. Bernards counsel Wilt thou never S. Bernard be sad live well A good man is alwayes merry and a good conscience is a continuall feast 7. Disordinate love and affections 7. Love to creatures to creatures Let us love all only for God and we shall be content and quiet in the loss of the most lovely and beloved creature in the world God alone will supply all other loves and losses 8. A jealous and envious eye 8. An enviâ—us eye This is a dangerous and lamentable cross For all the Perfections of oâ—hers are ours when we love them â—n others but when we hate them they are nails in our eys and thorns in our hearts which do extreamly torment us O madness Have we Parum tibi est si ipse sis foelix nisi alter sit infoelix not sufficient miseries at home in our selves but we must suck poyson like Spiders out of others Hony and what is their crown must be our cross What greater wickedness than to pine away with grief at others good The Remedy of this is by endeavouring to get true Charity the property whereof is to weep with the weepers rejoyce with the joyfull to love others good as our own Let us avoid Curiosity if we wil eschew Envy for a Curious eye is the fewel of an Envious heart let us remain like Bees in our hive of Introversion there make provision for the Winter of Death Eternity c. 9. Frequent failings in good 9. Frequent relapses purposes and relapses into sin We question whether our sins past are pardoned and are uncertain that our present Confessions are good This is of one evil to make two foâ— we have done amiss and now by losing Courage and confidence we make our selves unfit to do better Let us Remedy it by acknowledging our fault using violence to our selves and following direction Other Remedies against Sadness Orher Remedies against sadness Jam. 5. 13. 1. Prayer 1. Prayer is a soveraign Remedy Is any one sad amongst you Let him pray God is our only joy and comfort Let us lift up our hearts to him and lay open our wants and desires before him with Resignation who both can and will abundantly comfort us Ah! my poor soul why art thou sad and whence comes it that thou thus troublest me Is not our God good and gracious who hears thy sighs and sees thy sorrow what wantest thou which he cannot or will not give thee when he sees it most expedient for thee 2. Somtimes let us sing spiritual 2. Singing Songs which greatly confound the Devil 3. Other times we may fitly divert 3. Recreâ—tion our thoughts by some external Recreations or imployments 4. Let us endeavour to make 4. Fervent acts external and internal Acts with fervour though without gust as embracing and kissing a Crucifix and speaking reverently and lovingly unto it c. 5. A discreet taking of a Discipline 5. A discipline obtains wonderful comfort for the soul is called from the inward troublesom pensiveness to the outward pain and the Devil flyes away seeing his companion the Flesh so hardly handled 6. Frequent Communinn is an 6. Communion excellent cordiall strengthning our hearts and rejoycing our spirits 7. Let us discover the effects 7. Discovery of it and manner of our sadness to our spiritual guide and take his advice simply and humbly This is the remedy of remedies 8. Let us take heed of making 8. Indifferency use of these Remedies only that we may be at ease and avoid affliction but for the prevention of danger which may ensue and for the rest remain perfectly indifferent and resigned 9. If we will be free from Sadness 9. Few desires we must labour to keep far from us unquietness of mind if we wâ—ll have our minds quiet we must have few desires and those few only to love and please God 10. Finally let us beware of 10. Plain-dealing three things 1. Of following our Sensuality in meat drink talk ease c. 2. Of vain Complacence and self-opinion c. 3. And above all of Hypocondriacy Hypocrisy double dealing sleights with our guide for no mervail if he starves and pines away who lâ—es to the holy Ghost If we are simple as children our loving Father will give us sweet-meats Wo be to Hypocrites for it Mat. 23. 13. wil go il with them in the latter day Another Antidote against Melancholy and Pusillanimity The reason of our being so often Pufillanimity proceeâ—s from want troubled and shaken is because our spiritual edifice is not supported by these solid props 1. Faith For if we captivate 1. of Faith our Understandings to believe what God himself hath told us what his Church hath taught us and what our ghostly guides still preach unto us how can we chose but be comforted and satisfied 2. Abnegation For if we have 2. Of Abnegation made good Confessions have endeavoured to satisfy God and our guide and have a will to obey them in all things we may rest secure Let us not say What shall become of us Shall we persever for the desire to know this argues our hearts of secret pride and propriety Let us therefore deny our selves saying Gods holy will be done in and with us for all time and eternity and what ever becomes of us we will serve him till death because his love deserves it What need we seek a further security of Gods friendship towards us in this life than to find in our souls these two things First for the time past we have done penance consisting in Confession Contrition and Satisfaction Secondly for the time to come we give our selves totally tâ— God to serve and please him the residue of our life in the best manner possible Let us put our souls in this estate and go on with courage and never more trouble our selves 3. Solid Confidence For if we 3. of Confidence know God is mercifull and Jesus hath suffered enough for all sinners whereof we are the
wherein we judge amiss and whereupon wee ground our particular fears for that is the easiest way to remove them 8. Let us weigh the vertue of the Physick The vertue of the Physick which must cure us which must cure our Disease to wit First the infinit goodness of God and Christs merits And what Soul can fear having so gracious a God and so great a Ransome 2. The Credit and Compassion of the Blessed Virgin and the Prayers and Patronage of Saints and Angels who being secure for themselves are solicitous for us 3. The testimony and sweet promises of holy Scriptures For how often hath God told us I am prone to pitty I am ready to receive sinners I will help them who doe their endeavours If therefore he denys not his mercy to them that seek it and they seek it who doe what lys in them let us bee confident he will not deny us his mercy He also frequently calls on us Turn to me and I will turn to you Now he cannot but say truth aad fulfill his promise and doth not that soul convert her self to God who doth her best to get his grace and be reconciled unto him Who then can choose but be of good Comfort if he be of good Will By this Doctrine and these prescribed Remedâ—es it appears that the only way to overcome Scruples is 1. To obey our Spirituall Director 2. To doe our best endeavour But here arise two difficulties in this easy lesson The first is If our Directoâ—â— The first difficulty knowledge be small his experience lesse and his conscience not very good how dare we trust our souls upon his Warrant Gerson answers Thou wiâ—e Gerson's answer Judger I say thou errest and aâ—â— deceived for thou hast not committed thy self and thy soul to a man because of his discretion and learning but to God himself and for his love thou obeyest man because he is by him ordained thy Prelat and Superior Therefore our obedience wil be oftentimes so much more pleasing to God and profitable to our souls by how much more infirm and unworthy he is whom we refuse not to obey for Gods sake The other difficulty is If wee The second difficulty cannot satisfy our selves that wee doe our best Endeavours nor know that we have performed our duty S. Thomas answers We must St. Thomas answer first remove that which hinders grace to wit Sin 2. We must convert our hearts from creatures to our Creator In a word we must detest Sin and choose God and follow his ordinary means appointed in his Church for our direction and this is the Summary of our duty The 22. Doubt If we fear we detest not Sin sufficiently because we feel not so great sorrow for the offence of God as we doe sometimes for a temporall losse LEt us assure our selves First We can never have so much sorrow for our Sins as Gods justice in rigour requires 2. God doth not exact it of us because it is not in our power 3. True sorrow consists not in feeling but in Reason and Freewill 4. It is better to have sorrow sometimes only in desire than feeling 5. It is not necessary this corporall or sensible grief be so great for spirituall as for temporall loss but it sufficeth to use humane and morall diligence with firm purpose of a voiding Sin 6. It ls dangerous to make such comparisons and reflexions for weak and fearfull Consciences as If such a thing should happen what should I doe Should I rather chuse death than such a Sin and the like I say there is no obligation to make such acts The 23. Doubt If we cannot ground our selves in a firm Hope of mercy for that we are so frail and inconstant We sin daily and amend not our lives We receive Gods blessings and repay ill for good Wee promise protest and vow fidelity and practise nothing lesse TEll me afflicted Souls Should you see Christ dye daily for your daily sins would you despair of mercy Even so efficacious is his former death If you fall hourely rise again couragiously and purpose to stand more constantly and fear nothing but draw Humility out of your Frailty saying Whereof am I proud now Where are my strong Resolutions Why doe I judge others Who is so feeble sickle frail as I am O Lord this is the Worm that is so proud Then cast â—ll into Christs sacred wounds and leaving all there go on with as much quiet and Confidence as if you had not sinned The 24. Doubt If we go not on w th alacrity because we know not that our Sins are forgiven that our Confessions are good and that we are in state of Grace WE must take notice that in seeking these assurances we may oftentimes directly lose them 1. In seeking them too eagerly and unquietly 2. In being self-lovers and unwilling to be troubled 3. In being ignorant of what we are bound to know for it seems we conceive those works nothing worth which are performed without gust content satisfaction to our selves and quiet The way then is briefly this 1. To seek true peace 2. In God 3. From his mercy not our own industry 4. To be resigned to want peace if he please 5. To omit nothing we would or should do by reason of the trouble we feel The 25. Doubt Though we cannot in this life assure our selves infallibly to be in good estate yet if we could comfort our selves with most probable tokens of grace whereby we might feel the pulses of our hearts and somewhat ease our anguish SAint Thomas and S. Bernard assigne 4. Signs of a good conscience out of S. Tho. and Bernard these four signes of a good conscience 1. To feel a ready Willingness in our hearts to hear Gods word and to learn the means to love and serve him 2. To feel a Forwardness to do good Works 3. To feel a hearty Sorrow for the offence of God 4. To feel a firm Purpose to avoid all Sin Gerson adds a fifth Who so can A â— out of Gerson To pronounce these three verities pronounce heartily and sincerely these three Verities though he had committed all sins and should be prevented with sodain death let him secure himself he is in state of Grace The first Verity O Lord If in Oh! that we would often recite these three truths especially when we feel our consciences burthened What infinite profit and comfort would redound to our souls this or that I have sinned against thy goodness it truly displeases and grieves me and I am ready to do penance for it because I have offended thee who art worthy of all honor and have transgressed thy Law and Will which is most holy just and reasonable The second Verity O Lord I have a good purpose and desire by thy grace to take heed I fall not into sin again and to avoid to my power the occasions thereof and to mortify my passions and bad