flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
most assured proof that we love not God 'T is not so when we search after the things of the World Seek for Wisdom says the Wise-man as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasures Ah! would to God we could make such an exchange of Sentiments as tó give to the World those thoughts which we have for heavenly things and to render to heavenly things what we have for the World Is not this a crime which cannot be aggravated to refuse God the Ardour the Attention the fond affections we have for the Earth a crime which deprives us of God is not at all trivial A Sin that robs us of the Divine Consolations is not to be neglected 'T is for this crime we tast so few Delights in our Devotions because God will not let himself be found but by those that seek him and bestows not those Divine Consolations but upon such Souls as are a living thirst after them as the Hart is a thirst after the running Waters But supposing with these flattering consciences that the Distractions and Lithernesses of Devotion are Sins of Infirmity and by consequence less severely punisht what shall we say of a great number of them and of frequent Relapses will this be taken for nothing too If thou slightest thy sins because they are little ones fear them rather by reason they are in a great number saith St. Augustin If they should appear light in the Balance of the Sanctuary the very reckoning will destroy us since in a word we return to 'em every day Than grains of Sand nothing is more small but yet if we heap them together we may in time make up a Mountain We advance step after step towards Hell and of what importance is it what brings us thither whether a great Sin or many small ones we are still Damn'd ne'rtheless The Egyptians that were oftentimes troubled with Frogs and Flies would not be reduced till the uttermost extremity Wherefore let us not call those small Sins which find a place in Hell if they be not expiated by Repentance but let us rather say with a Doctor of the eleventh Century Peradventure thou wilt believe some of thy Sins very puny and small would to God that our severe Judge would or could judge them such But alas does not all Sins dishonour God thorough Disobedience how then can the Sinner call those small that offend so great a God O dry and sapless Tree unprofitable and worthy of eternal flames what wilt thou be able to answer at that day when thou shalt render an account in the twinkling of an eye when thou shall put every moment of thy life into the Ballance and when it shall be demanded of thee in what thou hast spent thy time then shall a process be made of all that can be found in thee not only of thy words but of thy very silence Thy least thoughts will be examined even thy life will be a part of thy crimes if thou hast not liv'd for thy God Oh! how many Sins will start then out of some Place where thou hadst never seen them before they will seize upon thee as by Ambuscado They will appear to thee more terrible and in a greater number The Works which thou didst believe not to be evil nay which thou considerest as good shall be look'd upon by all as ghastly and black Sins This difference saith St. Basil of great and little Sins is not to be found in the New Testament one only sentence is pronounced against all he that does sin is the Servant of Sin And if we give our selves the liberty to distinguish and discriminate Sins into Mortal and Venial or great or little it ought to be in this Sense that we call all Sins great whereby we are overcome and all Sins little which we are armed to that pass as to vanquish As among Sword-men the conquered is ever esteemed the more Feeble and the Conquerour the stouter How happy then is that man that strikes a terrour into himself and is delivered from this dangerous Prejudice that Indevotion is a light and a pardonable crime Meditation ALas this is an Illusion against which I have great need to defend my Heart What a bending and an inclination have I to flatter my self in my Sins and to believe them light Wretched Soul thou perceivest not thy Disease thou believest thy self in a good constitution of Health and it may be thou art going down to the Chambers of Death 'T is a dangerous Malady This to fancy I am in health and not to be so O my Heart open thine Eyes and see the Dangers whereinto thou dost continually cast me To day my Sins appear very small but one day they will appear to me very great Let me not wait and delay any longer to acknowledge the greatness and feel the weight of them so that from this present I may have 'em in detestation and may repent of them in Sack-cloath and Ashes At such a time my repentance wou'd be too late I should know the mischief but could find no more remedy I drink Sin as a Fish drinks Water I do not think it affrightful because I am so accustomed to its sight and I fancy my Sins small for that I compare them to the greatest and above all I count my Dulness and my Indevotion for nothing seeing I persuade my self that the name of God cannot be offended but by Impieties and Blasphemies Prayer THIS comes from thence O my God that I do not conceive thee so Great as really thou art and I do not conceive thee so great as thou art because I do not see thee I tremble at the presence of a Man set upon a Tribunal the Scepter in his hand the Crown on his head invironed with a Royal pomp I fear him because I see him those Objects that strike my Eyes astonish my Soul I know that thou sittest between the Cherubims that the Angels cover their face before thee unable to sustain the brightness of thy Majesty I know that torrents of fire roul about thy Throne to consume thy Enemies I know there is nothing of either Angelic or humane sight that can withstand the splendour of thy looks nor the Fire of thine Eyes but I believe all these wonders tho I see them not and therefore 't is they make the less impression upon my heart Sensible I am not but of present things My eyes are more toucht during the darkness of the Night with the weak light of a glittering Glow-worm than my Imaginationis moved with all the light of the Sun when it is absent and fills the other part of the World with heat and brightness Take therefore away O my God take away the Veil make me to view thy Majesty redouble the force of the eyes of my Soul fill my Imaginations with Idaeas of thy greatness and of thy Divine Glory that I may return more and more from persuading my self of the smallness of my fault when I present
your selves to this present wicked World As Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts Have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of Darkeness Make â—â—t the Temples of the Holy Ghost the members of an Harlot The Mind of the Prophets was not different from that of the Apostles for they speak after this manner Go to now I said â—f Mirth it is vanity and of Laughter it is madness It â—s better for a young man to go to the House of mourning â—han to go to the House of feasting for that is the end of all â—hen and the living will lay it to Heart It is good for a man 〈◊〉 bear the yoke in his youth I said in my Heart I will â—reve thee with Mirth therefore enjoy pleasure And behold his also is vanity Rejoyce O young man in the days of thy south but know that for all these things God will bring hee unto Judgment And now in good earnest are all these â—â—aughts of the Character of us Christians now a dayes â—â—ese Crosses these Thorns these rough Wayes these â—rait Gates this Yoke this renouncing the World and â—s Vanities do they signifie that we can follow our Lord â—esus Christ in the equipage of Sensuality sometimes â—mong Feasts sometimes Dancings sometimes at Coâ—edies and sometimes at Play Those soft and effemiâ—ate Lives that are spent at Carde and Dice in vain â—â—d lewd Conversations in the intrigues of fleshly love â—ave they any resemblance with the combates the â—rastlings the races from which the H. Spirit takes his â—mblems to paint out to us the Life of the Faithful â—ight the good fight of Faith and so run that ye may obtain the prize Keep under your Body and bring it into subjectionâ— So fight not as one that breaketh the Air. Heaven and Earth Life and Death are not more opposite to one another than the Effiminate life of us Christians to this pourtraict of the Life of the Faithful which the holy Ghost hath given us But above all let us remember that the Spirit 〈◊〉 Christianity and of Devotion loves nothing so much aâ— Mortification to which sensible Pleasures are mortal enemies Mortifie your members which are upon the Earth St. Paul bids us do they mortifie their Members that entertain and imploy them in Volptuousness in lying upon Beds of Down in pillaging Sea and Land to furnish them with delicate Meats in joyning Aâ—â— to Nature to compose delicious Liquors for them and in running after all that may enchant their Senses Some will say that by these Member whereof the Gospel commnads the Mortification 〈◊〉 ought to understand Vices Very well But doe 〈◊〉 we know that the Members of the Body are the origâ—ne of the members of that Old Man which makes Viceâ— we cannot kill Vice but by mortifying our members The flesh is that unhappy Field accursed by Gâ—â— which produces Thorns and Thistles the more yeâ— fatten this Earth the more will it produce of theâ— venemous Plants So that we are obliged to keep it 〈◊〉 a great Privation of those Pleasures that fomention cupisence to the end it may continue mighty barrâ— in respect of those unhappy Products The Spirit of Christianity and of Devotion is a Spirit of strength but pleasure is soft It softens the Soâ— and effeminates the courage and the Church requiâ—â— a vigorous Soul and an heart of a Temper which caâ—â— not be wounded by the most weighty blows nor tâ—â— most edged and hacking gleaves of the Churches Eâ—emies We are to march thorough an hundred and â—â—â—dred sharp Swords He that would follow the Truth of Jesus Christ ought to resolve to suffer Persecution since we have alwayes in our head the Devil and the World But can a soft and voluptuous Life be proper to dispose us to Martyrdom In going out of a perfumed Bed in rising from a Table almost weigh'd down with delicious meats with an head fill'd with the furnes of a debauch are we in a good state to mount Scaffolds to enter into Flames and without quaking look upon Racks and Tortures whether is it more reasonable to look for the Heroes of Jesus Christ capable of facing Death it self among our Christians that overwhelm and as it were fuddle themselves in pleasures or among those whose austere and retired Life has declared War to all the pleasures of the World But says one we are not called to Martyrdom and according to all appearances we shall never be It may be so but still it is of great importance we should alwayes have the necessary Disposition to suffer Martyrdom For God will judge us not only according to what we do but also according to what we would do Furthermore does any one believe that the Sword and Fire of the Persecutors of the Church are the most dangerous of all Temptations we imagine we have need of strength and courage only to vanquish or undergo such torments But alas Some who have come off victorious from their bloody Bartels have yet fallen into the snares of the Devil and some that have born the marks and brands of the Lord Jesus have become children of Hell by letting ' emselves be surpriz'd by the Devil of Pride Covetousness Uncleanness or Heresie Such an one who had torn a young Lion to pieces in his strength broken the bands of the Philistines and pil'd heaps of dead bodies with the jaw-bone of an Ass falls into the â—racelets of a Dalilah and is lead in herchains to an Idol Temple This truth the World is not ignorant of It was well said that the Delights of Capua did more than the sword of the Romans and that they found out the way to soften and break those hard Africans that march'd after Hannibal and made victory to march after them So the Tranquillity God bestows on us ought not to make us sleep in the Arms of Voluptuousness Prosperity is a strong Temptation and pleasure it self is a Monster which we cannot overcome without a vigorous Resistance Meditation I Am reading a maxime that makes me tremble God will judg us both according to what we do and according to what we would have done if we had bin exposed to those Temptations which may fall out in the Providence of God True it is there is scarce room for doubt in this maxime And it 's certain that my God would have the highest purity of Heart that no one is innocent in his sight because he has committed no evil but because he has not the inclination to commit it He sounds the depths of the Heart and searcheth the Reins and he will judg according to what he knows and not to what men see In my heart he sees crimes in their very buds And if these sins have not shot forth by reason of want of Earth if they have not come forth for want of Occasion and Opportunity I am therefore the more innocent But on the other side also who can undergoe the Terrour and Amazment that such a thought inspires
Dream which vanisheth away a Smoke which is consumed in its lifting up And as it speaks of it with contempt so it would also that we have little care of it Take no care of the Body saith St. Paul to obey the lusts thereof Take no thought for the morrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of its self be in litttle pain for what ye shall eat or wherewithal ye shall be clothed As for the Soul the holy Spirit would have us turn all our cares on that side He would have us vigilant and sober because the Devil watches about it as a roaring Lyon seeking to devour it He commands us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and that we be in a perpetual solicitude about it He Orders us to nourish it with the milk of the Word sincere and without deceit and that we furnish it with strong meats He wishes us to entertain it continually in an holy joy He would have us search after those sovereign pleasures that are to be found in the possession of God which are only for the Soul The Gospel requires of us to imbellish it and that we labour to adorn it that it may be found a glorious Spouse not having spot or wrinkle worthy to be presented to its head the Lord Jesus Christ Examine the conduct of Voluptuous men it is quite contrary to this they act as if they were all Flesh and as if their Soul were only Salt to keep the Body from corrupting All the Ideas they have of Pleasure derive from the Senses and the Imagination and without a metaphor they are as they call themselves Men of Sense and they conceive no more what we call spiritual pleasures than blind men do colours As therefore they never tasted other delights than bodily ones they believe themselves oblig'd to the Body for all their Happiness And in effect so it is For at the time when they taste carnal Pleasures we cannot say they are unhappy since happiness consists in Pleasure and Joy and they have them at that moment So that because we intirely love what we consider as the source of our felicity we cannot think it strange that these worldly People love their body perfectly which they look upon as the only Source of their Pleasures We see also that these men have the same Sentiments for their Body as holy men have for God who is their sovereign good and in whom they find their sovereign pleasure They adore this Body of theirs they cherish they perfume it they offer Incense and Sacrifice to it If one should give a blow or a gird to this same Body Oh! how jealous they are on 't as of a Divinity More Indignation they have against him that should hurt this Flesh than against a Blasphemer or a Sacrilegious Person In a word their Body holds so much of a Divinity that they Sacrifice unto it even their very Conscience nay and God himself But nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than this Sentiment For the truly faithful ones are oblig'd to slight the Body to sacrifice it to God to see it torn in pieces for his name and to renounce all the pleasures of sense for his Glory The Spirit of the Gospel and of Devotion absolutely tends to the contempt of the World but the spirit of Voluptuousness and sensuality to the love of the World How must we love the World when it caresses us and is mighty kind and pleasurable to us if we love it when it persecutes us and steeps us in Gall The World is a mere Cheat and Gull and an undeniable Source of Delusions it masques it self and would be seen by us under the image of fleshly pleasure It imbraces us under the habit of Flowers but under these Flowers are a thousand Thorns We do not see these thorns we only smell the Flowers we are sensible of such pleasures and love that causes them But all the World knows nought is more contrary to Devotion than the love of the World and we have made it appear elsewhere so as by consequence nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than sensual Pleasure The Spirit of Christian Religion would inspire a contempt of the present and a desire after the other Life Now certain it is that nothing tyes men so much to Life as the pleasures of Sense the Saints say and ought to say I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better I know when this earthly house shall be dissolved we have an House eternal in the Heavens and therefore we desire to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven None of these things moving neither count I my Life dear unto my self As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God When shall I come and appear before God It 's impossible that men who live in a perpetual use of Voluptuousness should have these thoughts Every one wishes to be happy and when once he is or at least believes he is so he cannot renounce what he fancies the cause of his felicity these carnal-minded men think themselves happy at such time as they injoy their Pleasures they have no Idea of any other Beatitude but of that they injoy in this present life They can every day speak both about another life and another happiness But they have got an habit not to let themselves be touch'd but by sense and Imagination and so because this life and this happiness do not fall under their Senses nor can be imagined by them they cannot consider them but as imaginary Beings which have no relation to them because they have not any Idea of them in their minds Moreover their hearts meeting in this life with a fat Land that is much prosperity do take very deep rooting there Their affections being thoroughly ingaged in carnal pleasures bound themselves in the possession of Sensible Objects they wish for nothing more besides for that no body wishes for things which he does not know and whereof he has no clear and certain Ideas The Earth becomes their Country they naturalize themselves here every thing else is a strange and unknown Land Let people say what they please but questionless we have an ill preparation for Death in the continual use of those pleasures whose Innocence the World maintains O Death said a Wise Man how cruel is the remembrance of thee to him that lives quietly among his Possessions One lives indeed more commodiously in a Palace than in a Prison but one finds it more trouble to dye in that than in this How insupportable is the thought of Death his presence how affrightful to him who lives in the midst of Pleasures he looks upon Death as a Judge that comes to pronounce on him a dismal Sentence or an Executioner that seizes him to be lead to punishment But the faithful one who has ever held his Flesh
creating Spirit and Creator of Spirits create in me a new Heart and renew a right Spirit within me that my Soul may be filled with thy Delights and I may taste all the sweetness of thy Love Thirsty I am after Pleasure open thy Fountain of eternal Pleasures and let thy Rivers fâ—â—w into my Soul Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy Love is better than Wine Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at noon For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the â—â—â—ks of thy companions Why should my Soul â—ander amidst the vain Pleasures of the World and why should it bring to thee so many false Goods for companions Let me retire under thy shadow embrace adore love thee only and taste no Pleasure but what is in thee Draw me therefore that I may run after thee draw near to me that I may be able to draw near to thee Prevent me by thy Grace by thy Mercy and by the bowels of thy Compassion stirred up for a prodigaland rambling Son who seeks but cannot find thee Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant Fruits O Holy Spirit thou South-wind the Father of Heat Author of Generation Source of Love and Charity blow upon the Powers of my Soul which are as a Desart make them an Eden a Garden of the Almighty make odoriferous Plants to grow there produce there Habits and Works of a sweet odour so as my heavenly Saviour the beloved of my Soul may come and taste the sweetness of those Fruits that he may delight in me and I in him and that we may eternally taste all those Pleasures the products of a mutual Love CHAP. VI. That young People have no Priviledge to use sensual Pleasures nor to dispence themselves from Devotion ONE Reflection is still behind which we are obliged to make before we leave this Important Subject we having done nothing yet in regard to young People They persuade ' emselves it may be that whatever hath bin say'd does not concern them it is almost impossible to deliver them from this Errour That Pleasure is peculiarly their share and that without Tyranny we cannot deny it them To them Indevotion is natural and they reckon it a particular Honour We should make fine work of it say they to 〈◊〉 Bigots at these years they fancy that Modesty Wisdom Sobriety and Temperance are not proper for them 't is the business of old Men say they we must not make our selves ridiculous by turning Cato's and Seneca's And indeed if any one of them has more happy Inclinations he is asham'd he dissembles 'em he follows the Crowd They tell him to every thing under the Heaven there is a time In considering old and young men we can never believe say they that Persons so different are destin'd to the same Actions The wrinkled forehead of old Age the paleness of it's Complexion hollow Eyes chap-fallen Mouth and Limbs all trembling have a correspondence with the Duties of Repentance and it 's fit that they pour forth Tears and give themselves up to Mortification But the good disposition and plumpness of Youth that flourish of Blood that displays it's self upon the Complexion lively and sparkling Eyes Seâ—ses eager and capable to be toucht by their Objects very manifestly shew that this age is born for pleasures and all manner of Joy Thus it is they flatter and hug themselves in their security Not only young People talk at this rate but most part of mankind agree with them in it I cannot deny but that the extravagancies and disorders of conduct in the life of an old man impress much greater marks of infamy than the debauches of the younger sort I must confess also that the disorders of old age discover a greater depth of Corruption It cannot cast it's faults upon the first boylings of the Blood which hath much filth and scum It cannot take the default of Experience for excuse and in short it breaks the barriers of a shame much greater than that which follows the crimes of Youth But nevertheless God will not judge men according to humane Rules and the Sentiments of the World there is no Age that has receiv'd a dispensation from obeying God All the violaters of his Law shall be punisht since his Commandments are given to all and if so be the difference of Age put a diversity in sins in respect of Punishment this would only in the upshot go upon the More and the Less But what will that result to seeing in a word even the less unhappy must have their share in Eternal fires and the Worm that never dyeth Why should young people be less obliged to Devotion Has God given them less On the contrary they as well as old men have received of God their Being and Reason but farther they have vigour of Body force of Wit Health Youth and the flower of Age. Assuredly these are particular Obligations to devote themselves to God All these advantages they have not receiv'd to consecrate them to the Devil of Lust and Voluptuousness Is any thing too good for God They design for him a tatter'd body ' putrified Lungs gloomy Eyes and dry Members In truth God will be mightily oblig'd to them they would give him the bottom Lees of their years and consecrate to him that Age which is the sink of Life and the Center of all Miseries that is to say they would give him what the World has cast off they act like covetous men who are only liberal when they are dying they give what they can retain no more Believe me all the very best we have is not goo good for our God Heretofore he would not have Victimes that had any fault that were ill or in no good case or that had lost any part of the Body Do we believe he will be pleas'd to accept the Sacrifices of a spent and wasted heart and a man who is only the shadow of what he was once â—exhort you that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice But young People that take up the resolution of being devout when they can be no longer sinners promise God their dead and as it were corrupted Bodies for in old age Bodies are like Phantoms and come near to the nature of Carkasses God has thought nothing too good for us he has given himself for us he who is the sovereign good has given us his Son he devoted him to death for us in the flower of his age and it is just that we be devoted to his service in all our Ages God is not satisfied with these promises of futurity I will give thee He would have us speak in the present tense I do give thee as he does himself in speaking to us I give you my Peace He is called He who is was and is to come So that
not bridle and keep in â—hese Passions they will raise terrible Tempests in the â—ea and Devotion which is a peaceable Vertue will â—arce be heard Every Passion carries the Heart to it â—elf and Devotion being a Stranger and standing only by it self will never gain it There is most assuredly a very near Relation beâ—wixt Words and Actions they come from the same Source and the same Heart produces them wherefore I think we cannot better employ the Mouth than â—o sing the Praises of God nor the Mind than to conâ—emplate his Wonders nor the Soul than to lift it self up by Piety and the practise of good Works We have said that a Man is ill disposed in coming from a Ball or Comedy to fall to pious Ordinances On the quite contrary I say that in returning from the House of Mourning where he has comforted the Afflicted succour'd the Miserable sustained the Weak â—ed the Poor and defended the Oppress'd he finds himself in such a Gayety of Heart and such a Disposition to Prayer as is inconceivable He comes to God with the Lightness and Alacrity of a Servant who presents himself before his Master after having done his Duty to obtain the Reward for although he acknowledges he deserves nothing at God's hands yet he knows that God liberally recompenseth us for what we do only by the help of his Grace He approaches to the Altar with the Confidence of a Subject that appears before his Prince with Presents which he knows are capable of opening the way to his Heart for though our good Works be most imperfect Gifts that hold not what they have good in them but from God's Liberality nevertheless he is not ignorant that he accepts them as if they were of great Price Insomuch as I will not make any difficulty to say that the Ancients and Moderns who have distinguish'd the Active Life of a Christian from the Contemplative and have believed that this can be without that and even that the Contemplative Life was far more excellent than the other are assuredly in a great errour for by seperating the Active life which consists in doing good to our Neighbour and practising Charity to the afflicted and miserable from the contemplative life to which they believed they could give themselves up entirely they have certainly depriv'd Devotion of a very great help I have already confess'd there to be no need that the Imployments of Martha which have regard to the bodily Service of our Saviour and his Members should take away from us the time consecrated to Mary's works toreading Meditation and Prayer But we have time enough for all When Mary shall have been sufficiently heard then its fit she take the place of Martha Wherefore I would not counsel him that wou'd attain to perfect Devotion to renounce that part of the World which consists of the afflicted Members of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the School of Virtue and Piety and so far is it that this practise of works of Mercy can distract devout Souls that it is the readiest and surest way to arrive at Devotion The Ideas of the World I confess are incompatible with those wherewith a devout Soul ought to be fill'd A tragical event the â—ight of a triumph the hope of a fortune for one's self the grandeur of that of another a duel a warr all this I say hath no alliance with the sweet Images of God of his Love and Benefits Wherefore it 's good to shut and bar the Door against these first Representations if we would with success labour to establish others in their room but the Images of a man languishing upon the Bed of Sickness or another that suffers for God's sake agrees easily with the thought of our Lord Christ suffering for us A multitude of poor Creatures to whom thou openest thy Bowels will easily lead thee to the Consideration of those Liberalities thou receivest from God The aid thou shalt lend one to defend his Life another for the defence of his Honour and Reputation will oblige thee to think on the Benefits and Helps thou continually receivest from Heaven Thou shalt have no-manner of need to banish the thoughts that attend an Active life lodge those in their place which spring from Contemplation They will be united in the same heart and lend one another mutual Succour Meditation I HAVE been told sometimes that the Vertues are Sisters that walk hand in hand that they are so many Rings in an holy chain which is broken by the rupture of one of those Rings They can't be without one another and therefore O my Soul thou canst not be truly devout because thou art not truly Vertuous and thou hast not in thy heart the Practice of all good works Dost not thou see that the World is exactly â—am'd to furnish employ to thy Vertues and to soilicit thee to good and holy actions the heavens declare the Glory of God and the extent of the Firmament sheweth his Almighty Power that thou mayest joyn thy Voice to those praises which all Nature rings and thy gratitude may have scope to act upon The Air forms outragious Tempests makes the Thunder and Lightning to break forth so as the fear of God may spring up in thee and thou mayest tremble under his hands which make the Mountains to tremble Dost not thou see that God here below makes miserable wretches that they may be the Objects of thy Compassion poor ones that thou mayest be liberal afflicted that thou mayest comfort them weak for thee to uphold sick that thou mayest visit them Doth not be permit too even that there be sinners straying like lost Sheep that thou mayst bring them into the right way ignorant ones for thee to instruct imprudent that thou mayest be their Director some that fall that thou mayest help them up again and for thy self that thou look to thy steps and even wicked persons who perish that thou mayest be put into a wholesom terrour for thy self does not he suffer examples of Vanity to be that thou mayest slight and contemn the World sudden and unlookt for deaths that thou should'st watch and be ever upon thy Guard proud men that fall into ruine while thou retainest thy self in Humility the wicked who are punisht for thee to dread sin good men that are rewarded for thee to seek Vertue yet amidst so many lessons thou art deaf and immoveable Thou makest thy Vertue to consist in not doing evil that is to say in doing nothing as if any one should make life to confist in death and in being depriv'd of Motion Thou remembrest not that the barren fig-tree was cut up by the root that God will cast out the unprofitable servant and will banish out of his Paradice both him that hath lost his talent and him that had only buried it in the Earth Prayer COme then O my Divine Redeemer come and cultivate my heart that it be no more a rocky and barren ground Soften this Rock by the