I powre into your wound following therin the Apostles counsell who will haue vs pray ouer him that is sad * weepe with him that is soerowfull * And me thinkes I heare I know not what secrete voice giue me assurance that this infirmitie shall not be to death but that the glorie of God shall be therby more manifested in you * And if with patience you expect his blessed pleasure you shall shortly see the splendour of his diuine face shine vpō you An incouragement CHAP. III. ATTEND therefore Gods pleasure be couragious Let your hart rise as a palme-tree against that which doth oppresse it susteyne this assault * What doth he know who is not tempted Blessed is he who suffers temptation for being once tryed he shall receaue the crowne of life * Patience workes probatiō begets Hope and such a hope as is not confounded For by patience we possesse our selues in Peace * Say to the pusilanimous lift vp your deiected minds * saith the Prophete Tell them that they are to hope euen against all hope * And that whē they conceaue they are lost they are neerer to their saluation then they can beleeue * Loose not then your confidence THEOPISTE sith so great a reward is promised vnto it * Giue care vnto your sweet Sauiour who cryes vnto you be confident for I haue ouercome the world * And what vertue is it which giues vs victory ouer the world The Apostle makes answere it is our Faith * But alas say you THEOPISTE This is that which I want this is my desease and you say vnto me be well From that quarter warre is waged against me your counsell is liue in Peace That is the euill which doth afflict me and you say vnto me ô man of litle faith why dost thou feare * It is not I that say thus vnto you THEOPISTE it is our Sauiour himselfe the very words of whose Testament you vse It is his Apostle that assures you that vertue is perfected in infirmity * that euen from its owne infirmity it gaines new strength oftentimes when we apprehend we haue lost all we winne all For God is faithfull and neuer tempts vs in euil He permits vs not to be tēpted aboue our strēgth * Contrariwise he makes vs draw profit from our tribulation * and find out our saluation in the midst of our enemies * When we thinke that our vertue doth fayle vs and that the light of our eyes hath forsaken vs * he serues vs as a Pillar of fire in palpable darknesse and makes a light shine amongst the obscurities to those that are of a right hart * That which you repute a serpent taken by the tayle vpon a soudaine is in our hand a florishing rodde and a rodde of directiō in the Kingdom of Heauē Beleeue it THEOPISTE ether am I a very badde Prophete or els this temptation against Faith which doth afflict you will more affright thē hurt you for all the temptations which doe not please cannot hurt * as a Father of the Church saith Contrariwise if you will please to follow my counsell and aduise with as much confidence as God hath giuen you freedome to reueale your cause and discouer vnto me the wayes and feelings of your interiour man I doubt not but you will draw confusion vpon the house of NABVCHODONOSOR * cut of HOLOPHERNES his head with his owne sword * and with the dint of a stone from a slinge beat downe that proude PHILISTIAN who would out-braue the army of your good desires * The profit of Temptation CHAP. IV. I Dare promise my selfe that as DAVID found bitternesse in Peace * so contrariwise you shall meete with sweetnesse in this warre And that honie-combes shall not onely spring out of rockes to you * but euen out of the Lion's iawes which you thinke is about to deuoure you * according to SAMSON'S Embleme That you shall draw fresh water out of the midst of this brinish sea as vaines therof are found in the bosome of the Oceā that one day you shall sing with the Psalmist it was good for me ô Lord to haue beene humbled by thy hand to th' end I might learne thy iustifications * Then shall you know that that affliction which giues you the same blowes in matter of Faith which the Angell of Satan gaue S. PAVL in point of dishonestly * shall haue the like effect in you as the waters of the Deluge in the Arke of Noë And what effect had they in it Marry they lanched it from the shore they bore it vp towards Heauen brought it safe at length to the toppe of the highest Armenian Mountaines * I would say hereby that this trouble in lieu of depressing shall exalte your faith and that this essay of your vallour shall purge and purifie your Faith as gold in the Crurible * and shall giue it a deeper colour and perhaps whereas she now creepes vpō the earth amidst shades Enigma's Mirrours * fantomes and imaginary shapes her youth being renewed like vnto the Eagle * she shall become cleare-sighted resembling that bird which without shutting her eyelides can fixe the aples of her eyes vpon the brightest sunne beames Yea may it not be that after my Theopiste haue once read this Practise or spirituall Combat and when I say Practise my meaning is that that which is read should be practised he shall heare with the theife vpon the Crosse who seeing himselfe with in two fingars breath of ship-wrake receaued yet pardon from the King of mercy in these fewe words amen amen I say vnto thee this day thou shall be with me in Paradice * Which was accomplished euen in Hell or in Abraham's bosome whither this good theife discending saw the glorious and triumphant soule of our Sauiour who defeated Death and blunted the sharp point of the sting of Hell * while he bore away the spoyles and ledd Captiuity captiue after him * ITHEOP my beleife is that we shall not die but liue * and that if we doe firmely cōstantly beleeue floodes of waters of life * running to eternity * shall issue out of our breastes * This blessed Hope is surely lodged in my bosome * The estate of a soule in temptation CHAP. V. BVT before I begin to dresse your wound which seemes to me more daunting then dangerous I must behold it neerer You are say you for some tyme past so vext with thoughtes of blasphemie and infidelitie that all your wisdome is defeated in this hot assault and the malignitie of the sore surpassing all the remedies you apprehend your wound incurable You haue had recourse to the seeing to the Prophetes and to the Angells of God to be deliuered by their assistance from the Monsters and perills which are found in the way of Rage or rather in the way of this rage of infernall furies which seeme to stand with open iawes readie to swallow you vp You haue runne from liuing to dead Oracles that is you haue
their reward be who haue suffered in Gods cause in his power haue ouercome temptations Certes they shall haue the same with the Angels who threw downe the diuels since men are to repaire the ruines of the Heauenly Hierusalem But what is that Verily no humane hart can conceaue it like as no eye hath seene nor eare hath heard it * We know onely by the Apostle writing vnto the Romanes that the pleasures which passe can enter into no cōparison with the glory which shall be reuealed vnto vs in Heauen * And to the Corinthians that those moments of labour doe worke in vs aboue measure exceedinglie an eternall waight of glory * of a wonderous hight By it we are holilie Chastised CHAP. XXVI HOw vniustly then should we thinke that we are forsaken of God when temptations doe oppresse vs sith Charity doth then specially presse vs that the heauenly rayes doe beate vpon our foreheades For though we feele the smarte of his rodde yet who knowes not that he treates vs licke a Father who doth not chastise his child but for the loue he beares him the desire he hath to bring him to goodnesse So farre is it saith S. CHRISOSTOME from being a signe that we are forsaken by God that it is euen a peculiar marke of his loue and care for by that meanes he will rouse vs vp out of our drousie and languishing neglect to make vs more diligent in his seruice * For on the other side is it not he who cryes out vnto vs come vnto me ô you that are loaden and oppressed and I will refresh you * We are sensible indeede that one of his hands doth waigh a litle heauy vpon vs but we also see if we please the other streched out to support and helpe vs. Though the iust man be euen waighed downe vnder his burden yet shall he not be oppressed saith the Psalmist because our Lord doth hold him vp with one of his hands O how worthy to be loued and adored is this hand in the distribution of afflictions which it sends vs since by them he opens our vnderstanding and makes vs know the true good * How good it is for me ô Lord saith the diuine Psalmist that thou hast humbled me * and againe we haue reioyced in the dayes of our humiliation and when we were taken by calamity With great reason did this great King speake in this sort because the rough times when he was persecuted by SAVL ABSALON and SEMEI were farre more aduantagious vnto him then his times of prosperity wherein he was cast downe into so grosse faultes that he stood in need of the great mercy * of God to cleanse him A violent sicknesse saith the wiseman brings the soule to sobriety * and wisdoms arriuall is accōpagned with the rodde and correction * This made IEREMIE say thou hast chastised me ô Lord and I haue beene brought vnder the yoake like vnto a yoūg bull * This is the gall by which the Angell restored TOBIE his sight and by the durt of this humiliation the Sōne of God cured the borne-blind God prone to assiste the tempted CHAP. XXVII IF it please you THEOPISTE maturely and holily to pōder these cōsiderations I dare assure you you shall appcase your frightes cease your plaints Verily be a complainte as iust as it will yet it is alwayes to be suspected of daintinesse for it is an vndoubted truth that God who is faithfull in his promises doth neuer permit vs to be tempted beyond our strength but makes vs euen from the temptation it selfe rayse new forces to oppose the temptation Hence we gather by a necessary consequence that such as doe yeald themselues vp made not such resistance as they were able and when they endeauour out of their frailty to pleade their sinnes excuse * one may stoppe their mouth * by saying that iniquity hath lyed to it selfe * as those wicked wretches did whom the wiseman brings in saying that the Sunne of Iustice hath not enlightned them * and that God hauing cultiuated the vine of their interiour in euery necessary sort it is their owne onely naughtinesse which makes branbles spring from their hart in lieu of grapes * And if before the tribunall of the diuine Iustice they were so audacious as to couer their fault with the cloake of the infirmity of their flesh * how many Sainctes would rise vp in Iudgment against them making them clearely fee by their example that with a lesse measure of grace they vanquished greater temptations then those to which their cowerdise rendered vp themselues No no God doth neuer deny his helping hand to such as performe their duty * He is good to those that are of a right hart * He who watcheth ouer Israel neuer sleepes * If during the tempest he seeme sometimes to slumber he infallibly awakes in time of neede for he doth opportunely come in to our ayde in time of tribulation * True it is he doth now and then let vs come to extreamities to essay our vallour Patience He expected till Israel was come betwixt the sea the sword but to make them way through them he swallowed vp PHARAO with his chariots army He reduced IOB to tearmes that strike temerous and feeble soules with dread yet he sent the storme according to the shippe the winde with proportion to the sayles Why if it please him to kill vs that he may rayse vs againe as he permitted LAZARVS to die to bestowe a new life vpon him if he will carry vs downe to Hell and bring vs backe againe * who hath right to aske him why he doth so * doe we not know that he keepes the keyes of death and Hell that is able to draw backe whom he pleaseth from deathes doore * and from the Abisses below to deliuer our soule out of the clawes of death to wipe the teares from our eyes and to warrant our foote from falling * by his power to beare away our soules out of Hell * to effect that its depth deuoure vs not * and that the mouth of the infernall Abisses be not wide open to swallow vs vp * Who is able to declare the power of our Lord Our ayde then and sufficiēcie yea more then sufficiencie proceedes from him but our destruction from our selues * because we loose courage like to the children of Ephraim who shot meruellous well at Butts yet fled from the face of the enemy with whom they were to fight * We loose Patience and leaue God thinking though falsely that he hath left vs whereas the Psalmist assures vs that those who expect God shall not be frustrated in their expectation * And ABACVC though he stay long yet leaue not to expect for coming he will come that is speedily and he will not delay * Nor is he indeed long ere he come to our succour but our patiēce is too short our hope too weake O if we had those sacred promises deepelye engrauen in
the patient makes of the state he feeles himselfe in Those litle duplicities those windings that spirituall cunning those couertures which we sometymes make vse of while we treate in matter of cōscience with those to whom we haue trusted the gouernement of our soule are oft cause that the temptations which would but passe through our hart doe put themselues in garrisons and withall falling into mutinie doe stirre vp reuoults seditions and tumults But blessed be God Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST Father of Mercies and God of all consolation who comforts vs in all our troubles * Benediction light wisdome thāksgiuing honour vertue and strength be to God who hath giuen you courage as to another Acan to glorifie him * and to confesse vnto him your owne iniustice against your selfe A great part of health is to wish to be well This makes vs couragiously vse all conuenient kinds of remedies It is a great stepp to goodnes to desire to become good for grace wherby we are made such is neuer awanting to those who haue a will fruitfully to receaue it and carefully to manage it Such may I esteeme you my deare THEOPISTE since for so many yeares you haue made profession of pietie and giuen the testimonie of a good life that you desire to be deuoute Greife for Peace lost CHAP. X. ALas and this it is thē that drawes so many sobbs frō your breast such a world of sighes from your mouth and such floods of teares frō your eyes while you thinke of the faire weather that is past wherin you fought with such courage and alacritie * Ah say you the crowne of my head is fallen woe be to me for I haue offended * And my misfortune is that I know not myne owne miserie * Hence I lift vp my hands towards the heauens and say ô Lord from my secrete sinnes cleanse me and from other mens spare thy seruant ô Sion ô wishfull peace of my hart when I thinke of thee myne eyes become foūtaines and the aples of myne eyes swime therin I ranne so well ay me what 's this that holds me * What troublesome Remora stopps the shippe of my affections which sayled vnder full sayles vpon the Sea of Grace and spirituall delightes What scorching winde hath dryed vp those pleasing fountaines * out of which I drew water of life wherwith I quenched my thirst While God dilated my hart with sweete affections I ranne without paine within the compasse of thy wayes * While he couered me or rather inuironed me with his good pleasure as with a buckler * I contemned the attempts of myne enemye O who will reduce me to the same estate in which I was in tymes past while I washed the feete of myne affections in the butter * of cōsolations and while to me from the Rocke of Faith flowed floodes of oyle * O how my gold is obscured or rather turnd blacke how my redd coulour is changed * No let me be called no more Noemi but Mara since my soule is fild with bitternesse * O God what stumbling block is layd to crosse my way who walked towards thee so directly and whereas nothinge but holy words of prayse honour and benediction issued out of my mouth and rose vp in thy sight like vnto the smoake of incense * while my tongue did onely meditate thy iustice my lipps thy glorie * whence is it that myne interiour doth open its mouth against the Heauens * and like to the wells of the Abisse vomits out no other thing but a smoake of blasphemie and impietie which doth dimme the starrs and depriue me of light THEOPISTE doe not you lye to the Holy Ghost as did ANANIAS and SAPHIRA Tell the truth Are not these your vexatiōs and anguishes Are not these the groneings or rather the roreings of your hart But alas why doe you thus wrongfully change iudgement into Absinth * honie into Gaule and mistake the heauenly dewe and Manna for hayle A lenitiue CHAP. XI BE comforted and I say againe be comforted * to speake with ISAYE for what you apprehend chastisements are caresses Be it that the tempest is great must we therfore loose courage forsake the sterne Though euen the whall had swallowed you vp with IONAS though the knife were put to your throte * though God should euen kill you ought you yet for all that to leaue of to hope in him * I reioyce in my sufferances for CHRIST * said the Apostle and delight in myne infirmities to the end that the vertue of my master may remayne in me * And what is this vertue but Patience I but will you say I suffer not for IESVS CHRIST as did his vessell of Election but against IESVS-CHRIST so that I am one of the diuels martyres Why though the diuell should martyre and torment you as he did IOB and saint PAVLE by the dīuine permission who told you yet that the torments which proceed from the diuell are suffered for the diuell and not for IESVS CHRIST who knowes not that it is the cause not the sufferāces which makes the martyrdome Now the marke and seale of a good sufferance is patience ioyned to Charitie He that suffers without this though he should giue his bodie to be burnt should onely aduance his owne damnation Beware then ô THEOPISTE least by your impatience you spoyle the worke of God in you which can neuer come to its full perfection but by patience * Why doe you thinke that patiēce is meerely vsefull to sustayne exteriour crosses and vexations and that its imployment doth not also concerne the interiour As though forsooth inuisible enemies were not as much to be feared as visible ones and we our selues were not as dangerous to our selues as any other If you know not this you are but yet a freshman in the spirituall warfare But if you be not ignorant of the truth of it when doe you thinke you can make better vse of this Weapon then in the present occurrence God's assistance in temptation CHAP. XII BVT giue me leaue ô man not of litle Faith * but of litle courage a litle to raise vp thy hart without making it swell like a balowne with the winde of any presumption and to tell you that according to the prouerbe you crie before you be hurt and imitating the Prophete you crie out that your bellie aketh * and that death is in the potage * Without anie iust cause For I beseech you what is it that doth affright and so desperately terrifie you It is say you that I continually am haunted with a blasphemous spirit wherewith mine eie is troubled my soule and my bellie * that is my soule and my bodie my whole man Alas doe you not discouer that there is nothing there but the the shadowe of death not death it selfe And with a verie graine of confidence in God are you not able to walke in the midst of the region of the shadowe of death without fearing anie wisfortune *
sublime refuge whereof the Psalmist makes mention to which no euill come nor shall any scourg approch T' is the Desert where the woman in the Apocalipse saued her selfe least the dragō should haue deuoured her fruite These are the wings of the doue which the Psalmist wisheth for to fly vp to his rest * It is in this high degree of Contemplation that he compares himselfe to a Pelicane in the wildernesse a night crow in the house and to a sparow solitary in the house toppe A Practise of this Act. CHAP. XII YOu will perhaps aske me what that happy shelter is that you may spring away towards it as a Hart dead run by the hounds his breath and legges failing him who rūs himselfe into some thicke Groue as into an vnpregnable Fort or into some holow denne in the side of some high Rocke according to the Psalmists song that the high moūtaines are for the Heart 's the rocke a refuge for the Iechins * I did point it you out in S. DENIS his words THEOPISTE which if you find somewhat obscure I will here a litle illustrate them by an explication fitted to your pourpose Know then that if all the remedies which I haue prescribed be not able to worke the cure and if you find not your hart deliuered of disquiete by the diuers considerations and practise of so many vertues different Actes you are to imitate the Prophete IEREMIE The solitary shall sit and hold his peace and afterwards he shall rise aboue himselfe Endeuour then following this aduise to settle your thoughts entring into your selfe and to hold your peace that is to silence all the noyse of your exteriour or interiour senses of all your passions to depriue your imagination of all the shapes of created things to stripe your memory of all the Idea's of creatures sciences not to permit your vnderstanding to discourse no not to appease the motions and boylings of the will which is to sing to God the Hymne of sacred silence in the Hierusalem or City of Peace of our hart to throw downe vpon the ground or rather to throw out all naturall light admitting onely into the Sanctuary of the bottome of our soule the simple abstract pure vniuersall ray of a liuely Faith exempt from all discourse representations and actes and in this louing submission or assenting quiet of mind in this setled attention in this inward vnion by so much the stronger as it is lesse perceaued so much more exquisite as it is lesse sensible keepe your selfe neere vnto God cast your selfe into this sacred blindnesse clearer-sighted then all sight into this night which is brighter then the day into this darkenesse clearer thē the light into that resplendant cloud so much celebrated by the mistikes and as another MAGDALENE set at our Sauiours feete remaine inuariable and immoueable without euer regarding the spoyles which the temptation seemes to make in all the partes of your soule whether it be sensitiue or reasonable so it be inferiour to the highest point of your spirit For as long as that shall say no let the flesh be moued let the diuell rage you can neuer be vāquished God can take you vp by this haire out of these troubles as well as the Angell took ABACVC by one of his and as long as this haire remaynes intire you shall neuer loose your interiour strength And though we apprehend that the inferiour portion of our reasonable part is disloyall and impious yet feare not the highest point of your spirit like another MOYSES is with God in the clouds vpon the toppe of the mountaine he will appease his wroth against Israel who below eates danceth playes and then adores the golden Calfe Though all your senses passions and powers should be troubled and disordered by temptation and as it were should liue in a kind of impiety and idolatry so that you sticke and adheare to God in the toppe of your spirit it is enough to warrant you from his wrath and the dread of his Iustice And though you seeme to be forsaken of God vpon this Crosse and that malice seemes to be consummated in you that is accomplished in a highest degree yet as long as in the botome of your hart you are able to say vnto God ô heauenly Father I cōmend my poore soule into thy hāds * you are still in good estate Your lot is assured in such hāds * out of which no power can beare you away by force * till by your free consent you take your selfe out of them God neuer forsaking any but such as forsake him An Eleuation towards the toppe of the Spirit CHAP. XIII THe wise-man saith that it is in vaine to set snares for birds alreadie flying * because a man is not able to force them from the wing and indeede we neuer reade that the bird of Paradice is caught nor is she euer found in earth but when death makes her tumble downe for hauing no feete she keepes continually in the open aire where she doth feede and repose The same may be said of soules which doe soare aboue all sensible and intelligible things yea euen beyond themselfes towards God In vaine doe the diuells set trappes for them while their eyes still turnd and sett vpon God doe neuer sleepe the sleepe of the death of sinne * The litle flies once inueigled in the Spiders netts sticke therin the great ones doe burst and breake them Temptations are true Spiders-webbs which doe scarcely euer catch those soules which doe soare aboue created things which entertayne thoughtes of God more dearely then all other thoughtes and are more sensible of his touches then all other feelings Thunders winds stormes hayle rayne and the rest of the impressions of the aire doe onely beate vpon the midst and the foote of the Mountaine Olympus whose toppe enioyes so constant and continuall a calme that that which one writes therin in the dust remaynes still in the same estate neuer being touched with the least breath of wind And though the midst and lowest part of our soule be weather-beaten with the tēpests and stormes of temptation yet it is in our power with the assistance of God's grace to maintayne the toppe of it in a constant peace and serenitie by so much the greater by how much it is lesse knowen and by so much more solide by how much it is lesse sensible In two parts of the Tabernacle of the Iewe's Temple there was nothing seene but fire flames flesh blood sacryficed victimes sacryfices nothing heard but the brute of beastes which were slaughtered and the harmonie of the heauenly Hymnes and prayses But in the SANCTA SANCTORVM nothing was felt but parfumes and the High Preist who alone carried them thither adored God onely in a high silēce It is into this misterious silence of the Sanctuarie of the botome of your hart that I inuite you to enter THEOPISTE neuer taking notice of the noyce and rustling outrages of your