in his Body as if it were lodged in a Tomb all the Life he has is but the Life of a Beast and only a Shadow of Human Life To be Ignorant according to the Opinion of the Wise Man is to be a sort of Creature that spends a great deal of Time in passing on from his Birth to his Death without making a Step into Life Perierint quasi non fuerinty Nati quasi non Nati REFLECTIONS As Knowledge is one part of our Perfection so it is also one part of our Felicity Make your self then a Knowing person so far at least as you are obliged to be such by the Laws of Nature and of Religion and by those of Decence and Honour Of what Age soever you are at this present and let your Rank be what it will in the World it is necessary if you will hold the Rank of a Man of Worth that you be not ignorant either in Philosophy or in Christian Divinity You may know enough of both without putting your self to any great Trouble or Pains and without running after those Professors who make a Trade of teaching these Noble Sciences I do not advise you to go and study under them or to haunt teir Schools but I advise you to learn what you are to think of Eternity and by what Means you may avoid a Misery of that duration The Masters that are fittest to teach you these things have expected you for this long time at least there is no need of your going far to seek them you may find them wheresoever you are your self and near enough to you to speak privately to your Heart it is but entring within your self and you may hear what they will say Here follow some Reflections that will help you to know these Masters and to profit by their Discourses Mind then that you no sooner began to live but that you were obliged by the nature of your Birth to begin to know three Truths 1. That there is a God that gave you Life 2. That there is a Nothing from whence you came and a Death to which you are going 3. That there is a Jesus Christ who redeemed you and must give you a Resurrection At your coming into the World you have met with three Masters or three Voices ordained to teach you these three Lessons The Voice of Nature the Voice of Death and the Voice of the Gospel and Grace These are not three Discourses but three Subjects for your Meditation that I present you with In the first place I say That to make your self perfectly knowing in the Morals it will behove you to become the Disciple and Scholar of Death and to take Lessons from that Master Death does not speak but it has a Silence in which is summed up all the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that contains all those admirable Instructions they have left to aid you in leading a Good Life and to help you to solve well upon every occasion those Difficulties that shall be offer'd to you by your blinded Conscience All the Counsels of the Holy Fathers are in the Mouth of Death what makes the Wonder is that Death without speaking a word causes all those Counsels and Instructions to enter into your Heart and does this in such a way and with that Force and Energy which those Holy Fathers could never arrive at Death does this says Solomon every time she presents her self In ea finis Cunctorum admonetur hominum before your Eyes and as often as she invites you to the House where she is and shews you in the Face of a Dying Person the Sentence that Heaven has decreed against you That you must dye and be to morrow in the same Condition as you now behold this fick expiring Creature Testamentum hujus Mundi morte Morieris Solomon means that when Men dye certain pale Characters appear to be traced upon their Lips which every one can read and where they find these two words Hodie mihi Cras tibi The Prophet calls this their Will or Testament which Death writes for them and makes their Heirs with those others that encompass their Bed to see and be Witnesses to it All read it and all understand it You that are the Great Ones of the World have often read it and you have learned from thence says St. Gregory that the Inheritance which every one of your Ancestors has left you at the Moment of his Death has been the News that you must dye as he has done and that you and all the Riches Honours and Greatness you now enjoy must in a few days time return to what they have been heretofore to Dust to Ashes and to Nothing Pulvis es in pulverem Reverteris Of all the Forefathers you have had since the beginning of the World there has not been one amongst them that has missed the Signing of this Testament and the leaving you this Inheritance Such a Testament cries out Solomon as a Young Man enriched by the Rapine and unjust dealings of his Father needs but read with attention to become the holy and happy Heir of a Dives and damned Person Read then but observe that the great benefit of this Reading and of this contemplation does not consist in beholding what Death has shewn you but in remembring that you have seen it When She has shewn you in the low bottom of a Sepulchre whole Armies of Worms covering the Face you lately adored and that She has made you confess that this Rottenness was once your Idol the few Sillables she would have you imprint in your Mind which contain all her Instructions are Memento homo Remember Young-man what you have seen in this Tomb and what you have learnt there In truth to the learning of your Morals perfectly and how to live Wisely and Christianly it will conduce but little to look on dying and dead People There is not that Person does not go to see his Relations and Friends upon their Death-bed and who at that time does not think of the Affairs of another World and propose to himself Designs of Conversion and Repentance but then by the next Morning we find all these Thoughts blotted out of our Minds like Dreams and we know nothing of what we saw and what we designed Yesterday Indevotion Libertinism and Vanity have the same station in our Hearts as before and we begin again to live like Sinners that had not heard or known that any in the World had ever died O ye Mortals cries out Death it is not only in the Church whilst you are shedding Tears at the Funeral of your Brother who died Yesterday suddenly without one Word of Confession after an Impenitence for several Years that you are to study the Doctrine I teach but it is by remembring this miserable Exit Memento Keep in your Mind the Thought of this Death and cherish the Memory of it whatsoever Change of Fortune may befal you or in what part of the World
Wonders of the World that you ask for are at the present where were heretofore the great Princes and Popes Martianus Justin Agathocles Benedict XI Sixtus V before they were raised to the Throne they are in our Shops or else in our Villages poor Shepherds keeping of Sheep but we know them not nor do they know themselves It looks as if only Chance could discover and find out these Rareties yet Man's Industry heightned with a Zeal for the Publick Good would certainly go a great way in it Would Statesmen apply themselves to find out the means that none of these Men of great Parts provided by Nature for us should be lost there would without question be made no little discovery of them and What could prove a greater Service to the Commonwealth The way was known heretofore to find out the most valiant and fam'd Souldier of the old times when he was clothed like a Girl and that he knew not himself to be other than such but thought to live ever as a Woman The ways were found to discover under the Habits of poor Shepherds the famous Paris the Grand Cyrus and the most admirable King of Judea had they lived still in that way what would they have been We admire them now after Two or Three thousands years are passed because they were empoly'd in their Calling and that they reigned if every one should be put to do what is truly his Vocation how happy would the World be and how many Excellent Men and what Master pieces of Art would there appear in it In conclusion Vnusquisque in arte sua sapiens est No Man will become sufficient and able but in the Profession that belongs to him When Agathocles in his young days followed his Father's Trade of making Earthen Pots he was a meer Rogue good for nothing an insupportable Brute able to ruin his Father by his want of Skill in that Calling and want of Inclination to it Agathocles was born to reign a strange Change no sooner had Fortune raised him to the Throne but that he proved one of the greatest and the wisest Kings that ever ruled in Sicily Another King ill versed in the Art of Reigning whose Grandfather had been a Shoemaker passing by the Shop of one of that Trade where a young Man of Birth and Wit was forced to work for a Livelihood and perceiving that he did not handle his Tools well did laugh at him and said he would undo his Master with the spoil of Leather It is very true said the young Gentleman Shoemaker if every one were at his right Trade I shoult not be the loss of Leather nor you the loss of Cities and the ruin of your Country I own That Nature does commonly produce great and noble Souls endowed with Excelling Qualities in Persons of High birth but she does not always tye her self to this On the other side there rarely appears in Persons of Quality any great Talent for the making them eminent in the Arts all that I can assure is That the Man who follows his true Calling never fails to be wise and that one of the choice Sayings of Solomon is Vnusquisque in arte sua Sapiens est MAXIM XV. Multi Amici sint tibi Consiliarius sit tibi unus de Mille. Eccles vi PARAPHRASE Few Children fewer Servants and an abundance of Friends make the Golden Number containing what renders a Family chiefly happy There are Diseases in the Body which shorten its Mortal Life there are such in the Soul as make its Immortality unhappy the Cure for both is a true and constant Friend but to get him you must fear God REFLECTIONS The enjoyment of a number of Friends is one of our Felicities and ought to be placed in the first Rank of them the Wise fix their Hearts on this Blessing and cherish it equally with their Lives Without Friendship even our Immortal Life would be but a Shadow of Living or but a beginning of a Death that would never come to an end Amicus fidelis medicamentum vitae immortalitatis A faithful Friend is a Medicine of Life and Immortality says Solomon Have Friends find them out but do not purchase them a bought Friend is commonly one only in outward shew The way to get Friends is not to make them continual visits and seek to them with importunity do not you run after them stay for them The same may be said of Friendship which I have said before of Honour and Reputation These are Shadows not to be stopped by a Man's pursuit and endeavours to seize on them The Skill lies in attracting them carry your self in such sort at your times of Conversation that your Soul may discover many Excellencies in it fit to please Almighty God but not the least Vanity or Care to be pleasing to Man The sole Counsel that Wisdom gives you in this occasion is to live in your own House and every where else like a Man of Honour and Conscience and to edifie Company by your way of conversing with them a Way that may show you all commendable and fill the Hearts of those that know you with Desire to merit your Friendship Look up to Heaven seek after God and aim in your Desires to please him True Friends will soon come and seek after you and they will teach you to know that Virtue which links together the Hearts of worthy Men is a Chain Destiny cannot break nor Time nor Death no nor Eternity Do a I tell you love and make your self fit to be beloved have the fewest Flatterers and the most Friends that you can possibly I say the most your Glory and Advantage in this Point lies not in engaging by your Civilities and Presents two or three Persons to love you there is not a Thief or any Wicked Man that has not two or three Friends of this nature It is by the great numbers of those that love and esteem us that we are to be distinguish'd from the Baser sort True it is to have a great many Confidents is dangerous Consiliarius it tibi unus de mille Have but one says Solomon to have two goes far But as for true Friends their number cannot be too great nor scarce sufficient There is not a Man of Worth that does not merit and desire to have more than he has Aim to arrive at that degree to which Joseph's Virtue carried him this lovely Person was in the center of the Court amongst Princes Statesmen Philosophers and the Prime Men of the World the same he was in Prison amongst Thieves and Murderers he was every where the Beloved of all that saw him Act so well by the Perfection of your Wit and Nature and shew a Heart so obliging and magnanimous as that of all those that know you although many be not trusted with your Secrets yet none may want an Inclination to serve you but count themselves happy to meet with the occasion You must not think such Persons unnecessary to you
to Heaven or not but will grow from the tediousness and length of years and the delays that put off the happy day in which you are to see your Beloved You will not beg of the Angels to let you know whether you shall bear them company one day in the Heavenly Jerusalem and whether there be a place appointed for you there but to let you know when you shall come thither on what day at which hour O blessed Spirits when will this be Ye possess already him whom I seek and whom you love O Angels I love as well as you and cannot live without my God yet all this while I see him not Adjuro vos filiae Jerusalem I conjure you O Daughters of Jernsalem to take pity on my Love and tell me when I shall enter into the Glorious Palace of my Spouse into the very place of that admirable Tabernacle into the very Arms and Bosom of him who is the Object of my Sighs and Tears You will look upon Heaven as an Inheritance that belongs to you and will say with David Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi I have heard a Divine Voice whisper to my Heart which has left these few words imprinted in it That we shall go into the House of God and that after a moment or two of Labour and Affliction we shall get out of this Valley of Tears and Region of Death to be transported to the Habitation of Life and Immortality where our Bliss and Enjoyment wil be no less eternal than He is whom we love Here you see what has been said and thougâ—â— by such persons as have been in your condition and by what means they have raised themselves above the power of Hell and above all the Fears and Disquiets that torment the Weak and Pusilanimous In a word if you be assured that you have a Good Will shut not that Peace out of your Heart which has been promised you from Heaven by these words Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis MAXIM XVII Mulierem fortem quis inveniet procul de ultimis finibus terrae pretium ejus Prov. xxxi PARAPHRASE It is not meant here that there is not a strong Woman in the World but that there is not the Man who is wise and happy enough to find her out so hard it is to distinguish her from other Women that disguise themselves and deceive the Eyes of such as are the clearest sighted If there be those notwithstanding that will attempt the search of her see here her Figure which I present them with as a help to know her They will judge by it in my opinion that if they were to go as far as the Indies to learn News of this Lady she would deserve the Pains and to have the Voyage undertaken for her alone rather than for that number of things fetched from thence infinitely less rare and precious REFLECTIONS It is not to be doubted but that amongst the Felicities of this Life one of the most desirable to Man is to have Plenty Order and Peace setled in his Family The Duty of effecting this Settlement belongs particularly to the Wife the Honour and the Obligation of the Husband dispose of him wholly to the service of the Common-wealth to whose Benefit he dedicates his Time and Pains and by his excellent Qualities comes to merit one of the principal Places in the government of it These two Employments have been assigned by Providence to the Master and Mistress of that Family of which Solomon speaks in the last of his Proverbs both the one and the other carry themselves after such a manner as make the Angels admire at the Grace which enlightens and enables them and Men are at a loss to reckon which of the Pair deserves the best Preference It is certainly an admirable Sight to behold this august Peer awing Nobilis in pertis vir ejus quando Sederit eam Senatoribus terrae the People into their Duty or to see him preside in an Assembly of Senators at a time when the Frame of the State is shaken and in disorder and yet such as consider the Carriage of the Wife at home in her Palace see those things which make a no less glorious appearance in their Eyes they are not to be distinguish'd one from another The Character which they receive from the general Voice says That their Examples regulate all the Actions of their fellow-Citizens and that they equally share by their Merit in all the Praises and Admiration of their Country See here the first Lines of their Figures which the Wise-man has drawn to present to future times and to confute the Complaints and Tears of such as lay to Heaven the ill Success of their Marriage This Woman who is all Obedience to her Husband reigns in her House at the same time he governs in the Senate she exercises there a Sovereign Rule but does it without noise or violence Her power in this place is mighty because it comes from Heaven she does not seek as other Ladies use to raise up her Authority by the magnificency of her Attire and yet she wears the richest Purple Byssius purpura Indumentum ejus and follows all the Rules of Decency and Custom in dressing her self though she has no need of any Help to make her be respected and honoured by her Domesticks God has bestowed such a Garment on her as we should all have worn had our first Father but proved wise Fortitudo decus indumentum ejus Solomon means that there issues an Ayr of Greatness and Majesty from the Eyes of this Princess which spreads it self over her like a Garment and gives a certain lustre to her Face her Words and Motions such as cannot be expressed further than that it ravishes all Hearts and that it makes them happy who serve her when her Commands give them the honour of obeying her and the occasion to shew by their promptness and transport of Joy the depth of their Respects This is it which keeps the whole House in order and puts every person at each hour of the day in the Place and Employment where he should be the respectful Fears that fix them to their Duty is not as in other Families a Fear of being catch'd in their Faults and punished all the Fear of this place is the Fear of being faulty She is not the Mistress only of her Domesticks but the Mother too amongst the chief Rules of her Government the first is to look that they be not failing in any part of their Duties the second to see that nothing be wanting to them which Reason and Justice can claim for their support and comfort Her constant Care is to avoid giving them any just cause of complaint yielding them still new occasisions of loving her and of believing they are loved her Goodness reaches to make them see that she both approves of their Service and considers their Persons This frank and obliging Goodness extends
comprehends all the degrees of it By this it is that he measures what you are at the time of your Disorders and as He sees an infinite Beauty and Greatness in His Divine Perfections so He beholds with an infinite Horror and Infamy your Guilty Actions He measures your Station by his own and finds that as high as He is exalted in Greatness and Glory by the sublime elevation of his Wisdom and of his Love to his Eternal Word so low by forsaking Him are you sunk and fallen into the deep Abyss of Darkness and Nothingness He sees both the one and the other in the same Vision What do you mean O Great God crys out David trembling with Apprehension Posuisti iniquitates Nostras in Conspectu tuo Must it be by such a shining Light that you behold and consider the Foulness and Infamy of our Miserable Life and must the Ages of our Ingratitude be amidst the Splendor of your Paradice one of the Spectacles of your Eternity Saeculum Nostrum in illuminatione vultus tui In this manner God knows what passes within you and thus He thinks of any of the least of your Sins But then how many does He see of these look into your self whilst He looks into you and see in your Soul what He sees there that innumerable company of Inveterate Sins that heap of Old and New Corruption All these Black Objects that God contemplates in you contemplate them I say in your self and let nothing be hidden from you He knows your Thoughts do you know his and consider what He intends at least see what hangs over your Head at the time that I am speaking to you His Justice with Pen in Hand that observes you and writes His Mercy that is leaving you and ready to deliver you up to Death they by their interiour Voices both reproach you with what you are at present and tell you what you shall be to morrow or this night or perhaps within an hour unexpectedly in the height of your Honours and your Pleasures Dead Judged Damned in three minutes space this great Change will be made and made for ever Velut Somnium Avolans non invenieris qui te Viderint dicent ubi est It is God that speaks to you weigh his Words meditate and grant to your Conscience that Solitude and Privacy which it begs of you to the end it may be heard upon this Subject and that you may consult with it The Question is Whether you will continue by a desperate Choice in the deplorable state in which you are or get the soonest you can out of it by the means of doing Penance Perhaps neither the one nor the other will please you and your Answer will be made only in Tears like a Sick body that is given over and lies on his Bed tossing from one side to the other sending out Groans and Lamentations Quo Ibo It may chance to come into your Head to do like that Sinner the Prophet speaks of which is to learn whether there be any Corner of the World where God is not and where you may neither be seen by him or persecuted by the reach of his Voice Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo quo à facie tua fugiam Alas Lord says he you that know all things know you not what it is to be seen by a God with all our Sins about us what it is to be called to a Holy Life by so many strong and inviting Inspirations whilst long Habits and Customs have chained us to the World and whilst a cruel and invincible Passion has engag'd us in the love of the Creatures Great God continues he have Pity on me I desire but this Favour of you that you will tell me you that only know it to what part of the Universe I may flye to be hid from the Sight of your Eyes and freed from hearing the Threats of your Justice with Calls and Pursuits of your Love Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo Behold here a strange Design to ask of God himself what you must do and whither you must go to flee away from him But what outdoes this is that God does not refuse to give his Answer to such a Question with Advice upon it The Answer which he gives and which I address to you O Christian Soul is That you must go to the place where Mercy dwells upon Mount Calvary and provided that you then say what is fit to be said to that Supream Mercy and that you will let it work its Pleasure on your Heart there you will find the Quiet and Security you seek MAXIM III. Donec Aspiret dies inclinentur Vmbrae Vadam ad Montem Myrrhae ad Collemthuris Cant. iv PARAPHRASE Until such time as the Shades vanish and that the Daybreakof a Blessed Eternity does appear I will go solitarily up upon the Mountain of Myrrhe and the Hill of Frankincense and contemplating on Eternal Truths will form thence raise my self up to God by Prayer and Penitence and be like the Incense which in mounting to the Skies destroys and consumes it self in its own Flames REFLECTIONS It is not my Voice O Christian Soul nor the Voice of Man but somewhat more powerful and more worthy to be hearkened to that calls you up to Mount Calvary and expects you there it being the only place where you can calm all the Motions of your Soul and setle your self in the Happy Condition which you seek When you are there spare not to utter quickly all that your Grief shall suggest to you to say and proceed in complaining of that satal Impulse as you count it which carries you continually to the love of your Sins notwithstanding you are continually in the Eye of your God and persecuted by his Calls and Threats Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo quo à facie tua fugiam After this lift up your Eyes and contemplate upon him you see stretched on the Cross before you you will discover in his opened Heart a Mercy which discerns Sinners it is true but beholds them to no other end than to proportion the Pardon it designs them to the greatness of their Faults You will find then this God you flie pursues you only that He may make you capable of enjoying one day an Eternal Felicity in the room of that Punishment you have deserv'd at his Hands and which you can never escape but by having recourse to his Cross Consider with your self that the lowest and the vilest Condition a Man can be in is the state of great Sinfulness and the highest Condition a God can be in is that of great Mercifulness To these two Extreams were GOD and Man come the one of heighth the other of lowness on the day of the Passion Man by spilling the Blood of his crucified Saviour and God the Father by seeing and suffering that precious Blood to flow Here is matter for you to contemplate and stay upon a while I have not much to
Ambition to raise themselves yet to a higher Perfection by the knowledge of the greatness of his Theology and of the greatness of his Benefits to Mankind In Reality we know that it is He alone that has ennobled our Nature and that from the lowest station of the World into which the Malice of the Serpent had cast us even below the basest of Brutes has infinitely raised us not only above Beasts and above the Devils but above the Angels themselves and has given us the Rank of Honour before all Creatures both of this and the other World I say infinitely above Beasts in that on the first day of our Fall he did restore us to the use of Wisdom Conscience and Moral Goodness with the other Privileges our Condition has above them Privileges granted by Nature and lost by Sin which He has restored us by Grace and purchased back for us with the price of the Blood of a God the Mark of our Value ever since O homo Erige te tanti Vales. I say infinitely above the Devils in that He has compelled them to adore our Nature in his Person and to become for all Eternity the Worshipers of a Man-God to become the Captives of other Men and even of little Children since we have known so many Infant-Martyrs to have conquyered them by the Victorious Grace of that Invincible Redeemer Apparuerunt Humiles mei Filii Puellarum Compunxerunt eos In fine infinitely above the Angels inasmuch as he has carried Human Nature up where it sits in Triumph upon teir Throne and has not given them in Heaven a Seraphim or any other Spirit of the Prime Orders but a Man to command them and be eternally their Sovereign Lord it being his Will besides that other Men should enter into their Fellowship and share with them in their Felicity We know also His Will to be such that Men composed of Flesh and Blood born amongst Beasts upon the Earth and subject as they are to Death and Rottenness Men that have been dead and buried for many years and become the Horror and Infection of the World shall rise out of their Graves and Mount up to Heaven in Triumph crowned with the Splendor of Glory and Immortality that they shall enter there with their Bodies and that the Beauty of their Faces adorned with all Majesty by his Redemption will prove one of the great Ornaments of Paradise and that in fine they will make so admirable an appearance there as the Angels shall think themselves honoured to pass their happy Eternity with them To know all this and keep an Indifference without a desire of knowing any further how is it possible for any Man that has a sense and feeling in him It would be a very hard Law to tye you up so as that you should have only Acts of Faith in reference to the Person of Christ and not have the liberty of enquiring of his Interpreters touching the Wonders of his Incarnation and the secret ways of his Conduct which he will have communicated to the Humble and hid from the Reprobate What is blamed in some Persons of Quality of both Sexes and in others indiscreetly curious is to take upon them to be able to dispute in the favour of Heresies and become Judges and Censures of the Churches Doctrine What is most justly blamed besides is the Rashness of some who failing both in Wit and in their Endeavours to know and weigh any thing exactly will nevertheless be so bold as to talk confidently of all matters to the scandal of the Angels and those good People which happen to be in their company These are a sort of Persons who upon the first occasion offered them of venting their Opinions upon any point of the Gospel mingle the Errors and Blasphemies of their Ignoranee and Vanity with the most Sacred Truths and cause all this to enter together into the Minds of those simple People that hearken to them and believe them Know all you can of the Mysteries of our Faith let them be the Subject of your Reading of your Meditation and of your Study if you think good but as to matter of Speaking of them there is one thing necessarily required that you be wise and humble and have a high Respect for your Religion If it be thus with you you have your Freedom for the rest for whilst you are in this Condition you will be sure never to speak or hold your Peace but very fitly Observe that here are three different Lessons that of Death Memento Remember that of the Gospel Believe Qui Crediderit salvus erit and lastly that of Nature Behold and look about you Peto Nate ut in Coelum ad terram Aspicias This third Proposition will appear more clear from the words of Solomon which follow and yield more Light to it MAXIM VIII Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem PARAPHRASE God has delivered up the World to the Disputes of the Learned but never a one of them is able by his Conjectures to reach at that which he would not have known REFLECTIONS I have said That the Voice of Nature is to be hearkened to as a Teacher and you will find by Experience that you will learn the rest of your Philosophy sooner from her than you can from the Schools with all their old and new Methods She does but shew you the Heavens and the Earth with the other Creatures and by these means instructs you that both you and they with her self are the Workmanship of an Infinite Power teaching you to read in the Sun and the Stars the first words of God the Creator's Testament In Principio Deus Creavit Coelum teiram In the Beginning God who was created that which was not Whatever your Quality may be and the Excuses you may draw from your Pride Idleness or Multiplicity of Affairs do not neglect the study of this Philosophy there is not any thing more honourable than to understand it and discourse handsomly of it or any thing more easie than the learning of it All that She calls upon you to do is but to open your Eyes at your Idle Hours and look upon the World Peto Nate says she to you ut in Coelum ad terram aspicias ad Omnia quoe in eis sunt intelligas quia ex Nihilo fecit illa Deus O my Son I ask but this one thing of you that you will contemplate the Heavens and the Earth and that you will let that Light enter into your Mind which they will produce and it will not fail to bring along with it Science Devotion and Humility Open your Eyes then O Christian and contemplate and whilst do you contemplate be careful in three matters The First To see your self with your own Eyes or to learn by the Report of Credible Persons the Variety of Things which God has formed
that Security is the Mother of Negligence and that you run the danger of having your Fervour abate and to grow cold in the Exercises of a Devout Life when you become too sure of your Recompence Mater è negligentiae solet esse securitas St. Gregory you will tell me said very well but that desirable Favour I would pretend to say you if I durst were to have God at the same time he lets me know I am marked out for Paradise bestow the Gift upon me out of his Goodness that I should never abuse this Knowledge This would be an extraordinary Favor say you but not without Example It was granted to Abraham as I have read to whom God formally declared That he was in the first Rank of the Elect Abraham said he to him I know thee because thou dost belong to me and that thou shalt everlastingly belong to me Something to this effect he said also to Isaac to Jacob to Moses upon the Mountain and to the Prophet Jeremiah in his Mothers Womb that happy Infant knew he was elected before he was born all the Apostles besides knew certainly that they were of this number Rejoice ye said our Saviour to them for your names are written in Heaven Our Blessed Lady St. Mary Magdalen St. John the Evangelist St. Paul and many others in times following have learnt from his own Mouth or by the means of his Angels that they were expected in Heaven and that their Crowns were there ready prepared for them St. Theresia after having seen the place was destin'd for her in Hell had she not been drawn out of the World by the most powerful Grace of the Holy Ghost had the Comfort and Happiness to see the place she was to possess in Paradise What a Joy what a Blessing is this and which way say you further can a Man be at a moments quiet in the time of this Mortal Life unless we could know from God by some miraculous means that he to whom we have consecrated our selves and who possesses us now as the Purchase of his Blood and the Inheritance of his Love will not suffer any Power of the World or Hell to ravish us out of his Hands to our Eternal Misery You are in a Mistake O Christian we may receive this Heavenly Comfort and Joy without the help of Revelation or any miraculous Apparition it is not at all requisite that God should speak or appear to you it will be sufficient if you can love him as the Saints have done before you This Love will produce an interiour Voice within you or a supernatural Instinct St. Paul calls it a Testimony of the Holy Ghost imprinted on our Hearts St. Augustin a Ray of the Glory of Paradise which breaks forth in elected Souls during the height and transports of their Fervor Give it what name you please I say it is a Divine Help which disperses and drives away all the black Clouds all the Fears and monstrous Disquiets of your Imagination and like the dawning of a bright day brings a Serenity and begets in you a Certitude of your Salvation independent of any Revelation or Prophecy True it is that you will not say formally what the Hereticks do and what cannot be said without the highest Pride and Blasphemy My Name I am certain is written and set down amongst the names of the Saints But you may say that which true Love made St. Paul and other blessed Persons say who loved in perfection My Certainty is that neither Death nor Life Poverty nor Riches nor the Torments and Cruelties of Tyrants the Promises and Flatteries of the World nor in fine all the force of Hell shall ever separate me from the Charity of Jesus Christ Certus sum I am certain of it and am not more assured that I am alive at this present than I am assured by the help of Grace to continue faithful to my God as long as ever my Heart can breath Donec superest halitus in me Spiritus Dei in Naribus meis It is a most horrible and sinful Presumption which makes the proudly-conceited of their Piety say I know certainly that God has been pleased to write me down in the number of his Elect and that I cannot fail to go to Heaven But it is a holy love that speaks when you say I will love my God even to Death Death Time nor Eternity shall not part me from him Etiam si me occiderit Sperabo in eum What Pride utters in a most horrid Boldness and Blasphemy since it undertakes to tell that which lies the most hidden in the Breast of God To be able to say without the help of Revelation whose Names He has written secretly and eternally in his Heart by a gratuite Election is to be no less than God The Saying of Love is a holy Truth and an humble Adoration of the Mercy and Grace of Jesus Christ inasmuch as this speaks only of the Vow you have made to love God and of the perpetual and irrevocable Resolutions and Decrees of Holiness which your self has written within your Conscience Look altogether upon these Vows which your Love has created and do not amuse your self in reasoning upon Circumstances as those do who first begin to love and who by making comparisons and scrupulous Reflections entertain such Disquiets as drive them into a dark Labyrinth out of which they can find no issue When you are arrived at the degree of a fervent Love you will be far from examining what the Success of that Love may be and from hearkening to the Fears and Anxieties of your blind and timerous Fancy Being in this state you will know the News of your Happiness without your saying I know it you will not answer for any thing but your Constancy and Perseverance in making good the Promises of which Grace and Humility have been the inspiring Authors and not Presumption You will rejoice holily within without questioning or informing your self which way you come to know you shall be constant and although in reality no Voice shall tell you this yet you will be as secure and as much at ease in the midst of all the dangers that shall surround you as if Prophets and Angels had told it you You will not hear any Voice that will declare this to you but you will become sensible that the Instinct or secret Testimony of which St. Paul speaks is a kind of thing more certain than Visions clearer than Revelations and Prophecies sweeter than the Consolations and Assurances you can receive from your spiritual Directors and in fine more strong and powerful than all your Fears Amongst all the Examples you see of such as fall from their Virtue and in the heighth of the Reports of so many reprobated Persons as are sounded in your Ears from all parts able to make the Boldest tremble you shall enjoy the Peace of the Elect. Your Solicitude will not be to question or make Doubts whether you shall go
true Affection and Confidence Acquaint Him then with all the Passages that relate to you altho' he knows them before It is from your self that He would hear them As much God as he is it concerns him to know this from you because He loves you and that whatsoever touches you becomes the Business and the Interest of his Love I maintain then That it is this Conversation with God that glorifies Devotion in you that makes the Force the Beauty and Excellence of it appear and compels even the proudest Sinners to honour and esteem it The reason of it is That at the time of this interiour Converse God does speak to you not by Dreams in the Night as to Joseph nor by a loud Voice heard by many as to St. Paul but as to a beloved Spouse by Words immediately issuing from his Heart such as are formed out of the Sighs of him that does pronounce them that is to say by Breathings and impressions altogether divine In a word God observes towards us in these Conversations the same Method we use to a Friend when we have a Secret to impart in the presence of Company that should not hear it Taking him apart and putting our Mouth close to his Ear we whisper to him so softly and so near that our Breath enters with the Words into his Ear and that at the same time he hears us he receives in the warmth and other impressions of our Breath Ducam eam in Solitudinem loquar ad Cor ejus I will lead her into Solitude and will speak to her Heart Thus God deals when he would inform any Holy Soul how he should act on every occasion He treats with her of all Matters necessary for her to know and upon each communicates His Secret Thoughts but does it so softly and so truly by the way of one Heart's entertaining another that He is not heard but of her self It is not only says the Prophet a Voice that speaks but withal Quasi Sibulus aurae tenuis it is as it were a Divine Breath of Air that enters and spreads it self deliciously over the Person 's Heart and which besides the Light and Instructions it affords brings also the Force and Ardour needful for Execution I say it brings the Force and other Celestial Qualities for as the Discourses of this Incomparable Lord and Master are properly but the Breathings of his Heart and the Impressions of his Love so they are also properly speaking but the Emanations of his Wisdom Intelligence and Goodness which entring into us at the times of this Glorious Union and Communication of Hearts does pour into us with his Orders all the Vigour Grace and Sanctity that a God can bestow These Breathings and Inspirations from the Holy Ghost which St. Bernard Inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum Vitae says on the day Adam was formed being convey'd into a Statue of Dirt made an Immortal Soul rise there and a lively Image of the Divnity which being spread over the Face of Moses on Mount Sinai transformed him into the brightness of an Angel Ex Consortio sermonis Dei which being poured into the Breasts of Insufflavit dicens Accipite Spiritum Sanctum the Apostles made the Holy Ghost to enter into their Souls with the Power of forgiving Sins and curing all Human Maladies It will be these that during those precious Moments you employ in the Bosom of your beloved Spouse will quite drive out of your Heart all Weakness Cowardice Illusion and Ignorance and make such Perfections and Graces spring up in their room as will cause you to be beloved of Men and Angels Come into Company after this you that have given the Worldlings occasion to contemn a Devout Life and you will be sure to appear before them in such a Condition and with those Qualities as shall compel this blind World to open its Eyes and confess That a Devotion adorned with the Grace of Jesus Christ embelishes our Nature and that of all the Persons we love and admire none deserve to be loved and admired like those that are truly devout Generositatem illius Glorificat Contubernium habens Dei Observe withal since we are upon the Subject of a happy Devotion that the Priviledge I am speaking of whose Method is to live familiarly with God is so extraordinary that it seldom meets with a Refusal of any thing you ask either for your self or such as have a Share in your Prayers I say no more than this of it That it falls out with God as it doth with Kings The only way to gain a Power in Courts Experience teaches us is to become familiar there and obtain the Priviledge of speaking our Minds with an entire Freedom How often do we see there Persons of High Rank and Merit making the most respectful Addresses and using the most moving Speeches to gain their reasonable Requests who yet come away without obtaining any thing when at the same time a Sunamite or a Hester who has found the way to touch the Heart and to become familiar carries the Day and obtains whatsoever she would have nay is courted to speak boldly and name her Inclinations Quid habes Ester quae est petitio tua What is it my dear Hester you desire Etiamsi dimidiam partem regni mei petieris dabitur tibi I deny not but that humble and fervent Prayers accompanied by Fasts by Tears and other Devotions such as People use in Churches are very good and excellent questionless they are so and many times very efficacious but the Secrets of God's Wisdom and the Reasons of his Refusals we are no ways able to dive into I say only it would be an Excellent Means to make your Prayers become efficacious if whilst you enjoy the sweet of this tender and solitary Converse resting in Spirit between the Arms of your Beloved you should utter with Confidence your Heart and sigh out your Wants upon his Breast I say that these Sighs would perhaps prevail before the long Prayers of others and their Studied Fervors But take notice that this is the State of a Soul that loves nothing but God alone Delectate in Domino dabit tibi petitiones Cordis tui Let us not says David approach to God as Courtiers to their Princes in expectation of their Bounties Look not for any thing when you go to God besides the Happiness of being near him let His Presâ—nce be your Hope your Repose your Life when God shall look into your Heart and find nothing loved there but Himself it will suffice to make your Prayers prevail if He but sees in the same Heart or in your Memory the Impression of those things which have been recommended to you MAXIM VI. Fons vitae Eruditio Possidentis Prov. xvi PARAPHRASE Learning is one of the Fountains of Life to the Man that does possess it Ignorance and Death have a great Resemblance in many things the Soul of a Man that knows nothing is