and tend to perfection For they are certainly the adopted sonnes of God whome our pious Saviour JESUS doth comfort saying feare not little flocke for it hath pleased your father to give you a kingdome they may securely expect death although they are yet but in the beginning of their holy purpose because it shall be pretious in the sight of our Lord securely may they expect death and yet not death but the sleepe of peace the period of death and the passage from death to life What say you Brother are you yet in doubt doe you yet stagger Take courage I pray you and being emboldned through soe great a confidence in our Lords goodnesse going on the way of salvation without feare preparing your soule against temptations Let noe manner of difficulty affright you In all adversity which you happen to endure either at home or abroade say gratefully the will of our lord be done Although you muste sweat much and long and wrestle strongly before you can overcome and supplant the owld man Let not that trouble you consider not the labour but the fruite of the labour Beleeve me the supernall piety will be present at your labours and will still most lovingly succour you will comfort you when you feare will confirme you when you stagger will defend you being assayled will uphold you when you slip will comfort you in your sorrowe and will nowe and then infuse the moste pretious ointment of internall sweetnesse into you If you persever the force of temptations must of necessity yeild to the force of divine love temptions and tribulations will noe more be grevious and bitter to you but light and sweet then shall you see all good and shall finde a Paradise even in this life This I say will come to passe if you persever and be not of the number of them that begin well but being deluded by the allurements of satan or wearied with the troubles of temptations and labours doe afterwards lightly leave their good purposes They will not be pressed with the weight of tribulation And therefore in time of affliction are scandalized in our Lord and going backe from him doe as it were seeme to say This saying is hard and who can beare it They build not on the firme rocke but on the unstable sand and therefore their buldings doe easily fall downe at every puffe of winde and pushes of the flouds And would to God they would consider their ruines and not soe give over but make haste to renew the decayed building noe more laying their foundation upon the sands but committing them to the firmity of the rocke Deare brother if which God forbid your building be fallen renew your overthrowne worke and build againe more happily then you did before If it fall twice or ten or an hundred yea a thousand times or more repaire it as often as it falleth never dispaire of Gods mercy For the innumerable multitude of horrible and hideous sinnes doth not make God soe implacably angry with us as desperation alone For he that despayreth of forgivenesse denyeth the mercy and omnipotency of God and blasphemeth against the holy Ghost We cannot be soe ready to sinne as our lord is to pardon if we abuse not his patience that is if we will truly and in time doe penance Thus ought every Christian to thinke But least prolixity make my treatise displeasing I thinke it best for me to with drawe my pen and to stop the course of my begun navigation In the meane time while wee take downe our sayles it will not be amisse breifly to touch what you ought to doe at every dayes end Every day therefore before you goe to bed seriously but without inordinate dissipation of mynde consider in what you have that day offended and aske pardon of our most mercyfull God purposing thenceforth to live better and more carefully to avoide all vice Then pray that he will vouchsafe to keepe you that night from all pollution both of body and mynde commending to him and to his sacred Mother and your holy Angell your soule and body to be guarded and kept Being gone to bed arme your selfe with the signe of our Lords Crosse and having honestly and chastly composed your body sigh to your beloved thinking upon somme good thing untill sleepe gently sease on you Which if it bee over deepe and rather a burthen then a refreshing to your body if likewise by frayle illusions it procure or produce any thing savouring of dishonesty be not over much greived theareat but humbly sigh before our Lord and with humble prayers beseech him to grant you sobriety of diet and sences to which sobriety of sleepe and purity of body are commonly companions This is all deare brother that I have to send you You desired a Mirrour or looking glasse see whether you have receaved one If I have any way satisfied your desire God be praysed if not howe soever God be praised I have given what our Lord hath given me But be they better or worse I desire you sometimes to reade them over Fare you well and pray for me FINIS A TABLE Of the thing contained in this treatife CHapter I. pag. 1 Chap. II. Howe wee ought to bestowne our time from our first rising to mattins in the moning 21 Chap. III God hath two sorts of servants and the description of both 33 Chap. IV. That for everye howr of the day wee ought to cleave to some setled exercise least our mynde growe sluggish 51 Chap. V. Howe powerfull and efficacious the remembrance of Christs life and passion is 67 Chap. VI. We must dayly call to minde the manifould sinnes which we have committed 107 Chap. VII Every one ought to consider his owne ability and to proceede accordingly 130 Chap. VIII A very good meanes to obtayne humility 154 Chap. IX 159 Chap X. Martha may serve as Mirour for imperfect Religious men Mary Magdalen for such us are growne to perfection 177 Chap. XI Perfect mortification is the certaine and only short way to perfection 194 Chap. XII A Monke or Nune by vertue of their profession is bounde to tend to perfection 209 FINIS
affectionately say lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Or this O God be propitious to me a sinner or that have mercy on me JESUS sonne of David or that other ô lord helpe me Soe likewise lett him powre forth his heart before the Virgin Mary the mother of our lord and all the Saints of God humbly suing for their intercession CHAPTER VI. We must dayly call to munde the manifould sinnes which we have committed ANd very day or certaynly very often when occasion shall serve lett him recollect him selfe and with a profound humility firmely porposing amendment lett him call to mynde and particularly confesse before our lord the sinnes of his fore passed life but especially those by which he hath most greviously offended the divine goodnesse But it will be indiscretion to dwell long upon those that belong to the frailty of the flesh least the remembrance of them and the longer treating of the ould sin breed a newe sin by unlawfull delight In which confession contrition and sensible devotion lett him accustome to lament more that he hath behaved him selfs contumelionsly and ingratfully to words his Creator and father then that he hath brought him selfe in danger of eternall punishment In the formes of lamentation and godly complaints which we have prescribed he need not care for running over many sentences But let him take which he will and as many as he will observing no order if he make choice of only one or two or three which soever thy be he may repeate againe and againe he shall doe well We would that he should doe freely according to his devotion alwayes avoiding confusion and perplexity I knowe one that being externally busied in his conversion to our lords passion among chaste discourses tooke delight to call to mynde these few words or the like O good JESU ô pious Pastour ô sweet Master good JESU have mercy on me pious Pastour direct me sweet Master teach me my lord helpe me Another there was that did take delight torune over sometimes more sometimes fewer of the afor said lamentations and to expresse them in diversity of words recording to his affection Let our yoing beginner as I have said be free in these things and let him stirr himselfe to compunction and diligence in his spirituall purpose by meditating if he please upon death purgatory judgement hell and heaven Nowe after he hath in some measure reformed the image of God with in himselfe by healthfull bitternesse of mourning and contrition he may with greater confidence and profitt imitate the above proposed example of exercise Therefore lett him take courage and fervently prepare himselfe for a more intimate familiarity with the heavenly briedegroome But as long as he is weake or colde he shall kindle in himselfe the fire of divine love by serious meditating on the incarnation or passion of the only begotten sonne of God sweetly conferring with his soule concerning these things By which meditation being once inflamed let him compose himselfe by prayer and aspirations desiring by them to unite his spirit to the cheifest good If he often persist by this meanes to drawe his heart to the love of God he shall soone bring himselfe to that passe that presently at the first convention of his mynde or aspiration without any premeditation he may be able to separate himselfe from creatures and their imagination and plunge himselfe in the sweetnesse of divine love Then he shall not so much need to remember each particular sinne of his life past in his penance before God and with sorrowe to direct the insight of his heart unto him for soe might his freedome and affection towards good be hindred but rather let him amorously direct his heart to God himselfe detesting whatsoever may seperate or with drawe him from him neyther do we meane that he should negligently forget his sinnes but so to remember them that the remembrance hinder not a greater profitt therefore lett him confesse them dayly to God rather summarily then particulerle Truly we have a more present remedy against lesser sinnes when we turne to God by a sweete and effectuall affection of love then when we tediously bisi our selves in the consideration of them and severe punishment of them Let him therefore cast them away into the bottomlesse depth of Gods divine mercy and goodnesse that like a sparkle of fire in the midest of the sea they may there perish Let him endeavour to reject quite and cleane all inordinate pusillanimity and superfluons scruples of conscience and perplexed diffidence whensoever they arise For vnlesse they be presently lopped of they doe diverse wayes chooke up the alacrity of the mynde and very much hinder our internall going forward CHAPTER VII Every one ought to consider his owne ability and to proceede accordingly MOreover let him attempt nothing beyond his strength but be content with his lott If he cannot reach as farre as he desireth lett him reach as farre as he can And unlesse he flatter himselfe he may easily knowe what proceedings he is able to make Neverthelesse the devine bounty is liberall infusing it selfe wheresoever it findeth a mynde worthyly prepared Wherefore if our spirituall practitioner be not yet admitted to the sublimity of contemplation and perfect charity lett him thinke himselfe as yet not prepared for the receipt of soe great a good And what good would it doe him to receave that grace which he knew not howe to make good use of Lett him make haste to pull up all vice by the roote that he may be the fitter But still with this proviso that he strive not beyond his strength Lett him not impatiently try to forerun Gods grace but humbly to followe it Lett him not I say violently force his spirit thither whither he cannot reach least presuming which he ought not he tumble himselfe downe headlong by his owne violence and being crushed be punished for his rashnesse Lett him soe tend to perfection that unbrideled violence and turbulent solicitude beare no part in his indeavours Lett him attend the measure of grace given him and with all remember that he shall farre more easily safely quickly and happily attayne to the highest degree of contemplation it is to the comprehending of misticall divinity if he be touched and rapt by the meere grace of God then if he endeavour to attayne unto it by his owne labours Lett him alwayes therefore observe a meane with discretion least by excesse he rum into defects The bread of teares is good and many when they should refresh themselves surfet by it For they insist so long in teares and with so great cōfusion and agitation that both spirit and body are fayne to lye downe under the too much intent or extended exercise We confesse that many by discretion and the help of the holy Ghost can long and profitably mourne And there are many agayne that being internally inebriated with the torrent of pleasure which they take in God Do unseasonably urge and spur
forward themselfes to greater violence and desist not from this indiscreet forcing themselfes untill being hurt and confounded they fall and faynte in themselfes and are thenceforth made unapt to receave the sweetnesse of grace Wherefore the internall heate and violence is alwayes soe to be moderated that the spirit be not extinguished but comforted by it They whose heads are of a good temper may more fervently and strougly insist in fervent aspirations but they that have weake heads especially if the weaknesse growe by indiscretion are not able to exercise themselfes otherwise then very gently and moderatly And such can scarrely somtimes admitt a simple compunction of mynde or meditation or reading wihout hurt yea although they leave their heade on some place So great is the calamity that proceedeth of the vice of indiscretions But lett them not dispaire that are brought to that passe But lett them diligently asmuch as in them lyeth avoide the discommodity of this hurte or confusion and humbly pray to God for the restoring of that which they have spoiled themselfes If God be pleased to heare them lett them be thankfull if not lett them blesse our lord and for his love learne according to his pleasure patiently to endure this misery which they have done on themselfes Lett our internall practitioner beware also of all lightnesse of inconstancy and instability Lett him take in hand those exercises that are good and lett him goe on with what he hath once begunne although they like him not but soe that the pleasure of the holy Ghost be followed in all the decree of his owne will and appointment being rejected For the holy Ghost doth diverse wayes as it were invite us and use to as bring us by diverse pathes to that wyne celler and bedchamber of divine love whose instinct we must still obsearve and most readily followe laying aside all propriety wherefore this our spirituall scoller shall often present himselfe to the holy Ghost as a prepared instrument and which way soever the holy Ghost shall bend and apply lett him presently followe if att any time he shall be drawne or elevated up to the soaring contemplation and embracements of the cheifest good lett him freely offer up himselfe and if the passion of Christ or any holy meditation and imagination occurre lett him not stay at it but with all expedition fly thither whether he is called by the spirit When he dout fully staggereth in his purpose not knowing how he ought to proceede in his begun enterprise lett him use the counsell of men that are prudent expert and humble for soe he shall be a greater proficient then if relying uppon himselfe he proceede according to his owe inventions But in the meane time lett him not forget carefully to have recourse to the remedy of prayer humbly beseeching in all things to be directed and illuminated by our lord least at any time being deceaved he followe error insteed of truth And let him alwayes remembet that he can never perfectly be at leasure for God vnlesse his heart be free and cleane from all things besids God you have nowe heard Brother after a manner howe he shold begin and howe he should goe forward in externall exercises that desireth to attayne to any excellent degree of a pure life It shall be your parte not only to heare and reade these things bu also to put them in practise Which if you doe and have helpe from above and that you beginne to be cleare with in and that psalmodis and other offices of divine praise wax sweet unto you search not to high but be afraide For although your heart being inlarged you doe awhile runne the way of Gods commandements you have not of your selfe inlarged your hearte but God hath done it And he that enlarged it can permitt it his grace being with drawne to be agayne coupled up and inprisoned The sunne of justice hath shined on you and certaine scales being taken of hath illuminated your mynde but who can hinder him from hiding himselfe of he be soe pleased We you therefore ready for he will hide himselfe and his amiable brightnesse being once departed your sences shall againe be darkned and hindred Moreover certaine immistions by evill angells will tosse the shiop of your brest yea peradventure the temptation will be soe strong that you will thinke all to oppose it selfe against you You will seeme to your selfe to be wholy given over to satan and will not have list to open your mouth in Gods praise Neyther shall this calamity endure a little while Neyther shall you only once or thrice or six or ten times be layed hold on by it but very often sometimes more vehemently then at others But be not dejected att this Neyther thinke any thing sinnisterly of your faulte For he hath permitted you to be tempted that it may be manifest if you truly love him and that you may learne to pitty others that are oppressed by temptations He scourgeth and bruseth you that he may purge you from vice and prepare you for more grace He seemeth to leave you as it were for a time that you wax not prond but may alwayes acknowledge that you can do nothing without him yet neverthelesse he doth not forsake you He exerciseth you in these and the like adversities out of the unspeakable charity where with he loveth you For the heavenly spouse useth this kinde of dispensation with a fervent soule converted unto him He visiteth her solemnly in the beginning of her new purpose doth comfort and illustrat her and after he hath recreated and allured her with his sweete smell he draweth her after him and lovingly meeteth her almost every where with his mille feeding his new friud Afterwards he beginneth to administer to her the solid foode of affliction and playnly sheweth her howe much she ought to endure for his name Nowe she beginneth to be in a sea of troubles men molest her without passions trouble her with in punishments afflict her externally internally she becommeth dejected by pusillanimity externally she is greived with infirmities internally darknesse overcasteth and clowdeth her the externall parts are oppressed the internall dried up one while the bridgroome hideth himselfe from the soule another while he discovereth himselfe unto her Nowe he leaveth her as it were in the darknesse and horrour of death and presently recalleth her to the sweetnesse of light insomuch that it may be truly said of him that he leadeth downe to hell and bringeth backe againe By such meanes he tryeth purifieth humbleth teacheth weanes draws adorns the soule if he finde her faithfull in all things and to be of a good will and holy patience and that by long exercise and his grace she doth mildly and affectionately endure all tribulations and temptations then doth he more perfectly joyne her to himselfe and familiarly make her partaker of his secrets and binde her farre otherwise to him then he did at the beginning of her conversion Be