all the cagernes of our hart and spirit but prefer a momentary pleasure before the grand affaire of eternity What is it that we are so ambitious off unles we be very greedy of glory what hunt we so earnestly after one moment sufficeth for the purchase of eternity If the largest extent of the earth be but a point in respect of heaven which is limitable what will the narrow bounded life of man be in regard of an unlimited eternity and is it possible that time can be spard from the pursuit and attainment of glory if having exposd a full exchequer of gold God should say to some needy beggar thou art yet to live a thousand yeares and shalt have nothing to sustain thy want for so long a respit of time but what thou canst carry out of this treasury in the space of an hour would he thinkst thou play the trewant in that short interim or spend that remnant in play or sleep why do we not bestir our selves an eternity expects us nor can we lay up provision for it but in the short interstice of this life why do we interrupt so laudable a commerce and sit still with our hands in our pockets a thousand yeares carry les proportion to an eternity then a moment to a thousand yeares what then wil ten or twenty yeares the utmost tearm of thy life be in regard of an endles duration why ceasest thou from doing good life flyes from thee death runs towards thee eternity stands still and thou nevertheles art slow in coffering up eternal riches What a tedious journey under took the queen of Saba for no other end but to enjoy the sight of Salomon her intention aymed not at any long stay but to return presently to her country many come from remote lands to behold a man whom fame hath cryed up for some rare talents of wit or art with how much more reason ought we be content to employ before hand prolix endeavours to be able but once to contemplate God in the height of his majesty if permission were given to all of making our journey to heaven on foot and nothing else were prerequired but only a pilgrimage of a thousand yeares no body I believe would decline the enterprize Thy journey thither is much more compendious thou needst not lift thy foot over thy threshold nor out of thy bed and why dare we not aspire with all our might to compass a good which is so nigh us the sole lustre of gold or flashings of a gem are able to make men brook the roughnes and danger of the seas and the clarity of God strikes us no more then if we were insensible neyther do we prize an invaluable good at so much as the value of a little labour But what do I insist upon eternity although glory were not eternal but momentary yet it is a good so boundlesly great that an eternity of suffering should not be deemd too much to purchase it but for a moment we beholding God intuitively in that instant O how exquisite must that needs be which God hath provided for his friends if he prepared and gave himself to be crucifyed even for his very enemyes how exquisite must that needs be which cost God so dear for which he was at so great expense at no les then his life auctority passion and omnipotency If Gods manufactures as the heavens the motions of the stars the nature of beasts orderd onely for the use of man be to us such an object of admiration what will that be which he exhibits to the ostentation of his majesty if we admire the artifice of an eye though in a loathsome creature or carriage-beast what wil that be which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the hart of man if he hath made the fabrick of this world which is but the cottage of miserable Adam a bridewel of sinners acave of brute beasts of such an admirable structure that heathens at its contemplation were rapt into extasy what shal we think of his own royal Pallace as much as a nasty stable falls short of the court of some great Monarch which is adornd with guilded roofs paved with pretious stones hung with most rich tapistry yea as much as the magnificence of the heavens exceeds the horrour of a stinking prison so much far more must thou imagin the dwelling place of the blessed to surpass the beauty of this universe which respectively will be found but an object of loathsomenes All the comelines of this world falls so far short of the seat of the blessed that all this artifice which the Philosophers admired with so much astonishment is in respect of it but an eye sore and blemish of deformity If heaven and nature which God provided as it were by the by and with as much ease as one can speak be so ravishing what wil that be which he hath from all eternity on set purpose prepared for those that make him their love In the guifts of nature God carried himself master-like he made them all with a commanding word but in his glory he resembles an industrious servant passing to and fro seeking as it were to give content If the beauty of this visible world where he was not so sollicitous to please be so winning and enamouring how much more pleasing wil he be in that where he made it his task study to please The whole machin of the world was no more chargable to him then the expense of one voyce he made it with a word but glory made him as it were set his wits on work and as obsequious as a servant yea most patiently to brook disgraces torments and death it self If thou shouldst bestow a hundred yeares in speculating the greatnes of glory shouldst frame some high conceit of its worth thou mightst wel deem all to be nothing and thy conceptions to fall so far short of comprehending it that thou canst not so much as conjecture thy self to have come nigh it But in that imperfect idea which thou hast conceived rayse thy self to the gates of heaven beholding it open take as clear and exact a view of it as thou canst that being done cast thy eyes upon the earth and what is remarkable in its rarities compare then the goods of both together and see whether earthly things wil abide the test Wonder then at so many unfortunate endeavours of men in purchasing a little worldly pelf or rather nothing and their trewantly sluggishnes in seeking after the true good Contemplate thence from the top of the stars the frustrated labours of mortals and their certain hazards in obtaining an uncertain good and do thou hear thy soveraign inviting thee in such like words come enter into possession of my kingdom heavenly treasures This is a most certain guift seald with no les a promise then that of divine faith and recommended to us by the diligence and death of Christ heaven having so voted
to her in the person of his beloved Disciple saying behold thy Son He did it to wit when he was at the very point of death as if he had only desird life that he might be dutiful to his Mother but being not expedient that he should avoid it he left a deputy of his filial care and obedience in Saint John and of observance in the rest of the faithful that by this meanes he might both redeem us by dying and also be grateful to her by leaving so many to supply for him in exhibiting respect as if he confessd himself not to have fully accomplishd his desire in that behalf There at the foot of the cross Mary took us for her children there she brought us forth not of her womb but her hart which is a more pretious member and its filiation more efficacious For each child of the womb is not alwaies beloved but the child of ones hart cannot but be so Ther did she bear us together with Christ amidst throwes and pangs which she felt not in her carnal labour or child bed She took us very opportunely for her children at such a time when her bowels were wholly replenished with an affectionate compassion towards her Son that she might transfer it upon us and by it ennoble her mercy as if IESVS had recommended to his Mother what he said to the woemen Weep not over me but over your children And therfore hanging on the cross ful of anguish and torment remitting as it were to others all compassion due to him he said to his weeping Mother Mother behold thy Son behold each faithful Christian my Disciple is thy child do not so much compassionate and weep over me as over these thy children poor wretches and miserable sinners whom I recommend to thy motherly tuition Christ knew that the misery of sin was a greater object of mercy then any corporal pain whatsoever for his soul did more feelingly resent our offences then his body did its own torments Therfore he would have his Mother transfer her compassion and mercy to the defects faultines and miseries of our soul that she might chiefly assist us in them And because Christ by his sufferings deservd well of the divine justice for his superabundant satisfaction therfore was he worthy of that attribute of being judge of all men according to the prediction of David give o God thy judgment to the king thy justice to the kings Son the Mother of Christ by compassionating and commiserating him deservd well the attribute conferrd upon her of compassion commiseration that we also may say thou hast given o God thy mercy to the queen and thy pious affection to the kings Mother therfore no grace nor mercy is derivd to us but by Mary From henceforward o most pious Mother I take thee for mine will have this to be the first pledge of thy piety that thou imitate thy first begotten Son who as he not only gave thee to Iohn but Iohn also to thee so thou give me to God since thou also gave God to us Therfore since our misery finds no redress but in Gods mercy and the disposal of it is Mary's power to whom her Son denies nothing and she ful of commiseration why are we so slow and backeward in the discharge of our duty and devotion towards her we must for 4. reasons be very officious in the service of the Virgin Mother The first is the necessity and advantage of her intercession for without her intercourse and sollicitation no guifts discend from heaven grace depends far more upon Mary then the showers of heaven did on Elias The second is the will of Christ whose desire is that we honour his Mother and in honoring her we do him a piece of grateful service For he turnes over to her all the debts we owe him and she is our creditrice who must see them cancelld If what we do to the poor be so acceptable to him that he takes it as done to himself and makes them his substitutes in this behalf how much more gratefully will he take what is done to his Mother whose debter he acknowledgeth himself to whome all are endebted The third cause is the excellency of the most H. Virgin to whose worship though neither the tie of necessity nor the explicite will of her son IESVS did move us nevertheles the sole title of her rare prerogatives and perfections ought to endeare us extremely to her She is the glory of all pure creatures and especially of mankind the next in dignity to God himself to whom he granted this priviledg which he alone by reason of the infinitude of his nature enjoies to be together a Mother and a Virgin and Mother of God God is both a father and a Virgin Mary is also a Mother a Virgin And like as Christ according to his divinity was most chastly begotten in the splendours of Saints by a Virgin father without a Mother so according to his humanity he was most chastly begotten in the splendours of sanctity refulgent above all Saincts of a Virgin Mother without a father O double miracle both that a Virgin brings forth and that she brings forth God! and indeed what should a Virgin bring forth but God grace and nature are two sisters the same artificer gave them both a being and therfore their proceeding in their different functions is much a like Even as God after he had created all things made an abridgment of them all in Adam and Eve and all the degrees of life and nature are more eminently in man then in the natures themselves heavens plants and living creatures insomuch that one man is more valuable then the whole world besides and is as it were a little world by himself and all things do him homage and were made for his use so in like manner because Gods workmanship is no les exactly curious in matters of grace he also compendiated in the second Adam and Eve the whole extent of grace that ever hath or shall be imparted to men and Angels And Mary alone containes all kind of blessings and supernatural guifts and degrees of grace in a more singular manner then all the Hierarchies of B. Spirits and quires of Saints in such sort that she alone doth equalize all their sanctity and perfection Not piety only but reason also attesteth this assertion and now it is manifest enough by the revelation made to that B. Man and martir of Christ F. Martin Gutierez whom S. Teresa beheld in heaven adornd with the ensignes of martirdome he dying in prison under the heretiques wearied out with their fetters and il usage The Virgin her self gave many thanks to this her servant for defending her sanctity in these eminent tearmes The very Seraphins themselves and all the other ranks both of Angels and Saints doe homage to her and reverence her as queen of all no otherwise then the brute beasts in paradise to Adam while he stood as yet in the
were great for this respect that they were not the greatest nay although thou didst outrun a great many almost all if one alone outstripd thee the prize would be lost and all as good as nothing Now our merits are at a greater certainty and more fruitful now not the least of our works perisheth now all our services are recompensed according to the degree of their fervour Why then should we now be so pittifully sluggish with certain forfeyture of a secure reward what if thou wert ascertaind that none at all should be damned but all partake of salvation that ought not to give thee a pretence of being negligent but rather highten thy fervour towards a more ample enrichment of merits and increase of glory Go to the sufferings of this life are not condigne or commensurate to the future glory suffer not lazynes to reside in thee for it is the moth of merits and scab of vertues taking away all the grace of our actions rendring them so light of weight and distastful to God that his stomack wil not disgest them If thou yealdst thy self to slouth sadnes wil not a little annoy thee being forced to sustain the heat and burden of the day without any comfort the sting of conscience bereaving thee of that but promptitude and alacrity wil make thee insensible of the incumbrances of this life and is highly pleasing and acceptable to God What master of a family loves not to see his servants pleasantly merry and going cheerfully about their work If man love to behold a pleasant countenance so doth God a cheerful mind Let not the sad look of thy negligence contristate Almighty God neither do thou superadd to the bitternes of this life the wormwood of sluggishnes a sluggard partakes neither of the joyes of God nor of this world A tepid religious man in most things is in a worse condition then a wordling This though he share not of spiritual comfort yet he doth of temporal the tepid for the most part is deprived of both He that is habituated in sin is not without hope of being coverted and acquiring sanctity but he that growes tepid after his conversion hath forfeyted part of that confidence there being greater hopes of a sinner then of him Great sinners very often become great Saints but it is a piece of a miracle if he that is tepid become such a one Experience teacheth us that it is more difficil for the lukewarme to become fervorous then for a sinner to become a Saint for a tepid man is far from resenting his condition as evil because he deems himself secure and that a mediocrity in vertue sufficeth to salvation he doth acquiesce in this he must notwithstanding be wary and dread his security for the danger is very eminent But which is no mean subject of terrour God cals makes enquiry after sinners Christ takes his refection with them but as for the frigid they turn his stomack and he loathingly vomits them out of his mouth Shal I say somthing no les frightful the tepid obstruct the current of Gods mercy and suspend the influences of his profuse liberality while he is bountiful towards the greatest sinners but towards the negligent he is as it were sparingly parcimonious not communicating to them what he oftentimes more willingly confers upon the other I wil add something yet more formidable which ought to make each bone of our body shiver and quake God who is stil giving to all erecting every where trophees of his bounty with the tepid he is on the taking hand depriving them of those talents which he had mercifully lent them before What more noxious then to debar him as much as in us lyes from being beneficent what worse then not to suffer him to be good impeding the activity of his goodnes and munificence Is not he accursed who is the occasion of such a curse how deservedly then is he accursed who doth the work of God negligently Many things which are evil are at least serviceable in some respect but slouthfulnes is so naughtily naughty that it is in no sort conducible What can be imagined worse then heynous sins yet these many times through the wonderful wisdome and goodnes of God who knowes how to extract good out of evil conduce to our conversion and sanctification we seeking him after such foul lapses with greater fervour and humility Slouthfulnes obstructs all this it is so hurtfully evil that it shewes it self in part less good and proficuous then the very malice it self of greater sins Slouthfulnes is the worm of time it eats and spoiles the choisest things we have yea it is an enemy to eternity lessening life eternal by lessening our merits and it also wasts our temporal by its mortiferous idlenes If thou demand whose life is shorter I wil undoubtedly reply that of the negligent though he protract it to a hundred years if thou ask whose is longer I wil answere that of the diligent though he live but for a short space death and slouthfulnes is equivalently the same thing What marchant would sit idle at home if by one dayes paines he could compendiate the return of a thousand years do not thou set light by time one day of fervour is more available then a million of remisnes and tepidity A short life ful of a vigorous ardency is equivalent nay prevalent to a long one if it be cold and phlegmatique If thou covet to live long live diligently But how shameful is the shame of sluggish idlenes how ridiculously infamous would he be who being picked out from among all the peers of the realm to fight a duel in his kings behalf having before boasted much of his valour should now in the very lists of combat where his soveraign and all his court stand spectatours not have the courage to draw his sword nor move his arme to make a thrust but bend all his forces to flight leaving his adversary an unbloody victory O sluggard thou maintainst Gods quarrel many Angels beholding and enuying thy happines who would take it for a great honor to suffer and combat for the glory of God as thou mayst this favour is done thee to be his champion thou art become a theater or spectacle to God the B. Virgin his Saints and Angels thou hast often promised to behave thy self valiantly why art thou now being come to the push so dastardly cowardish o infamy of nature do not defame the grace of God nor frustrate those supplies which are kept for a reserve why art thou so hartles in this work consider how fervently God desires that thou performe it with fervour The III. Chapter How incommodious a thing is sleepines VVHAT more seemly to season the first thoughts of the day then the ancient of dayes my God that so our mind in its first undertakings may be consecrated to him The thought and love of God must not be intermitted and how much less denied at a seasonable time Pay the
first fruits of life to the Authour of life presenting thy self in the morning before him We must prevent the sun to thy benediction and adore thee o Lord at the rising of the same in the midst of our sleep it being as yet night when the pulse of the bel or some inspiration calls us to rise and behold thou our spouse comest and it is requisite to go forth to meet thee To make this encounter fruitfully it conduceth not a little to prepare oyle over night least the lamp of thy love o my soul want fewel to feed its flame and thou like a foolish Virgin be shut out which is too terrible Premeditate what language shal deliver thy first salutes to thy spouse and what affaires thou art to negotiate in time of prayer this being done if thou betake thy self to rest with sorrow thou wilt rise with cheerfulnes if thou hast a loathing of sleep thou wilt covet watching with much alacrity How can a soul enamoured upon God chuse but grieve that it must cease to love him prayse him improve its stock of merits and that all advantages of increasing his glory and its love towards so dear a spouse must be suspended how can it endure to see it self sustained by God loved by him and regaled in this interim with innumerable benefits and not to be able to relove him or as much as be thankful for such high favors Wherfore it is requisite both before and after sleep to make amends for that suspension of love and merits with more ardent affections and celestial desires supplying that loss of life wherin we cannot power out our whole harts upon God and be absorpt in him We must procure by this very cessation of merit and love to merit as much if it were in our power as if we were awake Vsurers even while they sleep increase their mony and thou wilt do the same if conforming thy self to the disposals of heaven with obedience and resignation thou make an ardent oblation of thy self and beare with patience this misery and the incident necessities of mans life He that embraceth patiently a necessary death whether it proceed naturally from some disease or be violently caused by another man he merits by it and so shalt thou if it be harsh and noisome to thee to repose and sleep as it is to those that serve love God fervently if I say thou accept of this necessary burden with equanimity it being wisely so ordained by the author of all wisdome Perchance if thou consider things in themselves and how much more burdensome sleep is then death to a true lover of God thou maist merit by sleeping patiently for his sake as by dying for patience Merit resides amidst great patience and patience is there greatest where greatest aggrievances are born most patiently Among all the burdens of mans life and all the annoyances which besiege it so closely none is greater then that of sleep or more worthily to be repented sin being excepted Other calamities are only tormentours of life sleep for its interim bereaves us of it other calamities are only opposite to the commodities of life sleep for a time impugnes its substance other calamities are in such sort noisome to our temporal life that they exceedingly conduce to eternal by affording matter of merit by raysing our minds towards God and drawing our affections as by an attractive quality sleep in it self during its raign is an enemy both to corporal and eternal life for as much as it causeth a vacancy both from merit and all thought of heavenly things other calamities are most welcome to Gods zealot because in them he doubles his spiritual advantages love is put to the rest God is glorified but sleep hath nothing at all desirable a cessation both of loving and honouring God attending it step by step wherfore sleep is more noisome and for a two fold yea manifold reason more burdensome then death it self to one that is enamoured upon God Death tyrannizeth only over the body sleep over both body and soul sleep on this behalf seems so much worse then death by how much the soul is better then the body nay much more to wit as much as the whole man soul and body is better then the body alone for death only deprives thee of thy body but sleep of thy soul also as wel as of it Death aymes only at the destruction of our body a thing frail and corruptible sleep at the soul also a thing eternal immortal which gives life to the body it being wholly insensible but for it death destroies a man sleep doth as much for a space of time as annihilate him Death is not to be dreaded for it leaves the best part of man untouched to wit his soul which makes him a man by which he loves God and apprehends his mercy and goodnes which is the glory of a man and ought to be his sole content and joy yea it leaves it more refined without impediment that it may honour love God more expeditly sleep overwhelmes and enters the noblest part of man unsouling as it were the soul it self Tel me I pray which wouldst thou resent most to die or to be annihilated if thou give glory to God by dying because such is his B. wil wilt thou not do the same if thou covet upon the same motive to be annihilated therfore if a patient acceptance of death be meritorious so wil also a patient acceptance of sleep if thou relish it as an equal burden If thou merit by embracing with patience the vexatious incumbrances of this life why shalt thou not also merit by sleep if it be the greatest incumbrance of all yea it being the sole and only thing which living and dying we must deem cumbersome for neither in this life nor after death is there any thing sin being set aside more burdensome to one that is feelingly devoted to the service of God What are accounted the burdens which press so heavily upon this life but its sufferings and miseries but one should be so far from esteeming sufferance a burden that it ought to be the scope and but of his desires next after God there is nothing more expetible then to suffer for God exhibiting this as the credentials of our love for by so doing we perfect the knot of true charity being more straitly united to him we dilate the confined raies of his glory and merit to be partakers of the same No body knowes throughly how burdensome sleep is to us besides him who is able to make a true estimate of the immensity of Gods glory the invaluablenes of his love and the least degree of grace in order to all which for this interim there is a dead surcease a suspension of all traffique for new merits After the cloze of this life what is noisome to the just besides purgatory but if thou be then in a condition of suffering it ought not to be resentive at all
upon thee by name when it stood â—ritten in the front of the book that he was to do the will of God he said o heavenly Father even for that contemptible Caytif Iohn will I also undergo a whipping a crowning a cross ignominy even death it self I give I offer I sacrifice my self wholly for his salvation And will it not be also thy duty to reflect upon Christ and say o my God this day for my Saviours sake wil I embrace all corporal labours and anguish of mind that I may love serve and glorify him with all the extent of my affection If God had created thee in the state of grace in an ample freedome of will and had by divine revelation indoctrinated thee in all the mysteries of our faith and thou didst see thy self dear to him and his B. Son become man and crucified with unspeakable love for thy sake were it not thy duty in these circumstances to give thy self wholly to God and power thy self forth upon him it is all one as if he had but just now created thee be oâ— good courage thou shalt awake in the state of grace behold thou findst thy redemption accomplishd to thy hand by the death and torments of thy God and this with so early a love that Christ sufferd for thee a thousand and so many yeares before thou wert born that he might have plenty of grace in store for thee Neyther Adam nor S. Michael nor Gabriel nor any other of the Angels no nor their queen her self the sacred Virgin found such preventing diligence such a feat of love to wit that God had already died for their releasment Be inflamed then forth with with a recipocal love and burning desires towards so magnificent a goodnes so speedily provident over thy affaires and do not contemn such an anticipation in what concerns thy eternal weal. Adam stood in expectation of this benefit the space of 4000. yeares but the benefit it self hath expected thee already above 1600 and it is neyther right nor reason that thou requite such sedulity and quicknes with so much sluggishnes and delay Procrastinate no longer thy conversion to God who hath so long expected thee in a great deal of patience Put case a proffer of coming to life were made to the soules which now are only in a possibility of existence and this upon the same conditions helps and favours which God hath daignd to bestow this day upon thee how would they joy how happy would they esteem themselves how officiously would they spend that day how would they in the very entrance of life sacrifice themselves to such a benefact or And what if he should make this proffer to those whom this very night he hath sentenced to hel fire while he so lovingly stood centry over thee in thy repose with what incredible fervour would they at their first return to life consecrate themselves to Almighty God as also the remnant of that day and their whol life if they did but once behold themselves adornd with divine grace with supernatural habits and such opportunities of serving so beneficial a God Be thou confounded for not sacrificing thy self more fervently to him who is much more munificent towards thee it is a greater matter to have preserved thee from damnation then to have reprieved thee being once condemned Spur up thy self to outstrip the fervor of many just soules and be thankful that thou findst not thy self this morning plungd in hell but freed from it as also from so many dangers and sins which innumerable others have this night incurd Do thou alone wish to give him if it were possible that glory which all the Saints will be still rendering through the great day of eternity which desire thou must unfaignedly iterate in the course of the whole day and that with sighs from thy very hart neither in the morning only but oftner as if then newly set on foot and created begin the journey of Gods service allwayes with a fresh and vigorous courage The V. Chapter That our daily fervour must be retained THOV providest but fondly for this dayes life neyther art thou secure of that if thou delayst it till to morrow If the use of this dayes life be granted thee live wel and perfectly for he only is said to live who lives wel Thou diest miserably being yet alive if thou leadest not a good life Each morning when thou awakest purpose to live that day as wel as possibly thou canst as if thou wert undoubtedly to dye the same night Delay not the amendment of any defect till another day which perchance thou wilt never see eyther the day or thy wil wil fayl thee The day to come wil go wel with thee if the present do One must never hazard a thing so good as is a good life but be alwaies in an active fruition of it Thou art industrious in avoiding any thing that may endanger life and why dost thou by delaying prepare and call danger to a good life Live to day and protract not to amend what is amiss after this week or month or the disposall of this affair To day God is our Lord and to day must thou be the servant of God for he is thy servant to day since he to day makes the sun rise to thy behoof He delaies not his guifts till to morrow neither must thou thy services To day God heaps benefits upon thee which thou canst not challenge be not thou wanting to services which he exacts The services of another day wil not suffice for the beneficence of their day why wilt thou have them satisfy for the day past and for the benefits of the present its own goodnes is not sufficient to pay its debt why wilt thou make it pay for the malice of another God especially redoubling thy debts and his graces to day God is God and to day thou art his creature to day Christ is thy redeemer and thou to day his redeemed IESVS is Christ yesterday to day thou hast a being to day and shalt perchance not have one to morrow To day and every moment art thou a debter to God who impends continually his omnipotency to thy behoof thou also must each moment impend all thy forces in his love and service How darest thou incur the loss of one hour since thou canst not make recompense for the least benefit which thou receivest this instant flowing from the ocean of Gods infinite love How darest thou suspend the quitting thy obligation for the interval of one day or hour for if God suspended his munificence but for a piece of an hour thou wouldst not be in the world or if he suspended his indulgence thou wouldst be in hell An eternal salary is promised thee thou must not merit by interrupted services If thou wilt truly live never intermit to live wel this is an eternal truth O Truth give me grace to serve thee truly henceforth for all eternity and that I may eternally
although they be ownd by most grave Doctours they are all ridiculous in order to express it and they destroy themselves and he will shew himself to be ridiculous who hopes to express himself competently by them I am afraid o Lord least while I go thus to work to prayse thy goodnes I may be thought to jeer and deride Would not one that took upon him to set forth in magnifying words the wisdome of Salomon be judged to scof if he should say so great is the wisdome of Salomon that the lame-handed can not describe it nor the dumb utter it nor the distracted make a true estimate of its greatnes if this commendatory be thought derision these other comparisons in respect of thy goodnes are much les to the purpose in order to whose expression each creature is lame dumb and senslesly foolish O Lord my desire is to love thee in the simplicity of my ignorance I will brook it patiently if I do not clearly understand how thou art which is not possible for me to do in this life and although I can conceive nothing worthy of thy goodnes for as much as my conceptions of it are obscure incongruous yet I solace my self in this that thy goodnes is too great ever to be equalized by love I solace my self o Lord that although thou hadst not created us nor been beneficial to us nor made us the object of thy love but hatred as my deserts at least exacted yea although it were impossible for thee to be beneficial and repugnant to thy nature to love us as thou dost nevertheles by reason of thy perfection and goodnes and its matchles worth no body could love thee to the ful Although all the leaves of the trees and piles of grass all the sands of the sea and motes of the sun were all harts yea although they were so many wils of burning Seraphins yea further though all these and all other possible creatures were each one a Hierarchy of Seraphins whose love at each instant redoubled it self through all eternity all this love of them all would be as nothing in recompense of thy goodnes nay it would blush to appear in its presence neyther is my meaning that it would love thee congruously for the whole extent of thy goodnes but not so much as for thy sole patience wherewith thou toleratest me not only while I so heynously offend thee but am so defectuously languid and remiss in loving thee so great a good But in this also I solace my self that though thou art not sufficiently loved neyther canst thou be sufficiently loved by creatures Accept o Lord for my share a smal pittance of love in wish and desire I offer up to thee all the love of all creatures even of those that are as yet but possible sumd up into one oblation I my self alone would for each instant have all that their love which wil actuate them through all eternity and though I were thus furnishd yet stil should I have cause of shame and confusion Pardon pardon me I most humbly beseech thee great Lord nor resent these my slender votes and desires as affronts put upon thee but let my infirmity and thy greatnes plead my excuse Accept of this my wish which cannot worthily be stild a love worthy of thee accept also of the payn I am put to in grieving that all creatures are not enamoured on thee I grieve that so many soules espoused to thee by the ring of fayth and so many harts of men fit to love thee most ardently who might make themselves kings of the world and overtop the heavens should lye wallowing in their own ordures and perish by loving themselves and the fraile and loathsome goods of this earth neglecting thee o beauty of creatures and love of the universe The VI. Chapter How great a benefit of glory we hope for GOd is so good and beneficial that he suffers us while we set a false rate upon his benefits our own good Men are vexed with toyling and moyling all their life long to purchase some temporal good and at length are frustrated of their expectation reaping little or no fruit at all of their labours how can they hope to gain eternal it being no part of their sollicitude they scarse ever admitting it into their thoughts the goods which they make their dayly busines are not obtaind with all their endeavours and those which are distant as far as heaven they hope the earth will afford them without any labour they are deeply afflicted for trifling goods and are not so much as shallowly affected for the most important How is it possible that one can proceed so ridiculously in a joy most serious so stupidly about a stupendious good o most humble majesty of God when I consider this last miracle of thy love I loose my self in a maze of amazement How great is that good whose greatnes made it an unseemly thing in God to be liberal but was to expect the additional worth of vertue and our services though they also be divine benefits In our creation and redemption thou wast munificent when we least expected it anticipating the wishes and intentions of man but to enter upon a state of glory thou expectest our joynt-concurrence with thy grace Good God! how vastly great must that good needs be which obstructs by its greatnes the full current of the divine benignity and requires our endeavour and labour And God sels it at a dear rate though he love otherwise to give all gratis he sold it to S. Laurence for a broyling to S. Paul for the price of his head to S. Felicitas for her children to S. Peter for the death of the cross Yea that he might sell it us so dear he himself would buy it at an intolerable rate to wit his own death and the ignominy of the cross God was pleased to bestow and confer his other benefits to make us covet and acquire this how great must that needs be for the coveting wherof his guifts deeds were so stupendious and yet for all this our harts dilate not themselves sufficiently nor are raised to a congruous strain of desire If God attempted so many meanes to make us covet it what ought we not to attempt to enjoy it if God did and sufferd so great things to legitimate us to a true title of such a guift what ought we to do and suffer to enter upon it it is plain non-sense to perswade our selves that we can attain glory without labour since God laboured so much to be able to give it Notwithstanding all this we incur here a double delinquency in this guift more then in others being lyable both to ingratitude and an action of contempt for as much as we endeavour not to acquire that for the acquiring wherof God was at such expense yea steerd to that end all his actions For his other benefits we are ungrateful for this comtemptuous while we pursue it not with
be perpetual combining in the same thing a penalty and a benefit justice mercy Therfore because death is so great a good so proper and secure an effect of his goodnes he would not have it lyable to mans free wil or the hatred of an enemy For although it be in any ones power to bereave thee of life no body not even the uncon troulable violence of kings can bereave thee of death This is the property of things of the best quality to be out of the reach of humane power not to be obnoxious to anothers pleasure If one were entangled in any one danger or incumbrance it would be no smal content to find a meanes how to evade it why do we then grieve or dread death which is the gate wherby we may rid our selves of the hazards and incumbrances of this life Many for a meer puntillio of worldly glory have sought and covetted it at least for the glory of heaven let us not fear it O immortal God who wast born not to live for thou wast life eternal as now thou art but to dye a most mortal and bitter death for me why should I that am mortal be unwilling to dye to live a vital eternal and most pleasant life with thee and for accomplishment of thy wil since the desire of a christian is to be with Christ I know not why he should not desire death since but by it he cannot come to that fruition What misery can death bring or what happines can it bereave him of who is not besotted upon the world but hath placed all his felicity in heaven but besides this ocean of content which flowes from the sight and fruition of our beloved it hath moreover this advantage that it puts us out of further danger of offending God Death then is not evil which takes away all evil But if it be evil and an enemy to mankind why do not men treat it like an evil and as one would treat an enemy I wish we would proceed in this manner with it and deal no otherwise then with a foe forecasting that we carry nothing about us which he may make booty of or give him cause of triumphing over us Souldiers are wont to secure their provisions and baggage or els quite spoil them that they may not be serviceable to their enemyes We must leave no plunder for death but if there be any thing subject to its rapine it must eyther be wholly abandoned or sent before us with a safe convoy to heaven where all will be throughly secured We must keep no spoiles about us in which it may glory but the luggage of our flesh and we must extenuate it by fasting labour and other pennances that he sieze it not entire If death be evil and adverse to us let us resist it and object a buckler by relinquishing things and all affection to them that its wounds may bite the les upon us if death be evil let us make it good by doing good Why should we dread death more then our selves since it cannot be worse then we are evil yea it is we that make it bad because we do not become good Let us do this now when we have time and may do what we shal wish at its hour we had don and cannot A little respit only remaines for labour and in comparison of eternity not so much as an instant Behold now so many years of our life are past and those which remain are no longer But death is not evil in it self but rather good and we should be very good if we did imitate it and practised what it puts in ure by dispoyling our selves of all things so that if nothing were grateful and delectable in this world it would be pleasing and savory to our pallat He only needs fear death who loves other things and not Christ He is not a faithful servant who refuseth to appear in the presence of his master If I did love thee o Lord I should not have such a horrour of death for it would be contentiue to me to behold thee face to face and cast my self into thy embracements rejoicing that thy wil were accomplishd in me otherwise I play but the hypocrite when I daily beg that thy wil may be done in earth as it is in heaven Thy pleasure was to dye not that we might be immortal in this mortality but that we might dye wel by leading a better life Grant me grace that as thy wil is to be fulfilld in my death though against my wil so I may wil and death fulfil it in a good death by a better and more perfect life I give thee thanks o most benign Lord for this benefit of death as thy wisdome hath disposed it I give thee thanks that I am to dye and that I know not when or where or how I am to dye The certainty of death is good and comfortable to me it being a secure passage to bring me to thy sight and rid me of the miseries of this life and make me despise its deceitful and counterfeyt goods What man if he have but any one grain of wit although he were sure never to experience any adversity but were to be successful in all the contingencies of this life would not contemn it and all its goods since he must needs see that he is to quit them all in death which is wholly unavoydable In which moment all past joyes all present goods now to be relinquishd are no more then if they never had enjoyd a being nay they are les conducible for their very relinquishment wil prove a torture That only which man neyther loves nor possesseth wil not afflict him in that hour of affliction The uncertainty also of the manner place and time of dying is acceptable to me that I may more certainly serve thee o God in all requisite manner time and place as thy worth and dignity doth require This is a divine disposal which breeds in us a certain sollicitude of a better life by reason of the uncertain condition of a contingent death I am throughly perswaded o Lord that I know not whether I am worthy of love or hatred and how it wil fare with me after this life neither do I covet to know because it is expedient for me to be ignorant of it according to the ordainment of thy wisdome But I will not therfore more dread death then desire thee and confide in thy mercies I accept most willingly its great uncertainty this being most certain that it is enough for me that thou art most merciful and a cordial lover of me and both canst and wilt save me if I but humbly trust in thee What imports it that I know not how and when and where I am to dye if I be assurd that thou dyedst for me and dyedst the death of the cross and at noon day and betwixt two thieves upon Mount Calvary to clear all doubt of thy love towards me that I may