sincere affection When shall I O onely life of my soul relinquish all self-will and vanquish all my passions and imperfections 8. In these and the like devotions thou maist spend the evening and morning to excite cherish and encrease thy desire to receive thy deare Saviour that so thou maist perfectly please him and be most happily united unto him And in thy pious practices of these things take this Caveat Be sure to keep each power and faculty of thy soule pure and But take heed of vanity and curiosity free from all curiosity of worldly things and from all idle and vaine thoughts Take also the like care of thy outward senses lest thy heart steale out by them and so thou lose all thy devotion EXPLICATION THe time of the sacred Communion At the time near the Communion drawing nigh think thou art to receive the Lord who created this great Universe and thee to his owne likenesse the Sonne of God who died for thee nâ—ked on the 1. Think what thou art going to doe Crosse that increased goodnesse which hath so often freed thee from danger death and damnation which thy sinnes deserved Thanke him with most profound Thank humility and adore him uniting Adore Implore all thy spirits and forces of body and soule togeather as true God and true man Beg also his pardon for thy faults and that the same love which moves him to grant thee this great gift may also induce him to purge thy soule from the staines of all sinne and uncleannesse thereby disposing it to a more pure and perfect union with his divine Majesty When the Priest pronounceth those sacred words Domine non When Domine non sum dignus is sayd sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy accompany him with these following and speak to thy Lord and love from the bottome of thy heart I am not worthy to receive thee ô my great Lord before whose Majesty the Angels of heaven tremblingly confesse their owne nothing I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest enter into my heart who am one of the meanest weakest and ungratefullest creatures upon earth I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest lodge with me because I love thee not and I remember thee not though these are prime reasons of thy instituting and remaining in this most blessed Sacrament Thus humble confound and abisme Humble and Confound thy selfe thy selfe at the serious consideration of thy sinnes malice and misery but then raising up thy heart with hope by the following words Sed But still raising up thy heart with hope tantum dic verbo sanabitur anima mea Doe thou onely speak the word ô my Lord and my soule will be saved Enter ô my love into this unworthy harbour and make use of thine infinite power and goodnesse in pardoning my sinnes supplying my defects and protecting me from my enemies 9. And after thou hast received Text. Having communicated entertaine thy guest with amorous expressions this divine Sacrament betake thee presently to the innermost closet of thy heart and there enter into communication with thy holy guest using these or the like loving and respectfull expressions What hath moved thee O great King of Kings to enter in to me who am nothing but a miserable despicable vild blind and naked creature And he will answer thee Love for thou art my dove my friend my sister my spouse and my dearely beloved Then thou maist reply O increated love ô sweetest dilection ô friendly and faithfull charity what wouldest thou have me doe what demandest thou what desirest thou I ask nothing saith he but love I would have nothing burne in the harth of thy heart but the fire of my love that it may devour all forraine love within thee and destroy all self-wil and seeking This this is my desire because I would be truly thine and would have thee likewise be totally mine Which can never be compassed untill thou freely deliverest up thy selfe to my will and pleasure For without this entire resignation thy fancy will be alwaies fastned to the loving and liking of thy selfe and thine owne actions be they never so meane I desire therefore that thou shouldest hate thy selfe that thou maist have the love of me I demand thy heart for my habitation that I may joyne and unite it unto mine for to this end was my heart opened to thee upon the altar of my Crosse My will is I say ô my dearly beloved spouse that thou desire nothing think nothing understand nothing see nothing feel nothing but my selfe onely that so I onely may be in thâ—e and thou totally turned into me and that thou maist possesse in me perfect quiet and I in thee pleasant context 10. Lastly thou shalt offer the holy And Lastly offer up the divine Sonne to his heavenly Father Sonne to his heavenly Father for thy selfe for the whole world and for the soules departed in memory and union of that divine oblation which he offered upon the holy Crosse presenting in like manner all the unbloody sacrifices to the divine Majesty which are that day offered up in his universall Church CHAP. XXXI Of Spirituall Communion ALthough my beloved thou canst receive thy sweeet Saviour 1. Thou maist thus often Communicate sacramentally onely once a day yet thou maist receive him spiritually every houre and moment For nothing can hinder thee from this but onely thine owne fault and negligence And this spirituall Communion may sometimes prove more profitable to thy soule and pleasing to thy Saviour than the sacramentall especially if there be a defect in thy due and diligent preparation 2. For as often as thou desirest By frequent desires to receive thy loving Lord God thus spiritually into thy soule thou shalt find him ever ready to feast thee with his owne sacred hands and thou mayest thus easily dispose thy selfe unto it Turning thy selfe to thy Saviour to this end reflect upon thine owne frailty and frequent failings and conceive an inward sorrow and detestation of thy defects then make thy supplication with a loving affection that he will not disdaine to enter thy poor cottage and feast thee with his owne true body and blood 3. So also when thou art moved And it is an excellent exercise against passions with a pious zeal against any perverse Passion and desirest efficaciously to mortify it or to plant some vertue in thy soule make use of this spirituall communion by converting thy thoughts towards thy Lord God and invoking his aid with ardent prayers beseech him to enter and possesse the secret part of thy soule Or calling to mind thy last sacramentall communion speak to him with an inflamed desire When ô my good God shall I againe welcome thee into the closet of my heart Come now O my Saviour and comfort me spiritually with the like strength and vertue EXPLICATION IF thou wilt practice this pious How to make
them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as dross among metalls chaff among grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the children of God I acknowledge my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the world the devil and hell it self can inflict upon me 2. And to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee ô my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty and a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence ô my Lord and my maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthyest element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction be ashamed to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceived in concupiscence nourished with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am ashamed to own my own beginning which is so horrid and lothesome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the ground-work of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time what nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and wofull thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgement of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. I came into this world ô my Lord with groanes and tears I live in it with griefs and cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horror to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of veâ—min and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay and ashâ—s why shouldest thou look to be so highly priz'd so daintily pampered thou stinking puddle Dust thou art to dust thou must return Hast thou not alwayes before thy eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and maker What thou â—â—st hitherto been I wel know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace and love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtfull of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came ô my Lord into this world in originall sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace ô merciful Lord God to avoid sin since I cannot eschew death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly sin 4. What art thou then ô my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou ô N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor nothing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not received Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledge my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdraw from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own Nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledge and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body soul will judgement memory understanding affection senses meat drink company habit books prayer Sacraments all creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honor the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. What creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in heaven if it had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountifull Lord God and made so little and bad use of them as I have done If I deny all this my conscience witnesseth against me If I confess it oh why am I not more humble Finally If such great troubles temptations and tribulations had hapened to me as have done to others I should by consenting have ere now burned in hell fire but thou O meek and merciful Creator hast spared me because thou knowest my weakness and sent me small crosses because I cannot bear greater c. Wherefore Not unto me O Lord but to thee be all honour for time and eternity O that I could know thee and know my self O that I could truly see my own nothing and totall dependancy on thee my misery and malice and thy perfection and total goodness Ay me weak and wretched N What are my forces that I should rely on them I have nothing O my Lord but what is
I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
I will kiss thee I will conjure thee to remain with me I wil rather lose my self than leave thy presence My beloved is mine his honour is mine his heart is mine his heaven is mine And I am his behold the key the keeper the soul the body the lord the whole ô my God is thine Behold my liberty my life my love all is thine ô my Jesu and thine alone Repose therefore as a sweet posie between my breasts sleep like a bridegroom in my heart and reign like a King in the most intim closet of my soul Come Lord Jesu come quickly take full possession of thy own Come and please thy self love thy self and serve thy self in me as thou desirest and deservest to be pleased loved served Let thy love O King of love be the life of my soul and the lease of my life that when I cease to love I may cease to live In thy love O Jesu I end this act of love though my desire actually to love thee be endless Oh! let me live and dy in thy love and for thy love that by love I may for ever reign and remain with thee in thy Kingdom of love Amen THE THIRD TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Ascent of the pious soul by Steps and Degrees of Vertues to the happy Mountain of Perfection Psal 83. v. 8. They shall go from vertu into vertu The God of Gods shall be seen in Syon AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions tending to Perfection THis Spirituall ladder O dear Souls will shew you how much you have profited in pure solid devotion how far you have proceeded in the way of the Spirit how forward you are in seeking God forsaking your selves what progress you have made in your journey towards heaven Contemplate therefore your selves often in this impartial mirrour bewail your backwardness shake off your sloathfulness increase your fervour and encourage your diligence to climb this sacred Mountain of Perfection and to pass on cheerfully from vertu to vertu Psal 83. 8. till you happily come to the beatifying sight of your Lord God in Sion The Seven Degrees of Perfection 1. VPon the first Step stand they who are Faithfull Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgements and Careful to avoid mortall sin These are Beginners who have little inward light stand upon slippery ground and though they may be saved yet so as by fire 2. On the second Step stand Proficients who strive to avoid venial sins and conquer their sensuality but are slow in tending to Perfection and subject to be self-conceited 3. On the third Step stand they who casting off sloath tame themselves with austerities but their intentions are not pure nor they well grounded in self-denial 4. On the fourth Degree stand they who have gotten into their interiour but yet seek for solaces and are discouraged with adversities 5. On the fifth Step stand they who are fully resigned and perfectly obedient but fail for want of experience and courage 6. On the sixth Step stand they who have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and constancy but desire comforts to enable their perseverance Here also stand they who are indifferent to comforts or desolations but yet they rest in Gods favours with some propriety Here furthermore stand they who are satisfied with God only but are not absolutely as willing to leave divine favours as to have them 7. On the seventh and highest Degree of Perfection stand the elevated and contemplative souls Gods faithfull friends and favourites who are perfectly indifferent resign'd and obedient in all things to his divine will and pleasure The first and lowest Degree of Perfection THe first Step and groundwork of all vertue and perfection is To be well setled in the Vpon the first step of this ladder stand Beginners who are Faithful Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgments Careful to avoid mortal sin Catholick faith Fearfull of Gods severe judgements and Careful to avoid all mortal sin This is the Church porch and entrance into Gods holy Temple but they who stand here remain cold in charity carelesse and undiligent in their lesser duties remiss in spiritual exercises negligent in thinking of their obligation by which they stand ingaged to tend towards perfection and finally they greedily gape after all conveniencies of their corrupted nature and give up themselves to glut and solace their depraved sensuality These Beginners have very little But they have little inward light or no inward light they know not what is the meaning of mortification what it is to get into their interiour or what Introversion signifies but they seemingly satisfie and secure themselves in that they have a will to avoid the known and capitall sins whereby they hope to escape hell and avoid Gods heavy judgements Surely such souls stand upon very unsafe and slippery ground and Stand upon slippery ground their salvation is in a doubtfull and dangerous condition for they are so blinded and bewitched with self-love and sensuality that they cannot well distinguish perfectly discern nor rightly judge what sins are of mortall danger and what not so that conversing dayly amidst such multitudes of perils and shaking hands with the world the flesh and the devil with so much freedom so little care and precaution what do they else but dance as it were upon the very brink of hell from whence if they once tread awry they infallibly tumble headlong into that bottomless dungeon of eternall perdition Yet in case they should indeed And though they may be saved foot it so warily all their life time that death takes them not tripping nor fall'n into mortall offence a thing most rare and not to be presumed on by any one who carries himself so carelesly they shall surely be saved but so as by fire They must expect a most sharp and severe Yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. punishment a long and piercing purgatory by reason of their unmortifi'd affections to venial sins their giving scope to their unbridled senses their neglect of Gods love their coldness in charity and their tepidity in tendance to perfection And as for their good works they are not likely to be there much available since their groundwork was servil fear their end self-love and their whole drift and intention altogether sinister and deficient from that purity and perfection wherewith they should have been performed The Second Degree of Perfection THey stand on this second Step who hearkning to Gods holy inspirations following his internall On the 2. step stand Proficients Who are careful to shun venial sins and conquer sensuality attractions and obeying the sweet invitations of his Spirit keep themselves disingaged from all vain affections to the world yield not to the enticements of flesh and blood resist the suggested temptations of the devil and carefully avoid all occasions of offending their Lord and maker so much as venially To help on this pious design they put
worldly imaginations and to apply her self to God by recollection let her content her-self in breathing forth heartily these or the like short words O my Lord when shall I love you When shall I embrace you Let her repeat them affectionatly and perseverantly and she shall sooner be inflamed with divine love than by the subtle consideration of the greatest secrets of heaven for 't is the Will which unites us to God not the Vnderstanding These acts of the Will are the spiritual wings of the soul to lift her up unite her to her beloved obiect they are short sharp and swift darts and desires shot by our burning hearts and reaching heaven in an instant Our forefathers the Saints frequently Read the 10. collation of John Cassian c 10. used them and most highly prised them for being short they trouble not the memory being fervent they rowse our dulness and dryness to affection and devotion being frequent they still renew our attendance to Gods presence and put us perpetually in mind of our duties The practice of this exercise is Read the Spiritual Confl ch 13. n. 12. to take occasion from all objects actions and accidents to pray and praise God Do we eat let us give God thanks Do we walk abroad Let us praise him who produced all things which we behold from the abyss of nothing Do we look up to heavens beauty Let us admire the Creator in his creatures c. Have we sinned or are we tempted Let us lift up our hearts to God and say O Lord permit me not to fall and offend thee To dy alas I am content when thou disposest but to sin O prâ—serve me from this disaster Other times let us burst forth into aspirations of love as My beloved for me and I for him Of Resignation as Not my will ô Lord but thine be done What do I desire in heaven or earth but thee ô my God Of pure intention as 'T is for you ô my God that I fast 't is for your sake that I obey my Superiour 't is to please you that I study work pray c. Your will ô Lord is mine your content is mine I have no other I or No but as you will or will not all my pleasure is only to please you c. This rule is to be observed that An observation though all jaculatory prayers are good yet those are best most profitable and powerfull which our hearts moved by God conceive of themselves though they be expressed in words never so plain and simple Nor is there any need of much variety of aspirations for one onlâ— word being often and amorouslâ— repeated may serve for many days when our souls find therein guâ— and profit and speak unto him whom they look upon as presenâ— with their eys of Faith This exercise is most easy and most efficacious and they who shall piously persever in it shaâ—l soon find their hearts inflamed with God's love and changed from all worldly affections The 22. Maxim That the Presence of God is the great exercise of Contemplatives and the shortest way to divine Vnion THis exercise is called great because Why call'd the great exeâ—câ—se God himself taught it in the worlds infancy to his faithfull servant Abraham I am thy God saith hee and thy protectour walk in my presence and thou shalt be perfect It is called the shortest way to And shortest way to union divine Union because it is a summary of all the exercises of prayer and which alone will conduct our souls to the hidden treasure of perction and replenish them with those celestiall riches which our loving Lord is wont to communicate to his dearest friends in this life God is present in severall manners How God is present in divers manners according to our understanding 1. He is every where present by his essence which being infinit cannot bee contained within the limits of any place 2. He is every where present by his power He moves the heavenly orbs fixes the earth governs all his creatures c. 3. He is particularly present in heaven by the demonstrations of his glory 4. He is specially present in holy places by grace benediction and readiness to hear their Petitions bless their persons and accept their sacrifices of praise who shall there unanimously meet to present them 5. He is especially present in the hearts of his holy people by the inhabitation of his holy Spirit 6. He is especially present in the consciences of all men where he sits as witnesse and judge of all their actions good and bad For the practice of this exercise Seven similitudes for the practice of Gods presence of Gods presence we may help our thoughts with these seven similitudes stirring up in our souls an ardent desire to feel the like effects of his Al-present Majesty 1. How the soul is in the body all in the whole and all in every part of it moving animating informing all giving it life beauty c. 2. How the meat we eat is disgested and changed into our substance c. 3. How a little worm lying in the warm Sun-shine is environed about with the beams made bright hot and as it were burned and inflamed c. 4. How a black coale amidst a great fire is ignified all on fire and well nigh all fire 5. How a little piece of paper is pearced through with oyl falling on it which by degrees dilates it self all over that the whole seems rather oyl than paper 6. How a small quantity of water in a vessell of wine is swallowed up lost changed annihilated and turned into wine 7. How a sponge in the midst of the Ocean is all compassed within and without absorpt imbued possessed and as it were inebriated with water c. O that we could alwaies have S. Augustin de verbis Domini c. 3. this actuall faith and thought that God stands a present witnesse and judge of all our doings that if we goe forth he spies us if we goe in he sees us if we light the candle he observes us when wee put it out he also marks us should wee not behave our selves as becoms so holy a presence should we not be very impious and impudent to give up the reigns to sin and sensuality O that wee would alwaits ruminate and remember this reall verity That God is the great eye of the world watching over our actions an ever-open ear to hear all our words and an unwearied arm to crush sinneâ—s into ruin how speedily would sin cease amongst us how soon should we obtain an habituall fear and reverence of God What greater ingagement can wee have to walk unblameably than to consider wee act before that judge who is infallible in his sentence Boetius l. 5. de consola all-knowing in his information severe in his wrath and powerfull to inflict punishment This perpetuall eying of God is properly a building to him a Chapell in our
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
wâ— is conquered and grievously wounded â— his enemies p. 10â— Chap. XVI That wee should keep oâ— hearts ever quiet and joyfull in our Lord p. 10â— Chap. XVII That pious purposes â—â— sometimes the deceits of the Devill â— hinder our progress in vertues p. 111 Chap. XVIII How the Devill endeavouâ— to draw us from the way of vertue p. 11â— Chap. XIX How our Enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our ruine p. 144. Chap. XX. That we must never flatter our selves as having subdued our enemies but must often return to our wonted exercises as if we were yet Novices in this Spirituall Conflict p. 199 Chap. XXI Of Holy Prayer p. 200. Chap. XXII What inward or Mentall Prayer is and what Contemplation and the use thereof p. 208. Chap. XXIII How we may joyn Contemplation to this inward Prayer p. 211. Chap. XXIV Of another manner of Prayer by way of Meditation p. 214. Chap. XXV Of a way of Praying by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin p. 215. Chap. XXVI How to pray and meâ—â—tate by meanes of the boly Angels and heavenly Citizens p. 219 Chap. XXVII How to meditate upon the holy Crosse and Christ our Saviour banging thereon to excite and move our affections p. 222 Chap. XXVIII Of sensible devotion as also of spirituall drynesse and desolation p. 236 Chap. XXIX That the worthy frequenting of the most B. Sacrament is an esficacious means to conquer our passions p. 245 Chap. XXX How to excite in us affections of love by the sacred Communion p. 249 Chap. XXXI Of spirituall Communion p. 259 Chap. XXXII Of Thanks giving p. 262 Chap. XXXIIâ— Of the perfect oblation of our selves to our Lord God p. 263 Chap. XXXIV How to petition for Divine grace p. 270 Chap. XXXV Some short Observations concerning Meditation p. 273 Chap. XXXVI An exercise before the sacred Communion p. 278 Chap. XXXVII How we may devoutly offer up the sacrifice of the Mass p. 281 Chap. XXXVIII An exercise after the holy Communion p. 286 Chap. XXXIX A daily examination p. 289 Chap. XL. Being a Conclusion of the whole work p. 294. Lord we have fix'd our hopes on thee Then let us nere confounded be I Kings 15 18. Thou shalt fight against them vntill their vtter destruction With the four weapons of the Spirituall Combatant Diffidence of thy selfe Confidence in God Continuall Exercise and Devout Prayer THE Spirituall Conflict OR Of the Perfection of a Christian life CHAP. I. Wâ—erein Christian Perfection consists And of four things necessary to obtain it IF thou heartily and seriously The importance of this knowledg desirest ô dearly beloved in Christ to reach the sublimity of Christian perfection and to be truly united to thy Lord God by becomming 〈◊〉 spirit with him which is the most profitable employment and the most excellent and divine enterprize imaginable It highly imports thee to understand in the first place wherein this perfection of spirituall life consists 2. For some there are who for Some place perfection in austerity want of this necessary consideration imagine that this high perfection is placed in leading an austere life in the maceration of the flesh in the use of hair-cloth in much fasting watching and the like rigorous exercises and bodily afflictions 3. Others especially women judg Others in reciting many prayers of their progresse in spirituality by their daily recitall of many prayers their assisting at many Masses their frequent Confessions and Communions 4. And there are very many yeâ— Others in their exact observance even some of them Religious and cloyster'd persons who perswade themselves that perfection consists in frequenting the Quire in the exact observance of silence and solitude and in well-ordered discipline 5. Thus some by these pious practices All which are good means but not directly tending to perfection some by other externall exercises tend to this desired perfection but are all wide of the direct way leading unto it For though thesâ— outward and devout employmenâ— conduce very much towards the attaining it yet in them alone and their exactest observance it consists not Ti 's true that the discreet use of them is doubtlesly a forcible means to obtain the Grace of the holy Ghost to fortify us against our fleshes frailty to shield arm us against the deceits and assaults of our common and cruell enemy and finally to perform our practices of piety especially whilst we are new-champions and Novices in this spirituall conflict with more sweetnesse and alacrity Yea they produce plenty of fruits to them also who are well-experienced and skilfull combatants in this holy warfare who therefore afflict their body because it hath been instrumentall â— the offence of their Creatour â—herefore love silence and live in soâ—tude to shun all ocasion of sinne â—nd to attend their heavenly meâ—itations with more quiet and tranâ—uillity being untangled from the â—orlds impediments they are deâ—out and diligent performers of the â—ivine office they are fervent and requent in works of charity in prayer and holy Communion and all this for no other reason than God's honour and Glory and to unite themselves to him by the sacred bonds of sincere affection 6. Yet they who rest here and And they that rest in these lower exercises are in great danger place their end in these outward exercises do oft times endanger their own Salvation and this not by reason of the exercises themselves which are truly and naturally holy and warranted by the practice and example of many great and glorious Saints but for that they are so totally attentive to these lower exercises as they leave their inward man in its naturall affections and unrescuâ—d from the snares of the devill For the deceitfull fiend finding them gone astray in following their affections to those devotions gives them not only peace but also pleasure in the pursuance of them they seeme to tast they very sweets of Paradise yea to walk and talk with God and heare his divine whispers in their Souls such is their vain perswasion And are somtimes so absorpt in their curious and deep fancies of meditation that they conceit themselves even separated from the world sever'd from all creatures and rapt into the third heaven 7. But how dangerously all such As may appeare by the rest of their actions Souls are deceived and how wide they are strayed from the right way of perfection will easily appeare by the rest of their actions For they are commonly very singular curious censurers of their neighbours lives and conversations and prone to murmur at their proceedings And when themselves are advertised of their own errours or never so litle hindred from their accustomed exercises which they frequent chiefly for fashion's sake or barr'd from the ordinary use of the Sacraments you shall presently perceive them fall into passion unquietnesse and despair 8. And if it pleaseth God to the And especcially by their want of resignation in time of
for that he is impeded from the practice of good wotks So that the cause of Divers pretences for our impatience his impatience relates not to the sicknesse or adversity it selfe but partly to himselfe as deserving it partly to others whom he must be forced to trouble against his will and partly to the omission of his spirituall exercises 5. Thus he who failes in his ambitious But all unwarrantable seeking of honours and offices will tell you he complains not for his owne sake but for the necessity of his family and friends whom he might thus have helped Now that such men deceive themselves is made apparent by this that they are not much troubled when the very same effects come to passe by some other meanes or persons which seemed to afflict them and under which they covered their owne imperfection 6. For example Thou tellest me As is explained by an example that thy sicknesse makes thee not impatient because it is in it selfe grievous to thee but for that they who are about thee are thereby overburdened But should they whom thou so much compassionatest be as much overburdened in serving other sick persons it would not much trouble thee From whence it is evident that not the sense of their trouble but thine owne desire and selfe-love was the true root of thy Impatience And in this manner thou maist discover the hidden deceits in the rest of thy affaires EXPLICATION TO remedy this I advise thee The remedy is to separate the pain from the pretended circumstances my beloved that as soone as thou doubtest of such a deceit thou presently separate by the help of thy conception the pain which presseth thee from those circumstances which are pretended excuses for thy impatience and then reflecting upon that alone force thy selfe to produce true and efficacious acts of patience and resignation to suffer it willingly Thus thou wilt either become a true practiser of vertue or at least thine eyes will be opened to discover thy owne defects whereof thou wert formally ignorant 7. Wherefore I exhort thee that Text. Therefore desire not to be freed from thy Crosse if thou art able to carry thy Crosse with patience thou never desire to be freed from it for this desire brings with it two great evills The one is that if it destroyes not thy patience yet it disposeth thee by little and little to impatience The other is That it deprives thee of merit before God who esteemes that only a work of perfect Patience though short in reference to time which is done with the resignation of our wils to his divine pleasure 8. In this therefore and in all But conforme thy will to God's thy other works and proceedings follow this Rule Withdraw and purge thy heart from all other desires and demands than that onely purely and simply which is conforme to God's will And this is the way to be no more disquieted with adversity since no such thing can befall thee without his will and liking 9. But when some lawfull meanes Yet thou maist use lawfull meanes so thou takest heed of self-love must necessarily be used for the expelling of some overburdening adversity take heed left selfe-love creep into thy heart with them and see thou apply them not to bee thereby freed from thy pressure but onely because it is Gods pleasure that thou shouldst make use of those instruments and then thou canst not be discontented in case they should not conduce to thy deliverance from adversity EXPLICATION How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscretion VVHen the Devill perceives 1. How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscreâ—ion that thou walkest on warily in the right track of vertue so that his common cunning is become uselesse to his designe of making thee goe astray he then transformes himself into an Angel of light and solicites thee with delightfull thoughts flatters thee with passages of sacred writ and suggests examples of the Saints that so conceiting thy selfe climb'd up to the top of perfection thou maist fall more dangerously into the precipice which he hath dig'd for thee To this end he presseth And pressing us to afflict our bodies thee to the punishment of the body with disciplines abstinence hair-cloath and other extraordinary austerities that either thou may'st be puffed up with pride as thinking thou dost very much or mayst destroy thy health and so become uncapable to doe good works or lastly that having endured much in this kind thou maist grow weary of doing penance and abhor thy spirituall exercises and so become a prey to thine enemies and a slave to fleshly and worldly pleasures which hath hapned to very many whose presumption having led them on and left them to the conduct and violence of an indiscreet zeale after they had gone beyond the limits of their owne vertue by immoderate rigours perish'd at last in their owne inventions and so became laughing stocks to their enemies all which disasters will never befall him who diligently observes this doctrine Whiâ—h though it is sometimes good Yet it must be tempered by discretion For all cannot imitate the Saints in austeâ—ity of life 2. For although these voluntary pernances are sometimes praise-worthy and may be meritorious when strength of body and humility of spirit doe correspond and accompany them yet they must be temper'd and moderated by discretion according to each one's nature and quality Thus hee that is unable of body to imitate the Saints in severity of life may right well be able to imitate their vertues by being fervent in devotion frequent in prayer continually aspiring to his Lord and love setting naught by the world and himselfe and loving silence and solitude HEE may be humble and affable to all patient in suffering affronts glad of the occasions to doe good to his greatest enemies and finally resolved to performe his Lords will and promote his honour to the utmost of his power and never to offend his divine Majesty in the least matter whatsoever 3. All which inward acts and But each one may imitate their vertues mortifications are far more pleasing to God thâ—n the outward macerations of the flâ—sh and therefore I counsell thee to be very punctuall in those things which concerne thy duty and obligation but as for extraordinary rigours be rather backward and fearfull than indiscreetly forward â—o embrace them 4. Yet I speak not here to those Yet take heed of too much addicting thy self to delicacies c. delicate ones who though in other things they are sufficiently spirituall are over-much inclined to indulgence towards themselves and to an exâ—ct doting and diligence in the preservation of their health under Under pretence of health or the better performance of thy duty pretence of being thereby better able to serve God and perform their duty for they strive to couple two capitall enemies together the Spirit and the flesh
of the same in the morning shut out all other thoughts from thy heart and let thy employment be to reflect upon and repeat the points prepared over-night for this mornings exercise and think that thou art presently to talk with thy Lord God 3. Wherefore making as it were 3. Weigh his majesty with whom thou conferre a stand for a short space before thou art in the place of prayer imagin that thy great Creatour whom the Angels adore is present in the Oratory expecting thee to enter discourse with him and beholding thy behaviour in thy prayer Let this truth make a deep impression in thy mind and thereupon yield him most profound reverence with body and heart as craving permission to confer with his majesty 4. Then with bended knees begin 4. Begin with oblation and petition thy prayer first offering up to thy Lord God all the cogitations words and actions of thy whole life particularly presenting unto him this present exercise now intended to his honour and glory and humbly implore his gracious assistance that thou mayst perform this thy practice with such attention devotion and reverence as befits one that speakes with his Lord and Saviour 5. Incontinently after this imagin Then apply thy senses to the mystery thy selfe present to the mystery thou intendest to meditate on and in the very place where it befell for this will fix thy fancy from wandring As If thy theame be of Christs Incarnation think thou seest the glorious Arch-angel entring the secret chamber of the sacred Virgin and there listen to their mutuall discourses So If thy subject be of thy Saviours flagellation suppose a pillar before thee with thy deare Lord fastned thereunto and eye those inhumane executioners how cruelly they whip and beat him And thus thou art to vary thy fancy and conform it to the manner of the mystery 6. And when the mysterie is thus present to thy mind make thy petition And beg what thou intendest to obtain and beg that which thou proposedst to obtain by this exercise As If thy meditation be concerning Christs Incarnation let thy prayer be for spirituall light that thou mayst clearly penetrate and perceive that ineffable love which moved him to be made man for thy sake If it be of his Passion ask the grace of compassion and condoling with thy dear Saviour's sufferings and so let thy petition be for such pious affections as are usher'd in by the argument of thy prayer 7. this done begin with thy first After this beg in with the first point point and if that alone furnish thee with fewell sufficient to inflame thy affection persevere therein for the whole space assigned to thy prayer but if otherwise then passe on to the second And briefly take this for a maxim in all meditations that whensoever thou feelest thy affection enkindled stay there and disgest well that consideration till thou hast therein fully satisfied thy devotion 8. And suffer not thy understanding And beware of fancying high mysteries to roam after high and delicate mysteries but make use of it's discourse so farre onely as many helpe to heat thy will with pious affections and solid resolutions Wherefore from each consideration extract some affection and from every affection draw some determinate and particular resolution to do this very day this or that thing for thy Lords honour to reform this or that fault or imperfection and to mortify thy sensuality in this or that occasion And this is the true fruit and profit of prayer 9. Bee resolute also in staying out Or leaving off before the time allotted for prayer be expired the full time allotted for thy prayer and stirre not from it through any drynesse in devotion or any trouble of distractions for such a prayer is for the most part more profitable to a soul using diligent resistance and patient expectance of Gods grace than when it sensibly partakes of the sweets and abundance of devotion 10. Thy exercise being ended In the end reflect how thou hast behaved thy self insist a while in the examination of thy self and reflect how thou hast behaved thy self in thy prayer If thou findest all well give thy good God all the thanks if thou hast been negligent resolve upon amendment and take notice of the cause of this ill successe that thou fail not for the future 11. Let the matter or mysteries And order well the matter of thy medition thou meanest to meditate upon be well ordered as if thou proposest to thy self thy Saviours life and passion make thy entrance at his Incarnation and duly proceed in the rest of the ensuing mysteries and leap not inconstantly from one to another CHAP. XXXVI An Exercise before the Sacred Communion 1. THe conformation of the place for 1. The place the setling of thy mind may be to imagin thy Saviour Christ encompassed with his Angels and Saints who all adore his divine Majesty with all possible reverencâ— 2. Make thou also thy humble 2. Beg of thy Saviour to fit up thy poor house addresse unto him and since hee vouchsafeth to divert into the harbour of thy poor heart entreat him to send before him such ornaments as are necessary for his worthy entertainment because thy poverty is uncapable to provide what is suitable to so great a majesty 3. Then reflect who it is that intends 3. Think what guest is to lodge in it to lodge with thee It is surely hee whom the Angel named Jesus the Saviour of man kind Hee who onely can cure thy wounds Hee who so dearly loves thee and takes such care of thy salvation that he came purposely and personally to procure it interposing his authority hazarding his honour and losing his life for thee upon an ignominious Crosse And be sure to insist upon this pious consideration as being very proper to prepare thy soul for the receiving of this most holy Sacrament according to our Saviours precept As often as you shall doe these things you shall do them in remembrance of me 4. Consider to what end thy dear 4. Why he comes to thee Lord comes unto thee Surely to conclude a union betweene himselfe and thy soule whence results a certaine divine life which thou henceforth enjoyest by this sweet union with thy Saviour For the food we take begets humours of the same quality which it selfe is of and consequently no mervaile if this heavenly food and divine nourishment do in some sort deify the soul He that eats me shal live for me saith our Lord. 5. Let thy next consideration be to whom he comes To a litle worm 5. To whom he comes of the earth to a vessell full of filth and rottennesse and perhaps which is farre worse even to his enemy to the contemner of his commands to the wilfull transgressour of his lawes to a base run-away who hath forsaken the colours of his Lord God and taken part with the Devill 6. Make
Or refectest thy body with Meat and Drinke 9. Or smellest delicious odors 10. Or art delighted with musical harmony 11. Or any other sensible object How to raise thy Soule by sensible objects to contemplate the word Incarnate Examples By the sight of poore Cottages Stones the Earth Sun Water c. In tasting Wine in smelling In cloathing and uncloathing thy selfe in hearing noyses or the Clocks striking In time of sadnesse 12. Other wayes to meditate upon sensible objects 13. By considering how meane the best of them are in themselves 14. As the Suns brightnesse 15. The Heavens greatnesse 16. The Birds melody 17. Walking abroad 18. Marking the flight of the Fowls 19. In time of Winds Thunder Storms 20. Also upon all other occasions as of grief 21. Looking upon Christ crucified 22. Or the image of the blessed Virgin 23. And the pictures of Saints 24. Or entrest into Churches 25. Finally make all objects and accidents instruments to thy perfection 26. How to regulate the Tongue Much talke proceeds from Presumption 2. Therefore avoid long discourses 3. And passionate expressions 4. And all talking of thy own affairs 5. Or of thy neighbours 6. But speake willingly of God 7. And ponder in thy hearâ— what thy Tongue is to utter 8. The praise and profit of Silence 9. Chap. XIV Of the order to be observâ—d in fighting against our enemies Mark which are thy greatest 1. And single out the fiercest to fight with 2. But when they apper not seek them 3. Chap. XV. What course he must take who is conquered grievously wounded by his enemies When thou art fall'n rise with speed And pray with fervour 1. Be not over solicitous or fearfull 2. But be diligent and use violence to thine own inclination recovering the quiet of thy Soule and Reconciliation to thy Soveraign 3. By forgetting thy fault 4. Chap. XVI That we should keep our hearts ever quiet and joyfull in our Lord. No accident can justly deprive us of quiet for though we must needs abhor things contrary to nature yet we may love them as comming from Gods Permission and so conforme our selves to his holy Will To obtain this quiet thou art to appoint a sentinell 1. And when thou art surprised with perplexity returne with all diligence to quiet thy heart 2. And therefore admit of no new affections before thou hast offered them up to God 3. and mortified thy wil and desire 4. which is the surest way to remain in peace 5. Chap. XVII That pious purposes are sometimes deceits of the Devill to hinder our progresse in vertues For he suggests unto us desires to fight against former faults that we may neglect the present 1. And fall into selfe-complacency 2. Therefore thou art to fight actually with thy nearest foes and not to irritate them which are quiet 3. unlesse thou art well vers'd in the acts of that vertue 4. Be not carelesse of small defects 5. Three things make our designs fruitlesse First the relying upon our own strength 6. Secondly the want of force to go through with them 7. Thirdly the not levelling at the right end 8. Chap. XVIII How the Devill strives to withdraw us from the way of vertue This deceit of the enemy is exemplified in a sick person falling into impatience upon pious pretences 1. and over-earnestly desirous of health 2. The remedy whereof is to admit of no purposes which thou canst not presently put in execution And to perswade thy selfe that either they would not have their effect or that God would not receive them from thy unworthy hands 3. There are divers pretences for impatience but all unwarrantable 5. As is explained by an example The remedy of all which is to separate the paine from the pretended circumstances 6. And not to desire a freedom from thy Crosse 7. But to conform thy will to Gods 8. Yet thou mayst make use of lawfull means so thou take heed of self-love How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscretion and pressing us to afflict our bodies 1. Which though it is sometimes good yet it must be prudently tempered 2. For all cannot imitate the Saints in austerity of life but each one may imitate their vertues 3. Yet beware of the other extreme which is to addict thy selfe overmuch to delicacies c. under pretext of health or the better performance of thy duty Discretion therefore is the best directour in this matter of mortification 4. And also in the acquisition of vertues which must be done by degrees 5. And one by one rather than all or many together because the obtaining of any one vertue is a preparation to all the rest 6. Further advices for the obtaining of vertues First thou must resolve to suffer 2. Thou must bear a great love to vertue 3. Thou art to practise it upon all occasions 4. Apply all thy exercises to this end 5. Form frequent acts thereof 6. Think upon such passages of Scripture as concern and commend it 7. Make use of Jaculatory prayers 8. Which being ayded with two wings will soare up to heaven 9. Above all things thou art to make a continuall progresse 10. For by going forward thy strength increaseth 11. Till thou art gotten up the mountaine of perfection 12. Thou art also to seek out all occasions of practising vertue especially such as are contrary to thy Sensuality 13. This being the most proportionate meanes to attaine to it 14. And comming from Gods providence for thy particular profit 15. The mistake of some rectifyed 16. To suffer voluntarily by them whom thou hast obliged is to draw vertue from sin and malice 17. Receive therefore the bitter cup mixed by thy heavenly Physician How to make use of sundry occasions in the exercise of one vertue 1. In all occurring accidents of suffering 2. Make acts of that vertue thou then practisest Examples in the vertue of Patience Humility Obedience Poverty Charity 3. As concerning the time thou art to stay in the practice of each vertue thy Director must be judge 4. Yet thou maist know thy progresse by these signes First if thou losest not courage in time of desolation Secondly If the rebellion of thy Sensuality be weakn'd 5. But take heed to think thy selfe a Conqueror because Vice may be cloathed in Vertues dresse and thou hast still much to doe 6. And therefore art to look forward upon what thou yet wantest 7. And to pursue thy exercises with patience and constancy Chap. XIX How our enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our ruine By making us take pleasure in them 1. But doe thou consider thine owne nothing 2. And mark well what is in thee of thine owne goods and what of Gods gifts What thou wert from eternity what in time 4. What good thou canst doe of thy selfe and what evill thou either hast or mightest have done Whereby thou mayst justly think thy selfe the worst of all men 5. Yet be just in thy self-accusation 6.
upon our heads but we are always loath to employ that in your love which we receive from your liberality though this is the only way to have them continued and increased This degree of love is very high and heroick For as the soul here seeks her Lord so seriously and adheres to him so sincerely that she is ready willing and desirous to suffer any thing for him So his divine Majesty often ordinarily rewards thiâ— her fidelity with putting her in possession of joy and giving her many secret sugred and delicious visits For the immense love of the Word incarnate Christ Jesus permits him not to see his loving Spouse suffer purely for his sake without hastning to her comfort and succour Hence she speedily gets up to The Fifth Degree of Love WHich moves the inflamed soul to a certain holy impatience In the 5. she is impatient in her desires of love in her desires of being joyned to her beloved She is seiz'd with such a vehement ardour to overtake him and to be united to him that all stay and tarriance seems to her tedious and insupportable She thinks often to have found him caught him in her arms clasp'd him in her bosom but perceiving her self still frustrated of her desired object faints through her eagerness of spirit as he did who cry'd out My soul covets and decays after the Courts of Psa 83. 1. my Lord. She cannot subsist long in this And must either obtain it or dy for it condition She must either obtain her love or cease to live she is as eager in her desires as Rachel was to see her self a mother when she said to Jacob Give me children or Gen. 30. 1 else I dy Here the soul feeds altogether on love as she only hungers and thirsts after love So that she quickly raises her self up to The Sixth Degree WHere she runs lightly swftly and nimbly after her beloved In the 6. she runs lightly swiftly sweetly after love Isai 40. 32 being fortified with Faith lifted up with Hope and quickned with Charity Of which degree the Prophet speaks They who hope in our Lord shall exchange their strength shall take Eagles wings and fly without fainting The reason of this lightness is the overspreading and dilatation of these three Theological vertues in the soul whereby it becomes so elevated that it wants but little of a totall purification Wherupon that enlarged soul said I have Ps 118. 32 run over the way of your commandments when you dilated my heart Hence she grows hardy in love grows bold and confident in love and putting on a confident boldness is piously amorously and strongly transported beyond the ordinary limits of reason So that she stays not according to judgement retreates not according to counsel nor governs and represses her impetuosity violence and forwardness by the rules of modesty and shame-fastness because the peculiar favor which her best beloved shews her communicates to her a holy and heavenly audacity In this state was that hardy spouse which beg'd a Cant. 1. 1. kiss of her beloveds mouth And Moses when he peremptorily said Exo. 32. 32 to God Either pardon this people or blot my name out of the book of life wherein thou hast registred it And then burning sweetly in and becomes united to her beloved pure and perfect union with her beloved she cryes out I have found the long desired object of my affections I will not let go my hold nor permit him to escape out of my embraces c. Here her holy thirst and hunger is satisfied and she enjoys such unexplicable treasures of delicious love that were whole volumes fill'd up with the description thereof the greater part would still be left uncomprised And from thâ— estate the amorous Soul passeth â— to the last Degree which belong not to this mortall life The Seventh and last Degree WHich likens her totally to her well-beloved Creator by In the 7. she enjoys her beloved perfectly c. the clear vision of divine essence This she enjoys as soon as being here in this world arrived at the Sixth degree of this divine ladder of love she departs hence to her happy eternity These blessed Souls which are very few in number are sufficiently purged and purified by Love which hath done that in them here which Purgatory doth in others elswhere so that to them belongs that Beatitude Blessed are the clean-hearted Matt. 5. 8. for they shall see God Now we say this divine vision causeth a totall resemblance of the soul with God following that sentence of S. John We know that when he shall appear we shall be like 1 Joh. 3. 2. him because we shall see him as he â—â— So that all that which the soul â—s and hath shall be like God by â—articipation Here nothing at al can â—e concealed from her according â—o our Saviours words In that day Joh. 16. 23 you shall ask me nothing Because â—he eyes the clear glass of the God-head wherein her self and all things are most plainly and perfectly contained But untill that day comes though the soul be perched never so high yet God is alwayes hid from her in some manner as far forth as there wants in her somthing of this totall resemblance with the Divinâ—â—y Thus ô amourous souls by climbing this mysticall ladder of divine love upon which God himself leaneth you get out of your selves and all things and fly up into the divine being for love like fire tends alwayes upwards with a perpetual desire to be plunged and ingulphed in the Centre of its proper Sphere Apply your selves therfore seriously to this holy and inward exercise that you may attain to these heavenly effects Embrace with open heart and arms your good great and gracious Lord and love and resolve with that holy Spouse I have laid hold on him and I will never leave him Draw near Cant. 3. 4. Psal 33. 6. this divine Sun and be illuminated he will clear your darkness errours and ignorances dissipate all your dulness in devotion dry up the dirt of your concupiscences encourage you in the carrying of your Cross give you a general alacrity in the performance of all your actions and undertakings and replenish your souls with unspeakable sweetnesses comforts and contents Come I say and only bring with you these three companions Faith Love and Resignation and leave all other things to the divine disposition Represent to your thoughts a wofull and bedridden creature lying grievously tormented with a burning feaver his Physician prescribing abstinence from drink as the only and assured way for his cure and recovery his compassionate friends visiting him seeking to divert his pains with their pleasant discourses and to charm his disease with the delight of musick c. Ah! what unwellcome comforts are all these things to him who can fix his mind on nothing but drink who thinks on nothing talks of nothing demands
into the divine light shee may confidently rely and repose And without this prop the higher shee ascends the lower will be her fall back again The tenth Maxim That in this high Exercise of Recollection the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity must perfect and possess the three powers of our souls Vnderstanding Memory and Will IT is in the first place to be observ'd as an undoubted truth that a foul cannot in this life bee united to God immediatly by her understanding memory will imagination or any other sense power or faculty whatsoever but only by the means of Faith in her Understanding by Hope in her Memory and by Love in her Will. These three vertues must therefore Read F. Cisnerius ch 65. be introduced by our cooperation with the divine grace into the said three powers of our souls in the purest and perfectest manner that is possible if we will arrive at the height of divine Union 1. Faith must so possess our Understanding as to deprive it for that present of all other knowledge than that of God only 2. Hope must blot out of our memory all images and thoughts of possessing any thing but God only 3. Charity must uncloath our Wills of all affections joys contents satisfactions in any thing that is not God only For Faith tels us of things which cannot be understood by naturall light and reason Hope looks upon such things as we have not hold not possesse not and Charity retires our love from all creatures to employ it all on our Creator The three powers therfore of our soul must bee perfected by these three vertues our Understandings must bee informed with this pure Faith our Memories uncloath'd of all possession by this pure Hope and our Wils fill'd with divine affections by this pure Charity Thus refusing denying and emptying our whole souls of all that is not this perfect Faith hope and charity In this divine practice is found an absolute assurance against all the subtle snares of the devill and self-love for a soul which is thus entirely denuded and stripp'd of all active knowledge possâ—ssion and love of things created must needs remain in God in a certain tranquillity passivenesse cessation sleep annihilation absorption so that there can nothing be found out of God for Satan sin or sensuality to attempt against But to facilitate the intelligence and practice of this high matter upon which foundation stands the whole edifice of this holy Recollection and divine Union let us particularly deduce and exemplify how the Understanding is to bee placed in pure faith the Memory in pure hope and the Will in purâ— charity The eleventh Maxim That our Vnderstandings muâ— be setled in pure Faith THe practice of this point is thuâ— F. Cisnerius ch 28. Having conceived some mysterâ— of our Saviours Passion or the like for the subject of our prayer we ruminate a while upon it not â— much to admire our Lord Jesus aâ— imitate him and we desire to know his vertues that wee may practiâ—e them in our own particular by hiâ— perfect example Then we make an Act of Faith An act of Faith saying I firmly beleeve that this my suffering Saviour is not only a man but also my Soveraign Lord God I beleeve that he being Almighty submitted himself to Pilat being the creator became a creature being immortal became mortal and that in as much as he iâ— God he is with me within me without me about me above me beneath me and so in all creatures which have a being Afterwards we speak further to our Saviour O my dearest Lord and lover Teach me now my lesson that in requitall of what thou hast done for me I may keep thee company in thy sufferings And then we quit all discourses thinking we have no understanding at all left and looking on our sweet Saviour only by Faith which hath this property says S. Thomas to S. Tho. of Aquin. elevate the soul to God and free it from all creatures For so long as there are discourses in our Understanding images in our Memory joys or tenderness in our Will these powers have not pure God but sensible things for their object because God being above all sensibility must bee found without all creatures and consequently if we can be totally abstracted from all things created we shall infallibly lay hold on our Creator 'T is therefore impossible say's St. Denys the divine S. Denys to be truly united to God unlesse we leave all materiall operations both in sense and in spirit that is unlesse wee lay aside all senses all discourses all imaginations and all waies of humane wisdome Till wee can doe this let us not think to become perfect Contemplatives The twelfth Maxim That our Memories must bee setled in pure Hope WHich is done by forgetting all things created heaven earth our selves all being wholly taken up with God and absorpt in the Divinity So that by a simple remembrance that we are with God without looking back to reiterate the same reflexion we repose and slumber sweetly in him staying upon no image whatsoever even of our Saviour himself for as he in as much as concerns his humanity call'd Joh. 14. 6. himself the way so he thereby insinuated that we were not to remain in the way but to march on to our ways end which is his Divinity No mervail then if we find in The doctrine of mystâ—call Divines explicated the prescripts of mysticall Divines this doctrine That to arrive at the height of Contemplation we must leave off all sort of Meditation though it be on the life and death of our Lord and Saviour because in all Meditation there is ever something that is sensible to which nature applying it self hinders our souls from soaring up to the fineness and quintessence of Contemplation which is and can be only a pure spirituall and insensible thing 'T is true that the consideration of the life and death of our loving Saviour is a most powerfull means to mount up to this contemplation of his Divinity but let us not make that the end which is but the means and way to it The thirteenth Maxim That our Wills must be setled in pure Charity THis is done by withdrawing it from all sort of Joy proceeding from any natural supernatural or moral good Joy is a certain content which our wils take in somthing we prize How all Joy is to be quitted and this Joy is either Active when we may leave it or Passive when it is not in our power to quit it Now to take Joy and content in naturall goods as health wealth friends c. Or wit sagacity discretion c. Is a plain vanity To joy in moral goods as in the exercise of vertue c. Is to imitate the Pagan Philosophers who lov'd vertue for vertu's sake and made that their end which is only our way to it Supernaturall goods are either the gratuite gifts of God
surely the way of the spirit walking to perfection is farre different from that of earthly travailers who lose nothing by their convenient stay because they redresse their wearinesse which is caused and increased by the continuance of their corporall motion whereas in this way of the spirit by how much more thou marchest onwards by so much thy strength more increaseth for For by going foreward thy strength increaseth the inferiour part which by it's resistance renders the path harsh and painfull is by this vertuous progresse still more and more weakned and the Superiour part which is the habitation where vertue resides is thereby fomented and fortified So that by the continuance of well-doing thou still lessen'st the contradiction which thou feelest in thy journey and receivest a certain secret content in thy happy conquest 11. Thus continuing thy designed course and marching ever onward in thy journey thou wilt arrive with lesse paine and more pleasure ascending by the severall degrees and steps of vertue to the top of the mountaine where thy perfected soule Till thou art gotten up to the mountain of perfection will performe her pious exercises not onely without contradiction but with much gust and content having now tam'd and triumph'd over her unruly passions and compleated her conquest over her selfe and all things created and being sweetly setled in the bosome of the divinity 12. Neither is it sufficient my dearely beloved that thou strivest not Thou art also to seek out all occasions of practising vertue to avoid the offered occasions in this practice of vertues as was declared in the ninth precedent Chapter But I would have thee seeke them out and joyfully lay hold of them though they appeare never so little and at a Especially such as are contrary to thy sensuality distance especially such as are contrary to thy sensuality 13. To this hard combat then mayst incourage thy selfe by these following considerations Whereof one is that all such occasions are the proportionate and probable yea necessary meanes for the acquisition of vertue in so much that when thou demandest vertue of God thou also askest these occasions This being the most proportionate means to attaine to it else thy prayers would be presented in vaine and thy heart would contradict thy lips yea thou mightest seeme to tempt thy Saviour who ordinarily gives not patience without suffering nor humility without contempt and this is also true in all other vertues which are all acquired by contrary accidents whereby wee best perceive our owne wants and therefore are most moved to desire their redresses And by how much these feelings are more sensible by so much the more strong and generous are the acts by which wee endevour to the vertues wee stand in need of Thou art therefore to make high esteeme and improve thy self by the least offered occasion as by a crosse-looke or contradicting word which will inure thee to the patient sufferance of more important diffâ—ulties 14. The other consideration is that which hath beene formerly touched To conceive of all things which befall thee as comming from Gods And comming from Gods Providence for thy particular profit Providence for thy particular profit And though some of them as thine owne or others faults cannot be imputed to God who abhors all sinne yet they may be referr'd to him in as much as hee permits them and though hee can yet doth not hinder them But all pains and punishments whatsoever which happen to us by and through our own defects or others malice are from God and his Divine Providence to which hee concurres and wills that wee indure them and which hee would not permit since they containe a certaine deformity a And that thou maist draw good from them thing ever odious to his purity but for the good wee may draw from them and for other just reasons best knowne to his All-knowing Majesty 15. Being therefore ascertained of Gods Will in all thy sufferings and that he will have thee to support voluntarily all afflictions which befall thee either by others faults or thine owne it follows that they are much mistaken who to excuse The mistake of some rectified their impatience pretend that God will not this or that thing because hee hates all evill for what is this but to seeke a cloake to cover their owne imperfections and to refuse the carriage of that Crosse which Christ hath lay'd upon their shoulders 16. And I yet further assure thee To suffer voluntarily by them whoÌ„ thou hast obliged that thy Lord God more values thy voluntary disgestion of such difficulties which come from those persons whom thou hast obliged than them which come from other accidents because the pride of thy perverse nature is more suppress'd by these than by them and suffering these willingly thou much contentest and exaltest thy God by co-operating with him in that wherein his ineffable bounty and power do so Is to draw vertue froÌ„ sinne and malice greatly appeare and this in effect is to draw from the pestilent poyson of sinne and malice a most pretious balsome of vertue and goodnesse 17. For beleeve it my beloved thy Lord God no sooner discovers in thy heart a lively and ardent love of well-doing and a disinteressed desire of getting this glorious conquest but hee forthwith prepares and presents this chalice of cruell temptations and harsh occasions which thou art to take and disgest according as hee best knoweth and pleaseth and therefore confident Receive therefore the bitter cup mixed by the heavenly Physitian and swallow it cherfully of his love and carefull of thine owne profit shut thine eyes and receive it from his holy Hands swallowing it down cherfully readily and securely even to the last and least drop as a medicine made by a Physitian uncapable of errour and whereof the ingredients are by so much more profitable to thy soule by how much they have lesse sweetnesse and savour to thy sensuality How to make use of all occasions in the exercise of one vertue 1. Thou hast beene already informed my dearly beloved that the single practice of one only vertue at once is more profitable than the laying out for them all together and that all occasions and occurrences though different in themselves are to be directed to that end Now take this method for thy more easy proceeding therein 2. It may fall out that oftentimes in the same day or houre thou mayst chance to be unjustly reprehended for something which in it selfe deserves praise that thou maist cause anger by doing a good action or be murmured against for some small subject that thy fitting demand In all occurring accidents of suffering may bee harshly refused and rejected that thou art suspected contradicted and calumniated without cause that thy body is afflicted with paine or thy mind with melancholy that thou art imployed in some peevish affair that thy diet is ill dressed and finally that thou
sufferest either in these-like inconsiderable occasions or perchance in matters of more difficulty to bee supported wherewith this miserable life is replenished 3. In all which accidents though it be good to produce divers acts of Make acts of that vertue thou then practisest vertue conformable to the variety of the subjects yet following the Rule already prescribed thou art to exercise thy selfe in such acts as directly aym at that vertue thou then practisest As for example If at the time when these occasions are Examples in the vertue of Patience offered thou art upon the acquisition of Patience thy way is to form acts of induring those particular contrarieties with all willingnesse joyfulnesse and chearfulnesse If thy vertue bee Humility acknowledge Of Humility thy selfe most justly deserving these and far greater indignities If it be Obedience yield readily and submit to Gods powerfull Hand Of Obedience offering to obey if so he pleaseth not onely all reasonable creatures but even to sinke below the brute beasts and debase thy selfe under all things which any way disgust or displease thee If it bee Poverty Of Poverty content thy selfe in the want of all worldly comforts and conveniences whatsoever If it be Charity Of Charity produce acts of love both towards thy neighbour as being instrumentall to thy purchasing of vertue and also towards God as being the principall and loving cause whence these crosses proceed or at least are permitted to come upon thee for thy spirituall practice and profit And by this Doctrine here delivered concerning the divers accidents which may dayly befall thee thou mayst easily learne how to behave thy selfe and make acts of the vertue thou practisest in any one occasion of sicknesse persecution or other pressures which are of longer durance 4. As for the space of time which Concerning the time thou art to stay in the practise of each vertue Thy directour must be judge is to be imployed in the practice of each vertue it is not for mee to determine but it must be regulated by the condition diligence and necessity of each particular combatant and according to their much or litle progresse in the way of the spirit whereof none can be a competent judge but hee who is the Guider and Directour of their soules 5. But whosoever shall heartily settle himselfe to worke with the devotion and diligence aforesaid Yet thou mayst have some signs of thy progresse may without doubt make great profit in few weekes practice And take this for one sure signe of thy proficiency if amidst all drynesse darknesse and distresses of thy Soule and feeling thy self bereft of all spirituall Whereof one is if thou losest not courage in time of desolation gust comfort thou ceasest not to continue with courage in thy vertuous enterprises Moreover the contradiction of thy sensuality in the forming of acts of vertue will afford thee a manifest testimony for the more that is weakned the more this is strengthened Another if the rebellion of thy sensuality be weakned so that to feele no rebellion in the inferiour part especially in unforeseene assaults is a true token of thy having obtained the vertue And as far forth as thy actions are accompanied with a promptitude and alacrity of spirit so farre thou hast just reason to thinke thou hast profited in this exercise 6. Yet take heed of perswading thy selfe that thou art in sure possession of perfect vertue or absolute Yet never thinke thy selfe a conquerour master of any one passion though happily thou hast not a long time and after many hot skirmishes felt these rebellious motions for the deceit of the Devil and the corruption Because vice may be cloathed in vertues dresse of thy nature may herein be too hard for thee since that thing may bee really a vice which secret pride cloath's in the habit of vertue â—f furthermore thou steadfastly beâ—oldest And thou hast yet much more to do the perfection to which God hath called thee thou wilt eaâ—ily grant that hadst thou made a far greater progresse in the path of perfection yet thou art scarcely well entred into the first confines thereof 7. And I must here put thee in Therefore looke forwards upon what thou yet wantest mind my dearly beloved that thou art still to looke forwards and advance thy selfe towards those many vertues thou wantest and not to reflect backwards upon thine owne small profit and progresse For this is to be left to thy Lord God the true searcher and onely knower of hearts who layes open this secret to some and conceales it from others according to his Divine knowledge of the pride or humility which will ensue thereupon and so as a loving Father takes away from these all danger and gives those an occasion to increase their vertue 8. Wherefore let the pious practitioner And pursue thy exercises with patience and constancy pursue his exercises with patience and constancy though his perceives not it's owne progresse assuring himselfe that he shall in due time see and feele it when the Divine Providence shall be so pleased for his greater profit CHAP. XIX How our enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our Ruine 1. OUr deceitfull and dangerous enemy the Devil tempts us also by those very vertues which wee have acquired and casts them as it were stumbling blocks in our way to occasion our ruine To this end Our enemies strive to make us take pleasure in our vertues hee strives to make us please and delight our selves in them that so being puffed up in our selfe-conceits wee may fall afterwards into the dangerous precipice of pride 2. But to secure thy Soule from this fearfull fall stand alwayes in the open and plaine field and persevere securely in the true and profound But do thou consider thine own nothing consideration of thy owne nothing confessing that of thy self thou art nothing thou knowest nothing thou canst do nothing and thou hast nothing else in thee of thy self but eternall damnation 3. And take a serious care to drive far from thee all such of thine owne cogitations which seeme to whisper against this selfe-knowledge For they surely are suggested by thy sworne enemies and therefore if thou excludest them not from thy heart they will either kill or cruelly wound it 4. Which truth that thou may'st apprehend I prescribe this Rule unto thee When thou goest about to contemplate thine own basenesse thinke not of the Benefits Blessings And mark well what is within thee of thine own goods and what of Gods Gifts Gifts and Graces which thou findest in thy selfe for these are none of thy goods but Gods Gifts turne thee therefore to take a view of what is thine own and so thou shalt rightly judge how great or rather how truly nothing thou art which thou mayst thus do Imagine the time before thou hadst a being and What wert thou from