O my deere God and when shall we maintaine our soules in perfect faith and puritie towards thee and be sincerely loyall to Iesus Christ our Lord who is the spouse thereof giuing him our loue all intyre and wholly free from mingling itselfe with the basenes of creatures When shall we be able to vnderstand this truth that he who is to owne our soules is Christ our Lord and that he created vs for himselfe and that he onely is fitt for vs Is it not enough that we haue tryed so often by experience how ill the world is wont to serue vs and that our soule could neuer finde any true repose or peace but onely when coming to knowe her owne misery and poorenes it went to God and was imbraced by him Is not one of those short fitts of tyme more worth then their whole life who sacrifice themselues to vanitie and to the confusion of this ignorant world wherein they liue Or shall it not now at length bee tyme to saye to all things created I know you not that soe I may prouide a cleane and ready place for the reception of him who created you all of nothing I am extreamely glad that we haue to doe with a Holy ghost which is soe very holy as that he would not come euen to the disciples them selues of our Lord till euen his owne pretious body were taken out of their sight That so we may know the condition of this holy spirit to be such as that we must prouide a temple for it where noe other thing may dwell or els it will not enter there And I am highly glad that you by the grace of this spirit will haue prepared your selfe and that you will haue receiued him and that you and he are well content with one another Reioyce you with this Holy ghost for he is Ioy it felfe And remember Eph. 4 that the Apostle S. Paule requires vs not to contristate the holy spirit of God whereby wee are marked out for the day of redeÌ„ption which is of the iudgment of the latter day He contristates this Spirit whoe with a dull and deiected hart goes faintly and negligently about his seruice whoe doth things which displease this most soueraigne guest who as himselfe is fire soe will he haue his seruant full of feruour and requires that he goe about his worke with great life And that he euer be casting on the wood of good workes and blowing it with holy thoughts that soe this celestiall fire may not be quenched in vs since our very life consists in keeping it aliue And soe if we maintaine this fire in vs it will maintaine vs in him though yet still it be true that he first giues vs that which afterward we giue to him So that in this respect your ladyship will haue beene fedd at a good table this weeke since you will haue celebrated the Feast of the holy ghost not according to flesh and blood as they doe whoe vse to content themselues â—vith the talke and tumult of great Festiuities but you will haue celebrated it in Spirit according to the aduice of our Lord Iohn 4. who requires to be Spiritually adored Lett vs now consider how it stands with you concerning the sent odour of the Festiuitie of the Body of our Lord which is now neere at hand For it will be an extreame shame for a Christian hart not to hunger and aspire toward this holy bread Matth. 2. before the Festiuitie it selfe arriue since the three kings those wise men of the Ghospell had a sent of it so farre of yea and the Prophetts and Patriarcks had the like a longe tyme before his Incarnation What more happy newes can there be then to see Christ our Lord passe amongst vs in our streetes and through our hands communicating and conuersing with men And to haue him sett before our eyes to finde him whome neither the whole earth nor all the heauens can comprehend shut within the narrow â—urtaine of the accidents of bread and after all â—his to make his entrance into our vnworthy woefull brests Take heede you heare not this newes with deafe eares but awake your hart and require it to be very attentiue to soe great a fauour and worke of God and that it instantly cast vp whatsoeuer other meate it may haue swallowed that soe being full of hunger it may grow all full of this celestiall bread where vpon the Angells feede And bid it be sure to watch now that soe it may not then fall a sleepe And since it is the worke of the holy Ghost you must begg grace whereby you may be able to finde the effect of that Feast of the body of our Lord which was conceiued by the same holy Ghost And soe when that Feast of his most holy body shall be come the Holy Ghost will alsoe come with it because the Holy Ghost descended into the world through the meritts of Christ our Lord. And when his Body shall be giuen vs we shall receiue the holy Ghost together with it according to the rate of that good disposition which we shall haue Soe that one Festiuity must helpe and be a preparation for another and must giue vs hunger to feede vpon the fruite of the other For it is not heere as it happens in the banquets of this world which are made by flesh and bloud Where they whoe haue fedd full at noone haue noe minde at all to their meate at night But the soule goes feeding with afresh appetite from one Festiuitie to another and soe that is accomplished Leuit. 26. which God promised The threashing of your corne shall last till you goe to vintage and till the new time of seede and you shall eate your bread in aboundance The goodnes of God be blessed which soe liberally prouides for vs and that not in any meane fashion but by giuing his very selfe to vs. The sonne is giuen to vs and the Holy Ghost for his sake and these two persons giuing themselues the father cannot choose but be alsoe giuen In fine the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are ours Wee already begin euen heere that mutuall contract which we are to perfect in heauen Let vs giue him humbly thankes for his mercies Lett vs prepare our selues for the receauing of new fauours and with harts exalted aboue the earth let vs celebrate the Festiuities of heauen to the end that we may passe from these temporall Ioyes to those eternall wherein I humbly beseech our Lord that you may one day see your selfe Amen A letter of the Authour to a virgin lady who asked of him what Charitie was He answeares to her demaunde and shewes her the Loue and Charitie which she is to haue to God and her neighbours heere on earth by that loue and charitie whith the saints haue in heauen DEVOVT spouse of Christ our Lord you aske me in your letter what Charitie is to the end that you may
self-loue tell vs that wee desire it but for the seruice of Almighty God And for my part I beleiue that there is noe peace to be had in this world but by patience Nor doe I thinke that it is true patience when a man is content to beare with his neighbours if withall he be not content to beare with himself Not to the end that he must fayle to punish and to mend his faultes but that his hart may not be deiected and he vnreasonably afflicted and that whatsoeuer happen hee may bee able to keepe himself content both within and without but soe that yet withall as I was saying he still doe his diligences to mend himself Which yet if he should not wholy doe it is better that he bee sorry for it and that instantly he rise vp with new alacrity which vses to encrease and double our strength then that whilest conceiues himself to lament his faultes for the loue of God he should indeed displease the same God by seruing him with a sowre kind of hart and with fallen wings and such other braunches as vse to rise from this roote Let the Conclusion be that which S. Paul deliuers Let vs frequent prayer in all things giuing thanks to God Thess 5. and soe wee shall be sure to doe well Our Lord Iesus bee with you and with vs all Amen A Letter to a Cauallier his freind wherein he teacheth how the afflictions which God sendes to his seruants are to put good men in hope and wicked men in feare THankes be giuen to Christ our lord for hauing made you a partaker of paine and trouble for it is the most certaine title to heauen which can be had vpon earth since it doth enable vs to be like our lord who descended from heauen to giue vs light that we might loue him and strength by his example and grace by his merites Let not the dispensation of the workes of God seeme cruelty in your sight for as the rewarde which he giues is not light soe neither must the meanes be light whereby it is to be obtained Nor is there any thing further of from being a matter of toyes or iest then that which our lord hath prepared for such as loue him Now to the end that this may be knowen and rightly vnderstood it is fitt that they who are to enioy it may be soe treated as he was that soe the world may be vnbeguiled if it still conceiue that by liuing in iest they are to enioy that great reward in earnest Our lord giues aduise to his seruants and he threatens such as will needes be strangers to him For to the former sorte of men he saith that they must thinke highly of his rewarde since he will not giue it but vpon high tearmes And as for these other he askes them how they thinke to escape the rigour of his handes they who are his enemies since euen his children be strictly treated who are yet elected for soe great a good If we cast our eyes towardes this beame of rigour and iustice which are the afflictions whereof we now speak we shall finde that they conteyne greate occasions both of hope and feare And on the one side the mercy of God is much glorified thereby and his iustice on the other Let trouble expect to finde repose and let him feare affliction hereafter who doth not feele it now For since in any man how iust soeuer he be there are many thinges which may deserue punishment though not in hell and this punishment is to be personally indured if it be not purged with soe great an excesse of loue as that the contrition may stand for the punishment as it did in S. Mary Magdalen and some others it is plaine that eyther heere or in purgatory they must passe through fire And though they who finde not in themselues soe great loue of God as to cause this greife which may stand for a satisfaction may thinke perhaps that they receiue hard measure in beeing saued by fire whilst others shall be saued without it yet indeed they are much deceiued in their account For the great loue of God euen heere on earth when men see that God is offended doth cause greater greife then that to which you are subiect And that truth is seene by this then when one loues God greatly he would be glad of the paine you suffer soe that he might be free from that which he feeles for the offences which are committed against God And at this wee must not wonder since there are persons who euen to free you from the paine wherein you are would indure themselues And this also may serue for a proofe that the loue which one beares to another puts him to more trouble then the paine it selfe would doe which the other feeles that if your selfe loue another very much you would not be ridd of your owne paine if it were vpon condition that the other must indure it for yow which proues as I was saying that it would trouble you more in the personne of that other then in your owne Now if the loue of a creature can reach soe farre how much more will the loue of the creatour be able to doe it being infused by the most holy spirit of our lord which farre exceedes all other force And thus it growes to be a most certaine truth that eyther in this fashion or in that there is noe meanes to escape from suffering before we ariue to enioying And tell him who would complaine of this law ather complaine that he is a man that he was not made an angell and lett him complaine against iustice and reason which doe absolutely require that vertue must be obtained with labour and the reward must correspond with the vertue But who o lord who shall euer presume to cōplaine of thee as if thou didst treat them with rigour◠since instantly thou stoppest their mouthes with shewing that thou so loued the world as to giue thy onely begotten sonne to the end that in the strength of these afflictions and sorrowes and death which they charged vpon him the world might escape the torments of hell and might triumph in heauen Who I say o lord will presume to complaine when he shall see thy best beloued freindes to be soe seuerely handeled and obserue that in thy court it is hard to say which of these two haue the pre-eminence eyther afflictions or fauours and that it was said by thy commaundement to one of thy fauourites Because thou wert accepted by God it was necessary that temptation should try thee Doe not permitt your heart to sinke vnder your crosses but remember that heretofore you haue desired to doe and suffer somewhat for the loue of God God is not deafe to the desires of our hartes He hath giuen that which he knew to be best for you and if you thinke it heauy confide that he who sendes it will giue you shoulders wherewith to beare it That
the Father gaue vs his Sonne and with him gaue vs himself and the Hoâ—iâ—-Ghost and all things Receiue this grace with giuing of thankes and enioy you God since he bestowes himself vpon you And if your demeritts fright you remember that one of the benefitts which the Father impartes to vs in Christ our lord is the payement of our debts and the sweetening and appeasing of that wrath which our sinnes deserued Why doe you doubt of a pardon since you doubt not of that Passion which he endured for our sinnes Pet. 2. What doth it profitt you to confesse that Christ our lord dyed for vs be who was lust for vs that were vniust if you beleiue not that his death killed our sinnes and now if they be dead why do you feare them For the Children of Israel Exod. 15. whome our lord drew out of Egypt seing that their enemies were drowned in the sea did not feare but sung praises to our lord taking occasion thereof from those very enemies who had persecuted them before and whome formerly they had feared And though we haue not so assured Faith that our sinnes are pardoned as we are sure that our lord dyed for them because we do not so certainly know that his merits are applyed to vs yet the new hart which God gaue vs when he called vs to himself may be a good signe of his friendshipp and pardon whereby we may well hope that our sinnes also are forgiuen And besides that spirit of being his children which he gaue vs when he imparted his loue as the loue of a Father to vs may well be taken for a particular assurance that in the hart of God we are esteemed as his sonnes since in our harts we esteeme him as our Father For it is blasphemie to affirme that I louing God he should not loue me since that loue wherewith I loue him is neuer giuen me but by his hand I beseech you thinke not of our lord Sap. 1. with a short hart a straite but in great beleife of his goodnesse as we are commaunded And cast vp your eyes to that signe of our saluation Curist our lord who is the assurance of our hope and who is so acceptable to his Father and by whose participation we are also made acceptable to him and we haue assured hope through his bloud to enioy eternall life before the Throne of God And if it seeme to you that your workes are weake and poore it is reason you should thinke so still But what reason is this why you should loose your confidence By Christ our lord we were made freinds of enemies and by him we are conserued in his friendshipp We had greater impediments to be well with God when we were subiect to our sinnes before we knew God then now we haue by the defects into which we fall So that if our former sinnes could not hinder that grace which was communicated to vs in Christ our lord much lesse shall our present faults be able to breake of this friendshipp we being now incorporated in Christ who is beloued by his Father A good thing it is for vs to feele our pouertie and miserie but yet it must be with condition that withall we beleiue highly of the bountie and riches of the mercie of God And let vs glorifye his goodnesse in our wickednesse since with so much loue he tolerates his children who are so faultie so weake and so miserable Why should you depriue God of the glorie to haue great latitude of loue towards his children For by reason of the faith and loue which wee carrie to his sonne he hath patience with the faults which we committ when once we haue bewailed them and done true penance for them Beleiue therefore now at length that as there is goodnesse enough in God to make you loue him so there is meritt enough in Christ our lord to make you be beloued for his sake and liue you with gratitude for the benefitts which you haue receiued as also for the pardon of those errours which you daily committ And be daily accepting of all good occasions and fight the warres of our lord with ioy as that Iudas Machabeus did And God giuing you that which he giues you may hope you shall enioy his kingdome though perhaps you may be putt to suffer in temporall fire for the hay and straw and wood which shall be found in your soule Be you euer breathing more and more towards Profitt in spiritt but yet so as that it may be accompanyed with quietnesse grounded vpon Confidence For though it should grow to be no more then now it is euen that being carefully kept will suffice for your saluation But if you looke onely vpon yourself we are all so full of faults that your soule will neuer bee without dismay nor will you perceiue that you are greatly beloued by our lord And then proceeding after such a manner as that how will you be able to serue him and giue gust to his holie spirit which is dwelling in you For this spirit is chearefull and we checke it by our anguish and dismay against which S. Paul thus disswades vs saying That we must not contristate the holie spirit of our lord The summe of all is this that you must know and consider your faults and that they must seeme very great in your eyes and you must bewaile and lamente them by Confession and Penance But yet still you must consider that those benefitts which we possesse in Christ our lord are greater by reason whereof you must confide yourself to be beloued and you must doe it with much thankefullnesse And if God doe no more but continue that to you which you haue alreadie euen that may suffise as hath beene sayd to make you hope for eternall life A Letter of the Authour to an afflicted woman He declares that afflictions come either through the fault of the partis or else for tryall and how one is to carrie himself in tribulation THe grace and peace of our lord Iesus be euer with you Amen The true loue wherewith I loue you in Iesus Christ hath caused so great compassion in me towards you in respect of what you suffer that it hath moued me to write this letter with desire that it may serue you to some purpose I know not my good sister whether I shall putt you into anie comfort or rather whether I shall not helpe you to weepe Nor doe I know whether or no I should tell you that the trouble which you haue is good and that you are to carrie it with ioy and that I should not graunt that it is ill as it seemes to you and that as such you are to fly from it I see that if manie good men endure such accidents as this there are also very ill men who endure the same And if to some it be a signe of loue to others it is an effect of the wrath of God Our lord punishes
CERTAIN SELECTED SPIRITVALL EPISTLES Written by that most Reuerend holy man Doctor I. de Auila a most renowned Preacher of Spaine Most profitable for all sortes of People whoe seeke their saluation Benedictus Deus qui talia dona dedit hominibus Blessed bee Almighty God who hath giuen such guifts to men At Roüen by the widdow of Nicolas Courant Permissu Superiorum 1631. THE PREFACE IT is an excellent saying which we finde in that diuine booke intituled THE FOLLOWING OF CHRIST The felicitie which is to be obtayned in this life consists not in the being able to preuent or auoid miseries and crosses which daily occurre but in the patient and humble acceptation and sufferance thereof For indeede there is no such thing as thâ— not being encountred and crossed some in one kinde and some in another some by desolations of minde some by infirmities of bodie some by want of temporall meanes some by vnkindenesse of freinds some by detraction against fame some by suites in law and some by persecution for Religion For these things lye as so manie snares whereby to intrappe our patience in this great Hospitall of the world and some men are subject to more of them and some to fewer but there is no man who at one time or other is not subiect to some The businesse therefore must be to supporte both such as Almighty God shall either send for the punishmeÌ„t of our other sinnes or for the greater purification and perfection of our owne soules or for the aduancemeÌ„t of his owne glory otherwise and such others also as for the greater punishment of wicked men he shall permitt them to inflict vpon vs and to supporte them so through the fauour of God as not onely thereby not to forfeite heauen in the next life but to enable vs in the midst of all our miseries to obtaine a kinde of heauen euen in this For I account it to be a kinde of heauen in the crowde of trouble not to be ouerweighed with the burthen but to accept be content with the good will of God and to aspire towards an imitation of the Passion of Christ our Lord to know and feele in our very harts the substantiall sauorie truth of that diuine saying of S. Iean Chrisostome It is a more glorious thing for a man to suffer for Christ then to raigne with him But now as this doctrine is diuine so the lesson whereby we are to learne it is hard and therefore we shall doe well to vse the best meanes we can to take it out And for my parte I must confesse that I haue neuer mett in anie Authour with so manie so weightie so easie and practicable considerations and inducements towards not onely the patient but euen the ioyfull sufferance of all those crosses and afflictions which can finde the way to vs in this world as are deliuered by FATHER AVILA in his Epistles whereof I haue selected the chiefe and choice and made them speake with our tongue to the end that we may be the better taught to beare those burthens of affliction which may otherwise proue too hard and heauie for our soft shoulders of flesh and bloud And I am confidently perswaded that besides the entertainement which the reader will finde therein otherwise for his delight and gust it will be impossible for him to haue had or haue a crosse of anie kinde for which he shall not heere finde store of remedies and comforts brought to his hand So that he will owe a diligent and deuout reading to this Collection if not for the Author 's or Translator's sake yet at least for his owne A LETTER OF THE Authour to a deere freind of his He shewes how great blindenes it is to loose eternall blisse for temporall delights THE peace of our Lord Iesus Christ be euer with you I receiued a letter of yours some daies past written in Seuill whereof though I were very gladd yet should I haue reioyced much more to be there to enioy your conuersation which I haue soe long desired I beseech Christ that wee may see one another in heauen where all our desires will be at an end possessing him who is the true fulfilling of them all Sir I would extreamely desire that the smoâ—ke of theis temporall things did not blinde our harts and hinder vs from the sight of such as are eternall What an ill exchange doth hee make who Looses that which may be interiourly possessed and which indeede is the true fruite for that which is exteriour and which is noe better then the shell or crust Woe be to that man who hath more care of his goodes then of his conscience and who puts the soule in hazard to secure the life of his body Not soe Gen. 39. ô you men not soe but rather as Ioseph did whoe to secure his chastity left his vper garmeÌ„t in the hands of her whoe would haue robbed him of that treasure It is the sentence of Christ our Lord Matth. 5. that if our right eye be an occasion to vs of sinne wee must pluck it out and cast it from vs. The right eye is the loue which we carry towards goods or honour or life or freinds which if by the inordinate aboundance thereof it be an occasion to vs of sinne wee are to estraunge our selues from it and to cutt it of least otherwise we be estraunged from God Wee must loue nothing soe well as that wee may not treade it vnder foote if it hinder vs from being well with God There is noe such thing as holding freindship with that soueraigne king but onely such a man as will confesse that heauen is had very cheape though it should chance to cost him his life They who will thinke to comply both with their owne proper affections and with the loue also of our Lord are mightily deceiued For theis men loue not God but soe as they alsoe loue many other things whereas God will be loued aboue them all O errour of the sonnes of men and who hath thus deceiued them and whoe shall be able to vnbeguile them who hath pluckt out their eyes to leade them blinde-fould in a ringe like another Sampson Iudges 16. liuing according to the suggestion of vice and in the displeasure of our Lord Who shall be able to make them vnderstand that they are straungely deceiued in seeking riches in the first place and vertue in a second Yea and if it soe fall out that both of them cannot be kept men are content to be without vertue soe that they may not be without money And thus put they light into the place of darkenes and darkenes into that of light O that our Lord would open the eyes of theis men and how bitterly would they weepe seeing how badd exchaungers they had beene Is not perhaps the freindship of God which is obteyned by the exercise of vertue of more valew then all the rest of things which can be wished Are
worth accounting himselfe rich in possessing that a lone insteede of many other things which he had before O God ô Lord ô thou the true repose of the most interiour part of our soules and when shall wee beginn I say not to loue thee but at least to desire to loue thee When I say shall we conceiue a desire of thee such a one as may be worthy of thee When shall veritie be able to preuaile more with vs then vanity beauty then deformity repose then restles care the Creatour who is soe richly full and all-sufficient before the creature whoe is soe very empty and poore Deare Lord and whoe at length will open our eyes that we may knowe that there is nothing out of thee which either hath any countenance in it selfe or is able to giue any true contentment to vs who will make some little discouery of thee to vs that soe being all enamored of thee wee may goe may runne may flye and may remaine eternally with thee Woe be to vs for wee are extreamely farre from God and wee are in soe little paine for that distance as that wee can scarce be said to feele it What is become of the profound and tender sighes of those soules which had tasted once of God and were afterwards estraunged a little from him what is become of that holy affection Psal 31. wherewith Dauid said If I shall giue sleepe to mine eyes or slumbering to myne eyelids till I haue found a house wherein our Lord may dwell And this house wee our selues are when wee destroy not our selues by scattering our harts vpon variety of things but recollect them to the vnity of one desire and of one loue and then it is that we finde our selues and are indeede the house of God For my part I beleeue that he said true who affirmed the cause of our tepidity to be this That he who hath not tasted yett of God doth not knowe in very deede what it is either to haue hunger or saciety And so wee are neither hungry after God nor are wee entirely satisfied by creatures but we remaine as certaine frozen things being neither heere nor there full of dulnes and discouragement without all taste of spiritt and fitt to cause a vomitt in his stomacke who likes not seruants who are Luke warme but desires to haue them inflamed with the fire of loue This fire himselfe brought into the world Luke 22 and desires nothing but that it may burne and to the end that it may doe soe himselfe did burne and was consumed vpon the Crosse num 19. like that redd Cow which was carried out of the campe And this he did of sett purpose to the end that wee taking of that wood of the Crosse vpon our selues might make a fire and might warme our selues and keepe correspondence with soe great a louer with some loue of ours considering how iust a thing it is that we should be wounded by the sweete dart of loue since wee see him not onely wounded but killed by it It is but reason that wee be taken by the loue of him who was taken thereby for vs deliuered ouer for our sakes into such fierce hands Lett vs enter into that prison of his loue since he entred into the prison of ours and thereby was made as tame as any lambe before them who treated him soe ill And this prison was that which made him remaine quiet vpon the Crosse For more strange and rude were those ropes and prisons of his lòue then the nailes and ropes which restrayned his person These later laying hould but vpon his body but his loue being that which seized his soule And therefore lett our harts be tyed by his loue that tye of saluation and lett vs not desire such liberty as may carry vs out of his prison For as he is very ill in health who is not wounded and made sick of his loue soe is he very ill at liberty who is not restrayned in that prison Lett vs now resist him noe longer let vs yeild our selues conquered by his armes which are his benefitts whereby he procures to kill vs that soe we may euer liue with him He desires to burne vs vp that soe the old man who was conforme to Adā being cōsumed the new man who is conforme to Christ our Lord may rise againe by loue He desires to melt our hardnes to the end that as vpon mettall which is made liquid by heate that forme is imprinted which is desired by the worke-man soe wee being softned by that loue which makes vs melt by hearing our beloued speake to vs may be ready without all resistance that soe Christ our Lord may imprint vpon vs what figure shall be most pleasing to him Now that figure which he desires to imprint is noe other then that of Loue. Iohn 15. For Christ our Lord is very Loue it selfe he cōmaunded that we should loue one another as he loued vs. Gal. 2 And S. Paule tells vs that we must soe be in loue with Christ our Lord as he loued vs and deliuered himselfe vp for vs. Soe that vnlesse we loue we are vnlike him our countenance hath noe resemblance to his but we are poore naked blinde deafe and dumbe and dead For loue a lone is that which quickenes all things and loue is that which is the spirituall-cure of our soules For the soule without loue is iust such a thing as the body is without the soule Let vs therefore loue and we shall liue let vs loue and we shall grow like God nay we shall wound him whoe is to be wounded by loue alone Lett vs loue and all things shall be ours since they are all to serue vs as it is written They that loue God shall proue well in all things If we loue this loue lett vs apply the axe of diligence to the roote of our owne selfe-loue and soe bring this enemy of ours to the ground What haue we of our selues let vs hedge our selues in God and make noe account at all of any thing els Let not our owne losses trouble vs but the losses of God which are the soules who depart from him And because it is a hard thing for a man to leaue to loue himselfe let vs shed many teares whereby it may be made easy for vs to dig vp this earth Let vs groane out to God from the very profoundest of our harts for our teares doe euen wound almighty God though they be soe weake and soft and though he be omnipotent Lett vs entertaine good thoughts for as Dauid saith Psal 38. My thought is a very fournace But aboue all let vs place our selues and not come quickly out againe but make our habitation in the woundes of Christ our Lord and particularly in his sacred side For there his hart being deuided and peirced for vs will receiue ours into it and soe it will growe warme through the greatnes of his loue For
your letter and I will not haue you say that I acknowledge you not for my sonne For if you say that because you are wicked you deserue it not for the same reason I deserue not to be your father and therefore I may ill despise you who am my selfe more worthy to be despised But since our lord houlds vs all for his though we be soe miserably weake it is but reasonable that we learne to be mercifull one towards another that we support one another with Charitie as he doth I haue my good brother a great desire that you should be able to giue a good accounte of that which our lord hath recommeÌ„ded to you For the good and faithfull seruant must looke to gaine fiue other talents to the fiue which were giuen him at the first That so he may heare from the mouth of our lord Reioyce thou good and faithfull seruant thou hast beene faithfull in the few things which I haue recommended to thee Math. 25. and I will place thee ouer many You must take care of that which is recommended to you concerning others in such sort as that you forget not your owne soule But yet know that the man who of all others is most recommended to you is your selfe For it will profitt you but little though you should drawe all the world out of the durt if the while your selfe remaine therein And therefore I once againe encharge you that still you seeke out some fitt of-tyme wherein you may dispatch your owne deuotions and that dayly you heare Masse and vpon euery sunday the sermon And especially take heede that you conuerse not much with woemen For you cannot be ignorant that they be that snare which the deuill setts for the fall of such as serue God You know how Dauid sinned 2. kings 11. by looking vpon one of them and Salomon his Sonne sinned with many 3. Kings 11. and he walked soe farre out of his witts as to place Idolls in the temple of our Lord. And since we are soe much more weake then they lett vs be afraid to fall and take warning by the misfortunes of others Deceiue not your selfe with saying I desire to doe them good For vnder the mantle of these good desires doe those daungers lurke when prudence accompanyes not the same And God is farre from desiring that I should procure the good of another with the Spiriâ—â—â—ll hurt of my selfe Concerning those temporall necessities to which you are subiect I haue already written to you that there is euery where such abundaÌ„ce of waÌ„ts as that when we aske any releife they say that they haue enough more neere at hand whome they are to remedy And I thought that my Lord the Duke of Sessa had sent you that which might serue the turne because they tould me you had sollicited him for some releife If he haue not done it desire it of him a second tyme for he will send it He loues you much for the care you haue of the poore and if he doe not our Lord will prouide though hee make you stay a while I haue reioyced much in the charitie which you haue found in that other house whereof you speake Returne my salutations to him who sent them by you to mee And because I am now in my iourney I write noe more at this tyme but onely that you must remaine all fixed in Iesus Christ our Lord who will protect and fauour you And that you looke well to your selfe and that the deuill may haue noe cause to reioyce by hauing induced you to sinne but that God may take delight in your penance for that which is past in your amendment for that which is to come And soe the holy ghost be with you Amen A letter to one whoe had some desires to serue God but not the courage to beginn He animates her greatly to confide in God He teaches her how to loue certaine persons who had offended her and hee giues remedies both against scruples and vaine glorie I doe much reioyce at the holy desires which you haue to please our lord but I am in paine to consider your pusillanimitie in executing the same For I hould it to be a strange ill thing that one should presume to remaine in the vanitie of this life and not presume to aduenture vpon the making of a new match with God confiding in the same God For what maÌ„ was there euer since there were such things in the world as men who hoping in God and procuring to liue according to his comaundments was forsaken by him whoe euer inuoked him with an intyre and perseuering hart and was not heard by him Nay he goes seeking vs and inciting vs to serue him What possibilitie therefore is there but that since he is good and true of his word he must come forth to meete and cast his armes a bout our neckes an doe vs fauour when we make towards him He wil infallibly he wil and that incomparably more completely Heb. 9. as S. Paule affirmes then we know how to thinke Beginne you seruant of God cast your selfe vpon him and confide that he whoe gaue you the desire will giue you strength to worke courage to make an end For he calls not vpon such as sleepe to wake them but to the end that he may doe them many fauours when they are awake Beginne with diligence and feruour yea and with a kinde of strife for there is not a worse thing then a faint beginner who still takes much care to regale him selfe to content the world Shut your eyes against both humaine prayses dispraises for you shall quickly see both the prayser and the praised turned in to dust and ashes and him alsoe whoe is honoured and dishonoured An wee shall all be presented before the tribunall of our lord where the mouth of wickednes shall be stopped and vertue shall be highly exalted In the meane tyme lay you fast hould on the Crosse follow him whoe was dishonoured and lost his life vpon it for you And hide your selfe in those woundes that when our lord comes for you he may finde you there and may beautifie you with his graces and may giue him selfe to you as your reward for hauing left all things and your selfe with them for his sake But ô how little doth he leaue who euen leaues all since he leaues but that which he must quickly leaue whether he will or noe yea and euen the enioying it is a great misery since all that which is not God is but waight and sorrow to the soule God onely is sufficieÌ„t for you open therefore your hart and enioye him you shall finde him more sweete much more full of loue then you could haue thought Sometymes I wonder within my selfe to thinke how one either doth or can wish ill to another since Christ our lord is in the middest betweene them both How can he be disgusted with the body who loues or
ought to loue the head doe you not know that when our lord rose from death to life appeared to his disciples he placed him selfe in the midst of them Luke 24. and not at the head or els where And this vpon what reason but to make vs vnderstand that he is in the midst of vs and that we cannot doe yea or euen desire to hurt any body but that first it must passe through him He who loues not his neighbour loues not Christ our lord and as for him whoe loues not Christ our lord it were better for such a one not to haue beene borne since he arriues not to know for what he was created which was to loue our lord Conceiue that your neighbours are a certaine thing which meerely coÌ„cernes Christ our lord that they are his Images and the creatures for which he gaue his blood And therefore say How shall I wish ill to him whom my lord loues How shall I be able to desire death to him to whom my lord will giue life My lord dyed for those persons and would yet againe returne to dye for them if it were needefull and shall I then faile to loue that man who is soe much bâ—loued by him what doth it import mee if they doe me ill offices for I loue them not for what they are nor for any thing which they doe to mee I loue them for Christ's sake and what then haue their ill deedes to doe towards the making me take that loue from them which I carried to them for Christ's sake I beseech God they may be great in his presence that they may enioy him and he them that soe there may be more temples wherein my lord may dwell more soules which may praise and serue him and more harts which may loue him for he deserues them all And whensoeuer you see them say O lord doe thou possesse those soules and lett them be onely thine O lord lett them enioye thee for thou hast a minde to coÌ„municate thy selfe to all O lord they are soe many Images of thee make them like to thee more and more both to them mee to all giue pardon grace glory If your tongue will not say this yet let your spirit say it and lift vp your hart to our lord demaunding succour of him and saying O lord for thy loue and not for theirs and by little and little you shall finde your selfe in peace And if there chance to be any warre bee not ouercome therein and doe not say or doe any thing which may be against their good and consent not to any thing in your hart which be of disaduantage to them The scruples coÌ„cerning your coÌ„fessions are a temptation wherewith the deuill tormeÌ„ts you depriues you of the sweetenes of your soule and leaues you without gust in the things of God For the creature who is scrupulous is not fit either to loue God or to confide in him nor doth he like the way which God houlds with him and then he goes to looke other wayes which may please him selfe better because he findes not that in Gods wayes which giues him gust And this scrupulous person hath the fault of all for he raises the storme where there was a calme and hee found it in his owne way and not in the way of God which is very smooth and plaine Make you a Iest of such things submit your selfe to that which your ghostly-father shall ordaine be not carryed a way with scruples nor with your owne conceipt but say my lord God is not scrupulous Iohn 4 Psal 17. I doe that which they comaunde me in his name and I am to accounte to him for noe more Shall I be plaine with you make hast make hast to loue and these scruples will fall away which rise but from a fearefull hart For perfect loue casts feare out of doores Pray to our lord say Deus meus illumina tenebras meas And confide you in his mercie that seruing him he will be good to you and will dayly be giuing you to vnderstand your faults that you may mend them I would alsoe haue you laugh at the temptation of vaineglory and say to it Neither will I doe it nor leaue to doe it for thee O lord to thee it is that I offer what souer I can doe or say or thinke And when vaineglorie comes againe say to it thus Thou comest too late for it is already giuen to God It is a good aduise that beginners are to doe nothing exteriourly which may seeme to be of much sanctity for being younge and tender and all their busines being but yet in flower the winde will doe them hurt and it is better for them to hide their graces then to shew them And soe must you doe for as much as possibly you can and that which you cannot conceale doe freely and without feare And straite cast vp your hart to our Lord and say Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nâ—â—nâ—ni tuo da gloriam Or els you may say Gloria Patriâ— Filio Spirituâ— sancto And for conclusion I recommend to you that you cast all that out of your hart which is not God and that in this world you loue teares sollitude humilitie and penance and lett your eyes be euer turned to our Lord that your feete may be deliuered from the snare Put the law of God in practise and you shall see how he will sweeten your way and how he will cast your enemies vnder your feete And by working you shall grow to vnderstand that which you knowe not how to conceaue either by speaking or hearing For in this way of God these tepid and talking people learne little and they whoe are diligent in putting the hand to worke learne much Our Lord lesus Christ goes before you follow him heere with your Crosse and one day you shall be with him in heauen A Letter of the Authour to a freind whome he animates to serue God in good earnest He shewes the vanity and misery of the world and the happines which is obtained by seruing God AS he whoe hoping for the good successe of what he desires reioyces when he sees some likelyhood thereof and although that likelyhood be not very great yet it giues him noe little ioye through the excesse of his desire soe my soule is filled with comfort by your Letter for me thinkes the wordes conteyned therein giue me a hope and taste of somewhat which hath reason to make mee gladd and which if it might once take full effect would breede a ioy in mee soe very great as would be equalled by few others My good Sir I desire to see that soule of yours vnbeguiled and discharged from the many vanities which are affected and frequented in this world and that you would beleeue with a faithfull hart that your true repose consists not in any other then in him whoo created all things that you
them he found not what he sought he may goe at last with an intyre hart to him who alone is able to impart more to the soule then it is able to receiue Your ladyship must not therefore be carryed away by that great errour which yet is imbraced by many great ones of this world who are mightily affected to their owne will and who abound with particular appetites and who thinke belike that they are to abound as much more then others in desire of things as they are heere of more eminent ranke state but for my part I see not what they gather from hence but greater torments For after the rate of the desire is the paine And as S. Bernard saith Let our proper will cease and there will noe more be any hell And soe wee may say let this proper will cease and there will not be in the world either any sinne or any sorrow For that which comes to vs is not in it selfe the thing which giues vs paine but the coming of it when we would not haue it come And therefore doth God require our harts of vs that soe hee may free them from many miseries and may giue vs in exchaunge his owne which is peaceable reposed and Ioyfull in tribulation And a grosse foole is hee who had rather liue in his owne straitnes then in the latitude of Almightie God and who had rather dye in himselfe then liue in life And if at any tyme or in any thing we haue committed this sinne and haue enlarged the raynes to our owne desires let vs humble our selues before the father of mercies acknowledging our sinnes and hoping for pardon at his hands and taking that paine which grew vpon vs by the inordinatenes of our appetite towards the discounting and discharging of our fault For by this meanes God is wont to take away our sinnes like one who should take the boughes or branches of a tree and setting them first on fire should apply them afterwards to the tree it selfe and soe burne it vpp by the rootes Much better it is for a sinner that hee should grow into â—aine by occasion of his sinne then into peace and rest For as S. Augustine faith there is not a more wofull thing then the temporall felicitie of a sinner And as for vs let vs learne heereafter to giue all our desires to God And as a stone falls downeward and as fire flyes vpward and as euery thing in sine makes towards his proper place soe let our harts fly at full speede towards the center thereof which is God Who would not be amased to behould a great rocky Mountaine hanging loose in the ayre without falling downe to his proper place and who will not wonder to see a hart which was created to repose and rest in God detaine it selfe in the ayre and lesse then ayre Therefore whether it be that wee cannot take true rest in any other then in God or because this Lord of ours deserues of himselfe all our loue since he is the loadestone to which all spiritts looke let vs not fall heereafter into such a folly as that whereof I spake lett vs not spott our honour let vs not committ such a treason against such a lord as that heereafter any other desire may enter into our harts but of him or for the loue of him And soe will the sadd cloudes of these vnprositable hart-breaking melancholies and these both vaine hopes vaine feares fly from these harts of ours in their place a new morning will rise which will giue vs Ioy. For to see the light of heaué is the cause of Ioy but the blinde man cannot discerne it Tob 5. For this did Tobias say what ioy cann I have in this life since I cannot see the light of heauen It is a great truth that noe man who is not indeede vnbeguiled concerning this world can haue any true ioy of hart for though he thinkes hee sees yet indeede it is but a sight of earth and not a light of heauen But after this other sight a man growes cured at the very roote It will be fitt that your ladyshipp doe not thinke to make the like exercises of minde in the way of spiritt as before now that you are subiect to an vnlike disposition of body And many haue ignorantly afflicted them selues for not hauing beene able to weigh what their strength and state would permitt It is cleere that with this condition of body wherein you are you must not thinke of keeping the same method which you held before nor doth our lord aske any such things at your hands since his will is very wise and tempered alsoe with great mercie and demands nothing of vs but that for which hee giues vs meanes And not onely hee will not reape where he doth not sowe but euen when hee sowes he is content to reape lesse then hee hath sowed Your ladyship must not be discóforted for that which you are not able to performe for you might as well put your selfe to paine because you haue noe wings where with to flye Doe not place the ioye of your hart vpon hauing consolation or vpon making Prayer but vpon the accomplishment of the will of our Lord. And since his pleasure is that the tyme which before you spent in praying shall now be spent in vomiting let it be soe in the name of God and lett his contentement be ours and lett vs more esteeme that he be pleased then we would to possesse heauen and earth And if we be troubled with any scruple that such or such a punishement came to vs for our hauing committed such or such a sinne and that God chastises vs now for the thing which wee inordinately desired before in that case what haue we more to doe then to cast our selues at his feete desiring both correction and pardon And our lord will either giue them both or els the pardon without the correction but neuer the correction without the pardon if the fault be not our owne We must therefore take any tribulation as an earnest penny or introduction to peace and prouided that there may be peace betweene God vs let any thing come which he will send One onely thing wee haue to feare in this case which is least wee should slubber ouer our negligences vnder this occasion and pretence of I can doe noe more Wee must heere looke vpon our selues with many eyes for this EVE which liues within vs is soe desirous to be cherished and regaled and to be walking vp and downe the garden and to be eating of the forbidden fruite that she wants not a thousand inuentiòs to make reason beleeue that she demaunds not any thing of superfluity but of meare necessitie and she is in a mightie chafe if they beleiue her not Madam there is neede heere of two things The one that when wee clerely see that wee are able in such cases to performe our spirituall exercises wee must not omitt
Thou art the defender of all such as hope in thee And if at any tyme he hide him selfe from vs Cant. 2. it is not because he departs but like a Iealous spouse he stands looking through the cranyes to see what that soule is doeing when he hath absented his imbracements from her Especially he considers if the soule haue lost her confidence which his desire is may remaine soe rooted in our harts that noe winde of teÌ„ptation may pluck it vp but may rather strengthen and settle it beleeuing that how much more we are tempted soe much more we are beloued by him and how much more we are persecuted by our enemies so much more are we cherished by almighty God whose care and vigilancy is imcomparably more for our desence then the subtility of our enemies can be for our preiudice The cause heereof is for that he loues vs more then the deuill abhorres vs and he is more powerfull then our flesh is fraile and he hath a blessed place of retreate wherein as in a most secure haueÌ„ and as in the bosome of a mother he giues harbour to such as being wearyed with the tempest of tribulations endured for his sake haue recourse to him Psal 30. Of this Dauid said Thou shall hid vs in the hidden parte of thy face Doe you not thinke O my beloued brother that you shall be well hidden and secure and ioyfull in the face of God But you wil aske why it is called a hidden part Cerâ—â—nely with great reason For as the face of God is not darke but bright according to his diuinitie so yet the face of Christ our Lord as God and man is said to be darke and hidden according to his humanity But this not when his face shined like the Sonne Matth. 7. in Mount Tabor and his garments like the light Mark 9. but when he was disfigured vpon Mount Caluary when his garments and flesh were dyed redd with the bloud which proceeded from him as the price of our redemption Luke 9 If you well consider his face growne yellow with his long fasting and redd with the buffetts and swelling which their blowes had made full of teares descending from his eyes of blood distilling from his crowne of thornes you will be sure to say that his face was hidden he of whom Dauid saith Psal 44. that he was fayre beyond the sonnes of men and that grace was diffused through his lipps and that therefore our Lord did blesse him for all eternity Certainely the most beautifull of men was hidden and more tormented then man euer was and soe farre disfigured Esay 53. that Esay saith He hath noe beauty nor grace we saw him and he had no figure of a man And againe afterwards he saith That his face was as if it had beene hidden and despised and that therefore they esteemed him not He indeede did suffer our infirmities and our sorrowes and we tooke him for some leprous person who had beene stroocken and abased by our Lord. Well then my deere brother in this face which seemes to be soe deformed but which indeede is rarely beautifull to such as behould it with the eyes of faith and loue considering that it was loue which deformed it to the end that he might beautify our deformity doth God hide them who labour that they may not depart from him And he giues them light wherewith to looke him in the face and to receiue such strength and comfort thence as to make them feele that he said true who said Shew vs thy face and we shall be safe Psal 79. This face is beheld by the eternall father and out of that sight doe result to vs the beames of his bounty and light for by meanes thereof doe all those blessings come to vs which God sends Psal 83. And Dauid knowing this besought God saying Looke vpon the face of thy Christ For by looking vpon that face he layes downe that wrath to which he had been moued by looking vpon our impudent faces and he will remoue the deformity of them by that other beauty And to the end that this face of his might euer stand before his father Hebr. 9 Saint Paule saith that Iesus Christ entred into heauen to appeare before the face of God for vs. And now since the eternall Father lookes into this glasse that he may come to vs let vs alsoe looke into it to the end that we may not depart from him We haue not any other remedy against our weakenes 2. Cor. 13. but the weakenes of Iesus Christ our Lord of which S. Paule said that he dved with infirmity but that be liues by the power of God Consider how great things he endured that soe our soules might be taught to loue that weakenes of his and that we might not giue them away to strangers they hauing been purchased by their proper Lord at such a painefull and precious rate And doe but weigh what weake braines we haue in departing from that ioy which recreates the angells to obtaine this base delight which is possessed by beasts And how inconsiderate that soule is which exchaunges honny for gall and the Creatour for a creature Wretched creatures that we are and whether shall wee goe and what shall wee seeke out of Christ our lord Shall we peraduenture be able to finde out any other Lord like this any other soe deere companion and soe true freind both in prosperity aduersity Where is any other soe milde in pardoning soe beautifull to behould soe wise to consult and soe good to loue where is there any other who can finde in his hart to dye for mee with such teares and with such loue and who still remaines with a disposition to dye yet againe if I could haue neede of his second death O how sincere a truth was that which Saint Peter deliuered when he said Whether shall we goe O Lord Iohn 23. for thon hast the words of eternall life Wee are well my deere brother where Christ our Lord hath by his mercy placed vs. Let vs take heede that wee trye not what kinde of woefull thing it is to be without him A very bitter thing it is and it costs soundly the setting on Lett vs looke vpon the afflictions which he suffered for vs and with them lett vs comfort our selues in ours and by them let vs begg his grace and fauour and he will giue it to vs that we may thereby ouercome the world the flesh and the deuill and soe we shall liue in God since he dyed to kill our death and to giue vs life A Letter of the Authour to the same Lady Whome formerly he had animated to beare her afflictions with patience MY soule loues yours because God loues it and because I am to haue noe little part in your happines S. Paule saith that they to whome he preached were his ioy his honour and his crowne in respect that receiuing the
fine your lord O blessed tyme wherein is represented to vs the coming of God in flesh to dwell amongst vs Luke 1. to illuminate our darkenes and to addresse our feete in the way of peace and to adopt vs for his brethren and to designe vs for the enioying of the same inheritāce with himselfe It is not without cause that you desire his coming and that you prepare your hart for his habitation For this lord was desired long before he came Agge and the Prophet called him The desire of all Nations Psal 9. and indeede hee giues himselfe to none but such as desire him God heares the desire of the poore for his eares are laid close to the sighing of our harts and he cares for nothing els in vs but that To such a hart hee comes and cannot deny himselfe as it is said in the Canticles Cant. 4 Thou hast wounded my hart O thou my sister and my spouse thou hast wounded my hart by the cast of one of thyne eyes and by a haire of thy head Is it possible for any thing to be more tender then that which is wounded by the sight of a single eye Is it possible for any thing to be more weake then that which is tyed fast by one single haire where now are they who say that God is hard to be obteyned that he is rigourous to be delt with and insupportable to be endured Wee must quarrell with our selues since because wee will be looking many seuerall wayes we place not our sight vpon God nor will wee shutt that eye of ours which behouldes creatures that so with all our thought wee may cōsider God alone Hee who shootes in a Crosse bowe shutts one of his eyes that hee may see better with the other how to hitt the white we the while will not shutt vp all that sight of ours which hinders vs from being able to hunte wound our lord with loue Let him recollect and make sure his loue and lett him lodge it in God whosoeuer hath a minde to obtaine God For as God is loue soe is he onely to be hunted and taken with loue and he will haue nothing to doe with them who loue him not And if they say that they know him already as they ought 2. Iohn 4. S. Iohn will tell them that they say not true But our lord who is wounded with an eye is tyed with a haire For that which loue takes the recollected and reflected thought conserues that it may not be lost And to the end that men might be put into confidence that they should be able to arriue to almighty God and that hee hath noe minde to slipp away he makes himselfe one of them and layes himselfe in the armes of a virgin swathed vp hand and foot without power to fly from that man who is disposed to seeke him O celestiall bread which descendest out of the bosome of thy Father and art laid in the publique places of this world inuiting as many as will that they may come to enioye thee and feede vpon thee And whoe is hee whoe can endure to withhould him selfe from goeing to thee and from receiuing thee since thou giuest thy selfe vpon noe harder cōdition then onely that wee be content to hunger after thee For doest thou peraduenture aske more of vs then onely that a soule may sigh for thee and confessing her sinnes may receiue and loue thee Great is the misery of those men who when bread comes to seeke them in their owne howses they choose rather to dye of hunger then to stoope to take it vp O sloath what a deale of mischeife thou doest O blindenes what a deale of benediction doest thou loose O sleepines what a deale of aduantage doest thou steale away since considering the promise that whosoeuer seekes shall finde Mat. 7 21 Mark 11. Luc. 11 Iohn 14. 16 and he who askes shall obtaine and to him who knockes it shall be opened it is cleare that if wee proue not well the fault is ours But what shall things passe still after this manner Though God himselfe is come to cure vs shall wee still continue sicke He being at the gate of our hart crying out and saying Open to mee O thou my freind and my spouse shall we being all wrapt vp in vanities Cant. 4. suffer him to stand calling there and not soe much as open him the gate O my soule come hither and tell mee for I aske thee on the part of God what in fine is that thing which detaines thee from goeing all with all thy forces after God What doest thou loue if thou doe not loue this Spouse of thine Or rather why doest thou not loue him much who did soe mightily loue thee He had noe busines on earth but to attend to the loue of thee and to seeke thy profitt with his owne losse And what hast thou to doe in this world but to exercise thy selfe all in loue of this king of heauen Doest thou not see how all that which heere thou seest must haue an end as also all that which thou hearest which thou touchest which thou tastest and wherewith thou doest converse Doest thou not see that all this is but cobwebs which cannot cloath thee and keepe thee warme Where art thou if thou haue not thy being in Iesus Christ our lord what art thou thinking what account art thou making what doest thou seeke out of that onely one complete God Let vs rowse vp our selues at last breake of this badd sleepe Let vs awake for it is broad day since Iesus Christ our lord who is the light is come Let vs doe the wookes of light since there was tyme wherein wee did the workes of darknes O that the memory of that tyme wherein wee know not God might sèrue vs now for sharp spurrs to make vs runne greedily after him O that we could runne O that wee could fly O that wee might burne and be transformed into him What must a creature doe when he sees his creator made man and all for loue of him alone who euer heard of such a loue as this that one louing another should by loue be converted into that other It is true that God loued vs when hee made vs after his Image but a farre greater worke it was to make himselfe after our image He abases himselfe to vs that hee may exalt vs to him He makes himselfe man that hee may make vs Gods He descēdes from heauen that he may carry vs thither in his cōpany and in fine he dyed that he might giue vs life And now shall it be possible that in the midst of these things I should lye sleeping and without any sense of gratitude for soe great loue O lord illuminate myne eyes that they may not sleepe in such a death as this And thou who hast done vs this great fauour Ps 12. giue vs alsoe a right feeling of it For otherwise the
knowledge lyes in a place which is hidden from all discourse of reason that soe wee may learne to belceue that most firmely whereof wee finde least certainty For if as the starre guided them soe they had beene guided but by their reason they would haue gone to looke for this new borne king in some royall pallace for a person and a place wherein he dwells are to carry proportion to one another Our lord vouchsafes to shew a great fauour to them vpon whom he bestowes a starre which is the guift of faith that soe they may seeke God both when he is wrapped vp aswell in those swadling-cloutes in the pouerty of his birth as in the contempt and torment of the death of the Crosse the kings finde him in one of thofe places and the good theefe in the other For both they and hee had the eyes of Faith and that made them prostrate themselues all along and adore him protesting that they were as nothing in his diuine presence For if they had knowne him but for a temporall king how great soeuer hee had beene it would haue suffized for them to haue done reuerence to him as one man vses to another but for soe great men to prostrate themselues before an Infant betokens that they had interiour faith whereby they knew the high Maiesty which lay hidd in that Infancy But now your Ladyship must be sure that you appeare not empty before this Lord and that you thinke not that you giue him any thing if you doe not giue him your loue Nothing but God is able to make your Ladyshipp happy and nothing but your selfe is able to keepe him contented This loue of his is not ioyned with any interest which regards himselfe or the value of the presents which are made to him but it is a true and perfect loue which requires an vnion of harts And this is that language as S. Bernard saith whereby God and the soule communicate themselues speake to one another in the same tune If our lord threaten and punish mee I am not to doe the same but my duty will bee to humble my selfe soe much the more as hee doth more exalt himselfe but if he loue mee I must bee like him in that and I must loue him saying with the spouse My beloued to mee and I to him O great dignitie of a creature Cant. 2 which is abled thus to draw in the selfe same yoke with his Lord and may answeare him like for like for loue is that thing which abases hills and rayses valleys Offer your loue to him whoe for loue of you did though hee were soe great become an infant and being God became man and shedd the blood of circumcision for you within eyght dayes as being not content that he had shedd teares for you when he was borne Steale not your selfe away from this lord since you are soe truly his least you grow to be of them of whome the Prophett Ieremy faith he went like one whoe runnes away with him selfe Where are you engaged more deepely where can you employ your selfe more profitably where can you exalt your self more highly then by louing Christ our lord who loued you and washed you with his bloud and giues euen himselfe to such a one as loues him and makes him of a man grow to be a kinde of God Bee very carefull of your selfe in this busines and soe that you offer gould to the Infant Iesus For as a little gould is more worth then a great quantitie of other mettall soe a little true loue is more pretious then much copper and such other mettalls of feare and proper interest or any other succh affects as rise from these Many are wont to measure themselues by their doeing many good workes and they neuer consider that God respects nothing in them but onely the hart from whence they rise and that one man shall please God more who doth lesse good workes then another whoe doth greater if he who did the lesse haue the greater loue Some man by fasting from some one meale or by giuing some very little almes shall be more pleasing to our lord as the widdow was Marke 12. then many others whoe gaue great almes because he doth it with more loue then they And heerein appeares the greatenes of our Lord since noeseruice which wee can doe him how great soeuer it may be is great in his sight if the loue of the partie be not great For hee whoe hath neede of nothing and cannot possibly encrease at all in riches or any other good why should he care for ought which can be giuen him but onely to be beloued which is soe acceptable a present as cannot be refused by any And soe much is God in earnest when he requires it of vs as that he punishes with eternall death the person whoe grauntes him not his loue What thing is soe farre from selfe loue in the desires of any thing as hee whoe needes noe seruice which can be done him thereby and whoe againe hath soe much desire of any thing as he whoe soe requires a man's loue as to punish him with the torments of hell who will not giue him that loue and giue it truely yea and that soe as it may exceede all other loues And therefore Saint Augustine might say with reason O lord what account doest thou make of mee since thou commaundest mee to loue thee and doest threaten mee with huge miseries if I loue thee not Let his be therefore your prime care to attend to the loue of our Lord. For this very purpose he made himselfe soe very little For by how much the more he conceales and as it were dissembles his Maiesty soe much more doth he declare his goodnes and thus doth he the more inuite our loue which lookes more at ease vpon the littlenes which he tooke the vpon the greatnes which he naturally possessed His wisedome lyes hidden by his being made an Infant whoe could not speake His power is alsoe bound vp by certaine swathing-cloathes and he endures bitter colde And all this to the end that the more of his other attributes he hides from vs the more he may declare his loue to vs that soe we alsoe may loue him the more as we finde him to haue suffered more for vs. It is certaine that to see him tremble with colde doth kindle vs much more then if wee saw him well and warmely cladd and if he felt noe paine And therefore hee shall doe very ill whoe denyes him his loue since it was bought at soe much cost of this Infant and after the rate thereof will it cost that man whoe shall deny to giue it Hee whoe offers this loue offers the bolocaâ—st with the marrow to our lord Psal 65. as Dauid saith For as fire burnes vp a whole beaste soe doth loue consume the whole man both within without The fire of true loue will not endure that the straw of exteriour vanities
lord had made in their harts whoe loued him and fills vpp that empty place which was made therein by his departure And now if he were able to comfort and free men from that sorrow which was caused by the absence of Christ our lord himselfe more easily will hee be able to comfort vs in case of the absence of creatures if we be in any paine thereby This is hee who is soe full of care of his orphanes who ouershadowes them with strength from on high and who covers and keepes them warme vnder the mantle of his protection and makes them know that they haue of in heauen whome they may with confidence but without presumption call Father hee repaires that which is ruined he illuminates that which is darke he heates that which is colde he straightens that which is crooked be refreshes that which is ouer wearyed and he is dayly giuing vs new strength which makes vs fly vp toward the mountaine of God Madam it will be reason that such an excellent present as this should put vs into great appetite and that wee sell all the affections of our hart for the purchase of this Iewell which onely is able to make vs happy The newes of it passes before our doores and the noyse sounds in our eares of how he comes downe to men and is glad of a habitation in their hartes Let vs not suffer him to passe by but let vs constraine him to visitt and comfort vs that we may serue him yet more And considering in whose name wee may desire him to stay with vs he will not neede to be much entreated for the Father sends him through Iesus Christ his sonne our Lord. Christ our Lord is he who obtayned the holy ghost for vs. For otherwises what had that most high spirit to doe with coming downe to vs whoe are but soe much flesh which is impure and weake and enclined to all kinde of ill This spiritt exceedes vs incomparably more then the heauens exceede the earth if it were not for that he who is of heauen being engendred by the Father did abase himselfe soe farre as to become man the signification of which word is to be earthly And so God being humaned and tempored with our weakenes did labour and sweate and vpon the cost of his life did obtaine for vs that this spiritt which created the heauens should abase it selfe soe farre as to dwell in those potts of clay Let vs giue thankes to Iesus Christ our Lord and lett vs gather the fruite of his labours And since the holy ghost comes downe willingly to dwell with vs in contemplation of the meritts of Christ our lord let vs not be soe vngratefull for either of these two great fauours as thereby to loose them both The most high will abase himselfe to these meane persons that he may bee their Father and their guide and how then can wee be such woefull sotts as to say Noe to him Let vs goe forth to receiue him with loue whoe comes with loue and lett vs doe it with great desire for where he is desired he is well content to stay Lett vs be like him whoe said say 26 My soule hath desired thee by night and in spiritt and with the very bowells of my sowle I watch towards thee in the morning By night he desires to enioy thy holy Spiritt who findes himselfe to be afflicted and places not his confidence in his owne arme but sends out sighes to this spirit as to the comforter of the sorrowfull and the easer of all such as are in paine And in the morning hee will bee content to watch whoe makes it not one of his last cares how it may be fitt for him to furnish vp that inward howse but the cheefe of them all is to consider how he may be able to obtaine this fauour of our Lord. And being thus desired and inuoked infallibly he will come for soe did Christ our lord himselfe who was called the Desired of all the nations Aggae 2. and he loues all such as desire to possesse him Let vs call vpon this holy Spirit with the speach both of our tongues and of our soules but we must be sure that the howse be not ill furnished and soe without prouision that after hee shall be inuited and satt downe at table we may haue nothing for him to eate Let vs mortify our flesh for that is the foode whereon hee feedes and which he likes soe well For as for the flesh which liues he flyes from it as farre as he can and it stinckes worse to him then a dead dog would to vs. Let vs mortifye our owne opinion and iudgment that soe we may be ruled by his for two heades will neuer gouerne a house well if that which knowes least be not swayed by that which knowes most And let vs renounce all our selfe conceipts for these are the Capitall enemyes of this heauenly spirit which teaches vs to say Matth. 26. Not my will but thy will be done Let vs be diligent to cleanse our conscience by penance and confession from all impurity and euery graine of dust how little soeuer it may bee For this guest is most pure and cleane and it is not fitt to lodge him in such a howse as may disgust him Let vs keepe peace both at home and abroad for euen vnquiet and wrangling folkes are wont to dissemble their little brawles for the honour of some principall guest Hauing lodged him in our howse let vs giue him good attendance since he hath made it a pallace For he is a mighty king and it is against all reason that hauing him with vs at home we should be gadding abroad to see vanities Let vs then shutt vp the doores and cast our selues prostrate at his feete and let vs tell him with truth that there is nothing which shall draw vs from him and that we haue giuen this answeare to all the world that it must leaue vs and him alone together And soe lett vs enioye him for he is able to make vs happy and so as that nothing can depriue vs thereof If you carry the busines thus you shall be comforted in all that wherein yet you haue discomfort and you shall drinke of the Riuer of the delights of God till euen you be inebriated thereby And I shall alsoe be comforted when I shall see you in the hands of him whoe knowes soe well how to keepe you and instruct you and eternally to saue you It is he whome I beseech to be your succour A letter of the Authour to a certaine Preist Hee shewes how he may prepare himselfe and what considerations are most profitable when he goes to celebrate at the Altar REuerend Father I beseech our Lord that the delay which I haue vsed in making my answeare may be recompēced with being true and profitable to you for your demaunde is of great importance and soe would the answeare alsoe bee if it were such
what confusion doth he grow to haue How straightly will he hould himselfe to be obliged for such a benefit what caution will he vse that he may keepe him selfe wholly for him whoe hath done him soe much honour as to put himselfe into his hands and to come to them by them wordes of Consecration Sir these things are noe bare wordes nor noe dead considerations but they be arrowes shutt stiffly out from the strong bowe of Almighty God which wound and wholly chaunge the hart and which make it desire that at the end of Masse it may at lardge consider that worde of our Lord Scitis quid fecerim vobis John 13. Doe you know what I haue done to you Deare lord that a man could conceiue quid fecerit nobis Dominus What our Lord had done for vs in that houre That a man might tast him with the palate of his soule O that a man had true weights where with he might weigh out this great benefitt How happy should he be euen in this world and how after the end of Masse would he loath euen the sight of creatures and would esteeme it to be a torment that he must treate with them And his ioy and life would consist in pondering Quid fecerit ei dominus what our lord had done for him till the next day that he should retourne to say Masse And if our Lord doe at any tyme giue you this light you will know what sorrow and shame you ought to carry in your hart when you approach to the Altar without the same For he whoe neuer enioyed it doth not know what a misery it is to want it You may add to this Consideration of the person whoe comes to the Altar the reason why he comes and you will there see a resemblance of the loue of the Incarnation of our Lord and of his holy Natiuity and of his life and death renewing that which passed heeretofore vpon his sacred person And if you shall enter into the most inward corner of the hart of our Lord and if hee vouchsafe to teach you that the cause of his coming is a violent and impatient kinde of loue which permitts not him whoe loues to be absent from the party beloued your soule will euen faint vnder such a consideration as that A man is indeede moued much by pondering after this manner Heere I haue Almighty God But yet when hee considers that he comes meerely out of the great loue which he beares like one betrothed who cannot liue a day without seeing and conuersing with his Spouse the man I say who feeles this would be glad to haue a thowsand harts wherewith to correspond with such loue and to say with S. Augustine O Lord what am I to thee that thou shouldest commaund mee to loue thee what am I to thee that thou shouldest soe much desire to make mee a visitt and to giue mee an embracement and that being in heauen with them who know soe well how to loue and serue thee thou yet vouchsafest to descend to this creature who knowes very ill how to serue thee but very will how to offend thee Is it possible that thou canst not content thy selfe O lord to be without mee Is it possible that thy loue of mee should draw thee downe Blessed maist thou bee for euer who being what thou art hast yet placed thy loue vpon such a creatures as my selfe And is it possible that thou shouldest come hither in thy royall person and that thou shouldest put thy seife into my hands as if thou wouldest say I dyed for thee once already and I come to thee now is lett thee know that I repent not my selfe thereof but if it were needefull I would dye for thee yet a second tyme. What launce could remaine in the rest after such a deare expression of loue as this Who O lord will euer be able to hide himselfe from the heate of thy hart which warmes ours with thy presence the sparkes fly out to all them who are neere it as out of some mighty furnace And as such a lord as this my good Father doth the God of the heauens come to our hands and we being such wretches as wee are doe yet conuerse with him and receiue him Let vs now conclude this good subiect which is soe sitt to be felt and put in execution And let vs beseech this lord of ours who hath already done vs one fauour that now he will doe vs another forasmuch as his blessings vnlesse we valew them and thanke him and serue him for them will not be of profitt to vs. Or rather as S. Bernard saith The vngratefull man by how much the better hee is by soe much hee is the worse Let vs consider well how wee liue throughout the whole day least els our lord punish vs in that tyme when we are at the Altar And throughout the whole day let vs carry this thought in our harts I haue receiued our Lord. At his table I sitt and to morrow I shall be with him againe By this meaneâ— wee shall be able to avoyd all ill and wee shall take hart towards the practise of all good For that which is done from the Altar our lord is wont to rewarde at the Altar To conclude I say you must remember how our lord complained of Simon the Pharisee for that Luc. 7 entring into his house hee gaue him noe water for his feete nor any kisse to his cheeke To the end we may know that he desires that in the howse where he enters we should giue him teares layd at his feete for our sinnes and loue which makes vs salute him with the kisse of peace I beseech our lord to bestow this peace on you both with your selfe and with your neighbours and soe as that it may spring from perfect loue which I desire may torment you heere for the offences which your selfe and others committ against our Lord. And in heauen I desire that he should make you enioye it esteeming the good of God for your owne and more then your owne because you loue him more then your selfe For his loue I begg of you that if in this letter there be either litle or much which needes amendement it may not want your helpe and if there be any thing good in it giue the thankes for that to our Lord and remember mee when you shall be at the Altar A letter of the Authour to some deare freindes of his who were afflicted by a persecution which was raysed against them he animates them much to a loue of the Crosse and the imitation of Christ our Lord whereof hee speakes with great tendernes BLessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Cor 1. the father of mercyes and the God of all consolation whoe comfortes vs in all our tribulation in such sort as that wee alsoe are enabled to comfort them who are in any kinde of affliction And this we doe in vertue
frailties with great diligence for amongst those pouerties and miseries is this pretious Iewell wont to bee founde And through our sinnes we haue soe much matter to worke vpon by way of examining and bewayling the same that vnlesse it be some man who will absent his eyes from looking vpon himselfe there is none who may not be sure to finde cause and cause enough not onely to be humbled but euen confounded Woe be to vs if we be found to be of them of whome God saith Thou art become as the face of a strumpet nor wouldst thou blush For what thing is there more deformed then the impudent boldnes of such a person as hath so much reason to be full of shame And who is he that dares once cast vp his eyes to God or his creatures if he consider well how he hath offended him made himselfe vnworthy of them who is there amongst vs who failes not in the perfect loue which he owes to God since wee loue him not with our whole vnderstanding beleiuing his truth with that firme constancy which is fitt and enterteyning those considerations those thoughts and purposes by meanes whereof we might doe him more faithfull seruice who is he who loues him with his whole hart not giuing any parte thereof to others yea or to himselfe but onely in God and for God and who renouncing all proper interest hath proceeded to loue God for God himselfe And he who shall consider how little he hath mortified his passions and what a stiffe warre he makes against the kingdome of the loue of God will easily discerne that he loues not God with all his soule And our Lord commaunding vs alsoe to loue him with all our strength we are yet content to doe it with such a deale of tepidity as wee may well desire him to pardon For the strength which wee employ vpon complying with the loue of our selues and appetites being soe aliue in vs makes vs mightily faile in the diligence which we owe to the seruice of God and to the feruour of our loue of him S. Augustine saith that the encrease of Charitie in vs is the decrease of our owne appetites and desires and then will our charity be perfect when there shall be noe such desires in vs at all Now by the name of such desires he vnderstands that inordinate selfe loue which euery one beares to himselfe And because amongst all them who descēd of Adam there is noe one excepting onely Iesus Christ our Lord and his most sacred Mother who hath not found in himselfe some excesse of this selfe loue therefore is there none of them who hath not fay led somewhat of perfection in the loue of God For when the loue of my selfe is wholly aliue in mee the loue of God is dead and then is a man in state of Mortall sinne And when the loue of God liuēs and raignes in mee in vertue of which loue I fully purpose not to offend God mortally then am I in state of grace though I may faile somewhat of that perfect loue of God because still I comply in somewhat with the loue either of my selfe or of creatures And from this want of diuine loue doth grow our faultines in our other workes because that is the life of them From hence alsoe proceede the faultes we make in the loue of our neighbours by our not hauing compassion of their miseryes nor taking ioy in their blessings as concerning persons who are very straightly ioyned to God and adopted in the Sacrament of Baptisme for his children And we alsoe faile in our workes towards them because we faile in our loue to him who said That which you haue done to any of my little ones you haue done to mee Now from the defect of these two Loues of God and of our neighbour which are the rootes of our good workes many other imperfections grow into those very workes which we doe though sometymes such workes themselues are not sinnes nay being performed in the state of grace they are meritorious of eternall life But of such as these if we meane to liue in the way of humility and truth wee are to giue the glory to God and to yeild him humble thankes who holpe vs to embrace that which was good with our free will and ordeyned that it should be meritorious by that Grace which through his mercy he bestowed vpō vs. Now wee must not vpon this reason forbeare to sifte out those faultes with care which we comitt to these actions of ours but it is a much more secure practise to consider very particularly that which is faulty in vs then that which may goe for a point of vertue And be well assured that how much soeuer you shall consider and sifte yet still there will much lye hidden from you in regard whereof you shall haue reason enough to say with deepe sighing to our Lord O clense me from my hidden sinnes Hence comes it that wee loue not our neighbours in such sorte as God would haue vs or at least not so much as hee would haue vs. Hence comes it that wee tollerate not their imperfections nor fly from giuing them disgusts And in fine from hence grow all those other faultes which defile our soules like filth which is euer dropping as from a sore Our sinnes are greater then any thought of man is able to vnderstand and onely he who created our hart and cleerely penetrates to the bottome of it is able to comprehend what our frailty is And many tymes doth that discouer it selfe to be filthy before his iudgment which seemes in the sight of ours to be very perfect Therefore as Iob hath showed vs the way we must feare all our workes how good soeuer they may seeme to vs and we must not take pleasure in our selues by reason of them nor delight our selues therein euen in the most secret part of our hartes For he onely is pleasing to God who is displeasing to himselfe he onely is Iust in the sight of God whoe knowes that grace and Iustice proceedes from the mercy of God There is not a thing from which God is more auerted then a hart which carryes liking to it selfe For God in such a one findes noe vessell empty into which he may powre the riches of his mercy and soe such a hart remaines with the naturall pouerty wherewith and wherein it shall still cōtinue because it would not abase and empty it selfe that soe the waters of Grace might runne into it and soe it might liue contented in God and might bring forth fruite as a garden would doe wherein there were abundance of water All our good comes from God he whoe beleiues that of himself he is able euen to moue his tongue towards the saying soe much as Lord Iesus that person makes himselfe God since he attributes that to himselfe which onely belongs to God And God giues himselfe to vs vpon condition that we must acknowledge this truth That
he should haue done And this is to walke according to truth giuing that to God which is his That is to say all manner of good without the least mixture of any ill And by this consideration being rooted well in the bowels of a man's hart as a truth which were deliuered by the very mouth of God a man rises from leaning vpon himselfe as from some broken reede and he euer goes leaning vpon him who vphoulds all things He behoulds himselfe and hee sees nothing but that which is to be lamented and he behoulds God in whose goodnes he confides without any feare to be forsaken And for asmuch as God is soe faithfull as that he neuer leaues them whoe goe to him and for that he hath soe great care of them as that infinitely sooner there will be want of water in the Sea and of light in the sunne then of mercy in him therefore doe they runne and fly because God carryes them and they falle not because be sustaines them and they wander not because he directs them and they shall not be condemned because our Lord giues his kingdome to such as become like little children Bee therefore sure my freind that thou vnderstand thy selfe right since our Lord doth soe much expect it of thee And of all that which passes in thee lay the glory aside for God and take the shame and dishonour to thy selfe And place thy hope of being able to proceede as thou hast begun in that Lord who put thee in the way with noe meaning I assure thee to leaue thee in the middest thereof but to carry thee on to enioy the society of his spouses in heauen There doeth he intend to doe thee extraordinary honour and therefore procure not thou to be honoured heere For being taken by the sēt of such an excellēt feast as that it is vtterly against all reason that thou shouldst glutt thy selfe with the basenes of any thing which this world affoardes For there is nothing vpon earth which can sauour well in his mouth who hath tasted though but a litle of that celestiall foode Turne thy backe to all things which thou art soone to leaue place not thy hart on that which is soe instantly to passe away It is very litle which heere thou art able to endure for God yea though thou alone shouldest endure all that which can be endured heere For considering hell which thou hast deserued and heauen with which he meanes thou shalt be rewarded since he hath placed thee in the way thither and againe waighing that which heere he hath endured for thee it is not to be accounted of noe nor so much as to be greately considered which thou either doest or mayest endure for him Esteeme thou God for soe pretious a thing that whatsoeuer he growes to cost thee thou maiest still beleeue it to bee very little yea though he cost thee thy life yet doest thou buy him very cheape In the next world thou shalt see that thou wert not deceiued in the exchaunge which thou hast made but finding them to be treated like madd fooles and miserable persons who lodged their harts and besotted themselues vpon this present world and forgot the promises which God made concerning the future thou wilt giue praises to our Lord in that thou being once deceiued he vouchsafed to vndeceiue thee and whilest thou wert casting thine eyes downe to earth he was pleased to raise them vp to heauen and thou being a slaue to vanity hee made thee a sonne of his owne and when thou wert liuing without any hope of diuine promises he grew to place thee in that way wherein thou maiest hope that he will helpe thee now to liue well and afterwards to dye well And that when this exile is ended he will conduct thee to the land of the liuing which is the cleere fruition of the face of God Where thou shall enioy soe great happines that it belongs to God alone to know it perfectly as to him alone it belongs both to be able and to be willing to giue it And this will our Lord doe not for thy sake but for his owne because hee is good and his mercy endures for euer To whome for all and of all and in all be glory and praise for all eternities of eternities Amen A Letter of the Authour to a person whome he exhortes to bee gratefull and carefull to preserue the guift of the Grace of God It seemes he was in some feare that the partie was returning to sinne I Remember you often and the loue I beare you makes me neuer thinke of you without some feare and trembling at my hart considering the many dāgers wherein your soule may be for which our Lord hath done so much that if he were still in case to be weary without doubt he would now be very weary But he was weary once for all when he tooke our mortall flesh vpon him and from those wearynesses of his doth result that care which now without any wearinesse at all he takes of such as he is drawing to himselfe O Sir how much reason haue you to be gratefull for the good which you haue receiued and carefull at the least to keepe it and fearefull least it should slippe out of your hāds And I sayd Carefull at the least to keepe it because he who can make coniecture that he hath receiued the guift of Iustification must employ himselfe like a diligent negociatour that with fiue talents he may gayne other fiue Improuing that good which God beganne in his soule and getting euery day a new parte in heauen since the gate is open for our getting more and more in euery minute of our life It is most certaine that if we should tell a man that there were a very long way in the steppes whereof there were great felicity to be obtayned yea and that for the making of one single pace they would giue him the worth of a whole kingdome and that though a man should goe all his life time in that way they would neuer depriue him of his rewarde but that still it should holde on after the rate of the first pace which he had made I doe not thinke that in the whole world there is any one worldly man who in this case would not be so great a walker as that he would hardly be euer perswaded to sitt still Now if couetousnesse of visible things be able to worke so great effects what will it be fitt that the loue of that which is inuisible and eternall should worke in our soules but a vigilant care to be still walking on in the way of God with resolutions as liuely and more then they were which we entertayned the first day when we entred into his seruice Who is he that can be so absurdly inconsiderate as not to holde himselfe a deepe debter to Almighty God for the many guifts which he hath receiued from him in recompence as I may say of so many sinnes of
ours as that he will not serue so benigne a Lord with all diligence who is he that coÌ„sidering whence our Lord hath drawen him will not resolue to be daily further and further of from hell and from the impiety of sinne He seemes not to haue bene sorrie for his offence who procures not with diligence to be farre from the like He doth not sufficiently thanke our Lord for this guift who hath layde aside the memory thereof with whome it decayes with time not stirring himself vp to giue new thankes and to presente new seruices knowing more and more thereof euery day as a person who hath receiued encrease of light This is so great a fauour that Dauid calles it the Benedictions of sweetenesse And it is great reason that we should grow strong with that new grace Psal 20. which our Lord gaue vs and not content ourselues still with being little ones I sayd that at least we must be carefull in the continuance and conseruation of this guift because according to good reason we should be encreasers thereof daily more and more And from hence it growes that when I see that the light of your soule is sett vpon by so many windes and when I consider your weakenesse in the midst of so many and so great and so subtile enemyes I finde my selfe to be all trembling ouer you as any mother would be ouer her sonne who aduentures not to reioyce for the good she sees him enioy through the feare she hath that he may chance to loose it Tell me good Sir how is it with you are you still on foote in the presence of your God doe you liue in the presence of true life is God lodged in your hart is there an vnion of loue betweene God and your soule Or is there not perhaps some litle drynesse or disagreement growen betweene you which your much care of this world and your little care to please your Lord may haue caused I feare to heare the answeare which you may chance to giue and yet I cannot content my selfe to be without hearing it If you giue me good newes my soule will reioyce in our Lord and I will giue him thankes for hauing conserued what he hath gayned But if you tell me otherwise I must be extremely sorry and yet still howsoeuer I must needes know it For I will not remaine without greife if you be subiect to any spirituall losse or inconuenience I hope to haue a parte of your Crowne and I submitt my selfe to beare a parte of your payne If there be any thing of this kinde take heede you suffer not the wound to fester and make no intricate knotts vpon the swathing-bands of your sinnes Make haste to breake that quickly which is ill tyed vp for you can haue no leaue to diuide your self from him who fixed himself to that Crossë for you with so cruell nayles Say alowde to all things Departe from me for neither am I yours neither ought I be so much as mine owne Lett the thing be what it will let the person be who it will and let the interest be as great as it can be no other can haue Title or iustice to carry you away but onely Iesus Christ who created you and tooke you for his sonne and after you had beene a prodigall admitted of you againe and honoured you and gaue you a new garment and a sweete embracement of peace and keepes a state of great repose prepared for you in heauen if you will keepe his commaundements That man namely your selfe belongs to this Lord of ours Though euery man in this world should putt in his clayme for you there is none who hath so dearely bought you as he to whome you also belong by another title For what is it for God to dye for vs but to repurchase that at an extreame rate which was already his by the benefitt of Creation and to draâ—v vs out of hell and againe to admitt vs to his freindshipp what is this but to multiplie diuerse Titles to the same thing and those so very great that euery one of them hath reason enough to carry the whole man after it O treason of the sonnes of Adam what is that which you doe when somewhat else preuailes in your hart against Iesus Christ how are you able to say No to him whome you are so bound to serue though it were with the losse of your liues Shall any small title which any thing may make towards you be able to carry you away and so blinde you as to make you forgett so many and so great benedictions as our Lord layes vp in heauen for you Let the world departe euen now from our harts since it is so soone to departe from our eyes And when we shall see anything therein which flourishes let vs bury it vnder ground and treade vpon it there in the sepulcher For by the coÌ„sideration thereof we shall obtaine a true relation of it and such a one as will deliuer vs from it and free vs from the care of all that which heere is sought with such a pestilent kind of desire What better weights or measure can you desire that so you may not be deceiued nor be drawen to take one thing for another then to carry it instantly to the Passion and death of Iesus Christ our Lord who then condemned that which the world esteemed and to carry it also to the hower of our owne death which conducts vs all naked solitary and defeated and to be trod vpon by the seete of our seruants And you in particular may doe well to remember this point since besides the feare which we all ought to haue of that passage your self haue another particular reason for it because you haue a more particular knowledge of death for lately you wanted not as a man may say a fingar's breadth of passing through it to eternity Take heede take heede that you be not deceaued by those false apparances and by those painted maskes for they are no better then maskes which enueagle deceaue our soules And if you like these shadowes so well raise vp your hart to heauen where the Truthes of these things are whereof heere there is but some litle resemblance And so you will neither conceiue any enuie against him whome you finde to prosper in warldly things neither yet will you haue any great appetite to possesse that which in fine you must be forced to leaue Do not entangle your selfe with this earth since God hath giuen you some good hopes and pledges that he meanes to carry you to heauen And those are his most sacred death the knowledge and loue of the Crucifix the receauing of the holy Sacraments whereby in the holy Church there is giuen a pardon of our sinnes and the adoption of the Sonnes of God and consequently of heyres Let him seeke for shadowes who hath no hope to lay holde on things of substance Let him respect a short tyme who hath
be sayd that a woeman killed mee for a woeman had cast a peece of earth stifly downe vpon him from the fortresse Thus must you doe when the Deuill shall offer you combate Cast Christ our lord at him and soe breake his head for Christ our lord being man is called earth and soe the enemy shall dye And if notwithstanding it seeme to you that still he must be a liue knowe yet that he remaynes in extreme trouble and euen as dead to see himself ouercome and to be the occasion that you shall gayne crownes whereas he thought that they would haue proued fetters To what greater misery can an enemy be subiect then to see that he helpes him to be great in the eyes of God For if you sawe the treasure which you haue gayned by resisting the Deuill soe very often there is noe doubte but that it would sufficiently temper the bitternes of your troubles to consider the beawty and riches of those crownes Now so many pretious stones haue you gotten wherewith to enrich your crowne as you haue resisted times those counsailes of the Deuill and so much haue you gained of eternall rest as you haue with patience endured seuerall times the sadd afflictions which he hath brought vpon you Be not therfore weary of getting still new pretious stones though whilest they are throwne at you they hurt you a little but then instantly after they are your owne And see that you resist that vnprofitable sadnesse which is the beginning of many mischiefes confiding in our lord and being cheerefull in the hope of his loue tread all vnder foot and let it seeme little to you as S. Bernard saith My afliction is hardly to bee counted afliction for one halfe howre and if it proue any longer I fele it not through the force of my loue Tread you vpon the dragon and vpon the lyon and let him feare you Psal 26. and not you him And say you to your self Our lord is my helper and whome them shall I feare Our Lord takes care of mee what then can arriue which may afflict mee Our lord gouernes mee and I am safe Our lord serues himself of mee and I aspire to no other happines how much soeuer it may cost mee And thus the Deuill finding you full of courage and well armed shall not bee able to pull you downe but rather feare soe much as to assault you Our lord who called you conserue you and make you such as I beseech him that you may bee Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallier his freind THE newes of this messenger who is parting takes me by night and without paper and full of my ordinary indispositions I beseech our lord who is omnipotent to tell you that by himselfe which he was to haue tould you by my penne since in me there is noe ability to doe it nor haue I indeede any oportunity The cōplaintes you make against your selfe vpon the opinion which you had of your owne prudence are iust You must admitt them doe them iustice euer esteeming that opinion for a crafty enemye and counting vp euery pace it makes that soe you may vnderstand the deceites thereof For in these temptations to know them is to ouercome them Make that very account with your selfe which was made by that Monke in this namer I came not to iudge any but to be iudged by all Say thus to your selfe I came not to haue zeale of others but of my selfe God places not me in the office of a guide but in the duty of being guided And who is soe maddly impertinent as that hee will thinke to hitt right in that where God puttes him not since euery plantation which is not made by the heauenly father shall be rooted vp But now if by Obedience you be commaunded to deliuer your minde first begg you light of our lord and then declare it but not without feare and as a thing which you doe but offer to the end that it may be examined by others And you are not to shoot it out with such a kind of resolution and auctority as if it must needes be approued and executed because forsooth you thought it fitt Noe nor that it ought to haue any force att all vpon that reason but onely that things may soe be done as others may take to be most cōuenient whether they approue or disallow your opinion And you must conceiue that by doeing thus you comply with the duty of your Obedience and that you haue nothing more to doe in that busines They who either be endwed with light from heauen or haue else beene taught to see by the many falles which they haue taken doe noe lesse feare euen some good desires of particular thinges then the executing of some desires which are not good Yea and in some sorte they apprehend them more because of the two it is harder to vnderstand and maister the deceipt which lurkes in them Now this feare takes order that they runne not instantly to entertaine them but to keepe their stand recommending that desire of theirs to our lord and asking councell of him This feare is the beginning of wisedome and it is alsoe the end thereof It is hard to declare this pointe by letter but for him who hath a superiour whome he obeyes it is easily declared by putting the case and following his counsell When you shall be come to know that such a busines concernes the seruice of God and that it is fitt to be dispatched yet still euen that must be done in such sorte as that his Maiesty be not offended for whose seruice the busines it to be vndertaken For if the heart be thereby filled with cares and distractions and especially if they come at wrong tymes the thing it selfe may well be iust but the manner of doeing it wil not be soe It is a good thing for a man to cary himselfe like a persone who is at the comaund of another and not as a guide of the busines Not as if you were some great maister but rather like some young fellow who were bidden eyther to come or goe when the care of any particular shall put it selfe vnseasonably vpon you say to it to this effect Our lord commaundes me nothing about that matter at this time For my part I haue nothing to thinke all will goe into errour if it be done after my fancye when our lord shall commaund me to doe it I will doe it and I will both heare and speake For this purpose it is good to sett out some determinate time to thinke of these thinges which require care that soe they may not come vpon a man in troupes when he were to be in silence with God If they bring any affliction with them which much disquiet we may well conceiue that that is not the way wherein God walkes nor doe we comply with his word which saith Nolite solicit◠esse labor enim exercendus sollicitudo tollenda you must not
which afflictes will haue an end and that which giues repose will succeed but the latter will not be like the former but incomparably greater And if you tell me that you will renounce this later vpon condition that you may not endure the former it is not well said nor doth it become a noble minde which desires more to see it selfe in difficulty trouble for the obtaining of vertue then to be idle and without exercise Nor is it fitt that you who haue caried soe much courage in your hart through these warres of the Emperour should haue it faintely affected in the warre of God We demaund not of you heere that you should conduct a whole army like some Captaine generall but onely that you traile your pike well giue a good account of your persoÌ„ne of the place where you are put Be not a coward in the lesse occasion whoe are soe valiant in the greater Put your selfe wholy into the passion of our lord and learne thereby how much he endured and how great loue he bore to you since being able to redeeme you by other meanes yet he would not doe it but vpon the price of his excessiue paines and sorrowes And soe it comes to passe that as he in one hower did more loue his father then all mankinde put togeather in all their liues soe in one hower did he passe through more bitter sorrowes then all mankinde and there was not in the whole liues of them all to be found eyther any loue or any greife like his Straine your selfe to a desire of enduring somewhat for him Be not a slaue since he loues you and treates you as a sonne For the father correctes the sonne and you may hold your selfe for his sonne since he correctes you Loue your father depart from your selfe and giue your selfe to God Say to him I will follow thee though it be by the way of sorrow I will present thee with this suffering I will not giue thee any thing of little value but that which may cost me my blood that soe thou mayest to me as thou didst to Abraham Quia fecisti hanc rem non pepercisti vnigenito tuo propter me c. Now if God take it soe well that a man giue his sonne for the loue of God how much reason is it that man should be very gratefull to god for the giuing of his sonne for man And he onely is indeede thankefull for the benefitt who in recompence thereof giues his owne sonne to god namely that thing which his hart would most be troubled to leaue and this because God will haue it soe Consider the true Originall of loue which God did beare you but let it be with fetching this resolution from thence that as they drew blood from him gaue sorrowes to him he may giue them to you and as they gaue him paine soe he may giue paine to you For infallibly if soe you shall answere to the sorrowes of God with your sorrowes he will answere to those sorrowes of yours with such a reward as shal make you esteeme your selfe happie for hauing endured them And though our flesh beleiue not this yet faith must supply that defect you must sing Laetati sumus pro diebus quibus nos humiliasti annis quibus vidimus mala So God grant it may be Amen A Letter of the Authour to a holy Religious woman written in a time when she was subiect to some perturbations and persecutions about a booke which she was wished to publish He declares how she is to cary her selfe in spirituall things and which is the sasest way how to treat with God and to vse that gift of Prayer which she had THE grace and peace of Iesus Christ our Lord be euer with you When I accepted to read that booke of yours which was sent me it was not soe much out of any opinion that I was able to iudge of these things which are conteyned therein as because I thought that with the fauour of our lord my selfe might profitt by them And I thanke Christ that althought I haue not read it with that repose which had beene fitt yet I was comforted thereby may alsoe be benefitted otherwise if the fault be not mine owne And truly though I might receiue comfort by reading it without reflecting vpon it otherwise Yet me thinkes the respect I owe both to the matter it selfe as also to the person who commendes it vnto me despenses not with me in forbearing to say some part of what I thinke thereof at least in generall tearmes The booke is not fitt to come into the hands of many For the words must be reformed in some partes thereof declared in others And some things may be profitable to your spiritt which would not be soe if they should be followed by others For the particular wayes whereby God guides some are not fitt for all These or the most of them I haue noted downe and I will putt them into order as soone as I can I shall easily finde meanes to send them to you For if you saw my infirmities accompanied with my other necessary imployements I beleiue they would rather moue you to compassion then to any accusation of me for negligence The doctrine of your prayer for the most part is good and you may very safely beleiue it and practise it and in your Raptes I finde these signes which true Raptes haue The way of God's teaching a soule without the vse of the imagination and without eyther interiour or exteriour wordes is very safe I finde nothing therein wherat to stumble and S. Augustine speakes well of it Those interiour and exteriour wordes haue deceiued many in our times and the exteriour are the lesse safe of the two To discerne that they proceede not from our owne spiritt is an easy matter but to finde whether they grow from a good spiritt or from a bad is more hard Men giue many rules whereby to know if they bee of our Lord and one of them is if they be spoken in some time of great spirituall necessity Or if a man profitt much by them whether it be by way of comforting him when he is in temptation or desolation or for the preuention of any dâ—ger c. For if euen a wise good man will not speake a word which is not of much weight much lesse will that be done by almighty God And considering both this and that the wordes must be agreable to holy Scripture the doctrine of the Church I am of opinion that these wordes which are mentioned in your booke or the greatest part of them are of God That whereof there is more doubt are the imaginary or corporall visions whereof you speak These must in noe case be desired and if they come without being desired yeâ— must you auoyd them as much as you can We must beseech our lord that he will not suffer vs to walke by the way of seeing but as
for the good sight of himselfe and of his Saints that he will keepe it for heauen and that heere he will be pleased to conduct vs by the plaine way as he doth his faithfull freindes And by other good meanes we must also procure to auoyd those thinges But yet when all this is done if the visions last and if the soule reape profitt by them and if the sight thereof induce it not to vanity but to increase of humility if that which they say be agreable to the doctrine of the Church if they coÌ„tinue any long time and with that interiour kinde of satisfaction which may better bee felt then declared by this time me thinkes I see hoe â—â—use why we should flye them any longer Though â—â—t noe bodye is to trust his owne priuate opinion hâ—â—rein but he must instantly communicate the matter with some person who is able to giue him light This is the generall course which must be taken in all these thinges we may well hope in God that whoe hath humility to submitt himselfe to the iudgment of others God will not suffer him to be deceiued since he procures to walke in the right way But the while noe man should easily condemne those thinges vpon the onely reason of obseruing that the person to whome they bâ— vouchsafed are not perfect For it is noe new thing for the goodnes of our lord to draw men out of ill delights and euen out of sinnes and they great ones by giuing them very sweet consolations of his owne as I haue seene him doe For whoe shall limitt the goodnes of our lord especially since these thinges are not vouchsafed for the meritts of the partie or because he is better growen in spiritt then another but sometimes to such as are most weake And as they doe not necessarily make a man more a Saint then he was soe neither are they alwayes giuen to greatest Saints But yet they haue noe reason who discredit such thinges as these because they are very high and for that it seemes to them incredible that soe infinitt a maiesty should abase it selfe to such an amorous communication with a poore creature It is written that God is loue and if he be loue he must needes be infinitt loue and infinitt goodnes And from the hand of such loue and such goodnes it is noe meruaile if some soules receiue such excesses of loue as may trouble others who vnderstand them not And though men may vnderstand by faith that theâ—e are such thinges in the world yet the particular experience of this amorous and more theâ— morbus proceeding which God houldes with whome he will this I say vnlesse it be possessed a man cannot well vnderstand to what degree or point it arriues I haue seene many scandalized at the heroicall actes of the loue of our lord God towardes his creatures And because themselues are very farre from receiuing those fauours they caÌ„not thinke that God will doe that to others which they finde him not to doe towardes them And though it were reason that euen because it is an act of loue and such loue as castes vs into admiration it should be taken for a signe why to thinke it were of God since he is wonderfull in all his workes and much more in those of his mercy yet from thence fetch they reasons why they should not beleiue them from whence they should fetch reasons to beleiue them prouided alwayes that there be a concurrence of other circumstaÌ„ces which shew that the thing in it selfe is good For your part my opinion is that by what I can perceiue in your booke you haue made resistance to such thinges as these euen more then it was fitt you should Me thinkes they haue profitted your soule and especially they haue made you know your owne miserie and faultes and enabled you to mend them I finde that they haue lasted loÌ„g that euer they haue beene with spirituall profitt They incite you to the loue of God to the coÌ„tempt of your selfe and to the doeing of pennance I see noe reason why I should condemne them but I incline to thinke that they are right But yet â—uer with this condition that you vse great caution and that you goe not with entire confidence especially if that which happens be not vsuall with you or when it requires you to doe any particular thing which is not very plaine but subject to some question In all these cases the like you must suspend your beleife and instantly aske counsell I also thinke good to lett you know that though these thinges be of God yet the enemy may mingle somewhat with them therefore you must neuer be without care feare in such thinges as these And you must further know that though they be of God you must not yet reflect vpon them with too much estimation because sanctity consists not in these thinges but in the humble loue of God and your neighbour And as for these others they are to be feared euen when they are right and you must passe from the thought thereof to the procuring of humility other vertues with the loue of our lord You must alsoe be sure not to adore any of those visions but onely adore Christ our Lord in heauen or in the Sacrament And if it be a vision of any Saint you must lift vp your heart to heauen to that which is represented in your imagination and you neede noe more but that the image may serue to cary you vp to that which is represented by it I must alsoe tell you that these thinges coÌ„teyned in this booke happen to many others in these times and this with great certainty that they are from God whose hand is not shortened to doe that now which he did in former ages this in the weaker sorte of vessalls that soe he may be glorified the more Goe you on in your way but soe as that you bee euer in feare of theeues and that still you be asking if the way be right And giue thaÌ„kes to our Lord for that he hath bestowed vpon you the loue of him and the knowledge of your selfe and a loue of pennance and of the Crosse And as for those other thinges make noe very high account thereof though yet on the other side you must not despise them because they are signes which shew that many of them are sent by our lord and euen theÌ„y which are not cannot hurt you if you aske counsaile I know not how to beleiue that I haue beene able to write this by any strength of mine for I haue none at all but your prayer hath done it I beseech you euen for the loue of our lord Iesus Christ to laye it as a charge vpon yourselfe to pray for me For he knowes that I aske it as being vrged by great necessities and I thinke this word alone will suffice for the obliging you to doe what I desire And now I beg leaue of you
that I should write haue beene the reasons of this letter I beseech that soueraines goodnes which hath already vouchsafed you soe much fauour that to his owne eternall glory hee may finish the good worke which it hath begunne You see in what fashion I am talking to you I haue layd aside those Titles of honour and rancke which according to the stile of the world now forsaken by you belonged to your quality And I write as to one who is already estranged wholly from the world and in soe playne a manner as is conuenient to a domestick seruant of Christ our lord and as is fitt for the Institute whereof you are And since your selfe desired it and I haue obeyed you in it be carefull that now when you haue abhorred the Tytles of this world you may also abhorre the affections thereof and that now you may passe wholly on into that age cuius pater Christus est Esay 9. whose father is Christ our lord Which consists not soe much in whether the time be present or future as itt doth in Spiritt which cometh after flesh For as the Apostle saith non prius quod spirituale sed quod animale 1. Cor. 15. That is not first which is spirituall but that which is animal And therefore the spirituall is called seculum futurum a future age Soe much the more care must you take of this as it will be more hard for you to doe it since he who hath most to leaue doth it with most difficulty And the man who hath most impediments is least able to runne lightly away And this is the good which they gett who are the great men of this world though they come not to knowe it till they putt themselues to runne after others who are before them And then the faster he runnes the more he shall feele it And by his owne experience he will be able to vnbeguild himselfe in that which the world beleiues Namely that it is better to be great then meane and poore And soe I beleiue it hath happened to you if indeede you haue begun to follow Christ our Lord or at least will finde it when you shall begin The thing which must comfort you herein is this That since our Lord vouchsafed to take you for his seruant when you were most vntoward vncapable thereof hee will giue you greater strength wherewith to serue him now then hee would haue giuen to another who had not beene soe incapable And soe must you represent your selfe before our Lord who hath called and accepted you beseeching him that howsoeuer it may putt you to more payne and shame he will yet bestow that vpon you whereby you may serue him much since you owe him much And consider your selfe as a person who bringes but halfe that meanes wherewith to negotiate this busines which another bringes And begg pardon for ill employing euen your little stocke but yet with giuing thankes to our liberall lord whose workes are great towards his poore creatures That soe liuing with feare and trembling to see your selfe soe vnworthy of such a place there may grow from thence a due reuerence to all your neighbours carrying them vpon the topâ—e of your heade and doeing for them as any slaue would doe for his lord considering how mercifully Christ our lord hath done the same to you you may haue good hope to proue well in your great busines if you obtaine that knowledge of your selfe whereof I haue spoken And then shall you spend your life happily when you hould euery daye thereof to be the last Christ our Lord bee with you Amen A Letter of the Authour to some Disciples which he had in the Citty of Ezija THE peace of our Lord Iesus Christ be euer with you Amen Since I parted from your presence I haue euer had you all present with me in my memory for the loue I beare you permits me not to doe otherwise Giue your selues still to God since you once gaue your selues to him and I was a witnes thereof nor will I by any meanes that you repent the hauing offered yourselues to him since hee offered himselfe to death for you You shall be sure to haue battailles and those sharp enough for our enemies are in great multitude and full of rage Bee not therefore negligent for if you be you are instantly vndone If they who watch best haue enough to doe to defend themselues what doe you thinke will become of wrechlesse persons but that they should entirely bee ouercome Remember that the pleasure which sinne presents is small filthy and shorte and the sorrow which it leaues behinde is very great and the misery which growes to vs thereby is incomparably greater What sorrow how great soeuer it be can equal that which wee ought to conceiue vpon our losse of Almighty God O misery which should make vs tremble euen in hearing it named For if we delight in sinne we shall haue noe part in God Let vs therefore consider how we liue for we shall shortly be led before the Throne of God to giue account of our selues Let not the vncleanes of the flesh nor the vanitie of the world nor the subtility of the deuil deceiue vs. But let vs behould Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse and we shall see him tormented in his body dishonoured by the world that soe he subdued the deuill Who euer looked towards Christ our Lord and was deceiued Infallibly there was neuer any Let vs therefore neuer draw our eyes of from him vnlesse we meane to turne blinde Let it neuer seeme to him that wee valew his loue soe little as that although he died for vs we cannot find in our harts soe much as to bee looking towards him For he died for this that wee by looking vp to him might striue to dye to our sinnes Let therefore our ould man die in vs since our new man who is Christ our Sauiour died for vs vpon the Crosse Let vs approach towards his wounds for by his wee shall be cured of ours And if wee thinke it a heauy thing to part from our sinnes it was much more hard and heauy for his soule to part from his body when he died to the end that wee might euer liue Let vs therefore goe on apace take hart to follow such a captaine as this who leades vs the way not onely in doeing but in suffering Let vs crucifye our flesh with him that now wee may noe longer liue according to the desires of the flesh but of the spirit If the world shall persecute vs let vs goe hide our selues in his holy woundes and there wee shall finde those iniuries as delightfull to our harts as any musicke is sweete to the eare And soe rude stones will be to vs as pretious Iewels and prisons will be pallaces and death it selfe will be conuerted into life O Iesus Christ and how strong is that loue of thine and how truly doth it coÌ„uert all things
to our good as S. Paule saith Infallibly that man shal neuer die of hunger who is fed by this loue of thine He shall feele noe nakednes he shall neuer finde want of any thing which this world can giue For possessing God by loue noe good thing can be wanting to him Let vs therefore O my beloued brethren be taken with a great desire of goeing to see this vision of the bush which burnes and yet is not consumed That is Exod 2 how they who loue God suffer iniuries and yet feele them not how in the middest of hunger they are full fed how they are cast of by the world and yet afflict not themselues thereat how they are assaulted by the fire of fleshly appetites and yet they are not scortched by it They are troaden vnder foote and yet they stand fast vpright they seeme poore and they are rich They seeme deformed but they are full of beauty They seeme straungers but they are citizens They are not knowne to men but they are familiarly acquainted with Almighty God All this and more is brought to passe by the noble Loue of our lord Iesus Christ in the hart where it is lodged But noe man can arriue vnto this vnlesse he put of his shoes that is to say his vnmortified affections which spring vp out of â—â—lselouâ— For this is the root of death as the loue of God is the cause of life A life which is spirituall holy admitts to weare aâ—e â—hâ—es that is to say noe desires of seâ—feloue He who loues Christ our Lord must abhorre himselfe He who will not be cruell to Christ our Lord lett him not be coÌ„passionate to himselfe They who dandle themselues shew vnkindnes to Christ our Lord and they who take soe much care of themselues cannot make God their businesse Let vs therefore giue our All that which we are which God knowes is but a little All for that other great All which is Almighty God Let vs giue ouer the following of our owne proper will and let vs betake our selues with diligence to follow the will of God Let vs esteeme all things as meer dung that soe wee may possesse that pretious pearle which is Christ our Lord. And to the end that we may see him in his beauty and glory let vs heere be content to embrace dishonour labour Infallibly he shall neuer finde himselfe deceiued who makes such an exchaunge as this But when God shall come with his Saints and shall come to reward euery one according to hiâ— workes then will that appeare to haue beene foolery which now is held in soe great account and then it will be their turne to lament who now shall haue spent their mortall liues in delight And he only will be avowed by Christ our Lord who shall haue liued according to his holy will O how great shall the ioy of good men bee at that day when receiuing high honour at the hands of God they shall be seated vpon those thrones which were prepared for them from all eternity and when in society of all the quires of Angels they shall sing prayses to their Lord and their God O how great will their ioy be who shall behould the king in his beauty In the contemplation whereof they will be soe happy that noe one of them shall bee without euen regorging through his being soe full of that pretious liquour and that soueraigne Balsamum which created all good thinges In comparison of this all beauty is deformity the very brightnes of the sunne it selfe is direct downe-right darknes the very topp of other delights is the very bitternes of gall And in fine that I may not reckon vp euery particular thing by it selfe in comparison of this beauty all the things of the whole world put together are not to be esteemed for any thing at all neither are they any thing in very deede O eternall God thou who art all thinges and yet who art none of these thinges and when shall that day arriue wherein we may bee soe happy as to see thee when is this earthen pott to be cracked which shuts vs vpp from enioying soe great a good When shall theese chaines be broken which hinder vs from flying vpp to thee who art the true repose of such as are to repose indeede Let vs not my Brethren looke any other way but onely vppon Almighty God Let vs call vpon him in our harts and let vs keepe him close imbraced by vs that soe hee may neuer part from vs. For woe be to vs wretched thinges what shall wee be able to doe without him but onely to turne againe into our nothing Let vs now at last cast this world behinde vs which yet wee carry before our eyes and let vs at last beginn to trye how sweete our Lord is Let vs runn after him who came running downe towards vs from heauen it selfe that he might carry vs thither Let vs goe to him who cals vs and who doth it with soe much loue from the topp of that Crosse with his flesh all torne and euen as it were broyled with the fire of loue to the end that it might be more sauoury to our taste O that we might feede thereon O that we might euen consume thereby O that we were all traÌ„sformed O that wee could growe to be one and the self-same spiritt with God Who is he that detaines vs who is he that hinders vs who is hee that deceaues vs soe as that wee cannot perswade our selues to draw neare to God If it bee our goods let vs cast them away if they be in our power if they bee not let vs keepe them though onely as soe much dunge which may bee layd vp with diligence for good vses but yet still without any loue at all to the thing it selfe If is be our wiues S. Paule lets vs know that wee must haue wifes as if wee had them not If it be our children let vs loue them but for the loue of God And let vs euen out of water bee able to kindle a fire whereby all that may be burnt vpp which shall pretend to deuide vs from Almighty God Let the teares of greife wash vs and the fire of loue consume vs and soe wee shall growe to be those holy creatures which were offered vpp to God with fire O eternall God whoe coÌ„sumest our couldnes and how sweetly doest thou burne and how dearely doest thou inflame and how delightfully doest thou consume vs O that wee all might altogether burne with thee Then would all our powers cry out and say O Lord who is like to thee For whosoeuer hee bee that sayth he knowes thee and yet loues thee not is a lyar Lett vs therefore loue thee and let vs alsoe knowe thee since loue growes from that knowledge And afterward make vs able to possesse thee since they who possesse thee are soe rich and possessing thee let vs be possessed by thee and soe let vs employ
not onely in that which giues vs gust but in the contrary alsoe For otherwise what wonder is it to see the spouse obey her fellow spouse in that which giues contentment to her selfe since for that there is noe greate neede of loue for the respect of proper interest is able to breed such obedience as that Nor doe I know with what eyes Christ our lord will looke vpon such a spouse as that since he obeyed his Father Matth. 26. for her sake in cases of soe extreame affliction saying Let it be not as I wil but as thou wilt Whereas shee saith iust the contrary Not as thou wilt but as I will for shee will be squared out by another rule then her head was and will needs make the will of God which is eternally good to be crocked that it may conforme it selfe to her will which seekes not that which is truly good for her and which eternally is to be soe but that which seemes likely to giue her some little temporall delight A wake O Virgin out of that sleepe wherein you are for it is broad day Take the sheild of Faith Rom. 13. since God hath armed you with it and driue away these dismayes beleeuing that you are beloued though you be not regaled by our lord And turne your complaint backe vpon yourself since a little present disfauour is of more power towards the drawing you downe then the many fauours which are past to keepe you fast on foot You now doe iust the contrary of what you should For whereas it were reason that in this time of tribulation you should remember your comforts of former times beleiuing that the trouble which now you haue is but to trye what proportion of trust you repose in God You doe yet call it into question whether his loue were true to you then or noe beleiuing rather in the shew and leafe then in the substance and roote You haue noe iust cause to be dismayed though you bee afflicted For our lord is nor gone from you but he went away with a meaning onely to stande by and to see how you carried yourselfe like a mother who hides herselfe behind a hanging to obserue and heare what her childe sayth and doth whilst he thinkes that he hath lost her but then shortly shee steps out and makes much of him If you feare that he hath forsaken you and giuen you a bill of separation for the faults and ignorances into which you may haue fallen you are much deceiued For in farr greater falls then those Ierem. 3. his course hath beene to comfort soules by saying Thou hast committed fornication with many louers but yet retourne to me and I will receiue thee Though God like well that his seruants should know and weigh the faults into which they fall yet it is not his pleasure that they should be dismayed or too excessiuely afflicted by them Nay he esteemes this to be of more disseruice to him then the very fall it selfe Neither is it alsoe his pleasure that a sinne which is as little as a graine of seede should be made by vs as bigg as an Elephant and much lesse that we should make that to be a sinne wich indeed is none Soe that if you haue not fallen into sinne and yet will needs be troubled as if you had you offend against his truth And if you had fallen you should offend against his mercye by not beleiuing that he hath pardoned you You offend alsoe against his loue by suspecting that he hath forgotten you And lastly you offend against the Crosses which he hath sent to you esteeming them to be messengers and signes of wrath whereas indeed they are effects of his goodnes Take therefore the courage now at last to sally out from the owne narrow thought beleiue of God according to his goodnes as it imports his honour that you should doe And liue not still in such blindnes as to measure the large hand of God by the rules of your owne poore woefull hart Nor conceiue you that now he will be a rigorous iudge who at others times and in your greatest occasions hath beene a most indulgent Father to you It was not you vpon whome he looked when he pardoned you and called you but he regarded his owne blood which he shedd Nor doth he now stand hanging vpon your handes as if he loued you for them but you are placed and written in his as he sayth by his Prophet Isay And in those handes he loues you and with those handes he guards you euen then when you thinke he giues you buffets But it is his mercye which is your remedye and safety and noe meritt of your owne You are a Daughter and you are to possesse heauen by way of inheritance and not as a meere day labourer Confide in God and giue him glory in that he lodges his eyes vpon soe vnworthy a thing as you and for that he purposes to exalt soe base a creature to such height of glory And know that he hath noe neede of anything in you and that if he desire anything it is but that you may offer him that sacrifice of praise for your owne good confessing him to be your gratious pardoner and your piteous rayser vp from your falls and your Centinell who neuer sleepes when there is questioÌ„ eyther of doeing you fauours or of drawing good out of your sinnes and your most wise conductour who carries and saues you by such pathes as seeme in the eye of your ignoraunce to be very farr about or rather quite out of the way And all this he doth through his owne goodnes alone considering what himselfe is Which carries a greater weight towards your saluation then your wickednes doth towards your condemnation and you are bound to beleiue that soe it is And it must not seeme straunge to you that the greater surmounts the lesse and the Creatour the creature But let it stand for the last conclusion that as noe goodnes in you was the cause why God loued and called you to his seruice soe will he take care that your wickednes and weakenes shall not hinder the course of those mercies which he resolues to shew you for all eternity Continew your Communions and I beseech our Lord to giue them his benediction For my part I like well thereof and vpon the dayes which are sett downe communicate from time to time and God will giue you strength that it may doe you no hurt for he hath noe quarrel to you I beg that he may be your Loue since he is your Louer A Letter to a Lady who was a Religious woman and in great affliction He shewes how troubâ—es are the proofe of Faith and Loue in the seruants of God and how confident they ought to be of his diuine Maiesty in the middest of their troubles AS soone as I receiued your letter I offe red thankes to our Lord for hauing giuen you a signe that your vocation came
from his hand and this signe is that you haue suffered tribulation You must not be a little gladd of this since our Lord loues you Nor yet must you be slacke since you are in the middest of many dangers but carry your eye towards him who hath called you with so great loue You must alsoe haue a stronge harte For he called you not with intention to giue you ouer in the middest of your iourney but to guide you vnder the protection of his owne wings till he may haue conducted you to heauen where you shall see his face Let not the faith of Christ our Lord nor the loue you owe him sleepe in you for he neuer sleepes when there is question of doeing you any good These are tokens which he vses to send to whome he loues to try if they alsoe loue him in their afflictions and if they confide in him in their dangers That Spouse is not worthy of thaÌ„kes who loues her fellow spouse but onely when he is present with her not doth it cost him much to confide in him when she findes her selfe regaled by him But the matter is that when he absents himselfe from her yea and when he seemes to haue forgotten her she must loue him soe much the better as he is further absent from her and confide in him soe much the more as she hath fewer exteriour signes of his fauour It is enough for you my good sister to haue knowne already by experience how louing our Lord hath beene to you by his hauing drawne you to the knowledge of himself And be you not crauing new testimonies of his Loue but making your selfe sure enough thereof and be not troubled though he correct you and though it seeme as if he estraunged himselfe from you and forgott you but rather say thus Hee hath a minde to trye me and not to oppresse mee You must loue our Lord though he correct you you must coÌ„fide in him though you feele noe comfort from him Seeke him though he hide himselfe suffer him not to rest till you haue waked him and till he confesse that you are faithfull in his absence And thus you shall finde him returne to you with soe much aduantage as that when you enioye his presence againe you will esteeme your former afflictions well imployed Procure greate courage wherewith to suffer for after the rate of your sorrows shall your comforts be Bee not a louer of your selse but be a louer of God loose yourselfe and soe you shall be sure to finde your selfe And if once you would but trust God home and if once you would offer your selfe to him with true loue there could nothing happen which would fright you All bitter frosen afflictions proceede but from distrust in God And for this our Lord said Let not your harts be troubled and doe not feare You beleiue in God beleiue alsoe in mee Soe that faith and loue is the cause of peace Iohn 14 and quietnes to the hart There is noe one thinge which is soe necessary for you towards the making you able to arriue at the end of that dayes worke wherein God hath placed you as to confide in him with loue Our lord hath many proofes to make of you and many tribulations shall growe where you looke least for them but if you stand armed with faith and loue you shall ouercome them all Doe but remember how the children of Israell Num. 1 when they were issued out of the land of Egypt by the meanes of soe many miracles and were passing through soe many afflictions before they arriued at that land which our lord had promised them said thus The people which possesse this land is greater and stronger then wee they haue mightie Citties whose walis doe euen threaten the skye we cannot ouercome such a stout nation as this to what end doe wee put our selues vpon this iourney And though some amongst them whoe had faith did encourage the rest by saying that since God was of their side they should easily be able to ouercome as they had done till then yet feare preuailed soe farre as that they offended our lord thereby and through their little considence they lost the land and God destroyed them in the desert without suffering them to enioye that for which they had laboured and which himselfe had promised Let vs take warning my good sister by the danger of others and lett vs know that our lord hath gust Psal 147. in such as feare him and hope in his mercie and is offended with such as doe not soe It is he whoe drewe you out of the captiuity of Egypt when he inspired your hart with a desire of being his and hee leades you still through this desert which is soe impleasant where sometymes you want the bread of doctrine for lacke of such as might breake it to you other tymes you want company which may speake of spirituall things that soe your way might be made to seeme the shorter At other tymes you want the trees of other recreation which might giue you shade and in steede of these coÌ„modities you haue a thousand discomforts Now temptations rise against you from within and then from without now from strangers and then from domesticks But yet attend you onely to your busines for he who did that for you which was more can neuer faile to doe that for you which is lesse He who made you a freind of an enemy will better keepe you now when you are his freind He who did not abandon you when you fled from him will much lesse fly now from you when you follow him Who is he that can say with any truth that God did not helpe him if he were desired See you haue noe feare o you seruant of Christ in any thing which may happen to you but confide in him who Loued you soe well as to dye for you It is true that you haue but one who protects you but that one is of much more power then all they whoe contradict you Doe not thinke of how great the giants and how stronge the Citties are which you must encounter for it is not you who must fight Numb 14. But hold you your peace and our lord will fight for you Doe not fly from the warre nor abandon your selfe as one who were ouercome and soe you shall see the fauour of our Lord â—â—wards you For in this warre he onely looses the battaille Exod. 14. who quitts the feild It is true that you are weake but in that weakenes of yours God will shew his strength It is true that you know not much but God himselfe will be your guide By your miseries God will make his mercies appeare Whoe are you that you should be able to passe through such difficulties but yet say with Daâ—id Pâ—â— 17. In the strength of my God I will leape ouer a wall Who are you that you should be able to fight but yet say with him
for that person with whome your lordship willed mee to speake I haue not done it yet for I haue now kept my bed ten or twelue dayes together But yesterday I rose and I will take great care to doe what you cōmaund very shortly and you shall knowe what I finde Since you went from hence our lord hath beene pleased to giue mee a much more particular care to recommend you into the hands of his mercy I did not then vnderstand the cause it is like to be this that there is more neede thereof Be it what it will your lordship is to animate your self with new courage to offer your self vp to the will of our lord like one who performes seruice to his father who is some great man whome hee loues much your lordship was not borne for your self but for God For euen before you were borne you were already purchased by Iesus Christ who bought vs with himself a price of inestimable valewe to the end that wee who liue might as S. Paul sayeth not liue to our-solues but to him Who is hee that will pretend to remayne his owne now that he sees himself to haue beene bought by Almighty God and by the price of God himself There are men who offer themselues to the losse of their liues in some warr for slight causes and shall wee be soe destitute of courage as not to giue our-selues to God he gaue himself for vs into the hands of those base executioners and shall not wee aduenture to putt our-selues into his He did it that he might die and wee are to doe it that wee may liue I would not haue your lordshipp to be nigardly herein but make now this account There is a God and for that misery which he hath endured for mee and for those sinnes which he hath forgiuen mee and for those blessings which he hath vouchsafed mee I owe my self to him three thousand times ouer If hitherto I haue not giuen him the entire dominion ouer my self I am sorry for it From this instant I giue my self free and without any impediment or obligation otherwise that he may treate me wholy according to his will and that mine may submitt it self to his as well in the doeing of any thing which he commaundes by his holy lawe as in the suffering of any affliction which he shall either continue or add to mee Where can I be kept better then in the hands of God into which I putt my self since he suffers not his creatures to be lost and was content to loose his life that I might be enabled to doe this He would not aske it of mee if he did not like it and he would not take pleasure in itt if he did not desire it For it is not a proceeding for God to vse to desire vs to giue him that which he hath noe mind to receiue any more then it is his custome to commaund that wee aske and yet he forbeare to giue And since he hath notified his deare will to vs wherewith he desires our good and consequently that wee may bee his let vs not doubt to belciue but that he who is so carefull to demaund and he who demaunds with the menace of hell if it be not graunted and with promise of the kingdome of heauen if it be will not be slacke in receiuing that very thing which he demaunds Let it not seeme to your Lordship that the sinnes of your former life ought to diuert you from this amorous embracement of Almighty God since he stands crying out to a sinner with his armes all open and since he doth so before the sinner calles on him For thus he saith Fornicata es cum amatoribus multis Ierem 3. tamen reuertere ad me ego suscipiam te Thou hast committed fornication with many louers but yet returne to mee and I will receiue thee The shepheard will not easily be weary in seeking his lost sheepe nor the falkoner in procuring to recouer his hauke and when he findes her he takes her and returnes home with much ioy I say this because by what I conceiue of your lordship you are endewed with a greater measure of the knowledge of your self then of the knowledge of God and therefore that you will be more subiect to feare then to hope and loue I wish you not to retract the ill opinion you haue of your selfe confesse and beleiue that you haue cause and doe not seeke to remoue your feare with false hopes and lyes to diminish your miseryes by that meanes This would not indeed proue any diminution but an addition of one mischeif vpon the backe of another and the latter would be worse then the former and an impediment in steed of a remedy since God neuer graunts his pardon and mercy but to such a one as vnderstands his owne miserie But beleiue that as wee are more wicked then wee can arriue to knowe soe is God more good then wee can possibly imagine Another kind of hart hath he then wee conceiue and especially in pardoning which men knowe very ill how to doe because they knowe not well how to loue And from hence it growes that they are not able to reach to that height of mercy which God vouchsafes to sinners For as they know nothing by experience of themselues but anger against such as offend them and if they pardon there yet remaynes a thousand reliques of the disgust and withall a great cooling of they re loue therfore doe they iudge of God as they would doe of themselues and if they say with they re mouths that there is difference betweene God and man and that they forgiue as well as they can yet theyr harts doe not beate to the same time When your lordships sonnes shall bee more growne and shall haue giuen you some disgusts you will haue had some sent and taste of this The father doth not vnloue the sonne although that sonne make him angry but he correctes him and still carries the hart of a father towards him And soe is our lord wont to proceede and whensoeuer the sinner hath a mind to returne to him he refuses not to receiue him into his paternall hart Yea and euen when he retournes not he is desiring that he would retourne and all his sinnes are not able to quench this desire in him fort his loue is that which still exceeds Now wee gayne this loue and this retreate in to the hart of God by him who is the Mediatour betweene God and men Iesus Christ our lord Who being the naturall sonne did gayne the adoption of sonnes for vs and that God should haue the hart of a father towards vs his sonnes whensoeuer wee would dispose our selues to enioy this benefitt by meanes of pennance and the Sacraments This loue is as the roote from whence it proceedes that Almighty God is content to expect vs to call vs to receiue vs to pardon vs and to saue vs. For if wee consider well the hart
I beare to my creatures I couer it for whome nothing is so good as not to know any thing which concernes themselues but to remitt themselues wholy to me In that ignorance doth their knowledge consist in that suspence their strength and in that subiection their dominion And it ought to suffise a soule that it lyes in no other hands but mine which are also hers since for her they were nayled vpon the Crosse Yea they are more hers then mine since they laboured more for the purchase of her good then of mine owne And to the ende that I may draw her out of all self conceipt and make her follow my direction it is I who conduct her into this darkenesse that so she may know nothing of herself But yet still if she putt her confidence in me and departe not from my seruice I will deliuer her and I will glorifye her and all this will I performe to her Be faithfull to death Psal 90. and I will giue thee the Crowne of life This sayth our Lord to all faithfull soules and this he sayth to yours which I pray God to keepe Amen A Letter to a Lady who was a Religious woman and in great affliction He shewes how troubles are the proofe of Faith and Loue in the seruants of God and how confident they ought to be of his Diuine Maiesly in the middest of their troubles AS soone as I receiued your letter I offered thanks to our lord for hauing giuen you a signe that your vocation came from his hand and this signe is that you haue suffered tribulation You must not be a little glad of this since our Lord loues you Nor yet must you be slack since you are in the midst of many dangers butt carry your eye towardes him whoe hath called you with soe great loue You must alsoe haue a strong hart For he called you not with intention to giue you ouer in the midst of your iourney but to guide you vnder the protection of his owne wings till he may haue conducted you to heauen where you shall see his face Let not the Faith of Christ our Lord nor the loue you owe him sleepe in you for he neuer sleepes when there is question of doeing you anie good These are tokens which he vses to sende to whome he loues to trye if they also loue him in their afflictions and if they confide in him in their dangers That spouse is not worthy of thankes who loues her fellow-spouse but onely when he is present with her nor doth it cost her much to confide in him when she findes herselfe regaled by him But the matter is that when he absentes himself from her yea and when he seemes to haue forgotten her she must loue him so much the better as he is further absent from her and confide in him so much the more as she hath fewer exteriour signes of his fauour It is enough for you my good sister to haue knowen alreadie by experience how louing our lord hath beene to you by his hauing drawen you to the knowledge of himself And be you not crauing new testimonies of his loue but make yourself sure enough thereof and be not troubled although he correct you and though it seeme as if he estranged himself from you and forgott you but rather say thus He hath a minde to trye me and not to oppresse me You must loue our lord though he correct you you must confide in him though you feele no comfort from him Seeke him though he hide himself suffer him not to rest till you haue waked him and till he confesse that you are faithfull in his absence and thus you shall finde him to returne to you with so much aduantage as that when you enioy his presence againe you will esteeme your former afflictions well employed Procure great courage wherewith to suffer for after the rate of your sorrowes shall your comforts be Be not a louer of yourself but be a louer of God loose yourself and soe you shall bee sure to finde yourself And if once yow would bud trust God home and if once you would offer yourselfe to him with true loue there could nothing happen which would fright you All bitter frozen afflictions proceede but from distrust in God And for this our lord sayde Let not your harts bee troubled and doe not â—eare You beleiue in God beleiue also in me So that Faith and loue is the cause of peace and quietnesse to the hart There is no one thing which is so necessarie for you towards the making you able to arriue at the ende of that dayes worke wherein God hath placed you as to confide in him with loue Our lord hath manie proofes to make of you and manie tribulations shall growe where you looke least for them but if you stand armed with Faith and loue you shall ouercome them all Num 13. Doe but remember how the children of Israel when they were issued out of the land of Egypt by meanes of so manie miracles and were passing through so manie afflictions before they arriued at that land which our lord had promised them sayd thus The people which possesse this land is greater and stronger then we they haue mightie Citties whose walles doe euen threaten the skye we cannot ouercome such a stoute nation as this to what ende doe we putt ourselues vpon this iournie And though some amongst them who had Faith did encourage the rest by saing that since God was on their side they should easily be able to euercome as they had done till then yet feare preuailed so farre as that they offended our lord thereby and through their litle confidence they lost the land and God destroyed them in the desert without suffering them to enioy that for which they had laboured and which himself had promised Let vs take warning Psal 147. my good Sister by the danger of others and let vs knowe that our Lord hath gust in such as feare him and hope in his mercie and is offended with such as doe not so It is he who drew you out of the captiuitie of Egypt when hee inspired your hart with a desire of being his and he leades you still through this desert which is so vnpleasant where sometimes you want the bread of doctrine for lacke of such as might breake it to you At other times you want companie which may speake of spirituall things that so your way might bee made to seeme the shorter At other times you doe want the trees of other recreation which might giue you shade and thus in steede of these commodities you haue a thousand discomforts Now temptations rise against you from within and then from without now from strangers and then from domestiques Butt yett attende you onely to your businesse For he who did that for you which was more can neuer fayle to do that for you which is lesse He who made you a friend of an enemie will better
such haste doe neither vnderstand it nor thankfully acknowledge it and there remayne noe more with them but the meere sound thereof Iohn 19 And some that is such as are Infidells blaspheme him for it because they stay not to looke at leasure vpon this mighty wonder of loue But the Christian who hath taken vp his lodging heere sayth and that from his very hart This is my rest for euer and for euer will I dwell heere because I haue chosen it And if the spouse shall not remaine with at least her hart nailed to that Crosse to which the body of her fellow spouse was nailed how will shee possibly bee able to escape the name of vngratefull and vnkinde There shall you finde remedye against the poyson of those false prayses which men giue you And you will profoundly bee ashamed to perceiue yourself honoured proclaimed for good wheÌ„ you see him who indeede is good holy to be proclaimed for wicked false There shall you see how little reason you haue to think that what you doe is vnworthy of estimation in any kinde forasmuch as concernes your part thereof since it is soe weake lame when it is coÌ„pared with that which Christ our Lord wrought vpon the Crosse yea euen with that which yourself as you are ought to doe Looke into this glasse and you will easily be able to discerne the spots which are in the face of your soule For when you haue beene the most meeke of all if you compare that meeknes with his your meekenes will be noe better then meere wrath and your obedience compared with his will be very disorderly and your humility very proud Yet the blind world will needes beleiue that there are noe other sinnes but those which it conceiues to be such Whereas the eyes of God are of another kinde and he measures vs by another rule whereby many times he findes that to bee faulty which seemed in the eyes of men to bee excelleÌ„tly and coÌ„pleatly done When therefore they shall deliuer out any of these poisoned smooth-lying prayses say you instaÌ„tly in your hart as S. Paule did â— Cor. 4. he who iudges me is our Lord. And make haste to call to minde how our Lord was proclaimed for a wicked person And beseech him not to permitt that you be published for one who is good be sure you hould your toÌ„gue for our lord will obserue how the world goes Nay procure you be carefull that when you are despised you may be very glad thereof and perhaps our lord doth not now permit any body to giue you ill words because he findes that you haue not strength wherewith to beare them He who desires any part of the Crosse of our lord must receiue it as he would doe some pretious Reliquâ— with great reuerence giuing of thankes And he must valew it more then he would all the treasures of the world And because there are soe few who esteeme of those Reliques of the Crosse as they ought therefore our Lord oftentimes doth not impart them whose-pleasure is that they be honoured and beloued and borne with ioy And for this reason it is that he leaues vs still in our infancy without putting vs to the taskes of men But how much more then are we to blame if we be drawne downe to impatience or superfluity of sorrow for any of those thinges which he sendes Soe that if you shall carry a great loue to the Crucifix he will giue you a part of his Crosse But then see that you embrace it as an enterprise of great honour according to what he sayth to the spouse Place mee as a seale vpon thy hart and vpon thine arme for loue is strong as death Cam. 8. And as for that paine wherein you are because you may not receiue the Body of our Lord in the blessed Sacrament soe often as you would be not troubled thereat For I haue already tould you that our Lord is resolued that it shall cost you some what And it is but reason that it doe soe since our soules cost him soe much Doe you thinke perhaps that by our Lords onely saying Let all soules â—ee mine they instaÌ„tly render themselues into his hands Doe you thinke that the loue which you carry to our Lord the dominion which he exercises ouer you cost him but toyes I can assure you it is not soe But he shed his bloud as any slaue might doe vpon condition that your soules might be his and he yours Iust soe must that soule doe which hath a minde to obtaine him that is it must sweate first it must weepe it must importune him it must endure ill wordes yea and alsoe euill deedes at the hands of others yea and it must seeme little to haue endured this but once And if it be not put to endure them at least it shall haue gained much in hauing disposed it selfe to suffer somewhat for him thus it proues noe fruitlesse thing to seeke God Negotiate your businesse with him for if he say Yea there is none who can hinder it and if any body offer to doe it it will not proue with him but yet if it chaunce to proue you may conclude thereby that you haue not negotiated well with our Lord. What shall I say to you Cry out louder to him Follow my counsaile and whensoeuer he giues you a great desire to communicate procure then to be iust as if you were communicating indeed And beseech our Lord since he is omnipotent that he will giue you that when you communicate spiritually which he would haue giuen if you had communicated Sacramentally For soe you shall bee pleasing to his goodnes and he will not suffer you to goe empty from him if you come well prepared and it were not the worse if it might be two or three dayes before Yett now you must not thinke that you may therefore faile to confesse your sinnes afterward to your Ghostly Father But till you haue meanes to declare them to him I aduise that you ralate them to our Lord. And aboue all things keepe your hart in peace and conserue yourself in the way of obedience and humility towards your Superiours and Prelates For this is the way of our Lord and you must take heede you leaue it not Take courage to passe on in your other deuotions For though when you are in them you thinke you make noe profitt by them I say you doe and afterwards you shall taste the fruite thereof And our Lord will find a time to looke back with pittye vpon such as shall haue made much way after him And one day of those when our Lord vouchsafes to looke back vpon vs is worth more then three of those others wherein we laboured to goe after him The crowne is prepared for you in heauen God will be your defendour and will not forget you Perseuer you in obedience till you see our Lord of all Lord in Syon
putt vpon you but rather you shall become hard in being able to suffer that so though you should fall you may not breake yourself And you shall be also purged from that disgracefull colour which before you had and finally you shall be made fitt and capable to be a vessell of honour and to be serued vp to the table of Almightie God Procure not to come broken out of the furnace least they cast you heere and there as a thing of nothing Those potts are onely broken which loose their patience in the furnace of tribulation but I confide in our Lord that you will be able to come forth without any hurt Suffer now a litle for quickly the whole businesse will be at an ende Be not you dismayde how busie soeuer the deuill be Let him persecute you as much as he will but confide you in God It is a signe that the deuill hath no parte in you since he followes you so hard For if he had you in his hand he would not follow you It is a signe that you are departed out of his kingdome since he hath dispatched so many squadrons of armed men after you You are passing out of the darkenesse of Egypt Exod. 12 14. that you may goe to the land which our Lord hath promised you and now beholde how Pharao followes you with his whole armie You finde all wayes shutt vp against you The redd sea is before you and your enemies are behinde you and you finde not anie meanes whereby to escape But feare not haue good hope and you shall see the wonders which our Lord will worke Exod. 14. Our Lord will fight for you and you shall but holde your peace Our Lord will open a way for you through the midst of the sea The waues thereof shall serue you for a wall both on the right hand and on the left and you shall passe without so much as wetting your foote through the midst of your tribulations and temptations whereas your enemies shall be drowned therein Doe but conceiue what ioy that will be when all the people of God being passed through the dangerous sea of this world the most Blessed Virgin Marie who was figured in the person of that other Marie the sister of Moyses shall beginne to sing that Canticle of so great triumph Exod. 5. and when you in companie of other Virgins shall answear her And to the ende that you may be yet more comforted know from me that you haue no cause of any scruple for your case is rather that you suffer torment then that you coÌ„mitt sinne For so that you consent not freely to those temptations nor delight yourself in those thoughts which the deuill offers and desire not for your parte so much as to thinke thereof what cause of scruple can you haue And you shall beleiue me as a man who knowes your conscience well that how soeuer you may thinke that you haue giuen consent it is but feare which makes you thinke so as it happens to them who are sicke of feauers or be subiect to any strong passion Let this serue to excuse you for that which is past but not to discharge you from being diligent in the future And though some litle thing should haue stucke to you and though you had suffered some light hurt yet so long as you render not nor yeilde yourself to be ouercome the very wounds which haue beene receiued by anie man at armes in the seruice of a king haue beautie and glorie in his sight The benefitt and meritt which you draw out of the victory is greater then the preiudice which you suffer in the conflict and therefore let nothing trouble you Be not deceiued in beleiuing that those imaginations or temptations are any things of yours or wrought by you Workes they are of Lucifer and â—ordes they are of his speaking and images of his representing Beholde you all that businesse as a thing belonging to others and wherewith you haue nothing to doe And carrie yourself iust so as you would doe when you should heare a man blaspheme or speake anie other fowle deformed wordes for which though you would be much in paine in regarde of the offence which thereby is done to Almightie God yet in fine it would be a kinde of comfort in some respect to you when you saw that it was not you who offended him Lett it grieue you that the deuill doth both say and doe so like himself and let it comfort you to consider that it is not you but he and that he will smart for it S. Paul saith that he gloried in his afflictions tribulations because the vertue and strength of Christ our Lord shined more therein My good Sister if indeede you loue Christ our Lord you will reioyce for that glorie which he gathers from your infirmity Doth it not seeme to you that God shewes his strength in you since by the weakenesse of a poore miserable woman who is indeede but a very childe and a sick creature and a kinde of nothing he ouercomes the strength and courage of those infernall powers Will not you be then content to be assaulted vpon condition that Christ our Lord may be glorified Yes certainly I know you will and that most willingly Nor can I beleiue lesse of that charitie which you pretende to haue nor of that desire which you carrie that our Lord may be pleased to serue himself of you whether it be in prosperitie or aduersity in sweete or bitter by way either of loue or greife either in peace or warre Our Lord is pleased now that you serue him in warre and vnder the incommodities of heate and colde with your weapons by your side both day and night being content with broken sleepes and being subiect to surprises as if you stand vpon the toppe of a pike yea and though it will afflict you most you must contente yourself to be farre absent from your king But after this season there will come another and our Lord will commaunde that you shall serue him in his banketting-house where you shall enioy as much as you can desire In the meane time you shall ioye in this that you are doeing him seruice And I beseech him to strengthen your soule that so it may be able to fight the battailles of our Lord and to make you a conquerour therein that so you may deserue that Crowne of glorie which he hath promised to such as ouercome Amen FINIS
them by any meanes Be not faint in labouring for the loue of our lord since true loue knowes not what it is to be remisse as you are to be compassionate pious to wards your beloued soe are you to be seuere and nothing delicate towards your selfe Your ladyship shall doe well to call to minde what heroicall acts the loue of Christ our lord hath wrought in this world in those harts where it hath dwelt It hath made them endure prisons torments dishonours and that with much ioy whilest the great worth of the beloued hath beene placed before the eyes of the louer And since it hath wrought soe great effects in others let it not be soe weake in your ladyshipp as that it cannot enable you to passe through a little affliction for the pleasing of soe high a Lord by whome you shall be soe much the better accepted as you shall come to him with more affliction Yet soe as that our Lord is not desirous of our paine but onely of our loue but yet it is still true withall that the truth of loue is hardly knowne but in somewhat which puts vs to paine Eccl. 6. For the freind who stands fast in tyme of tribulation he is the true freind indeede And though God doe well know what wee are without making any particular experiment yet he loues to trye vs that wee may know it too that soe wee may haue comfort in finding our selues faithfull to him in point of loue and soe may liue in hope that wee shall goe to enioye our beloued for Patience breedes Hope Rom. as S. Paule saith So that this must be your method till you haue perfect health that when you are free from your vomitts paines you may exercice your minde in spirituall things and at those tymes you must alsoe beseech our Lord to giue you light to know when it is the flattery of flesh and blood and when it is Iust necessitie which hinders you For he who vses the knowledge well which he hath shall obtaine light for that which he knowes not But as for others with what face can they aske new light since it may be answeared them thus why desirest thou to know further what my will and pleasure is since in that which thou knowest already thou complyest not And when you are in any ease though it bee not much let your mind alsoe bee in some exercise of spirituall things though it be not much nor with much attention but onely recording your desires and presenting your selfe before our Lord. And by this and withall by not letting your hart sincke for euen the very life of the soule consists in that your ladyship shall passe on vntill that God prouide otherwise The woman of Samaria asked where she was to pray Iohn 4. and our Lord answeared her that it was euery where to be done and that in spiritt And soe is the christian to doe who in all his workes is to pray to our Lord not in the mountaine or in the temple alone but in eating drinking and sleeping in health and in sicknes referring all to God and ioying in all things because he receiues them from that holy hand Your ladyship is to haue great care that you straighten not the goodnes of God since he is immense Doe not thinke that you are to seeke him and to finde him but onely in such an expresse place or determinate worke He is euery where and you are with him and if you seeke him euery where Sap. 7. you shall euery where be sure to finde him I reioyced saith the wise man in all things because this wisedome went before mee And soe doth hee alsoe reioyce whoe in all things behoulds God performing that which he commaunds and euer keeping the hart in attention towards him and from the contrary flowes sadnes and disgust and deiection of minde which is a thing to be auoyded Eccl. 30. with much diligence For as it is written There is no profitt in such sadnes Nay it brings much hurt both to our body to our soule and to our neighbour Whereas ioy and comfort giue strength and perseuerance makes our spirituall enemies grow sadd it cherishes the spirit of God which dwells in such as are his seruants For his spiritt in cheerefull Besides this your ladyship shall doe well to receiue the Body of our Lord now and then And since the lodging which he takes vp is in the hart you are not to be in paine for that your body is noe better And though there may be some impediment why wee cannot labour yet there can be none why wee may not loue So much the more must wee loue our Lord because hee is both omnipotent and very desirous to giue strength to that hart which seekes to loue him for this tends to the accomplishment of that very thing which he likes best of all others both in heauen and earth and that is Loue. Wherewith I desire that your ladyship may soe abound on earth that you may deserue to be lodged neerè our Lord in heauen Amen A Letter of the Author to a Lady whome he had greately in charge and who feared her selfe to be troublesome to him He takes all feare from her and animates her to perseuer in the way of vertue which she had begun and adnises her to the seruice of her neighbours as a good meanes whereby she might obtaine the guift of Contemplation IF you knew how great ioy I haue felt in my soule by your letters I beleeue you would write often to mee how carefull soeuer the deuill might be to discourage you And if you knew how great fauour you doe mee in letting me see that you are c̄ofident of my truth to you and if withall you would be pleased to make tryall of mee I beleeue you would cast away a great number of those imaginations which the deuill brings to you about the making you thinke that you are troublesome to mee I for my part haue not taken vpon me so in iest that charge of you which our lord hath put into my hands as that any difficulty could make me weary of it how great soeuer it might bee and how much lesse can I bee weary when the thing it selfe is not painefull to mee but delightfull I beseech you for the loue of our lord that you will aske him whether I loue you or noe For I hope for soe much fauour at his hands as that he will tell you I doe forasmuch as he is a freind of truth and hee knowes that the thing indeede is soe Doe you not already vnderstád that this is but a tricke of the deuill vnderstád that this is but a tricke of the deuill whereby he would pull downe weake persons Doe you not know how much hurt this conceite doth to some of your neighbours when they beleiue it you know well enough how to chide them who will not conceiue that they are beloued by their freinds