and all little enough to keep it in any vigor These voluntary observations should not lead them to scruple or censoriousness that are pleased to use them and should not be clamoured against by others indiscreetly and uncharitably for in themselves they are adminicula pietatis handmaids to devotion and holy contrition And they that know themselves are sensible that they want all possible helps to stir them up and relieve their dulness When our understandings are convinced we have not quite done means must be used also to affect the fancy and to ingage the affections And he had need be very sure of his strength that refuseth the assistance of all auxiliaries CHAP. XXV A passionate Meditation on the Passion of our Blessed Saviour MY love is crucified said that loving and holy Martyr Ignatius declaring how earnestly he wished to die for JESUS and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considering the passion of JESUS I meditate with him My love is crucified my dearest Saviour dies in most bitter pains he hath been rudely bound and drag'd from place to place he hath been stript tied to a post and whipt like a vile slave he hath been buffeted and caned and abused with all manner of contumelies and now I see him crowned with thorns all over spittle and blood I see him stretched upon the Cross where his hands and his feet are nailed his head hangs down I read in his pale face and his weeping eyes the extremity of his pain the anguish of his wounded soul Lord art thou he whom my soul loveth O Domine Jesu Christe si intelligentia quam mihi dedisti uti vellem sicut deberem cernerem manifeste quo modo â—â—o quam sine modo a me creatura tua amari merueris qui prior dilexisti me tantus tantum gratis tantillum talem ingratum Idiot art thou my dearest JESUS were it my father my brother my friend or my benefactor that should suffer this undeservedly how would I pity them but should they suffer this upon my account Lord I could not outlive such a sight if nothing else love would certainly wound my soul to death But behold it is so this crucified this dying man is my father he gave me my being he is my brother he came down from heaven and took humane flesh that he might have that relation to me he is my friend he lays down his life to save mine he is my greatest benefactor from him I receive all I have all the blessings the good things I enjoy I owe to his kindness But now my soul suppose that from his Cross thou shouldest hear him thus expressing his love and bespeaking thine Christian dearest Christian for whom here I die consider seriously imprint it it thine heart what in my words what in my mysteries thou readest of my suffering for thee consider who I am what I endure and to what end I am the eternal Son of God whom the Angels adore I became Man to make thee partaker of the Divine Nature I am infinitely rich the whole universe is mine I became thus destitute of all things to purchase true riches for thee I am of an Almighty Power the whole world was made and subsists by me I am now weak to make thee strong I am overcome of mine enemies to make thee conquer thine I am crowned with glory and clothed with Majesty I now were these thorns and am become naked to cloth thee with robes of righteousness and Crown thee with a Royal Diadem I am the inexhaustible fountain of joy and happiness I now indure sorrows and miseries to make thee joyful and happy I am infinitely pure and innocent I am become a sacrifice for sin to merit thy pardon and to sanctifie and make the holy I am the Author of life the first and the last I now die to make thee live for ever nothing but love moves me thus to suffer for thee and nothing but love I require for it Dearest soul thy sins are more grievous to me than my wounds Aspice serve Dei sic me posuere Judei Aspice mortalis pro te datur hostia talis Aspice devote quoniam sic pendeo pro te Introitum vitae reddo tibi redde mihi te In cruce sum pro te qui peccas desine pro me Desine do veniam dic culpam corrige vitam add not sorrow to my sorrow by remaining impenitent deny not this request to thy dying bleeding Saviour that thou wouldest mortifie thy lusts and forsake thy sins all that is past I heartily forgive if thou becomest true penitent I freely give my self for thee and beg that thou wouldst give thy self to me To this O my Soul with the greatest love and wonder thou maist thus reply What shall I say now dearest Lord Words cannot answer thee I am amazed I am astonished I know not how to speak my tongue cannot express what my heart feels Lord I will say nothing I will answer with sighs and tears with devout affections by resigning and giving up my body and soul to thee I will answer by obedience by actions by now falling to work to reform my life to mortifie my sinful lusts to cut off the members of the body of sin Sweetest JESU I will love thee with all the affections my heart can entertain no bosome sin shall be so dear to me but for thy sake I will heartily part with it no lust shall be so pleasing but I will kill it at thy request and command even my natural desires and inclinations will I gladly deny when they come in competition with that duty and love I owe and ever will pay my dearest JESUS Sweetest Lord it was I had deserved to be smitten to be covered with shame to be deprived of life and thou sufferest all these for me for me vile wretch for me my Lord was it for me O where shall I find such another friend or rather what shall I do to requite thy kindness and mercy I can give thee nothing but love and thanks and that will I do O my Blessed Lord who wast spet upon I humbly worship thee Thou wast reviled like a vile slave I praise thee and own my self thy servant The Jews refused thee for their King but thou art mine thou art my Blessed Master I care not what becomes of me here so I may come to bless and adore thee for ever Lord if there is a place where thou art not loved and magnified let me never come into it Assist me dearest Lord let no pleasure or pain no fear or hope no profit or loss no temptations within or without ever make me to offend thee O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O that I could but join with you to express worthily my thanks and gratitude O that all the world would join with me to praise and glorifie the Lord that died for us Blessed JESU cleanst
THE Reformed Monastery OR The LOVE Of JESUS A sure and short pleasant and easie way to HEAVEN IN Meditations Directions and Resolutions to Love and Obey JESUS unto Death In two Parts The second Edition Revised and Enlarged LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard the West-End MDCLXXVIII INRI Hereby perceive the the Love of God because he layd down his life for us 1. John 3.16 Amor meus Crucifixus est S. Ignatius The Love of Christ constraineth us 2. Cor. 5 14 F. H. Van. Houâ—â—â—â— Imprimatur Antonius Saunders Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino GILBERTO Archiepiscopâ— Cant. Ã Sacris Domesticis Ex. Aed Lambeth Febr. 16. 1675 6. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Oxford My LORD T Is not in regard of my Obligations to you though I own them with grateful acknowledgments 't is not in regard of your late most deserved advancement though I heartily rejoyce at it 'T is in regard of your intrinsick Goodness that this Dedication begs your acceptance and humbly offers it self to you Before Lordship and Paternity were added to your Honourable Titles you was intitled to this book your Dignities being dignified by you I considered not their eminency but the eminency of your Vertue and Piety I know My Lord that you aim at a better reward than this World can give but that a great light set on a high place cannot be hid from the eyes of Men Angels alone should rejoyce in the brightness of yours you shun praise as much as you deserve it you neither desire nor want any thing of Fame But My Lord I wanted a living example of a sincere and devout lover of JESVS to exemplifie my Discourse and though God be praised many more might be found in this Church yet you are one of the fairest and most attractive insomuch that though it be easier to write than to do well yet a better Pattern of a Religious Life might be drawn from your actions than from my directions My Lord I have just cause to fear that I have indulged my genius too far and perhaps some will think that I would have Godliness to be Shorn and Devotion a Recluse from the World which is far from my thoughts or desires though I must confess that at first I intended a much different and less defective Treatise on this so good a subject had not other necessary helps as well as abilities been wanting However at the best I could have added nothing to such persons as your Lordship The Holy flames of Divine Love that burn in your heart have too much light and fervency to have received any increase from me and therefore I have not aimed at any thing higher than only to assist the weak and fix the inconsiderate But My Lord though I cannot in the least profit you by this my poor labour yet its being own'd by you may be very advantagious to me Your Reverend and much Honoured name will not only credit and recommend my Book but also promote its design of winning affectionate Servants and Lovers to JESVS This I know you will rejoyce to do Wherefore in presenting my Book to your Lordship I humbly beg your blessing on it and its Author Who is with due respect and affection Your Lordships most dutiful and most humble Servant L. B. THE PREFACE 'T Is probable that they who these many years have cried out Popery till they made way for it to come upon every thing they liked or understood not will start and think that their fears are come upon them at the sight of the first Title-page and possibly our Lay-Abbots will also be frighted at it as though the dispossest Coenobites were coming again to lay claim to their old Mansions and fat Indowments For my part I wish that theirs may be but pannick terrors yet withal I wish they might so far affect them as to make the first have a greater value for that Reformed Religion and purer worship which then they would certainly lose and the last pay Tithes Conscienciously out of those estates which then they would be forced to resign And yet I may and do assure them that if they will read not only the Title but the Book also it will certainly cure them of their fears if it works no better change upon them for its design is not to alter the established Religion but to make us more devout and sincere in the profession thereof nor yet to inrich any persons with temporal estates but to make us gather treasures in heaven and set our affections on things above That the age we live in is greatly depraved is no observation of mine there are almost as many that complain of it as there are that contribute to the increasing of its wickedness 'T is in every mans mouth that vertue being disgraced vice is countenanced and that the numerousness of its votaries makes it now impudent as well as fashionable Therefore it should be no difficult matter to perswade those that have any sence of Religion or longing after its rewards that they ought not to conform themselves to this present evil world but chuse a better pattern to live by And the truth is it matters not much whether these be worse than the former times for the way to life hath all along been streight and narrow and found and followed but by few as that to destruction wide and spacious and yet crouded by the many Good men have always lived in a perverse and crooked generation So that if it be now as it hath ever been those that will enter into life must follow the narrow path though they have but few fellow-travellers and if it be worse they must walk with the greater care and wariness However it be the difference must needs be very great betwixt the lives and works of those whose reward and condition will be so vastly different at last And therefore whoever will go to heaven had need keep at a great distance from that world which lieth in wickedness and take a much contrary course to those many who go to destruction But how then Must we retire into Thebais with the Fathers of the desert Must we confine our selves to the solitude of a Monastick Cell Or shall we become Quakers and profess the sullenness of Melancholy Fanaticks Why truly in Popish Countries the Cloister hath ingrossed the name of Religion and they that would be or be thought to be devout beyond others do usually put on a Fryers hood and imbrace the Rule of some Religious Order and amongst us Puritanism hath usurped the Name of Godliness and some who in truth or in pretence abhor looseness or are reclaimed from a vicious life will too often forsake not the World but the Church as it were to preserve the strictness of a severer vertue in the Society of a Separated Brother hood 'T is not to be doubted but that long before S. Augustine and
many mens unsatiableness and ingratitude makes them overlook most of Gods blessings despise what they have and value only what they have not and so murmur and complain when they should give thanks But whoever shall diligently observe all the gracious distributions of that God who always giveth to all men being debtor to none all the supplies and comforts we receive from him will heartily say with the Psalmist O love the Lord all ye his Saints and O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the seat of the elders Psal 31.107 CHAP. IV. What returns we should make for temporal Blessings THose Benefits we have hitherto mentioned we receive as we are men and that from the free goodness of our gracious God we are his people and the sheep of his pasture we are and we have nothing that is good but it comes from him he made us he preserves us and he provides for us therefore O go your way into his gates with thansgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his name It was Jacob's vow that if God would keep him and give him food and raiment whilst he sojourned in Haran then the Lord should be his God Now what was his vow should be our resolution and practice God feeds and cloaths and defends us therefore ought he to be our God That is we ought to own him for such by faithful service and hearty obedience Therefore 1. Let us pay our bounteous Benefactor the just and easie tribute of Praise and Thansgiving for our creation preservation and all the blessings of this life 2. Let us set apart daily some of that time which he gives us for acts of Worship and Religion 3. Let us honour the Lord with our substance either in secret charities or publick offerings paying him an acknowledgment that he is our Land-lord and lastly let us apply our selves to observe his Laws to do what pleaseth him because we are not our own we owe our selves to him we are his he gave us our being These are acts of natural Religion and them we owe to God as he is our Creator and Benefactor CHAP. V. Of the mercies of Redemption and first a consideration of the infinite miseries we were redeemed from NOw are to be considered the benefits we receive from God as we are sinners the mercies of our Redemption how God our Creator is become JESUS our Saviour how after having given us many good things he at last gave himself for us And that we may the better understand the greatness of this unspeakable and Divine Mercy let our meditation descend a while into that bottomless gulf of perdition wherein we were plunged by nature in this plain manner Represent to thy self a man in Job's condition having added to his ulcers and poverty all the saddest calamities that ever afflicted any man upon earth especially the remorses and horrors of a guilty and tormented conscience crying out of impatience and despair with Cain my pain is greater than I can bear This unhappy creature having for many years born the uneasie weight of his miseries linger'd out a tedious and disconsolate life is at last struck to the heart with a mortal wound and dies and so passeth from temporal to eternal sorrows he falls into a lake of fire and brimstone a place where there is nothing but woe and darkness weeping and gnashing of teeth where there is no company but of tormented and tormentors nothing to be seen but what is frightful no voices to be heard but curses shrieks and lamentations where there is the absence of all good and the presence of all evil where men desire to die and death flees away from them This is the fulness of his misery that it shall have no end that he must dwell with everlasting burnings their fire is not quenched and their worm dies not If weeping but one tear every day he might expect to be releast after he had wept as much as would make an ocean it would be some comfort but at the end of so many millions of years as would suffice to weep a Sea his torments will be as far from ending as the first day they began and if after this manner in process of time he should shed tears enough to make many more seas yet still it might be truly said this is but the beginning of sorrows still there is an intolerable Eternity to come for after as many thousands of millions of years as tongue can express or heart comprehend Eternity is nothing lessened still it is what it was before an abyss of duration that can have no end this excludes all comfort this fills his soul with a woful despair this is another hell in the midst of hell which inrageth him and perpetually tortures his mind to think that there will be no end of his sufferings that he can conceive no hope of being delivered but that he must bear to all Eternity what every moment is intolerable O dreadful eternity who can seriously think of thee and not tremble Now if thou dost ask for what reason this wretched creature is thus tormented know that it is for sin because his first parents broke the Law of their Creation and he followed their footsteps they involved him first in the guilt of a wicked rebellion against God and afterwards by his own acts he made himself yet more criminal by nature he was a child of wrath and then he became so yet more by his own transgressions he was sold under sin and then he became a willing slave to it his own thoughts words and works being evil and that continually he forsook God and dishonoured him and profest enmity against him and opposed his depraved will to Gods Holy Will and so became obnoxious to the infinite justice of God which therefore justly inflicts this deserved punishment upon him And now if knowing the reason thou dost inquire after the person who by being so unholy is become so extremely unhappy I could say with the Prophet thou art the man this is thy patrimony as thou art a child of Adam this thou art by nature but the divine mercy hath rescued thee from this misery and therefore I must say thou wert the man this must have been thy case had not the Holy JESUS workt thy Redemption by means as wonderful as was his pity and charity But before I proceed I must also propound one question Two men are equally indebted and equally unable to pay the one is patiently forborn and at last freely acquitted the other is cast into the dungeon and a while after compassionately releast and set at liberty I demand is not he that never entred the prison as much bound to love his generous creditor as he that was delivered out of it yes doubtless or rather
a cup of water given for his sake should not go unrewarded and that their reward would be great bountiful and most excellent far above their deserts and even above their wishes and apprehensions an angelick nature a glory bright as the Sun it self an eternal life an heavenly an endless kingdom his own joys should be their portion and their recompence And we find also the Holy Apostles assuring those whom they brought to work in their Lords vineyard that they should certainly have their hire and be paid most generously for their work God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality shall be rendred eternal life Rom. 2.6.7 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3.8 And S. Paul to incourage the Corinthians tells them that we Christians are entred into a race at the end whereof we may see the Laurel palmam in stadio positam a glorious prize an incorruptible crown if we will run and strive for it 1 Cor. 9.24 and he likewise tells the Ephesians that whatsoever good thing any man doth the same shall be receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Eph. 6.8 S. Peter also teacheth that we should be moved and encouraged by the greatness of the promised reward to forsake our lusts and wholly devote our selves to God exceeding great and glorious promises are given unto 〈◊〉 that by these you might be partakers of the Diviae Nature having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Christ is become the author of eternal salvation to themt obey him Heb. 5.9 And so the result of all these may be comprehended in the exhortation of S. Paul My beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 In this sense good works are meritorious in that they procure us a reward a reward infinitely greater than their own desert Let us not therefore as the Apostle exhorts be weary in well-doing for we shall reap in due season if we faint not Gal. 6.9 Let us compare together the returns of vice and vertue how unlike are the fruits of them and let us bear this short saying in our minds if we do ill the pleasure is soon past the grief and punishment abide long upon us if we do well the trouble is soon ended the joy and reward of it remain for ever Let us pray with S. Paul the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ 2 Thes 3.5 who when he comes brings his reward with him and to this let us add this Collect of the Church Grant us grace O Lord so to follow thy blessed Saints in all vertuous and godly living that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for them that unfeinedly love thee through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen CAAP. IV. That Love hath a secret pleasure and reward in it self with a meditation to that purpose BUT Though it may encourage us to love that gracious God who gives so very much for that little we are able to do yet Love it self is not mercenary charity doth not seek her own saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.5 we may desire our promised reward and set our affections upon it as it is a demonstration of Gods infinite love and goodness or because it will be the expressing of our duty and thankfulness when we shall love and glorifie and adore God perfectly and for ever or rather because the reward is God himself who will be to every faithful servant his exceeding great reward Gen. 15.4 as well as to faithful Abraham rewarding sincere obedience with the fruition of himself being all in all to his Saints But still I say Love is not selfish but free and generous if nothing were to be gained by it it would have great satisfaction in shewing it self the work and labour of love is a noble pleasure to a pious heart When he thus reflects on his obedience and thinks with himself By the performance of this duty by this act of vertue I serve my dearest Lord I oblige my best friend I express my love to him whose infinite kindness to me hath conquered my heart whom I love as my own soul to whom I wholly give my self and for whom I desire both to live and die O happy soul who feelest what an exceeding joy it is to love JESUS or rather unhappy soul who canst shew so little love to JESUS Unhappy necessities of a frail body unhappy distractions of a troublesome world Why am I by you deprived of the continual pleasure of waiting continually on my Divine and most loving Master But blessed be my gracious Lord that I might have more opportunities of pleasing him and expressing my affections to him he hath made vertues of necessities he hath turned nature into grace and of humane duties he hath made acts of Religion In relieving mine own and others wants if I observe the rules of sobriety and charity he takes occasion thence to bless and reward me as if he were thereby glorified In discharging the duties of my place and calling if I am diligent and faithful though my work be never so mean he owns it as a service done to him Servants saith S. Paul obey your masters in all things and do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23. If I am conscientious in all my ways and works he takes it as a mark of my love and part of my duty to him O that the constant course of my conversation might speak the sincerity of my affection to my blessed Lord. Dearest JESUS the Cross thou didst bear for me was heavy and painful to extremity but thy yoke is light and pleasant thy service is perfect freedom O let it be my delight and daily employment as it is my duty to serve and obey thee to follow thy blessed example and be instrumental in winning hearts to thee let me love thee so intirely that I may love nothing but thee nothing but for thy sake Fac precor Domine me gustare per amorem quod gusto per cognitionem sentiam per affectum B. Ansel quod sentio per intellectum Amen CHAP. V. Reflections on the vanity of temporal things with some holy resolves and ejaculations COnsider O my soul how deceitful how vain is this present world how inconstant and unsatisfying how vexatious and troublesome Doth not thine experience tell thee that the more thou lovest the best of earthly thing the more crosses and sorrows befal thee the more thou enjoyest of them the more weary thou art the farther from happiness and true contentment I have observed that