God is a great Lord and he will be serued with much diligence and hee inflicted noe lesse punishment vpon the sloathfull seruant then to cast him bound hand and foote into exteriour darkenes which signifies a being excluded from all the blessings of God and of his howse And since to the end that wee may be fauorits with an earthly king and to acquire the possession of a little earth there is a necessity of taking care of watching of troubles yea and sometymes euen of shedding bloud lett not them grow faint in the combatt since God whose cause it is will be their captaine in the strength of whose arme they shall infallibly goe victorious out of the feild The enemy whome they are to ouercome and the Cittie which they are to subdue is their owne proper will Let them place that will before themselues and against that lett them leuell all their shott and to that let them say Thou art the enemy of God since thou desirest that which is contrary to him and therefore thou art my enemy For I wholly belong to God I am the freâ—nd of his freinds and the enemy of his enemyes I will haue noe peace with thee that soe I may haue noe warre with God Lett God raigne in my hart and not myne owne disordered will I will gouerne my selfe according to that which hee commands and not according to that I list I will beg of my God that hee will be pleased to shew mee his holy will and that shall be my lawe though myne owne will would faine haue it otherwise Let it paine mee or let it please mee I am resolued to â—â—e my selfe fast to God since besides that I owe to him otherwise he was fastned to the Crosse for mee Nay I am vndone if I goe not to him since all that which comes not to him heere with loue shall be deuided from him in the next life by his hate Let it cost me my bloud Nâ—â—b 25. soe that I may not loose my God but that I may heare this word from his blessed mouth Reioyce thou good and faithfull seruant enter thou into the ioye of thy Lord. In fine all that which passes is very short and all this is temporall and the rest eternall all this is light and that is full of waight And therefore let vs say from the hart with Dauid Ps 26. One thing haue I desired of our Lord and that will I seeke that I may dwell in the howse of our Lord for euer And lett this be our conclusion that heauen did neuer cost deare Our Lord graunt it to you and to vs all euen by his owne deâ—re bloud Amen A Letter to a great Lord wherein he treates of the knowledge of God and of a man's selfe and how he was to proceede towards his vassalls THE peace of our Lord Iesus Christ be euer remayning with your lordship The holy S. Augustine desired two things of our Lord saying Graunt to mee O Lord that I may know thee that I may know my selfe These two are things which we must all desire and noe man is to be found without them vnlesse withall he desire to be found without saluation The Temple of Salomon consisted of two partes Both of them were holy but yet one of them was more holy then the other That parte which was lesse holy was the way to the other which was more holy The first is the knowledge of a man's selfe which certainely is a holy thing it is the way to that Sancta Sanctorum which is the knowledge of God where our Lord makes answeare to our demaunds and remedies our necessities and where we finde the fountaine of life For this saith our Lord is true life that wee know thee and whome thou hast sent Iesus Christ But now this soe high thing namely the knowledge of God is not to be obtained without that other which seemes soe lowe namely the knowledge of ones selfe It is most certaine that noe man euer saw God vnlesse first he saw himselfe Nor is it safety for any man to fly high vnlesse he haue the counterpoyse of knowing himselfe which makes vs thinke basely of our selues Amongst all the other fauours of our Blessed Sauiour there is noe doubt but that his disciples would be standing to looke at him with exceeding great gust whilst he was ascending vp to heauen vpon Ascension day since there was noe remedy but that they must needes forgoe his conuersation that conuersation which can carry noe disgust with it And they found great comfort in looking vpon the way by which he passed and towards the place to which he went But what did our lord commaund them Not certainely that they should be still casting vp their eyes to heauen though that seemed to be an excellent thing But he said thus to them You men of Galilee why doe you stand looking vp to heauen Giuing vs thereby to vnderstand that although it be a very sauoury thing to looke towards God yet it concernes vs alsoe to study our selues First for the reuerence which wee owe to God vpon whome we cannot looke but with great confusion considering how vnworthy we are thereof And secondly because when a man forgetts himselfe he is instantly apt to become wanton not seeing his owne faultes and frailty he growes to loose all holy feare and he prooues light and giddy like a ship which being without ballist looses the ankar when any tempest rises and the end thereof is to be carried hither thither till at last it be brought to suffer wrack I neuer saw any soule remaine in safety but by the knowledge of it selfe Noe building can be sure without deepe foundation and that tyme is well imployed which is spent vpon the reproofe of a man 's owne soule It is full of profitt towards the amendment of our faults if we will examine them What kinde of thing is a man who examines not and knowes not himselfe but a howse without a window but the sonne of some widdow ill brought vp who for want of correction is growne wicked but a measure without all measure and rule and which therefore is a false measure And finally what is he but a man whoe is indeede noe man For he who considers not himselfe doth neither gouerne himselfe like a man nor doth he vnderstand or possesse himselfe but why lest he is able to tell many storyes of other things he can giue noe account of himselfe at all These are they who hauing forgotten themselues take such paines to vnderstand the liues of others and hauing shut vp their eyes to their owne defects haue yet more then a hundred eyes open which stand in continuall watch ouer the errour of other folkes These are they who obserue and aggrauate the errours of their neighbours and neglect their owne For in regard those errours of others are beheld by them more continually more close at hand they seeme greater to them then
Ps 41. therefore will I remēber thee the land of Iordan Hermō the little hill Hee who behoulds himselfe and there discouers soe many abhominations is troubled at himselfe and he hath reason And not finding one houre exactly well spent in his whole life but seeing his sinnes to be many great his good deedes to be so few weake what should he doe but be troubled when he findes himselfe soe vnable to make a good accounte before soe strict a Iudge Only he must remēber Christ our lord cōsidering what he wrought in the land of Iordan vpon that little hill and bewayling his sinnes and receiuing the holy Sacraments hee must liue in obedience to the commaundemēts of God and of his Church and soe as a sonne he may hope for the inheritance of heauen He must alsoe call to minde that which was wrought by our lord in those hills of Hermon which are many in the little hill alsoe Which whether it be that of Horeb where God gaue the lawe or whether it be some other hill doth not soe much import vs who are Christians whose vnderstanding Iesus Christ hath opened towards the conceiuing of the scriptures and he vnderstands them who vnderstands Christ our Lord in them who is shutt vp therein as a graine of corne may be in an eare or as wine is in the grape And therefore the end of our law is Christ our Lord for all the lawe rests in him Cor. 10 The hills of Hermon both they which are within the land of promise and without it as also the little hill doe all signify but one hill which may iustly be said to be a little one and to be of Herman And this is Mount Caluary where our redemption was wrought by the shedding of the blood of the sonne of God Now to the end that wee may knowe how well this name may be applyed to Mount Caluary it is to be vnderstood that Hermon signifies malediction And how can Mount Caluary be better expressed then by the name of malediction since it was the place to which they carryed malefactours to be executed whome the scripture calls accursed because they were to be soe punished And because Christ our Lord saw that we were to be accursed and adiudged to euerlasting malediction hee was pleased through the immensenes of his Charitie to take our maledictions vpon himselfe I meane the punishment of our sinnes that soe his benediction might descend on vs. S. Paule expresses thus much after this manner Gal. 3. Christ was made malediction that so his benediction might be communicated to the Gentiles He was blessed and we were cursed But now the case is altered and we chaunge persons with one another He tooke the place of the accursed in being tormented vpon the Crosse which was dew to vs and wee are admitted to the freindship of God and to be his sonnes and the inheritours of the kingdome of heauen with a thowsand other benedictions which came from our Blessed lord Iesus Christ in whome they remaine for euer O wonderfull exchaunge that life should dye to the end that death may liue Benediction is accursed that soe malediction may be blessed The sound man is wounded that soe the wounded man may be cured The sonne is treated as a slaue that soe the slaue may be adopted for a sonne They most cruelly handle him who deserues all pitty and all the fauour and Regalo falls vpon that person who deserued hell In fine what shall we say They apprehend the innocent and they release the guilty The iust man payes for sinnes Innocency is cōdemned and the wicked man is iustified What did Christ our lord choose for himselfe Our afflictions and our miseries to be his recreations delights What shall wee say to such a charity as this but that we are to praise and blesse this lord day and night who hath wrought our redemption and saluation by a way which put him to soe much cost This is indeede that hill of Hermon that little hill and this soe truly as that he was esteemed by the relation of the Prophett Esay Esay 53. for the meanest amongst men And for this reason our Lord himselfe saith Ps 21 I am a worme and noe man but the dishonour of men and the abasement of the people O thou honour of men and angels and how canst thou be the dishonour of men Thou who art the aduancement of thy people and who art the glory both of heauen and earth what could make thee grow to be the abasement of thy people but onely thine owne great Charitie For thou to honour vs didst endure soe great dishonour that as wee are wont to say of some very base vnworthy man that he dishonours his whole stocke soe did they alsoe say of thee that thou dishonouredst the whole race of mankinde Bee thou Blessed without end For all the honour which all the race of mankinde possesses comes from thee and through thee Thou gauest it by the coniunction of thy selfe to them making thy selfe man and dying for men and exalting them to an equallity with Angells and euen with Seraphins if themselues will and ordeyning that the sonnes of sinnefull Adam they may become the sonnes of God and the heyres of thy Father and coheyres with thee as being thy bretheren and yet thou O Lord art called the dishonour and abasement of the people Thou didst abase thy selfe O Lord to exalt vs thou didst abase thy selfe belowe all men that thou mightest rayse vs about the Angells What shall wee render to thee O Lord for soe great fauours but onely that we must tenderly and profoundly knowe that if wee haue any thing if wee be fitt for any thing and if we be any way acceptable to almighty God it is wholly by thee And wee must yeild thee all thankes and praise for that thou being what thou art wouldest yet vouchsafe to offer thy selfe to sufferance of soe great afflictions for such wretched things as wee are Thou diminishedst thy selfe in that little hill that thou mightest exalt vs to that great hill Thou dyedst on Mount Caluary to the end that wee might liue in the mountaine of heauen And by the malediction which fell vpon thee there thou diddest purchasse and thou wilt impart to vs that happy benediction of thine Come you blessed of my father possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you They cursed thee O Lord and thou blessedst vs. Thy death giues vs life and thy affliction ease Since thou wert content to be iudged it is reason that thou alsoe be our Iudge Lett vs therefore reioyce since hee who loues vs soe much is to be our Iudge and wee will goe confidently to iudgment since the Iudge is of our owne flesh and bloud If wee know not what wee may doe for the pleasing of Almighty God lett vs looke vp to Christ our Lord and he will teach vs meekenes from that Crosse Who being
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
should remaine vnburnt How shall that man be able to loue pompes and shewes who cordially loues the Infant Iesus being layd in a poore maunger if it be true that loue must make louers like to one another It is a great blessing and light which makes vs able to see God heere beloue that soe we may know how to walke for the pleasing of his diuine Maiesty And since he walkes in a very contrary way to that of the world let vs resolue to make our choice of that guide whome we meane to follow since wee cannot walke in both and since the world runnes headlong vpon errour and since Christ our Lord is the truth which saues such as beleeue and follow it Iohn 14 And let his â—â—locaust haue marrow in it for marrow is a soft thing and doth soone melt And soe doth that hart which loues our lord and whether the matter concerne the scruice of the same lord or els the good of a man's neighhour such a one will not expresse either drynes or harshnes but sweete mildenes bee alsoe hath care to keepe his loue as safe as the marrowe is within the bone But before you can arriue to that marrow it is garded first by the skynue and then by the flesh and lastly by the bone it selfe The man who loues places all things which he possesses and desires before that which he loues that he may sooner loose all that then that the person beloued by him should once be touched And he hath a strong and firme purpose as if it were made of iron not to venture the loue of our lord though it should cost him whatsoeuer he either is or may euer be Such gould as this it is which you must offer to the Infant who is borne soe poore and you must open your treasures for that purpose as those kings did For if this hart be not opened which is the treasure-howse all the labour is lost For in that case whatsoeuer it bee Marke 2. which is offered is not gold but counterfect stuffer he takes the best to himselfe and giues the worst to Almighty god Open therefore your hart and conueigh the Infant newly borne into it since that hart alone liues in which hee is And since he is of soe little weight doe not lay him downe but weare him in your bosome like that handfull of Myrrh whereof the spouse speakes Conuerse with him with all reuerence because he is God Cant. 1 and yet take courage to communicate freely with him because he is an Infant for within he hath his hart as serene and sweete as you may well conceiue by his exteriour apparance Take heede you lett him not fall for he must be kept with great care but if your loue be not great you will either forgett him quickly or els lay him soone aside as thinking that he weighes too much And soe that you negotiate with him in such sort as that you giue not ouer till you perceiue by good coniectures that both you loue him and are beloued by him For till a soule feele this it euer liues in feare and sadnes and as vnder the burden of a law but when it comes to this passe there is nothing which can casily trouble it when it considers that God loues it and it loues God I beseech him that it may soe happen to your Ladyshipp Amen A letter of the Authour to a Lady wherein hee shewes what the coming of the holy Ghost wrought in the Apostles and what it workes in them whoe dispose themselues to receiue it and how they are to dispose themselues GOd send you a good Feast of whitsontide not by hearesay but by experience that in this solemnitie your hart may feele that which the faithfull seruaÌ„ts of Christ our Lord when they were assembled in that meeting-place did feele by the infusion of him into their soules who depriued them of their weakenes and deliuered them from their ignorances and fulfilled the bosome of their soules with soe great ioy as might well giue the world to vnderstand that the blood of Christ our lord was not shedd in vayne nor his prayers to his Father made in vayne since by meanes thereof a participation of the diuinitie was communicated O how often when they saw themselues soe deifyed and that they were made soe richly the louers and beloued of God did they sing a world of prayses to Iesus Christ their lord and Maister as knowing well that he had sent them this guift as he was God and had deserued it for them as he was man For according to what our lord himselfe had ptomised the holy ghost as soone as he should become was to make knowne Iesus Christ our Lord and to giue testimony of him Iohn 16 that soe the Disciples and the world might knowe him and by knowing him might vnderstand withall that all good was to come to them by his meanes and that they were to render him seruice and expresse all gratitude to him as to their true and aboundant benefactour and that soe they might remaine faster tyed to him by the cordes of loue in his absence then formerly they had beene in presence might know by experience what a puissant loue the holy ghost is and how ardently he makes that Blessed word of God to be beloued from whome himselfe proceeded and in whome he reposes and that they should make noe difficultie to publish and proclaime him to the world though it should cost them their liues If we had a parte of this solemnity heere within our very harts we should be sure to celebrate it exteriourly as we ought And if our soule were bedewed with some dropp of the water of this plentifull Riuer which issues out of the throne of God Apoâ— 20. of the lambe the thirst of this whole world would be soone quenched in vs and wee should be refreshed by this heauenly dew from that drynes and stiffnes wherein wee yet remaine soe negligent soe barren and soe accursed O how much would we finde our selues obliged to our Redeemer when wee should sensibly feele that wee were indeede redeemed by him and that our sinnes were drowned that our sorrowes were spent and aboundance of ioy imparted insteede thereof Wee would not then complaine of paines of banishments of absence from what we loue of wanting those things which seeme most necessary to vs and in sine of any inconuenieÌ„ce For soe powerfull is this spiritt and the fire thereof that it striues vpward and makes vs soe loue confide in God that noe water of sorrow and affliction hath power to quench it but it remaines euer quicke and conveyed with such strength into the bowells of the soule which are soe mightily inflamed that it kills that which liues ill and causes that euen death it selfe cannot conquer him who is mortyfied by the coming of this holy spiritt This is that deare guest whoe cures the wound which the absence of Christ our
as I haue said You aske me what preparation is best and what consideration is most profitable when you goe to celebrate the mistery of the body and blond of our lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ because you feare that the thing which of it selfe is soe helpfull may yet proue hurtfull to you for want of due preparation You know already that there are different complexions of mens bodyes and soe is there variety of inclinations in their mindes yea and soe alsoe are the guifts which God imparts to men very different Some he leades by one meanes and others by another and therefore there can be noe such common rule giuen as may square well with the generallity of all men concerning the consideration which may be most profitable for the aforesaid action But this is certaine that that consideration will be best for any man which God imparts and whereby a man findes himselfe to be moued most And he whoe hath any knowledge such as a man may haue in things like these whereof there is noe certaine faith nor cleere euidence that his Preparation or consideration growes from the impulse of God hath noe reason to chaunge it for any other till our lord chaunge it And this is to be tryed by giuing account thereof to some person who hath experience in these things together with prudence and soe to take the resolution But now there are others whoe finde not themselues particularly moued to vse this or that Consideration And yet it is alsoe necessary for these men to impart the notice of their inward disposition soe to trye whether they haue neede to be carryed by the motiue of Loue or feare they being either sadd or cheerefull and the remedy is to be applyed according to the necessities wherein they are And because I incline to thinke according to the relation which I haue receiued concerning you that the state wherein you are is of a person proficient in vertue and that it is fitter for you to exercise your selfe vpon he considerations which may prouoke you to the feruour of loue with reuerence then vpon others I say that to this purpose I know of none better then that which may giue vs liuely to vnderstād that our lord with whome we goe to treate is God and man and what the cause is why he comes to the altar Certainely Sir it is a blow of great force towards the awaking of any man to consider and say this to himselfe in good earnest I am now goeing to consecrate Almighty God to hould him in my hands to haue audience of him and to receiue him into my bosome Let vs ponder this well and if it sincke into vs by the grace and spiritt of our lord it will be sufficient and superabundant for the making that result towards vs whereof we haue soe much neede that soe according to our frailty we may performe that office as we ought Who is hee that can choose but be inflamed in loue by thinking I goe to receiue an infinite Good who will not tremble with an amorous kinde of reuerence at his presence before whome the powers of heauen tremble and who will not resolue neuer to offend him more but still to praise him and doe him seruice Who will not be confounded and euen mourne with greife for hauing offended that Lord whome hee hath present there who will not confide vpon such a pawne whoe will not take hart to goe through this desert by the way of pennance with such Prouision And finally this consideration when the hand of our Lord helpes it on doth wholly chaunge a man and taking him from himselfe doth euen swallow him vp some tymes by reuerence some tymes by loue and at other tymes by other most powerfull affects of the minde which are produced by the considerations of his Presence Which affects though they doe not necessarily flow from these Considerations yet are they a most ready helpe therevnto if the man as we vse to say will not be a stone Soe that you shall doe well to exercise your selfe in this thought Make account that you heare that voice Ecce sponsus venit Matth 2§ Deus vester venit Behold your spouse is coming your God is co ming And shutt your selfe vp in your hart and then open it to receiue that which vses to streame from such a lightning And desire you of the same Lord that for that very goodnes of his by which he hath vouchsafed to put him selfe into your hands for that same goodnes I say he will giue you a true feeling thereof that soe you may esteeme reueare and loue him as you ought Importune him that he permitt you not to be in the presence of such a Maiesty without feare reuerence and loue Accustome your selfe to thinke as you ought of the presence of our Lord although you should then entertaine noe other consideration but that Consider them whoe stand in presence of kings who though they say nothing yet see the modesty the reuerence the loue wherewith they stand if they stand as they ought But it is better to consider how those great ones assist in the Court of heauen in presence of that infinite greatenes all trembling at the reflection of their owne littlenes and burning in the fyre of loue like persons whoe are as it were consumed in such a furnace Make account that you enter amongst those Graundes whoe are soe richly adorned and soe well behaued and soe diligent in doeing seruice to their Lord. And then being placed in such society as that and in the presence of soe great a king thinke of it as you ought though as I was saying you haue not at that tyme any other consideration then that My meaning is that it is one thing for a man to haue what to say to the king and it is another to know which may be done with scilence how to stand in his presence and there to carry himself as he ought And this is that vnion of the soule with our lord which a man shall doe well to procure during the tyme of Masse and to hang wholly vpon him iust soe as when he is in his Cell vnited with our lord in the most secret retired corner of his hart And this in such sort as that the wordes which he reades may not be of any distraction to this vnion for he shall reape more fruite by it then by them though yet it be true that he is to haue regard alsoe to the wordes but he is to accustome him selfe whilest he hath his hart vnited and present with God to carry that attention withall to what he doth and saith as is conuenient Deere lord and what doth the soule of that man feele when hee carryes him in his hands who made election of our B. Lady enriched her with celestiall graces that she might be made fitt to liue and conuerse with God made man And when he compares her hands and armes and eyes with his owne
must be warned There is noe sanctity assured but in the holy feare of God wherein Eccl. 2. I would haue you euen grow old as the holy Scripture saith Soe to giue vs to vnderstand that wee must not onely feare God when first we come to his seruice but euen to the very end This feare is noe sadd or irksome kinde of thing but full of sauour and gust and it takes away all leuity and effusion of hart and it makes a man not venterous to approue his owne actiōs as good though perhapps in themselues they be well done But he leaues the iudgment both of himselfe and of all the world to Almighty God As S. Paule said I iudge not my selfe but he whoe iudges mee is our Lord. This is hee whome you must feare if you will perseuer in doeing well and if you will not haue your building fall but stand safe till it may rise and reach to the most high God But now this must be done by loue which I beseech our lord Iesus Christ to giue you Amen Pray for mee very cordially as already I beleiue you doe For I hope in God that hee will heare you and that he will giue mee to you for your seruice as in former tymes A Letter to a Lady who was growen a widow He comforts her in the death of her husband and animates her to carry her afflictions with patience I Haue deferred to write to you out of a beleefe that my letter would be of little power towards the mitigating of that great sorrow to which they said you were growen subiect And I thought I should take a better course to be vttering my selfe to our Lord who is the Lord of all comfort and to be recommending you to him then to be speaking to you by my letters But yet because they haue beene demaunded with soe great instance which serues to assure mee how much they are desired and because our lord hath power enough to doe what he lists by the meanes euen of dead letters I would not faile to doe as I was commaunded and that to which I was obliged beseeching our lord that by meanes thereof he will be pleased to breede that comfort in your hart which I desire Our Lord hath soe disposed as to haue you try what tast these afflictions haue which are gathered in this vale of teares and they not of the gentler but ruder sort Let his name be blessed his iudgments adored and his will obeyed since that which the creature owes to his Creatour is all reuerence and subiection not onely in those things which are delightfull but in those others alsoe which are most painefull Now to make try all of this obedience God is wont to teach vs in that which lyes next our harts To the end that wee may vnderstand that for soe great a lord we must be content both to doe and suffer great things Abraham carryed excessiue loue to his sonne Isaack Cenisis 22. and God was pleased to try him in that A great loue it was which Iob carryed to his seauen sonnes and yet God tooke them all away in one day And after this manner is he wont to proceede with such as he loues For by this meanes both they are made capable of testifying their loue to him and by the same hee takes occasion to doe them great fauours I know well that flesh and blood haue noe vnderstanding of this language and that they onely imploy themselues vpon feeling the greife and losse which they sustaine without caring for other things But if God be in vs we must restraine our sence and make it obedient to reason and to the will of our Lord. And though it trouble vs much yet must we not let this flesh of ours ouercome but remembring the anguish of our Lord which made him sweate dropps of bloud and say Father not my will Luc. 22. but thy will be done we are to say the same if we meane to be knowne for his disciples since he will know none for his vassalls on earth nor for his companion in heauen but the man who carryes the crosse vpon his backe Matth 10. and whoe will follow him as the sheepe his sheapheard though it should cost him his life Tell mee of what wee can iustly complaine in our afflictions since by them our sinnes grow to be discharged and our selues made to ressemble the sonne of God For what a bould irreuerēce should it be that slaues would not passe by that lawe by which their Lord did passe and that adopted sonnes should not be content to endure that which the naturall sonne endured who was more beloued by God the Father then his first begotten sonne and whoe was more loaden with variety of paines then hee Esay 53. Hee was the man of greife and be who knew by experience what belonged to affliction And if you be able to count the dropps of the sea you may alsoe perhaps count his sorrowes Will it then seeme reason to you that the sonne of God being soe in anguish and all wounded with greife euen to the death wee should passe all our liues without drinking once of vinager and gall Matth. 26. What is become of that shame which wee ought to haue if heere wee should lett him suffer alone and yet pretend to raigne with him in heauen Let all creatures be at last vnbeguiled and know that if the king of heauen did enter into his kingdome by tribulations we also must enter in by the same way There is noe other way but Iesus Christ and hee crucified whoesoeuer seekes any other will not finde it and whosoeuer walkes by any other will loose himselfe and hee will see that though it may be a kind of vnsauoury thing to suffer in this life it is worse to suffer in the next O blindenes of the sonnes of Adam whoe take noe care of the future soe that the present may passe to their contentement Not valewing that which brings in true profitt but that which giues vs gust Not looking towards reason but passion And therefore doe they lament when they ought to thinke themselues happy and they reioyce when they haue more cause to mourne What is all this present prosperity but a smoake which by little and little will be dispersed in such sort as that wee shall see nothing of it And what are all the yeares of our life but a short sleepe out of which when wee awake wee finde our selues but to haue beene abused And vpon any little trouble which arriues we are drawne to forgett our former pleasures yea and it giues vs a kinde of paine to haue enioyed them If then wee finde soe great in constancy in this why doe wee not seeke that other And since wee see every day that this is slipping out of our hands why doe wee not seeke that which lasts indeede and will make our felicity eternall If hitherto wee haue beene in blindenes let vs now
at length open our eyes And if prosperitie did once tell vs that there was somewhat heere which might content vs let now the gall of tribulation be applyed to our eyes and giue vs light to see that in this world wee are truly miserable and that we are not in our owne Country but in a very painefull banishment and soe raysing first our hartes to heauen let our conuersation be alsoe there This is the end why our Lord hath punished you that you may make more and more account of him the more you see your selfe in want otherwise doe not conceiue that God takes pleasure in your paine but because he is mercifull he hath a tender feeling of your teares Onely he will put this touch of wormewood into your cupp that soe hauing discharged your hart of all humaine comfort you may haue your leaning place vpon him alone God hath taken one comfort from you but it is to giue you another for soe he is wont to doe He hath made you a widow but it is that he may make himselfe your Father since Father of the forsaken Psal 67. is his name Many afflictions will not faile to offer themselues to you in this widowhood and in many things you will finde the want of him who was wont to remedy you in them And in many of your freinds you shall finde little helpe and little fidelity and lesse gratitude but in all these things God will haue you make recourse to him and conferre with him about the troubles you shall be in and that as with a true Father you ease your hart with him And if with that hart you call vpon him and trust your selfe in his hands infallibly you shall meete with a sure refuge in all your difficulties and a perfect guide in all your wayes And in any tymes without your knowing by whose meanes or how it comes to passe you shall finde your busines done to your hand much better then you could haue imagined and you shall then vnderstand by experience how great a freind God is to the afflicted and how truely he dwells with them and makes himselfe a solicitour of their causes And if at any tyme he doe not giue you that which you desire it will be to giue you that which shall be fitt For so doth this celestiall phisitian proceede with them who goe to him for their recovery and whoe haue a greater desire to be cured then that their taste be pleased Depart not you from his hands and cure though it should put you to much paine Desire him not to doe what you will but what he will Let your weapons be your prayers and your teares and they not lost teares for that which our Lord hath taken from you but liuing teares for that our Lord may be pleased to pardon him and to saue you For what doth that superfluous paine serue which they tell mee you giue your selfe but onely for the adding of sinne to paine But now you know that as wee haue no liberty to laugh idely or vainely soe neither haue we any to weepe superfluously But both in the one and in the other we must be obedient to the holy will of our Lord. Why doe you complaine why I say doe you complaine Either you are a sinner and then you are to be clensed by this affliction or els you are a iust person and then you must bee tryed that you may be crowned whether it be the one or the other you must giue thanks to our lord with your whole hart and resolue to loue the end and reason of this correction though the thing it selfe be vnpleasing This we are taught by holy Scripture Hester 5. which relates how Hester kissed the end of Assuerus rod. Let not your tyme passe away in glutting your eyes with teares but for the loue of our Lord apply your selfe to send your hart vp to him and to prepare your selfe for that passage whereby you see others march before It is enough Lady it is enough that you haue already made soe large a feast to flesh and blood Dry your eyes at last and let not that tyme passe in bewayling death which was graunted you for the gayning of life Call to minde that our Lord droue them out of the howse who lamented the death of a yong maide and he said that she was not dead but that she slept For indeede amongst Christiās to dye is but to fall a sleepe till that day come when we shall awake againe to take our bodyes and so to raigne with Christ our Lord both in body and soule And confider that hee for whome you weepe is not dead but sleepes and that in a sleepe of peace since he both liued end dyed a good Christian Why should it trouble you soe much that our lord would draw the man whome you loued out of this place which is soe miserable and would carry him into the way of saluation And if he haue left some troubles to you take them vp with a good will soe that he may goe on to his repose And if his absence afflict you much yet be comforted with this that shortly you shall see him againe since our dayes in this life are soe very fewe and one of vs hath soe little aduantage ouer the other in dying a little sooner or later You shall doe alsoe well to conceiue that our Lord tooke him away because hee was well prepared and that he hath lest you heere to the end that you may well prepare your selfe And since you serued our Lord with alacrity in the state of matrimony serue him now in the state of widowhood and in the trouble of that state with patience That soe if then you gayned thirty fold you may now gaine sixty And soe you shall leade a life if not of gust yet at the least of great profitt towards the purging of your sinnes towards the imitation of the Crucifixe and towards a most certaine purchase of his eternall kingdome But for the obteyning of all this you must demaund grace of our Lord with prayers with teares with vsing to read deuout bookes and with receiuing the celestiall bread of the most Blessed Sacrament And soe lift vpp your deiected hart and walke roundly on For before you can gett to heauen you will haue a longe way to make And if you be to enter there this will not be the last affliction which you shall haue For the Iewell which you expect is of soe inestimable a valew it being God himselfe that how much soeuer it cost it can neuer be deere And since you are one day to possesse it you are now to reioyce in the hope thereof And complaine not of your afflictions but say soe great is the good for which I hope that I feele not the misery which I haue Let Iesus Christ our Lord accomplish all this in you as I desire and begg of him Amen A letter of the Authour to a virgin whoe was disposing
her selfe to leaue the world and to consecrate herselfe to God he animates her in that purpose and shewes the great blessings which shee would finde both in life and death by the espousalls which shee meant to make with Christ our Lord. DEuout seruant of Iesus Christ The contentment which my soule tooke in vnderstanding of the new purpose you were growen to haue of taking the king of heauen for your spouse yow who might soe well haue matched your selfe heere on earth was so very great that I know not with what words to expresse it And though when it was tould mee it were new to mee as not hauing vnderstood thereof before yet neither was it wholly new for already I had in a manner eyed you out for that lord who created you and I had begged of him as a particular fauour that he would bestow you vpon mee for himselfe Blessed be his holy name for euer who hath now done it soe very completely as I knew not soe much as how to wish But that ioy which your soule founde before in seeing it self soe disintriqued from all the basenes of this earth and finding it selfe already to haue receiued that pledge and pawne of loue from that heauenly king what was it els but a cleare signe that this mutation which you haue made proceeded not from any incōstancy of your humour but from the worke of God who hath conveighed his hand into your hart and therein hath produced that desire of heauen which now you haue And he also gaue you that great ioy as a testimony and earnest penny of those many and great and pure ioyes which if you proue faithfull to him he resolues to giue you in heauen the least whereof is incōparably more to be esteemed then a husband of this world and children and estate and whatsoeuer els the whole earth can giue O if you had but tryed how sweete God is to that soule which turnes her backe to the world to place her eyes vpon her Creatour O if you did but know what that sweetnes is of the celestiall spouse towards the comforting of those soules who cast all transitory delight away and like chast turtles refuse to take comfort vpon earth but send vp sighes for loue of their Lord who is in heauen who are like the doue which returnes home to the hand of the owner as cleane as shee went forth without touching any dead body soe much as with her feete What is there soe flourishing in this world which is any better then a dead and stincking carkasse And for what then doth it serue vs to ioyne our selues to that which will infect vs and which may leaue vs thirtie thousand tymes more disgusted with the bitternes which followes then with the pleasure which it yeilded for the present You must render Christ our Lord many thankes whoe hath giuen you light whereby you know how to distinguish betweene that the pretious and the base betweene eternall and-temporall betweene an immortall God and a mortall man And for hauing giuen you grace to make soe happy an election as whereby God is accepted and man despised and in that for the loue of that heauenly bedd of state the care of any earthly bedd is throwne aside◠how rich soeuer it might haue beene Be therefore faithfull to him whoe takes you for his spouse and who will be sure to be so faithfull to you as to make you finde by experience that hee is not in iest when he calls himselfe the pure Spouse of pure Virgins for you shall finde the assembly of all blisse in him Nor can it proue like the marriages which are made betweene flesh and bloud wherein vsually the little contentment which is had at first is followed by the bitternes of repētance But this worke of ours giues not onely contentment at the first but the more you conuerse with this Lord the better you shall know him and the better you know him the more you will loue him For he is not like men who when they are more frequented let vs easily see that they haue more faults and he who was a good husband vpon the marriage day within a yeare proues such as that there is noe liuing with him But in Christ our Lord you shall see nothing which may disgust you and as little in that Blessed mother of his who is the mother in lawe to all the spouses of her sonne O blessed houre wherein that good purpose was sowed in your hart and much more blessed will that other bee when you shall finde your selfe so visited by your spouse as to make you say O my Lord and when could I deserue these fauours of thee that I should finde this hidden treasure for the purchase whereof to pay the price of a thowsand liues were to buy it very cheape O how happy and prosperous is this marriage to be and of how excessiue ioy both to heauen and earth God the Father is pleased to see that there be soules on earth whoe loue his onely begotten sonne soe well as that for his loue they leaue the loues of flesh and blood not onely those which are forbidden by his lawe but euen those of marriage which are lawfull For it is a signe of greater loue when for his sake we forbeare that which we might lawfully vse The sonne is he to whome the soule is espoused and for this hee dyed that he might haue some soules which would loue him at least with spirituall purity and others whoe might doe it not onely spiritually but euen with the body alsoe vntouched The holy Ghost is most pure and farre estraunged from flesh and when he findes a soule which resolutely despises carnall delights there doth he lodge his eyes and fills them with spirituall comforts and will neuer permitt that the soule be empty which shall refuse to feede vpon carnall foode Our Blessed Lady is the mother of the spouse and they are very like one another for shee alsoe is all amiable benigne a beginner a protectour and an aduocate of virgins and shee highly reioyces that there is virginity vpon earth for that is the flower which she planted There want not pages to giue attendance at this marriage for the Angells are seruants to the king of heauen and ready for all that which the spouse shall neede Neither yet is there want of children which the world is wont to desire soe much and they come without throwes of trauaile and without paine in bringing vp and without that greife which growes when either they liue not well or dye too soone The children of this marriage are good workes which be rightly called a man's or woman's fruite What comfort will he feele when for the loue of Christ our Lord he conceiues a good purpose to giue an almes or some such other thing and when afterward he shall put it in execution what pleasure will he take by the birth thereof These children giue both ease and honour to their
we list Let vs giue itt to him who will haue goodnes to tolerate it and wisedome to conduct and cure it And certainely our lord would thereby vndergoe the weight as a man may say of a heauy end vnsufferable burden if his loue were not incomprehensible It is a great help towardes out denyeing of our selues when we consider that we are our owne enemies and our very being soe miserable may well serue to keepe vs from being so couetous to enioy our selues and to make vs cast our selues away and turne our selues out of house whatsoeuer it cost vs. And yet the truÌ„pet of the diuine goodnes soundes this out in our eares that Dauid goes forth into the field as being persecuted without any fault of his and that the poore people who were much in debt and such as were in anguish and bitternes of heart ioyned themselues to him Blessed be our lord Iesus Amen who is soe rich and patient in goodnes that his father thought fit to trust such poore sheepe as we are in his handes But that which is lamentable is that we are soe blinde withall that he begging that we will be his and binding himselfe to be ours vpon that condition yet woe woe be to vs we still resolue to seeke Quae nostra sunt non quae Iesu Christi Those thinges which are our owne 1. Cor 13. and not these things of Christ our lord And we will needes possesse our selues still without any reason at all but onely through blinde affection and without once resoluing to trye how sweet how iust and how profitable a thing it is to belong entirely to Christ our lord and to walke in the way of his holy will Christ our lord giue you light in all Amen and be wholy with you A Letter of the Authour to a great man his freind who entred into the state of Religion in the Society of Iesus HAuing vnderstood of the chaunge which you haue made I haue giuen many thankes to the immense bounty of our lord who hath so earnestly taught you soe mercifully found you and so powerfully conducted you thither where without any impediment of other employmeÌ„ts you may present him with your whole hart for a quiet peaceable habitation wherein he may conuerse and take delight as he vses to doe with his elect These are not sleight fauours nor must wee passe them ouer without particular acknowledgment and gratitude For this I hould to be that sacrifice which our lord expressely requires in recompence of his fauours and for want thereof he hath depriued very many of those which formerly he had imparted Soe much more must you haue a care of this as the fauour was greater through the great dangers which threatened you by reason of the greatenes of your person the many imployments which accompanyed you in the world And therefore as our lord hath not performed a lesse act in giuing you light that so leauing all things you may goe in pursuit of him then he did in fauour of the three Magi whome he enabled by a starr to doe the same you must bee sure to adore God to spread your self all prostrate vpon the ground acknowledging your owne nothing before that high Maiesty and giuing him thankes from the very bottome of your hart for the fauour you haue receiued and offering your self as an euerlasting present to him whose you are by so many Titles As for me I esteemed it not for one of the least that he hath voutchsafed to seeke the Post childe and that he hath placed him in the ranckâ— of them who are most honoured in his house and all this through his owne onely goodnes What hart is there in the world which would not melt into tendernes by the coÌ„sâ—deration of such a fauour as this to see himselfe pâ—â—euented by such a hand and so as if the question and doubt had beene whether God's mercy â—â—r our misery should preuaile but he hath mightilâ—â— happilly ouercome And not being conteâ—ted to send vs messengers both within and from without himselfe takes vs by the hand like another Lott Gen. 1 and drawes vs out of the place of danger vp the hill where wee may be saued Doe not you forget this goeing out of Egypt for it is a certaine thing where many wonderfull things of God are seene And this departure of ours is not obtayned for vs but by the bedding of the bloud of the lambe which â—ath cryed out before the Father with desiâ—e that it may bee applyed to our soules Cleansing them from all earthly appetites and consecrating them wholly to the desire of his diuine loue Christ our Lord hath beene heard whilest he was praying for you as wee may very well beleiue Giuing this stone to his Father that so of vilde and basâ— he may make it pretious and that it may bee sett and worne in the head of Christ our Lord as a fruite of those great afflictions which hee endured for the good of soules Great was that warre and hee conquered therein for he giues soules â—o his Father who may runne after him and adore him vt vinctis mambu post â—â—lâ—â— Câ—â—iant Prepare your selfe to receiue our Lord since you are redeemed by him you are already belonging to him you are the spoyles of his victory a piece of lande you are which is come to him by lott that he may câ—ltiuate and water it and make it fruitfull O how happy are you if you can but valew your owne happynes and consider from whome and through whome it hath proceeded Beseech him that since he hath done you soe much fauour without all desert of yours his goodnes may neuer permitt that your hart should serue any but him nor your eyes behould any other beauty then the beauty of God who hath beene so good to you A great burden it is which herein they haue Layd vpon you in exchaunge of those many other burdens whereof they haue eased you For now you are growne a deepe debtor of a most profound internall loue and of diligent seruice to that Lord who hath eased you of all those other obligations and giuen you the speede of a slag wherewith to â—unne in his wayes Thinke you vpon this and bee thankfull for this Abâ—â— 3. And since you are as poore towards paying as you were vnworthy towards receiuing you shall make an act of renounciation of all your goods into the hands of our Lord. Beseeching him that he will accept you all for his and soe take you vpon his owne accompt to serue himselfe of you according to his owne gust and desiring that he will dispose of you as shall please him best I beleiue I haue already sayd too much to a soule to which our Lord is already speaking For to such soules all humane discourse is accounted tedious and troublesome and it hath reason to be soe But the ioy which in our Lord I haue conceiued and the commandment which you sent
imployed but that wherein you suffer something for your beloued which alone ought to giue you comfort and ground to thinke that you loue our lord For as for other things though you should be taken vp to the third heauen you knowe not whether you loue your selfe therein or him For perhaps it is but the delight in hauing that fulfilled which you desire and not purely because that is done which is pleasing to God And since you are already dedicated to the loue of God and are redeemed by him see that you still be doeing your duty exactly well that soe like a good huswife you may appeare at the day of iudgment all rich with loue and euen cut in pieces in this warre after the imitation of Christ our lord who dyed in this battaile by the hands of loue Inuiting as many as loue him to suffer of that which he suffered and to answere with loue to his loue and being ready to giue himselfe as an eternall reward to them who passe through these amorous aflictions for his sake and your ladyship shall be one of them by the greate mercie of him who hath made election of you for this purpose A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallier his freind who was sicke and desired to enter into Religion The Authour shewes that the carrying of the Crosse in the company of Christ our Lord is exercised best in sicknes when it is borne with patience He also defends the Fathers of the Society of Iesus aduifing him also to esteeme them the rather because he had beene instructed by them YOu doe well in being contented to serue in that house of our great Lord in the Office of being sicke For to passe from doeing to suffering is a signe that Christ our lord aduaunces his seruants raises them from belowe the staires to attend aboue Certainly there is nothing in this exile of ours which is soe fitt for vs as to carry the Crosse in company of our lord who did soe loue it who for loue dyed vpon it Now this is better exercised in sicknes which is soe vnsauoury to flesh and bloud and which caÌ„not cause vain glory in the patieÌ„t then in health how well soeuer it be employed Great were the workes which Christ our Lord performed in this mortall life but in his sufferring he exceeded them all all the world That soe wee might vnderstaÌ„d what the Apostle S. Iames saith Brethren â— Iames 1. esteeme it as a reason of supreme ioy to see your selues in many afflictions And the same Apostle saith that the worke of patâ—ence is perfect Soe that you must be gratâ—full to our lord for hauing sent you sicknesse and if you beare this Crosse burden well he may perhaps aduaÌ„ce you to the carrying of others which are more interiour and irkesome and which he prouides for such alone as are his nearest freinds that so they may comforme themselues to him whose Crosse was extremely great euen in that which was to be seene but incomparably more extreame in that part thereof which was inuisible And though it may seeme to you that God hath taken away your other Offices or imployments because you gaue him not a good account thereof yet forbeare not to be thankefull to him who hath ordered the matter as now wee see For to be corrected by the hand of such a father and with soe great loue puts vs rather into neede of humility for the moderating of our ioy and comfort then of patience wherewith to endure the punishment But yet neuertheles I am in some feare that perhaps you may not profit by this feauer of yours For some beginners are wonte to giue liberty to the soule in the infirmities of their body though yet they be not such as threaten daunger or death It is a thing very contrary to reason for a man to turne Phisick into poyson and to take occasion of growing worse by that which was sent a man by our Lord to make him better Call therefore vpon him with your hart and beseech him that since he strikes you Gen 33. in the strength of your body it may be to make you goe more lightly towards him with your soule And forasmuch as this siâ—â—enes is sent you that your body by the payne thereof may pay for that sinne which hath beene committed by the same body you must not suffer it to be the occasion of your incurring new debts since it was meant that it should discharge the ould You must liue with great reflection vpon your self and giue noe credit to flesh and blood in all that which it shall desire of you but offer it to the Crosse of our lord in the company of his owne holy spirit And he who was content to let his Crosse be sided by the Crosses of two murdering theeues will not driue you from him And since you cannot now continue your custome of meditation or spirituall reading as you would yet faile not to be doeing somewhat the best you can so that it be without euident disaduantage to your health For our lord is soe powerfull and soe good as that he giues strength to such as haue a mynde to take paines And sometimes he bestowes more fauour vpon sick men in they re beds who cannot pray then vpon others who spend many houres in that holy exercise And perhaps he will vouchsafe this mercy to you since it costs him noe more then his very will And I beseech you for the loue of our lord Eph. 4. Vt non circumferaris omuivento doctrinae that you be not whirled about with euery wynde of doctrine and that you esteeme of those persons by whose meanes our lord hath shewed mercy on you Imitating the man who was borne blinde in the ghospell Iohn 9 From whome noe persuasion of any man could take the good opinion which he entertained of that person who had cured him of his continuall blindnes He tooke that benefitt for a great token of the goodnes of his Maister when he sayd si peccator est nescio vnuÌ„ scio quod cum cacus essem modo video whether or noe he be a sinner I cannot tell but one thing I knowe that I who was blinde doe now see And though he said as we haue heard yet he beleiued well that his Maister was a iust person as may appeare by the holy kinde of earnestnes which he vsed towards the Iewes and besides by our lords making himself knowen to him in the temple in reward of that faith which he defended My selfe haue heard some things which are said by such as oppose and emulate those Fathers but I find not yet that any one of them is grounded vpon reason neither doe I beleiue that there is any but yet I like well that yet when you defend them it bee rather with meekenes and few words then otherwise For our lord hath these thinges in great recommandation and his pleasure is that they should be carried
of mighty anguish when the soule findes noe repose in any thing to which it can apply it selfe As when a man is drowning in a profound sea without finding soe much as any little rest for the feete Or like one who is bound fast hand and foot and would faine rise vp but knowes not once how to stirr For as he who is highly comforted by Almighty God cannot be discomforted by any paine or torment soe can nothing comfort him who is discomforted by Almighty God And yet must these seruants goe after their lord through such a desart as this which is euen a very image of death and by such darknes and distresse they must passe on to the place of rest This Martyrdome I say must be endured for loue of the Spouse by that soule which desires to carry the Embleme of Loue in her hart and amōgst these thornes shee must make her nest if shee will be conforme to her Head who was crowned with thornes And these draughts must shee swallow downe into these sweates must shee bee cast who resolues to keepe that Lord company who being in fierce agony vpon that holy Thursday at night did sweate drops of blood from his whole body in testimony that his soule was truly sad euen to the very death Did you thinke perhapps that it was some dainty and delightfull thing to serue Christ our Lord or that you vndertooke some trifling busines when you began to place your loue on him They who fight the battailes of loue must dye dayly as S. Paule did And they must bee euen cruell against themselues as a man who were carelesse of soe many base and broken pots to the end that they may neuer faile of fidelity to the Loue of our Lord. Which Loue was neuer complyed with well by any who was eyther negligent or inconfident For the former of these two seekes his owne Regalo whereas it were his part to seeke the contentment of his beloued And the latter faints in his loue because he cannot beleiue that he is beloued But Faith being ioyned to Obedience frees vs from such mischeiues as these making vs beleiue that God loues vs and then most when he most hides his loue from vs and when he seemes to be most rigourous and cruell towardes vs. For the condition and property of true faith is to beleiue not onely vpon those signes and pawnes which may be giuen but as well without them and not onely without them but euen against them And herein it doth but resemble euery other vertue which then declares best of what strength and beauty it is when it is put on by the fewest helpes and when it is encountered by the greater impediments That is true loue which loues a person who euen deserues not to bee beloued And that is true Patience which suffers impertinences and endures wrongs And then doth Chastity deserue a rich and gallant crowne of glory when in despight of seuerall temptations it standes fast And soe you must learne to know the true valew of true faith which beleiues and puts confidence in the truth and goodnes of God against that distrust or despaire which humane reason or the senses of flesh and bloud might pretend to cause By this Faith wee see that which is inuisible how deepe soeuer it be hidd And euen through the midst of these pikes which are the disfauours of God the sharpe points whereof we feele sticking in vs wee yet enter and passe on into that most retired secret of the hart of our Lord and there wee finde that indeed he loues vs though hee shew vs signes which looke as if they proceeded from disaffection And then soe wee esteeme and vse them as wee ought when we take them for the tryal of our Faith and for the exercise of our Loue and for the encrease of our Crowne and for matter wherevpon our Obedience to God must worcke If you beleiue mee not I pray you tell me how shall the chast woeman be tryed but by contradictions and combates against Chastity And how shall your Faith be tryed but by receiuing these tokens of disfauour which pretend to depriue you of confidence Be not troubled to finde that your Spouse is thus resolued to make tryall of your fidelity to him For this is a very vsuall thing betweene Spouses and the fruite thereof vses to be but an encrease of loue which it is not fit to keepe idle for in our employment and exercise thereof doth our life and treasure consiste And now God made choice of you to discharge this office towardes him And if indeed you would exercise it well it must be by louing him though you feele not your selfe to be beloued by him and by following him whome you conceiue to be flying from you For he who loues not but onely when hee finds himselfe to be beloued is indeed noe true louer but his respects runn all towards himselfe And heereby it will appeare whether you be that true Cananean or noe if when you heare hard language and be cast of by our lord you doe yet importune him and if following him who flyes from you and humbling your self to him who treats you noe better then some base vnre asonable creature you doe yet proceede to loue him as sincerely and purely as if you tasted of great delights and Regalos at his hands For in the end hee will answeare you thus O woeman greate is thy faith let that be done which thou desirest But in the meane time be you resolute in continuing faith full and say to him with your whole hart O Lord I will loue thee though thou shouldest not loue me I will seeke thee and looke chearfully towards thee though thou flye from me Let me loue thee still vpon that condition doe with me what thou wilt By this meanes the disfauours of our lord shall be conuerted into the exercise of true loue and herein you are to remaine more contented then you are to be in paine for being disfauoured Nor shall you onely please our lord by this meanes but more ouer you will obtaine a crowne in heauen which will be straungely greate For by the measure of your discomforts that robe of glory is to bee cut out wherewith you must be vested in heauen and from the seede of teares we must gather the sheaues of ioy And we are not to be crowned for hauing beene in deuotion and consolation but for hauing beene as it were threshed with variety of temptations and for hauing beene content with the taste of such gall as carried the very image of hell with it and of the torments thereof and for bearing all these things with an equall minde and for beleiuing that they are light and few 2 Cor. 4. in comparison of that superexcellent weight of glory which is to be reuealed in them who shall be humbled and mortifyed after this manner And wee must thinke our selues happy in being obedient to the ordinance of our lord God
loues you with most perfect loue Let not your faith grow weake in these necessities and dangers nor your loue by the feeling of these afflictiōs when the fire is great the winde doth not onely not quench it but inflame it And soe when a soule loues God but in iest any little blast of aire puts it out as it would doe a candle But true loue growes vp in affliction for it applies more strength wherewith to endure the more weight it sees coming towardes it And because that loue is of God it conquers affliction and noe water could serue to quench that fire which comes downe from heauen Our lord called you that you might loue him and this loue is noe such thing as must giue you reason to regale your selfe But you must abhorre your selfe for the loue of Christ our lord and denye your selfe to confesse him and be cruell to your selfe that you may be sweet and acceptable to his diuine Maiesty If you loue and desire to enioy your selfe you must resolue to loose your selfe If you desire to see the face of God you must passe towardes him through the pikes If you care to lodge him in your hart cast your selfe away with all other creatures vpon him Our lord will haue you all alone and all afflicted not for any ill will he beares you but because since his owne naturall sonne was soe afflicted he likes not to see his adopted sonnes apparrelled with any other liuery then that There is nothing soe beautifull in his sight as to see the image of his onely begotten sonne in vs. And as there is nothing vpon which a soule can soe gladly looke as vpon our lord Iesus being tormented for loue of vs vpon the Crosse and the more afflicted and deformed we see him there the more beautifull he seemes to vs soe the more wee suffer for God the more beautifull wee shall seeme to him Nor is it much that a soule which desires to seeme handsome in the sight of God should adorne it selfe with such curious cleansing waters as may enamour his diuine Maiesty by his seeing her since the women of the world doe many thinges which put them to no small trouble and charge soe that they may content the sonnes of men Madam we must cast our skinnes before we shall be pleasing to Almighty God Gould is purified by fire and the terrestriall part being consumed it comes resplendent from the Crucible Let vs be ashamed of being soe weake in a busines which is soe great as to import the pleasing of Almighty God and if we vnderstood this poynt well indeed we should get heart euen to shed our blood for him that soe we might appeare fairer in his sight As a certaine holy Eremite considering this very thing and seeing a woman of the world goe soe gallant and soe well adorned he began to weepe and say Pardon me O lord pardon me I beseech thee for the curious dressing which this woman bestowes vpon her selfe in this one day to please the eyes of the world ouerstrips all the paines which I haue taken many yeares for the pleasing of thine Soe that my good lady this entreprise of loue is noe matter of wordes but of sorrow of bitter torments of the dishonour of the world of being abandoned by the creatures thereof sometimes euen of the seeming absence from the protection of the Creatour And notwithstanding all this a man must cary a good countenance and not be subiect to complaintes or deiection of heart but he must resemble that Martyr whose bowels they drew out of his body and whose flesh they tore from his bones with iron combes and yet there sounded noe word out of his mouth but the name of Iesus nor was there any thing in his hart but Blessed be God togeather with a purpose to endure yet more if God should dispose himselfe to send it To suffer for Christ our lord is great glory and God impartes not that but to such a one as whome he loues much A great mercy it is to giue a guilty person fillips and to release those scourges which were his dew and if that wherein we stand obliged to the iustice of God may be satisfied by what we can suffer heere in the name of God let vs fall to worke and let vs pay whatsoeuer his diuine Maiesty will impose soe that being gone from hence we may instantly by behold the face of God Let vs labour in this banishment of ours for instantly vpon the end thereof we shall be landed in our owne country S. Augustine saith that he wrongs a Martyr who prayes for him when he is dead for Martyrdome makes a soule fly streyght vp to heauen Let vs therefore labour to be Martyrs by our patience in affliction for though our persecution be not soe greiuous as theirs was for the time yet it lastes longer And we should indeed desire that this life might not be too recreatiue but a meere Martyrdome For such was the life of our Lord and such doth hee desire that ours should be There haue beene many martyrs for the faith of Christ our Lord but in fine many are gone to heauen who were not soe But we all must be the Martyrs of loue if we meane to goe thither This loue must torment vs and put vs to paine both because our selues offend God as also because others doe it This loue must depriue vs of the comforts of this life and must load our shoulders with a Crosse This loue must make vs first imbrace affliction and then passe ouer it in the flame which was kindled by our loue of God This makes vs endure dishonours without feeling them as wine doth a drunkard This loue is in this like all other loue that whosoeuer possesses it seekes not himself but his beloued who in our case is God alone and his holy will But this loue which now is soe cruell how full of compassion will it be afterwardes to him who hath bowed downe the head to receiue Martyrdome at the hand thereof A man cannot easily feele the force of loue wherewith it torments heere nor that wherewith it comforts afterwarde Let vs beleiue it since God hath said it and let vs walke on in the faith which we haue in his words for we haue yet a long way to make Choose which you had rather haue eyther long afflictions or els very great ones for noe man can scape suffering much eyther in one fashion or another Be not sorry for this for if God giue you much affliction it is because your many sinnes deserue it and soe you are to make your payment heere and I beseech our Lord that you may doe soe For if I should dye before you want to Purgatory perhaps you might want a freind whoe would carry soe much compassion to your soule as my felf and would take soe much care to free it and if you dye first I shall haue paine enough in thinking of you Excuse mee
for it is not fitt that eyther you or I should haue an eye to our owne ease but that although wee should know that after this life wee must suffer paine yet heere we must also take courage to suffer afflictions for loue loue is content with nothing but loue Christ our lord suffered for our loue Christ our lord carried the Crosse and lett vs help him to cary it on Christ our lord is dishonoured and I renounce honour Christ our lord suffered torments and therefore they shall be welcome to me He was subiect to many necessityes and I submitte my selfe to the same For me he made himselfe a stranger and I desire not to be the owner of any single thing wherein my heart may rest He dyed for me and lett my life be a continuall death for the loue of him Gal. 2. Let me liue yet now not me but let Christ our lord liue in me and that Christ who was crucified exhausted abandoned by all the world and receiued alone by Almighty God This Christ I loue vpon the Crosse will I seeke him and from thence haue I noe desire to finde him Let him dispose of me how he will for my part I will suffer affliction for him Let him choose whether he will giue me any reward or noe for the very suffering it selfe is an abundant reward And if he would graunt me a great suite I would desire noe other then to haue afflictions for thereby I may know that I loue him and that he alsoe loues me since he layes me vpon the Crosse where himselfe lay For though I haue noe ayme at mine owne profitt yet I know full well that if I continue vpon the Crosse he will cary me to his Crowne To him be glory through the eternity of all eternityes Amen A Letter of the Authour to one who formerly had beene a disciple of his and then being of the Society of Iesus was growen to be at the poynt of death He congratulates his departure hence and his goeing to enioy the fruites of his labour in his Order and he giues him great hope of the eternall kingdome by meanes of the bloud of Christ our Lord. THE grace of the holy Ghost be euer with you Though heere they say that you are vpon the point of passing into the land of the liuing soe as a man may thinke that whilest I am writing this you may already be enioying the deare imbracements of our allswcete Iesus yet I thought it not amisse to venture this letter towards you congratulating with you your promotion to that Prebēd in the Church of the celestiall Ierusalem where without all ceasing God is praised and seene face to face Goe in a good houre most deare father goe I say in a good houre both to see all Good and to possesse it for all eternity Goe in a good houre to the bosome of the celestiall father where he entertaines those lambes of his with glory which heere he fed with his grace and corrected with his discipline Now my good Father shall you see the fauour which God did you in calling you to a Religious life and in giuing you grace in the strēgth whereof you dispising the world might follow him by the way of the Crosse For now in recompence thereof he will giue you heauen for your Religious Order and glory for that Crosse which you haue borne for his sake Blessed be our lord Iesus Christ who hath goodnes enough to induce him to giue such glory to such wormes of the earth raising vp the poore man out of the dust that he may sitt amongst the Princes of his people Happy is the houre of our corporall death since thereby wee are exalted intitled to take our seate amōgst those princes who liue eternally in the high presence of God O day which is the end of labours and the end also of sinnes and in which wee ascend to serue our Lord in good earnest and not as wee are wont to doe heere below where wee are all discomforted through the imperfections of those seruices which we performe to God For heere a man goes halting faynting with hunger through his desire to please that diuine Maiesty to serue him with all the soule But in heauē this desire is perfected that in so cōpleat a manner that all the whole man is imployed in the seruice praise of God without being subiect to the least impedimēt which may interpose it self Blessed be God who hath soe soone beene pleased to gather you vp into his granary least mallice might els haue chaunged your mind and to shew you the riches of his bounty Sap. 4. who for soe few yeares of seruice imparts an eternity of reward Sir this is God this I say is God this is the fruit of his passion this is the valew of his grace this is our happy encounter to haue fallen into the hands of such a Lord to know him to loue him though it be with many imperfections But he washes them away by his bloud making vs partakers of his Sacramēts And the paternall loue which he beares vs both makes him easily encline to pardon our faults to be very copious in rewarding our seruices And he cōducts vs through the middest of the red sea Psal 102. to the land of promise diuiding vs from our sinnes as farre of as the East is from the West and drowning them in his bloud Soe that although wee may see them still yet wee shall see them dead they will serue but to giue vs matter reason to praise our Lord Exod. 14. who hath cast both the horse and horseman into the sea Goe Sir with the benediction of our lord God to enioy the riches of your deer Father which he gayned for you with the launce in his hād by shedding his owne bloud who neuer fay les to succour all such as place theire hope loue in him It is true that wee shall misse you that wee shall thinke our selues to be all alone when we are heere without you but since God hath desined you to this great happynes let vs who loue you hould it for our owne And wee who in our owne right shall lament will yet reioyce with you in yours like the brothers of Rehecca who is goeing to be espoused with Isaak which signifies i◠And therefore wee say to you you are our brother and wee desire that you may encrease to thousands of thousands Gen. 24. and that your seede may possesse the gates of your enemyes I doe not pretend to tell you how you must prepare your self for this Feast for there you haue them who can doe it and who will helpe you to passe on out of the hands of men into the hands of God And let our lord who came into the world for you and who ascended vp to the Crosse for you Ps 22. be he who succours you in such sorte that though you
walke in the middest of the shadow of death you may yet feare noe ill See you call vpon him for though you should bee in the whales belly yet he harkenes to his seruants euen when they are there Call vpon his Blessed Mother Ionas 3. who is also ours Call vpon the Saints who are our Fathers and our brethren for with such helpes as those you cannot feare to loose the celestiall kingdome And if our lord will haue you passe through Purgaâ—ory let his name be blessed still for soe that you may haue hope to see him you shall gladly endure any thing which may be imposed I beseech Christ our Lord who dyed for you to accompany you at your death and receiue you into his owne armes when you departe out of this life Say you to him as hee sayd to his Father In manus â—uas Pater commendo spiritum meum Luc. 23. And I confide in his mercy that you shall be receiued by him as a sonne and treated as the heire of God and coheyre with Christ our Lord. A Letter of the Authour to a Religious woeman who was neere her death He encourages her and shewes how she is to carry her self at that time DEuout seruant of Christ our Lord you sent mee word that you were in the last dayes of your life and that this was the time wherein you desired mee to remember you Soe I doe And though the newes you giue mee is not pleasing to flesh and bloud yet when I looke vpon you with christian eyes it is to recreate my soule And soe is it also to recreate yours as our Lord saith in the Ghospell when those things beginne to shew themselues Luc. 21. looke about you and lift vp your heades for your redemption is neere at hand For though Christ haue freed you by his goodnes the merit of his bloud from mortall sinnes yet still you are in daunger of committing euen then and you actually committ venial sinnes and you are still in the captiuity of your body which is soe subiect to miserie as that it makes euen a S. Paul and others who are like him sigh and groane and say as him self relates it Rom. 8. that they liued in expectation of the redemption of tâ—eir body But there you shall neither sinne mortally not venially For by meanes of the bloud of that lambe which was shed for vs hell where they euer sinne shall haue nothing to doe with you but onely Purgatory where though they suffer yet they sinne not And from thence you shall goe forth to see your Spouâ—e to enioy that blisse which he wonne for you with the nailes in his hands and with his feete fastened to the Crosse And forasmuch as it is a stranger thing to see God nailed vpon a Crosse then to see you placed in heauen I confide in his goodnes that since he had mercy enough to make him doe the more he will not want it for that which is the lesse Thither will he carry you thither I say will he carry you to remaine with himself For the espousalls which heere were celebrated betweene you when you soleÌ„nely made Profession that you would liue and dye in the state of Religion was one day to be concluded by that being together both of him the spouse and of her his fellow spouse in heauen There shall you see your self in soe great liberty and aboundance that you will esteeme your inclosure afflictions heere for well employed And there will they giue you a body which though in substance it shall be the very same which heere you haue yet shall it be very different in health and life and other things And you will incomparably more reioyce in it there then you haue suffered in it heere All entire all entire in bodye and soule are yow to bee blessed there and soe beautified as is fitt for the honour of him who tooke you for his spouse Iesus Christ the lord both of this the other world Be not therefore dismayed when you are to dye by thinking of what your owne sinnes deserue Christ our lord can doe all things and he loues you will not forsake you And since he hath preserued you in this time of your nauigation amongst all the tempests of this life be sure that he will not suffer you to perish now that you are goeing to disinbarke Putt your self wholly into his haÌ„d offering your self entirely to him both in life death and to whatsoeuer he will And beg pardon of him by his bloud for all that wherein you haue offended him and being confessed communicated cast your self headlong at his feete and desire of him one drop of his bloud whereby you may be washed and haue great confidence that you shall bee soe Be as reserued to yourselfe as free from all conuersation as the state of your sicknesse will permit For our Lord before he was to dy left his disciples that he might pray in solitude to his father giuing vs so to vnderstaÌ„d that in this traunce we must reseÌ„ble him And let your discourse be with Christ our lord with his Bl Mother And to the end that your infirmity diuert you not from them it will be well that you behould an image of the Crucifix of his Mother staÌ„ding by him Giue thaÌ„kes to our lord with your whole hart for the fauour he hath done you whether they be generall or particular and cast your self into the wounds of Christ oul Lord which is that Sanctuary out of which his Iustice must not drawe such malefactours as are repentant And repose you there and conceiue strong hope that by meanes of his bloud and death you shall goe and enioy that life in heauen which neuer is to haue an end Our Lord IESVS be euer with you Amen A Letter of the Authour to a woeman who did greatly feele the absence and disfauour of our Lord. He animates her to confide in our Lord and he assigned diuerse causes why God afflictes his seruants and of the fruit which his Diuine Maiesty reapes from thence DOe not conceiue that to be anger in our Lord which indeede proceedes from true loue For as he who beares ill will to another doth flatter sometimes and fawne vpon him so true loue sometimes corrects and chides And the holy scripture saith That the woundes which are giuen by him who loues are better then the false kisses of him who hates And therefore we doe him an extreame wrong who reproues or punishes vs out of the bowells of his loue if we thinke or say that he persecutes vs as if he loues vs not Doe not forgett that the Mediatour betweene God the Father and vs is Iesus Christ our lord by whome we are beloued and tyed with so strong a bond of loue that nothing is able to vndoe it if man himself do not cutt the knott by the guilt of mortall sinne Haue you so soone forgotten that the bloud of
Iesus Christ cryes out in the demaunde of mercie for vs and that his crye is so lowde as that it drownes the crye of our sinnes so that it cannot be heard Doe you not know that if our sinnes should still remayne aliue notwithstanding that Christ Iesus dyed to defeate them his death should be of litle worth since it could not worke that effect Let no man sett a light price vpon that which was so highly valued by Almighty God that he holdes it for a sufficient yea a superaboundant discharge forasmuch as concernes his parte therein of all the sinnes of the whole worlde and of a thousand worldes if there were so manie They who are lost are not lost for want of payment but for want of seruing themselues thereof by meanes of Faith and Pennance and the Sacraments of the holie Church Settle once this truth in your hart and doe it soundly that Christ our lord tooke the businesse of our redemption to his owne charge as verily as if it had beene his owne and he calles our sinnes his by the mouth of Dauid saying Longè a salute mea verba delictorum eorum And he demaunded pardon for them though himselfe committed none and he desired with a most profound internall loue that his seruants might be beloued as if he had desired it for himself and as he desired it Iohn 17. he obtayned it For according to the ordinance of God he and we are so much one thing that either he and we must be beloued or he and we must be abhorred And since he neither is nor can euer be abhorred neither can we also be so if we be incorporated into him by Faith and Loue. But indeede because he is beloued we are also beloued and that iustly because he weighes more towards the making of vs to be beloued then we doe to make him be abhorred And the Father loues his Sonne more then he abhorres such sinners as are conuerted to him And as one who was much beloued by his Father he said to him to this effect Either loue them or loue not me for I offer myself in pardon of their sinnes to the ende that they may be incorporated into myself The greater loue ouercame the lesser hate we are beloued pardoned and iustified we haue great hope not to be forsaken there where there is so strong a knott of loue If through our weakenesse we be afflicted with excessiue feares as now you are conceiuing that God hath forgotten you our lord hath prouided you a comfort saying thus by the Prophet Isai 49. Shall the mother perhaps be able to forgett to take pittie vpon the childe of her wombe well if she doe yet will not I forgett thee for I carrie thee written in my hands O writing which art so firme whose penne be hard nayles whose inke is the bloud it self of him who writes and the paper is his owne very flesh and his word saith thus I haue loued thee with an eternall loue â—eve 31. and therefore I haue drawen thee towards me with mercie Such a writing therefore as this must not be litle esteemed especially when one findes in himself that his soule is drawen by the sweetenesse of good purposes which are signes of that eternall loue where with our Lord hath chosen and loued him Be not therefore scandalized or afflicted for any of these things which happen to you since they all are dispensed by those very hands which were nayled to the Crosse for you in testimony of the loue hee bate you And if you desire to vnderstand what you gett heereby in the inteÌ„tion of God who sendes them you must know that they are tryalls whereby you may be examined that afterward as one who hath beene faithfull in the conflict you may be crowned by the haÌ„d of our lord with a Crowne of Iustice And to the ende you may not thinke that the particulars which you endure are signes of reprobation and that they are sent by our Lord to none but wicked men heare what Dauid saith in his owne person and of many others who walked in the way of God I sayd in the excesse of my soule Psal 30. that I am cast of before the countenance of thine eyes And though this dismay of hart and the disfauour which wee finde in the middest thereof be a thing which doth much afflicte and that the soule can take no ayme of how it standes in the sight of God nor how it shall stande nor what ende that Crosse shall haue yet neuerthelesse there are few things in the world which are so forcible to purge sinnes or which teach a man soe manie tâ—utâ—es as doth this darke obscuritie and inward affliction which makes the soule sweate droppes of bloud Our lord sendes this to his seruants that they may not departe this life without feeling what crosses and tribulations are And therefore he wounds them in the spiritt wherein they liue For if he should but wound them in temporall things to which they are dead they would haue no sence at all thereof You must therefore be sure to giue a good accompt of that dangerous passage wherein God hath beene pleased to bestow you and you must adore his iudgements And being comforted through confidence in his goodnesse bowe downe that head of yours without anie more sifting into the matter and open the mouth of your hart to swallow downe this pill of darkenesse and desolation and disfauour of God through the obedience which you owe to the same God And knowe for certaine that vnlesse you haue a minde to breake your word and vnsay your self in this tryall which God sendes to you you must resolue to make yourself strong as the Angell did Iosue Ioâ—uâ— 1. and you must liue dying euerie day 1. Coâ— 15. as S. Paul did You must be baked in the fire of tribulation that so you may grow hard like anie bricke and fitt to resist the raynes and windes of temptation and troubles and that you be not soft like the dawbing of a wall which is instantly dissolued by water and no way fitt for a strong building For the people who are to be placed in that house of heauen must be beaten and hammerd here on carth by the knockes of manie tribulations and temptations as it is written Our lâ—â—dâ—ryâ—d them and found them worthie of him self Sap. 3. Learne you therefore to sustaine your self with strong foode and striue to conuerte these stones of tribulation into bread if you desire to haue the testimonie of being the childe of God And if he giue you an appetite to eate the white and new bread of consolation remitt it back againe to the will of our lord and be content with being sure that you shall haue so much of that in the next world as that the sweetnesse thereof will farre and farre exceede the recompence which might be due for anie bitternesse sustayned in this And in steede of those hard
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
constrayned him since there was noe remedy but that he would become man that he must needes be borne in soe hard and soe bitter a tyme of the yeare and in a country where he was a straunger and insteede of a house that it must needes be in a stable and all this in soe great pouertie and basenes that he well deserues compassion at our hand Certainely noe other thing but Loue could haue brought him as it were all bound from heauen to the most pure wombe of our Blessed Lady and from that wombe it brought him to that hard manger and from thence to many other afflictions and soe at last to the Crosse where louing vs with much truth of loue he procured that we might truely loue him as himselfe had said before If I be exalted from the earth I will draw all things vp to my selfe Iohn 3 â—um 21. Exalting from the earth signifies to dye vpon the Crosse as he did And then drew he all things to himselfe by meanes of that mighty loue which he kindled in the hart of man For looking towards this true louer some haue beene content to forgett their countries and to liue in continuall pilgrimage others to forsake their estates and to liue in pouerty others haue offered themselues to seuerall afflictions yea and to death it selfe desiring rather to suffer for Christ our Lord then to be delighted any way but in him And let his mercie be praised for euer for that amongst them whoe through the noble loue of the Crucifix haue forgotten all their fortunes and themselues withall your selfe is growne to be one not of your selfe but by him whoe workes his owne glorie in you And therefore he will not leaue you in the weake hands of your selfe alone since he not you begin the worke You therefore my good lady may well reioyce you may reioyce in God since you are well protected vnder a mantle which is both soe soft and soe stronge Stronge to defende you from your enemies and from your selfe whoe are the greatest enemie you haue and soft or sweete to comfort you in your aflictions and to feele them as if they were his owne and to giue you part of his hart which is soe greately wounded with loue for you How could our Lord haue expected drawne or guarded or susteyned you if he had not loued you with great truth of loue How is it possible that your sinnes would not haue prouoked him to wrath if there had not beene as much loue in him as serued to make him shut his eyes towards them and to open them towards the doeing you fauour But you will say How come I to be soe happie as that the eternall king should loue mee and for that reason should endure mee and doe mee soe much good insteede of ill I will answeare you when you shall first haue tolde mee why the fire burnes and why the sunne shines and why the water refreshes and why euery thing is endewed with his owne nature And if you say the fire burnes because it is fire soe doe I alsoe tell you that because God is God therefore doth hee loue vs freely and shewes mercy to such as deserue it not Our pride hath nothing noe it hath nothing whereof to glory but the shame and dishonour must be ours and the honour his The good wee may enioye but the glorie must be his Luke 2 For soe the angells sunge when the blessed Infant was borne Glory be to God in the heauens and peace to men of good will Lett vs giue the glory to the Lord of vs all for the mercies which we haue receiued at his hand Glory be to him because he hath deliuered vs with soe much power from the hands of them to whome we had deliuered our selues with soe miserable a resolution Glory be to him whoe drew vs to grace wee being out of his grace and who sustaines vs and crownes vs with mercy and with many mercies and whoe giues vs to vnderstand that hee will finish that in vs which hee hath begunne For he is wont to haue the charge and care of any busines to whome the honour must result and he whoe reapes the honour must be content to take the care And now since this Blessed Lord of ours will be glorified in vs and will take the honour of our victorie to himselfe he will alsoe take the care of our combatt and hee will enable vs to passe through it to him and will tye vs to himselfe with soe stronge a knott of loue that neither life nor death shall diuide vs. He will enable vs to looke vpon himselfe with open eyes and to shutt them towards all other things and he will imprint himselfe soe fast vpon our harts that for the loue and memory of him wee shall forgett not onely all other things but our very selues alsoe This will he doe whoe is soe pittious soe powerfull and his name is holy and hee it is whoe loues vs more then we can either say or thinke For his workes exceede all created vnderstanding To him be glorye for the eternitie of all eternities Amen As for that which you aske mee concerning my health it goes ill with mee since I am vnworthy of sicknes For if I were not very vnworthy our Lord would not haue taken my paine from mee soe soone as he hath taken it And as for the rest of your letter I answeare that a great fire by how much the more it is shutt vp and concealed soe much the hotter it burnes Christ our Lord make you his true and faithfull disciple that soe you may in some sort correspond to that vnspeakeable and diuine loue of his as I cordially desire of him for you A letter to a reuerend and religious person encouraging him towards the perfect loue of God and representing to him some meanes for the obteyning thereof REuerend father Pax Christi Since our Lord Iesus Christ is not pleased that at this tyme I should be where I might enioy the communication of your selfe and of those my Maisters the Collegialls as I had wished lett his name be blessed for all and in the meane tyme I must endure it with patience Wherein yet mee thinks I shall not be performing a small penance for it is a hard thing for vs to endure to be diuided from the persons whome wee loue And in very truth I did neuer soe much desire to be assisted by you in some things as now For I conceiue that it might haue proued greatly to the seruice of our Lord. But yet since by one that loues all things are well taken I will speake a little to you in absence till our Lord ordaine that wee may be present Sir I much desire that we may seeke God who is our totall Good and that not after any ordinary manner but like some one whoe seekes a great treasure which is much esteemed and for loue whereof he sells all that hee is
whoe can remaine in fire and not growe warme at least to some proportion O that we could dwell there and how happye should we be therein what is the reason that we depart thence soe soone Because we take not vp those fiue lodgings in that high mountaine of the Crosse where Christ our Lord was transfigured indeede though not towards beauty but towards deformitie basenes and dishonour which lodgings are granted to vs nay we are desired to take them though those other three tabernacles which S. Peter desired were denyed to him If some little sparke of this fire be kindled in our harts let vs take great care that the winde blowe it not out since it is soe little Let vs couer it with the ashes of humilitie let vs hould our peace and hide it and soe we shall finde it still aliue Leuit. 6 And we must dayly add some wood to it as God commaundeth his Preists to doe And that signifies to vs the doeing of good workes and the not loosing of any tyme and aboue all things we must approach to the true fire which may kindle and enflame vs and this is Iesus Christ our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Let vs open the mouth of our soule which is our desire and let vs goe all gaping towards the fountaine of liuing water for soe without doubt if we take hony into our mouths we shall haue some taste thereof And in fine if the fire be in our bosome it will heate vs. But both before and after we communicate we must vse some preparations and reflections and there cannot be any better then a liuely Faith that we goe then to receiue Iesus Christ our Lord together with a consideration and loue of his passion since that misterie was instituted in memory thereof Being thus refreshed lett vs then prouide our selues for our communicating the next tyme after For he whoe onely prepares himselfe for the present tyme shall seldome finde himselfe well prepared Let vs therefore runne after God for we may be sure enough that he will not flye from vs. He is nayled vpon the Crosse and infallibly we shall finde him there Let vs conveigh him into our harts and then shutt the doore that he retyre not thence Let vs dye to all visible things since there will come a tyme when we must leaue them perforce Let vs renew our selues in newnes of spirit since we haue liued soe longe according to the old man Eph. 4 Let vs be growing in knowledge and loue of Christ our Lord who is the soueraigne good And all this is to be obteyned by humble prayer and perseuerant endeauour More is receiued into the soule from without the soule then doth proceede of the soule It is more for it to be moued and disposed then to worke when that is done And therefore let vs remoue all impediments and compose our owne harts within our selues expecting Christ our Lord there who enters when the gates are shutt to visit and comfort his Disciples and soe without doubt he will come to vs. For Dauid saith of him Psal 144. Our Lord heard the desire of the poore and his eares harkened to the preparation of his hart And since Christ our Lord is principally he who must worke this in vs Psal 9. we haue noe reason to distrust but taking courage and confidence in such a conductor as he is let vs beginne to runne that course with feruour which ends not but in the obteyning of God And if we cannot soe soone make our harts as subiect to vs as we would lett vs yet endure it with patience till God rise vp and soe our enemies may fall and till he awake and commaund this sea to calme it selfe But then on the other side his expresse pleasure is that we haue confidence in him euen in the greatest temptations yea though our little barkes should be vpon the very point to sincke Let vs not therefore be disturbed or dismayed Let vs not put others to paine for the trouble which this continuall warre giues vs in threatning that we shall be ouercome The day will arriue when God will put this country of ours into peace when wee shall sleepe without any body by to wake vs. And now since this peace cannot be obteyned yet it will be a better course for vs to goe sweating and striuing to roote out our passiōs then to keepe our selues in ease and to content our selues with leading a tepid life for the auoyding of that paine which the seeking of perfection would put vs to But first lett vs vtterly distrust ourselues and confide in God and let vs beginne in the name and power of the omnipotent And this begining of ours shall be humilitie which is figured in the ashes that we take and our end shal be loue which is figured in the resurrection of our Lord and soe we shall inioye both a good lent and a good Easter In the meane tyme I kisse the hands of all my Masters your Collegialls and I recommend my selfe to their prayers And say you to them in my name that I beseech them that we may loue both God and our neighbours in great measure That soe at the day of iudgment we may know well how to answeare and that we may be made doctours be receiued into the Colledge of the Angells and Saints where we shall euer study the booke of life which is God himselfe who will for euer stand open before our eyes that we may knowe him loue him and for euer be in possession of him Our Lord Iesus remaine euer with you Amen A Letter of the Author to a certaine lady Hee shewes how the hunger of our hart cannot be satisfied but by the spirit of our lord who that hee may lodge himselfe therein requires that it bee free from all affection to creatures And how tepid and negligent persons greiue that spirit how the Feast of the holy Ghost is a very good preparation for the Feast of Corpus Chisti which followes MADAM I desire to know how your hart standes affected at this tyme. For if wee looke to the weeke wherein wee are it is belonging to the holy Ghost whose property is to giue light to the vnderstanding and to infuse loue into the will and euen strength into the body alsoe by meanes of which three loaues of bread we shall haue some what to set before our freind who comes hungry and weary from the high way For the hunger that our hart feeles which walkes as it were out of it selfe whilest it imployes it selfe vpon creatures this holy Ghost is wont to take away and to giue vs the bread of fulnes and satisfaction And woe be to vs if we feele not that great defect which is in things created and if we conuert nor our selues to god in our very harts at least now when they are weary with finding imperfections wants in those things wherein we hoped that they might obtaine repose
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
will be subiect to some disgust because themselues are not soe growne in sanctity as others are since thereby the glory of God would alsoe haue encreased in them This doth not follow considering that first effect of loue which is the vnion of two wills in one for they are transformed into the will of God and would haue nothing done but that which their lord will and they see that this will is the cause why one hath more glory then another and from hence they grow to be highly content with that which he assignes to them as alsoe because the diuersity of the degrees of glory in the blessed doth more beautify the whole Citty of God then if they were all of one rancke as the musick of a vyall is much the sweeter because it hath diuers strings and distinct soundes then if they were all but any one And since it is soe that because there are different degrees of glory and diuers mansions in the triumphant Church 1. Cor 13. it is of greater beauty then if they all possessed but one Iohn 14. and the same degree of glory by this they see that our Lord is more honoured in them then if they were all equall and consequently they are not troubled for their owne being lesse in glory then those others are For they in their colours and others in other colours of a deeper dye doe all concurre to manifest the infinite goodnes and beauty of him who made them Heere you see Apoc. 22 that riuer which S. Iohn discouered in the Apocalyps to issue out of the throne of God Apoc. 19. and of the lambe whereof all the blessed spirits in heauen drinke And being inebriated by this loue they sing an euerlasting Alleluia admiring and glorifying our lord God And you will haue discerned a little of that enamell wherewith those pretious stones are accompanied wherevpon that temple of the celestiall mountaine is founded And now after the resemblance of this temple Apoc. 11. which you haue seene in that mountaine you must build a dwelling place in your soule for our lord Exod. 25. iust as they said to Moyses that he should prouide to make the Tabernacle after that forme which he had seene in the mountaine You must my good sister if you meane to goe through the way of this life in perfect charitie and loue of our lord procure to carry about you a continuall desire or at least the most continuall that you can whereby you may euer wish and like that our lord God in whose presence you are still to walke may be in himselfe as good as holy and as full of glory as indeede hee is And soe with great ioy and complacence in all the attributes of almightie God you are to goe reioycing and your soule is to seast it selfe inseeing that your lord your true love possesses himselfe whoe is infinitely good powerfull from whome all creatures receiue their being and their beauty who in himselfe is soe full of glory and goodnes that all creatures haue neede of him he none of them This must be the whole scope at which your loue must ayme S. Tho. 1. And heerein S. Thomas saith that perfect charitie doth consist As for the loue which new deuotes call Charitie which is when they are kindled in deuotiō in louing our lord tēderly though this be a holy thing yet is it not of soe high condition as that other most holy loue which transformes soules into the beloued To this loue the holy scripture inuites vs in many places saying Ps 96. Phil. 4 Reioyce you iust persons in our lord And S. Paule saith Reioyce in our lord And conceiuing that this aduise was worthy to be giuen more then once he repeates it saying yet againe I tell you that you must reioyce The Prophet Dauid expressed the same when he said Ps 36 delight you in our lord and he will giue you whatsoeuer you shall aske This is that ioye wherewith the most holy virgin reioyced when she said My spirit reioyces in God my Sauiour Luk. 1. And with this ioye did Christ our lord reioyce when S. Luke said that Iesus reioyced in the holy Ghost Luk. 10. And the royall Prophet saith that his hart Ps 83. euen his flesh reioyced in the liuing God This happēs whē the soule with the will for there the hart signifies the will are actually louing desiring that our lord may in himselfe bee what he is And from the great redundāce which proceedes sometymes from this ioye of the soule the very flesh it selfe is kindled in the loue of our lord And because this loue is soe excellent celestiall a thing therefore doth the Church which is directed by the holy ghost inuite vs in the begining of Mattins with a perswasion to loue our Lord saying thus Come lett vs reioyce in our Lord and sing canticles of praise to God our saluation If you will finde the excellency of this loue put it in practise you shall see that the soule doth not satisfy it selfe but in praysing God For when it sees all that to be accomplished in God which it can wish it breakes instantly out into thanks-giuing to him for hauing perfected the desire it hath to praise him which is the same effect which flowes from the loue they haue in heauen as the Prophet Dauid saith Blessed are they O Lord Psal 8. whoe dwell in thy howse for they shall praise thee for euer and for euer S. Augustine was inflamed with this loue when speaking to our Lord he said If thou O Lord wert Augustine and I God I would make thee God and my selfe Augustine I thinke there is noe neede to bring testimonies which may proue the excellencie of this Loue for euen plaine reason tells vs that this is the loue which drawes a man out of him selfe and transformes him vnto God who is his beloued And out of this loue it must follow that all your workes and deuotions and prayers must be made by you to the honour and glory of this God who deserues to be adored and serued for his owne pure goodnes by as many creatures as he hath made without carrying any respect at all to the hope which might be had of a reward from him For though it be good and holy to serue our Lord euen for retribution Psal 118. yet is not this an act of soe perfect charity as that which seekes noe kinde of interest but onely the honour and glory of our Lord God If at any time you place before your soule the reward which they will giue it for the good it doth to the end that it may be animated towards good workes let not this be your last end but the will which you haue to serue our Lord. For the more glory you haue the more honour and glory shall our Lord God receiue Soe that the last ayme of all must be to
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
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
word of God from his mouth they had chaunged their life to the better and had begun to walke in the way of God and soe gaue much ioy to S. Paule For besides that he reioyced in their good he alsoe hoped to receiue a reward at the last day for hauing beene that instrument by meanes whereof God had gayned those soules and therefore did he call them his crowne Because as a crowne doth beautify and honour the head of such as put it on so they whoe are saued by meanes of any man's preaching will be a meanes of honouring and ioying that man as some beautifull crowne of rich stones might doe Now this being soe I confesse you owe me not many thanks for my wishing well to your soule because the good thereof is mine in regard that God hath done me the fauour to bestow you vpon me for my spirituall childe and will impart you to me as one of the pretious stones of that crowne which one day he will vouchsafe mee if I continue faithfull in that vocatiō by which he hath called mee And now because you are a stone which he will sett in a crowne it is the pleasure of our Lord to worke and polish you very well For it is noe way fitt to put such stones in a crowne as are either rough or of noe worth but such as these will be throwne into hell since they receiued not their being wrought and enamelled by the spiritt of our lord But those liuing stones whereof the celestiall Ierusalem is built are wrought heere with soe many blowes that 〈◊〉 seemes as if our lord would breake them and that againe he giues them new blowes without compassion euen before the paine of the former be gone But yet he hath noe intention to breake them but to polish them nor to destroy them but to beautify them to make them such as that by how much the more they seemed to be ill handled heere soe much the more brightly they may shine at the latter day in the high presence of almighty God Then will that appeare to be mercy which heere seemed cruelty And God will see those pretious stones which he hath wrought euery one in his proper place that so full of blisse that the meanest of them is to be incōparably more esteemed then kingdomes and empires and whatsoeuer other earthly things which can be conceiued O happy stroakes which are to end in such a high repose O happy labour which shall be paid by the imbracements of God himselfe Wound vs heere O Lord as much as thou wilt soe that thou cherish vs there Heere make vs weepe that there thou maist wipe away our teares Discomfort vs heere in all things soe that we may enioy thee whoe art all things and be rigorous to vs heere soe that there thou haue mercy for vs in store In this world we are as banished men and crowded vp into a corner and we are as it were vpon an Easter eue Heauen is our countrey and our liberty our festiuity And therefore howsoeuer things happen we will make a shift to passe it heere to the end that when the glory of God shall appeare we alsoe may appeare in glory that we may celebrate that ioyfull Easter with soe many Cittizens of heauen who first celebrated the vigill vpō earth Madam you must giue thankes to our lord for hee treates you as he hath treated and as he meanes to treate his best freinds And as for that onely begotten sonne of his who is the principall stone of all stones doe but see what blowes they gaue him For they wrought bett vpon him from head to feete these very blowes did alsoe worke vpon that other second stone of heauen which is the most Blessed virgin our Bl. Lady And soe according to the place which euery one is to haue there he must be wrought and polished heere Now if this be necessary euen for iust persons what shall become of vs sinners but onely that we must bowe downe the head and say O Lord thou punishest mee little in comparison of the much punishment which I deserue All that which I can suffer is little though I alone should suffer all the afflictions of the whole world For to him who deserues hell what temporall paine can seeme great Lett vs know that God is full of pittie towards vs euen then when he seemes most rigorous without doubt he is full of pitty since whomesoeuer he punishes heere he will not punish but comfort there For it is written That God doth not punish a man for the same thing Nahum 1. twice All that which we endure we deserue but yet God is soe very full of pitty that for the stripes which he sends vs he pardons our sinnes and he accounts it soe as a peece of seruice from vs as that he giues vs a crowne for the sufferance And since the afflictions of this world preuent Purgatorie and entitle vs to heauen who will not loue them when they come yea and beg more of God then yet he had and euen be sorry when he hath them not He who knowes Christ and his kingdome hath noe compassion of himselfe in this world because he knowes himselfe to be more fitt for God the more afflictions he endures for his sake And soe did that enamoured Ignatius say Fire Crosse fury of beasts cutting quartering breaking and destroying of euery parte of my whole body and the scourges of the deuill himselfe Let all these things come vpon mee and lett me onely enioy Christ our lord There is nothing in this world which can doe me good not soe much as euen a kingdome It is more happines for me to dye for Christ our Lord then to exercise dominion ouer the earth from one end thereof to the other This saith that Saint as one who knew well and did much loue our lord Iesus Christ and who saw that all was well employed which could be disbursed for the gayning of him In this manner I desire that you would encourage your selfe to suffer the Purgatorie of your sinnes yea and though you should not haue committed sinne you should yet apply your selfe to endure affliction for the pure loue of Iesus whoe endured soe great things for you without hauing giuen the least shaddow of cause in himselfe And I would haue you say to him that howsoeuer you are bound to suffer what he will send yet out of a free hart you would gladly suffer for the pure loue of him though you were not bound to it And thus according to the intention of your hart our Lord will accept it at your hands as an Embleme which you carry for his loue In the loues of this world men vse to make other Emblemes but in the loue of God the Embleme is sufferance in affliction And he who is not of a strong hart to suffer much lett him neuer stand telling mee that he loues much For in this world there is
their owne vpō which they neuer looke but from farre of soe how great soeuer they be in themselues they seeme little to them From hence it proceedes that in their conuersation they are soe intractable and soe rigourous for iust after the rate of their hauing noe consideration of their one infirmities they haue noe compassion of others I neuer yet saw man who was curious in the cōsideration of himselfe who would not alsoe easily passe ouer the fault of another and whatsoeuer that man be who is seuere against another when he falls giues strong euidence whereby it is proued that he considers not his owne defects Soe that if wee desire to fly from this soe daungerous kinde of blindenes we must be sure to view reuiew what kinde of things our selues are that soe when we finde how miserable we be we may cry out for remedy to our lord Iesus Because indeede hee is Iesus that is to say a Sauiour but yet of noe other then such as know and bewaile their owne miseries and who receiue indeede if they can and in desire if they cannot the holy Sacraments of the Church that soe they may be cured and saued And although for the making vs know our selues God and his Saints haue declared many and many things to vs yet he whoe shall attentiuely behould that which he may obserue to passe within his owne hart will finde soe many things for which he must despise him selfe that with horrour he will cry out from the bottome of that Abisse and say there is noe end of my miseries Who is he that hath not erred in those things wherein he thought him selfe most sure who hath not desired searched after things as cōcerning that they were good for him which yet afterward he found to be full of preiudice Who will presume to know any thing since he hath beene deceiued innumerable tymes what thing is more blinde then a man who knowes not soe much as what he is to aske of God as S. Paule tells vs and this comes to passe Rom. 2. because we know not soe much as what is good for our selues as it happened euen to the same S. Paule Who begging of God that he would free him from a particular temptation Rom. 2. Cor. 12. conceiued that he had asked a right but it was giuen him to be vnderstood that indeede he knew not what he asked nor soe much as what was good for him And now who will put cōfidence in his ability to know euen soe much as what he should Iudge desire concerning himselfe since he whome the holy ghost inhabited did aske that which was not good for him to obtaine Certainely our ignorance must needes be very great fince we erre soe oftē in those things wherein it imports vs soe much not to erre But now though sometymes our lord should teach vs to know what is good yet who doth not see how very great our weakenes is and how we fall flat vpon our faces in those things wherein it concerned vs to stand vp right To whome hath it not occurred many tymes to propound the doeing of some good thing and yet to finde himselfe ouerthrowne and ouercome by that wherein he tooke himselfe to be most inuincible To day wee lament our sinnes with teares in our eyes and we purpose to refraine them afterward and yet euen whilst the same teares are still wett vpon our cheekes some new occasion of sinne is offered and weeping because we fell we committ that very thing for which we may haue cause to weepe againe receiuing the body of our lord Iesus-Christ with much cause of being confounded for the irreuerence which we haue committed For the tyme hauing beene but short since we harboured his pretious body in our bosomes it happens sometymes that by some sinne we driue his grace out of our soules What care is soe weake and light which chaunges soe often vpon the warning of all windes as wee Sometymes merry and sometymes sadd now deuout and then distracted now full of desire tending to heauen and then following the world and euen dropping downe to hell Now hee abhorres a thing and instantly he loues that which he abhorred He casts vp that which he had eaten because he found it charge his stomack and presently he eates it vp againe as if he had not cast it before What thing can there be with such variety of coulours in it as a man who is made after this sort what Image can they painte with soe many faces and soe many tongues as this kinde of man How truely said Iob Man neuer remaines in one and the same state Iob. 14. Iob. 7. And the reason heereof is because he is ashes or dust and his life a winde Now what a sott should hee bee who would seeke for any repose or rest betweene dust and winde I doe not thinke that there could be a more hedious thing then if we were able to discerne to how many seuerall dispositions one man is subiect in one onely day His whole life is a very masse of mutability and frailty And that which the scripture saith agrees well to him Eccl. 27. The foole is as chaungeable as the Moone But now what remedy shall wee finde heereof Certainely we can haue none better then to know our selues for Lunaticks And as in former tymes they carryed a Lunatick person to our Lord Iesus Christ that he might cure him soe lett vs goe for cure to the same lord Iesus The scripture saith that the euill spiritt tormented that man and that sometymes he cast him into the fire and sometymes into the water and the very same happens to vs. Sometymes wee fall into the fire of couetousnes of wrath of enuy at other tymes into the water of carnality of tepidity and of malice And if wee consider vpon how large accompts wee stand obliged to almighty God for the tyme past and how little amendment there is in the tyme present we will be sure to say and we may doe it with much truth The sorrowes of death haue enuironed mee the dangers of hell haue hemmed me in O danger of hell which is soe mightily to be feared And who is not hee that will not watch with a hundred thowsand eyes that he may not be put to welter in that profound Lake where hee shall eternally bewaile the temporall delight which he hath vnlawfully enioyed who will not take care of his way least otherwise he be found wādering from all happines where are the eyes of that man who sees not this where are his eares whoe heares not this where is his pallate who tastes not this It is a cleare testimony of death not to performe the actions of life Our sinnes are innumerable our frailties are great our enemies are stout crafty and many and they hate vs home That whereof wee are in question is either the gayning or loosing of God for all eternity How comes it then to
he shall pay soundly for it if he giue iust cause Nay he pardoned not soe much as his owne sonne though hee owne nothing for himselfe but onely because he obliged himselfe to pay for the sinnes of others Without faile he must needes be farre from acceptation of persons whoe punished with soe great seuerity his onely begotten sonne and such a sonne and soe deerely beloued and that for the sinnes of others There is nothing which should haue power to make him who gouernes forbeare the doeing of his duty but he is to stand like the stalke of a ballāce which leanes not either to the one scale or to the other that so cuery man may haue his owne There is noe state but it would perish and be vndone if publique busines should be ledd after the pace of particular affections And at an instant doth that person leaue to be publique when he hangs neuer soe little towards the particular Now since the respect of priuate profitt must not bend him who gouernes much lesse must the respect of any other man's profitt make him bend since he owes more to himselfe then to any other Christ our Lord is the patterne which is made for all not onely forasmuch as concernes the priuate cōscience of a particular man but forasmuch alsoe as concernes any publique person For hee was a king and soe he is though not after the manner of this world But being in the chaire of his Crosse hee said to his mother Woeman behould thy sonne To giue vs to vnderstand that hee who is in the place of a publique person must renounce all particular inclinations though it should regard his very Mother And the same example he alsoe gaue vs when at some other tymes he would speak with lesse tēdernes to that Blessed Mother of his To teach vs how carefull wee must bee to keepe our selues cleere from particular affection though some be angry at it and though our selues endure paine by it rather then to cherish them with disgust to God There is nothing to which great lords ought to attend so much that so they may be well both with God and man as truly cordially and like men who liue in the presence of God to remaine euer faithfull firme to him with out hanging either to this way or to that And this will be easily performed by that great man who shall attentiuely consider that he is but the Minister of God as one who but meerely executes and must not exceede the commission which is giuen to him God places not great Lords in the world to the end that they may doe and vndoe what they list but to execute the lawes of his holy will And though they may account themselues lords yet are they still vnder the vniuersall Lord of all in comparison of whome they are more truly vassailes then their vassailes are theirs and their power is as truly limitted as their vassailes power is forasmuch as concernes the dispensing with what they ought to doe Soe that he is to be more fauoured and beloued who hath most right on his side and he is to be most punished who deserues it most And thus may any lord resemble the true lord of all if without acceptation of persons he giue to euery one according to his workes yea and if sometymes he punish most such as are most fauoured by him Both because reason would require that they should offend him least and for that alsoe they must not thinke that because they are beloued by him they may take occasion to doe what they list that which reason alloweth not Freindship should last as long as vertue doth and enmitie or opposition as vice For if it be otherwise woe be to ihem who call good euill euill good Your lordship must consider besides that God hath placed you in the eyes of many whoe take that to be a rule of their liues which they see you doe Make account that you are seated in a high place and that your speech and fashions are seene by all and followed by the most part of men If such a fashion be taken vp in Court if such a manner of speach be vsed there all men procure to follow it And if it were the custome amongst great lords that when one should giue them a buffet vpon one cheeke they would tender the other and if it were the fashion for thim to abhorre sinne and to take it for a point of greatenes to obey the lawes of Christ our Lord without doubt inferiour men would hould it an honour to doe that which they saw practised by great persons And for this reason I beleeue that the Prelats of the Church and the lords of the world are a cause of perdition to the most part of soules I beseech your lordship that as you are a particular man you will looke into your selfe with a hundred eyes and that you will looke into your selfe with a hundred thowsand as you are a person vpon whome many looke and whome many follow And take care to carry both your person and your house soe ordered as the law of Christ requires that hee who shall imitate your lordship may alsoe imitate Christ our Lord therein and may meete with nothing to stumble at The vulgar is without doubt but a kinde of ape Let great men consider what they doe for in fine that will be followed either to their saluation if they giue good Example or for their condemnation if it be euill And this consideration alone should suffice to make great lords liue like soe many Saints though it might cost them some trouble considering how our lord Iesus the sonne of God would not be a king but resolued by his labour and sweat to giue rest and peace to his subiects And he fledd from prosperities and honours least otherwise he might haue giuen occasion of sinne to his seruants who would haue thought if Christ our lord had followed them that is would also haue beene their part to pursue the same All things are to be thought little worth so that we may procure thereby that God be serued And let this be the finall conclusion That soe much the more attentiuely a man shall consider and imitate Iesus Christ so much the better man and so much the better Lord he shall bee For in him wee beganne and soe also we will end in him A Letter of the Authour to a Lady in the tyme of Aduent and vpon this occasion he perswades her to dispose her selfe to receiue the Infant Iesus and to loue him with feruent loue HOw busy will your ladyship bee in this holy tyme preparing a lodging for that guest who is coming to you Mee thinkes I see you as earnest as S. Martha yet as quiet as S. Mary Magdalen that soe by your endeauours both exteriour and interiour you may doe him seruice who is drawing neere since hee is soe worthy both of the one and of the other and is in
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
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
of that consolation wherewith God comfortes vs For as the tribulations of Christ abounde in vs so through Christ see our consolation is alsoe aboundant These are the wordes of the Apostle Saint Paule 2 Cor. 11 Three tymes he was scourged with roddes fiue tymes with whipps and once he was stoned in such sort as that he was left for dead and persecuted by all the generations of man kinde and tormented withall sorts of afflictions and troubles and this not in any small number of tymes but as himselfe saith elswhere wee are euer euen drawne to death for the loue of Iesus Christ that soe his life may be made manifest in vs. And in all these tribulations he doeth not onely not murmure nor complaine of God as weake persons are wont to doe nor doeth he afflict himselfe otherwise as is vsed by them whoe loue their honour and their case nor doeth he importune God to remoue them from him like such as know not the valew thereof and therefore desire not such company as that nor doeth he esteeme them as some sleight and little fauours as they doe whoe loue not to suffer much but leauing all ignorance and weakenes farre behinde him he prayses our lord in them and giues thankes for them as for an extraordinary blessing Esteeming himselfe happy to suffer somewhat for the honour of him whoe suffered soe great dishonours that soe he might draw vs out of that true dishonour wherein wee were being slaues to the basenes of sinne and he beautified and honoured vs with his spiritt and with the adoption of the sonnes of God and he gaue vs an earnest and a pledge that we should enioye the kingdome of heauen by him O my brethren whoe are soe very much beloued by mee God will open your eyes that you may consider how great fauour he doth vs by that which the world thinks to be disfauour and how much wee are honoured in being dishonoured for seeking the honor of God and how high honour is reserued to vs for that abasement wherein now we are and how sweete delightfull and deare armes our Lord extends towards vs to receiue such as are wounded in the warre for his sake whereby those very woundes doe incomparably outstrip euen make sweete all that gall which the afflictions of this life can giue And if we haue any true vnderstanding we shall conceiue a vehement desire of these imbracements For whoe will not desire that which is wholly amiable and desireable but onely such a one as knowes not what true happines is But know you for certaine that if those festiuities of heauen please you and if you desire to see and enioye the same there is noe way to it more secure then that of suffering This is that path whereby Christ our Lord and all his seruants are gone before vs Matth 7. and which he calls streight and saith thas it leades men to lise And he left vs this instruction to the end that if wee should haue a minde to be where he is wee might walke by that way where he went For it is against all reason that the sonne of God hauing gone by the way of dishonour the sonnes of men should goe by the way of honour since the Disciple is not greater then his Maister noâ— the slaue then his Lord. And God forbidd that our soule should repose and rest in any other thing or should desire any other life in this world but onely to suffer vnder the Crosse of Christ our lord Though yet I know not if I haue said well in calling that affliction which is suffered vnder that Crosse For to my seeming it is as the delight of a soft bed full of roses O thou Iesus of Nazareth by which word it is signified that thou art all full of flowers how sweete is that odour of thee which awakes in vs those insatiable desires of eternity and makes vs forgett the afflictions which we suffer heere whilest we consider for whome they are endured and with what reward they shall be paid And whoe is hee that can loue thee at all and yet doeth not loue thee crucified in that Crosse thou diddest seeke mee thou diddest cure mee thou diddest deliuer mee thou diddest free mee thou diddest loue mee giuing thy life and bloud for mee by the hands of base and cruell wretches And therefore in the Crosse will I seeke thee and vpon that I finde thee and finding thee thou helpest mee and thou deliuerest mee from my selfe who am the creature which contradicts thy loue wherein myne owne saluation doth consist But now being free from the loue of my felf which is thine enemy I answeare thee though not with equallity yet with a kinde of poore resemblance of that excessiue loue which thou carryedst to mee vpon thy Crosse I louing thee and suffering for thee as thou by louing mee dyedst of loue for mee But woe is mee and what shame couers my face and what sorrow seizes vpon my hart whoe hauing beene soe much beloued by thee which thy soe great torments doe well declare I yet loue thee soe little as may be seene by the little which I endure for thee I easily confesse that all men deserue not soe great happines as to be marked out for thine with the marke of the Crosse but yet consider what a sadd thing it is for mee to desire and not to obtaine to aske and not to receiue How much more when I begg not delight and ease but affliction and paine for loue of thee Tell mee since thou will haue mee to be both thy Herald and the Auntient whoe am to carry the flying colours of thy ghospell why thou doest not apparell mee from head to foote with thine owne liuery O how ill doth the name of being thy seruant belong to mee whoe finde my selfe naked of that garment wherewith thou diddest soe cordially and soe continually and soe aboundantly goe apparelled Tell vs O beloved Iesus euen by that sweete Crosse of thine was there peraduenture any one day when thou diddest put off that robe of sufferance to cloath thy selfe with repose and ease Or was there any one day wherein thou diddest put off that rough coate which soe wrought into the very rootes of thy hart as to make thee say My soule is heauy Marth 26. euen to the death O noe thou wert farr from resting because thou wert farre from leauing to lone and this loue made thee alwayes suffer And when they stript thee of thy cloathes they cutt out vpon the Crosse as if it had beene vpon some table another garment for thee and that so long a one as to reach from thy very head to thy feete and there was noe part of thee which was not dyed with thy most pretious crymson bloud The head Crow ned with thornes the face loaden with buffetts the hands peirced with two nayles and the feete with one a bitter one to thee but deare to vs and all the rest of
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
had no taste of spirituall benedictions which last for euer And let him triumph like a sott in the prosperities of this world who hath not felt in his hart how delightfull a thing it is to shed teares for hauing offended God and how happy a man is in relying vpon Christ our Lord and in liuing to him And since our Lord hath called vs to his mercy and hath giuen vs the knowledge of his Sonne Christ Iesus let vs not liue according to the flesh nor allowe of any counsell against this counsell That in a thing so manifest as it is that we ought to seeke and esteeme the contentment of Christ our Lord despising the world and all that is therein there is no neede of taking any man's opinion and we must not be moued by any vanities of the world how many Iohn 2. and how vsuall and how well receaued soeuer they may be The world passes with the delight thereof as S. Iohn saith but he who will doe the will of our Lord shall remaine for euer Who relyes vpon that which is vnstable shall fall downe togeather with it and he who will adore an Idoll shall growe like that very Idoll but he who loues Christ our Lord and that man loues him who hates the world he indeede is wise and worthy and shall be exalted to sitt in that kingdome with the same Iesus Christ our Lord as he sittes at the right hand of his Father It is much more worth to be the least there then to be the greatest heere If therefore it delight vs to raigne let vs desire to doe so in that eternall kingdome I beseech Christ our Lord to bestowe it on you Amen A Letter of the Author to a deuoted religious Friend of his who animates him to seeke God by obedience humility and he teacheth that recollection of minde must not be tyed to any certaine place I Haue receiued your letter and that which I am to answeare is this You must know that there is not any one in this life who can think to liue without troubles that to complaine of them is to complaine of being a man since we were borne to beare them And if it seeme to you that when you were shutt vp you carried your soule more recollected you are to cōsider on the other side that Obediēce in doeing those things which displease ones self and the humility of performing meane offices is noe small fruite to the soule And beleiue you this truth that the man who is carefull to recollect himself and who puttes his confidēce in God doth many tymes finde himself more recollected in streetes and publique places then if he were in his Cell And they who tye their deuotion to any particular kind of place doe instātly loose it when they leaue the place yea and many times in that very place it failes them And this growes in regard they are resolued to haue it there and striue not to finde it in all places and in all those workes to which they attend by theyr Obedience vpon this Obedience you must greatly procure to ground your self without choosing this or that Since Obedience is a thing soe acceptable to God that it exceedes all that which a man may doe vnder the conduct of his owne will how good soeuer it may seeme Father Lewis of Granada will passe shortly by you and I would haue you doe that with great confidence which he shall aduise you The Holy Ghost be euer with you I am such an enemy of these changings of place I hould the very desires thereof soe fitt to be suspected as that I am made slow in giuing answeare to what you write concerning them till by your prayers we may get more light to guide vs. For otherwise we shall goe as bad as blindefould and perhaps you may fall vpon worse encounters then they are which you would auoyd I beseech you sollicite the matter with our Lord when I shall haue satisfied mine owne hart I will impart it vnto you In the meane tyme I recommend to you much that you keepe your soule in peace For it happens to some that they both loose they re tyme and the good opportunity which God giues them by thinking much vpon that other which they desire to obtaine soe they growe to loose both the one and the other Make you accōpt that there is but one day of life left for you and that that day is the morning when you awake And spend you that as if it were your last with all the care that possibly you cā And when the desire of doeing any other thing occurres make this answeare Doe not thinke of to morrow and exercise your self in breaking your will For when a man flyes from the opportunity which he hath to breake it it is like flying out of the feilde And because such a one flyes like a coward and carryes his weakenes in his company therefore when the occasion presents it self afterward he findes that he is as farre from strength as before the reason heereof is because he changed his place but not his minde giue you a good accompt of that house and of the opportunity which there you haue and soe you shall gett a tongue wherewith you may aske a better at the hands of our Lord For otherwise they may say vnto you that he who conducts ill that which he hath already in his care to what end should one trust a greater matter in his hands A Letter of the Author to a deuout Lady animating her to fight against the Deuill and to resist his temptations I Beseech our Lord that you may find your self as I desire for it was not said in vayne that loue is full of a carefull kind of feare But in fine I haue confidence that our Lord as he saith to vs by the Prophet Ieremy will regard that loue wherwith he espoused himself in those beginnings of his and will remember how the people followed him without any high way in the Desart which was full of affliction to them and carryed a kind of resemblance of death God is very thankefull to such as serue him with loue and in the tyme of our weakenesses and when our strength is euen vpon the point to faile then doth he looke backe vpon the time when formerly wee had beene in vigour and to that amorous intention which wee had in former time releiuing our misery with the aboundance of his mercy Continue therefore with a harte full of courage and as S. Paule saith doe not loose your confidence Heb. 10 for there belongs a great reward to it And this is that which the Deuill would faine either take away from vs or weaken in vs so to pull vs downe who pull him downe and much more you being a woeman by whose hand he would esteeme it Iudges 9. more dishonour to be ouercome As Abimelech sayd to his second doe thou kill mee that soe it may not
may be sure that thinges goe wel with you that I may haue strēgth to beare that pēnāce which you shall impose vpon me for my negligece Negligence I meane in writing to you but not in remembring you For in this our Lord hath not permitted that I should be forgetfull For soe great was the loue which I carryed towards you vpon seeing that you were growne to be the true seruant of God and you entred soe deepely into my hart when I considered those mercyes which our Lord had vouchsafed to you that it neuer parted more from thence though it haue failed to strengthen and comfort you in this way as it should haue done Pardon me my good Sister for the loue of Iesus Christ and bee not cruel against yourfelfe but be as cruell against me as you shall thinke fit Be sure to loue our Lord for he deserues not to be ill vsed for the negligence of his seruant And if you should haue forgotten your duety to him you know his condition already well enough and that he hath promised to receiue the soule which will retourne and that if you will forgiue me he wil pardon you And he will shew you such mercyes as he shewed before and wil enable you to sing those Canticles to him which you sung in your first beginning and birth to Christ our Lord. Doe not now giue cause of ioy to those infernal spirits since there was a time wherein you wounded them with sorrow Doe not greiue your good Angel since he hath giuen God much praise for you and hath reioyced at your vocation Doe not reuerse that solemne Festiuity which was celebrated in the kingdome of heauen vpon the day of your cōuersion And if through my sinnes any of these things should haue happened yet still you must not be dismayed For our Lord will stretch forth his armes and will receiue you since he stretched them out for you vpon the Crosse And it is vsual with him to loue that person more who hauing runn away out of the warr doth yet returne to fight with greater courage then that other who though he neuer forsook the feild yet was neuer but slack in doeing him seruice This is a kind of warr wherein the losse of the victory consists not in the not receiuing any woundes but in flying out of the battaille rendring himselfe to the enemye in the quality of a man who is ouercome Take courage and begin yet once againe for you shall find Christ our Lord close at hand to help you And seing your humility and how much you are ashamed of yourselfe he will not put you to confusion Nor when he shall perceiue that you are lying prostrate at his feete will he cast you off or kick you out of his sight And if you call vpon those intercessours of yours who are in heauen they will not make themselues deafe to the cryes which you send vp from hence As for me because I haue made the fault whereby you haue incurred the inconuenience if there be any I wil alsoe performe the pennance as I said before And I wil beseech our Lord to restore and raise that vp which my negligence made fit for ruine Let all your thoughts beate vpon his hauing begunn the worke and not vpon my hauing neglected it And then he will put things in good order because he is the true louer of soules and pretends not to see mens sinnes that soe they may retract them by sorrow I beseech him euen by what himself is that he wil keep you in close protection vnder his wings and make you gratious in his sight and that he wil punish me in whatsoeuer sort he shal thinke fit And I beg of you by him that you wil write to me though I confesse myselfe to be vnworthy of your answeare A letter of the Authour to a woman who was afflicted with grieuous and dangerous temptations He encourages her to suffer and shewes that the fraite of afflictions is great when they are well borne BEE comforted Esaye 40. bee comforted O you my people sayth the lord your God speake to the hart of Ierusalem and call her hither for her punishment is ended and her sinne is pardoned Confide my good sister for these words are spoaken to you and they commaunde you to be comforted through his fauour who will defende you though your owne infirmities and those infernall powers striue to plucke you downe But if they be carefull to persecute you more carefull is Christ our lord to ouershadow you and to defende you and to fetch you of from this combatt adorned with new Crownes which are incomparably more to be esteemed and reioyced in then your tribulation deserues to be lamented What is the matter what is that which afflicts you what is that which frights you your God is the curer of these wounds be not troubled there at For at the instant that he closes them he will shine to you as a sunne seauen times more bright then before you were subiect to this affliction your spirituall prosperities will incomparably excell those which are past since that which you suffer now doth so farre exceede in bitternesse that which formerly you suffered For these flowds of anguish vse to serue but for a preface to an aboundance of spirituall delight as the tribulations of Iob were messengers to him Iob 24. of a doubling of his estate and comfort which God bestowed vpon him God afflicted him first and then he comforted him he tryed him and then he crowned him he hid himself from him a litle but afterwards he shewed himselfe more deare and sweeter then he had seemed before to be offended This is the stile which our lord holdes with his seruants He mortifies them so farre that he seemes as if he would place them in the verie torments of hell but then instantly againe he drawes them out and putts them into perfect ease and so as that the whale is neither able to retaine him nor yet so much as to touch him with anie offence whome she had swallowed Our aduersaries the deuills Ionas 2 are full of pride and they threaten to devoure vs but let vs say to them in their teeth Come and spare not for you shall be ouercome Take what councell you list it shall come to nothing for God is on our side Let it not my good sister passe once so much as in your thought to be afrayd of these infernall wolues For hee who conquered them once vpon the Crosse hath conquered them in you and will do so againe and will despoyle them to their great shame And how soeuer it may seeme to you that the encounter is fierce and the enemie so strong as to fright you be not yet dismayde E saye 19. For it is our lord who sayth Shall perhaps the prize be taken out of the hand of the strong man And shall that which was seised by the mightie be resumed Most certainly the
lay fast holdeâ— vpon the Crucifix and fixe his thought and say Thou o Lord dyedst for me before I was borne and thou soughist me with the sorrow of thy hart when I sought thee not nor desired thy ayat but now I call vpon thee and I loue thee and therefore now forsake me not If thou diddest receane and shelter him who was thine enemie thou wilt neuer driue him away who desires to serue thee and whome thou hast accepted for thine owne And in this faith you must liue and remaine secure amongst all the waues and tempests which the sea can shew though it may seeme to you that the shipp is euen sinking and you must labour that so your hart may not fayle least else our Lord awake and chide you as he did his Apostles saying Why feare you â—o men of litle faith whereby you may see Matth 8. how much in earnest our Lord is when he requires vs to be full of courage since euen when the waues are entring into the little shipp to swallow it vp euen then did he reproach them because they feared And this he doth because he will not allow them to be afrayde at all who embarke themselues with him For they goe with the true Lord of soules who is our faithfull helper out of the greatest straytes And now since you are one of them who haue quitt the shore and embarked yourself with him by entring vpon his seruice what can that be which you should feare since you haue walked and doe so still in company of Iesus Christ our Lord. Remember Matth. 14. that S. Peter whilst he had faith went treading with his feete vpon the waters but as soone as he saw the winde stiffe and the waues high he feared and then presently beganne to sinke To giue vs to vnderstand that with a faith which was firme he went secure and by growing tepide he began to be drowned and heard this word from the mouth of our Lord O thou man of litle faith why didst thou doubt And in the same manner doth he say to vs if he see vs fearefull of any visible danger whatsoeuer And if our Lord tooke such care to deliuer his disciple from a corporall death much more will he take care to free you from the death of your soule and to secure you that the tempest which is risen against you may not drowne you Onely be you sure my good sister that you be not dismayed and forsake not the warre for heere the Crowne is lost not because men are tempted but because they either flye or be ouercome Offer your felfe to suffer paine and euen fire for his honour who suffered so much for you And by how much the greater your afflictions are esteeme them for so much the more certaine to ken of the loue which passes betweene Christ our Lord and you Beseech him that he will strengthen you towards sufferance and not that he will take away your afflictions For it will be a Purgatorie to you whereby you may be wholy purified in the sight of God and the Crosse of your beloued lord will keepe you companie This Crosse is that thing which all the louers of our Lord desire and by meanes thereof you will remaine like goulde in the Crusible so much or the more resplendent as you â—ere more afflicted Consider that euerie louer is to endure somewhat which may declare himself for the loue of his beloued And since you are entred into the warre of Loue do not turne coward but consider how great things euen weake woemen haue endured for Christ our Lord. Some by fire others by scourges and others by hauing had their flesh torne from their bones and they held themselues happy in suffering for the loue of their Lord. Now you also suffer for him For if you would forsake him your enemies would not persecute you but you are passed ouer to Iosue's side Iosue 10. and therefore doe they moue this warre against you And if amongst men there be want of base and bloudie executioners the deuills come in their place who are both more cruell are not so soone wearie as the other and with grates of iron they torment you and more in the soule then in the bodie and you are to esteeme that you are in martyrdome for the loue of Christ our Lord since you are martyrized for his seruice Do not omitt your deuotions of Confession and Communicating though you should doe it without any great sensible appetite and though the deuill should seeke to hinder it as he is wont to doe so farre as to strike your tongue dumbe so that you cannot Confesse your sinnes as likewise he giues you to beleiue that you haue eaten at such a tyme in the night that so you may not Communicate the morning after Treade that enemie of yours vnderfoote with all his craft and pray to our Lord vpon the Crosse and take that Crosse in your companie and arme your self therewith and offer your self so truly to anie state of sufferance that if our Lord were pleased that it should last vpon you all your life you would yet be content therewith And how much the deeper you shall cast your self into his will so much the more speedily will he relieue you For he driues not them from him who striue towards him And remember that there is no loue without griefe and that we are to enter into the kingdome of heauen by many tribulations Where for one onely houre that you may see God in his beauty you would thinke two thousand yeares of that sufferance to which now you are subiect to be well employed And since God is to carrie you thither as you haue reason to hope he will be not cowardlie in suffering nor tepide in loning For he who dyed for you and called you to himself will not forsake you I beseech him to be your comfort Amen A Letter of the Author to a person who was much afflicted for seeing that he profited so litle in vertue Hee teaches the difference betweene self-loue the loue of God and how he is to doe all things for the loue of God and nothing in conformity with self-loue THE peace of our lord Iesus Christ remayne with you The roote of all our misery is self-loue as on the other side the loue of God is the roote of all our felicity and so as that he whoe loues God meets with nothing which he can properly be said to suffer because he seekes nothing but the will of God and therein alone doth he delight soe he whoe loues himself finds all things to bee to hard and to heauy for him and he is euer tormented with the variety and trouble of accidents True repose doth not consist in any thing but in desiring little for the loue of God or rather noe one thing and to content himself with any thing for his sake to whome wee offer and present as much as wee forbeare to desire for
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
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
haue confidence in God I Haue receiued many of your letters since I saw you last And in some of them you tould mee that your soule was troubled and in others that our lord had begunne to giue you comfort Yea and I thinke you sayd in some one of them that the peace and comfort which formerly you had receiued was entirely retourned I answeared none of those letters eyther because my sinnes hindered mee from the grace of giuing you comfort or els because I knew you had sufficient confidence in mee without receiuing my answeares But now at last I receiue a letter from you whereby you tell mee that you are as much afflicted as euer if it be not rather more and you desire mee to write I am in paine through your paine and this hath moued mee to entreate that for the loue of Christ Iesus crucified you suffer not your selfe to be blinded by that darknes which superfluity of sadnes is wont to drawe ouer our soules but remember how faithfull that lord is to whom you haue offered yourselfe And that it is an vsual thing with his infinit wisdome to saue the soules of his seruants by meanes which they cannot reach to vnderstand hiding his loue from them sometimes and shewing them a countenance of some rigour and all this not because he is cruell but out of pure and perfect mercye Because he knowes that our infirmityes are better cured when wee are layd vnder the scourge of tribulation then when we are carryed vp in the hands of prosperity and comfort You tell me that desolation wherein you are seemes very bitter to you and that you cannot beare the rigour of that angry face of our lord which you say he shewes to you and that absence alsoe from him wherein you liue But I tell you my good sister that though tribulation may be of as much daunger to you as you declare yet the state of comfort is still subiect to as much Nay prosperity is much more to be feared then aduersity For in the former the soule runnes hazard to depart from God but in the latter though it suffer payne yet that very payne it selfe incites one to drawe nearer to him And if you say that the great weight of discomfort doth sometimes put the soule in daunger of sinning through impatience you say nothing but truth But yet you must knowe withall that much oftener and by assaults of greater daunger the soule is brought into daunger by the sweetnes of gust Remember the Apostle saint Paule who through the grace of him who was crucifyed did esteeme it for glory to suffer the afflictions of the Crosse Cor. 7. And though he were enuironed by warrs without and feares within yet his soule was safely kept as in a hauen most secure But soe great was the daunger which he rann by the faire and cleare weather of consolations and reuelations that if God had not permitted him to be seized vpon by the tempest both of inward and outward troubles which layd such load vpon his neck as made him stoope that great Saint might haue beene in daunger through the occasion of comfort whom soe many discomforts could not once pluck downe 1. Cor. 12 By this meanes the bitter was the cure of the sweete and the Angel of Satan was the occasion of benefit to him to whom that great communication of Almighty God might haue beene the occasion of falling if through humane frailty he had puffed vp himselfe If now this might haue happened to that vessel of election and if it were necessary for him to suffer that soe he might bee freed from the daungers of comfort how can you meruaile if God haue watered your ioy with teares if your harpe be set to sad tunes and if those sweet communications Iob 18. which you had before with Almighty God be turned into such an vnsauoury departure from him His eyes are able to discerne that which your cannot And hee knowes full well the vanity of that hart of yours which would not perhapps be able to endure the weight of diuine fauours Or els perhapps he may see that you are likely to suffer decay of health by the excesse of the sweetnes of that diuine gust which he gaue you Or else that you esteemed more of your selfe then you did of others who want these comforts Or els in fine it may haue happened for any one of many other faults which may haue taken hould of the imperfection of your hart Iere. 17. which cannot be throughly sifted by any but by that God alone who made it Yea and if you should not be in any necessity of this kind of phisick because though our lord should comfort you still yet perhapps you were not to fall into these inconueniences yet there are many other reasons why our lord may thinke fit to treate his seruants after this manner All which are grounded vpon his loue to vs though in the blind eye of flesh and bloud they may seeme to grow from disfauour You know it is a common saying He who loues thee will make thee cry And the holy scripture saith that a wound giuen by a freind is better then the treacherous kisse of an enemy And beleiue you for certaine that our lord loues you and therefore doth he treate you after this manner For it is written Heb. 12. our lord punnishes whom he loues and he corrects such a one as he receiues for his sonne And as in former times God sent most hideous Martyrdomes to his beloued seruants by the hands of base and bloudy executioners ingaging them in bitter warrs that afterward he might honour them with pretious crownes soe now when those exteriour Martyrdomes are ceased he sēdes others which bee interiour And these how soeuer they are not visible be yet as great or greater then those For then men tormented them and God gaue them comfort and by the strength of this Omnipotent God those torments were ouerwrought and maistered which were inflicted on them by weake men But now he who discomforts is our Lord who hides himselfe and the Deuils like cruell executioners doe by a thousand deuices torment the minde which is farr more sensible then the body And from that torment doth many times redound a torment euen to the very body it selfe And soe the whole man both within and without is layd vpon the discomforts of a Crosse And he sighes and grones and askes succour of our Lord. And our Lord the while makes himselfe deafe and is more hiddē from the soule then if there were seauen wals betweene him and it Yea and it doth alsoe expresly feele that our Lord hath absented himselfe from it and that not onely in the way of not doeing it any fauour Matth. 15. but rather expresly seeming to disfauour it As he proceeded with the Cananean when at the first he did but forbeare to answeare but afterward he compared her to a dog That indeed is an hower
againe Though thousands should rise against me yâ—t my hart shall not feare Beleiue my good sister Ps 26. that how much the harder this businesse is for you soe much the easyer is it for Almighty God And therefore you must haue great distrust in respect of your owne weakenes but great confidence withall in God's strength Infallibly he will crowne you if you continue in his loue and if you confide that by his grace you shall obtaine that Crowne Forget not this promise of Christ our lord him whoe confesses mee before men Man 10. that man will I confesse before my father who is in heauen but him who denyes mee before men that man will I alsoe deny before my father whoe is in heauen Can you thinke that one is to esteeme that for affliction which he endures for the confession of Christ our lord since it is to haue soe high a reward as that with soe much honour he shall be avowed by him at the day of iudgment before his father Happy is that sufferaÌ„ce happy that dishonour and pouerty to which soe high an honour doth succeede What kinde of ioye will it be for you O my goost sister to heare these wordes from the mouth of Christ our lord himselfe and that in presence of the whole world Matth 25. Come you blessed of my father and possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you What will it bee when the angells shall thus singe to her who hath beene a faithfull seruant of that celestiall king Come O spouse of Christ receiue thâ— crowne which our Lord hath prepared for thee and that not for one day but for all eternitie What will the spouses of Christ our Lord conceiue when hauing passed through the sea of this life and their enemies who disturbed vs remayning drowned therein they shall singe thus with great ioye for hauing runne through this dangerous world without being ouerwhelmed by the vices thereof Psal 123. The suare is broken and we are deliuered our helpe is in the name of our lord What a day will that be when that true Mary the virgin of virgins shall goe before with her Timbrell which is her sacred body praysing God both in body and soule and singing thus Psa 31. Come magnisye our Lord wish mee and lett vs exalt his name in mutuall sacietie with one another Happy are you if you be found faithfull to the Spouse whoe chose you Happy are you if you haue the courage to cast away that which is present vnder the most certaine promise of Christ our Lord for that which is future Be confident my good sister in taking his word for you are not the first to whome he hath passed it and fulfilled it neither shall you be she with whome that word shall want effect He gaue his word to S. Katherine S. Agnes S. Barbara and S. Lucy and to innumerable other Lady virgins and tell me now how completely he hath performed it They had the courage to despise the poore present world and you see that now they raigne with God They liued heere in trouble and they are nowe in the eternitie of repose Through how many combatts did they passe and they now enioye the euerlasting crownes of their conquests They fled from spouses of the earth and they brought the king of heauen to be in loue with them If they had followed the trace of this world their delight had bene already passed and their memories would haue bene forgotten But they loued that which was eternall and therefore their felicitie shall not dye and their memory shall not decay They were written in the booke of God and therefore neither water nor winde nor fyre nor tyme can make them waste For that booke is incorruptible and soe in the name which is written in it You must therefore procure to haue a stronge heart towards God who is your saluation and doe not thinke that he sells heauen deere to you for you haue not yet shed your bloud for him as those others shed theirs Our lord treates you like a weake creature and you should be ashamed to haue giuen him such cause If you had had more faith and confidence in him and more loue to suffer for him he would haue procured you more afflictions to the end that you might haue purchased richer Crownes Doe not content your selfe with suffering little considering how great your rewards all bee and how much Christ our Lord suffered for you He gaue his life for you and he was deepely tormented and despised How then come you thus to complaine of the touch of a flye doe but loue and you will desire to suffer Let your loue be doubled and you will suffer sorrowes which are doubled The loue of our lord makes such as possesse it more greedy of suffering then the loue of ones selfe of reposing It makes that any burden weighes light for loue is stronger then death He who loues not groanes vnder the burden like some lasy beast but he who loues runnes and flyes and it suffers him not to feele the weight euen of his owne body nor of whatsoeuer els they can lay vpon it It is not my good sister that the afflictions which wee suffer are greater but that our loue is little The weight of a pound is noe great weight but yet lay it vpon some little childe and he will say O how heauy it weighes Whereas if a man tooke it vp he would scarce feele it And soe take you it for a signe that if you loue little your afflictions will weigh heauy vpon you but if you loue much you will scarce allowe them to be afflictions For you will be soe inebriated with loue that nothing can be able to distract you from the taste thereof You will finde a good sauour in the very suffering it selfe and you will draw water Num. 20. out of the rocke and hony out of the stony hills Doe but loue and you shall not be subiect to afflictions but you shall be Superiour to them as their Lady and you shall praise him who deliuers you from them If they threaten you with death you will bid it welcome that soe you may enioy true life If with banishment you will say That you esteeme your selfe banished wheresoeuer you are till you may arriue to see the face of God And that it imports you little whether you goe to heauen from this or that part of the earth And that if you haue God in your company wheresoeuer you are you shall be happy and if not your owne country will giue you misery enough If you see your selfe contemned say Christ our Lord is my honour and he honours mee let the world despise mee soe hee value mee Doe not afflict your selfe about the necessitie which you may sustaine of present things for of your felfe you must despise them through the desire which you haue to â—liue in conformitie with Christ our Lord whoe made himselfe a
poore man for you What is there in the world which ought to fright you If the loue of Christ our Lord haue wounded you you will treade the deuill vnder foote you will despise his threates and you will passe with courage through all your enemies Put your trust in him who loues his louers There is nothing which you will not be able to doe in him Goe and buy whatsoeuer you want of him though he aske you all this world for it and see that you be not founde without the loue of him though it should cost you your life He is a hidden treasure but he who findes him sells all to buy him For in him alone he findes himselfe more rich then with the multitude of all other things And now if it concerne euery one of vs to loue him how much more doth it import that she doe it whome he hath chosen for his spouse It becomes the seruant to feare his Maister and the sonne to honour his father but the spouse to loue her fellow spouse See you loue our lord and take noe rest till he haue graunted you this guift Loue him with reuerence for that is the kinde of loue which he likes Esteeme not him the lesse because he communicates himselfe to you but wonder how soe greate an altitude as his can stoope to such a profounde busines as yours It is the propertie of ill natured and ill mannered seruants to valew their Maisters at a lesse rate for vouchsafeing to descend and become familier with them then if they had liued which them like lords But they whoe liue in true light esteeme that lord soe much the more as he doth more vouchsafe to diminish himselfe The true loue of Christ our lord carries this badge with it in token that it is indeede of him That as it apprehends and highly esteemes the goodnes of God soe it alsoe apprehends and profoundly disesteemes the wickednes of man Therefore loue adore and serue our lord with ioye but yet reioyce with trēbling Not a trēbling as of a slaue in the middest of tormēts but as of a true tender harted childe who highly feares to giue any disgust to her father how little it soeuer may be Of your selfe you can doe none of these things but if you humble your hart in the acknowledgment of your owne miseries if you present your selfe often in prayer before Christ our lord if you lodge him in your brest by the Communion if you heare him speake to you in your spirituall reading and in fine if you will but giue him leaue to helpe you you are to haue confidence that by little litle he will be healing your soule notwithstanding all the harsh encounters which may occurre Doe not start out of his hāds though the cure put you to paine for in fine hee will worke the cure at the fittest tyme. And for the afflictions which he sends you the delights whereof he depriues you he will giue you his owne most plentifull delight which shall inebriate you as if it were with some swelling riuer and you shall be in full Ioy for all eternitie without the want of any good and without the feare of loosing what you haue You shall there finde your selfe to be highly well content paid and more felicity shall be imparted to you then your selfe could tell how to desire Which felicity is not a creature but a Creatour himselfe of all things that true God whoe liue raignes for the eternity of all eternities Amen A Letter of the Author to a disciple of his who was growne a Preist He shewes that exteriour afflictions must be desired for the seruice and loue of God RIght Reuerend Father I haue receiued your letter which hath wrought in me the same effect with those others which formerly I had from you Namely rendering of thankes to our lord for the guifts which he hath bestowed vpon you according to the testimony which your words giue of that which dwells in your heart It wrought also great confusion in me to see you call me the Maister and Father of him to whome I should thinke it a great fauour of our lord if I could deserue to be a Sonne and a Disciple And especially I was confounded yea and put to paine to heare you say in the end of your letter that you would haue written me many if it had not beene for the Decorum which you thought your self bound to keepe of an Auditour and a Scholler This is not a course wherein you must proceed with me for there is noe reason that you should put me to losse onely because I desire to serue and profitt you And if you treat me in this manner you will make me heare and hold my peace I know not if I wrote not to you the other day of an errour which I haue discouered in some who yet hold themselues to be spirituall And it is that they despise the corporall afflictions and troubles which are vndertaken for the loue of our lord If I wrote to you thereof there wil be nothing lost though I say it ouer againe and if not it is necessary that I write it Since that light of our eyes Christ our lord liued in this world vnder soe many afflictions and died with soe many torments his seruants remaine soe hungry of suffering somewhat that it exceedes the appetite wherewith men of this world runne after ease And not onely are they content to suffer affliction when it comes vpon them and much more that kind of affliction which may be necessary to them for the auoyding of sinne but they seeke it out by all the wayes they can and soe they make proofe thereby of the loue they beare to Christ our lord considering how he was in soe much paine by the afflictions which he endured for the loue of vs. For as the faint and tepid kind of man would of himselfe be glad to suffer noe afflictions but yet he beares them with patience when they come least otherwise he may offend our lord soe the feruent louer of Iesus Christ would faine take noe ease at all and if perforce he must take any he endures it but with patience because soe Christ our lord doth commaund In such sort that as he who is but slack in the seruice of God hath delight and ease in his desire and takes affliction but with patience soe the true Christian is but patient to see himself at ease and hath affliction in his desire This growes from the spiritt of Christ our lord and when this is perfect in a soule it workes that which it wrought in him which was a loue of affliction for vs the better to shew vs his loue And therevpon it also followes that when men would comfort one who is but slack and negligent vpon the arriuall of any affliction they must doe it iust soe as they would comfort a good Christian when he happens to be in repose and ease For the one
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
and loue wherewith this fauour is done vs it will enamour vs and oblige vs more to him then the fauour it self which he affordes what a thing is it that God doth soe much loue man as through the much loue he beares him and notwithstanding the great offences which man committes against him he yet doth not take this loue from him nor doth it euer make him say I will loue such a one noe more though he come to mee agayne I will not seeke him out nor will I send to entreate him that he may retourne to my house He saith noe such thing as this But that perseuering loue doth still burne with a liuely flame and this soe very clearely that as these great waters of his torments could not soe quench them as to make him forbeare to dye for vs soe neither can the much greater waters of our sinnes extinguish this enflamed charity of God towards vs. But it remaynes euer conquerour both in his paynes and in our offences sussering there and forgiuing heere Hee who shall wonder at this will haue reason For it would be a wonderfull thing if this kind of loue were shewed euen from an inferiour to a superiour or at the most from but an equall to an equall Butt now this loue from God to man is more then wonderfull And yet on the other side he who shall not beleiue it in respect that it is so straunge a thing putts a great affront vpon Almighty God since he beleiues it not because it is soe wonderfull a worke Whereas on the other side it is as cleare way whereby to knowe the workes of God if they be soe great as to make such wonder as know them For if he be wonderfull his workes are also to be soe And if the reste of his workes be wonderfull these of his loue are wonderfull in the highest degree forasmuch as they spring out of his goodnes in the manifestation whereof he takes more delight and glory and vses it more then in the manifestation of the other attributes As the Prophet Dauid saith Psal 144. Miserationes eius super omnia opera eius His mercyes are ouer all his workes How ill therefore are they aduised who refuse to beleiue that which God doth because it is much and who refuse to expecte and hope because that which he promises is much comparing and parallelling the great acts of God by the soe short measure of they re owne poore vnderstanding The woeman of Samaria cannot arriue to knowe how Christ our lord can come by any water and much lesse Iohn 4. how he can bestow any such water as that whosoeuer dranke thereof should thirst noe more But our lord saith that the woâ—man knowes not the guift of God nor who it is that aduises her to faith and penance and who is ready to infuse the holy Ghost into her hart And soe there are still men soe cowardly and weake in faith that they cannot beleiue any thing of God but onely in conformity with they re owne poorenes Placeing they re eyes vpon they re little strength and they re little desert and so like beasts of earth they creepe vpon the earth and rise noe higher But he that lookes vpon God who giues vs his sonne who is his loue and who sweetnes God to wards vs and in whome he is soe highly content and in whome his diuine eyes take delight how can he doubt of that hart but that it will bee fauourable to vs when wee call vpon it with pennance and pitifull in all those necessities which may occurre to vs. He therefore who knowes this and desires it as he ought may well hope that he shall haue it And with hauing that he hath all good and will haue nothing to feare as that slaue must doe who wantes loue Make therefore haste to loue this Lord who loues you soe much and hath conserued you so well And if euer you had a desire to reforme your self and to follow our Lord yet closer besure that you renew it and encrease it now For our Lord commaunded twice that his people should bee circumcised Gen. 17. Once when he enioyned Abraham to doe it and the second time â—osue 5 when he brought Iosue into the land of promise The first signifies the first coming of a man from a worldly and wicked life to follow the way of the will of God which is the streight way especially in the eyes of the world The second is when God will carry a soule to his kingdome and then he commaunds it to behould it self with new feruour and to amend it self and to cutt of all superfluity to the end that with purity and ioy it may expecte that crowne of a kingdome which the goodnes of God hath prepared for his seruants Your Lordship must vse to confesse and communicate often for it is a thing which giues most strength and comfort to heare the sentence of our absolution and to receiue our Lord Iesus Christ into our bosomes You must pray and read and giue almes and doe whatsoeuer other good worke our Lord shall inspire you to And let mee knowe how the world goes with you And if your Lordship recouer your health wee will yet remaine with hauing put our soule well in order and with hauing gotten strength against feare The Holy Ghost that great comforter which through Iesus Christ our Lord was giuen to such as are well disposed to receiue it dwell euer in your Lordship and teach you how you may best please him and guide you by the right way Amen A Letter of the Authour to a lady who was sick He comforts her in her afflictions and animates her to beare them for the loue of Christ our lord who was soe afflicted for her MAdam I haue vnderstood that you are sick and I am not sory for it For if it come to you through any excesse of pennance the punishment is well employed and if you be sick vpon noe other reason but onely because our lord seÌ„des it to you let vs bid it welcome in a good houre as being a part of his Crosse And though in some respect your paine puttes me to paine as our lord knowes yet on the other side I am glad of it because I cleary discerne the profits which will be made vpon this occasion by one whome I soe much desire to see improued They are not comforts which I wish to my children but they are corrections the time of comfort comes afterward For the present take not your eyes from of the Crosse nor your heart from him who placed you on it Giue not ouer till you finde that sufferance is of a sweet taste for that is the true touch of loue Take noe compassion vpon your selfe for there are both in heauen and earth who haue compassion on you from their very hearts and that which is laid on you was very well considered of before and it passed through the handes of one who
bones which here they gaue you to be gnawed vpon by your soule you shall there be employed in feeding vpon that most sauorie bread of life which is God himself and thereof there will neuer be an ende And therefore hope for this and comfort yourself with this for the businesse whereof wee are now in question is not fitt for them who are either of a delicate life or a weake faith You will see yourself many times in such a kinde of state by these afflictions as that if you consider them with the sense of flesh and bloud you will thinke them to be the very markes of hell and euen a beginning thereof but yet you must suffer it with patience though it be without comfort yea and though you do not so much as feele your owne confidence that so you may knowe what it is to suffer in good carnest For as long as a man's confidence is very strong there is nothing which can afflicte him very much but when God hides his face and shewes the soule no fauour but disfauour and when it is persecuted by enemies and yet feeles not the helpe of her good friend then indeede is it pure suffering and hath a taste euen of the very torments of hell You will not then discerne any hope which you may haue to escape but you must content yourself with this that you despaire not and let that discomfort be accepted by you in penance for your sinnes wherein once you tooke delight and let it at length serue to make you clearely see how litle that is which you are able to doe of yourself It is but reason that he who sinnes by louing and liking himself should pay for it by being inwardly and profoundly disgusted with himself and that he who had confidence in himself may see to his cost that he is good for nothing Through this fire must you passe if you desire to enioy the rest of heauen In this warre must you ouercome if you will deserue the Crowne of that kingdome Consider how the holy Scripture saith Blessed is the man Iacob 1. who suffers temptation for when he shall haue beene tryed he is to receiue the Crowne of life which God promised to them who loue him If the Crowne contente you let not the tryall displease you and there can be no triall without temptation and no temptation of troubles can be coming towards you which passes not from the hand of God who is your father and who measures out so much thereof as may be fitt and neither to fall short in respect of your profitt nor to ouerflowe in respect of your weakenesse Feare not to drinke with patience of that which God dranke with loue And God himselfe saith to vs My sonne doe not cast thyself into anguish Prou. 3. when thou art corrected by Almightie God For hee corrects him whome he loues as the father doth the sonne in whome hee delights And elsewhere he saith Heb. 12 Eccl. 38 Doe not despise thyselfe in thy weakenesse but pray to God and hee will cure thee And now since we are commaunded on the parte of God that whatsoeuer happen we must not be dismayed let vs make our recourse to him vpon the confidence which we haue in his word and let vs beg his fauour which hee cannot fayle to afforde O sister and if we could but see how deare and precious we are in the eyes of God! Oh that we could but see how deepely he holdes vs lodged in his hart and how neare we are to him when we may perhaps conceiue our selues to be cast furthest of Blessed be our lord Iesus Christ for hee it is whome with a full mouth we proclaime to be our hope Nothing can so fright me as hee can secure me Let me be changed from deuout to slacke and tepide from goeing towards the comforts of heauen to goe towards the darkenesse of the blacke pitt of hell Let mee be enuironed by my sinnes which are past and by feares which may bee to come let the deuills accuse me and lay snares for me let men persecute and fright me let them threaten me with hell and lay ten thousand dangers before me and yet after all this by sighing and sobbing for my sinnes and by casting mine eyes vp to Christ our lord desiring helpe at his hands that lord who is so meeke so benigne so full of mercie and that most firme and faithfull louer of mine euen to death and I cannot be perswaded to disconfide especially when I consider that I was valued at so high a rate that God himself was giuen for me O Christ thou hauen of securitie for all them who being brused and battered by the tempestuous waues of their owne harts and flye to thee for succour O thou fountaine of liuing waters to those stags who are embossed and pincht by those spirituall dogs which are the deuills and their owne sinnes Thou art that profound internall rest the hope which neuer fayled Psal 103. the protection of orphans and the defence of widowes Thou art that firme house of stone which giuest receipt to those porcupines which are so full of roughnesse and sharpenesse through their sinnes if with groanes and desire of pardon they fly towards thee Thou defendest vs from the wrath of God to which we are subiect And although sometimes thou commaundest thy Disciples to enter into the sea without thee that so they may be weaned by litle and litle frō thy sweete conuersatiō though when thou art absent such tempests of the sea may rise Mani 6. as to putt the soule into hazard of being lost yet still thou forgettest them not Thou biddest them departe from thee and yet euen very then thou goest to pray for them They thinke thou hast layed them aside and that thou sleepest and then art thou vpon thy knees for them And when three partes of the night were already past and when it seemed to thy infinite wisedome that then thou hadst kept them long enough in paine through thy absence and that then they had continued in that tempest long enough thou descendest from the mountaines and as the true Lord of those vnconstant waues thou walkedst vpon them for all is firme vnder thy feete and thou drewest neare thy seruants when they thought thee farthest of from them and thou vtteredst these words of confidence to them Matth. 14. It is I be not afrayed O Christ our lord thou diligent and carefull pastour of thy sheepe and how much is that soule in errour who will not confide in thee and through thee from the most profound internall parte of the hart if withall he can be content to amende his life and to serue thee O that thou wouldst but let men know how much reason they haue who come to giue themselues to thy seruice not to be dismayed vnder the conduct of such a Captaine and that there is noe accident which ought to putt anie seruant of thine
keepe you now when you are his friend He who did not abandon you when you fled from him will much lesse flye now from you when you follow him Who is he that can say with anie truth that God did not helpe him if he were desired See you haue no feare O you seruant of Christ in any thing which may happen to you but confide in him who loued you so 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 who contradict you Do not thinke of how great the gyants and how strong the citties are which you must encounter Nu. 14. for it is not you who must fight But holde you your peace and our lord will fight for you Do not fly from the warre nor abandon yourself as one who were ouercome and so you shall see the fauour of our lord towards you For in this warre he onely looses the battaile who quitts the field It is true that you are weake but in that weakenesse of yours God will shew his strength It is true that you know not much but God himself will be your guide By your miseries God will make your mercies appeare Whoe are you that you should be able to passe through such difficulties But yet say with Dauid Psa 1◠In the strength of my God I will leape ouer a wall Who are you that should be able to fight but yet say with him againe Psa 26 Though thousands should rise against me yet my hart shall not feare Beleiue my good sister that how much the harder this businesse is for you so much the easier it is for Almightie God And therefore you must haue great distrust in respect of your owne weakenesse but great confidence withall in God's strength Infallibly hee will crowne yow if yow continue in his loue and if you doe confide that by his grace you shall obtaine that crowne Forgett not this promise of Christ our lord Mat. 10 him who confesses me before men that man will I confesse before my Father who is in heauen but him who denyes me before men that men will I also denye before my Father who is in heauen Can you thinke that one is to esteeme that for affliction which he endures for the confession of Christ our lord since it is to haue so high a rewarde as that with so much honour he shall be crowned by him at the day of iudgement before his father Happie is that sufferance happie that dishonour and pouertie to which so high an honour doth succeede What kinde of ioy will it be for you O my good sister to heare these wordes from the mouth of Christ our lord himself and that in presence of the whole world Mat. 15. Come you blessed of my Father and possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you What will it be when the Angells shall thus sing to her who hath beene a faithfull seruant of that Celestiall king Come o Sponse of Christ receiue that crowne which our lord hath prepared for thee and that not for one day but for all eternitie What will the spouses of Christ our lord conceaue when hauing passed through the sea of this life and their enemies who disturbed vs remayning drowned therein they shall sing thus with great ioy for hauing runne through this dangerous world without being ouerwhelmed with the vices thereof Ps 12◠The snare is broken and we are deliuered our helpe is in the name of our lord What a day will that be when that true Marie the virgin of virgins shall goe before with her Timbrell which is her sacred bodie praysing God both in bodie and soule and singing thus Come magnifye our lord with me and lett vs exalte his name in mutuall society with one another Happie are you if you be found faithfull to the spouse who chose you Happie are you if you haue the courage to cast away that which is present vnder the most certaine promise of Christ our lord for that which is future Be confident my good sister in taking his word for you are not the first to whome hee hath passed it and fulfilled it neither shall you be she with whome that word shall want effecte He gaue his word to saynt Catherine saynt Agnes saynt Barbara and saynt Lucie and to inmumerable other ladie virginis and tell me now how completely he hath performed it They had the courage to despise the poore present world and you see that now they raigne with God They liued heere in trouble and they are now in an eternitie of repose Through how manie combats did they passe and they now enioy the euerlasting crownes of their conquests They fled from spouses of the earth and they brought the king of heauen to bee in loue with them If they had followed the trace of this world their delight had beene alreadie past and their memories would haue beene forgotten But they loued that which was eternall and therefore their felicitie shall not dye and their memorie shall not decay They were written in the booke of God and therefore neither water nor winde nor fire nor time can make them waste For that booke is incorruptible and so is the name which is written in it You must therefore procure to haue a strong hart towards God whoe is your saluation and doe not thinke that hee selles heauen deare to you for you haue not yet shed your bloud for him as those others shed theirs Our lord treates you like a weake creature and you should bee a shamed to haue giuen him such cause If you had had more faith and confidence in him and more loue to suffer for him he would haue procured you more afflictions to the ende that you might haue purchased richer Crownes Do not content yourself with suffering litle considering how great your rewarde shall be and how much Christ our Lord suffered for you He gaue his life for you and he was deepely tormented and despised How then come you thus to complaine of the touch of a flye doe but loue and you will desire to suffer Let your loue be doubled and you will suffer sorrowes which are doubled The loue of our Lord makes such as possesse it more greedie of suffering then the loue of ones selfe of reposing It makes that anie burden weighes light for loue is stronger then death He who loues not groanes vnder the burden like some lazie beast but he who loues runnes and flyes and it suffers him not to feele the weight euen of his owne bodie nor of whatsoeuer else they can lay vpon it It is not my good Sister that the afflictiōs which we suffer are great but that our loue is litle The weight of a pound is no great weight but yet lay it vpon some litle childe and he will say O how heauie it weighes whereas if a man tooke it vp he would scarce feele it And so
Psal 83. I beseech him to make you dearly his and that you may be kept safe and proue a saynt Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallier a freind and a Disciple of his FOR what doe spurres serue if the beast be so lazie as I am And then adding to this the burden which lyes vpon me of litle health it is no maruaile if I neither write nor answear This letter is written in such straytes of time that I know not whether it can be good for any thing or noe I haue reioyced much that the Infant is weaned though some dye at that age as not hauing strength to eate the bread with the crust But since our Lord takes you for a Childe of promise Gen. 17. as he did Isaac I hope in Iesus Christ that you will not dye of it though you should be putt to eate stones but that you will feede vpon them as Christ our Lord fedde vpon the wine with myrrhe God will deliuer you from consenting to sinne and your temptations shall serue you in steede of the torment of the Crosse for his glorie who dyed vpon it And though our enemies may bid vs come downe we will rather choose to confesse Christ our Lord by continuing vpon it then to putt ourselues into ease by denying him You are acquainted alreadie with that supreme omnipotent goodnesse of our Celestiall Father whose power is such as to draw good out of euill and heate out of colde And therefore be not dismayde though you see yourself absent from the protection of your spirituall Father on earth and though you finde barrennesse where you expected plentie and aboundance Bee not afrayde to be alone with Christ our Lord not that you are to vnder-value helpe when it may bee had by meanes of his seruants but we must obey his ordinance whensoeuer he shall be pleased that we remaine in this world without succour Because our Lord is vsually wont in such cases to doe more visible and greater fauours immediatly then he did before by meanes of his seruants And such a man comes to learne that Non sum solus quia Pater mecum est Iohn 16. I am not alone because my Father is with me Then Faith beginnes to encrease and Prayer dilates it self by Loue which is sett forward by seing how the soule is beloued And thus it encreases by that by which it seemed and it was feared that it would be diminished And he findes society when he is alone and he hath learnt to walke without a staffe though he be but weake Let there be no want of care to receiue him who is all our good and be you euer saying and that with truth Loquere Domine quia audit seruus tâ—us 1. King 1. Speake Lord for thy seruant heares thee Shutt vp yourself in the castle of your hart which though it be as weake as glasse yet he who comes to dwell there will make it so strong that all that shall proue glasse which can assault it and it self shall remaine more firme then stâ—ele And for lacke of doeing this the soule is full of weakenesse and it may say that Osee 10 which is written Diuisum est cor eorum nunc interibunt Their hart is diuided and they shall instantly perish There is no place secure where your hart may rest but in that secret place of retreate that most hidden corner where none can enter but Christ our Lord â—anuis clausis the doores being shutt Iohn 20. For if it departe from thence it runnes as great hazard as some light yong mayde might doe amongst dissolute men And if some iust punishment were imposed well executed for euery time that the hart should be gadding vp and downe the streete perhaps we should take warning by ourselues as euen a very horse or mule will doe Though indeede a man who watches himself well shall instantly be able to finde a punishment which comes downe from heauen â—re 14. vpon the very hart it self quando diligit mouere pedes when it hath a nunde to be gadding and then that which followes is this Domino non placuit This guift of recollection must be gotten with much practise For afterward the hart will stay within euen of it self though we open the doore to let it out as a tame bird will stay in a cage And this is the roote of all our spirituall profitt and at the feete of Christ our Lord we must haue it if we meane that it shall be true profitt Christ Iesus be with vs all Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Ladie encouraging her to fight the battailes of our Lord. He shewes the subtilty of the deuill and how styly he temptes soules with pride MADAME because I conceiue that you fight the combatts of Christ our Lord and doe franckely offer yourself to all affliction so that he may raigne in your hart all encouragement and assistance is due to you from such as be the seruants of God who are commaunded to aduertise the wicked man of the miserie which is growing towards him that so he may amende and avoyde it and to encourage such as are good and to goe sounding the trumpett before them when they see them entring into the battaile that is to say Esay 58. they are to giue hart by the word of God to such as they perceiue to fight for his honour For otherwise as account shall be demaunded of them for the wicked whome they had not warned so also for the good Ezech. 3 whome they had not encouraged And so they should be punished both for the euill which were committed by the one and for the good which were omitted by the other Take you therefore hart in that combatt which the ancient Serpent makes against you he procuring to diuide you from God and you resoluing to sticke close to him you must be very watchfull for his chiefe ayme is at the hart And it troubles him not greatly that a man serue God by recollecting his eyes by keeping silence by praying by singing the diuine office and the like but to the hart doth he conuey his poyson which is a certaine vaine kinde of complacence or proper estimation and loue of ourselues The foolish virgins Matth 23. were virgins but because they had not oyle in their lampes they heard this sad word out of the mouth of our Lord. In the word of truth I say to you that I know you not Now what is this lampe but the hart and what is this oyle but the spirit of truth which maintaynes and feedes it with good workes if we meane that they shall indeede be good in the sight of God And what is this Spirit of truth but that which makes a man displeasing to himselfe and to seeme ill in his owne eyes and that from his very hart and soule he may conceiue that he is all vglie and abominable and that he is amazed to consider how
God can suffer him vpon the earth This is that truth where in we must liue and without this we liue in lyes And sometimes the more vertue we thinke we haue and the better we esteeme ourselues in health the more sicke and miserable we be through the want of this For confiding in ourselues we thinke we are somewhat whereas indeede it is not soe in his sight who discernes our harts and saith Apoc. 3. Thou hast the name of one who liues whereas indeede thou art dead He hath the name of one that liues who falles not into publike sinnes which the world condemnes for enormous But if neuerthelesse he fall into other sinnes which are condemned in the iudgement of Almightie God for what doth it serue him to be absolued by the world when he is censured by that iust Iudge The world knowes not how to holde that man for wicked nor to punish him for such who onely hath a good opinion and complacence in himself with pride or at least is not displeasing to himself but in the iudgement of God that man is held for proude and blinde who doth not euen stinke to himself as if he carried some dead dog tyed to his nose and who hath not a profound internall shame in the sight of his Creatour as heere men vse to haue when they are presented before some Iudge hauing beene taken in the maÌ„ner with enormous crimes And if this pride arriue to be a mortall sinne then doth it wholy square agree to him which was said before in the person of God and if it be but veniall this suytes with him but in parte Thou hast the face of a harlott â—ier 3. and knowest not what belongs to the hauing of any shame Now it is an ill fauoured spott in a soule to be voyde of shame as it is euen exteriourly when women want it The world condemnes not a man's confidence in himself nor the estimation which he may haue of himself nor a resolute will which he may haue to procure his owne contentmoÌ„t But in the sight of God these and such other things are great offences and they hinder grace and our friendship with him if they be mortall and if they be but veniall yet they hinder the profitt which we might make of the grace we haue and it destroyes all inward communication with our Lord. The deuill knowing this it troubles him not much that a soule may be aliue after the large manner if interiourly and spiritually it be dead And many times he procures not that such a person may fall into apparant and deformed sinnes for if he should coÌ„mitt any such he would be much confounded thereat For obseruing that he had done things which euen in the eyes of the world were so wicked he would take penance to hart and would be displeasing to himself in his very soule and so would mende But the deuill desires to holde him tyed fast vp in a deepe interiour blindenesse and so keepes him safe for himself without inducing him to committ other sinnes For if he fell into them also he would peraduenture giue ouer both the one and the other and so escape out of his hand You therefore must be sure to carry your eyes open vpon your owne hart and when you finde not there a profound contempt and confusion of yourself in the high presence of Almightie God be you well assured that you are farre from knowing yourself and that you haue yet no other eyes but of flesh and bloud and no true celestiall light at all For this light searches into the most hidden corners and makes the soule highly ashamed euen of those things which in the sight of worldly eyes will seeme to haue beene well done After this shame teares of griefe and true humility are wont to growe whereby the soule is wholy and absolutely made subiect to God to euery creature for his sake Now when this is wanting all things goe after another fashion and the wound is not cured but onely skinned And in that case we must call vpon our Celestiall Phisition not giue ouer till by litle and litle we may gett some small thread of light whereby to enter and see the retraites and darke holes thereof and finde her faultes euen in those things which haue apparance to be well done Our Lord doth not instantly imparte this guift but when himself is best pleased to doe it And in the meane time let vs know that we must be sure not to putt confidence in our owne workes and if yet this vertue be now wanting to vs let vs confide in our Lord that he will bestow it vpon vs in his good time Matth 7. Marke 11. Luc. 11. For he that promised That he will not giue a stone to him who shall demaunde bread and that our Father of heauen will giue a good spirit to such as aske it I beseech him to be your light that so you may know him to honour him and that you may know yourself to despise yourself And departe you wholy from yourself that you may be wholy subiect to him You must also consider that you must not want some bodie euen heere on earth who may call you to an account therefore soe you gett great store of sanctity against the time when you shall goe into another world And in the meane while be sure there be nothing in you for which it may importe me to chide you and for which you may haue reason to be ashamed as hauing beene a cause of payne to vs both Christ our Lord keepe you euer in that side of his which was pierced by a launce Amen A Letter of the Authour to a certaine Preacher against the temptation of disconfideÌ„ce of the benefitts which we enioy in Christ our lord DOe not Sir I beseech you conceiue anie vnkindenesse at my hands but forgiue me as S. Paul saith since God hath forgiuen the offences which we haue committed against him You know alreadie how full of faults I am which might suffice to make anie man fayle in the seruice which he owes Sometimes I haue wanted a messenger as I did where I haue beene of late and doe yet remaine For if no bodie bring me word of anie I know not where I am to seeke him I beseech you Sir beleiue that in a matter of more importance I will haue loue enough for the doeing you seruice I holde this distrust of Saluation to which you tell me you are subiect for a most plaine temptation Nay I holde it not onely to be certaine but sottish also For it deserues no better name then that if it will not be discharged by the consideration of those benefitts which we possesse in Christ our lord as if this businesse were the worke of our hands or the rewarde of our meritts and not by the grace of God through Iesus Christ You must therefore enlarge your litle hart towards the immensenesse of that loue wherewith