and tend to perfection For they are certainly the adopted sonnes of God whome our pious Saviour JESUS doth comfort saying feare not little flocke for it hath pleased your father to give you a kingdome they may securely expect death although they are yet but in the beginning of their holy purpose because it shall be pretious in the sight of our Lord securely may they expect death and yet not death but the sleepe of peace the period of death and the passage from death to life What say you Brother are you yet in doubt doe you yet stagger Take courage I pray you and being emboldned through soe great a confidence in our Lords goodnesse going on the way of salvation without feare preparing your soule against temptations Let noe manner of difficulty affright you In all adversity which you happen to endure either at home or abroade say gratefully the will of our lord be done Although you muste sweat much and long and wrestle strongly before you can overcome and supplant the owld man Let not that trouble you consider not the labour but the fruite of the labour Beleeve me the supernall piety will be present at your labours and will still most lovingly succour you will comfort you when you feare will confirme you when you stagger will defend you being assayled will uphold you when you slip will comfort you in your sorrowe and will nowe and then infuse the moste pretious ointment of internall sweetnesse into you If you persever the force of temptations must of necessity yeild to the force of divine love temptions and tribulations will noe more be grevious and bitter to you but light and sweet then shall you see all good and shall finde a Paradise even in this life This I say will come to passe if you persever and be not of the number of them that begin well but being deluded by the allurements of satan or wearied with the troubles of temptations and labours doe afterwards lightly leave their good purposes They will not be pressed with the weight of tribulation And therefore in time of affliction are scandalized in our Lord and going backe from him doe as it were seeme to say This saying is hard and who can beare it They build not on the firme rocke but on the unstable sand and therefore their buldings doe easily fall downe at every puffe of winde and pushes of the flouds And would to God they would consider their ruines and not soe give over but make haste to renew the decayed building noe more laying their foundation upon the sands but committing them to the firmity of the rocke Deare brother if which God forbid your building be fallen renew your overthrowne worke and build againe more happily then you did before If it fall twice or ten or an hundred yea a thousand times or more repaire it as often as it falleth never dispaire of Gods mercy For the innumerable multitude of horrible and hideous sinnes doth not make God soe implacably angry with us as desperation alone For he that despayreth of forgivenesse denyeth the mercy and omnipotency of God and blasphemeth against the holy Ghost We cannot be soe ready to sinne as our lord is to pardon if we abuse not his patience that is if we will truly and in time doe penance Thus ought every Christian to thinke But least prolixity make my treatise displeasing I thinke it best for me to with drawe my pen and to stop the course of my begun navigation In the meane time while wee take downe our sayles it will not be amisse breifly to touch what you ought to doe at every dayes end Every day therefore before you goe to bed seriously but without inordinate dissipation of mynde consider in what you have that day offended and aske pardon of our most mercyfull God purposing thenceforth to live better and more carefully to avoide all vice Then pray that he will vouchsafe to keepe you that night from all pollution both of body and mynde commending to him and to his sacred Mother and your holy Angell your soule and body to be guarded and kept Being gone to bed arme your selfe with the signe of our Lords Crosse and having honestly and chastly composed your body sigh to your beloved thinking upon somme good thing untill sleepe gently sease on you Which if it bee over deepe and rather a burthen then a refreshing to your body if likewise by frayle illusions it procure or produce any thing savouring of dishonesty be not over much greived theareat but humbly sigh before our Lord and with humble prayers beseech him to grant you sobriety of diet and sences to which sobriety of sleepe and purity of body are commonly companions This is all deare brother that I have to send you You desired a Mirrour or looking glasse see whether you have receaved one If I have any way satisfied your desire God be praysed if not howe soever God be praised I have given what our Lord hath given me But be they better or worse I desire you sometimes to reade them over Fare you well and pray for me FINIS A TABLE Of the thing contained in this treatife CHapter I. pag. 1 Chap. II. Howe wee ought to bestowne our time from our first rising to mattins in the moning 21 Chap. III God hath two sorts of servants and the description of both 33 Chap. IV. That for everye howr of the day wee ought to cleave to some setled exercise least our mynde growe sluggish 51 Chap. V. Howe powerfull and efficacious the remembrance of Christs life and passion is 67 Chap. VI. We must dayly call to minde the manifould sinnes which we have committed 107 Chap. VII Every one ought to consider his owne ability and to proceede accordingly 130 Chap. VIII A very good meanes to obtayne humility 154 Chap. IX 159 Chap X. Martha may serve as Mirour for imperfect Religious men Mary Magdalen for such us are growne to perfection 177 Chap. XI Perfect mortification is the certaine and only short way to perfection 194 Chap. XII A Monke or Nune by vertue of their profession is bounde to tend to perfection 209 FINIS
be prepared But you are happy if by grace you have proceeded soe farre that all greife and affliction whatsoever become truly pleasing to you for Gods sake what thinke you brother is my glasse bige nough or is not this yet sufficient for you but you yet desire to heare in more expresse tearmes more abundantly and fully howe to compose your selfe within and without or howe according to reason you ought to order every day before God CHAPTER II Howe wee ought to bestowne our time from our first rising to mattins in the moring AS soon as you are wake and ready to rise to mattens devoutly arme your selfe with the signe of the crosse and breifly pray to God that he will vouchsafe to blot out the staynes of sinne in you and be pleased to helpe you Then casting all vayne imaginations out of your mynde thinke upon some other thing that is spirituall and conceave asmuch puritye of heart as you can rejoysing in your selfe that you are called up to the prayse and worship up of your creatour But if frailty of body if heavinesse of sleepe if conturbation of spirit depresse you be not out of heart but be comforted and force your selfe overcominge all impediments with reason and willingnesse for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent beare it away certainely according to the labour with you undergoe for the love of God such shal be your recompense and reward being come of from your bed commend and offer your selfe both body and soule to the most high make haste to the quire as to a place of refuge and the garden of spiritual delights untill devine office begin study to keep your mynde in peace and simplicity free from troubles and the multiplicity of uncertaine thoughts collecting a godly and sweete affection towards your God by sincere meditation or prayer In the perfourmance of the devine office have a care to pronounce and heare the holy wordes reverently perfectly thankefully and attentively that you may taste that your lord is sweete and may feele that the word of God hath incomprehēsible sweetnesse and power for whatsoever the holy Ghost hath dictated is indeed the life procureing foode and the delightfull solace of a chast sober and humble soule remember therfore to be there faythfully attentive but avoide too vehement cogitations and motions of mynde especially if your head be weake least being hurt or wearyed confounded and streightened internally you shutt the sanctuary of God against your selfe reject likewise too troublesome care which commonly bringeth with it pusillanimity and restlesnesse and persever with a gentle quiet and watchfull spirit in the praises of God without singularity But if you cannot keepe your heart from evagations be not dejected in mynde but patiently endevour patiently doe what lyeth in your power committing the rest to the divine will Persever in your godly affection towards God and even your very defects which you are noe way able to exclude will in a manner beget you consolation For as the earth which is of a convenient nature doth by the casting of dunge ostentimes more fruitfully send forth her seeds soe a mynde of good will out of the defects which by constraint it susteyneth shall in due time receave the moste sweet fruit of divine visitation if it endure them with patience And what profitt do you reape by being impatient doe you not heape callamity upon calamity doe you not shew your wante of true humility and bewray in your selfe a pernitions propriety As long as you do reverently assist and are ready with a prompt desire of will to attende you have satified God neyther will he impute the inordinatenesse of this instability to you if soe be by your negligence you give not consent unto it and before the time of prayer you sett a garde over your sences if you cannot offer a perfect dutifulnesse offer at least a goodwill offer a right intent in the spirit of humility and soe the devill shall not finde anie occasion to cavill against you Although you have nothing else to offer but a readinesse in body and spirit to serve our lord in holy feare be sure of it that you shall not loose your reward But woe to your soule if you be negligent and remisse and care not to give attendance for it is writte Cursed is the man that doth the worke of God negligently Be diligent that you may perfourme what you are able if you be not able to perfourme what you desire upon this security be not troubled when impediments happen and you be not able to perfourme asmuch as you would when I say distraction of your sences dejection of mynde drynesse of heart greife of head or any other misery and temptation afflicted you beware you say not I am left our lord hath cast me away my duty pleaseth him not these are words befitting the children of distrust endure therefore with a patient and joyfull mynde all things for his sake that hath called and chosen you firmely beleeving that he is neare to those that are of a contrite heart For if you humbly without murmering carry this burden layde on you not by mortall tongue to be uttered what a deale of glory you heape up for your selfe in the life to come You may truly say unto God As a beast am I become with thee Beleeve me Brother if being repleat with interne all sweetnesse and lifted up abone your selfe you fly up to the third heaven and there converse with angells you shall not doe soe great a deed as if for Gods sake you shall affectually endure greife and banishment of heart and be conformeable to our saviour when in extreame sorrowe auginsh feare and adversity crying unto his father lett thy will be done who also being thrust through his hands and feete hanging on the crosse had not wheron to leane his head who also most lovingly endured for thee all the griefes and disgraces of his most bitter passion Therefore in holy longanimity conteine your selfe and expect in silence untill it shall please the most high to dispose otherwise And certainly in that day it shall not be demanded of you hove much intetnall sweetnesse you have heere felt But howe faith full you have bin in the love and service of God CHAPTER III. God hath too sorts of servants and the description of both AMonge those that are called the servants of God many serve him unfaythfully few faithfully indeed unfaithfull servants as long as they have sensible devotion and present grace of teares doe serve God with alacrity they pray willingly joyfully goe about good workes and seeme to live in deepe peace of heart But assone as God hath thought it good to with drawe that devotion you shall see them troubled chafe become malicious and impatient and at last neyther willing to be att theyr prayers nor amy other divine exercises And because they feele not internall consolations as they desire they perniciously betake themselves to those that
affectionately say lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Or this O God be propitious to me a sinner or that have mercy on me JESUS sonne of David or that other ô lord helpe me Soe likewise lett him powre forth his heart before the Virgin Mary the mother of our lord and all the Saints of God humbly suing for their intercession CHAPTER VI. We must dayly call to munde the manifould sinnes which we have committed ANd very day or certaynly very often when occasion shall serve lett him recollect him selfe and with a profound humility firmely porposing amendment lett him call to mynde and particularly confesse before our lord the sinnes of his fore passed life but especially those by which he hath most greviously offended the divine goodnesse But it will be indiscretion to dwell long upon those that belong to the frailty of the flesh least the remembrance of them and the longer treating of the ould sin breed a newe sin by unlawfull delight In which confession contrition and sensible devotion lett him accustome to lament more that he hath behaved him selfs contumelionsly and ingratfully to words his Creator and father then that he hath brought him selfe in danger of eternall punishment In the formes of lamentation and godly complaints which we have prescribed he need not care for running over many sentences But let him take which he will and as many as he will observing no order if he make choice of only one or two or three which soever thy be he may repeate againe and againe he shall doe well We would that he should doe freely according to his devotion alwayes avoiding confusion and perplexity I knowe one that being externally busied in his conversion to our lords passion among chaste discourses tooke delight to call to mynde these few words or the like O good JESU ô pious Pastour ô sweet Master good JESU have mercy on me pious Pastour direct me sweet Master teach me my lord helpe me Another there was that did take delight torune over sometimes more sometimes fewer of the afor said lamentations and to expresse them in diversity of words recording to his affection Let our yoing beginner as I have said be free in these things and let him stirr himselfe to compunction and diligence in his spirituall purpose by meditating if he please upon death purgatory judgement hell and heaven Nowe after he hath in some measure reformed the image of God with in himselfe by healthfull bitternesse of mourning and contrition he may with greater confidence and profitt imitate the above proposed example of exercise Therefore lett him take courage and fervently prepare himselfe for a more intimate familiarity with the heavenly briedegroome But as long as he is weake or colde he shall kindle in himselfe the fire of divine love by serious meditating on the incarnation or passion of the only begotten sonne of God sweetly conferring with his soule concerning these things By which meditation being once inflamed let him compose himselfe by prayer and aspirations desiring by them to unite his spirit to the cheifest good If he often persist by this meanes to drawe his heart to the love of God he shall soone bring himselfe to that passe that presently at the first convention of his mynde or aspiration without any premeditation he may be able to separate himselfe from creatures and their imagination and plunge himselfe in the sweetnesse of divine love Then he shall not so much need to remember each particular sinne of his life past in his penance before God and with sorrowe to direct the insight of his heart unto him for soe might his freedome and affection towards good be hindred but rather let him amorously direct his heart to God himselfe detesting whatsoever may seperate or with drawe him from him neyther do we meane that he should negligently forget his sinnes but so to remember them that the remembrance hinder not a greater profitt therefore lett him confesse them dayly to God rather summarily then particulerle Truly we have a more present remedy against lesser sinnes when we turne to God by a sweete and effectuall affection of love then when we tediously bisi our selves in the consideration of them and severe punishment of them Let him therefore cast them away into the bottomlesse depth of Gods divine mercy and goodnesse that like a sparkle of fire in the midest of the sea they may there perish Let him endeavour to reject quite and cleane all inordinate pusillanimity and superfluons scruples of conscience and perplexed diffidence whensoever they arise For vnlesse they be presently lopped of they doe diverse wayes chooke up the alacrity of the mynde and very much hinder our internall going forward CHAPTER VII Every one ought to consider his owne ability and to proceede accordingly MOreover let him attempt nothing beyond his strength but be content with his lott If he cannot reach as farre as he desireth lett him reach as farre as he can And unlesse he flatter himselfe he may easily knowe what proceedings he is able to make Neverthelesse the devine bounty is liberall infusing it selfe wheresoever it findeth a mynde worthyly prepared Wherefore if our spirituall practitioner be not yet admitted to the sublimity of contemplation and perfect charity lett him thinke himselfe as yet not prepared for the receipt of soe great a good And what good would it doe him to receave that grace which he knew not howe to make good use of Lett him make haste to pull up all vice by the roote that he may be the fitter But still with this proviso that he strive not beyond his strength Lett him not impatiently try to forerun Gods grace but humbly to followe it Lett him not I say violently force his spirit thither whither he cannot reach least presuming which he ought not he tumble himselfe downe headlong by his owne violence and being crushed be punished for his rashnesse Lett him soe tend to perfection that unbrideled violence and turbulent solicitude beare no part in his indeavours Lett him attend the measure of grace given him and with all remember that he shall farre more easily safely quickly and happily attayne to the highest degree of contemplation it is to the comprehending of misticall divinity if he be touched and rapt by the meere grace of God then if he endeavour to attayne unto it by his owne labours Lett him alwayes therefore observe a meane with discretion least by excesse he rum into defects The bread of teares is good and many when they should refresh themselves surfet by it For they insist so long in teares and with so great cōfusion and agitation that both spirit and body are fayne to lye downe under the too much intent or extended exercise We confesse that many by discretion and the help of the holy Ghost can long and profitably mourne And there are many agayne that being internally inebriated with the torrent of pleasure which they take in God Do unseasonably urge and spur