truth or a most true humilitie that indeede we are most vnprofitable and vnfruitfull seruants to our Maister who by reason of his essentiall superabundancie of riches can haue no profit by vs but conuerting all our works to our owne aduantage and commoditie he makes vs serue him with as little profit to him as much profit to our selues who by so small labours gaine so great rewards 3. He was not then bound to paie vs for our seruice if he had not passed his promis for it yet doe not thinke THEO that he would so manifest his goodnesse in this promise as to forget to glorifie his wisdome yea contrariwise he did most exactly obserue the rules of equitie mixing comelinesse with liberalitie in an admirable manner for though our works are indeede very small and in no wise for their quantitie cōparable to Glorie yet in regard of their qualitie they are very proportionable therevnto by reason of the Holy Ghost who by Charitie dwelling in our hearts workes them in vs by vs and for vs in so exquisite a manner that the same workes that are wholy ours are more wholy his sith as he doth produce them in vs so we againe produce them in him as he doth them for vs so we doe them for him as he operats them with vs so we cooperate them with him 4. Now the holy Ghost doth dwell in vs if we be liuely members of IESVS CHRIST who herevpon saied vnto his Disciples He that abids in me and I in him he brings forth much fruit and it is THEO because he that abids in him is made partaker of his diuine Spirit who is in the midst of mans heart as a liuing fountaine of water springing vp vnto life euerlasting so the holy oyle which was poured vpon our Sauiour as vpon the head of the Church militant and triumphant doth spread it selfe ouer the societie of the Blessed who as the sacred beard of this heauenly Maister is continually fastened to his glorious face and doth drope vpon the companie of the faithfull who as clothes are ioyned and vnited by loue to the Diuine Maiestie the one and the other troope being composed of naturall brethren hauing hereby occasion to crie out Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell in one as oyntment on the head which ranne downe vpon the beard the beard of Aaron which ranne downe vpon the hemme of his garment 5. Our works therefore as a little corne of mustard are in no sort comparable in greatnesse to the tree of glorie which they produce yet haue they the vigour and vertue to worke it for that they proceede from the holy ghost who by an admirable infusiō of his grace into our hearts makes our works his and yet withall leaues them our owne since we are members of one head whereof he is the Spirit and ingraffed in a tree whereof he is the sape and whereas he doth in this sort act in our actions and we after a certaine manner doe operate or cooperate to his operation he leaues vs to our part all the merite ad profite of our seruices and good workes and we againe leaue him all the honour and praise thereof acknowledging that the beginning the progresse and the end of all the good we doe depends of his mercy by which he hath come vnto vs and hath preuented vs he came into vs and assisted vs he came with vs and conducted vs finishing what he had begun But ô God THEO how mercifull is this Bountie vnto vs in this diuision we render him the glorie of our praises alas and he giues vs the glorie of his possession In somme by these light and passing labours we obtaine goods permanent for all eternitie Amen That perfect vertues are neuer one without the other CHAPTER VII 1. The heart is saied to be the first part of a mā which receiues life by the vnion of the soule and the eye the last as contrariwise in a naturall death the eye begins first to die the heart the last Now when the heart begins to liue before the other parts be animated life is feeble tender and imperfect but still as it gets further possession in the other parts of the bodie life is more vigorous in each part but particularly in the heart and we see that life being interressed in any one of the members it is weakened in all the rest If a mans foote or arme be agreeued all the bodie is disseased stirred troubled and changed If our stomake paine vs the eyes voice and countenance are sensible of it Such is the agreement amongst all the parts of man for the enioying of this naturall life 2. All the vertues are not gotten in an instant but one after another as reason which is as the soule of our heart rids it selfe now of one passion now of another to moderate and gouerne them and ordinarily this life of our soule takes it's beginning in the heart of our passion which is Loue and branching it selfe ouer all the rest it doth euen quicken the very vnderstanding by contemplation as contrariwise morall or spirituall death makes its entrie into the soule by the consideration Death enters by the windowes saieth the sacred Text and its last effect is to distroy the good Loue which once perishing all our morall life is dead in vs so that though me may indeede haue some vertues seperated from others yet are they but at most languishing imperfect and weake vertues since that reason which is the life of our soule is neuer satisfied or at ease in a soule vnlesse it occupie and possesse all the faculties and passions of the same and being once agreeued or hurt in any one of our passions or affections all the rest loose their force and vigour and strangly doe pine away 3. Marke THEO all the vertues are vertues by the proportion or conformitie they haue to reason and an action cannot be named vertuous if it proceede not from the affection which the heart beares to the decencie and beautie of reason Now if the loue of reason doe possesse and animate the mynd it will be obedient to reason in all occurrences and consequently will practise all the vertues If IACOB loued RACHEL in respect that she was Laban's daughter why did he despise LIA who was not onely the daughter but euen the eldest daughter of the saied LABAN But because he affected RACHEL by reason of her beautie he could neuer equally loue the poore LIA though a fruitfull and wise maide not being so faire in his eye He that loues a vertue for the loue of the reason and decorum that shines in it he will loue them all since he will find the same motiue in thē all and he will loue each of them more or lesse as reason shall appeare in them more or lesse resplendēt He that loues Liberalitie and not Chastitie shewes sufficiently that he loues not liberalitie for the beautie of reason for that is
hath conâ—racted with his wheÌ„ by the impositioÌ„ of my haÌ„ds he receiued the Caracter of Episcopall dignitie to the great happinesse of the Diocese of Belley and to the honour of the Church besids a thousand bands of a sincere friendshipe which tyes vs together permits me not to speake with credit of his workes amongst which this Parenetique of Diuine Loue was one of the first sallies of the incomparable fulnesse of wit which euery one admires in him Further we doe see a goodlie and magnificeÌ„t Pallace which the R. Father Laurence Paris a Capucine Preacher erected in the honour of heauenly Loue which being finished will be a compleat course of the Art of louing well And lastly the B. Mother Teresa of IESVS hath written so accuratly of the sacred motions of Loue in all the bookes she hath left vs that a man is astonished to see so much eloquence masked in so profound humilitie so great soliditie of wit in so great simplicitie and her most learned ignorance makes the knowledge of many learned men appeare ignorant who after a great tormoile in studies blushe not to vnderstand that which she so happily puts downe touching the practise of holy Loue. Thus doth God raise the Throne of his Power vpon the Theather of our infirmitie making vse of weake things to confound the strong And be it my deare Reader that this Treatise which I now present come farre short of those excellent workes without hope of euer coÌ„ming nigh theÌ„ yet haue I such confidence in that paâ—re of heauenly Louers to whom I dedicate it that it may be some wayes seruiceable vnto thee and that there thou shalt meete with many wholsome coÌ„siderations which thou shouldst not else where so easily find as againe thou maist els where find many rare things which are not here Yea me thinkes my designe fals not in with theirs saue in generall in so much as the glorie of Diuine Loue is all our aimes But this you shall know by reading it Truly myne intention was onely simply and nakedly with art or varnish to represent the Historie of the Birth progresse decaye operations proprieties aduantages and excellencies of heauenly Loue. And if besids all this thou findest somwhat else they are certaine superfluities which are hard for such an one as my selfe who write amidst many distractioÌ„s to auoyd Howbeit I hope nothing therin shall be without some profit Nature her selfe who is so skilfull a work woman proiecting the production of grapes produceth withall as by a certaine prudent inaduertance such an abundance of leaues and vine-branches that there are very few vines which are not in the season to be pruined and cut Writers often are handled to harshly the Censures that are made of them being precipitated ordinarily with more impertinencie then they practised imprudence in taking vpon them to publish their writings Precipitation of iudgment doth greatly endaÌ„ger the Iudges coÌ„science and the innocencie of the Accused Diuers doe write foolishly and diuers also doe censure grosly The sweetnesse of the Reader makes his reading sweete and profitable And my deare Reader to haue thee more fauourable I will here render thee a reason of some passages which might peraduenture otherwise put thee out of humour Some peraduenture may apprehend that I haue saied too much aÌ„d that it was not requisite to bring downe the discourse euen from its heads But I am of opinion that heauenly Loue is a Plant like to that which we call Angelica whose roote is no lesse odoriferous then the bole and branches The 4. first bookes and some chapters of the rest might without doubt haue bene omitted to the liking of such soules as onely seake the practise of holy Loue yet all of it will be profitable vnto them if they behold it with a deuote eye While others also might haue disliked not to haue had the whole continuance of that which belongs to the Treatise of Diuine Loue. Certes I tooke as I ought into my consideration the condition of the wits of this age wherein we are It doth much import one to know in what Age he writs I cite the Scripture sometimes in other termes then are found in the vulgar Edition O good God my deare Reader doe me not therefore the wrong to thinke that I would goe from that Edition ah no for I know the Holy Ghost hath authorised it by the Holy Councell of Trent and that therefore all of vs ought to stick to it but contrariwise I make no other vse of the other versions but onely to serue this when they explicate and confirme the true sense therof For example That which the heauenly Spouse saieth to his Spouse THOV HAST WOVNDED MY HEART is wonderfully cleared by the other version THOV HAST TAKEN AWAY MY HEART or THOV HAST SNACHED AWAY AND RAVISHâ—D MY HEART That which our Sauiour saieth BLESSED ARE THE POORE OF SPIRIT is much amplified and declared by the Greeke BLESSED ARE THE BEGGARS OF SPIRIT and so of others I haue often cited the sacred Psalmist in verse and it was done to recreate thy mind and through the facilitie which I found in it by reason of the sweete translation of Philipe de Portes Abbot of Tiron which notwithstanding I haue not precisely followed yet not out of any hope I had to be able to doe better then this famous Poet. For I should be too impertinent if neuer hauing so much as thought of this kind of writing I should pretend to be happie in it in an age and condition of life which would oblige me to retire my selfe from it in case I had euer bene engaged therein But in some places where the sense might be diuersly taken I followed not his verse because I would not follow his sense as in the Ps 132. where he hath taken a latin word for the fringe of the garment which I apprehended was to be taken for the coler wherevpon I translated it to myne owne mind I haue saied nothing which I haue not learn't of others yet it is impossible for me to remember wheÌ„ce I had euery thing in particular But beleeue it if I had drawen any great peeces of remarke out of any Authour I would make a conscience not to let him haue the deserued honour of it and to deliuer you of a suspition which you may conceiue against my sinceritie in this behalfe I giue you to know that the 13. Chap. of the 7. booke is extracted out of a Sermon which I made at Paris at S. IOHN'S in Greue vpon the feast of the Assumption of our B. Ladie 1602. I haue not alwayes expressed how one Chapter followes another but if you marke you will easily find the connection In that and diuers other things I had a care to spare myne owne labour and your patience After I had caused the IntroductioÌ„ to a deuote to life be printed my Lord Archbishope of Vienna Peter villars did me the fauour to unite his opinion of it in termes
which came from the eies of his maister permitting himselfe freely to be moued and carried by the gentle blast of the holy Ghost and looking vpon those comfortable eies which had stirred him vp he read's in thē as in the booke of life the inuitations to pardon which the diuine clemencie doth offer him drawes frō it a iust motife of hope goes out of the Court cōsiders the horror of his sīne ād detests it He weeps he sobbs he prostrats his miserable heart before his Sauiours mercy craues Pardon for his faults makes resolution of an inuiolable loyaltie and by this Progresse of motiōs practised by the healpe of grace which doth continually conduct assist and further it he comes at length to the holy remission of his sinns and passeth so from grace to grace according to that which S. PROSPER doth auerre that without grace a mā doth not runne to grace 4. So then to conclude this point the soule preuented by grace feeling the first essaies and consenting to their sweetnesse as returning to her selfe after so long a sownd she begins to sigh out these words ah my deare SPOVSE my friend draw me I beseech thee and take me by the hand otherwise I am not able to walke but if thou doest draw me we runne thou in helping me by the odour of thy perfumes and I by corresponding by my weake consent and by relishing thy sweet's which doth recreate and strengthen me till the Balme of thy sacred name that is the wholsome ointment of my iustification be spred within me Doe you marke THEO she would not Praie if she were not excited but as soone as that is done and that she perceiues the draughtes she Praies that she may be drawen being drawen she runns marrie she would not runne if the perfums which inticeth and by which she is drawen did not reuiue her heart by the vertue of their odour and as her course is more swifte ād as she approacheth neerer her heauenly Spouse she hath a more delicious taste of the sweetenesse which he sends out in such sort that in the end her heart begins to melt like scattered Baulme whence she cries out as being surprised by this contentment not so quickly expected but vnlooked for ô my spouse thou are as Baulme poured into my bosome it is not strang that young soules dearely esteeme thee 5. Thus my deare THEO the diuine inspiration doth come vnto vs and preuent vs mouing our wills to sacred loue And if we doe not repulse her she walkes with vs and doth enuiron vs continually to incite and aduance vs not abandoning vs if we abandō her not till such time as she hath brought vs to holy Charities Gate performing for vs the three good offices which the great Angell RAPHAEL did for his deare TOBIE for she is a guide to vs through all our iorney of holy penance she is our warrant from daungers and assaults of the the diuell and doth comfort loue and fortifie vs in difficulties A short description of Charitie CHAPTER XXII 1. BEhould at length THEO how GOD by a progresse full of ineffable sweetenesse conducteth the soule which he made goe out of the Egipt of sinne from Loue to Loue as from Lodging to Lodging till she haue made her entrie into the LAND OF PROMIS I meane of most holy Charitie which to saie in one word is Friendshipe not a loue of proper interest for by Charitie we loue God for his owne sake by reason of his most soueraignely amiable Bountie But this friendshipe is a true friendshipe being reciprocall God hauing loued all such eternally as haue doe or shall loue him temporally it is showen and acknowledged mutually sith that GOD cannot be ignorant of the loue we beare him he himselfe bestowing it vpon vs nor can we be ignorant of his loue to vs seeing it is so published and that we acknowledge all the good we haue as true effects of his beneuolence and in fine we haue continuall communication with him who neuer ceaseth to speake vnto our hearts by inspirations allurements and sacred motions he ceaseth not to helpe vs and giue all sorts of testimonies of his holy affection hauing openly reuealed vnto vs all his secrets as to his confident friends and for the accomplishment of his holy LOVE-COMMERCE with vs he made himselfe our proper foode in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and as for vs we haue freedome to treate with him at all times whē we please in holy Praier we hauing our whole life motion and beeing not onely with him but euen in and by him 2. Nor is this friendshipe a simple friendshipe but a friendshipe of dilection by which we make election of God to loue him with a speciall loue He is chosen saieth the sacred spouse from amongst a thousand she saieth from amongst a thousand but she would saie from amongst all whence this loue is not a loue of simple excellencie but an incomparable loue for charitie loues God by a certaine esteeme and preferance so high and transcending all other esteemes that other loues either are not true loues in comparison of this or if they be true loues this loue is infinitly more then loue and therefore THEO it is not a loue which the force of nature either angelicall or humane can produce but the holy Ghost doth giue it and poure it into our hearts and as our soules which animate the bodie haue not their origine from the bodie but are there put by the naturall prouidēce of God so Charitie which giues life to our hearts hath not her extraction from thence but is poured into them as an heauēly liquour by the supernaturall prouidence of his diuine Maiestie 3. For this reason and for that it hath reference to God and doth tend vnto him not according to the naturall knowledge we haue of his goodnesse but according to the supernaturall knowledge of faith we name it supernaturall friēdshipe Whence she together with faith and hope keepes residence 4. And as a Maiesticall Queene is seated in the will as in her Throne whēce she conueies into the soule her dainties and sweetes making her therby faire agreeable and amiable to the diuine Goodnesse so that if the soule be a kingdome wherof the Holy Ghost is the king Charitie is the Queene set at his right hand in a Robe of gold wrought in varietie If the soule be a Queene Spouse to the great king of heauen Charitie is her Crowne which doth roially adorne her heade yea if the soule with the bodie be a little world Charitie is the Sunne which beautifies all heates all and reuiues all 5. Charitie then is a loue of friendshipe a friendshipe of dilection a dilection of preference yea and an incōparable soueraigne and supernaturall preference which is as a Sunne through all the soule to lighten it with his raies in all the spirituall faculties to perfect thē in all the powers to moderate them but in the will as in his
intention and as for the tone Charitie takes it alwayes at an equall hight sweete and delightfull humane Loue takes it still either to high in terrene things or to low in celestiall and neuer sets vpon his worke till Charitie haue ended hers for so long as charitie is in the soule she serues her selfe of this humane loue as of her Creature and makes vse of him to facilitate her operations so that in that interim the workes of this loue as of a seruant belong to Charitie his Mistresse But Charitie flitting the actions of this loue are entirely his owne not hauing their estimation and worth from Charitie for as Eliseus his stafe in his absence though in the hand of his seruant Geizi who receiued it from him wrought no miracle so actions done in the absence of Charitie by the onely habit of humane loue are of no value or mirite to eternall life though he learned them of charitie being but her seruant And this comes thus to passe because this humane loue in the absence of Charitie hath not any supernaturall strength to raise the soule to the excellent action of the loue of God aboue all things How dangerous this imperfect loue is CHAPTER X. 1. ALas my THEO behold I pray you the poore Iudas after he had betraied his Maister how he goes to render the money to the Iewes how he acknowledgeth his sinne how he speakes honorably of the blood of this immaculate lambe These were effects of imperfect loue which precedent Charitie now past had left in his heart We descend to impietie by certaine degrees and hardly any arriues in an instant to the extreamitie of malice 2. Perfumers though out of their shops beare about with them for a long time the sent of the perfumes which they haue handled So such as haue bene in the Closet of heauenly oyntments that is in holy Charitie hold for a time after the sent of it 3. Where the Hart hath lodged by night the morning after there is a fresh sent or vent of him towards night it is harder to be tooke but as soone as his straine waxeth old ād dead the hoūdes doe begin to loose it When charitie hath raigned for a space in the soule one may find there her racke tracestraine or sent for a time after she be departed but by little and little it doth quite vanish and a man looseth all knowledge that euer Charitie was there 4. I haue seene certaine young people well bred vp in the loue of God who putting them selues out of that path remained for some time amidst their accursed ruine in whom notwithstanding one might haue seene great markes of their former vertue and the habit gotten in time of charitie resisting present vice scarcely could one for some monthes discerne whether they were out of Charitie or not whether vertious or vitious till such time as the progresse did cleare that these vertuous exercises proceeded not from Charitie present but past not from perfect but imperfect loue which Charitie had left behind her as a signe that she had lodged in those soules 5. Now this imperfect loue THEO is good in it selfe for being a creature of holy Charitie and one of her retinue it cannot but be good and indeede did faithfully serue charitie while she seiourned in the soule as it is still readie to serue vpon her returne nor is it to be contemned for that it cannot doe actions of perfect loue the condition of its nature being such so starres which in comparison of the sunne are very imperfect are yet extreamely beautifull beheld alone and hauing no ranke in the presence of the sunne in his absence they haue 6. Howbeit as this loue is good in vs so it is perilous for vs seeing that oftentimes we are contēted with it alone because hauing many interiour and exeteriour stroakes of Charitie thinking that it is the same which we haue we foole our selues with opinion of our owne sanctitie while in this vaine persuation the sinnes which depriued vs of Charitie doe encrease waxe bigge and multiplie so fast that in the end they make themselues Maisters of our heart If IACOB had not left his perfect Rachell but had keept still by her the day of his marriage he had not bene deceiued as he was but permittīg her to goe into the Chāber without him he was holy astonished in the morning following to find onely in lieu of her the imperfect Lia which yet he beleeued had bene his deare Rachell But Laban had put that deceit vpon him Now selfe loue deceiues vs in the same manner how little so euer we forsake Charitie it thrusts vpon vs estimation this imperfect habit and we delight our selues in it as though it were the true Charitie tell some cleare light manifest vnto vs that we are abused 7. Ah God! is it not a great pitie to see a soule flatter her selfe in the imagination of Sanctitie remaining at rest as though she were possessed of Charitie finding in the end her Sanctitie a fiction her rest a Letargie her ioye a madnesse A meanes to discerne this imperfect loue CHAPTER XI 1. BVt you will aske me what meanes is there to discerne whether it be RACHELL or LIA Charitie or imperfect loue which gaue me the feelings of deuotiō wherewith I am touched If examining in particular the obiects of the desires affections and designes which you haue for the present you find any one for which you would transgresse the good will and pleasure of God by sinning mortally it is then out of doubt that all the feeling facilitie and promptitude which you haue in Gods seruice issue from no other source then humane and imperfect loue for if perfect loue raigned in vs ô Lord God! it would breake euery affection euery desire euery designe whose obiect were so pernicious and would not indure that our heart should behould it 2. But note that I saied that this examine must be made vpon our present affections for it is not requisite that you should imagine to your selfe such as may arise hereafter sith it is sufficient that we be faithfull in present occurrences according to the diuersitie of times and sith that euery time hath enough to doe with it 's owne paine and trauell 3. Yet if you were desirous to exercise your heart in spirituall valour by the representation of diuers encounters and assaults you may profitably doe it prouided that after the acts of this imaginarie valour which your heart might haue made you esteeme not your selfe more valliant for the children of Ephraim who did wonders with their bow and arrowes while they were yet trained vp in warlike feates at home when it came indeede to the push vpon the day of battell they turned their backes and had not so much as the courage to bow their arrowes or behold those of their enemies 4. When therefore we doe practise this valour in future occurrences or such as are onely possible if we find a good and
it selfe with his robes without taking from him takes all that he hath and without impouerishing him is enriched with all his wealth as the aire takes light not lessening the originall brightnesse of the sunne and the Myrror the grace of the countenance not diminishing his that lookes in it 7. They were made abominable like to the things they loued saied the Prophet speaking of the wicked so might one saie of the good that they are become louely as the things they loued Behold I beseech you S. CLARE of Mountfalco her heart it was so delighted in our Sauiours Passion and in meditating the most holy Trinitie that it drew into it selfe all the markes of the passion and an admirable representation of the Trinitie being made such as the things she loued The loue which the great Apostle S. PAVLE bore to the life death and passion of our Sauiour was so great that it drew the very life death and passion of this heauenly Sauiour into his louing seruants heart whose will was filled with it by dilection his memorie by meditation and his vnderstanding by contemplation But by what canall or conduict was the milde IESVS conueied into SAINT PAVLâ—S heart by the canall of complacence as he himselfe declareth saying Farre be it from me euer to glorie saue in the crosse of our Sauiour IESVS-CHRIST for if you doe marke it betwixt glorying in a person and compleasing ones selfe in the same taking glorie and taking pleasure in a thing there is no other difference sauing that he who glories in a thing to pleasure addes honour honour not being without pleasure though pleasure can be without honour This soule then had such a complacence and esteemed himselfe so much honored in the diuine Goodnesse which appeares in the life death and passion of our Sauiour that he tooke no pleasure but in this honour And it is this that made him saie be it farre from me to Glorie saue in the crosse of my Sauiour as he also saied that he liued not himselfe but IESVS-CHRIST liued in him How by holy complacence we are made as little children at our Sauiours breasts CHAPTER II. 1. O God how happie the soule is who takes pleasure in learning to know that God is God and that his bountie is an infinite bountie For this heauenly spouse by this Gate of Complacence enters into her and suppes with vs as we with him We feede our selues with his sweetenesse by the pleasure which we take therein and recollect our heart in the diuine perfections by the repose we take therein and this repast is a supper by reason of the repose which doth follow it complacence making vs sweetely repose in the deliciousnesse of the good which delightes vs and wherwith we feede our heart For as you know THEO the heart feedes of that which delightes her wheÌ„ce in our French tongue we saie that some are fed with honours others with riches as the wise-man saied that the mouthers of fooles are fed with ignorance and the soueraigne wisdome protesteth that he is fed that is he is pleased with no other thing then to doe the will of his Father In conclusion the Phisitions Aphorisme is true what is sauorie nourisheth and the Philosophers what pleaseth feedeth 2. Let my well-beloued come into his garden saied the sacred spouse and let him eate therein the fruite of his Aple-trees Now the heauenly spouse comes into his garden when he comes into the deuote soule For seeing his delight is to be with the children of men where can he better lodge then in the countrie of the minde which he made to his likenesse aÌ„d similitude He himselfe doth set in this garden the louing Complacence which we haue in his bountie aÌ„d whereof we feede as likewise his Goodnesse doth take his repast and repose in our complacence so that againe our complacence is augmented to perceiue that God is pleased to see vs take pleasure in him in such sort that from these reciprocall pleasures the loue of incomparable Complacence doth spring by which our soule being made a gardeÌ„ of her spouse and hauing from his bountie the Aple-trees of his delightes she reÌ„ders him the fruite thereof being that he is pleased in the complacence she takes in in him Thus doe we draw Gods heart into ours aÌ„d he disperseth in it his precious Baulme And thus is that practised which the holy Bride spoke with such ioye The king of my heart hath led me into his closet we will exult and reioyce in the minde full of thy breasts more amiable then wine the good doe loue thee for I praie you THEO what are the closets of this king of loue but his papes which abouÌ„de in the varietie of sweetenesse aÌ„d delightes The breasts and duggs of the mother are the closet of the little infants treasures he hath no other riches then those which are more precious vnto him then gold or the Topase more beloued then the rest of the world 3. The soule then which doth contemplate the infinite treasures of diuine perfections in her well-beloued holds her selfe too happie and rich in that loue doth make her Mistrisse by complacence of all the perfections and contentments of her deare spouse And euen as the babie doth giue little ierts towards his mothers Pape and hops with ioye to see theÌ„ discouered aÌ„d as the mother againe on her part doth â—resent them vnto him with a loue alwayes a little forwards euen so the deuoute soule doth feele tâ—â— dauncings and motions of an incomparable ioye through the content which she hath in beholding the treasures of the perfections of the king of her holy loue but especially when she sees that he himselfe doth discouer them by loue and that amongst them that perfection of his infinite loue doth excellently shine Hath not this faire soule reason to crie O my king how amiable thy riches are and how rich thy loues ah which of vs haue more ioye thou that enioyest it or I who reenioye it we daunce with mirth in memorie of thy breasts and thy duggs so plentifull in all excellencie of deliciousnesse I because my well-beloued doth enioye it thou because thy well-beloued doth rereeÌ„ioy it for so we doe both eÌ„ioye it sith thy goodnesse makes thee eÌ„ioye my reenioying aÌ„d my loue makes me reenioye thy enioying Ah! the iust and the good doe loue thee and how can one be good and not loue so great a goodnesse Wordly Princes keepe their treasures in the closets of their Palaces their armour in their Castles But the heaueÌ„ly Prince keepes his treasures in his bosome his armes within his breaste and because his treasure is his goodnesse as his weapons are his loues his breaste and bosome resembles those of a teÌ„der mother who hath two faire duggs as two closets rich with the sweetenesse of good milke armed with as many darts to subdue her little deare babie as it makes shoots in sucking 4. Nature suâ—ely lodged the duggs in the
bosome to th' end that the heat of the heart concocting the milke as the mother is the childs nourse so her heart should be his foster-father and that milke might be a foode of loue better a thousand times then wine Note the while THEOT that the comparison of milke and wine seemes so proper to the holy spouse that she is not content to haue saied once that her spouse his breasts surpasseth wine but she repeats it thrice Wine THEOT is the milke of grapes and milke is the wine of the duggs for so the sacred spouse saieth that her well-beloued is to her a grape but a Cyprine grape that is of an excelleÌ„t odour The Israelites saieth Moyses could drinke the purest and best blood of the grape And IACOB describing vnto his sonne Iudas the share which they should haue in the land of Promise prophetised vnder this figure the â—râ—e felicitie of Christians saying that our Sauiour would wash his robe that is his holy Church in the blood of the grape that is in his owne blood Now blood and milke are no more differrent then grapes and wine For as grapes ripening by the sunnes heate chang their colour become a gratefull and nourishing wine so blood tempered by the heate of the heart turns faire white and becomes a fit foode for children 5. Milke which is a cordiall foode wholy consisting of loue represents the mysticall knowledge and diuinitie that is the sweete relish which proceeds from the complacence of loue which the minde receiues in meditating the perfections of the diuine Goodnesse But wine signifies ordinarie and acquired knowledge which is squeezed by force of speculation from the presse of diuers arguments and disputes Now the milke which our soules draw from the breastes of our Sauiours Charitie is incomparably better then the wine which we squeeze from humane discourse For this milke floweth from heauenly loue which prepares it for his children yea euen before they yet thought of it it hath a sweete and amiable gust and the odour thereof puts downe all perfumes it makes the breath pure and sweete as of a sucking child it giues ioye without insolencie it inebriateth without dulling it doth not onely reare vp but euen reuiue the senses 6. When the holy man Isaac embraced and kissed his deare child IACOB he smelt the good odour of his garments and straight perfumed with an extreame pleasure ô quoth he behold how the odour of my sonne is like to the odour of a flourishing field which God hath blessed the garment and perfumes were vpon IACOB but ISAAC had the complacence and reenioying of them Alas the soule which by loue holds her Sauiour in the armes of her affection how deliciously doth she smell the perfumes of the infinite perfections which are found in him with what complacence doth she saie in herselfe behold how the sent of my God is like the smell of a flourishing garden how precious are his breastes sending out soueraigne parfumes So the Spirit of a great S. Augugustine staied in suspence betwixt the sacred contentments which he had to consider on the one side the mysterie of his Maisters birth on th' other that of the passion he cried out rauished in this complacence Betwixt two sacred fires I burne Nor know to which my heart to turne From hence a Mother doth present A fluent breast a deare content From thence as from a TRVEST VINE Doth issue blood in lieu of wine That a holy complacence giues our heart to God and makes vs feele a continuall desire in enioying him CHAPTER III. 1. THe loue which we beare to God doth flow from the first complacence that our heart takes vpon the apprehension of the diuine Goodnesse when it begins to tend towards the same Now when by the exercise of loue we doe augment and strengthen this first coÌ„placence as we haue declared in the precedent Chapters we then draw into our hearts the diuine perfections and enioye the Diuine Goodnesse by the delight we take in it practising the first part of the contentment of loue expressed by the sacred spouse saying my well-beloued is myne But because this complacence of loue being in vs that haue it is also in God in whom we take it it giues vs reciprocally to his Diuine Goodnesse so that by this holy loue of complaceÌ„ce we enioye the goods which are in God as though they were our owne but because the diuine perfections are stronger then our Spirit entring into it they enioye it reciprocally in so much that we doe not onely saie God is ours by this coÌ„placence but that we are his 2. The hearbe Aproxis as elsewhere we haue saied hath so great a correspondance with fire that though in distance as oone as it gets into the aspect of it it draweth the flame and begins to burne conceiuing fire not so much from the heate as from the light of the fire presented When then by this attraction it is vnited to the fire if it could speake might it not well saie my well-beloued fire is myne sith I drew it to me and enioye its flames but I am also his for though I drew it to me it reduced me into it as more strong and noble it is my fire and I am its hearbe I draw it and it burnes me So our heart being brought into the presence of the Diuine Goodnesse and hauing drawen the perfections thereof by the complaceÌ„ce it takes in them may truely saie Gods Goodnesse is all myne sith I enioye his excelleÌ„cies aÌ„d I againe am wholy his seeing his delightes enioye me 3. By complacence our soule as a Gedeons fleece is wholy filled with heauenly dewe and this dewe is the fleeces because it fell vpon it and and againe the fleece is the dewes because it was steeped in it and receiued vertue from it Which doth more belong to the other the pearle or the oyster to the pearle The pearle is the oysters because she drew it to her but the oyster is the pearles because it giues her worth and value Complacence makes vs Possessours of God drawing into vs his perfections but it makes vs also possessed of God applying and tying vs to his perfections 4. Now in this complacence we doe glut our soule with delights in such a manner that we doe not yet cease to desire to be glutted and tasteing the diuine Bountie we desire yet to taste it in satiating our selues we would still eate and in eating we perceiue our selues satiated The head of the Apostles hauing saied in his first Epistle that the old Prophets had manifested the graces which were to abound amongst Christians and amongst other things our Sauiours passion and the glorie which was to follow it as well by the ResurrectioÌ„ of his bodie as also by the Exaltation of his name In the end he concluds that the very Angels doe desire to behold the mysteries of the Redemption in this diuine Sauiour whom saieth he the Angels doe desire to behold But
ABRAHAMS bosome after this child 3. Commiseration is also great according to the greatnesse of their sufferances whom we loue for how little soeuer the frieÌ„dshipe be if the euells which we see endured be extreame they cause in vs great pitie This made Cesar weepe ouer Pompey and the daughters of Hierusalem could not stay themselues from weeping ouer our Sauiour though the greater part of them did not much affect him as also the friends of IACOB though wicked friends made great lamentation in beholding the dreadfull spectacle of his incomparable miserie and what a stroke of griefe was it in the heart of IACOB to thinke that his deare child was dead of a death so cruell as to be deuoured by a sauage beaste But besids all this commiseration is much strengthened by the presence of the obiect in miserie this caused the poore Agar absent her selfe from her languishing sonne to disburden her selfe in some sort of the compassionate griefe which she felt saying I will not see the child die as contrariwise our Sauiour weepes seeing the sepulchre of his well-beloued Lazarus and beholding his deare Hierusalem And the good IACOB was struck with griefe when he saw the bloodie Robe of his poore little IOSEPH 4. Now as many causes also doe augment complacence As a friend is more deare vnto vs we take more pleasure in his contentment and his good doth enter more deeply into our heart which if it be excellent our ioye is also greater but if we see our friend while he enioyes it our reioycing becomes extreame When the good IACOB knew that his sonne liued ô God what ioye his heart returned home he reuiued yea as one would saie returned to life But what is this he reuiued returned to life THEO SPIRITS die not their proper death but by sinne which seperateth them from God who is their true supernaturall life yet die they sometimes by anothers death and this happened to IAGOB of whom we speake for loue which drawes into the heart of the louer the good and euill of the thing beloued the one by complacence the other by commiseration drew the death of the louely IOSEPH into the louing IACOBS heart and by a miracle impossible to any other power but loue the minde of the good Father was full of the death of him that liued and raigned deceiued affection forerunning the effect 5. But as soone as he had knowen that his sonne was a liue Loue who had so long detained the presupposed death of the sonne in the good Fathers heart seeing that he was deceiued speedely reiected this imaginarie death and made enter in its place the true life of the saied sonne Thus then he returned to a new life because the life of his sonne entred into his heart by complacence and animated him with an incomparable contentment with which finding himselfe satisfied and not esteeming any other pleasure in comparison of this it fufficeth me saieth he if my child IOSEPH liue But when with his proper eyes he experienced his deare childs greatenesse in Gessan hanging vpon him and for a good space weeping about his necke ah now saieth he I will die ioyfull my deare SoÌ„ne sith I haue seene thy face and thou dost yet liue ô God what a ioye THEO and how excellently expressed by this old man For what would he saie by these words now I will die contented sith I haue seene thy face but that his content was so great that it was able to render death it selfe ioyfull and agreeable being the most discomfortable and horrible thing in the world Tell me I pray you THEO who hath more sense of IOSEPHES good he that enioyes it or IACOB who reenioyes it Certainly if good be not good but in respect of the content which it affordeth vs the father hath as much yea more then the Sonne for the sonne together with the dignitie of VICE-ROY whereof he is possessed hath coÌ„sequently many cares aÌ„d affaires but the Father doth enioye by Complacence and purely possesse all that good is in this his sonnes greatenesse and dignitie without charge care or trouble I will dye Ioyfull saieth he Alas who doth not see his contentment if euen death cannot trouble his ioye who can euer chang it if his content can liue amidst the distresses of death who can euer bereeue him of it Loue is strong as death and the ioyes of loue doe surmount the anoyes of death for death caÌ„not kill but doth reuiue them so that as there is a fire which miraculously is feed in a fountaine nere Greenoble as I surely know and S. AVGVSTINE doth attest so holy Charitie is so strong that she doth nourish her flames and consolations in the saddest anguishes of death and the waters of tribulations cannot extinguish her fires Of the commiseration and Complacence of loue in our Sauiours Passion CHAPTER V. 1. VVHen I see my Sauiour vpon the mouÌ„t Oliuet with his soule sad euen to death O Lord Iâ—SVS saie I who could haue borne these sorrowes of death in the soule of life if not loue who mouing commiseration drew thereby our miseries into thy soueraigne heart Now a deuote soule seeing this abisse of sorrow and distresse in this Diuine louer how can she be without a holily louing griefe But considering on the other side that none of these her well-beloued's afflictions proceede from any imperfectioÌ„ or want of force but from the greatnesse of his most deare loue she cannot but melt with a holily dolorous loue so that she cries out I am blacke with griefe by compassion but I am faire with loue by Complacence the anguishes of my well-beloued haue changed my hew for how can a faithfull louer see him so tormented whom she loues more then her life without becomming appalled withered and dried vp with griefe Nomades tents perpetually exposed to the outrage of weather and warrs are almost still beaten and couered with dust and I open to sorrows which by commiseration I receiue from the excessiue suffrances of my diuine Sauiour I am quite couered with anguishe and split with griefe but because his griefes whom I loue proceede from his loue as much as they afflict me by compassion they delight me by Complacence For how must not a faithfull louer needes haue an extreme coÌ„teÌ„t to see her selfe so much beloued of her heauenly Spouse And hence the beautie of loue appears in the foulenesse of griefe And though I weare mourning weedes for the Passion and death of my King deformed and blacked with griefe yet am I not without an incomparable delight to behold the excesse of his loue amidst the panges of his sorrowes And the tents of SALOMON brodered and wrought with an incomparable diuersitie of worke was neuer so goodlie as I am content and consequently sweete amiable and agreeable in the varietie of the essaies of loue which I feele amongst these griefes Loue doth equalize the louers ah I see this deare louer who is a burning fire in a thornie
bush of griefe and euen so I I am wholy inflamed with loue amōgst the thornie thickets of sorrow I am a Lillie enuironed with thornes doe not onely looke vpon the horrours of my pinching griefes but behold the agreeable beautie of my loues Alas this Diuine well-beloued louer doth suffer insupportable griefes this it is that toucheth my heart and makes me sound with anguish but he takes pleasure in suffering he loues his torments and dies with ioye to die with griefe for me wherefore as I greeue in his griefe so am I rauished with ioye in his loue I doe not onely sorrow with him but glorie in him 2. It was this loue THEO that drew the Stigmats vpon the louing Seraphicall S. FRANCIS and vpon the louing Angelicall S. CATHERINE of Scienna the vrgent wounds of her Sauiour the louing Complacence hauing sharpened the point of the dolourous compassion as honnie make the bitternesse of Wormewoode more pearcing and sensible as cōtrariwise the daintie smell of Roses is refined by the neighberhoode of Garlike which is planted neare the Rose-trees for so the louing Complacence which we haue taken in the loue of our Sauiour makes the compassion which we haue of his dolours more forcible as also passing from the compassion of sorrowes to the complacence of loues we take a more ardent and high content Then the griefe of loue and the loue of griefe is practised then the amourous compassion and dolourous complacence as another ESAV and IACOB striuing who should striue more puts the soule into incredible conuultions and agonies and as it were an extasie amourously dolorous and dolourously amourous And according to this the great soules of S. FRANCIS and S. CATHERINE felt incomparable loues in their dolours and matchlesse dolours in their loues when they were stigmatized perceiuing loue ioyfull to endure for a friend which our Sauiour exercised in the highest degree vpō the tree of the Crosse Thus is the precious vnion of our soule with God made which as a mysticall Beniamin is a child of griefe ād loue together 3. It cannot be expressed THEO how much our Sauiour desires to enter into our soules by way of this dolourous Complacence Alas saieth he open me the dore my deare sister my friend my doue my all-faire for my head is all to bedewed and my heires with the dropes of the night What is this dewe what are these dropes of the night but the paines and torments of his Passion Pearles as we haue many times saied are no other thing then dewie dropes which the nights freshnesse shewers downe vpon the face of the sea receiued in the shelles of Oysters or mother-pearles Ah! would the diuine louer of the soule saie I am oden with the paines and sweat of my passion which almost all passed either in the darknesse of the night or in the night of darknesse which the eclipsed sunne caused at the hight of the day Open then thy heart towards me as the mother-pearle doth hers towards heauen and I will poure downe vpon thee the dewe of my passion which shall turne into pearles of consolation Of the Loue of Beneuolence which we exercise towards our Sauiour by way of desire CHAPTER VI. 1. THe loue which God exerciseth towards vs is alwayes begun by beneuolence willing and effecting all the good that is in vs in which afterwards he takes complacence He made DAVID according to his heart by beneuolence because he found him according to his heart by Complacence He first created the world for man and man in the world indewing euery thing with such a measure of goodnesse as was proportionable to it out of his pure beneuolence then he approued all that he had done finding that all was very good and by complacence reposed in his worke 2. But contrariwise our loue towards God begins from the complacence which we haue in the soueraigne Goodnesse and infinite perfection which we know is in the Diuinitie then we come to the exercise of beneuolence And as the Complacence which God takes in his creaturs is no other thing then a continuation of his beneuolence towards them so the beneuolence which we beare towards God is nothing else but an approbation and perseuering in him 3. Now this loue of beneuolence towards God is practised in this sort we cannot with a true desire wish any good to God because his goodnesse is infinitly more perfect then we can either wish or thinke Desire is onely of a future good and no good is future to God sith that all good is so present to him that the presence of good in his Diuine Maiestie is no other thing then the Diuinitie it selfe Not hauing therefore power to make an absolute desire for God we doe make imaginarie and conditionall ones in this manner I haue saied ô Lord thou art my God who being full of thy owne infinite goodnesse can haue no wāt neither of my riches nor of any other thing but if by imagination of a thing impossible I could thinke thou had'st neede of any thing I would neuer cease to wish it thee euen with the losse of my life beeing and of all that the world hath And if being what thou art and which thou cannot but still be it were possible that thou couldst receiue any encrease of good ô God what a desire should I haue that thou hadst it In that case ô eternall Lord I would desire to see my heart conuerted into wishes and my life into sighes to wish thee such a good ah yet would I not for all this ô thou sacred well-beloued of my soule desire to haue power to desire any good to thy Maiestie yea I hartily please my selfe in this thy supreeme degree of goodnesse to which nothing can be added neither by desire nor yet by thought But if such a desire were possible ô infinte Diuinitie ô Diuine infinitie my soule would be that desire and no other thing then that so much would she be desirous to desire for thee that which she is infinitly pleased that she cannot desire seeing that her impotencie therein proceedes frō the infinite infinitie of thy perfection which outstrips all desire and cogitation Ah! ô my God how dearly I loue the impossibilitie of being able to desire thee any good sith that ryseth out of the incomprehensible immensitie of thy abundance which is so soueraignely infinite that if there be an infinite desire it should be infinitly saciated by the infinitie of thy Goodnesse which would conuert it into an infinite cōplacence These desires then by imagination of impossibilities may be sometimes profitably practised amongst great and extraordinarie feelings and feruours Thus as it is reported did the great S. AVGVSTINE often behaue himselfe pouring out in excesse of loue in these words Ah! Lord I am AVGVSTINE and thou art God but howbeit if that which neither is nor can be were that I were God and thou AVGVSTINE I would in changing my condition with thee become AVGVSTINE to the
to the end I may praise thy holy name the iuste expects me till thou restorest vnto me my desired repose Behold THEO I beseech you this soule who as a heauenly Nightingale shut vp in the cage of his bodie in which it cannot at wish sing the benedictions of his eternall loue knowes that he could better recorde and practise his melodious ditties if he could gaine the aire enioye the freedome and societie of other Philomels amongst the gaie and flowrie hillockes of the Land of the Blessed and thence he cries alas o Lord of my life ah by thy wholy sweete bountie deliuer my pouertie out of the cage of my bodie free me from this little prison to th' end that released from this bondage I may flie to my deare companions who expect me aboue in heauen to make me one of their Quiers and enuirone me with their ioye the Almightie according my voice to theirs I with them will make vp a sweete harmonie of delicious aires and accēts singing praising and blessing thy mercy This admirable Saint as an Orator who would end and cōclude all he had saied in some short sentence made this the happie periode of all his wishes and desires whereof these last words were a Breefe Words to which his soule was so fixed that in breathing them he breathed his last My God THEO what a sweete and deare death was this a happily louing death a holily mortall loue How we practise the LOVE OF BENEVOLENCE in the praises which our Sauiour and his mother giue to God CHAPTER XI 1. VVE ascend then stepe by stepe in this holy exercise by the creaturs which we inuite to praise God passing from the sensible to the reasonable and intellectuall and from the Church militant to the triumphant in which we raise our selues vp to the Angels and Saints till aboue them all we haue met with the most sacred virgin who in a matchlesse manner doth praise and magnifie the Diuinitie more highly holily and deliciously then all the other creaturs together are able 2. Being two yeares agoe at Milan whither the veneration of the fresh memorie of the great Archbishope S. CHARLES had drawen me with certaine of our Church-men we heard in diuers Churches diuers sorts of musike but in a Monasterie of Nunnes we heard a Religious woman whose voice was so admirably delicious that she alone filled our minds with more delight incomparably then all the rest together which though otherwise excellent yet seemed they to serue onely to giue luster and raise the perfection and grace of this singular voice So THEO amongst all the Quires of men and Angels the most sacred Virgine's loftie voice is heard which raised aboue all renders more praise to God then doe all the other creaturs And indeede the Heauenly king inuites her to sing in a particular manner shew me thy face saieth he my well-beloued let thy voice sound in my eares for thy voice is entirely sweete and thy face wholy faire 3. But the praises which this Mother of honour and faire dilection together with all the creaturs giues to the Diuinitie though excellent and admirable come yet so short of the infinite merite of Gods goodnesse that they carrie no proportion with it and therefore albeit they meruellously please the louing heart 's holy beneuolence to the well-beloued yet doe they not saciate it Wherefore it goes forward and inuites our Sauiour to praise and glorifie his eternall Father with all the Benedictions which a Sonnes loue can fournish him withall And then THEO the soule is put to silence being able onely to admire O what a Canticle is this of the Sonne to his Father ô how faire this deare well-beloued is amongst all the children of men ô how sweete is his voice as issuing from the lipps vpon which the fulnesse of grace was poured All the others are perfumed but he is the perfume it selfe the others are embaumed but he is Baulme poured out the eternall receiues others praises as smells of peculiar flowres but vpon the odour of the praises which our Sauiour giues him doubtlesse he cries out ô these are the odours of my sonns praises as the odour of a field full of flowres which I haue blessed I my deare THEO all the Benedictions which the Church militant and triumphant offers to God are Angelicall and humane benedictions for beit they are addressed to the Creatour yet proceede they from a Creature but the Sonns are diuine for they doe not onely tend to God as the others but they flow from God the Redeemour being true God they are not onely diuine in respect of their end but of their beginning diuine because they tend to God diuine because they issue from God God prouokes the soule endewing her with sufficient grace for the production of other praises But the Redeemour being God produceth his owne himselfe and thence they are infinite 4. He that in a morning for a good space hauing heard in the neighbour woods the sweete chaunting of a great companie of Canarie birdes Linnets Goldfinches and such like little birdes should in the end heare a Maister Nightingale who in perfect melodie would fill the aire and eare with her admirable voice doubtlesse he would preferre this one grouie Chaunter before the whole Quires of the others So hauing heard all the praises which so many different sorts of of creaturs in emulation of one another renders vnanimously to their Creatour when at length one markes that of our Sauiour they find in it a certaine infinitie of merite valour sweetenesse which passe all hope and expectation of heart and the soule as awaked out of a deepe sleepe is then sodenly rauished with extreamitie of the sweetenesse of that melodie ah I heare it ô the voice the voice of my well-beloued The Queene-voice of all voices a voice in comparison wherof all the other voices are but a dume and sad silence See how this deare friend doth spring out see how he comes tripping ouer the mountaines transcending the hills his voice is heard aboue the Seraphins and all other creaturs he hath the sight of a Goate to penetrate deeper then any other the beautie of the Sacred obiect which he desires to praise He loues the melodie of the glorie and praise of his Father more then all the rest and therefore he takes his Fathers praises and benedictions in a straine aboue them all Behold this diuine loue of the Beloued as he is clothed in his humanitie making hīselfe to be seene through the holes of his wounds and his open side as by windowes and as by lattises by which he lookes vpon vs. 5. Yes The Diuine Loue being seated vpon our Sauiours heart as vpon his royall Throne beholds through the passage of his pearced side all the hearts of the sonnes of mē for this heart being the king of hearts keepes his eye still fixed vpon hearts But as those that looke through a lattise doe plainely discouer others and yet are not
silence Vnto thy peerlesse worth Silence doth sing Th'Hymne of Admiration O Sion's Kinge For so Isaie his Seraphins adoring and praising God vayled their faces and feete confessing therein theire want of sufficiencie sufficiently to contemplate or serue him for our feete whereon we goe signifies seruice Howbeit they flie with two wings in the continuall motion of Complacence and Beneuolence their Loue resting in that delightfull vnrest 6. Mans heart is neuer so much disquieted as when the motion by which it doth continually open and shut it selfe is troubled neuer so quiet as when its motions are free so that the hearts quiet consisteth in motion The like it is with the Seraphins and Seraphicall men for their Loue reposeth in the motion of it's complacence by which it draws God clerely into it selfe and in the motion of Beneuolence by which it doth dilate and throw it selfe into God This Loue then desires to behold the infinite wonders of God's goodnesse yet it spreeds it's wings ouer it's face confessing that it cannot arriue thither It would also present some worthy seruice yet hath it's feete couered to professe that it hath not power to performe it nor doth any thing remaine sauing the two wings of Complacence and Beneuolence by which it flies vp and casts it selfe vpon God The end of the fift Booke THE SIXT BOOKE OF THE EXERCISES OF HOLY LOVE IN PRAIER A description of mysticall Diuinitie which is no other thing then praier CHAPTER I. I. WE haue two principall exercices of our loue towards God the one affectiue the other effectiue or as S. BERNARD calles it actiue By that we affect God and what he affecteth by this we serue God and doe what he ordaines That ioynes vs to Gods goodnesse this makes vs execute his will The one fills vs with complacence beneuolence motions desires aspirations and spirituall ardors causing vs to practise the sacred infusions and mixtures â—f our spirit with Gods The other doth establish in vs the solide resolution constancie of heart and inuiolable obedience requisite to effect the ordinances of the diuine will and to suffer admit approue and embrace all that comes from his good pleasure The one makes vs pleased in God the other makes vs please God by the one we conceiue by the other we bring fourth by the one we place God vpon our heart as an Ensigne of loue by which our affections are ordered by the other we seate him vpon our arme as a sword of loue wherby we effect all vertuous exploits 2. The first exercise coÌ„sisteth in Praier specially in which so many different inward motions passe that to expresse them all is impossible not onely by reason of their number but also for their nature and qualitie which being spirituall they cannot but be very secret and almost hid from our vnderstanding the most trained and best sented hounds are often at default loosing the straine and sent by the varietie of sleights which the Hart vseth by dubles making them rune riot and practising a thousand shiftes to escape the Crie and we often times loose the sent and knowledge of our owne heart in the infinite diuersitie of motions by which it doth turne it selfe into so many formes and that with such promptitude that one cannot discerne the footings thereof 3. God alone is he who by his infinite wisdome sees souÌ„ds and penetrats all the turnings aÌ„d windings of our hearts he a farre of vnderstands our thoughts finds out our traces our doubles and leapings of His knowledge therein is admirable passing our capacitie and reach Certainly if we would looke backe vpon our owne hearts by the reflections and turnings of their actions we should light into Labyrinthes wherein we should find no out-gate and it would require an intolerable atteÌ„tion to thinke what our thoughtes are to consider our considerations to see all our spirituall sightes to discerne that we discerne to remember that we remember these would be Mazes out of which we should not be able to deliuer our selues This treatise then is most hard especially to one not greatly conuersant in praiere 4. We take not here the word PRAIER for the onely praier or demaund of any good thing pouered out by the faithfull before God as S. BASILE calles it but with S. BONAVENTVRE saying that Praier generally speaking comprehendes all the acts of contemplation or with S. GREGORIE Nissene teaching that praier is an entertainement or conuersation of the soule with God or else with S. CHRYSOSTOME assuring vs that Praier is a discourse with the diuine Magestie or finally with S. AVGVSTINE and S. DAMASCENE terming Praier an ascent or raising of the soule to God And if Praier be a speach discourse or conuersation of the soule with God by it then we speake to God and he againe speakes to vs we aspire to him and repose in him and he mutually inspires vs and reposeth in vs. 5. But of what doe we discourse in Praier what is the subiect of our entertainement THEO we speake of God onely for of what can Loue discourse and talke but of the well-beloued and therefore Praier and mysticall Diuinitie are one same thing It is called Diuinitie because as speculatiue Diuinitie hath God for its obiect so this speakes onely of God yet with three differences for 1. that treates of God as God but this speakes of God as soueraignely amiable that is that aimes at the Diuinitie of the supreame Goodnesse aÌ„d this at the supreame Goodnesse of the Diuinitie 2. the speculatiue treats of God with men and amongst men the mysticall speakes of God with God and in God himselfe 3. the Speculatiue tends to the knowledge of God and the mysticall to the loue of God so that that makes her schollers knowing learned and Diuins but this makes hers become ferueÌ„t and affectionate louers of God and PHILOTHEES OR THEOPHILES 6. Now it is called mysticall for that its conuersatioÌ„ is altogether secrete and there is nothing saied in it betwixt God and the soule saue onely from heart to heart by a communication in communicable to all but themselues Louers language is so particular to them selues that none but theÌ„selues vnderstand ir I sleepe saied the holy Spouse and my heart watcheth Ah harke how my well-beloued speakes vnto me Who would haue gessed that this Spouse being a sleepe could yet talke with her Spouse but where loue raignes the noise of exteriour words is not necessarie nor the helpe of sense to entertaine and mutually to heare one another In fine Praier and mysticall Diuinitie is no other thing then a conuersation in which the soule doth louingly discourse with God touching his most amiable goodnesse to be vnited and ioyned to it 7. Praier is a Manna in regard of the infinitie of amiable tastes and precious delightes which it giues to such as vse it but it is secrete because it falls before the light of any science in the MENTALL SOLITVDE where one onely soule treates with one onely
lameÌ„table voices and to testifie also that he made vse of holy mentall prayer he addes I will meditate as a doue winding and doubling my thoughtes within my heart by an attentiue consideration to excite my selfe to blisse and praise the soueraigne mercy of my God who hath brought me backe from deaths gate taking coÌ„passion of my miserie So saieth Isaie we will roare or rustle like Beares and meditating we will mourne as Doues the rustling of Beares doth resemble the exclamations which are made in vocall praier and the mourning of Doues is compared to holy meditation But to the end it may appeare that Doues doe not onely mourne in occasions of griefe but euen of loue also and ioye the sacred Spouse describing the naturall spring-time to expresse the graces of the spirituall spring-time the Turtles voice saieth he hath bene heard in our land because in the spring the Turtle begins to waxe hote with loue which by her more frequent song she testifieth and presently after my Doue shew me thy face let thy voice resound in my eares for thy voice is sweete and thy face comely and gracious He would saie THEO that the deuote soule is most agreeable vnto him when she presents her selfe before him and meditats to heate her selfe in holy spirituall loue as doe Doues to stirre vp their mates to a naturall loue So he that had saied I will meditate as a Doue putting his conceite into other words I will recall to mind saieth he all my yeares in the bitternesse of my soule for to meditate and to recall to mind to th' end to moue affection are the same thing Hence Moyses exhorting the people to recall to mind the benefits receiued of God he addes this reason to th' end you may obserue his commandements walke in his wayes and feare him And our Sauiour himselfe gaue this command to Iosue thou shalt meditate in the booke of the lawe day and night that therby thou mayest obserue and doe that which is written in it which in one of the passages is expressed by the word MEDITATE is declared in the other by RECALL TO MIND And to shew that an iterated thought and meditation tend to moue vs to affections resolutions and actâ—ons it is saied as well in the one as the other passage that we must recall to mind and meditate in the law to obserue and practise it In this sense the Apostle exhorts vs saying think diligently vpon him who sustained of sinners such contradiction against himselfe that you be not wearied fainting in your minds When he saieth think diligently it is as though he had saied meditate but why would he haue vs to meditate the holy passion not that we should waxe learned but that we should become patient and constant in the way of heauen 5. Meditation is a mysticall ruminating requisite that we might not be found vncleane to which one of the pious shepherdesses that followeth the sacred Sunamite inuits vs for she assures vs that holy write is as a precious wine worthy to be drunk not onely by the Pastours and Doctours but also to be diligently tasted chewed and ruminated as one would saie Thy throte saieth she wherein the holy words are formed is a best wine worthy of my well-beloued to be drunk with his lippes and ruminated with his teeth So the Blessed Isaac as a neate and pure Lambe towards night went out into the fields to recollect conferre and exercise his Spirit with God that is to praie and meditate 6. The Bee flies from flowre to flowre in the spring time not at all adueÌ„tures but of pourpose not to be recreated onely in the verdant diapring of the fieldes but to gather honie which hauing found she suckes and lodes her selfe with it thence carying it to her hyue she accommodates it artificially separating the waxe from it therof makeing the combe to reserue honie for the ensuing winter Such is the deuote soule in meditation she passeth from mysterie to mysterie not at randome or to solace her selfe onely in viewing the admirable beautie of those diuine obiectes but deliberatly and of set pourpose to find out motifes of loue or some heauenly affection and hauing found them she drawes them to her she relisheth them and lodes her selfe with them and hauing brought them home and placed them in her heart she selectes that which she finds most proper for her aduancement storing herselfe with fit resolutions against the time of temptation Thus the celestiall Spouse as a mysticall bee flies to the Canticle of Canticles now vpon the eyes now vpon the lippes cheekes and head haire of the well-beloued to draw from thence the sweetnesse of a thousand passions of loue to this effect noting in particular whatsoeuer she finds rare So that inflamed with holy loue she speakes with him puts interrogatories to him she harkes sighes aspires admires as he of his part fills her with delight inspiring her touching and opening her heart and streaming into it brightnesse lighte and sweetenesses with-out end but in so secrete a manner that one may rightly saie of this holy conuersation of the soule with God as the Holy Text saieth of God's with Moises that Moises being sole vpon the tope of the mountaine he spoke to God and God answered him A description of contemplation and touching the first difference that there is betwixt it and meditation CHAPTER III. 1. THEO Contemplation is no other thing then a louing simple and permanent attention of the mynd to holy things which you may easily perceiue by comparing it with meditation 2. The little younge Bees are called nymphes vntill they make honie and then they become Bees so praier is named meditation till such time as it haue produced the honie of deuotion and then it is conuerted into contemplation for as the Bee flies through the countrie meades to prey here and there and gather honie which hauing heaped together she takes in its sweetnesse so we meditate to gather the loue of God but hauing gathered it we contemplate God and are attentife to his Goodnesse by reason of the sweetnesse which loue makes vs find in it The desire we haue to obtaine diuine loue makes vs meditate but loue obtained makes vs contemplate for by loue we find out a sweetenesse so agreeable in the thing beloued that we cannot satisfie our mindes in seeing and considering it 3. Behould the Queene of Saba THEO considering by parcells the wisdome of Salomon in his answers in the beautie of his house in the magnificencie of his table in his seruants lodgings in the order that his Courtiours held in executing their charges in their apparrell and behauiour in the multitude of Holocausts which were offered in the Temple she was taken with an ardent loue which changed her meditation into a contemplation by which being rapt out of her selfe she vttered diuers words of extreame conteÌ„tment The sight of so many wonders begot in her heart an exceeding loue and that loue enkindled
a new desire to see still more and enioye his presence with whom she saw them whence she cried O how happie are the seruants who are still about thee and heare thy wisedome In like manner we sometimes begin to eate to get an appetite but our appetite being egged we continue eating to content it And in the beginning we consider the Goodnesse of God to excite our wills to loue him but loue being formed in our hearts we consider the same Goodnesse to content our loue which cannot be satiated in seeing continually what it loues In conclusion meditation is the mother of loue but contemplation is her daughter and for this reason I called contemplation a louing attention for childreÌ„ are named after their Father and not the Father after the child 3. It is true THEO that as the auncient IOSEPH who was the crowne and Glorie of his Father did greatly encrease his honours and contentment and made him waxe young in his old age so contemplation doth crowne its Father which is loue perfectes him and giues him the tope of excellencie for loue hauing moued in vs a contemplatiue attention that attention breedes reciprocally a more great and feruent loue which in the end is crowned with perfections when it enioyes the thing beloued Loue makes vs take pleasure in in the sight of our well-beloued and the sight of our well-beloued makes vs take pleasure in his diuine loue so that by this mutuall motion of loue to the sight and sight to loue as loue renders the beautie of the thing beloued more beautifull so the sight of it makes loue more louely and delightfull Loue by an imperceptible power makes the beautie which we loue appeare more faire and sight likewise doth refine loue to make it finde beautie more amiable Loue moues the eyes continually to behold the beloued beautie more attentiuely and the sight doth force the heart continually to loue it more forcibly That loue in this life takes his origine but not his excellencie from the knowledge of God CHAPTER IV. 1. BVt whether hath more force I pray you loue to make vs looke vpon the well-beloued or the sight to cause the loue therof knowledge THEO is required to the production of loue for we neuer sawe and according as the attentiue knowledge is augmented loue is also augmented so there be nothing to hinder it's actiuitie Yet it happens often that knowledge hauing produced holy loue Loue doth not staie within the compasse of the knowledge which is in the vnderstanding but goes forward and passeth farre beyond it so that in this life we may haue more loue then knowledge of God whence great S. THOMAS assures vs that often tymes the most simple and women abound in deuotion being more ordinarily capable of heaueÌ„ly loue then able and vndâ—rstanding people 2. The famous Abbot S. ANDRIEW of verceill S. ANTHONIES of Padua his Maister in his commentaries vpon S. DENIS doth often repeate that loue penetrates where exteriour knowledge cannot reach and saieth that many Bishops though not very learned had penetrated the mysterie of the Trinitie admiring vpon this passage his scholler S. ANTONIE of Padua who without wordly knowledge was endowed with a profound mysticall Diuinitie who as another S. IOHN Baptiste one might haue called a light and burning lampe The Blessed Brother Gilles one of the first companions of S. FRANCIS saied one day to S. BONAVENTVRE ô how happie you learned men are for you vnderstand many things wherby you praise God but what can we Idiotes doe S. BONAVENTVRE replied the grace to loue God is sufficient No but Father replied Brother Gilles can an ignorant man loue God as well as a learned yes saieth S. Bonauenture yea more a poore fillie woman may loue God as well as a Doctour of Diuinitie with this Brother Gilles cried out falling into a feruour ô poore simple womaÌ„ loue thy Sauiour and thou shall be as great as Brother Bonauenture and vpon it he remained for the space of three houres in a RAPTVRE 3. The will perceiues not Good but by meanes of the vnderstanding but hauing once perceiued it She hath no more neede of the vnderstanding to practise loue for the force of pleasure which she feeleth or pretends to feele by being vnited to her obiect drawes her powerfully to loue and to a desire to enioye it so that the knowledge of good breedes loue but bounds it not as we see the knowledge of an iniurie moues coler which if it be not suppressed doth in a manner alwayes exceede the wronge Passions not following the knowledge which moued them but eftsonns leauing it behind them they make towards the obiect without measure or limite 4. Now this happens more effectually in holy Loue for so much as our will is not applied to it by a naturall knowledge but by the light of faith which assuring vs of the infinite goodnesse that is in God giues vs sufficient to loue him with all our force We digge the earth to find gold and siluer employing a present labour for a good as yet in hope onely so that an vncertain knowledge sets vs vpon a present and certaine labour â—nd as we doe more discouer the vaine in the Mine we doe more earnestly search more Euen a cold sent serues to moue the Hound to the game so deare THEO an obscure knowledge shut vp in cloudes as is that of faith doth infinitly stirre our affectioÌ„ to loue the Goodnesse which it makes vs apprehend ô how true it is according to S. AVGVSTIN'S complaint That the vnlearned teare uen out of our hands while the learned fall into hell 5. In your opinion THEO whether of the two would loue the light more the borne blind who should know all the discourses that the Philosophers make of it and the praises they giue it or the plough-man who by a cleare sight should feele and resent the delightfull splendour of the faire rising sunne the first hath more knowledge of it but the second more fruition and that fruition produceth a loue more quicke and liuely then the simple knowledge by discourse for the experieÌ„ce of Good makes it infinitly more louely then all the knowledge which can be had of it We begin our loue by the knowledge which faith giues vs of God's Goodnesse which afterwards we relish and taste by loue and loue eggeth our gust and our gust refines our loue so that as we see the water role and swell by the windes blastes as by emulation vpon the encounter so the taste of good doth warme loue and loue againe the taste according to that Oracle of the diuine wisdome Those that shall taste me shall yet haue appetite and those that shall drinke me shall yet haue thrist Which of the two I praie you loued God more OCHAM held of some to be the most subtile man that liued or S. CATHERINE of Genua an vnlearned woman He knew him better by science she by experience and her experience did
that weare his and he ours ô God how precious and vsefull a grace this is for vs 3. My deare THEO let vs yet take the libertie to frame another imagination If a STATVA placed in the galerie of some Prince by the STATVARIE were endewed with vnderstanding and reason and could discourse and talke and one should aske it saying tell me ô faire STATVA why art thou seated in this hole it would answere because my Maister placed me there and if one should replie but why staiest thou there without doing any thing because would it saie my Maister placed me not there to doe any thing but to th' end I should remaine immouable but if one should vrge it further saying but poore STATVA what art thou the better to remaine here in this sorte ah God would it saie I am not here for mine owne interest and seruice but to obaye and accomplish the will of my MAISTER and MAKER and this suffiseth me And if one should yet put another demand in this sort goe to tell me then STATVA I praie not seeing thy Maister how dost thou then take contentment to content him no verily would it confesse I see him not indeede for I haue eies not to see as also feete not to walke but I am ouer ioyed to know that my deare Maister sees me here and in seeing me here takes pleasure But if one should continew discourse with the STATVA and should saie vnto it why but would thou not at least wish to haue motion that thou mightest approch nere they maker to afford him some better seruice doubtlesse it would denie it and protest that it desired to doe no other thing vnlesse it were its Maisters desire Is it possible then would one cōclude that thou desin'st nothing but to be an immouable STATVA in that hollow place no truely would that wise STATVA finally answere no I desire to be nothing but a STATVA and a STATVA continually in this hole so long as my Maister pleaseth being content to be heare and in this nature seeing it is his conten t whose I am and by whom I am what I am 4. O good God how good a way it is of remaining in Gods presence to be and to will to be for euer and euer at his good pleasure for so vnlesse I be deceiued in all occurrences yea in our deepest sleepe we are more deeply in the holy presence of God yea verily THEO for if we loue him we fall asleepe not onely at the sight of him but at his pleasure and not at his pleasure onely but euen according to his pleasure And euen he himselfe our heauenly Creatour and Maker seemes to laie vs vpon our bed as STATVA'S in their places that we might nestle in our beds as birds in their nestes And at our awaking if we reflect vpon it we finde that God was still present with vs and that we were in no wise absent or separated from him We were there then in the presence of his good pleasure though without seeing or perceiuing him so that we might saie with Iacob Certes I haue sleept by my God and in the bosome of his diuine presence and prouidence and yet knew it not 5. Now this quiete in which the will workes not saue onely by a simple submission to the diuine will praying without any other pretention then to be in the sight of God according as it shall please him is a quiet soueraignely excellent because it hath no mixture of proper interest the faculties of the soule taking no content in it nor yet the will saue onely in her supreame point in which her content is to admite no other contentment except that of being without contentment for the loue of God's content and pleasure wherein she reposeth For in fine it is the top of the EXTASIE OF LOVE to haue ones will not in his owne contentment but in God's and ones content not in his owne will but in God's Of the melting and liquifaction of the soule in God CHAPTER XIII 1. HVmide and liquide things doe easily receiue the impressions and limits which one would put vpon them because they haue no firmenesse or soliditie which may staie or limite them Put liquour into a glasse and you shall see it remaine bounded and limited therein which being round or square the liquour shall be the like hauing no other limite nor shape then that of the glasse which contains it With the soule it faires not so in nature for she hath her proper shapes and limits she takes her shape from her habits and inclinations her limits from her will and when she is set vpō her owne inclinations and will we saie she is hard that is willfull and obstinate I will take from you saieth God your heart of stone that is your obstinacie To chang the forme of stones Iron or woode the axe hammer and fire is required We call such hearts of Iron woode or stone as doe not easily receiue the diuine impressions but linger in their owne will amid'st the inclinations which doe accompanie our depraued nature contrariwise a suple pliable and tractiue heart is termed a melting and liquifying heart My heart saieth DAVID speaking in the person of our Sauiour vpon the crosse is made as melted waxe in the midst of my bellie CLEOPATRA that infamous Queene of Egipt striuing to outuie Marke ANTONIE in all the excesses and dissolutions of his banquets in the end of one of them she made in her turne called for a viall of fine vineger and dropt into it one of the pearles which she wore in her eares valued at two hūdred fiftie crownes which being dissolued melted and liquified she tooke it downe and had yet buried the pearle she bore in her other eare in the sinke of her villanous stomake if Lucius Plautus had not hindred her Our Sauiours heart the true Orientall pearle singularly singular and priselesse throwen into the midest of an incomparably bitter sea in the day of his passion melted in it selfe dissolued liquified and flowed in griefe vnder the presse of so many mortall anguishes but loue stronger then death did mollifie soften and melt the heart sooner then the other passions 2. My heart saied the holy Spoufe was wholy dissolued at my well-beloued his voice and what is it to saie it is dissolued but that it is not contained with in it selfe but is runne out toward it's heauenly Louer God gaue order to Moyses to speake to the ROCKE and it should produce water it is no maruell then if he himselfe with his honie words can melt the heart of his Spouse Balme is so thicke by nature that it is not flowing or liquide but the more it is kept the more stife it growes and in the end becomes hard redde and transparant yet heat doth resolue and make it flowe Loue had liquified and melted the Spouse his soule whence the Spouse cals him oile poured-out And behold how now her selfe assures vs she is melted with loue my
Now the eyes eares and mouth are the gates of the soule In fine the condition of its life is to be still indigent for if euer it be saciated it leaues to be ardent and consequently to be loue 2. True it is THEO that Plato spoke thus of the abiect vile and foule loue of worldlings yet are the same properties found in diuine and celestiall loue For turne your eyes a litle vpon those first Maisters of christian doctrine I meane those first Doctors of holy Euangelicall loue and marke what one of them who had laboured the most saied vntill this houre saieth he we doe both hunger and thrist and are naked and are beaten with buffets and are wanderers we are made the refuse of this world and as the drosse or skume as though he had saied we are so abiect that if the world be a Pallas we are held the sweepers thereof if the world be an aple we are the parings What I praie you had brought them to this state but Loue It was Loue that threwe S. FRANCIS naked before his Bishop and made him die naked vpon the ground It was Loue made him a begger all his life It was Loue that sent the great S. FRANCIS ZAVERIVS poore needie torne vp and downe amongst the Indians and Iaponians It was Loue that brought the great Cardinall S. CHARLES Archbishop of Milan to that extreamitie of pouertie amidst the riches which he had by the right of blood and his dignitie that as Maister Panigaroll the eloquent Orator of Italie saied he was as a dogge in his Maisters house eating a peece of bread drinking onely a little water and lying vpon a little strawe 3. Let vs heare I beseech you the holy Sunamite who cries almost in this manner although by reason of a thousand consolations which loue giues me I be more faire then the rich Tents of my Salomon I would saie more faire then heauen which is the lifelesse Pauillion of his royall Maiestie seeing I am his liuing Pauillion yet am I black torne squalled and spoiled with so many wounds and blows giuen me by the same Loue ah respect not my heu for I am truely browne because my beloued who is my Sunne hath streamed the raies of his loue vpon me raies which by their light doe illuminate yet by their heate I am sunn-burnt and made brownish and touching me with their splendour they haue berefte me of my colour The passion of loue hath done me too much honour in giuing me a Spouse such as is my King but the same passion which is a mother to me seeing she alone gaue me in mariage not my merits hath other children which doe wonderfully assault and vexe me bringing me to such a langour that as of one side I am like to a Queene who is beside her king so of the other side I am as a Vineyard-keeper who in a miserable cabinet lookes to a vine and a vine that is not his owne 4. Truely THEOT when the wounds and strokes of loue are frequent and strong they put vs into lāgour and into Lou's well-beloued sicknesse Who could euer describe the amourous langours of a S. Catharin of Sienna and Genua or a S. Angelo Folini a S. Bernard a S. Francis And as for the last his latter dayes were nothing but teares sighes plaints langours pinings Loue-traunces But in all this nothing so strange as the admirable communicatiō which the sweete IESVS had with him of his louing and precious paines by the impression of his wounds and Stigmats THEO I haue often pondered this wonder and haue made this conceipt of it This great Seruant of God a man wholy Seraphicall beholding the liuely picture of his crucified Sauiour represented in a glittering Seraphin which appeared vnto him vpon the Mount-Aluernus grewe softer then is imaginable taken with a soueraigne consolation and compassion For beholding this bright Myrrour of loue which the Angell could not saciate himselfe in beholding alas he sownded with delight and contentment but seeing also the liuely representation of the markes and woundes of his Sauiour crucified he felt in his soule the impetuous sworde which stroke through the sacred breast of the Virgin-Mother the day of the Passion with as much inward griefe as though she had bene crucified with her deare Sauiour O God THEO if the picture of Abraham fetching deaths blow ouer his deare onely-begotten to sacrifice him a picture drawen by a mortall hand had the power to soften and make weepe the Great S. GREGORIE Bishop of Nisse as often as he beheld it ah how extreamly was the Great S. FRANCIS softened when he beheld the picture of our Sauiour offering himselfe vpon the Crosse A picture which not a mortall hand but the Mistresse hand of a heauenly Seraphin had drawen and copied out of the originall it selfe representing so to the life and nature the heauenly king of Angels brused wounded murdered crucified 5. His soule then being thus mollified softened and almost melted away in this deare paine was therby greatly disposed to receiue the impressions and markes of the loue and paine of his soueraigne louer for his Memorie was wholy engaged in the remembrance of this Diuine Loue his imagination forcibly applied to represent vnto himselfe the wounds and wane blowes which his eyes then saw so perfectly well expressed in the present picture The Vnderstanding receiued from the Imagination infinitly liuelie Species And finally loue imploied all the forces of the will to take pleasure in and conforme her selfe to the Passion of her well-beloued whence without doubt the soule found herselfe trāsformed into a second Crucified Now the soule as the forme and Mistresse of the bodie exercising her authoritie vpon it printed the paines of the wounds with which she was strook in the partes correspondant to those wherein her Louer endured them Loue is admirable in edging the Imagination to penetrate to the exteriour Labans yewes while they were a ramming had so strong an imagination that it hit home vpon their Lambkins with which they were to make them become white or motley according to the rods they beheld in the troughs where they were watered And women with child hauing their Imagination refined by loue imprinte what they list vpon the child's bodie A strong Imagination makes a man waxe white on a night disturbing his health and humours Loue then droue out the inwarde torments of this great Louer S. Francis and wounded the bodie with the dart of sorrowe with which he had wounded the heart But loue being within could not well make the holes in the flesh without and therefore the burning Seraphin comming to helpe darted the raies of so penetrating a light that it really printed in the flesh the exteriour woundes of the Crucified which loue had imprinted interiourly in the soule So the Seraphin seeing Isaie not daring to speake because he perceiued his lips defiled came in the name of God to touch and purifie his lips with a burning
cole taken from vpon the Altar seconding in this sort his desire The Myrrhe-tree bringeth fourth her gumme and first liquor by way of sweate and transpiration but that she may be well deliuered of all her iuyce she must be helped by incision So the diuine loue of S. FRANCIS appeared in his whole life in manner of sweate for all his actions sauored nothing else but heauenly loue But to make the incomparable abundance of it plainely appeare the diuine Seraphin came to giue the incision and wounds And to th' end it might be knowen that these wounds were woundes of heauenly loue they were made not with iron but with raies of light ô deare God THEO how louing a paine aÌ„d how painefull a loue was this for not onely at that instant but eueÌ„ his whole life after this poore Saint went pining and languishing as being very sicke of loue 6. B. PHILIPE NERIVS at fourescore yeares of age had such an inflammation of heart through diuine loue that heate making way by the ribbs did greatly dilate them and broke the fourth and fift to receiue aire and be refreshed B. STANISLAVS BOSCA a young youth of fourteene yeares was so assaulted by the loue of his Sauiour that diuers times he fell downe in a sownd and was constrained to applie linnen dept in cold water to his breast to moderate the violencie of the burning which he felt To conclude THEOT how doe you thinke that a soule who hath once a little wishedly tasted diuine consolations can liue in this world so full of miseries without almost a continuall paine and languishing That great man of God S. ZAVERIVS hath often bene heard laÌ„ching out his voice to heaueÌ„ thinking him selfe all alone in these termes Ah my God doe not for pitie doe not beare me downe with so great abundance of consolations or if through thy infinitâ— goodnesse it will please thee to make me so abound in delights take me to Heauen for he that hath once tasted thy sweetenesse must necessarily liue in bitternesse while he doth not enioye thee And therefore when God hath somewhat largely bestowed his heauenly sweetes vpon a soule and after withdrawes them he wounds her by the priuation and she vpon it is left pining and sobbing which Dauid Alas the day when shall I see Thy sweete returne my heart shall free Out of her painefull panges And with the Apostle Vnhappie man that I am who will deliuer me out of the bodie of this mortalitie The end of the sixt Booke THE SEAVENTH BOOKE OF THE VNION OF THE SOVLE WITH HER GOD WHICH IS PERfected in Praier How loue vnits the soule to God in Praier CHAPTER I. I. WE speake not here of the generall vnion betwixt God and the soule but of certaine particular actes and motions which the soule recollected in God makes by way of Praier to be more and more vnited and ioyned to his diuine Goodnesse for in good-south there is difference betwixt ioyning and vniting one thing to another and thrusting or pressing one thing against or vpon another because to ioyne or vnite it is onely required that the one be applied to th' other so that they touch and be together as we ioyne vines to Elmes and Iasmins to the crosse-barrs of Arbors which are made in gardens But to thrust and presse together a strong application must be made which doth encrease and augment the vnion so that to thrust together is to ioyne strongly and closely as we see Iuie ioyned to trees which is not vnited onely but pressed so hard vnto them that it euen penetrats and enters into their barke 2. The comparison of little childrens loue towards their mother must not be left out by reason of its innocencie and puritie Behold then this fine little child to whom the mother being set downe presents her Pape it casts it selfe sodenly into her armes gathering and foulding all its little bodie into her bosome and louely breast and see the mother as mutually receiuing it close and as it were glewe it to her bosome and ioyning her mouth to it 's kisse it But see againe this little babie allured with it's mothers huggings how for it's part it doth concurre to this vnion betwixt his mother and it For it doth also as much as possibly it can shut and presse it selfe to it's mothers breast and cheeke as though it would wholy diue into and hide it selfe in this delightfull wombe whence it was extracted Now THEO in this case the vnion is perfect which being but one proceedes notwithstanding from the mother and the child yet so that it hath it's whole depâ—ndance of the mother for she drewe the child to her she did first locke him in her tresses pressed him to her breast nor had the babe such force as to betake and locke himselfe so hard to his mother yet the poore little on doth for his part what he can and ioynes himselfe with all his force to his mothers bosome not consenting onely to the delightfull vnion which his mother makes but contributing with all his heart his feeble endeauours which are so weake that they seeme rather to be essaies of an vnion then an vnion it selfe 3. Thus theÌ„ THEO our Sauiour shewing the most delightfull bosome of diuine loue to the deuote soule he drawes her wholy to himselfe gathers her vp and doth as it were fould all her powers in the bosome of his more theÌ„ motherly sweetenesse and then burning with loue he thrusteth ioyneth presseth and glueth her to the lips of his delightes and to his delicious breastes kissing her in the holy kisse of his mouth and making her taste his dugges more sweete theÌ„ wine The soule allured with the delightes of these fauours doth not onely consent and prepare her selfe to the vnion which God maketh but in the strife of her heart doth cooperate endeauouring more and more to ioyne and locke her selfe to the Diuine Goodnesse yet in such sort that she doth ingeniously acknowledge that her vnion and tye to this soueraigne sweetenesse is wholy dependant of Gods operation without which she could not so much as make the least essaie imaginable to be vnited vnto him 4. When wee see an exquisite beautie beholden with great ardour or an excellent melodie heard with great attention we are wount to saie such a beautie holds the Spectators eyes glued vnto it such a melodie holds their eares fastened and that such discourse doth rauish the Auditours hearts what is it to hold the eyes glued the eares fastened to rauish the heart but to vnite and closely to ioyne the senses and powers whereof one speakes to their obiectes And the soule is pressed and ioyned to her obiect when she doth intensely affect it that pressing being no other thing then the progresse and aduancement of the vnion and coniunction We make vse of this word in our tongue in morrall matters He presseth me to doe this or he presseth me to staie that is he doth not meerely vse
euen as the flame began to sease hpon her the Eagle came in with a quicke flight and beholding this vnlooked for and sad spectackle strooke through with griefe she loosed her talons let fall her prey and spred herselfe vpon her poore beloued Mistresse and couering her with her wings as it were to defend her from the fire or for pities sake to embrace her she remained there constant and immoueable couragiously dying and burning with her the ardour of her affection not giuing place to the ardour of flames and fire that by that meanes she might become the VICTIME ād HOLOCAVSTE of her braue and prodigious loue as her Mistresse was already of death and fire 3. O THEO to what a high flight this Eagle moues vs our Sauiour hath bred vs vp from our tender youth yea he formed vs and receiued vs as a louing Nource into the armes of his Diuine Prouidence euen from the time of our Conception Not beeing yet thy holy hand did make me Scarce borne into thy armes thy loue did take me He made vs his owne by Baptisme and by an incomprehensible loue doth tenderly nourish both our bodie and soule to purchace vs life he suffered death and with his owne flesh and blood hath fed vs Ah what rests then my deare THEO what Conclusion are we to draw from hence but onely that such as liue should liue no more to them selues but to him that died for them that is to saie that we should consecrate all the moments of our life to the Diuine Loue of our Sauiours death bringing home to his glorie all our preys all our conquests all our actions all our thoughts and affections Let vs behold THEO this heauenly Redeemour extended vpon the Crosse as vpon a funerall Pile of honour where he died of Loue for vs yea of loue more painefull then death it selfe or a death more pleasant then loue it selfe Ah doe we not spiritually cast our selues vpon him to die vpon the Crosse with him who for the loue of vs freely died I will hold him should we saie if we had the Eagles generositie and will neuer depart from him I will die with him and burne in the flames of his loue one and the same fire shall consume the Diuine Creatour and the miserable creature My IESVS is wholy myne and I am wholy his I will liue and die vpon his breast nor life nor death shall euer separate me from him Thus is the holy Extasie of true loue practised while we liue not according to humane reason and bent but aboue them following the inspiration and instinct of the heauenly Sauiour of our soules Of the supreame effect of affectiue loue which is the death of Louers and first of such as died in loue CHAPTER IX 1. LOue is strong as death death doth seperate the soule of him that dies from the bodie and from all earthly things Sacred loue doth seperate the Louers soule from the bodie and all earthly things nor is there any other difference sauing that death doth that in effect which loue ordinarily doe onely in affection I saie ordinarily THEO because holy loue is sometimes so violent that euen in effect it causeth a separation betwixt the bodie and the soule making the Louers die a most happie death much better then a thousand liues 2. As it is proper to the Reprobate to die in sinne so is it proper to the Elect to die in the Loue and Grace of God yet in a different manner The iust man neuer dies vnprouided for to haue perseuered in Christian Iustice euen to the end was a good prouision for death He dies indeede sometimes sodainely or a sodaine death For this cause the most wise Church in her Litanies doth teach vs not onely to demand to be deliuered frō sodaine death but sodaine ād vnprouided death It is no worse for being sodaine if it be not withall vnprouided If some weake and common soules had seene fire frō Heauen fall vpon the great S. SIMEON Stilits head and kill him what would they haue thought but thoughts of scandall yet are we to make no other conceit of the matter then that this great Saint hauing perfectly sacrificed himselfe to God in his heart already wholy consumed with loue the fire came from Heauen to perfect the Holocauste and entirely burne it for the Abbot Iulian being a dayes iorney off saw his soule ascend to Heauen and thervpon caused incense to be offered in thankesgiuing to God The Blessed man Good Cremonius on a certaine day set vpon his knees most deuotly to heare Masse rose not at the Ghospell according to custome whēce those that were about him looked vpon him and perceiued he was dead There haue bene in our time most famous men for vertue and learning found dead some in the confession seat others while they heard the Sermon yea some haue bene seene falling downe dead at their going out of the Pulpet where they had preached with great feruour and all these deaths were sodaine yet not vnprouided And how many Good people doe we see die of Apoplexies Lethargies and a thousand other wayes very sodainely others of madnesse and frensie without the vse of reason and all these together with children who are baptised died in Grace and consequently in the Loue of God But how could they die in the Loue of God since they thought not of God at the time of their departure 3. Learned men THEO loose not their knowledge while they are a sleepe for so they would be vnlearned at their awaking and be forced to returne to schoole The like it is of all the habits of Prudence Temperance Faith Hope and Charitie They are continually in the iust mans heart though they be not alwayes in action While a man sleeps it seemes that all his habits sleepe with him and when he awakes awake with him So a iust man dying sodainely or oppressed by a house falling vpon him kill'd by Thunder or stifled with a catarre or else dying out of his senses by the violence of a hote Ague dies not indeede in the exercise of holy Loue yet dies he in the habit thereof wher-vpon the wise-man saieth if the iust-man be preuented by death he shall be in a place of refreshing for it sufficeth to obtaine eternall life to die in the state and habit of loue and Charitie 4. Yet many Saints haue departed this life not onely in Charitie and with the habite of heauenly loue but euen in the act and practise thereof S. AVGVSTINE deceased in the exercise of holy contrition which cannot be without Loue. S. HIEROM in exhorting his deare children to the loue of God their neighbours and vertue S. AMBROSE in a Rapture sweetely discoursing with his Sauiour immediatly after he had receiued the holy Sacrament of the Altar S. ANTONIE of Padua after he had recited a hymne of the glorious virgin-mother and while he spoke with great ioye to our Sauiour S. THOMAS of Aquine ioyning his
to Egipt ād from Egipt to Iudea Ah who can then doubt but this holy Father being come to the period of his dayes was reciprocally borne by his diuine Nurse-child in his passage from this to another life into Abrahams bosome to translate him from thence to Glorie in the daie of his Ascension A Saint that had loued so much in his life could not die but of loue for his heart not being able to loue his deare IESVS so much as he desired while he continued amongst th◠distractions of this life and hauing alreadie performed the dutie which he ought to his non-age what remained but that he should saie to the Eternall Father O Father I haue accomplished my charge and then to the Sonne ◠my child as thy heauenly Father put thy tender bodie into my hands the daie of thy cōming into this world so doe I render vp my soule 〈◊〉 thyne this daie of my departure out of this world 2. Such as I conceiue was the death of this great Patriarch a man elected to performe the most deare and louing offices that euer was or shall be performed to the Sōne of God saue those that were done by the Sacred Spouse the true naturall mother of the saied sonne of whom it is not possible to make a conceit that she died of any other kind of death then of loue A death the most noble of all and consequently due to the most noble life that euer was amongst creaturs A death whereof the very Angels would desire to die if die they could If the primatiue Christians were saied to haue but one heart and one soule by reason of their perfect mutuall loue If S. Paule liued not himselfe but IESVS CHRIST liued in him by reason of the close vnion of his heart to his Maisters wherby his soule was as dead in the heart which it quickened to liue in the heart of the Sauiour which it loued O Good God how much more true it is that the Sacred Virgin and her Sonne had but one soule one heart and one life so that this heauēly mother in liuing liued not but her sonne liued in her She was a mother the most louing and the most beloued that euer could be yea louing and beloued with a loue incomparably more eminent then that of all the Orders of Angels and men like as the names of an onely Mother and an onely Sonne are names passing all other names in matter of loue and I saie of an onely mother and an onely Sonne because all the other sonne◠of men doe diuide the acknowledgment of their production betwixt their Father and mother but in this sonne as all his humane birth depēds of his mother alone who alone contributed that which was requisite to the vertue of the holy Ghost for the cōception of this heauenly child so to her alone all the loue which sprung from that production was rendred as due In such sort that this Sonne and this mother were vnited in an vnion by so much more excellent as her name in loue is different and aboue all other names for which of the Seraphins can saie to our Sauiour thou art my true Sonne and as such I loue thee And to which of his creaturs did our Sauiour euer saie Thou art my true mother and as my true mother I loue thee Thou art my true mother entirely myne and I am thy true sonne wholy thyne And if a louing seruant durst and did indeede saie that he had no other life then his Maisters Alas how confidently and feruently might this mother proclame I haue no life but the life of my Sonne my life is wholy in his and his wholy in myne for there was not a meere vnion but an vnitie of hearts betwixt this mother and this sonne 3. And if this mother liued by her Sonns life she also died of her Sonns death for such as is the life such is the death The Phenix as the report goes growen very aged gathers together in the top of a mountaine a quantitie of aromaticall woods vpon which as vpon he bed of honour she goes to end her dayes for when the Sunne being at his highest doth streame out his hotest beames this most singular bird to contribute the aduantage of action to the Sunns ardour ceaseth not to beate with her wings vpon her bed till she haue made it take fire and burning with it she consumes and dies in those odoriferous flames In like manner THEO the virgin Marie hauing assembled in her heart all the most amiable Mysteries of the life and death of her sonne by a most liuely and continuall memorie of them and withall RECTA LINEA receiuing the most ardent inspirations which her Sonne the Sonne of Iustice darted vpon mortalls euen in the heate of his charitie And further of her part making a perpetuall motion of Contemplation in the end the sacred fire of this heauenly loue did wholy consume her as an Holocaust of sweetenesse so that she died of it her soule being altogether rauished and transported into the armes of her Sonns loue O death louingly vitall ô Loue vitally mortall 4. Many sacred Louers were present at our Sauiours death amongst whom such as did most loue did also most greeue for Loue was then sleeped in griefe and griefe in Loue and all such as were feruent in loue towards their Sauiour fell in loue with his passion and paine But the sweete mother who passed all in loue receiued a deeper wound from the sword of griefe then all the rest Her Sonns paine was then a sharp sword which rāne through his mothers heart it being glewed ioyned ād vnited to her sonns in so perfect an vnion that nothing could hurt the one which did not as deeply hurt the other Now this motherly heart being in this sort wounded with loue did not onely not seeke to haue her wound cured but euen loued her wound better then all cures dearely conseruing the darts of sorrow which she had receiued in her heart because it was loue that shot them at her and continually desiring to die of thē as her sonne died thereof who as the holy Scripturs and all the Doctours doe witenesse died amidst the flames of Charitie a perfect HOLOCAVST for all the sinnes of the world That the Glorious virgin died of an extreamely sweete and calme loue CHAPTER XIV 1. OF one side it is saied that our B. Ladie reuealed to S. Mathilda that the sickenesse whereof she died was no other thing then an impetuous assault of loue Yet S. Brigit and S. Iohn Damascen doe witnesse that she died an exceeding peaceable death and both are true THEOTIME 2. The starres are wonderfull delightfull to behold and cast out pleasing shines yet if you haue noted it they bring forth their rayes by way of gatterings sparklings and dartings as though they were deliuered of their light by trauell at diuers essayes whether it be that their weake light cannot keepe a continuall equalitie of action or
this kind of fauour one could desire no more and as the sunne-beames remaine Sunnne-beames notwithstanding that they are reiected and repulsed by some obstacle so God's signified will remaines the true will of God though it be resisted true it is it hath not the effects which it would haue being seconded 4. The conformitie then of our heart to the signified will of God consisteth in this that we should will that which the diuine goodnesse doth signifie vnto vs to be his intention beleeuing according to his doctrine hoping according to his promises fearing according to his threats louing and liuing according to his ordinances and aduertissements to which all the protestations which we make thereof in the holy Ceremonies of the Church doe tend Hence we stand while the Gospell is red as being readie to obay the holy signification of Gods will contained therein Hence we kisse the booke at the Gospell side in adoration of the sacred word which doth declare his heauenly will Hence many Saints meÌ„ and women carried in the old time in their bosoms the Gospell written as an Ephitheme of Loue as it is reported of S. CICILE And indeede S. MATHEWES Gospell was found vpon S. BARNABIES breast written with his owne hand Wherevpon in the auncient Councells in the midst of the assemblie of Bishops they erected a Throne and put vpon it the Booke of the holy Gospells which represented the person of our Sauiour king Doctour Directour Spirit of all the Councells and of the whole Church so much did they reuerence the signification of Gods will expressed in this holy booke Certes that great Myrrour of Pastours S. CHARLES Archbishop of Milau neuer studied the holy Scripture but bare head and vpon his knees to testifie with what respect we are to reade and heare the signified will of God Of the Conformitie of our will to the will which God hath to saue vs. CHAPTER IV. 1. GOd hath signified vnto vs so diuersly and by so diuerse meanes that his will was that we should all be saued that none can be ignorant of it to this purpose he made vs to his owne Image by Creation and himselfe to our Image and likenesse by his Incarnation after which he suffered death to ransome and saue all mankind which he performed with so much loue that as the great S. DENIS Apostle of France racounteth he saied vpon a day to the holy man Carpus that he was ready to suffer an other passion to saue maÌ„kind and that this would be pleasant vnto him if it could be done without any mans offence 2. And although all are not saued yet is this will the truâ— will of God who doth worke in vs according to the condition of our and his nature For his Bountie moues him liberally to communicate â—nto â—â— the succours of his grace to bring vs to the felicitie of his glorie but our nature reqâ—â—â— that his liberalitie should leaue vs in libertie to make vse of it to our saluation or to neglect it to oâ—r damnation 3. I haue demanded one thing saied the Prophet and it is that which I will demand for euer that I may see the delightes of our Lord and visite his temple But what are the delightes of the soueraigne Goodnesse but to poure out and communicate its perfections Verily his delightes are to be with the children of men to showre his grace vpon them Nothing is so agreeable and delightfull to free Agents as to doe their owne will Our Sanctification is the will of God and our Saluation his good pleasure nor is there any difference at all betwixt good pleasure and Good liking or consequently betwixt good-liking and goodwill yea the will which God hath to aduantage man is called good because it is amiable propitious fauorable agreeable delicious and as the Grecians after S. PAVLE saied it is a true PHILANTROPIE that is a beneuolence or a will entirely affectionate to men 4. All the celestiall Temple of the TriumphaÌ„t and Militant Church doth resound on euery side the delicious Canticles of God's loue towards vs. And the Sacred bodie of our Sauiour as the most holy Temple of his Diuinitie is wholy adorned with markes and tokens of this Beneuolence so that in visiting the Diuine Temple we behold the louely delightes which he takes to doe vs fauours 5. Let vs then a thousand times a day behold this louing will of God aÌ„d grounding ours therein let 's deuotely crie-out O Bountie infinitly sweete how amiable is thy will How desirable thy fauours Thou created vs for an eternall life and thy motherly breast swolen in the sacred dugges of an incomparable loue abounds in the milke of mercy whether it be to pardon sinners or perfect the Iust Ah why doe not we then glew our wills to thyne as a child is locked to the nible of his mothers dugge to lucke the milke of thy eternall benedictions 6. THâ—O we are to will our Saluation in such sort as God will's it and he wills it by way of desire must not we then following his desire incessantly desire it Nor doth he will it onely but in effect enables vs with all necessarie meanes to attaine it we then in sequele of the desire we haue to be saued must not onely desire but in effect accept all the graces which he hath prouided for vs and presents vnto vs. It is sufficient to saie I desire to be saued yet it is not sufficient to saie I desire to embrace the meanes conuenient to the attaining of saluation but we must with an absolute resolution desire and embrace the grace which God bestowes vpon vs for our will must necessarily correspoÌ„de to God's And whereas Gods will giues vs the meanes to saue our selues we ought to receiue them as we ought to desire saluation in such sort as God desires it and vs. 7. But it fals often out that the meanes to come to Saluation considered in grosse and in generall are according to our hearts liking but considered by peecemeale and in particular they are dreadfull to vs for haue we not seene the poore S. Peter prepared to vndergoe all kind of torments in generall yea death it selfe to follow his Maister and yet when it came to the deede doing and performance waxe pale tremble and at the word of a simple maide denie his Maister Euery one deemes himselfe able to drinke our Sauiours CHALICE with him but when indeede it is presented vnto vs we flie and forsake all Things proposed in particular make a more strong impressioÌ„ and more sensibly wound in the Imagination And for this reason we gaue aduice in the INTRODVCTION that after generall affections one should descend to particular ones in holy Meditation Dauid accepted particular afflictions as an aduancement to his perfection when he sunge in this wise O Lord how good it is for me that thou hast humbled me that I might learne thy iustifications So also did the Apostles reioyce in their tribulations in that they
were held worthy to endure ignominie for their Sauiours name Of the conformitie of our will to Gods will signified in his Commandements CHAPTER V. 1. THe desire which God hath to make vs obserue his Commandements is extreame as the whole Scripture doth witnesse and how could he better expresse it then by the great reward which he proposeth to the obseruers of his law together with the wonderfull punishments which he doth minace to such as shall violate the same This made Dauid crye out ô Lord thou hast very much commanded thy Commandements to be kept 2. Now LOVE OF COMPLACENCE beholding this Diuine desire desires to please God in obseruing it The LOVE OF BENEVOLENCE which submits all to God doth also submit our desires and wills to this which God hath signified vnto vs whence doth spring not onely the obseruance but euen the Loue of the Commandements which Dauid doth extoll in the 118. Psalm in an extraordinarie straine which he seemes onely to haue done vpon this occasion O how thy holy law to me is deare It dayly theames my pen and thoughts doth hold And how ô Lord thy Testimonies beare Away my heart as Topase set in gold If honie be compared to thy sweete WORD Honie turn's gale and doth no sweetes afford But to stirre vp in vs the Loue of the Commandements we must coÌ„template their admirable beautie For as there are workes which are bad because they are prohibited and others prohibited because they are bad so there are some that are good because they are commanded and orthers are commanded because they are Good and most profitable so that all of them are exceeding good and amiable the commandement enriching with goodnesse such as were not otherwise good and giuing an excesse of goodnesse to such as in themselues were good without being commanded We doe not receiue euen that which is good in good part being presented by an enemies hand The Lacedemonians would not follow a solide and wholsome aduise comming from a wicked person till it were aduised them againe by a good man Contrariwise a friends present is alwayes gratefull The sweetest Commandements become bitter when they are imposed by a tyrannicall and cruell heart which turnes againe to be most amiable being ordained by Loue. Iacobs seruice seemed a Royaltie vnto him because it proceeded from Loue. O how sweete and how much to be desired is the yoake of the heauenly Law established by so amiable a king 3. Diuers keepe the commandements as sicke men take downe potions more through feare to die damned then pleasure to liue according to our Sauiours liking But as some persons haue an aduersion from phisike be it neuer so agreeable onely because it beares the name of phisike so there are some soules that abhorre things commanded onely because they are commanded And there was a certaine man found who hauing liued in the great towne of Paris for the space of fourescore yeares without euer going out of it as soone as it was enioyned him by the king that he should remaine there the rest of his dayes he went abrode to see the feilds which in his whole life time before he neuer desired 4. On the other side the louing heart Loues the commandements and by how much more hard they are by so much they are more agreeable because they doe more perfectly please the Beloued and are more honorable vnto him It sends out and sings hymnes of ioye when God doth teach it his Commandements and iustifications And as the Pilgrime who merrily sings on his way add's the paine of singing to that of going aÌ„d yet doth indeede by this surplus of paine vnwearie himselfe and lighten the difficultie of the way Euen so the sacred Louer finds such content in the Commandements that nothing doth so much ease and refresh him as the gracious loade of Gods Commandements wherevpon the holy Psalmist cryes out O Lord thy iustifications or Commandements are delicious songs to me in this place of my pilgrimage They saie that Mules and horses being loaden with figges doe presently fall vnder their burthen and loose their strength More sweete theÌ„ the figge is the law of our Lord but brutall maÌ„ who is become as a horse or Mule without vnderstanding looseth courage and finds not strength to beare this amiable burthen But as a branch of AGNVS CASâ—VS doth keepe the Traueller that beares it about him from being wearie so the Crosse Mortification the yoake the Law of our Sauiour who is the true CHAST LAMBE is a burthen which doth vnwearie refresh and recreate the hearts that Loue his diuine Maiestie There is no paine in the thing beloued or if there be any it is a beloued paine Paine mixed with loue hath a certaine tart-sweetenesse more pleasant to the pallate then a thing purely sweete 5. Thus then doth heaueÌ„ly Loue conforme vs to the will of God and makes vs carefully obserue his commandements as being the absolute desire of his diuine Maiestie whom we desire to please So that this complacence with its sweete and amiable violence doth forerunne the necessitie of obaying that which the law doth impose vpon vs conuerting the necessitie into dilection and the whole difficultie into delight Of the conformitie of our will to Gods signified vnto vs by his Counsells CHAPTER VI. 1. A Commandement doth argue a most entire and absolute will in him that giues it But Counsell doth onely signifie a WILL OF DESIRE A Commandement doth oblige vs Counsell onely incits vs A Commandement makes the Transgressours thereof culpable Counsell makes onely such as follow it not lesse laudable Those that violate Commandements deserue Damnation those that neglect Counsells deserue onely to be-lesse glorified There is a difference betwixt commanding and commending vnto ones care in coÌ„manding we vse authoritie to oblige but in commending vnto ones care we vse curtisie to egge and incite A Commandement doth impose necessitie Counsell and recommendation incits vs to that which is more profitable Obedience corresponds to Commandements beliefe to Counsells We follow Counsell with intention to please and Commandements least we might displease And thence it is that the LOVE OF COMPLACâ—NCE which doth oblige vs to please the beloued doth by consequence vrge vs to follow his Counsells and the LOVE OF BENEVOLENCE which desires that all wills and affections should be subiected vnto him procurs that we doe not onely will that which he ordaines but also that which he counsells and to which he doth exhort like as the Loue and respect which a good child beares vnto his Father makes him resolue to liue not onely according to the Commandements which he doth impose but euen according to the desires and inclinations which he doth manifest 2. Counsell is giuen in fauour of him to whom it is giuen to th' end he might become perfect If thou wilt be perfect saied our Sauiour goe sell all that thou hast giue it to the poore and follow me 3. But a louing heart doth not
and fantomes of pleasurs for which we cast off the loue of the heauenly Spouse And how can we then truely saie that we loue him since we preferre so friuolous vanities before his grace 5. Is it not a deplorable wonder to see a DAVID so noble in surmounting hatred so generous in pardoning iniuries and yet so impotently iniurious in mater of Loue that not being satiated with the vniust detaining of a number of wiues he must needes yet wrongfully vsurpe and take away by rape the poore Vrias his wife Yea and by an insupportable treacherie put to slaughter her poore husband that he might the better enioye the Loue of his wife Who would not admire the heart of a SAINT PETER which was so brauely bold amidst the armed soldiers that he of all his Maisters troupe was the first and onely man that drew and layed about him and yet a little after so cowardly amongst vnarmed women that at the worde of a wench he denied and detested his Maister And how can it seeme so strange to vs that Rachel could sell the chast embracements of her Iacob for Aples of the Mandragore since that Adame and Eue forsooke euen grace for an Aple and that too presented by a Serpent 6. In fine I will tell you a word worthy of note Heretikes are Heretikes aÌ„d beare the name of such because of the Articles of Faith they choose at their gust and pleasure what likes them best and those they beleeue reiecting and disauowing the others And Catholiks are Catholiks because without choice or election at all they embrace with an equall assurance and without reserue all the faith of the Church Now it happens after the same manner in the Articles of Charitie It is an herasie in sacred loue to make choice of Gods Commandements which to obserue and which to violate He that saied thou shalt not kill saied also thou shalt not commite adulterie It is not then for the loue of God that thou killest not but it is some other motiue that makes thee rather choose this commandement then the other A choice that hatcheth heresie in matter of Charitie If one should tell me that he would not cut my arme out of a loue to me and yet would pull out myne eyes breake my head or ruÌ„ne me quite through ah should I saie with what face can you tell me that it is in respect of my Loue that you wound not myne arme since you make no difficultie to pull out myne eyes which are no lesse deare vnto me yet since you ruÌ„ne me quite through the bodie with your sword which is more perilous for me It is an Axiome that good comes from an entire cause but euill from each defect That the act of Charitie be perfect it must proceede from an entire generall and vniuersall Loue which is extended to all the Diuine Commandements And if we faile in any one CommandemeÌ„t loue ceaseth to be entire and vniuersall and the heart wherein it harbers cannot be truely called a louing heart nor consequently a truly good one That we are to Loue the Diuine Goodnesse soueraignely more then our selues CHAPTER X. 1. Aristotle had reason to saie that GOOD is indeede amiable but principaly euery ones proper good to himselfe so that the Loue which we haue to others proceedes from the loue of our selues for how could a Philosopher saie otherwise who did not onely not Loue God but hardly euen euer spoke of the Loue of God howbeit the Loue of God doth preceede all the Loue of our selues yea euen according to the naturall inclination of the will as I declared in the first booke 2. Certes the will is so dedicated and if we may so saie consecrated to goodnesse that if an infinite goodnesse were clearely proposed vnto it vnlesse by miracle it is impossible that it should not soueraignely loue it yea the Blessed are rauished and necessitated though yet not forced to loue God whose soueraigne beautie they clearely see which the Scripture doth sufficiently shew in coÌ„paring the contentment which doth fill the hearts of the happie inhabitants of the heauenly Hierusalem to a torrent or impetuous floode whose waters cannot be kept from spreeding ouer the neighbour plaines 3. But in this mortall life THEO we are not necessitated to loue soueraignly because we see him not so clearely In Heauen where we shall see him face to face we shall loue him heart to heart that is wheÌ„ we shall all see the infinitie of his beautie euery one in his measure with a soueraignely cleare sight so shall we be rauished with the loue of his infir it goodnesse in a soueraignely strong rauishment to which we neither would if we could nor can if we would make any resistance But here belowe when we behold not this Soueraigne Bountie aÌ„d Beautie but onely enter view it in our obscurities we are indeede inclined and allured yet not necessitated to Loue more then our selues but rather the contrarie and albeit we haue a holy naturall inclination to loue the Diuinitie aboue all things yet haue we not the strength to put it in execution vnlesse the same Diuinitie infuse holy charitie supernaturally into our heart's 4. Yet true it is that as the cleare view of the Diuinitie doth infallibly beget in vs a necessitie of louing it more then our selues so the enterview that is the naturall knowledge of the Diuinitie doth produce infallibly an inclination and pronenesse to loue it more theÌ„ our selues for I praie you THEOT since the will is wholy addicted to the loue of GOOD how can it in any degree know a soueraigne GOOD without being more or lesse inclined to loue it soueraignely Now of all the Good 's which are not infinite our WILL willeth alwayes in her affection that which is nighest to her but aboue all her owne But there is so little proportion betwixt an infinite and finite GOOD that our will hauing knowledge oâ— an infinite GOOD is without doubt put in motion inclined and incited to prefere the friendshipe of the Abisse of this infinite goodnesse before all other loue yea euen the loue of our selues 5. But principally this inclination is strong because we are more in God then in our selues we liue more in him then in our selues and are in such sort from him by him for him and to him that we cannot in very deede hit of what we are to him and he is to vs but we are forced to crie out I am thyne Lord and am to belong to none but to thee my soule is thyne and ought not to liue but by thee my will is thyne and ought not to loue but for thee my Loue is thyne and is onely to tend to thee I am to loue thee as my first PRINCIPLE sith I haue my beeing from thee I am to loue thee as myne end and Center since I am for thee I am to loue thee more then myne owne being seeing eueÌ„ my Bâ—EING doth sublist by thee I am to loue
adhered and ioyned himselfe so neerely indissolubly and infinitly to our nature that neuer was any thing so straightly ioyned and pressed to the humanitie as is now the most sacred Diuinitie in the person of the Sonno of God 4. he ranne wholy into vs and as it were dissolued his greatnesse to bring it downe to the forme and figure of our littlenesse whence he is instyled a Source of liuing water dewe and rayne of Heauen 5. He was in extasie not onely in that as S. DENIS saieth by the excesse of his louing goodnesse he became in a certaine manner out of himselfe extending his prouidence to all things and beeing in all things but also in that as S. Paule saieth he did in a sort forsake and emptie himselfe drayned his greatnesse and glorie deposed himselfe of the Throne of his incomprehensible Maiestie and if it be lawfull so to saie annihilated himselfe to stoope downe to our humanitie to fill vs with his Diuinitie to replenish vs with his goodnesse to rayse vs to his dignitie and bestow vpon vs the Diuine beeing of the children of God And he of whom it is so frequent written I LIVE SAIED OVR LORD pleased afterwards according to his Apostles language to saie I liue now not I but man liues in me man is my life and to die for man is my gaines my life is hidden with man in God He that did inhabit in himselfe lodgeth now in vs and he that was liuing froÌ„ all eternitie in the bosome of his eternall Father becomes mortall in the bosome of his temporall mother He that liued eternally by his owne Diuine life liued temporally a humane life And he that from eternitie had bene onely God shall be for all eternitie man too so did the loue of man rauish God and draw him into an Extasie 6. Sixtly how ofteÌ„ by loue did he admire as he did the Centurion and the Cananee 7. he beheld the young man who had till that houre keept the Commandements and desired to be taught perfection 8. he tooke a louing repose in vs yea euen with some suspension of his senses in his mothers wombe and in his infancie 9. he was wonderfull tender towards little children which he would take in his armes and louingly dandle a sleepe towards MARTHA and MAGDALEN towards Lazarus ouer whom he wept as also ouer the Citie of Hierusalem 10. he was animated with an incoÌ„parable Zeale which as S. DENIS saieth turned into iealousie turning away so farre as he could all euill from his beloued humane nature with hazard yea with the price of his blood driuing away the Deuil the Prince of this world who seemed to be his Corriuall and Competitor 7. He had a thousand thousand languors of Loue for from whence could those Diuine words proceede I haue to be baptised with a baptisme and how am I straitened vntill it be dispatched The houre in which he was baptised in his bloode was not yet come and he languished after it the loue which he bore vnto vs vrging him therevnto that he might by his death see vs deliuerâ—d from an eternall death He was also sad and sweate blood of distresse in the garden of Oliuet not onely by reason of the exceeding griefe which his soule felt in the inferiour part of reason but also through the singular loue which he bore vnto vs in the superiour portioÌ„ thereof sorrow begetting in him a horrour of death yet loue an extreame desire of the same so that there was a hote combat and a cruell agonie betwixt desire and horrour of death vnto the shedding of much blood which streamed downe vpon the earth as from a liuing source 8. Finally THEO this Diuine Louer died amongst the flames and ardours of Loue by reason of the infinite charitie which he had towards vs and by the force and vertue of Loue that is he died in Loue by Loue for Loue and of Loue for though his cruell torments were sufficient to haue kild any bodie yet could death neuer make a breach in his life who keepes the keyes of life and death vnlesse Diuine Loue which hath the handling of those keyes had opened the Port to death to let it sacke that Diuine bodie and dispoyle it of life Loue not being content to haue made him mortall onely vnlesse it had made him die withall It was by choice not by force of torment that he died No man doth take my life from me saieth he but I yeeld it of my selfe and I haue power to yeeld it and I haue power to take it againe He was offered saieth Isaie because he himselfe would and therefore it is not saied that his Spirit went away forsooke him or separated it selfe froÌ„ him but coÌ„trariwise that he gaue vp his Spirit expired rendred vp the Ghost yeelded his Spirit vp into the hands of the eternall Father so that S. ATHANASIVS remarketh that he stooped downe with head to die to the end he might consent and bend towards deaths approch which otherwise durst not haue come neere him and crying out with a lowde voice he gaue vp his Spirit into his Fathers hands to shew that as he had strength and breath enough not to die so had he so much Loue that he could no longer liue but would by his death reuiue those which without it could neuer eschew death nor pretend for true life Wherefore our Sauiours death was a true sacrifice and a sacrifice of Holocaust which himselfe offered to our Sauiour to be our Redemption for though the paines and dolours of his Passion were so great and violent that any but he had died of them yet had he neuer died of them vnlesse he himselfe had pleased and vnlesse the fire of his infinite Charitie had consumed his life He was then the Priest himselfe who offered vp himselfe vnto his Father and sacrificed himselfe in Loue to Loue by Loue for Loue from Loue. 9. Yet beware of saying THEOTIME that this death of Loue in our Sauiour passed by way of rauishment for the obiect which his Charitie had to moue him to die was not so amiable that it could force this heauenly soule therto which therefore departed the bodie by way of extasie driuen on and forced forwards by the abundance and force of Loue euen as the Myrrhetree is seene to send foorth her first iuyce by her onely abundance without being strayned or pressed according to that which he himselfe saied as we haue noted No man taketh my life away from me but I yeelded it of my selfe O God THEO what burning coles are cast vpon our hearts to inflame vs to the exercise of holy loue towards our best Sauiour seeing he hath so louingly practised them towards vs who are his worst seruants The Charitie then of IESVS-CHRIST doth presse vs. The end of the Tenth Booke THE ELEAVENTH BOOKE OF THE SOVERAIGNE authoritie which sacred loue holds ouer all the vertues actions and perfections of the soule How much all the vertues are aggreeable
the perfections which she meetes withall as it finds greater perfections it doth great lier perfect them like as suggar doth so season conserued fruits with its sweetnesse that sweetening them all it leaues euery of them different in relish and sweetenesse as they haue a diuers taste in their owne nature Nor doth it euer render the Peech and the Nut so sweete and pleasing as the Appricot and the Myrabolan plumme 5. True it is notwithstanding that if the Loue be ardent powerfull and excellent in a heart it will also more enrich and perfect all the vertuous workes which shall proceede from it One may suffer death and fire for God without Charitie as S. PAVLE presupposeth and I declare elswhere by better reason may one suffer them hauing a little charitie Now I saie THEO that it may come to passe â—hat a very little vertue may be of greater value in a soule where sacred Loue doth feruently raigne then Martyrdome it selfe in a soule where Loue is languishing feeble and slow As the least vertues in our B. Lady in S. IOHN in other great Saints were of greater price before God then the greatest of diuers inferiour Saints as many little eiaculations of Loue in Seraphins are more inflamed then the greatest in the Angels of the last orders as the singing of a young Nightingale is incomparably more harmonious then that of the finest Goldfinch 6. PIRCIVS towards the end of his dayes painted onely in little formes and trifeling things as Barbar's and Cobler's shops little Asses loaden with grasse and the like triuiall toyes which he did as PLINIE coniectures to lay his great renowne whence in the end he was called the Painter of small wares and yet the greatnesse of his art did so appeare in his small workes that they were sould at a higher rate then others greatest peaces Euen so THEO the little simplicities abiections and humiliations in which the great Saints tooke so great content to hide themselues and put their hearts into Harbour against vaine glorie hauing bene practised with a great excellencie of the Art and ardour of heauenly Loue were found more gratefull in the sight of God then the great and illustrious workes of diuers others which were performed with little Charitie and deuotion 7. The sacred Spouse doth wound her Spouse with one of her head haires of which he makes so great accompt that he compares them to the flockes of the Goates of GALAAD and hath no sooner commended the eyes of his deuote Louer which are the most noble parts of the face but presently he fals a praising her head haire which is the most fraile vile an abiect That we might learne thereby that in a soule taken with holy Loue actions that seeme very poore are highly agreeable to the Diuine Maiestie Of the excellent worth which holy Loue bestowes vpon the actions which issue from it selfe and to those which proceede from other vertues CHAPTER VI. 1. BVt you will aske me what this worth is which holy Loue bestowes vpon our actions ô God THEO I Verily I should not dare to speake it if the Holy Gost himselfe had not declared it in expresse termes by his Apostle S. Paule who saieth thus That our tribulation which is presently momentarie and light worketh aboue measure exceedingly an eternall weight of glorie in vs. For the loue of IESVS let vs ponder these words Our tribulations which are so light that they passe in a moment worke in vs the solide and stable weight of glorie I beseech you behold these wonders Tribulation produceth glorie lightnesse giues weight moments worke eternitie But what is it that can enrich these fleeting moments and light tribulations with so great worth Scarlet and purple or fine crimson violet is a precious and royall cloth yet not by reason of the woole but the die Christian workes are of that worth that Heauen is giuen vs for them but THEO it is not in that they proceede froÌ„ vs and are the woole of our hearts but because they are died in the blood of the sonne of God I meane for so much as our Sauiour doth sanctifie our workes by the merits of his blood The twigge of a vine vnited and ioyned to the stocke being not forth â—ruit in it's owne vertue but in vertue of the stocke Now we are vnited by Charitie vnto our Redeemour as members to their head and thence it is that our fruit and good workes drawing their worth from him doe merit life euerlasting AARONS rod was withered and incapable of it selfe to bring forth fruit but as soone as the name of the high priest was written vpon it in one night it brought out leaues flowres and fruit We in our selues are withered bowes vnprofitable fruitlesse not being sufficient to thinke any thing of our selues as of our selues but our sufficiencie is of God who hath made vs meet and fit ministers of his will and therefore as soone as by holy Loue the name of our Sauiour the high Bishop of our soules is engrauen liâ—â— our soules we begin to beare delicious fruits for life euerlasting And as seedes which of them selues doe onely bring forth vnsauorie Melons would bring forth sugared and musked ones if they were steeped in sugared or musk't water so our soules which of themselues are not able to proiect one onely good thought towards God's seruice being watered with holy loue by the holy Ghost which doth inhabite vs they produce sacred actions which doe tend and doe carrie vs to immortall glorie Our works as proceeding from our selues are but miserable reeds yet these reeds become gold by Charitie and with the same we suruey the Heauenly Hierusalem which is giuen vs by that measure for as well to man as Angels glorie is distributed according to Charitie and her actions So that men and Angels measure is one and the same and God both hath and will reward euery one according to his works as all the holy Scripture doth teach vs which assignes vs the felicitie and eternall ioyes of Heauen in reward of the labours and good works which we haue practised in earth 2. A magnificent reward and such an one as doth sauour of the Maisters greatnesse whom we serue who in truth THEO if so he had pleased might most iustly exact our obedience and seruice without proposing vnto vs any prize or reward at all since we are his by a thousand most legitimate titles and that we can doe nothing that is worth any thing but in him by him for him and dependently of him Yet did not his Goodnesse so dispose but in consideration of his sonne our Sauiour he would deale with vs at a set price receiuing vs at wages and engaging himselfe by his promise vnto vs that our hire yea an eternall one shall answere to our workes Nor is it that our seruice can either be necessarie or profitable vnto him for when we shall haue accomplished all his commands we are yet to professe in a most humble