he You call to your Shadow to be wise and at the same time you play the Fool and forget that this Shadow is not to be ruled by your Words but your Example Do as I have said get Peace into your Family seek to lodge it there from the beginning by taking a due Authority upon you which is not to be done by entring into it with Heats and Fury so to show that your Temper will exempt no Body from its Severity this would be to declare that you would have your Shadow that is the People under your Obedience be as mad as your self and to make the turbulency of your Spirit shake the whole Frame of your House and turn every thing in it the wrong side upwards where a Mad-man governs there will not be any thing seen but Folly and Madness in that Family To take a true possession of your Authority says St. Gregory you must make it appear by your Words and by the Temper of your Mind which you set before the Eyes of your Domesticks that you love your own Duty and that you would have those that live under you like their Duty also after your Example and apply themselves to it not by chiding and noises but as their pleasures and content To succeed in this the whole Point lies according to the Opinion of that holy Doctor in making your self to be both feared and loved by your Family Make your self says he to be feared without bringing forth one word of heat and inconsiderate rashness make your self to be loved without using any unfitting Compliances and Familiarities and least of all such Fondnesses as will sooner gain you Contempt than win you Hearts In the presence of your Servants and Children there should not be too great a freedom of Words rather a Reserve but let the Ayre of your Face shew all the Sweetness and Humanity imaginable accompanied with a certain Gracefulness able to beget in those you govern a high opinion of your Virtue and a respectful and true love for your Person joyned to an earnest desire to please you Follow herein the Rules of Wisdom and not the Example of some Masters who indeed use not any words but yet by their angry Silence and curst suspicious Looks do accuse the first they meet with and distaste every one that comes near them causing this way more noise and disorder in a Family than others do by letting loose the Reins to the violence of their Choler The most beneficial matter that I can propose here to you is to place often before your Thoughts the Picture of that happy Family which the Prophet David has drawn ranked about a Table at the time of their Repast with a Decency that the Angels seem to invite one another to behold and admire This Family is composed posed of a Master who has no other design in his governing but to please God of a Mistress that has no other aim in this low World but to be pleasing to her Husband and to see her Children grow up in Grace and Wisdom of Children that have in a manner but one Heart Nature and Education having begot this conformity amongst them which does happily encrease with their Age. In this Piece is seen besides Peace Piety Prosperity and Abundance crowning this Family in this Life and God beholding it with expectation to receive it into another Life infinitely more happy which he has prepared for it Donum Pax est electis ejus Ecce sic benedicitur homo qui timet Dominum FINIS A TABLE OF THE TEXTS of SOLOMON On which the foregoing Reflections are grounded A Preliminary Maxi. FAciendi plures libros nullus est Finis finem loquendi pariter omnes audiamus Eccl. xii 12. Pag. 1 Maxim I. Optavi datus est mihi sensus Invocavi venit in me spiritus sapientiae Venerunt autem mihi Omnia bona cum illa Sap. 7. p. 9 Maxim II. Stultus illudet peccatum inter Justos morabitur gratia Prov. 14. p. 19 Maxim III. Donec Aspiret dies inclinentur Umbrae Vadam ad Montem Myrrhae ad Collem thuris Cant. iv p. 29 Maxim IV. Vadam ad Collem thuris Cant. iv p. 38 Maxim V. Generositatem illius Glorificat Contubernium habens Dei Sap. viii p. 43 Maxim VI. Fons vitae Eruditio Possidentis Prov. xvi p. 58 Maxim VII Dedit illi Sapientiam Sanctorum honest avit illum in laboribus Sap. x. p. 66 Maxim VIII Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem p. 76 Maxim IX Curam habe De bono Nomine hoc enim permanebit magis tibi quam Mille thesauri pretiosi magni Eccles xli p. 84 Maxim X. Coacervavi mihi argentum aurum substantias Regum ac Provinciarum omnia quae desideraverunt oculi mei non Negavi iis Vidi in Omnibus vanitatem Afflictionem animi Eccl. ii p. 93 Maxim XI Mendicitatem Divitias ne dederis mihi Prov. xxx p. 100 Maxim XII Magnificavi opera mea Aedificavi mihi domos Supergressus sum Opibus Omnes qui ante me fuerunt Eccl. ii p. 109 Maxim XIII Vidi Servos in equis Principes ambulantes Super terram quasi servos Eccles x. p. 116 Maxim XIV Unusquisque in arte sua sapiens est Eccl. xxxviii p. 122 Maxim XV. Multi Amici sint tibi Consiliarius sit tibi unus de Mille. Eccl. vi p. 129 Maxim XVI Facta sum Coram eo quasi pacem reperiens Cant. viii p. 137 Maxim XVII Mulierem fortem quis inveniet procul de ultimis finibus terrae pretium ejus Prov. xxxi p. 148 Maxim XVIII Salus animae melior est omni auro argento Corpus Validum quam Census immensus Eccles xxx p. 159 Maxim XIX Utere quasi homo frugi his quae tibi apponuntur Eccl. xxxi p. 165 Maxim XX. Si dormieris non timebis quiesces suavis erit somnus tuus Prov. iii. p. 169 Maxim XXI Non habet amaritudinem Conversatio illius nec taedium Convictus illius Sap. viii p. 181 Maxim XXII Proposui hunc adducere mecum ad convivendum Sciens quoniam mecum Communicabit de bonis Sap. viii p. 193 Maxim XXIII Erit allocutio Cogitationis meae taedii mei Sap. viii p. 199 Maxim XXIV Veni dilecte mi Egrediamur in agrum Commorremur in Villis Cant. vii p. 207 Maxim XXV Donum Pax est electis ejus Sap. iii. p. 213
and Nature By the help of the same Rays when you become wise you will discover not by Revelation or any miraculous Illumination but by Conjectures supernaturally guided the darkest Thoughts of Men Hearts the Designs of Human Policy the Snares laid by Ambition Hypocrisie Quaecumque sunt absconsa improvisa didici Sap. 7. Envy and Impiety with all the Dangers hidden in the secret Paths of Treachery and Hatred I shall see them says Job speaking to God and shall walk in the midst of an undaunted confidence when I shall be enlightned by your light Quando splendebit lucerna tua super caput meum in tenebris ad lumen tuum Ambulabo To conclude Be wise and you shall see all the Accidents of Danger before they come nor will you study as others do to give them a Repulse when present but go and meet them afar off to prevent them with little Pains You will do in relation to domestick Troubles what Solomon did miraculously in relation to contagious and stormy blasts of Air he knew the Art how to go and find them in their Caves and there to dispel them He knew the Art how to make Health Happiness and Abundance reign in his Provinces when at the same time other Nations pined with Famine or perished by Diseases MAXIM II. Stultus illudet peccatum inter Justos morabitur gratia Prov. 14. PARAPHRASE Sin is pleasing to all at the time of committing it but when once committed the Wise man grieves and afflicts himself bitterly for it the Weak and Scrupulous despairs he that is hardened and impudent mocks at it and wonders at the tenderness of those good Men that pity him and talk of Repentance Of all the Diseased those that are most to be pitied are such as pity not themselves but are in love with their Distemper Let us hate ours Hatred is its Remedy and a sign that we are not forsaken but that Heaven has yet Designs of Mercy for us REFLECTIONS It is the ordinary Custom of Men to apply themselves with great assiduity to useless and idle trifles and to take no manner of care for things of the highest importance You bestow a great expence in the Habits you wear and take a great deal of pains to dress your self handsomly that you may appear pleasing in the Eye of the World and never so much as think of healing that horrid Canker that eats into your Face the loathsomness of which makes every one flee your company and renders you hideous and insupportable to all that see or come near you To what end serves all this expensive Bravery What good do these precious Movables of your Chamber with this magnificence of your Bed do you if in the midst of all these Riches and so much costly Gaiety designed for the sweetning of your Sleeps you feel the Stone within you tearing with its sharp points your Intrails and forcing you to cry out like to a Criminal on the Rack I mean if in the height of the Prosperity and Honours of your Family you feel the Sting of Mortal Sin that disappoints your rest and if you must hear night and day the dreadful Crys of your wounded Conscience which puts you in mind of the approach of Death and of Eternal Misery Dum ad speciosa tormenta alligatus sub ingenti titulo Cruciaris No certainly Sin is not an Evil of small importance to be neglected or made sport withal There is not a Wise Man upon the Earth that would not chuse to lose his Goods and Life nor a Saint in Heaven that would not renounce his Paradise to go and suffer eternally in Hell rather than to commit a Mortal Sin It is said of the Seraphins That they were grieved they ever had a Being when they first saw Sin to grow amongst them and that they became the Companions of Sinners What St. Paul said in the Transports of his Love was no less seraphical nor admirable That it would be more easie for him to perish himself and be put in the number of the Reprobate than to see those Sins in the Hearts of Christians which they see in themselves and suffer to remain there without remorse He said this from the bottom of his Heart because he understood the two essential Properties of Man's Sin which are no less than to be the death of an immortal Soul and the true Cause of the death of a God a Paricide and a Deicide There have been some converted Sinners so divinely illuminated and so clear sighted in the foulness of Sin as that after having mingled with their Food Ashes and their Tears and after having suffered the severest Austerities in their Bodies for several years not thinking they had yet satisfied for their Sins have wished to go and suffer the Torments of Hell there to finish the time of their Penance It would be a long Work to collect what the Fathers have writ and to consider all they have observed hereupon it will be sufficient for you to know his Mind who is the Master of Saints and what his Thoughts are of you and your Sins and how he comes to know them but then you must interrogate him thereupon and he will answer To learn this well your best way is not to have recourse to the great Doctors you will gain this Science sooner in Solitude than in the Schools Whoever you are that have spent several years in thinking of other things than your Salvation and matters of Eternity do not deny your Conscience three or four days time to hear what it will say to you from God on this mighty Subject and to learn of it the explication of these few words of St. Denis Lux in se Notitiam Tenebrarum Habet That Light contains in itself the knowledge of Obscurity that in seeing and knowing itself it knows what is Darkness St. Denis means That God had the same thoughts of Man's Sins that the Sun would have of Night could he but see and know himself undoubtedly though there be nothing of Darkness in the Sun yet had he Eyes and Understanding as he must see beyond any Person that his Light is the most perfect of all visible Beauties so he must needs see also beyond any that there is no Deformity so dreadful or such an Enemy to the Eyes as the Night Altho' he had never been acquainted with her nor had ever seen her his own perfect Brightness would suffice him to know and measure her truly by Nothing is so certain as That in God there is not any Spot or Sin but that He is all Infinite Light and Brightness and yet with this pure and impeccable Essence it is that He sees what Sin is beyond what all Men in their sinful and corrupt Nature ever did see I leave you here to your self O Christian Soul lift up your Eyes and contemplate privately upon this Divine Truth That God by his own Holiness knows your Sinfulness examines considers and
comprehends all the degrees of it By this it is that he measures what you are at the time of your Disorders and as He sees an infinite Beauty and Greatness in His Divine Perfections so He beholds with an infinite Horror and Infamy your Guilty Actions He measures your Station by his own and finds that as high as He is exalted in Greatness and Glory by the sublime elevation of his Wisdom and of his Love to his Eternal Word so low by forsaking Him are you sunk and fallen into the deep Abyss of Darkness and Nothingness He sees both the one and the other in the same Vision What do you mean O Great God crys out David trembling with Apprehension Posuisti iniquitates Nostras in Conspectu tuo Must it be by such a shining Light that you behold and consider the Foulness and Infamy of our Miserable Life and must the Ages of our Ingratitude be amidst the Splendor of your Paradice one of the Spectacles of your Eternity Saeculum Nostrum in illuminatione vultus tui In this manner God knows what passes within you and thus He thinks of any of the least of your Sins But then how many does He see of these look into your self whilst He looks into you and see in your Soul what He sees there that innumerable company of Inveterate Sins that heap of Old and New Corruption All these Black Objects that God contemplates in you contemplate them I say in your self and let nothing be hidden from you He knows your Thoughts do you know his and consider what He intends at least see what hangs over your Head at the time that I am speaking to you His Justice with Pen in Hand that observes you and writes His Mercy that is leaving you and ready to deliver you up to Death they by their interiour Voices both reproach you with what you are at present and tell you what you shall be to morrow or this night or perhaps within an hour unexpectedly in the height of your Honours and your Pleasures Dead Judged Damned in three minutes space this great Change will be made and made for ever Velut Somnium Avolans non invenieris qui te Viderint dicent ubi est It is God that speaks to you weigh his Words meditate and grant to your Conscience that Solitude and Privacy which it begs of you to the end it may be heard upon this Subject and that you may consult with it The Question is Whether you will continue by a desperate Choice in the deplorable state in which you are or get the soonest you can out of it by the means of doing Penance Perhaps neither the one nor the other will please you and your Answer will be made only in Tears like a Sick body that is given over and lies on his Bed tossing from one side to the other sending out Groans and Lamentations Quo Ibo It may chance to come into your Head to do like that Sinner the Prophet speaks of which is to learn whether there be any Corner of the World where God is not and where you may neither be seen by him or persecuted by the reach of his Voice Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo quo à facie tua fugiam Alas Lord says he you that know all things know you not what it is to be seen by a God with all our Sins about us what it is to be called to a Holy Life by so many strong and inviting Inspirations whilst long Habits and Customs have chained us to the World and whilst a cruel and invincible Passion has engag'd us in the love of the Creatures Great God continues he have Pity on me I desire but this Favour of you that you will tell me you that only know it to what part of the Universe I may flye to be hid from the Sight of your Eyes and freed from hearing the Threats of your Justice with Calls and Pursuits of your Love Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo Behold here a strange Design to ask of God himself what you must do and whither you must go to flee away from him But what outdoes this is that God does not refuse to give his Answer to such a Question with Advice upon it The Answer which he gives and which I address to you O Christian Soul is That you must go to the place where Mercy dwells upon Mount Calvary and provided that you then say what is fit to be said to that Supream Mercy and that you will let it work its Pleasure on your Heart there you will find the Quiet and Security you seek MAXIM III. Donec Aspiret dies inclinentur Vmbrae Vadam ad Montem Myrrhae ad Collemthuris Cant. iv PARAPHRASE Until such time as the Shades vanish and that the Daybreakof a Blessed Eternity does appear I will go solitarily up upon the Mountain of Myrrhe and the Hill of Frankincense and contemplating on Eternal Truths will form thence raise my self up to God by Prayer and Penitence and be like the Incense which in mounting to the Skies destroys and consumes it self in its own Flames REFLECTIONS It is not my Voice O Christian Soul nor the Voice of Man but somewhat more powerful and more worthy to be hearkened to that calls you up to Mount Calvary and expects you there it being the only place where you can calm all the Motions of your Soul and setle your self in the Happy Condition which you seek When you are there spare not to utter quickly all that your Grief shall suggest to you to say and proceed in complaining of that satal Impulse as you count it which carries you continually to the love of your Sins notwithstanding you are continually in the Eye of your God and persecuted by his Calls and Threats Quo Ibo à Spiritu tuo quo à facie tua fugiam After this lift up your Eyes and contemplate upon him you see stretched on the Cross before you you will discover in his opened Heart a Mercy which discerns Sinners it is true but beholds them to no other end than to proportion the Pardon it designs them to the greatness of their Faults You will find then this God you flie pursues you only that He may make you capable of enjoying one day an Eternal Felicity in the room of that Punishment you have deserv'd at his Hands and which you can never escape but by having recourse to his Cross Consider with your self that the lowest and the vilest Condition a Man can be in is the state of great Sinfulness and the highest Condition a God can be in is that of great Mercifulness To these two Extreams were GOD and Man come the one of heighth the other of lowness on the day of the Passion Man by spilling the Blood of his crucified Saviour and God the Father by seeing and suffering that precious Blood to flow Here is matter for you to contemplate and stay upon a while I have not much to
soever you may be carry the Remembrance about with you into all Companies and converse with it interiorly whilst others are thinking only of laughing and diverting themselves be you attentive to mind what it will tell you and to let its Doctrine enter into your Heart Doubt not but it will enter and be you never so ignorant at the present within a short time you will have no more need of running after Casuists to learn what are the obligations of a Christian Life or to put Questions concerning the Duties of your Conscience you will know every thing and be able to answer all its Doubts your self nor will you then have the least Thought of going to the Learned Doctor 's with such Disguise as may make them pronounce you safe from your just Fears or endeavour to use such Means as they may counsel you to carry your Sins with you into another World The Fear of Death first introduced Physicians and the Forgetfulness of Death Casuists In a word during your Divertisements in the time of your Affairs and in every occasion of your Life be sure to keep what I have told you in your Eye put your Questions to Death and converse with her she will make you more knowing in the Morals than all those Rigorous Teachers who writ in their Books and speak in their Sermons so many Rare Matters touching dying suddenly in an ill state but who being once out of the Pulpit forget all they have said and lead a Lawless Life in Disorder and Looseness That would prove a fine Book of Morality for your Closet which the Emperor Heradius kept in his a Death's Head with these three words on the Forehead What I am now you will be to morrow There is no Difficulty you can have in your Conscience that this admirable Casuist will not answer in every Point MAXIM VII Dedit illi Sapientiam Sanctorum honestavit illum in laboribus Sap. x. PARAPHRASE God has conferred on the Wise Man the Science of the Saints and has employed him gloriously in such occasions as have placed him by the help of that Divine Science in the Rank of Extraordinary Men. REFLECTIONS I have said That one part of your Happiness during this Mortal Life is to be knowing and that one part of the Knowledge proper for your Calling is Divinity Perhaps this may cause your wonder but nevertheless it is a matter you have heard of long since and have begun to practice and undertake many years ago Have not the first Lessons you have been taught after your coming into the World and the first Pains you have been put to in your Cradle been to learn the Articles of the chief Mysteries of the Christian Faith In so much as that to help you to arrive at that Happy Condition I have been speaking of all that I shall add to the Instructions which were given you in those days is but thus much O Christian whosoever you are that which came out of your Mouth at your Prayers when you were two years old say now the same from your Heart and believe perfectly that which you say for as all the Lessons of Death are included in the word Memento in the like manner are all those of the Gospel included in the word Crede Believe Do not imagine that to become a great and true Divine in the School of Jesus Christ it will be necessary for you to know the Truths of his Doctrine by the Experience of your Eyes or the Speculation of your Wit or by the Reasonings of those Masters who consecrate their Days to the penetrating into these impenetrable Mysteries The most Able Masters know nothing certainly of this Supernatural Divinity more than what they know by their Faith And to the end that you may know as much of it as they do the whole consists in acknowledging sincerely from the bottom of your Heart and weighing in your Mind with devout Reflections that which you learnt hereof in the time of your most tender years and that which the first Women came about you did believe for you when they taught it you At the times of your daily Devotions do you venerate with an humble submission of your Thoughts the Propositions which the Holy Scripture sets forth to you of the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of the Word the Resurrection of Mankind c. And from that instant when at the prospect of these unspeakable Mysteries prostrating your self before the Altar your Soul transported with Admiration and Love you shall pronounce these words Credo Domine adjuva incredulitatem meam I believe O Lord but yet O Soveraign Disposer of my Life support you my Weakness and Ignorance with the assistance of your Grace I say from that Instant you shall become a greater Doctor in Divinity than all those learned and proud Professors who speak like Angels touching the Trinity but believe what they say of it less than you do A firm Faith with the Symbole of the Apostles imprinted in your Heart by the Finger of the Holy Ghost raises you in a moment to that degree of Capacity that the Angels would aim at were they to live with us in this World below and would they strive to please God and be ranked in the number of his Elect. Their Principal Employment in my opinion would be the same that I invite you to which is to meditate on and sign by continual Acts of an obedient and blind Love the first words of the Testament of Jesus Christ In Principio erat Verbum Verbum Caro factum est I say not this to blame the laudable and just Curiosity you may have to mind when you are at Church what is preached upon these Theological Mysteries or what the Learned say of them in teir Assemblies or during their private Discourses On the contrary I hold be you of what Condition you will That it must prove much to your Honour to understand them so well as to be able to speak knowingly of them upon occasion and I say further that the more advantage you have over the Common Sort by your Birth and Parts the greater aptitude you have to comprehend these high Verities and the more Prevailing way of communicating them to others and of setting them forth in Company It cannot be other than a very advantageous Sign in a Person of Quality to find his Inclinations lead him to the contemplating the high Mysteries of our Religion and the endeavouring to find out what lies hidden in the Parables of the Gospel and the dark Enigma's of the Prophets Certainly there must be something great and noble in that Soul which is pleased with a Contemplation that makes the Delight of the Angels The famous Saying of Tertullian That the Soul of Man is naturally a Christian relates particularly to great Souls if there be any such they are those that come into the World with a secret impression of Veneration towards the Person of our Saviour and with a holy
Integrity Make a Prosit to your self and with it a Gain of Love God approves it But whilst things prosper with you fix your Mind still on Heaven In every Action at every good Success attending such a prudent and virtuous Carriage aspire to God alone and grace within your Heart this Motto which Otho the Great had always before is Eyes The Shadow of my Happiness is to be pleasing to Man but by True Happiness is to be pleasing to GOD. It is this sort of Reputation which truly makes a Man's Fortune and that roots Honour in all those Families where we see it fixed Be you but a simple Tradesman or a poor Country Labourer with that little Stock of Goods you have let your Credit at least equalize it without minding what Men say of you either good or bad live after such a way as may oblige your Neighbours to speak well of you and be edified by your Examples you will find that your proudest Gentlemen and Masters will themselves be edified by you and that soon or late they will be forced to confess you are a Man of Honour and much above them if they want your Conscience and the Command you have over your Passions Gentility is often bought but an Honourable Heart never nor the Title of An Honest Man this springs only from a Modesty of Countenance a Sincerity of Words and a Wise Judicious Carriage accompanied with an Inviolable Truth Curam habe de bono Nomine hoc enim tibi permanebit quam mille thesauri pretiosi Magni MAXIM X. Coacervavi mihi argentum aurum substantias Regum ac Provinciarum omnia quae disideraverunt oculi mei non Negavi iis Vidi in Omnibus Vanitatem Afflictionem animi Eccl. ii PARAPHRASE From my younger years I have known what Nature teaches Man That he comes not into the World but to seek in it Felicity I have sought for it and done all in my power to find out where it lies I have enquired after it amongst those Princes who have been counted the most happy I have known their Minds and consider'd all their Ways I have seen their Examples and they mine we have followed one another's Steps and in conclusion I have observed that they and I have run through the World flying from Pain and Trouble to seek a Good which only Heaven can yield After having banish'd out of my House and Territories Poverty Sickness and War I have caused to be brought to me all that the Indies and Arabia would afford and all that the Kings of Europe and Asia had that was most precious I have gathered together all the Riches and Delights of every Nation hoping amongst them I should meet with Felicity but it would never appear and all I have done has served only to send it further off and give me Affliction Vidi in omnibus vanitatem afflictionem animi REFLECTIONS It is but an ill Project in seeking the Means to become happy to endeavour to bring matters to such a pass as that you should not suffer any Inconveniency but be wholly left to the enjoyment of the Good Things you possess Solomon undertook this and brought it easily to pass but he soon repented him Omnia quae desideraverunt oculi mei non Negavi eis I have not denied my self says he what Contentments my Heart desired without the Exception of any one Is it not a strange thing from the very moment that he wanted nothing he began to be unhappy those Delicacies he had so much desired became themselves his Bitterness and dislike Imagine not O Christian that when you are arriv'd at what you have aspired to for these many years and that you have nothing left to wish you will be without cause of Complaint even then you will complain and find it a great Evil to have no more to aim at or desire Amongst the Wretched none deserve Compassion so much as those whom Fortune has put into such a Condition as they have nothing more to do than to enjoy her past Favours but are condemned to rest in one and the same flourishing way without any opposition It seems really in all appearance that the Quiet of our Mind during this mortal Life does not consist in the possessing of the good things expected and hoped for by us but in the acquiring of them and seeing them come into our Hands They are no sooner ours but that we begin to disrelish them in case they do not beget a new Desire After having toiled for a long time and thirsted to arrive at some degree of Honour our whole Joy is in getting to it and not in resting there In two days after the Success of a Design our Passions thrust us upon new Attempts and we must obey them otherwise that which is most insupportable to Man's Nature falls upon us to find our selves ty'd up Night and Day to dull Rest and wearied to death by the quiet and continual enjoyment of one and the same Happiness This proves that it is better to labour in giving a Repulse to some Evil which assaults us than to possess a Good we have acquired in Idleness So true it is what Seneca has said That there is a certain something within us which is an Enemy to our Repose and will have us continually give our selves new Troubles The Question is from whence this proceeds To accuse Destiny of it or the capriciousness of our light and sickle Imagination is an Error the true Reason of it according to the Holy Fathers is That these seeming Lightnesses and these mysteriour Disgusts of every Felicity belonging to this Life spring from a secret instinct stamped on our Souls together with the Image of the Creator Tam bonam fecit Deus hominis Naturam ut male sit ei non esse cum Deo Our Soul says St. Augustin is so excellent and divine and framed in such a manner to possess God that as soon as he is absent and separated from it by Sin this Soul cannot but suffer by a dismal Solitude and at the same time be quite exhausted languishing with an insatiate Thirst But what would she have she knows not her self all that she knows is that she is cruelly disgusted and nauseated with all the Presents the World makes her and that this Disgust comes from the violent and extream desire she has to some one Good that is not offered her To content and satisfie her you go and hunt after change of Remedies and find out new Employments for her and all manner of Divertisements proper to ease the restless Disquiets of this melancholy and wearied Soul She tasts and seems at first to find some Relish and Solace in these Novelties but the Fits of her Distemper soon return she begins on the sudden to complain anew and you are put to begin again to look out fresh ways to ease her you look them out you take pains you heap up a World of Riches and load your House
to merit and purchase your Favour not even Goods or Life How blind is this Man in three months time he finds you laid in a Tomb and full of Shame questions himself if it were on that heap of Rottenness and Dust that he had built his Hopes and Happiness and if this were the Idol he adored at the cost of so much Sacrifice In short since according to the Testimony of your own Conscience you are made up of no other things but a company of false Promises of false Oaths false Civilities false Friendships and false Devotions and that the World on the other side according to your daily Complaints of it is nothing else but a Cheat that deceives you Is it not true that according to the Dictates of the Holy Ghost the right Title of this World is the Cheat of Cheats the Traytor of Traytors the Seducer above all Hypocrites the Lie the Error and the Vanity of Vanities to those that are the wrong way wise Vanitas Vanitatum afflictio Spiritus Whosoever you are that have Riches by you and have like the Palaces and Houses of Great Persons your glorious Apartments adorned with precious Movables which you have not a handsom Liberty to part with consider them with such Thoughts as become a clear discerning and noble Soul act after such a way as that God who sees your Furniture and Riches may not see any thing in you when you have your Eyes and Mind upon them that fastens you to the love of Creatures but that which ties you faster still to him and engages you to own that he ought to be eternally and infinitely loved Tibi dixit Cor meum exquisivit te facies mea You know O Divine Lord of my Life that these Curiosities and costly Adornments are here only out of an Obedience to your Will the World gives them the Name of Necessaries and Decencies the Saints call them Vanities and Hinderances I call them at this present Shadows of your Greatness and Presents from your Bounty In fine at the sight of these Ornaments which appear in your Chamber be careful to make these two following Reflections the First That you behold the Gate which is to let you into your Tomb. That it is in this very Bed that is so richly embroidered Death will come to take you and carry you into another Bed where the crawling of Worms upon your Body will make a very different sort of Works about you The other That out of your Tomb you will pass into a Paradise of which all that you possess here the most precious is but a poor and dark Resemblance It is a very sweet thing to aspire to Heaven from the lowness of Poverty because we are sure that is the nearest way thither but it is no less sweet to aspire to it from the height of Prosperity and Riches if the Goodness of God makes you find that amongst so many Dangers in which most of the Reprobate have perished he preserves you in Holiness by his unmeasurable Grace such as is a certain Token of the Perseverance of his Protection and of the Eternity of his Love Think that you see what a holy Spouse saw heretofore that upon all the Presents God makes you and all the Goods which come into your House is written He that sends you all this expects you in Heaven Surge propera amica mea Yea are thought of in Paradise make haste and come away to him that loves you Quicken the time by your Longings and your Tears This multitude of good things must needs forward you besides in the acknowledging your Obligations to the Divine Providence when you see a poor wretch lying in the Straw full of Ulcers and Stench dying with Cold and Hunger what do you see but a Glass representing to you that which you would or might have been your self had not God had a particular Favour for you MAXIM XIII Vidi Servos in equis Principes ambulantes Super terram quasi servos Eccles x. PARAPHRASE I have seen in the Streets of Jerusalem Servants richly clad and mounted upon Horses of a high value after whom Princes have followed on foot like their Slaves whilst the People who lately worshipped them looked upon them now only with Scorn REFLECTIONS When you see Persons of mean birth without Wit or Merit raised to a degree to which it was your Right to pretend be not angry with Heaven nor do you accuse Providence bear in your Mind that nothing can befit the greatness of your Heart so much as to have the Power and the Honour to suppress those Motions in you which Anger and Envy usually beget on such occasions I own that these are smarting Strokes and so much the worse in that they commonly happen contrary to expectation but what appears the most bitter in them is your being forced to pay an Obedience to these People who by Right ought to lye at your Feet and to whom the very Beasts had they Reason would be asham'd to subject themselves All this I know very well and yet I maintain you are in the wrong if you make this your Complaint These Disorders have lasted for this Six thousand years Why do you wonder at them These are the false Steps of blind Chance let us endure them quietly and without murmuring Greater Persons than we are have endured them in other Ages and do still at the present and if the Fellowship of the Miserable be a Consolation to those that are so there is not a Misfortune in the World that can afford more Comforters than this How often in a day do we see in the Streets of Paris what Solomon saw in those of Jerusalem Servos in equis principes super terrum How often do we see on the Backs of stately Horses or seated in splendid Coaches certain Creatures whose Due it would be rather to carry or draw those Persons of Honour they meet in their way walking on foot How many are there amongst the Supplicants who come before the Courts of Justice to beg Redress that would deserve to sit in the place of those Robes they worship In the Temples of our Religion how many learned and holy Priests do give the Incense to some ignorant and faulty Church-man seated under a State How many great men in every station are left to shift in the dark without Employment Credit or Reputation You may perhaps be one of these whom cross Fate will not suffer to be minded or so much as to be taken notice of to live What does it concern you though if you be known in Heaven where more honourable matters are designed you than all that your Desires have ever aimed at without Success In such Occasions as these never go to make Complaints amongst your Friends but go and apply your self to God and communicate every thing to this Adorable Comforter He will teach you to understand that you are not lessened by the exaltation of those Men but would be
Wonders of the World that you ask for are at the present where were heretofore the great Princes and Popes Martianus Justin Agathocles Benedict XI Sixtus V before they were raised to the Throne they are in our Shops or else in our Villages poor Shepherds keeping of Sheep but we know them not nor do they know themselves It looks as if only Chance could discover and find out these Rareties yet Man's Industry heightned with a Zeal for the Publick Good would certainly go a great way in it Would Statesmen apply themselves to find out the means that none of these Men of great Parts provided by Nature for us should be lost there would without question be made no little discovery of them and What could prove a greater Service to the Commonwealth The way was known heretofore to find out the most valiant and fam'd Souldier of the old times when he was clothed like a Girl and that he knew not himself to be other than such but thought to live ever as a Woman The ways were found to discover under the Habits of poor Shepherds the famous Paris the Grand Cyrus and the most admirable King of Judea had they lived still in that way what would they have been We admire them now after Two or Three thousands years are passed because they were empoly'd in their Calling and that they reigned if every one should be put to do what is truly his Vocation how happy would the World be and how many Excellent Men and what Master pieces of Art would there appear in it In conclusion Vnusquisque in arte sua sapiens est No Man will become sufficient and able but in the Profession that belongs to him When Agathocles in his young days followed his Father's Trade of making Earthen Pots he was a meer Rogue good for nothing an insupportable Brute able to ruin his Father by his want of Skill in that Calling and want of Inclination to it Agathocles was born to reign a strange Change no sooner had Fortune raised him to the Throne but that he proved one of the greatest and the wisest Kings that ever ruled in Sicily Another King ill versed in the Art of Reigning whose Grandfather had been a Shoemaker passing by the Shop of one of that Trade where a young Man of Birth and Wit was forced to work for a Livelihood and perceiving that he did not handle his Tools well did laugh at him and said he would undo his Master with the spoil of Leather It is very true said the young Gentleman Shoemaker if every one were at his right Trade I shoult not be the loss of Leather nor you the loss of Cities and the ruin of your Country I own That Nature does commonly produce great and noble Souls endowed with Excelling Qualities in Persons of High birth but she does not always tye her self to this On the other side there rarely appears in Persons of Quality any great Talent for the making them eminent in the Arts all that I can assure is That the Man who follows his true Calling never fails to be wise and that one of the choice Sayings of Solomon is Vnusquisque in arte sua Sapiens est MAXIM XV. Multi Amici sint tibi Consiliarius sit tibi unus de Mille. Eccles vi PARAPHRASE Few Children fewer Servants and an abundance of Friends make the Golden Number containing what renders a Family chiefly happy There are Diseases in the Body which shorten its Mortal Life there are such in the Soul as make its Immortality unhappy the Cure for both is a true and constant Friend but to get him you must fear God REFLECTIONS The enjoyment of a number of Friends is one of our Felicities and ought to be placed in the first Rank of them the Wise fix their Hearts on this Blessing and cherish it equally with their Lives Without Friendship even our Immortal Life would be but a Shadow of Living or but a beginning of a Death that would never come to an end Amicus fidelis medicamentum vitae immortalitatis A faithful Friend is a Medicine of Life and Immortality says Solomon Have Friends find them out but do not purchase them a bought Friend is commonly one only in outward shew The way to get Friends is not to make them continual visits and seek to them with importunity do not you run after them stay for them The same may be said of Friendship which I have said before of Honour and Reputation These are Shadows not to be stopped by a Man's pursuit and endeavours to seize on them The Skill lies in attracting them carry your self in such sort at your times of Conversation that your Soul may discover many Excellencies in it fit to please Almighty God but not the least Vanity or Care to be pleasing to Man The sole Counsel that Wisdom gives you in this occasion is to live in your own House and every where else like a Man of Honour and Conscience and to edifie Company by your way of conversing with them a Way that may show you all commendable and fill the Hearts of those that know you with Desire to merit your Friendship Look up to Heaven seek after God and aim in your Desires to please him True Friends will soon come and seek after you and they will teach you to know that Virtue which links together the Hearts of worthy Men is a Chain Destiny cannot break nor Time nor Death no nor Eternity Do a I tell you love and make your self fit to be beloved have the fewest Flatterers and the most Friends that you can possibly I say the most your Glory and Advantage in this Point lies not in engaging by your Civilities and Presents two or three Persons to love you there is not a Thief or any Wicked Man that has not two or three Friends of this nature It is by the great numbers of those that love and esteem us that we are to be distinguish'd from the Baser sort True it is to have a great many Confidents is dangerous Consiliarius it tibi unus de mille Have but one says Solomon to have two goes far But as for true Friends their number cannot be too great nor scarce sufficient There is not a Man of Worth that does not merit and desire to have more than he has Aim to arrive at that degree to which Joseph's Virtue carried him this lovely Person was in the center of the Court amongst Princes Statesmen Philosophers and the Prime Men of the World the same he was in Prison amongst Thieves and Murderers he was every where the Beloved of all that saw him Act so well by the Perfection of your Wit and Nature and shew a Heart so obliging and magnanimous as that of all those that know you although many be not trusted with your Secrets yet none may want an Inclination to serve you but count themselves happy to meet with the occasion You must not think such Persons unnecessary to you
that Security is the Mother of Negligence and that you run the danger of having your Fervour abate and to grow cold in the Exercises of a Devout Life when you become too sure of your Recompence Mater è negligentiae solet esse securitas St. Gregory you will tell me said very well but that desirable Favour I would pretend to say you if I durst were to have God at the same time he lets me know I am marked out for Paradise bestow the Gift upon me out of his Goodness that I should never abuse this Knowledge This would be an extraordinary Favor say you but not without Example It was granted to Abraham as I have read to whom God formally declared That he was in the first Rank of the Elect Abraham said he to him I know thee because thou dost belong to me and that thou shalt everlastingly belong to me Something to this effect he said also to Isaac to Jacob to Moses upon the Mountain and to the Prophet Jeremiah in his Mothers Womb that happy Infant knew he was elected before he was born all the Apostles besides knew certainly that they were of this number Rejoice ye said our Saviour to them for your names are written in Heaven Our Blessed Lady St. Mary Magdalen St. John the Evangelist St. Paul and many others in times following have learnt from his own Mouth or by the means of his Angels that they were expected in Heaven and that their Crowns were there ready prepared for them St. Theresia after having seen the place was destin'd for her in Hell had she not been drawn out of the World by the most powerful Grace of the Holy Ghost had the Comfort and Happiness to see the place she was to possess in Paradise What a Joy what a Blessing is this and which way say you further can a Man be at a moments quiet in the time of this Mortal Life unless we could know from God by some miraculous means that he to whom we have consecrated our selves and who possesses us now as the Purchase of his Blood and the Inheritance of his Love will not suffer any Power of the World or Hell to ravish us out of his Hands to our Eternal Misery You are in a Mistake O Christian we may receive this Heavenly Comfort and Joy without the help of Revelation or any miraculous Apparition it is not at all requisite that God should speak or appear to you it will be sufficient if you can love him as the Saints have done before you This Love will produce an interiour Voice within you or a supernatural Instinct St. Paul calls it a Testimony of the Holy Ghost imprinted on our Hearts St. Augustin a Ray of the Glory of Paradise which breaks forth in elected Souls during the height and transports of their Fervor Give it what name you please I say it is a Divine Help which disperses and drives away all the black Clouds all the Fears and monstrous Disquiets of your Imagination and like the dawning of a bright day brings a Serenity and begets in you a Certitude of your Salvation independent of any Revelation or Prophecy True it is that you will not say formally what the Hereticks do and what cannot be said without the highest Pride and Blasphemy My Name I am certain is written and set down amongst the names of the Saints But you may say that which true Love made St. Paul and other blessed Persons say who loved in perfection My Certainty is that neither Death nor Life Poverty nor Riches nor the Torments and Cruelties of Tyrants the Promises and Flatteries of the World nor in fine all the force of Hell shall ever separate me from the Charity of Jesus Christ Certus sum I am certain of it and am not more assured that I am alive at this present than I am assured by the help of Grace to continue faithful to my God as long as ever my Heart can breath Donec superest halitus in me Spiritus Dei in Naribus meis It is a most horrible and sinful Presumption which makes the proudly-conceited of their Piety say I know certainly that God has been pleased to write me down in the number of his Elect and that I cannot fail to go to Heaven But it is a holy love that speaks when you say I will love my God even to Death Death Time nor Eternity shall not part me from him Etiam si me occiderit Sperabo in eum What Pride utters in a most horrid Boldness and Blasphemy since it undertakes to tell that which lies the most hidden in the Breast of God To be able to say without the help of Revelation whose Names He has written secretly and eternally in his Heart by a gratuite Election is to be no less than God The Saying of Love is a holy Truth and an humble Adoration of the Mercy and Grace of Jesus Christ inasmuch as this speaks only of the Vow you have made to love God and of the perpetual and irrevocable Resolutions and Decrees of Holiness which your self has written within your Conscience Look altogether upon these Vows which your Love has created and do not amuse your self in reasoning upon Circumstances as those do who first begin to love and who by making comparisons and scrupulous Reflections entertain such Disquiets as drive them into a dark Labyrinth out of which they can find no issue When you are arrived at the degree of a fervent Love you will be far from examining what the Success of that Love may be and from hearkening to the Fears and Anxieties of your blind and timerous Fancy Being in this state you will know the News of your Happiness without your saying I know it you will not answer for any thing but your Constancy and Perseverance in making good the Promises of which Grace and Humility have been the inspiring Authors and not Presumption You will rejoice holily within without questioning or informing your self which way you come to know you shall be constant and although in reality no Voice shall tell you this yet you will be as secure and as much at ease in the midst of all the dangers that shall surround you as if Prophets and Angels had told it you You will not hear any Voice that will declare this to you but you will become sensible that the Instinct or secret Testimony of which St. Paul speaks is a kind of thing more certain than Visions clearer than Revelations and Prophecies sweeter than the Consolations and Assurances you can receive from your spiritual Directors and in fine more strong and powerful than all your Fears Amongst all the Examples you see of such as fall from their Virtue and in the heighth of the Reports of so many reprobated Persons as are sounded in your Ears from all parts able to make the Boldest tremble you shall enjoy the Peace of the Elect. Your Solicitude will not be to question or make Doubts whether you shall go