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
Contrition encourage the Divine Mercy to showre on you its Numerous Benedictions MAXIM IV. Vadam ad Collem Thuris Cant. iv PARAPHRASE I will go up to the Hill of Frankincense and there by Prayer and Penitence will I raise my self so high as to get into the Wounds of Jesus Christ and I will grave so deep in my Soul the Characters of his Sufferings that no other Life shall be left me but what I breath out of his Heart REFLECTIONS See here the Method you are to observe whilst your Solitude gives you the leisure to hearken to your Conscience and to mind what it will say to you Tell often to your self the Story of your wretched Days and let not so much as one of those dreadful occasions slip from you which has engaged you in Wicked Company call to mind each Fault and over each weep and lament Perform those Acts of Contrition that may make you worthy the Grace that has drawn you out of Hell which the death of Christ has merited for you Say to him That which afflicts me most O Lord touching my enormous Crimes is that my Heart is weak and has not strength enough to hate them Alas Lord mine alone can be but poor in Sorrow poor tho' I had the Hearts of my Confessors to help me who have known and lamented them together with me by my Goodwill I would have the Hearts of all Men and Angels and out of this Multiplicity of Hearts would I collect and frame a hatred and detestation of my Ingratitude that should be great enough to make them equal to my Grief and Misery Cor mundum Crea in me Deus Employ O Lord your Power and your Mercy create a new Heart and bestow it on me with which I may stisfie you and love you With this desire our Saviour will be pleased as he was with that of David St. Peter and other Converted Sinners who after having employ'd Years in lamenting and weeping when their Tears were quite exhausted and spent did seek to know whether the World could not afford the Means to raise within their Souls a Spring of these bitter Waters such as should never stop but last to the very end of their days Quis dabit Capiti meo Aquam Oculis meis fontem lachrymarum Say you the same thing contemplating on your crucified Lord and say it with Sincerity and from the bottom of your Heart let Sighs of Love express it instead of Words Quis dabit Capiti mei How happy should I be could I shed Torrents of Tears to joyn with the Torrent of my Saviour's Blood such as should flow in every place where I have committed Faults to shew where-ever I have Sinned that I have Sorrowed and given lasting Marks of my Repentance O all ye People who have heard of the Audite Populi Videte dolorem meum Scandals of my past Life come and hear my mournful Cries come and behold my Sorrows behold them you my God and see how my Conscience suffers in you I hope even in the Condition I am fallen into be you so good as to grant me your Love in the same measure at least look on me thus as I am and let that Virtue issue from your Eyes which can give Grace and Life Vide Domine Considera This God who sees and hears yo during these holy moments in which your Griefs renew and that you feel the Convulsions of your afflicted Conscience will not fail to comfort you by his repeating to you interiourly what has been so often told you by his Prophets and Evangelists that your Sins are blotted out and forgiven and that not one spot of them remains in your Soul Thus much I know O my Divine Saviour but still the memory of them is remaining in your Mind Alas Great God how insufficient it is for my Comfort to be told I am forgiven To make this perfect you that can be ignorant of nothing must find out some means to be ignorant of my Misdeeds and to forget whatsoever has befallen me in the time of my wretched and scandalous days For how is it possible to live in the presence of a God who has seen my Treacheries and bears them still in mind how is it possible to be comforted tho' I am daily told the News from him that my Sins have been washed with his Blood when at the same time my Reason informs me that they appear yet before his Eyes that they will ever appear and that the Ages of my Ingratitude must amidst the Glories of his Paradise be one of the Objects of his Eternity Posuisti iniquitates Nostras in Conspectu tuo soeculum Nostrum in illuminatione Vultus tui God who with a Complacence observes these Fears and Disquiets within you will give them a Remedy to make your Consolation entire For whilst you are breathing out your Complaints in this familiar way when he comes once to comfort you He will do it certainly like a God and stretch his Power miraculously so far as even to forget all and bury the whole Memory of your Sins in the Ocean whence it shall never rise again Disponet iniquitates Nostras projiciet in profunda Maris omnia peccata Nostra quoniam Volens est misericordiam MAXIM V. Generositatem illius Glorificat Contubernium habens Dei Sap. viii PARAPHRASE The Greatness and the Eminence of Grace are glorified by the Man that lives familiarly with God REFLECTIONS A principal Duty it should be in devout and holy persons to add a Lustre and Glory to Sanctity but there are many of them that do much otherwise and who we must confess give by their Indiscretions too much Ground to Libertines for their contempt of this Divine Virtue I cannot tell whether this proceeds from an innocent Ambition to imitate the Saints in those Actions wherein they are most inimitable and miraculous but this I can tell that it brings no Honour to Sanctity to be more Saint-like Non plus sapere quam oportet Sapere ad sobrietatem than God approves It fares with Holiness as it does with Wisdom whosoever has too much of either falls very short of having enough This too much is the thing I may boldly say that dishonours Christian Piety and is the cause it meets with so little respect in all Companies in the World The Misfortune comes not by the Devotion of such as are discreet and holy but by the true Folly of such as are scrupulous and the False Sanctity of such as are Hypocrites To be of an Humour not to be satisfied but by taking by-ways to go to Heaven and building upon Rules which are Strangers to the Churches Morals and to all Divinity to be perswaded that to break a day of Lent in the time of a dangerous Sickness is a high and guilty Frailty that it is not to dye like a Christian or a Chosen One unless Death comes by the Violence of Mortifications and unless a
that is more insupportable In like manner the Action of eating and drinking when it is dead and is not animated by some spiritual aim or intention to please God is undoubtedly one of the most shameful Actions and most unbeseeming a Man and such as the Angels behold with the greatest aversion But when it is accompanied and helped by that supernatural Intention it is both honourable and holy and we have few things without us by which we can more handsomly show our Dignity and Difference from Beasts than by this although it seems to put us into the same rank and equality with them The manner of Eating for Beasts is to eat at all hours to eat souly and greedily to eat by themselves and hardly to endure the company of another Beast the way of Eating for Man should carry Marks of the Superiority and Soveraignty that belongs to him Decency Neatness Order and Magnificency with other royal Properties should adorn his Table who is the Master of Beasts to shew the distance there is between him and his Slaves He ought to be regular as to the hours of Eating a thing not impracticable by the poorer sort to be neat and clean in what belongs to it which is not hard to be compassed by such as are the least rich and to have his Table handsom and of free accesS to his Friends which is not to be dispensed with in Persons of great quality and is ordinary enough with those of a small fortune who have large Hearts such as esteem nothing their own in which a Friend has not a share The very Angels in the opinion of the holy Bishop of Geneva could not dispense with this were they transformed to Men and to come and converse with us in the World they would live like Angels to their very Table Here lies the Honour of a Spiritual Nature to be able to descend to the resemblance of Beasts by Actions in which it resembles them less than ever and where it appears more clearly than in any other occasion how infinitely far our Nature is raised above them MAXIM XX. Si dormieris non timebis quiesces suavis erit sommus tuus Prov. iii. PARAPHRASE Be faithful to God all day and your Sleep will be disturbed by no Fears in the Night you will spend it happily for nothing within you will want its Repose and your Rest will be perfect because it will be entire both Body and Soul enjoying it REFLECTIONS Sleep is duly reckoned amongst the Blessings and the Eases which God had been pleased to mix with the Bitterness and Troubles of this miserable Life We cannot term it better than to call it a Present which is sent us each day from the Creator and which enters into our Veins as a prevention to Diseases and a help to repair our Strength interrupting for seven or eight hours all the Toils and Displeasures of the Day St. Augustine calls it a Contrivance of the Supreme Goodness which like a Mother who tends the Cradle of her beloved Child comes softly to us a nights to rock us asleep and drive from about us whatsoever may disappoint the good Rest it designs us Thus this Goodness keeps from us Cares Fears Disquiets and all Thoughts of Business of Law-Suits Projects and Designs this it is that stops them in their way and hinders their access into our Mind by sudden Vapours drawn out of its stock of Love which quite forbid their entrance This it is also which can keep our Mind from being a Disquiet to it self and hinder it from spending the hours of night in toiling and employing it self indiscreetly this Goodness ties up its Hands if I may so express it I mean that it finds out certain Chains by which it fastens all the Faculties of our Soul to thier repose and keeps them in a state of stilness and inaction but does all this so sweetly and with such a care of hurting us that in the height of this fettering and violence we feel nothing but Content and Pleasure Dormeis suavis erit somnus tuus In a word if according to the holy Father's interpretation of these words Lazarus Dormit it signifies to be dead to be in that condition we may learn in laying our selves to sleep that there is nothing more easie than to dye I say then that Sleep in us is one of the Wonders of God's Providence and that it is an allusion what some People hold who say it is a shameful Spectacle to the Angels to see a Wise Man drowned in Sleep the Angels have come down to behold a God sleeping in his Cradle and they have adored him with as great respect there as they adore him in Paradise Sleep is so far from being an Infamy to us that many learned Doctors have been bold to say it is one of the most honourable Conditions belonging to our Nature and the least contrary to Grace Devout Persons are continually complaining that there scarce passes an hour in the day in which they fall not into some light Faults and become displeasing to God by unavoidable Weaknesses and Lapses This Misfortune does not befal them a nights the time of Sleep is the only time in which they perfectly keep their Innocence the same Grace and Virtue they have at the hour they go to sleep the same is found in them entire at the moment they awake their happy Soul surrounded with the Vapours I have spoken of is like the Sun hidden by a black Gloud as much as it is obscured by that hideous Darkness it still retains notwithstanding all its Lustre and comes forth as bright and beautiful as it ever was before I say further and I say this after the holy Fathers who have experienced it and other of the Learned who have writ it That what never befel the Sun which is to become more glorious and bright being beset with Rain and Clouds than it was in clear weather has hapned to great Saints at the times they have been seized with sleep Such was the time which God chose to visit the chief of the Apostles in the beloved Disciples the Magdalens the Catherines and Theresia's and other illustrious Saints who have been then elevated even into the Rank of Seraphims by the most sublime Acts of Love and Sanctity Ego dormio Cor meum vigilat But this is not the proper place for expounding these words since I should step too far from my Subject to the Point It cannot but be owned that Sleep may be abused and turned into a shameful Brutishness A Misfortune says St. Chrysostom that ought never to be seen but it is seen too often and never fails to happen when we lay our selves to rest forgetting to follow those Rules which Wisdom and Providence have prescribed to us to the end we may not sleep like Beasts In truth it must be confessed to behold a Man risen from Table where he has carried himself like an Atheist and plunged both Body