a good hart therefore and say with the Psalmist that though all the forces of Hell should make head against you yet would you not feare though a million of companies incōpassed you yet would you not dread because God doth rise vp to succour and saue you Vnite your selfe vnto him in the high point of Contemplation which I haue discouered vnto you keepe your selfe there without all discourse without all reflection vpon your selfe without framing any particular act in a profound and generall silence For it was in the vniuersall Peace and silēce of all the vniuerse and in the midst of a darke night that the Omnipotent WORD came from Heauen to earth to vnite himselfe to our nature * to enlighten euery man coming into this world * and to illuminate those who were in darknes and in the Region of the shadow of death * And with what torch but the torch of Faith wherby he makes our darknes lightsome I remember THEOPISTE I made once a litle spirituall treatise or EXERCISE OF LIVELY FAITH which might as I conceaue not a litle comfort you and more amply instruct you touching this act of Contemplation which I haue marked you out for your last refuge I made you this Paraclese or Consolation being at our villemond where I am detayned this winter to distribute the word of God After my returne to my Residence I will looke out that writing from amongst the papers of my Studie where it lyes buried and I will make a copie of it be taken to send you Meane while make vse of the instructions which are conteyned herein not onely in the temptation which doth presently presse you but in all the rest that may chance to assault you after you shall be deliuered of this For these precepts which for the most part I haue gathered out of the aduises of that blessed Prelate FRANCIS DE SALES of holy happie memorie our most honoured Father and Directour may be applyed not onely to the temptations of blasphemie and infidelititie but euen to all other temptations for that these endeuours are not so tyed to particularities as that they doe not also descend to generalities being of the number of those Antidotes which are tearmed vniuersall An Exhortation to spirituall vallour in imitation of IACOBS wrastling CHAP. XVI IN cōclusion I must make the Apostolike trumpet sound in your eares fight I fight THEOPISTE as a good and faithfull seruant of IESVS CHRIST * Fight generously māly incessantly that by that good Combat you may conserue your Faith and obtayne the crowne of Iustice * Our whole life is a warfare a temptation Sweete and gentle calmes are blowē ouer by rough stormes In the world as on the Sea the still calme day is most doubted most subiect to rayne The Calme of the mynd is still essayed by some rebellion that so standing alwayes vpon our gard temptation may not surprise vs. * Doth the greatnes of your aduersarie astonish you call to mynd that IACOB'S antagonist was yet stronger An Angell at libertie must needs exceede those Angells of darknes who be loaden with their chaynes Yet at IABOC'S well the Pacriarke held the Angell play and though he came halting away yet victorie and benediction was his Be couragious and the like will befall you And though you haue not a like aduersarie yet like IACOB you fight by God's permission a try all of your fidelitie you fight in the night of Faith which is inuironed with types enigma's clouds At IABOC'S well signifying that you are to cleanse your selfe from all naturall lightes and reasons all sensible and intellectuall know ledge to betake your selfe naked and pure to the toppe of the Spirit without all the formes and shapes of terreane things where liuelie and pure Faith keepes her Residence IACOB neuer quitted his hold till the Angell blessed him and the day began to breake So are you inseparably to hold God till the rayes of his countenance beginne to shine vpon you * And till he restore the ioy of his Saluation * Thus shall you become a true Israelite victorious and seeing God * Be not troubled that humane reason in you comes off halting you shall walke hereafter vpon a right legg the Diuine reuelation wherin consistes the essence of Faith An essence by so much the more pure by how much it admitts lesse of the mixture of naturall light and experiēce For Faith doth loose its merite saith S. GREGORIE where experience hath place being saith the Apostle of inuisible things and such as appeare not * If you desire to be armed with the Armour of God to defeate the Diuell throw away with DAVID SAVLS armour stripe your selfe of humane reason and sense We are not onely to wrastle against flesh blood but Powers and principalities also against the Gouernour of the world wordly darknes against the hyest and most subtile malice of our mortall enemy * The armour of God therfore is necessarie for vs to stand constant to stand immoueable like vnto the Mont-Sion * And to this end we are to retire our selues into the verie topp of our Spirit where God doth soueraignely rayne He that remaynes there vnder the wings of the Highest shall infallibly be deliuered out of the Fowlers snare and vnder that shelter shall sing to God the song of his deliuerie adoring this Mercy in the 30. 90. 123. ps or in the Canticle of our B. La. ZACHARIE SIMEON But aboue all be sure to keepe your selfe in this learned ignorance and Adhearing onely faythfully to the prime vniuersall Truth which is God banish from you hart all manner of curiositie in point of Faith Protest with the Apostle that you will know nothing here below but IESVS CHRIST * Stand fermely least the enemy bereaue you of your crowne Forsake the foule troubled waters of Egipt to drinke of the pure source Sacryfice your ISAAC your naturall light vpon the toppe of this mountaine Repose peaceably in him WHO IS Be not separated from his Charitie and your faith is in assurance CHRIST hath reuealed a faithfull promise by the mouth of his beloued disciples whosoeuer shall remayne faithfull till death shall be rewarded with a crowne of life FINIS
their reward be who haue suffered in Gods cause in his power haue ouercome temptations Certes they shall haue the same with the Angels who threw downe the diuels since men are to repaire the ruines of the Heauenly Hierusalem But what is that Verily no humane hart can conceaue it like as no eye hath seene nor eare hath heard it * We know onely by the Apostle writing vnto the Romanes that the pleasures which passe can enter into no cōparison with the glory which shall be reuealed vnto vs in Heauen * And to the Corinthians that those moments of labour doe worke in vs aboue measure exceedinglie an eternall waight of glory * of a wonderous hight By it we are holilie Chastised CHAP. XXVI HOw vniustly then should we thinke that we are forsaken of God when temptations doe oppresse vs sith Charity doth then specially presse vs that the heauenly rayes doe beate vpon our foreheades For though we feele the smarte of his rodde yet who knowes not that he treates vs licke a Father who doth not chastise his child but for the loue he beares him the desire he hath to bring him to goodnesse So farre is it saith S. CHRISOSTOME from being a signe that we are forsaken by God that it is euen a peculiar marke of his loue and care for by that meanes he will rouse vs vp out of our drousie and languishing neglect to make vs more diligent in his seruice * For on the other side is it not he who cryes out vnto vs come vnto me ô you that are loaden and oppressed and I will refresh you * We are sensible indeede that one of his hands doth waigh a litle heauy vpon vs but we also see if we please the other streched out to support and helpe vs. Though the iust man be euen waighed downe vnder his burden yet shall he not be oppressed saith the Psalmist because our Lord doth hold him vp with one of his hands O how worthy to be loued and adored is this hand in the distribution of afflictions which it sends vs since by them he opens our vnderstanding and makes vs know the true good * How good it is for me ô Lord saith the diuine Psalmist that thou hast humbled me * and againe we haue reioyced in the dayes of our humiliation and when we were taken by calamity With great reason did this great King speake in this sort because the rough times when he was persecuted by SAVL ABSALON and SEMEI were farre more aduantagious vnto him then his times of prosperity wherein he was cast downe into so grosse faultes that he stood in need of the great mercy * of God to cleanse him A violent sicknesse saith the wiseman brings the soule to sobriety * and wisdoms arriuall is accōpagned with the rodde and correction * This made IEREMIE say thou hast chastised me ô Lord and I haue beene brought vnder the yoake like vnto a yoūg bull * This is the gall by which the Angell restored TOBIE his sight and by the durt of this humiliation the Sōne of God cured the borne-blind God prone to assiste the tempted CHAP. XXVII IF it please you THEOPISTE maturely and holily to pōder these cōsiderations I dare assure you you shall appcase your frightes cease your plaints Verily be a complainte as iust as it will yet it is alwayes to be suspected of daintinesse for it is an vndoubted truth that God who is faithfull in his promises doth neuer permit vs to be tempted beyond our strength but makes vs euen from the temptation it selfe rayse new forces to oppose the temptation Hence we gather by a necessary consequence that such as doe yeald themselues vp made not such resistance as they were able and when they endeauour out of their frailty to pleade their sinnes excuse * one may stoppe their mouth * by saying that iniquity hath lyed to it selfe * as those wicked wretches did whom the wiseman brings in saying that the Sunne of Iustice hath not enlightned them * and that God hauing cultiuated the vine of their interiour in euery necessary sort it is their owne onely naughtinesse which makes branbles spring from their hart in lieu of grapes * And if before the tribunall of the diuine Iustice they were so audacious as to couer their fault with the cloake of the infirmity of their flesh * how many Sainctes would rise vp in Iudgment against them making them clearely fee by their example that with a lesse measure of grace they vanquished greater temptations then those to which their cowerdise rendered vp themselues No no God doth neuer deny his helping hand to such as performe their duty * He is good to those that are of a right hart * He who watcheth ouer Israel neuer sleepes * If during the tempest he seeme sometimes to slumber he infallibly awakes in time of neede for he doth opportunely come in to our ayde in time of tribulation * True it is he doth now and then let vs come to extreamities to essay our vallour Patience He expected till Israel was come betwixt the sea the sword but to make them way through them he swallowed vp PHARAO with his chariots army He reduced IOB to tearmes that strike temerous and feeble soules with dread yet he sent the storme according to the shippe the winde with proportion to the sayles Why if it please him to kill vs that he may rayse vs againe as he permitted LAZARVS to die to bestowe a new life vpon him if he will carry vs downe to Hell and bring vs backe againe * who hath right to aske him why he doth so * doe we not know that he keepes the keyes of death and Hell that is able to draw backe whom he pleaseth from deathes doore * and from the Abisses below to deliuer our soule out of the clawes of death to wipe the teares from our eyes and to warrant our foote from falling * by his power to beare away our soules out of Hell * to effect that its depth deuoure vs not * and that the mouth of the infernall Abisses be not wide open to swallow vs vp * Who is able to declare the power of our Lord Our ayde then and sufficiēcie yea more then sufficiencie proceedes from him but our destruction from our selues * because we loose courage like to the children of Ephraim who shot meruellous well at Butts yet fled from the face of the enemy with whom they were to fight * We loose Patience and leaue God thinking though falsely that he hath left vs whereas the Psalmist assures vs that those who expect God shall not be frustrated in their expectation * And ABACVC though he stay long yet leaue not to expect for coming he will come that is speedily and he will not delay * Nor is he indeed long ere he come to our succour but our patiēce is too short our hope too weake O if we had those sacred promises deepelye engrauen in
prescribe vnto you that is absolutly to contemne all his illusiōs In the interim the Hermite who was a beaten and experienced souldier in that kind of warre tooke vpon him all the sinnes which the tempted person apprehended he had commit wherevpon he receaued such consolation that vpon the first acte of contempt which he made according to counsell the diuell forsooke him quite nor was he afterwards disquieted with the like thoughtes That temptation augments vertue CHAP. II. BVt if the terrour which doth possesse you and which I would tearme vaine if I did not know that euen seruile feare is a grace of God doth not permit you to contemne an enemy which you dreade whose assaultes are so terrible vnto you make this cōsideration a rampire to your breaches and like vnto the fabulous Giant let your ouerthrowe redouble your forces representing vnto your mynd that that which fightes against vertue defeates it not yea that opposition contributes force and groth vnto it Why would you euer fall into that opinion as to thinke that the vertue of Chastitie should consiste in being wholy vnsensible like vnto a stone or a blocke I cannot persuade my selfe that your iudgement can giue credit to a thought so absurde In what then doth this faire vertue consiste doe not you see that it consistes in a perfect resistance of all that is contrarie to puritie wherevpon it is compared to the white and daintie Lilie which growes amidst the blacke and rough thornes Doe you not see that Gardiners fetch pinckes sweete Marierome and other odoriferous flowres out of stincking dung hills Roses doe smell far more fragrantly being sett neere vnto the strong sauered garlike We must make the like conceipt of Faith nothing doth driue it fo farre in nor imprint it more deeply in our hart then the temptations of blasphemie and infidelitie For as fire is neuer so hote as when it is exceeding cold so is our Faith neuer so closely vnited vnto God as when it is violently opposed We resemble sheepe who run all close together on a heape and make towards their shepheard as soone as they perceaue the wolfe draw neere for as soone as we apprehend that the enemy goes about to bereaue vs of the precious treasure of our Faith which is the grownd of our eternall saluation we cast our selues into the lappe or bosome of the Prince of Good Pastours and the Bishope of our soules * This moued S. LEO to say that without temptation vertue cannot be reduced into Act. For there is no Faith without trouble and agitation No Charitie without the sting of sensualitie no fight without an aduersarie no victorie without fight nor crowne without victorie This is a thing of great consolation if you can well vnderstand and Practise it THEOPISTE For thence you may learne to make progresse in vertue by meanes of that verie thing which seemes opposite vnto it since it is true according to the doctrine of S. BONAVENTVRE that by the resistance which we make against temptation we make a great steppe in the vertue wherin it striues to hinder vs. This is manifest in S. BENNET S. FRANCIS S. THOMAS OF AQVINE whom God voutsafed to fauour with the gift of a perfect Continencie puritie for that they had by heroicall Actes subdued motions contrarie to honestie The like happens saith the same Doctour to those that are tēpted in matter of Faith for if they behaue themselues like the braue Souldiers of IESVS CHRIST * the end of their Combat is alwayes accompaigned with extraordinarie lightes and notions which are as certaine rewards of their fidelitie So doth light rise and increase to the iust * and in the midst of the darknesse a splēdour doth shine to those that are of a right hart * In this sort Patience did dilate it selfe in IOB'S hart wherof he is a perfect paterne and in sequall therof the goods which by the Diuine permission were take from him by a violent hand were restored him to the double Iudge your selfe then THEOPISTE whether I had not great reason to tell you aboue that you did reiect your owne good when you begged to be deliuered of temptation Your sicke hart doth loath this delightfull manna and your craysie iudgement makes litle esteeme of the wishfull Land of Promis which God makes flowe with the honie and milke of his benedictions Prayer a good remedie against Temptations CHAP. III. BVT I see plainely that in vaine I persuade you to remaine vpon this happy Crosse and that you are resolued to stay at the otherside of Iourdaine togeither with those two inconsiderate Tribes well then I must prouide a lodging for you there squared out by the line of distribution * Doe you apprehend your backe too weake to support so heauy a burden haue recourse to prayer according to the Coūsell of S. IAMES Is any sorrowfull amongst you Let him pray * And according to that of S. PAVLE that to resiste the diuells assaultes we are to put on the armour of God which he calls frequent and in a māner cōtinuall Prayer * Yea euen following our Sauiours owne Counsell who wills his Apostles to pray least they may enter into temptation And in the forme of Prayer which he taught vs doth he not order vs to pray that we be not ledde into temptation * Cassian doth aduertise vs that this verse of the Psalmist which the Church orders to be said before euery houre of the diuine Office Intend into my ayde ô God Lord make haste to helpe me * hath a peculiar force to driue away temptations and distractions in our Prayers As also that other let our Lord rise vp and his enemies shall be dispersed * The many prayers also which DAVID made to be succoured in his temptations Lord forsake me not for euer * Let thy mercy comfort me * My deiected eyes say vnto thee when wilt thou comfort me restore me the ioy of thy saluation and with thy principale spirit cōfirme me * Thou who hast promised to deliuer them from paine who shall call vpon thee in time of tribulation * Myne eyes are alwayes turnd towards our Lord that he may pull my feete out of the gyues and snares * I suffer violence ô Lord make answere for me * Rise ô great God rise vp why dost thou sleepe doe not reiect me for euer * Why dost thou turne thy face from my pouerty and affliction * Take thy sword and buckler and come in to my succour * Say vnto my soule I am thy saluation * How long alas wilt thou forget me turne from me thy heauēly countenāce * How long shall my enemies haue aduātage ouer me * Cast thyne eyes vpon and giue eare vnto me ô Lord. * Enlighten mine eyes least I may sleepe in the shadowe of death * I haue listed vp myne eyes towards the mountaines whence I am to haue succour which I expect of that Lord who made Heauē and earth * To thee it is ô great
eminēcie vertue and substance all that great varietie of Actes which Meditation doth produce This doth exercise the Powers distinctly and separately that doth vnite and gather them together into one pointe reduceth them to that vnitie which is held so famous amongst the Misticall Diuines to that one necessarie thing * praysed by our Sauiours owne mouth to that one ey * to that onely haire which doth wound the Spouse his hart An act so excellēt that it may be tearmed the quintessence of all spirituall extractions An act which like as the herbe Dodecatheon conteynes in it selfe the vertue of all the other simples so it comprehends all the force and vigour of all the other Actes which the soule is able to produce in the life called Actiue It is a knowen thing that Empirikes by meanes of fire are accustomed to draw all the essence of the medcines which they cōpose into a litle water or powder so that by litle things in apparance they worke wonderfull effectes The same may be said of the Act of Contemplatiō in spirituall life one onely hath more force then a great many squised out with a great deale of beating of the braine and breaking of the head by meditation wherin many are deceaued as well spirituall Directours as the directed those many tymes loading ouerloading and oppressing these with such a multiplicitie of Actes Methodes Aduises and exercises that the too great varietie of remedies doth verie often augment the desease which they striue to cure The facilitie of Contemplation CHAP. IX BVT euery one will you say is not capable of CONTEMPLATION the very word doth affright you THEOPISTE because it is not so common as MEDITATION yet I can assure you the thing it selfe is far more facile more familiar and more vsuall then you imagine Yes THEOPISTE for doe you not esteeme it an easier thing to behold simply that is with a simple and interiour looke some Truth or mysterie then to thinke of it and againe to thinke of it simply more facile then to frame a multiplicity of discourses vpon it so many actes of the vnderstanding Will Memory Preludes Pointes Affections Resolution Thankes giuings oblations demands Preparations Inuocations Compositions of Place Representations with all that great and combersome traine whereof the instructiōs for Meditation are full for before you can beate all this into a grosse or shalowe braine you shall spēd many a faire yeare and often times after a greate deale of paines taken you preuayle nothing but weary his braine and breede in him a disgust of deuotion that I may say no worse I say not this as conceauing these precepts not to be good and all these Actes profitable proper necessary especially to beginers in spirituall life for who knowes not that meditatiō is the forerunner and as it were the Aurora of the light day of Contemplation and in some sort a necessary meanes considering the course of nature O God be it far from my hart to blame those Actes not only of the three powers of the soule especially sith euen according to all Diuinity eternall beatitude doth consiste in those of the vnderstanding will which are to know and to loue but also those of the passions subiect to reason's lore and interiour sense as the Imagination and the rest I know further thankes be to God that such as would omitt or leaue them off contrary to the Rules which are prescribed by Spirituall men vpon this subiect would fall into a certaine Idlenesse as blameworthy as that silence that holy Rest is laudable which the Spiritualistes haue in such esteeme But I affirme that excesse in euery thing is to be cut of and like as too much salte or suggar spoyle the meates wherein they are put where as otherwise the vse of them in a mediocrity is excellent the wiseman to this effect aduiseing vs that me take honie moderately least that the stomake being ouercharged with it may render it not being able to retaine it So is it an Aduise of the best Masters in Spirituality to cut short in Meditatiō the discourses of the vnderstanding and curious Speculations which doe sauour rather of studie then of the spirit of Prayer yea euen not to multiply the actes of the will so excessiuely for he that eates too much meate disgests it not and oftentimes those that make so many aspiratiōs Eleuations affections Resolutions stifeled with the multiplicity know not which to take or sticke to and making a number of good pourposes they performe none at all They imbrace much hold litle One affection or two well chewed well tasted one or two resolutions well engrauen deepely imprinted vpon the soule In my opiniō make a man come from his meditations better disposed and more resolute to doe well then when the mynd knowes not at which end to begin to put in execution those pourposes which it rather beheld superficially as in a confused heape then perfectly relish The Archer that beholds many markes at once rarely hits any But here is not the place wherein I am to enlarge my selfe vpō this point which I haue already done in a Direction which I made and published touching mentall Prayer I will onely make vse of this digression to proue what I haue vndertaken to wit that it is easier to Cōtemplate then to meditate that more doe contēplate though they reflect not of it then doe meditate as we see by experience Tell some simple and vulgare person that God became mā for our sake or some other Article of the Creede he will beleeue it simply and humbly and sweetly will imbrace and assent to that mistery of our Faith Goe when you haue done this make him make a Meditation vpon it according to the long methodes which many Directours deliuer Let 's for example vpon Christmas day tell a soule that beleeues simply and adores IESVS borne of the blessed Virgin that she should place her selfe in the presence of the litle IESVS that she should frame in her imagination the māger of Bethlō together with the oxe the Asse haye straw the Blessed Virgin S. IOSEPH the night the cold season the stable opē one euery side to the winde weather the child quaking with cold lying all along vpon the litter swadled in poore cloutes adored by his holy mother his foster-father the Angels Pastours c. Tell her further that she is to inuoke the diuine grace to make her preludes her preparatory prayers From thēce make her passe on to her three points of Consideration Shew her how she is to amplifie and enlarge her reasons and discourses by looking vpon waighing and examining all the causes the effectes the time place persons all the circumstances actions words c. Thē teache her how she is to moue herselfe to good affections out of her discourse and reasoning affections of all sorts of loue Compassion Feare Ioy Greife Mercy Cōpunction c. Instruct her how out of these affections she is to