tasting gall and the whole series of his bitter Passion It s consideration is so feelingly efficacious that it made Christ himself become irksome and fearful so far as to sweat drops of blood What more efficacious to debar us of all gust then to compassionate with the sorrowful IESVS It was not without mystery that those who so perseverantly persisted with Christ upon the Mount Calvary and jointly suffered there with him concluded their life with no other Martyrdom wheras the rest of the Apostles and Disciples were crownd by the hands of persecuting tyrants For the most B. Virgin Mother of IESVS S. Iohn Evangelist and the Magdalen dyed not Martyrs a greater sorrow then any death or passion tormented them by meer compassion and was in lieu of a cruel martyrdom Let us then suffer jointly with IESVS and let our sufferings be joyfully voluntary IESVS is the way the truth and life what way will we take to arrive at a life truly happy but the life of IESVS which was a continual death and perpetual crucifixion It might suffice to make us eternally condole compassionate with IESVS and loathingly abhor all self-seeking appetites if we considerd what torture he sufferd that last night and day of his life in all his members there being no whole bit to be found in him from the sole of the foot to the crown of his head His tongue which the torments left untouchd that it might not go scotfree seems to have shard as deeply as any of the rest for the most patient IESVS complaind of no disjoyntings anguish of his limbs but only of his thirst to let us understand that even those parts which seemd to be vacant wanted not also their torment Neither did the intensenes of the pain stupify or benum them but all were preservd strong lively and vigorous that they might be more able to suffer and therfore he being ready to give up the ghost cryed out with a loud voice wherby also he gave a remonstrance of the never-relenting fervour with which he sollicited our cause amidst such bitter torments and of the humble acquiescency wherewith he accepted death by the bowing of his head and the profound respect and reverence he usd in fulfilling his Fathers precept so ful of difficulty Notwithstanding all this we ought to resent most feelingly what he sufferd all his life long in that one little member of his most holy Hart whose paine was unsufferably great even from the first moment of his conception and continued so all the time of his life It was his hart that did first and last partake of torment It was so much the more feelingly ressentive by how much the unsupportable anguish of all the rest of his members met in it the most delicate of all others as in their center No les affliction harbourd in the hart of IESVS from that moment then he felt in the garden when he swet blood through his whole body And even as there he was siezd after an unwonted and frightful manner with a lively apprehension of all the anguish and paines of his passion so also no les intensely did he apprehend the same in the womb of his most loving mother For Christs knowledg was not obnoxious to any imperfection at that time especially when he took upon him the grand affair of our redemption and all the difficulty he was to undergo and break through was without any dissimulation clearly represented to his understanding He did there most perfectly apprehend all the series of his sufferings the innumerable labours of his whole life his contempts and revilements and from that time this knowledge was as afflictive and perchance more if there could be any inequality as it was afterwards in the garden for there the sense of paine broke out and diffusd it self through all his body in such sort that the anguish dispersd through the whole did remaine les pungent in the hart but in the womb of the most glorious Virgin the whole sea of grief was confined within the narrow channel of one smal member the little tender hart of the infant IESVS When one sheds teares he is les sensible of an affliction then when the anguish is shut up and smotherd in the hart the eyes remaining dry and tearles so Christ when he did not sweat nor the blood trickld out sorrowd perchance more because no particle at all of that sorrow did evaporate nevertheles it was behoofful for our instruction to shew once exteriourly how much he continually sufferd interiourly That grief accompanyd him all along through the whole course of his life IESVS enjoyd alwaies a most perfect and intuitive knowledg of all things as they are in themselves Vnles by divine priviledg and dispensation he had bin particularly assisted the intensenes of the pain had causd death in that first instant he began to live and therfore his whole life was a signal and continual miracle Neither did his own Passion alone afflict him but much more his compassion over others he was moved to it while he considerd the distress of his most loving and innocent Mother he was moved to it in behalf of us he resented more feelingly the torments of Martyrs the austerities of confessours the discases and maladies of his Saints then they themselves who did undergo them If an affectionate Mother do more grieve at the sicknes of her child then the child himself who can deny but Christ loved his more tenderly then any mother doth her only child He did truly bear our labours our griefes did he sustain How great then must his pain needs be if it surpass that of Martyrs Penitents and sick folks comprizd in one But above the rest he was touchd with a lively compassion over us for all and each particular sin of all and each particular man who hath been or shal be to the worlds end The immensity of this pain will strike him that considers it into amazement it being able if it had not been miraculously suspended to have a thousand times bereaud him of life If some men have sorrowd so intensely for their sins that the vehemency of their contrition causd death how could it be but that the sorrow of IESVS for one alone and that the least venial sin of any one man must needs extinguish life in him he penetrating so perfectly the deformity of the fault as also the majesty of God his Father who is offended and the basenes of man the offender and loving so ardently both the one and the other as no body can reach the hight of this his charity so neither can any sound the depth of his sorrow If he conceivd so great griefe for one venial sin how much will he conceive for all and every venial and mortal so horrid and abominable he bore an unsupportable weight of sin who imposd upon us a sweet yoak and a light burden and we charge IESVS with the abominable fardel of our iniquities which forced a bloody
the very thought of it will fill thee with dread and horrour this will be small in comparison of the deformity of a small offence The more excellent a thing is the more we ressent its corruption and crookednes proves there the greatest eye sore where straightnes is most requird what more excellent then our minds and will which is in an eminent degree above any other creatures wherfore it s least defect is very ugly neither can understanding humane or Angelical penetrate to the ful the harme it causeth to a soul What a prodigious thing would it be if thou carriedst thy hart in thy belly and not in thy breast it is a greater prodigy that a soul made to love God should covet pleasures or deforme it self with the intemperance of gluttony or neglect in any other depraved affection Thou must have a horrour not onely of enormous sins but also of all venial which are esteemd little material and faslely tearmd petty ones That is not justly stild light and little which only hath above it another which is great A venial defect is not little which hath only above it another greater that is a mortal one yea for this reason it is to be thought great because it hath above it but one evil which is greater Men esteem not only death evil and dread it as such but also a feaver or a deadly wound That must needs be a vast evill which is only less then one evil a vast evil which is greater then all others wants disgraces sicknesses torments and hell it self it is a vast evil greater then which or equal God neither knowes nor can inflict although he should heap all the punishments of the damned upon thee Thou wouldst think it unsupportable to have a canker which rotted and consumed thy limbs what if other diseases much greater were added to this leprosy stoppage of breath the palsey dropsey loathing of the stomack the gout blindnes phrensey dumbnes extinction of natural heat One sole venial sin is more hurtful then all these Venial sin is a canker it spreads insensibly even to death inducing many others and at length a mortal unles the depraved affection be cut off It is a leprosy debarring the scabby and loathsome soul of the embracements of her spouse it is a stoppage causing difficulty of breathing after heavenly things and admitting divine inspirations grieving and contristating the H. Ghost it is a palsy retarding the nimble motions of our mind towards God and making us dul and stupidly insensible in the divine service it is a dropsy begetting a thirst high conceit of temporal things and a neglect of divine and wholsome ones it is a loathsomnes of stomack causing aversion from spiritual affaires it is a gout impeding us in the advancement of a vertuous progress it is a blindnes making us dim-sighted in the knowledg of truth heavenly goods veyling our eyes with fond worldly principles as if a thick mist were cast before them it is a phrensy making the soul go out of her right wits what greater phrensy imaginable then that he whom the king to honour him to have him his courtier yea and adopt him for his Son had clad in royall purple should go dip it in a dirty pudle and then ridiculously appear in his presence in like manner one that is vested with divine grace and the purple of God defiles himself with venial sin and though he be not stript of that pretious robe yet he pittifully bedaubs and misuseth it and dares in this pickle appear before the Angels and come into the presence of God Venial sin is also a deprivement of speech rendring our praiers so ineffectual that we deserve not to be heard nor obtain redress at the hands of heaven it is a wasting consumption disabling the mind to resist the divel it is a decay of vital heat much diminishing the fervour of charity Can that be little which is the cause and source of so great evils how can a soul in this equipage desire to repose in the bosome of her spous stench of breath alone is a sufficient cause of divorce in order to marriage bed how then dares she that is struck with a leprosy palsy dropsy she that is miserably bleer-eyd presume to aspire to a kiss of her spouses mouth if we should spoil our apparrel with spittle or dirt yea though it were only wet with fair water we would presently put it of and lay it aside refraining to appeare in it before company how then can we have patience not with our apparrel but our selves who are nasty sordid defild diseasd and yet even thus we covet the embracements of God never thinking of being first cured or putting our selves in better array if thou wouldst be content on condition of being cured of any of the afore said diseases suppose it were the canker alone nay out of hopes of being cured though with hazard to have some limb cut of how much more to be cured of them all o the stupidity of man I who is so insensible of so many maladies that befall his soul and procures not what in him lies an easy and obvious remedy in order to a certain and invaluable recovery of its health from so many dangerous diseases since for the uncertain recovery of his body he spares neither limbs nor any kind of torment Go too silly fool be sure in the first place to provide for thy soul and use as much caution as thou canst by avoiding venial sins not to incur so many diseases and for that end be sparing neither of care nor industry Thou maist conjecture the greatnes of the malady by the difficulty of the cure Behold what a medecine purgatory which is the hospital of such diseasd soules applies to them can it be little which must be cured with that fire and such bitter torments would one suspect that fault little for which he sees a nice and tender woman tormented in a flaming furnace for an houres space and that by the command of her most indulgent and affectionate spouse certainly either her spouse might be thought some furious fellow or the fault was highly displeasing Why do we esteem venial defects of smal concern for which God who is so loving and merciful towards men wil have soules so dear to him to lie daies and yeares in scorching flames without the least resentment of compassion either God is very unjust and cruelly bent or the least offence is a fearful irreverence vast ingratitude Thou o Lord art no tirant but an humble lover of soules and thy mercy is above all thy works this is â—y impudency too too enormous and stupenlious which thou who art most just most meek and humble of hart who wouldst be glad to remit much of that pain art forced to correct with so much severity least thou prove defective in point of justice If one should behold a dog struggling in the midst of flames and perishing in a burning pile
endeavouring conformity in all his proceedings O what a comfort it is to one that loves thee o IESVS to operate not only to please thee but because it is pleasing to thee this is the prerogative of obedience that so the obedient may not be frustrated of any part of the reward which he expects not only from the work but which he finds in it he obtaining his end in the beginning which is to please God and this depends not on any future thing it being anticipated by obeying O most welcome task of obedience why do any complain or seek to be excused from it for this reason that if they obey with humility and promptitude more is enjoind them for superiours are wont to be more forward in commanding them that are most prompt in complying with their commands It is a very fond complaint when we complain of what we ought to wish for A king is thought to do one a favour if he commit any businesses to his trust and the more and weightier they are the greater is the favour esteemd if God proceed after this manner with us why do we complain masters for the most part employ those servants about their commands who are most deare and intimate with them and of whose fidelity they have good proof why do we resent that God treats us as such o God of my hart if thou heldst this favorable manner of proceeding with thy own Son in this world who was obedient even unto the death of the cross shal I dare presume that any favour wil be shewed me of a higher strain o IESVS thou who becamest obedient in all grant that I may never refuse any compliance with obedience Thou atchievedst all by being obedient from thy nativity to thy very death thou wert no les subject to Caesar and Pilate then to it There was also a time when thou wouldst subject thy self to the powers of darknes giving way to the divels and permitting thy self with great obedience to the fury of hel in the executioners and malice of the Iewes and because thou couldst not become Incarnate by it thy Humanity being not as yet existent thy Mother supplied for this she conceiving thee by that rare act of obedience and submission of mind O most welcome task of obedience since it is most certain that nothing is better or more grateful to God Adam with drawing himself from it knew good and evil obedience is most innocent it not only knowes not good and evil but is also ignorant of good and better for all the works of obedience are in the superlative degree that is best in comparison of which the acts of other moral vertues carry no comparison in this that none of them is to be preferred before commands for though one practise all the rest but yet do against obedience they all avail nothing yea he does evil But if he omit them for it he shal have the merit of them all The obedient man knowes no such comparative discourses as it is better to do this then that but that it is best to do what is commanded He that hath obedience hath all other vertues in a compendious abridgment he that is obedient wil be both chast and a lover of poverty Adam after he became refractory felt presently the stings of the flesh and sought a garment to conceal them while he was obedient he was most chast and remained a Virgin being content with his own nakednes he stood in an exact poverty O most welcome obedience to him that is emulous of vertue and makes God the sole object of his love Comfort thy self o my soul who covetest longest so much to see his face which the Angels love to contemplate comfort thy self in the interim and reverence thy superiour whosoever he be as an apparent Christ and visible God God is not worshipped in himself only but in every superiour also Perswade thy self that the divine goodnes in its eternal love and providence hath ordained and decreed thee this Prelate that by him and no other he might communicate his grace and enrol thee one of the predestinate Gods autority resides in him enquire not why he commands this or that Gods wil stands for a reason and so it must be in him who is here his vice-gerent Why demandst thou a reason for putting thy self into the hands of God Tell me what was the reason he created not another man who perchance would have been better when he created thee and gave thee to thy self if thou canst not assigne any why demandest thou one for resigning thy self to God with all the latitude of thy will it is an unspeakable glory and content to the heavenly spirits to be alwaies praysing God but it is far more considerable that it is a property inherent to him inbred then if it proceeded only from their mouth The XIII Chapter How great harme proceeds from daily and light defects VVHy dost thou contemne in thy own soul what men affect so much in their bodies they providing not only for lifes maintenance but also for health and comelines It would be held an unsufferable misery to be alwaies sick and a horrid deformity to have ones body composed of man and beast Thou must not only stand in horrour of great sins but also dread the very desires and thoughts that are culpable yea any imperfection How unseemly an object would it be if a serpents mouth stood upon thy face and yet every smal word whether but lightly detractive or offensive or idle is far more deformed O truth o immense goodnes I beg of thee by the merits of Christ that thou wilt remove this veile from before my eys that I may throughly know how stupendious an evil is involved in the malice of the least default o man how monstrous a creature wouldst thou seeme to the eyes of men if thou shouldst at any time appeare with the head of an oxe or horse in thy humane body and yet it is far worse if before God and his Angels thou conceive in thy soul deified by divine grace disproportioned and idle thoughts of terrene things a brutish longing after thy own commodity nay there is more proportion betwixt a mans body and that of a beast which are in the same degree or order of things then there is betwixt grace and any sin even the smallest Wherfore the deformity of the least venial defect exceeds all monstruosity and corporal mishapednes whatsoever not only what is now extant but also imaginable or possible I beseech thee o zealot of Christ by his most sacred blood pause here a while and ponder what I say with an unbiazd judgment and thou who wouldst not have the least blemish in thy body permit not to thy utmost these monsters in thy soul the spouse of IESVS Employ all the faculties of thy mind set all the inventivenes of thy imagination on work and frame a deformity as ugly as thou canst such a mishapdnes as
he would be touched with a sense of compassion and how much more if he did see his own child in such a calamity o most mercyful Father how can that venial fault be tearmed little which it is unseemly for thee to compassionate though thou seest thy own children by grace whome thou affectest so tenderly so scorched and tortured in that piaculary fornace and yet for them it was thou gavest thy life pretious blood Neither paternal bowels replenished with pitty nor infinite wisdome was wanting in thee thou art not an ignorant God who can be deceived in the estimate of a fault nor a cruel one who takes content in punishing but against thy wil wherfore if thou tormentest him so rigorously whome thou lovest so tenderly it must needs be a vast evil towards which mercy it self is so unmerciful Let us imagin a man void of all knowledg of hel or purgatory and beholding only by revelation the state of some one soul pittifully afflicted by those flames for a venial sin but wholly ignorant what might occasion such a punishment what I beseech thee would he guess to cause it any smal or petty trifle or rather some huge exorbitancy which so benigne a God resolved to chastize with so much rigour Again shal that be tearmed little which he in this life punisheth with the greatest of all punishments death If God cannot err in inflicting penalties since he inflicts so dreadful ones how great must that needs be for which he inflicts them behold for one venial sin he punished his own servants Moyses and Aaron with death for one venial sin also as is probably thought Oza and lots wife were suddainly struck with the like disaster For one venial sin the Abbot Moyses was deliverd over to the divel and for a space possessed by him and in very deed it were a les evil to have a thousand legions of divels in ones body and be vext by them then to have the least venial sin in his soul and take complacence in it The divel laboured tooth and nail for 40 yeares together to make a certain servant of God commit but one venial trespass Is the divel such a fool that he would wait and lie in ambush so long to surprize him for a matter of smal moment why shal not we be watchful at least one day to avoid so great mischief o most pure truth purify my impure spirit from such an evil and illuminate me that I may not esteem it light because I regard it but lightly since the divels themselves take it so to hart but let me esteem that great which is done against a God so great nor let me repute that contemptible and sleight which I a contemptible sleight and inconstant creature commit by sinning upon all occasions and constantly but therfore let me hold it great because I who am vile and contemptible dare do it against a God the best and greatest How great must that needs be which rather then we must but once commit deliberately it is better to embrace a thousand deaths it is better that heaven and earth returned to their first nothing and all mankind were sentencd to damnation If choise were given to the Virgin Mother while she stands at the foot of the cross bewailing the torments and death of her beloved Son whether she would have him released from these paines and disgraces and behold him presently seated at the right hand of his Father and the salvation of a thousand worlds accomplished at that instant or consent to one sole venial sin she would chuse not to do this latter and would also perswade me to do so too nay rather then this she would chuse to see her Son and the Son of God once more naild to the cross yet without any default at all and if it were needful and lawful would strike in the nailes with her own pious hand and sacrifice him with greater charity then Abraham did his Tel me I pray would it be a slender courtesy and comfort to the Virgin her Iesus if some one man were found who would put himself upon the mount Calvary in the room of Christ and be crucified and suffer in his steed perswade thy self for all this that they would rather desire a greater comfort at thy hands which is to eschew all venial sin Consider now whether that would be little which should preponderate such a piece of service nor do thou deny this solace to thy suffering Christ and his compassionate Mother Let us then cancel and abolish this opinion that that evil can be light or little which the Virgin Christ God his Father deem so great and punish so exemplarly That is not little which hinders things orderd to a great and sublime end which lessens the love of God in this life and delaies his vision in the other It is no smal rub which puts as it were a stop and let to the most speedy and powerful mercy of God and his desires Would it be accounted a smal violence that should suspend a millstone falling from heaven in the aire while it were poasting to the earth its center it is therfore no smal sin which suspends the divine munificence and the ardent desires of an enamoured soul that they cannot reach their center God and the promisd holy land of beatitude but detaines it in the flames of purgatory That is not a little displeasing to God which hinders him from giving out of hand what he hath such a mind to give and we so willingly would receive That is not little which stops the current of Gods great favours and even in this life obstructs the outlets of his profuse liberality Let us tremble at such an evil and to the very utmost of our power use all possible diligence to avoid it not enduring to brook the shame and disgrace which the name of a fault imports How can that soul take complacence in the name of a servant or a child or a spouse which is not carefull to please God and comply in all things with his sacred will how naughty a servant would he be thought that would do nothing as he ought unles his master threatning death stood over him with a drawn sword and can upon no other tearms neither by faire meanes nor foul be brought to his duty how untoward a child who is allwaies crossing his parent and seeks to please him no further then meerly to keep himself from being disinherited for the rest is wholly wrechles in accomplishing his wil and desire and is lead in all with a spirit of contradiction how disloial a spouse who should only so far forth shew her self faithfull and loving to her fellow spouse as not to provoke him to take her life in other things perpetually crossing and vexing him and were she never so often corrected shewd no signes at all of amendment what argument of love would it be in a child or spouse to say I really love my parent or fellow spouse
she nevertheless kissd the pictures of him which stood engraven here and there in his pallace and reverened them exceedingly for their beauty which not withstanding in comparison of the king himself were ugly nor did they intirely resemble all his features but one his eyes only another his hands a third his countenance and they being both together if he desird to imbrace her she turnd her back disdaignfully and loathing his person sought after his image Iudge now o mortals The Lord liveth because the woman that doth this is a child of laughter O I wish I could intrap thee in the snare of Nathan and make thee relent with the penance of David Thou o my soul art this woman This saith the Lord God of Israel I have annoynted thee o man king over all the creatures of the world I have created all things for thy use I have deliverd thee out of the hands of Saul and robbers to wit Lucifer and the divels out of the filth in which thou didst wallow out of the flames of hel to which thou wert sentencd I cleansed thee with my own blood I gave thee the heavenly mansion-house of thy Lord and God and all the delights of heaven together with it I appointed thee the house of this world as a kingly pallace and all creatures to be thy attendants and if these benefits of thy creation redemption and glorification be but slender ones I will heap far greater upon thee for which of all these dost thou persecute and contemne me do my kindnesses seem crimes to thee thou art angry at me and punishes me as men do malefactours who are chastizd with the instruments by which they offended thou abusest my very guifts condemning me in them as if I became criminal by my wel doing Which of my favours deserves these thy injuries tel me and I will amend it I le be thy revenger upon my self because I desird nothing more then thy good wil nor do I desire nor shall I. To make thee love me Iam ready to destroy the world if it were injurious to thee that I made it If I were faulty in dying for thee I le dye again to make satisfaction and come to an attonement If it were a crime that I prepard my glory and heaven for thee upon condition thou wouldst pardon me I would relinquish it once again and evacuate my self depriving my self of my Majesty and glory Why dost thou think those things which if they were done betwixt man and man would be accounted vertues worthy of praise being now done to thee by God to be crimes deserving nothing lesthen disgrace and death But if thou esteem those things as benefits which I have heapd upon thee with all the extent of my omnipotency and purchase of my sufferings why dost thou seek to affront me stil more and more Perchance my offence was in this that my benefits were so many and great for in each particular I can acknowledg no fault and therfore thou wilt punish me with the greatnes and multitude of contempts and strive to out number my kindnesses by thy affronts Behold thou alone hast pickt up the most notorious debaucheryes of the lewdest woemen against me thy lover to cast them into my dish Thou didst take complacence in the impudency of Putiphars wife and thou itching to practise the same against me covetest to play the harlot with the servants which I assigned thee to witt creatures and thou compelst them to this nor wilt thou learn by their loyalty who run from thee like Ioseph and eyther pass away presently or perish they all are ful of a deep resentment and replenishd with sorrow for the throwes and pangs of those that being violated by thee are ready to be delivered it being much against their will that thou sinnest with them or art enamoured upon them to the prejudice of thy spouse and their Lord and Soveraign But thou heaping iniquity upon iniquity slanderst them for giving thee the slip and complainst of them for running away This is the common complaint of mortals that their Gods are mortal that creatures are fading and perishable Thou criminatest them for being the occasion of thy adultery when they as innocent faithfull to their God and thy wel wishers fly from thee that thou mayst not commit it by loving them with an inordinate affection But thou repliest saying if I were wealthy if I had riches if I enjoyd this or that commodity I would serve God peaceably nor desire more but because I have lost all and the goods of this would fly me I can not but doe thus want compels me to sin poverty puts me upon unlawful desires to the great prejudice of my own spirit Leave of complaining cease to blame them and rather give eare to creatures who teach thee thy duty better then Ioseph Behold say they our Lord forgetful of himself gives thee all neither is there any thing which he hath not subiected to thy power to doe with it what thou wilt this onely excepted not to love us how canst thou be so il-naturd as to offend thy God how can we admit of this thy love which thy Creatour hath reservd to himself He hath given us to thee that thou mightst give thy self to him we serve thee that thou mayst serve him learn of us to serve him to death and play not the adulterer We are destroyd that thou mayst subsist for we have neither scandalizd thee nor given thee il example we covet not to be loved by thee but rather wish thee to give him the best thing thou hast to wit thy love Love him and praise him as we doe Learn zeale of us for to the end thou mayst do so we willingly suffer our selves to be destroyed Learn to dye that the glory of God may live for to the end thou mayst live we dye Learn humility of us for being thy sisters equal in noblenes of parentage yea elder by birth we disdain not to serve thee even in abject things that thou mayst reign with thy spouse and love him That thou mayst live eternally with him we are turnd into filth and corruption nor do we detrect any the meanest offices for thy sake with manifest hazard of our destruction only we cannot brook that on the altar of God that is thy hart idols of us should be placed through a disorderly affection towards us thou thinking oftner upon us then him and sacrificing to us not beasts but thy own soul Fy fy be ashamd to make a celestial soul the victime of a piece of earthly mettal or vain honour or momentary pleasure in it divine grace by that eternal glory Thou tookst content moreover o soul in the treachery of Dalila and forthwith attemptedst to practise the like upon me thy God and thy lover Thou betraydst me into captivity like Samson to my greatest enemies and madest me a slave to the Philistians of thy sins for thou madest me serve thee in them thou madest
sin humbly I sin a new arrogantly I could wish I went to hel if it were possible by doing so to obtain thy grace But how dare I that am nothing but an extract of sin wish that which thy greatest Saints and choisest favorits have made their suit and humble petition How dare I wish onely a hel who alone am the sinner of sinners What place shall I pretend to there Shall it be in the very center of it at the feet of Lucifer If some one of thy friends had an ambition to be there how dare I pretend it that place was desird by some of thy Saints and proved to them a ladder to heaven Thy servant B. Vrigman of the Order of S. Dominick when he could find no fit place for himself but in the bottome of hel under Lucifer was invited by a voice from heaven to mount up thither to a most sublime throne the hart of God the father and how then dare I covet that place what then will there remain some other place for me below all who am a sinner above all Shal it be at the feet of ludas but this is already taken up by thy servant Saint Francis Borgia who not withstanding quitted it when he reflected that sometime it had bin the seat of my Lord and master the humble IESVS What place then remaines for me Shal it be at the feet of him who gave IESVS the buffet on the face I having given him many more such injurious blowes or at the feet of Caiphas being I daily condemn Christ and his doctrine or at the gate of hel that all who enter there may tread upon me or shal I expect the precipice of Anti-christ into that infernal pit that I may suffer under his feet o most bountiful soveraign worse then the worst of all sinners am I there is no place for me in hel who am unworthy of al place I hold my self not worthy even of the fellowship of divels in so much that according to my desert a viler and more penal hel ought to be prepard for me I am the disgrace of nature the scum and refuse of mankind If thou o father wert capable of shame thou wouldst be ashamd of nothing save only preserving me in the world such a horrid and abominable moâ—ster as my sins have made me Nay I am a discredit even to the divels themselves and they might deservedly discard me from their infernal community Am I not worse then the divels It is clear I am in my nature and I do not deny it in my behaviour and carriage yea I see many things in my self which force me to grant it For they were damned for one sin and that of thought only whereas mine are infinite and most enormious and of fact also What difference then or excess is there betwixt my malice and theirs as much as there is betwixt a single unity and a number that 's numberles But though we alter these conditions yet stil I must acknowledge my malice greater then theirs although they had bin damnd for innumerable offences and I but for one For they did not sin against a God who for their sakes became an Angel neither had they such a ful proof of his goodnes they did not sin against a God who for them vouchsafd to be crucifyd they did not sin against a God who made himself the food of their soules they did not sin against a God who left them such a sublime Priesthood they did not sin against a God who by his example gave them the documents of a good life and did undergo the incessant labours of 33. yeares in inculcating them But I have sinn'd and why dost thou not o my soul dissolve into teares at the very thought of it against a God who so often hath bin so immensely good on my behalf who dy'd for me who wept for me upon the cross with loud out-cryes and not a joint of his body but bewaild each of my offences in the garden with teares of blood I am more unworthy then Lucifer more unworthy then the divels more vnworthy then Iudas who had not as yet seen Christ dying for him more vnworthy then Anti-christ who will not so often as I experience the great mercy of God deservedly therfore may they disdain my company neither is hel worthy of me nor would it willingly receive my sinfulnes T is more then this hel that I deserve I have merited to be cast out of all nature least I dishonour it who have disgraced its graceful glory I have murderd as much as lay in me its parent I have taken the crown of creatures from of his head I have dishonourd each creature by contemning their Creatour therfore I ought to be the but and object of all their hatred and they all rejoyce at my destruction Perchance I should beg this if it were possible that I who am the reproach of nature the dispite of grace the moth of the divine wil could not have had a being Notwithstanding because I deserve to be tormented what place shal I find fit for it Thou o infinite power o incomprehensible wisdome o immense justice thou canst tel what to doe with me In the meane time till a place be found and prepard I le expect not beneath Satan nor at the feet of Iudas nor wil I before hand take Anti-christs place of all which as yet I acknowledg my self unworthy but I wil place my self at the feet of the Son of God and his B. Mother standing weeping at the foot of the cross of my IESVS for they are better stored with patience and wil tolerate me whom neither the divel nor Iudas nor the rout of the damned would be able to endure Pardon me I beseech thee if I intrench upon the patience of thy Son and his Virgin Mother Let me lie at the feet of IESVS and Mary they know long agoe how to tread underfoot venimous creatures I am that poysonous and sauage Chimera that four-formd deformity that manifold monster having the eyes of a basilisk the head of an asp the clawes of a lion and the fiercenes of a dragon But o father of mercy because my IESVS cannot as now walk upon me a basilisk and aspe nor trample down this lion and dragon for my sins keep his feet fast bound to the cross therfore let the heel of the most B. Virgin Mary my Mother in the interim bruize this malice of mine let her crush the head of this serpent by her merciful intercession I am cause of her sorrow guilty of her teares she may justly complain of me and take revenge upon me The feet of the purest IESVS are welinurd both to tolerate and take away the monsters of our sins I seek not them amidst banquets and delights as did the Magdalen but among nailes and sorrowes and because I cannot water them with my teares I covet to be washd with their blood I wil not intangle those feet which I
to wit divine grace merited for us by his Passion and remaining inherent in us He satiates our hungar with his own Body he quencheth our thirst with his sacred blood he enricheth our penury with the ample treasure of his inexhaustible merits If thou wilt know how much Christs merits are thine how thou maist employ them to gaine grace offer them to God to obtaine mercy hence gather it to wit because he reput'd thy sins his It was said in the person of Christ the words of my offences Yet we must not think his merits so to be ours as that it is not needful to have any of our own but may be saved by sitting stil doing nothing for Iesus died not that we might be negligent but fervent and zealous in the divine service Even as the soul of Christ could not suffer damnation for thy sins unles he committed some himself which was impossible so neither shalt thou be saved by the merits of Christ unles thou do good works and have grace inherent in thee which nevertheles is also from Christ He gave us then his merits that we might use them as our own to appease Gods wrath and indignation no otherwise then he took upon him our sins as his own to make satisfaction he grieved he deplored them he satisfyd for them as if they had been his own delinquencies He gave us not his meer naked works but cloathd in their robes of dignity that is as performd by a divine person insomuch that as he took upon him our sins as committed by most vile and abject creatures his servants so we should partake of his merits as treasurd up by the Son of God equal to his heavenly father Let us imitate Christ in as much as he appropriated to himself our faults that we may learn how to use his merits and appropriate them to our selves Deem o sinner Christs merits thine and upon that account make thy demands with great confidence for this is to ask in the name of Christ His merits given to us are far more available to this then if we had done the same our selves had been crucifyed for the glory of God for in that case they would not be the works of God but man a sinner Lo then how much thou art obligd to Christ who took upon him thy sins and gave thee his merits who quitted thee of so great evil and bestowd upon thee so great good These two scores upon which he demands this satisfaction of thee are infinitly obligatory to wit that as he satisfyd for thy sins as if he had committed them so thou must not offer the merits of Christs otherwise to God and procure grace by them then as if they were thy own O most sweet IESV that I could but understand what benefit and advantages have do accrue to us so wretched from thee we were monsters of horrour and now by thy meanes we are become a spectacle grateful to God we were in the very mud and bottom of hel and now we are in the bosome I wil not say of Abraham the father of nations but of God thy father we were in the throat of the infernal dragon now we are in the hart of God himself we were an object unworthy of the divine eyes now we are worthy of his embracements we were slaves comdemnd to the prison of hel now by thee we shal be crownd kings of heaven Who can conceive whither we had precipitated our selves and to what thou hast exalted us our misery ought to have been throughly contented if thou hadst only freed us out of hel but not thy mercy unles thou hadst also elevated us above the heavens and so many Angels thou hadst done too-much when we were involud in an irreparable misery and so desperately that all redress seemd wholy impossible if thou hadst only obtaynd of thy father a surcease of his anger but thou gottest us also our pardon thou hadst done too much in getting our pardon but thou moreover ga inedst us his good will his love and his favour thou hadst done too-much and a thing deserving admiration if thou hadst only won his good will but thou obtainedst for us also guifts and graces thou hadst done too much and what might worthily make us amazd if thou hadst obtaind for us but the least guift at Gods hand but thou hast gotten us his kingdom and thy own inheritance thou hadst done too much if thou hadst effected this but once but thou hast effected that it should be given us innumerable times if we faulterd so often supposing we had recourse to thee by true pennance lastly thou obtainedst for us whatsoever God possesseth vouchsafedst to admit us as loathsome abominable as we wer to share with thee in thy patrimony Behold o man from whence Christ hath deliverd thee and where he hath installd thee if thou unwittingly and at hap-hazard hadst freed another not from death but some casual distress what thanks and gratitude wouldst thou expect from him savage beasts are grateful even for some benefits a fierce lion for one thorn pulld out of his foot was mindful of the good turn after a long time and requited it and why make we the immense benefits conferrd on us by Christ of an inferiour rank to those of wild beasts and rather stand not amazd and at a nonplus through desire of gratitude but perchance Christ was obligd to do for us what he did or did it with case and with out expense nay we were his enemies and the busines was most difficult and desperate and the atchieving it cost him no less then the price of his blood and pretious life O Immense charity of God what hast thou done for hatefulman when we were in an impossibility of salvation and knew not which way to turne our selves thou o most merciful God foundest out a remedy a devise a stratagem of stupendious mercy and when the compassing of it was out of our reach thou thy self wouldst execute the design But what kind of remedy was it what captive durst wish much less ask of his king that to gain his freedom he would become prisoner Thou o my IESVS wert content for our sakes to do more then we durst either hope or wish Thou being the king of glory wert bound for us hand and foot and treated as one that pleads guilty yea condemnd and executed for us thy enemies that stood impeachd of high treason It were an act worth admiration if an Emperour should daigne to visit a peasant cast into prison for his misde meanours and how much more if his own betraier what if he should quit his throne for him and in a disguisd habit remain prisoner while the malefactour made an escape Thou didst this o most loving IESVS His praise is never sufficiently renownd who made himself captive to redeem his friend nor that servant who to rescue his king exposd himself both to his enemies death nor that parent who
integrity of his nature Man was created in a degree much superiour to other creatures Mary was exalted above the Cherubins glorifid more then all these glorious intelligences surmounting them as far as Adam did the common creatures She alone seems to be twice as great with God and much deeper in his favour then the whole world besides towards which though the Son of God shewd a wonderful dignation in descending from heaven for its redemption yet it could not receive the H. Ghost unles heaven first receivd him again but the Virgin Mother at the self same time entertaind both him and the H. Ghost in his superventions Therfore the prayers of Mary are effectual with Christ for two respects both for observance due to a Mother and for the consummatenes of her merits and sanctity for she is heard both for respect and reverence oweing to him and worth and dignity due to her self for the reverence of her maternity for the worth of her vertue and sanctity and we also are heard for her sake whose intercession is not only proficuous but also necessary Therfore let us fly to Mary in all our distresses as the child doth to his Mother who is beaten by a stranger she knowes how to support and uphold the tottering world with her prayers nor think that thou laiest a heavy burden upon her The fourth cause may be an assinity and kind of alliance contracted with the most B. Virgin not only spiritualy and after a mystical manner but even real and according to the body and nature For no body is nigher in kindred to another then the sacred Virgin is to thee He that receives Christs body in the Eucharist becomes by a real kind of union one flesh with him insomuch that there is no other union among men straiter then this not even betwixt man and wife wherfore thou must also esteem thy self akin to the Mother of Christ and perswade thy self that thou sharest in the same flesh with her There interceeds also a greater physical and real conjunction betwixt God and thee then there is betwixt thee and thy father how great then will that be which thou contractest with the Mother of God what created and real union can be imagind greater then that which passeth betwixt the divine word and his most sacred Humanity derived from the very bowels of the most H. Virgin and what link of consanguinity can be straiter then that betwixt Christ and his B. Mother Therfore the affinity and tie which we have even according to nature with her exceeds all affinity among men And if men upon this score of alliance by blood and kindred do mutually help one another and have recourse to them for reliefe in distress why shall not we have recourse to her with whome we are linkt in the straitest bonds What shall I say of the neernes and as it were spiritual kindred which we have contracted with her he by whom thou receivedst the grace of baptisme or stood for God father to thee in that Sacrament becomes thy kinsman and thou art bound to honour him as thy parent how much stricter a propinquity and filiation contract we with the Virgin by whose meanes we have so often receivd grace who hath so frequently brought us forth to God and into the light and truth of a spiritual life I acknowledg thee o Mother of God Mother of grace and mercy for my Mother and beseech thee that thou wilt not forget that sweet name in which thou thy self takest so much complacence Thou art stild Mother of grace and mercy and what ennobled thee with this title but our misery because we stand in such need of thy grace and commise-ration wherfore since I am the most miserable of all I challenge a greater right over thy maternal bowels then all Thy dignity accrues from my indignity thy sanctity from my sinfulnes and therfore I claime the first place in thy mercy because I am the first and greatest and unworthiest of sinners The sins of men made thee the Mother of God and my sins alone were sufficient to make thee the Mother of mercy discard me not from thy protection since all the Religious of our Society are shelterd under thy mantle as thy most devoted child F. Martin Gutierez beheld once in a wonderful vision For who can lay a better claime to mercy then he that is most miserable remember that I alone by my innumerable offences can only maintain this title of honour in which next to that of a Virgin Mother thou art wonto glory above all others I that am most miserable confide o Mother in thy mercy for heaven and earth wil sooner perish then thy mercy and grace wil frustrate those that truly and seriously implore â—y assistance and bestow themselves in thy service Admit me among them that with joyfulnes and teares I may employ my self in honouring thee but because my tepidity keeps me cold and dul as one that am wholy of an earthly complexion I envy thy clients a little of their fervour and wish as did that most devout Father Iohn Trexus to sweep thy chappells with my mouth and water them with my teares And to accomplish this in deed that good zealous Father and devout child of the Virgin made on foot a pilgrimage of some miles The V. Chapter That we must imitate Christ and of the sorrow and suffering of his most B. Hart. HOw can that man relish any thing of gust who thinks upon IESVS afflicted for the gust of men One drop oâ— his blood was more then sufficient for our redemption how happens it then that the effusion of the whole and such a world of sorrowes afflictions and disgraces are not an effectual incentive to imitation did the Son of God suffer such and so much in vain and to no purpose since the least prayer he made was a superabundant satisfaction for a thousand worlds and able to purchase grace for all mankind And yet so great an excess of torments sufficeth not to stir up me alone to his imitation for Christ sufferd for us leaving us an example The least swarvings of our wil cost God no les then the most exorbitant of our offences O if I did but seriously ponder my works o Lord how should I be siezd with fear Thy works are wonderful I wish my soul could throughly know them prodigious wonders which thou hast placd upon the earth wonderful testimonies of thy love and my ingratitude and hard hartednes I wish my hart would become like melted wax I set thee as a signet upon it that so I may rellish no gustful thing in this life but imitate thy griefes and afflictions I will place that sad hart of my IESVS which was in a perpetual crucifixion as a signet upon mine so shall I have it alwayes in my mind and my soul will wast within me What can be imagind more effectual to extinguish in us all gust of our own will then the memory of IESVS
possess the goods of this world they would reply and appeale to the throne of his mercy as deeming that two great a punishment O how rich will he be who is so poor of spirit that not so much as in affection he covets any thing of this world for as soon as he hath made this renouncement of worldly treasures in his hart he transfers them into heaven becoming Lord of them and selling them to Christ without any prejudice at all either to him that ownes them or that hath them in use Such a one is strangely enrichd by those things which neither are his nor ever shal be having treasures in heaven and no want upon earth for poverty is not burdensome to him that loves it but ful of sweetnes and content unsavory only to them that hate and inveigh against it and what wonder if it be offensive to its persecutours and enemyes Nevertheles it is hurtful to none but good to all for it is no hindrance at all to those who contemne all from their hart for God and very advantagious to those that gape after terrene commodities making them even against their wils forbear a great many sins which in plenty they would have committed plentifully Wherfore although it seem to such bitter and distastful yet they cannot deny i◠to be extremely beneficial The XI Chapter That Patience is necessary in all occasions PAtience is a thing to be wished above all others thou must regard it more then thy life for there is a greater necessity of suffering then can be of living Thou art not born to live easfully for a time but thou livest that thou mayst suffer for a time and thou sufferest for a time that thou mayst live eternally Thou art born to a life which shall not be interrupted it is requisite then that in this its interim thou suffer without interruption This life is not for it self for neither do passengers travel that they may only be sayd to be in motion we live for a more sublime end What is this life but toile and labour to which man is born that by it he may purchase beatitude God could have created us in glory what needed we fetch such a circuit about pass through so many windings unles we were to go by the path of suffering Give credit to what I now say register it in the book of thy hart nothing is more necessary to life then patience because nothing is more obvious in it then sufferance In troubles which cannot be avoided it is a lenitive asswageth griefe which impatiēce augmenteth Thou mightst have some pretext for being impatient if thy impatience would ease the affliction but it is a thing beyond all excuse to forfeit the ample fruits of patience which thou mightst reape almost out of every action and adversity without any fruit at all Do not omit nor performe thy vertuous exercises perfunctoriously by reason of any incumbrances of this life or the hard measure thou hast from men for it would be esteemed injustice to make God pay for an injury done thee by man God who is innocent must not satisfy for the default of the nocent If thou inure thy self to take these tribulations patiently thou shalt become after a manner impassible and a lover of afflictions Fire doth not burn ashes nor suffer they any harme from it they rather love the fire foment and help to its conservation so the more patient one is the more joy many times by a certain divine priviledg doth he feel in his greatest pressures Patience doth not lessen the labour but the pain and that 's enough it is so deserving at our hands that it wil not defraud us of any part of our merits but only asswage the noy somenes of the affliction so it hath found a meanes to make us enjoy both the fruits of our labours and not be contristated with the labours themselves God takes complacence in nothing almost more then in sending adversities confusions humiliations to him that 's truly patient because he loves most cordially one that is thus throughly mortified enricheth his friends with merits whose harvest is in labours and afflictions God shewes no greater argument of love nor imparts any guift with more tendernes and affection of hart then labours the bitter cross of his B. Son and nothing ought to be higher then this in thy desires The most loving hart of Christ expected revilement and misery and how canst thou be his disciple if thou hate and shun it seek not to beloved by God upon other motives then was his only-beloved Son nor covet to affect any thing besides what he loved and affected Thou wilt not be patient enought unles thou desire practise of patience which is sufferance thou wilt be but half-patient if thou only beare the wrong done thee unles thou be also ambitious of them but this without any others default To what end makest thou thy complaints the true patient speaks not of his wrongs nor makes rehearsals of his aggrievances to another because he placeth not his comfort in excuses and condolements but stands indifferent whether his griefe be eased or no. Why resentest thou so heavily to supply what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ he for the glory of God would not only endure scourges and the cross but in desire and preparation of mind he covered all the afflictions of all men and this very anguish that now annoyes thee which was wanting to his Passion that is to a most ardent desire of greater sufferance and all torment imaginable Rejoyce that thou endurest this for Christ who oughtest to deem it an inestimable favour to receive one stripe that it might not be inflicted on him but if thou brookst this sleight affliction which was wanting to his desire with patience Christ will take content in it and thou wilt afford him no smal comfort O most loving IESVS why am I afflicted in my tribulations if I have this solace that thou art solaced by them Thou didst seek o Lord some one who would condole with thee couldst find none behold me here of my own accord I wil be afflicted and sorrow with thee that I may be a companion of thy sufferings and death Who wilgrant me that I may die with thee o Son of God and if thou be pleasd to send me only this light tribulation why do I refuse to be lightly afflicted for thee others solace themselves if only some men be joint-sufferers with them why should not I solace my self if I be joint-sufferer with my God This is enough for me neither do I covet the compassion of men I will grieve no more o Lord that I see my self alone injured my self alone contemned nay this shal be a comfort to me that besides the fellowship of my suffering IESVS I suffer all alone and behold none of my brethren involved in the like distress O my IESVS I find nothing in this tribulation which gives me just
but little regard notwithstanding what affront I put upon him besides death or a deadly wound I will uncontroulably do what I think good nor ever labour to humour him further then may serve to save my life and secure my inheritance Who could have patience with one that should speak thus do accordingly Iust thus proceeds he who contemnes venial sins and serves God meerly to avoid the death of his soul or forfeiture of heaven by a mortal Is there think you any master of a family to be found who would give house room to such a servant or Son or spouse this is the prodigious patience of God who tolerates us even while we abuse his toleration Let us then not misprize these faults as little which although they were so yet are they many and God is great and but one Grains of sand are smal yet they may be so multiplied that they wil overwhelme one sooner then a great stone One locust is an inconsiderable creature yet what greater destruction to the fields then their multitude great citties are delugd by smal drops of raine If we had so many little wounds or pricks in our body so many pushes or blisters in our face so many rends or holes in our garment as we commit venial sins we should be halfe dead loathsome to the eye and almost quite naked and why do we suffer those miseries in our soul but because we are less ressentive of its harmes then what concerns our body and apparrel O how dare we appear before God so replenished with confusion but why do I insist upon the number one sole fault is to be dreaded because one cannot think any thing little who thinks God to be infinite nor will he account it smal whose love is great what love resides in him who makes no reckning of displeasing God he that displeaseth him in a little really displeaseth him he that displeaseth him transgresseth the lawes of an ardent love The XIV Chapter Of exactnes in small things GOd is immensly great in his service thou must esteem nothing little he were not great enough unles he exceeded all littlenes If thou lovest him true friendship is tried in the least duties Art shewes it self in little things the perfection of vertue is no les polite and therfore it stands not altogether upon ample subjects Nature is most admirable in the least things it is most tender over the minutest creatures Grace is no whit more dul nor ought to be more backward Those things which seem more minute are to be more nighly regarded Since God is so great nothing is little which eyther pleaseth or displeaseth him In good evil there is no minutenes Whatsoever is good for that very respect is great whatsoever is bad upon that very score is not little An infinite goodnes exacts by claime all our forces he that owes all doth an injury if he deny any thing Vse not these manners of speech what makes matter for this this imports but little this is of no moment at all Yea this which thou deemst nothing is a busines of great concern because what thou thinkest much or of great moment is nothing in comparison of Gods greatnes and thy obligation O immense truth how can any thing be thought little or great if the measure of my obligation diligence be thy immensity where there is no little nor great but an excess of all meane How can I say this is little if whatsoever I do for thee is nothing It is not little which is held the least since perfection consists in the least Little things are not to be sleighted because greater are contemned If thou let a spark of fire fal into a pile of dry sticks which thou keepst under thy roof a great flame will be raisd which will consume the whole edifice Our corrupt nature is as apt to take the infection of malice as a little dry flax to take flame If thou sleightest smal things by little and little thou wilt be perverted Regard not the littlenes which appeares at first but by the beginning measure the end Seeds are allwaies extreme little and yet there is more vertue and efficacy in them then in any part of the whole plant The parting of two high waies insensibly protracted into length ends at last in a great interval of distance and may proceed to an infinitude though at first les then a step would have concluded the difference If thou once swarve from thy good purposes and remit that vigour of mind thou wilt by degrees find thy self very remote from thy former fervour Great things take their beginning from little wherfore a little is not the least if it be but the beginning The beginning of every thing is its chief and principal part yea it is not calld a part but the half of the whole Our H. Father S. Ignatius did with reason hold that it was more dangerous to contemne little things then greater the dammage of these latter is more patent and may forthwith be remedied but the prejudice we sustain by the former is not perceived but by length of time when being inveterated by custome it is scarse capable of redress The very nature and enormity of sin makes us abhor detest great ones but little defects because they seem little for this very reason are contemned and this being so our mind is not bent against them Our concupiscence is sharpend and set on edge by little things as thinking that it may wander in them without any great danger when it is not so venturous in great ones it being curbed and kept in by the apprehension of a patent ensuing harm but when our desire is once enkindled a little traind up how wil it then lash forth what wil it not encounter and for this reason we must sometimes proceed with more warines and sollicitude against smal defects then great Custome which gaines prescription upon vices breeds from little things not from great because they are less frequent nor shal we find it an easier task to resist custome then nature One shal sooner have an action in law against a publick invader and forcible seizure of our goods then one that hath had them by long prescription Those things which seem light take from us all remorse and shame of committing them that towards God being once cast of what good can be expected from us past shame past grace Be ashamd to refrain from great things and yeald to little for it is disgraceful and a sign of a coward to be foild by a dwarf or weak enemy That little is not to be sleighted in which great worth may be comprized A pearl is not contemned by reason of its littlenes nay for this respect it is valued the more as containing great worth in a little body why dost thou sleight that little wherin perchance thou maist do God a piece of better service then in greater Obsequiousnes and diligence in small things gaines greater
others stile or think thee such A sick man is not cured by being said to be cured Which wouldst thou rather chuse to be in very deed able and strong in health although others did think thee infirme or rather to be truly sick and esteemd by others sound and robustious Why dost thou chuse to be held good since thou are so very bad yea it would be highly displeasing to one that is sick or in payn even more then the malady it self if others should say he did but counterfeyt and loved to complain without cause why takest thou complacence in being accounted upright when thou art the quite contrary sick people are so far from desiring to be thought sound if they be not so that they themselves are wont now and then to aggravate the disease and love that others do so too so one that is truly humble exaggerates his own unworthines and is glad when others do the same augmenting his contumelyes and disgraces therfore the conclusion is he that seeks to be praysed seeks not only an impossible but ridiculous thing Thou wilt commit a piece of injustice if thou be desirous of prayse and not of disgrace since a plurality of votes conclude thy contempt If thou ballance thy self thy misdemeanours and innumerable defects will preponderate thy good deeds they being very few and depending upon others Wilt thou know in plain tearmes that it is impossible for thee to deserve prayse it is impossible for thee to have any thing of thy self for which to be esteemed And hence thou mayst gather mans insufficiency for labouring to gain credit by what is anothers which if he had them of his own he would never glory in another mans right as worldly men are wont to do for having brave horses faythful servants or rich apparel generosity being onely the quality of the horse and a generous horse may have a vicious or base minded owner Fidelity is the glory of a servant and a good servant may have a very naughty master Splendid apparrel is a commendation rather due to the tayler or weaver and a fine coat may cover a foul body and ulcerous conscience By the same vicious manner of proceeding men appropriate to themselves what is only proper to God even those who have abandoned the world while they do not wholly abandon themselves The XVI Chapter Of the basenes of man IF thou desirest peace with God humble thy self beneath all men and all things It is a terrible saying God resists the proud neyther is that les terrible the proud resist God God resists the proud that they may not commit wickednes the proud resist God that he may not do good God resists the proud that they become not evill and wholly bad by their pride for which end he seeks to humble them the proud resist God that he be not good and beneficial by stopping the current of the divine blessings Make hence an evident conjecture that thou art extreme base that is extreme proud since thou resistest God otherwise he would have enriched thee with innumerable benefits graces and vertues It is palpable that a cloud hangs over thee which keeps off the sun if at midday in an open Champian his beames do not forcibly beat upon thee thou wilt as then be all in the shade although thou seest nothing that can overshadow thee None is more vile and defectuous then he who acknowledgeth in himself no vilenes or defect because his mind raisd above it self stands in opposition with God and his clarity There is no more evident sign of our pride then the surcease of the divine beneficence because it puts a stop to Gods ardent desire of communicating himself it impedes the efficacy of Christs Passion the intercession of the Virgin and the prayers of Saints Great is my malice and bottomles my misery since I being but one can resist so many obstructing as much as in me lyes the 5. Fountains of Christs blood and the torrent of the divine liberality Although we were so mad as not to acknowledg any sin or defect in our selves we ought to take this for a most pregnant token of extreme pride and basenes nor were our sins insufficient ought any thing els to keep us more in humility not the wormes in which we are to end not the clay of which we are moulded not the ordures with which while we live we are stuffed not the miseries of our body which insult so over us nor the ignorance of our mind which thwarts and frustrates our counsels It is more then enough to humble us beneath all things to see God communicate himself no more to us and permit as he doth our defects O humble Majesty of God! how deare and desirable is our humility to thee Christ dyed for our sins but he permits them for our humiliation Did the humility of man cost dearer then the life of God Did IESVS prize our humility more then the benefit of his redemption since he carries himself permissively towards our sins for the cancelling wherof he spent both his blood and his life and humbled himself by descending from heaven that he might give redress to our pride and he that redeemd sin by his own humiliation and death makes sins themselves as it were the purchase of our humility what is this which seems almost incredible that God should do incredible things to make us humble it seeming otherwise inconceptible that ever we can conceive thoughts of pride for it is impossible to find what may source them We are nothing and we have nothing Nay though we were some great matter considering nevertheles how we have behaved our selves I see not how we can with confidence lift our eyes up to heaven We are in all respects most vile both for what we are and for what we are not both for what we have done and for what we have omitted both for what God hath done for us and for what he hath not done in us And because he is so great and we such a nothing who is there that considering the sins which he hath committed will not debase himself to the center of humility And yet he must no les do it for the trespasses he hath not committed For there is no share of this ours and least of all is it to be attributed to us that we did not trespass and for as much as concerned us we had trespassed Vpon this account thou art as much obliged to God with whose grace thou didst not cooperate and hast equal cause to humble thy self as if thou hadst trespassed Things are not to be prized according to their actuality but their intrinsecal vertue A sword is not sold dearer for having slain many but because it could and is fit for such a piece of service thy malice was sufficient for so many trespasses that it did not actually compleat them is not to be ascribd to thee but God Others offences ought also in good reason to humble thee as
much as thy own for although that thou didst thus offend be not a thing above thy reach yet that thou didst not share in others transgressions is a peculiar favour from God above nature and thou art peculiarly endebted to him upon this account because it is more remarkable that he preserved thee from them then if he had pardoned them being committed Wherfore if thou be not guilty of punishment at least thou art of greater gratitude and humiliation What sins soever thou hearest committed by others deem thy self forthwith guilty of them The Virgin Mother had greater motives of humbling her self for being preserved from sin then Magdalen who had so many and such enormous ones forgiven her yea although she were dispossessed of 7. divels Our wretchlosnes also in the omission of many good deeds must in like manner humble us as wel as those which we performed for the first are totally ours the second Gods alone No man can justly boast of what belongs wholly to another but ought to be confounded at his own ingratitude and double his diligence for the obligation We moreover mar many good actions and do them after a superficial and imperfect manner besides that they are both very inconsiderable and few But who is there that proposing to himself what thou o humble IESVS didst for our sakes dare glory in his own good deeds compare o ungrateful Spirit thy goodly and ridiculous action for which thou art so vainly puffed up with the infinite work of the Incarnation of the Eucharist and Passion Wilt thou be able to shew thy face and not blush for shame God who is all fulnes evacuated himself for thee and thou who art nothing holdst thy self some body in opposition to him though all thou dost for so loving and zealous a Lord be far from eyther fervour or zeal If any one would bethink himself what God hath forborn to do on his behalf would he not humble himself for his not precipitating him into hell after his first sin as he did the delinquent Angels O man the bain and infamy of creatures what hast thou of thy self that is honorable or why layest thou claim to any thing and makest not forth with an oblation of all to God to whom thou art endedted for so many benefits If we had store of things which were really our own it were our duty to offer and give them all to him for what he hath been pleasd to bestow upon us how then are we so senseles ungratefull and unjust as to appropriate to our selves what is absolutely his which if we could truly own as ours it would be an unsufferable impudence not to make them his What wonder if thou givest some petty toies to God since he gave all things and himself to thee I wish thou hadst much to offer him but since thou hast not rejoice so much the more and glory in thy poverty beholding all to be his already which if they were thine thou wouldst make his rejoice that thy desire is his nature It is a thing of greater confusion that sometimes we glory in our misdeeds as if they were good and present God with our corrupt actions as if we intended therby to oblige him What greater phrensy imaginable then to think to oblige him whom thou canst not pay to do it by those things which render â—hee more obnoxious to punishment but if â—ny of thy good works were intire perfect â—â— hath not that compleatnes from thee and â—â—erfore thou oughtest not so stile it thine â—ow canst thou oblige thy Lord and satisfy â—â—y creditour with what is not thy own but â—others Nay if the good work were totally ours God had no hand nor share in it why dost thou boast of it and think therwith to make him full satisfaction since what measure thou affordest others the self same shal be afforded thee if this proceeding be held with men why not with Almighty God thou measurest his guifts with a very short ell hast thou such a mean conceit of what he hath done for thee that thou thinkst to recompense it with such a slender piece of service we must measure God with a larg ell and deem him so great that all we do falls hugely short of his humility and passion to say nothing of his majesty and beneficence He that is not meanly conceited of his own actions both for number and worth is injurious to God esteeming him only worthy of smal services Make God the pattern of thy humility who after so many benefits heaped upon thee thinks he hath don nothing behaving himself so towards thee and rewarding thy merits which without him had bin none as if he had contributed nothing to them why then wilt thou ascribe thy services and good works to thy self as if they proceeded wholly from thee God had no hand in them when nevertheles all is chiefly depending on him why dost thou also vaunt thy self better then others since thou shouldst rather be contristated that they have less goodnes then they ought and must recken their want thy loss neither is the charity nor clarity of God conspicuous in thee if thou fixest thy eyes rather upon thy own perfections then thy nothing Stars when they are in a remote distance from the sun and partake not so fully of his light one seems to exceed another this is when they shine clearly but all this proceeds from the darksomenes of the night for in the day-time though they more approach the sun as being in the same hemisphere with him and one then exceed another and share more copiously of his light yet we cannot see which shines brighter yea none of them all is exposed to our view they are then as if there were no star in the firmament but all a mere though pretty vacuity He wanders as yet among his own imperfections and cannot be cald an illuminated soul on whom heaven derives its light but sparingly He that is in the night of self love and self seeking dares think himself some body and much better then his neighbours but Saints which adheer to God though they be loaden and chargd with merits prefer themselves before none but esteem themselves a meer nothing fulfilling with their IESVS all justice that is all humility The just man is humble because he will not admit nor have any thing that is anothers fatherd upon himself He that esteems himself nothing how can he wrong his conscience by being unjust either to his neighbour as thinking himself better then him or against God as being highly conceited of his own goodnes for no body is good but God alone and if none good certainly none better Thou hast no reason at all to prefer thy self before others whom thou beholdest poor humble ignoble for any goods of fortune but shouldst rather have them in great veneration for the resemblance of CHRIST which shines in them IESVS was poor humble accursed of the Iewes obscure he subjected himself
to all power and princes though never so wicked what Christ made choise of and esteemd do not thou contemne and vilify The XVII Chapter VVhat things ought to humble man and that he can have nothing besides God alone TWo things there are which ought to make thee humble thy own basenes and the basenes of creatures honours Although thou thy self wert great yet thou shouldst contemne all wordly dignities as little vile and unworthy of thee and though they were great thou oughtest to reject them because thou art base and unworthy of them Thou art nothing but forgery and sin deceive not thy self nor seek to excuse thee thy iniquities will proclaime thee such Being so overcharged with sin why dost thou extol thy self for some one work but apparently good an eagle could not scare on high if she had but one only feather The peacock though beautifull in his displayd train is soon quaild for the sole deformity of his feet thou being full of defects how darest thou wax proud for some one feignd vertue remember that even from thy cradle thou art infamous for original sin as one that is branded with ignominy appears in an assembly of noble men so must thou stand in the presence of the unspotted Angels Thy sins have made thee a parricide of the Son of God and thy own brother IESVS the wicked Cain was quite out of countenance and doth thine become more brazen account thy self allwayes his equal and behold not thy most loving Father but with the eyes of fear and shame Thou who hast contemned the word of God and his Son why standest thou so much upon the words of men what makes thee so presumptuous since hitherto thou hast done little or nothing who when thou hast done all wilt stil be but an unprofitable servant yea this title is too great and much above thy desert since thou hast nothing where with to serve God all being his already he rather serving us Thou art so wretched and needy that thou neither hast any thing nor canst have which if thou understandest aright thou wilt at first be much contristated seing more clearly then the sun thy own poverty and despairing to be able to have any thing of thy own but thou wilt soon be replenishd with unspeakable joy beholding the riches of God and how he possesseth all I rejoyce o Lord that it is impossible for me to have any thing because it is impossible for thee not to have all Why am I sorry that nothing is mine if it be in my power to make God mine what an ineffable joy is it that I can have nothing no not so much as my self besides God alone a pregnant sign wherof is for that it is not lawfull for me to have any thing in fruition besides him alone I must only use the rest of creatures and my self as anothers not enjoy them He is not master of a thing to whome the use of it is granted only for a time that is rather said to be possessed which one may enjoy for all eternity He that hath only the use of the world shal have the issues and profits of the Lord of the world I congratulate with my self o Lord that I have nothing to offer in oblation to thy sacred majesty for what worth can accrue to things for being mine to make them appeare in thy sight but because I have of thine wherwith to offer it wil have worth for being thine on that account be acceptable How can I have any thing of my self who am nothing yea for this very reason that thou esteemst thy self something o proud spirit thou must repute thy self more vile and abject While a sickman keeps his bed he perceives not so wel his own imbecillity but when he is upon recovery and sits up then he feels his own weaknes not being able to stand by himself The more thou appliest thy self to the service of God and advancest in the way of vertue the more humble and circumspect must thou be then thou wilt discover thy own basenes While a sickman keeps his bed he needs not fear falling but when he rises and begins to walk about then conscious of his own infirmity he trusts not to himself but mistrusting a fall leanes upon another Why then dost thou so magnify thy self since for this very respect that thou dost so thou art more debased Thou art in a manner more ridiculous then Lucifer himself since thou magnifiest thy self upon far les grounds What is thy nature compared with that of the Cherubins what is thy sanctity in comparison of the sanctity of that grace wherwith the first Angel was enriched by God what wouldst thou seem to be and appear to others thou canst have nothing of thy own and that which thou canst least of all have is honour All glory is only due to God who though he impart other things to men yet it he will not If thou dost wel it is sufficient that he knowes it that he see and approve it who is to reward it and whome thou intendest to please Certainly if thou didst love God fervently and wert a faithful servant thou wouldst wish if it were not altogether impossible to do something for his sake which he were not to remunerate nor to come to the knowledg of making it thy sole ayme to be loyal to him never regarding the reward at all Among faithful friends one is careful of another and does him good offices though he be wholly ignorant of them yea many times he conceales them from him for he aymes at no other salary besides fidelity and obsequiousnes towards his friend so he that loves God sincerely desires no recompense more then to serve him and comply with his trust Let me o Lord imitate thy fidelity towards me who am so perfidious who dost me so many good offices who heapest so many benefits upon me wholly ignorant of them though thou knowst that I am alwaies ungrateful When men commit acts of wickednes they desire not to have thee an eye witnes I o Lord will recant from this and change my manner of proceeding wherfore as often as I trespass which will be very often I covet thee a spectatour to the end thou mayst chastize me and assist me that I fall not into a relapse but when by thy assistance I do good I had rather thou didst not see me at all then that men did If the fervent lover of God do not good for the testimony of God how deceitfully wil he love who seeks the approbation of men The XVIII Chapter How much we owe to the grace of God and Christ IT wil be an act of pride in thee to esteem thy self dust and ashes since thou art nothing but imposture and sin Thou hast nothing good why dost thou stand in opposition with God thou art replenishd with evils why dost thou not blush even before men thou art capable of having all evil why art thou not in perpetual
held an heretique why I pray dost thou dispise the world and conceive a love of things eternal because thou hast experienced the inconstancy of temporal things and beheld unexpected calamities as the death of wealthy and powerful men and the like Was it thou or God who combined things into such a series didst thou forecast the death of that king or Potentat which moved thee so feelingly by beholding the instability of humane things besides these self-same things passed in publick and were known to others why were not they as wel as thou stird up to a contempt of the world why when one is reclaimed doth another stil persist in his wicked courses thou must needs acknowledge some supernatural cause of this difference which neither is in us nor of us alone Perchance thou gloriest for thy being moved and not others as if it proceeded wholly from thy self Tel me I beseech thee how often have such like casualties nay more forcible then this happened and yet thou felst no such motion therfore that now it is effectual to thy conversion proceeds not from thy self but from some hidden and provident vertue from his love and sollicitude over thee who would not have thee detaind any longer in an error but excited thee sweetly to an acknowledgment of the truth and orderd things so as he knew they would move thee efficaciously Thou wilt reply that therfore now and not before thou art moved because some hurtfull friend of thine was absent or dead by whose company thou wert drawn to thy invererate and sinful proceedings or because a fit opportunity of committing them was not presented Wilt thou perchance acquiesce in this was the death or absence of thy wicked consort or this opportunity in thy own hand or was it not rather God who disposed things so and moreover furnished thee with vertuous company that thou mightst be incited by its imitation In like manner what good soever thou hast or dost or what evil soever thou wantest and shunnest it is because God disposing things for thy good removed all obstacles and seasonably gave thee incitements to goodnes moreover infused supernatural habits and helps to very many things which exceeded altogether the reach of nature What share hast thou in these if thou findst none what insolency is it to ascribe all to thy self eyther thou must acknowledg the grace of God and thy own nothing or together with Epicurus confine God and remove him from the government of the world leaving him no part of providence O most wise truth take compassion upon me most senseles who am like to doat much more then that Philosopher who never was so fond as so say that his own providence mannagd and orderd things for â—â— he would make himself better then God â—ut he that presumes upon his own force in a â—eritorious action besides that he takes away all providence from God he necessarily usurps it to himself because if there were another concurrence of things he would not exercise a good act but a vicious and although things were contingent by mere chance or carried with an inevitable destiny yet he had no reason in the world to attribute any thing to himself He that applauds himself only in the goods of nature denies that he is created by God but he that glories in his talents of vertue denies that the whole world and all creatures in it are made by him and disposed and ordaind for our good in the first he deprives God of the dominion of one only nature to wit his own in the latter he deprives him of the dominion of the whole universe in the first he robs him of his omnipotency in the latter of his wisdome also and goodnes denying that his fatherly providence had with due forecast orderd things so for our advancement towards salvation What shal I say of them that glory in those vertues which are above all nature being rankd in the highest class carry a kind of proportion with God eyther make us as it were Gods in a divine degree or at least suppose us such by a sublime participation of the deity it self as also in those which have God for their immediate object faith hope charity in which whosoever glories he must necessarily eyther deny God to be above nature or think himself of himself equal or better then God The XIX Chapter That man must not only esteem himself nothing but also a great sinner THOV art far short of being truly humble if thou thinkest only that of thy self thou hast no good thou must also hold thy self very bad Saint Paul stild himself the first of sinners and that mouth of the H. Ghost could not tell a lye wilt thou perchance hold thy self better then such an Apostle or think thou speakest very modestly or with exaggeration if thou call thy self the ring leader of the wicked esteem thy self in good earnest the first among sinners and the last among creatures because thou must prefer thy self before none at all No body ever had meaner perswasives tâ—â—n thou to incline Gods mercy towards thee do not esteem it an act of modesty to think thus for divine faith teacheth that no good at all preceded Thou hast no ground nor reason to think that any other who had experienced the like mercy and favors from God that thou hast done would have been les grateful then thou art neither is it lawful to judge so rashly of another who shouldst hold it almost impossible that greater ingratitude can be found any where then thou evidently acknowledgest in thy self If thou wert truly compunct for thy sins thou wouldst be seriously of this opinion He that is tormented with an intense and stinging pain thinks no other so great as it and that no body els suffers such anguish the affection to wit inclines and overwayes the judgement If thou didst bear any love to humility thou wouldst easily judg thy self the worst of all others The proud man out of a desire of being exalted prefers himself before all as also because he regards not so much in others their perfections as defects thou if thou wert truly humble wouldst account thy self the worst of all thou wouldst consider thy own imperfections not anothers fixing thy eye wholly and solely upon their vertues O majesty of the supreme truth what needs any interpretation I consess before thy Angels before men malign spirits without any tergiversation that I am the unworthyest of all creatures the moral dignity of a rational creature which grounds his chief praise worth and vertue consists in the knowledg and advertence of his obligation and his proceeding according to it these in no body are obnoxious to greater abuses then in me Although many vertuous men have been more illuminated and some to the outward appearance have for number outgone my sins but this juncture to have sind more grievously and les cooperated with my obligations in such knowledg of them such remorse of conscience such
inspirations from heaven all these concurr in no body besides my self If any one perchance have committed fewer sins then I he hath received also fewer inspirations and had les obligation if any be found more calld upon favoured by God he find les and corresponded more faithfully but if perchance which I can scarse believe some one may be found who sind more heavily had a profounder knowledg of his duty I do not for all this deem him worse then me because such a one wil not know nor ressent such obligations as I do and although another had in very deed greater tyes though I think it cannot be yet acts of vertue are to be weighd by the conscience they proceed from and since I am perswaded that my obligations to serve him are greater then all others and yet serve him les I may wel be held the vilest and ungratefullest of all Although the sins of Anti-christ exceed mine in number yet his knowledg light and obligation wil not exceed mine for he shal not obtain pardon of his trespasses so often as I have done nor wil he be urged with such efficacious and present benefits and inspirations nor preserved from so many occasions of offending Although Lucifer had greater light communicated to him yet he was damned but for one only sin nor had he so many tyes upon him as I the Son of God became not man for his sake nor shed his pretious blood Iudas also had fewer obligations from Christ then press me for as then he had not felt the stings of death O humble and meek immensity of God how canst thou tolerate me for not being confounded and swallowd up in the gulph of my own basenes Let me not I beseech the prefer my self before any one since I find no ground to suspect any body worse then my self Acts which render one sinner greater then another are but of a limitted number how then am not I worse then any of them who can without any stint adde sin to sin and have poyson enough in me to infect the whol world for after so many benefits received after such an excess of Gods love so many divine inspirations I am still extreme wicked what if he by his grace in me others had not curbed the unbridlednes of my malice I am daily by addition of new sins more and more disposed to deprave both my self and others more perniciously If one sin of Adam was able to infect his whole innocent posterity if one theft of Achan could render all Israel liable to divine vengeance such an infinite multitude as mine are what must they needs effect I see not o infirme spirit how thou canst chuse but be confounded considering thy own despicable meanenes together with the vast multitude of thy offences if thou confrontest these with Gods immensity with the excess of his benefits the incomprehensible work of Christs redemption with his ineffable love and loialty towards thee in comparison of which last all the stupendious things he hath done for thee are little regardable by which alone he was as it were forced to do what he did But all this is nothing and much short of truth whatsoever can be conceived concerning thy basenes and infamy yea esteem it nothing for thou wouldst still find thy self more and more contemptible if thou wert but throughly enlightned by God O most pretious truth if the case stand thus with me why do not I dispise my self disdaign my self abhorr my self so far as not to know what either to do or think of my self I wonder that I endeavour not to reverence God more profoundly I am amazed that I seek not my own contempt more fervently One sole crime renders him that commits it infamous even among sinful men who cannot penetrate the malice of sin nor conceive a worthy detestation of it How then must so many defaults of mine so many culpable neglects disgrace and deforme me before the sanctity of God his pure Angels and glorious Saints For although I may wel hope that many sins through the mercy of God are forgiven me what I was once of my self I am allwayes nor shal ever of my self be more If I had once of my self for what I might account my self contemptible why not allwaies for of my self I never have more rather shame must increase in me and how much the more I have received so much ought I to humble my self for my sins past Since I have learnd by experience the divine mercy shame ought I say to increase for having contemned so good a Lord and stil persisting in my ingratitude O most vile and wretched spirit why in so great ingratitude dost thou not deem thy self unworthy of all grace how darest thou be so bold as to beg any why if it were voluntarily given thee without thy demanding it dost thou not tremble so far as almost to doubt whether it were not better to want that guift of God then be exposed again to a hazard of abusing what thou hast so often contemned but hoping in thy mercy o Lord I wil be bold and forward yea importune to the whol court of heaven discovering to it my basenes and ulcers neither will I cease to cry to all and each Saint in particular till I be even troublesome to them s at least by my importunity since I have no better title of my self I wil obtain greater grace mercy of my IESVS that he desert not me for deserting it The XX. Chapter VVhat it is to stile ones self nothing and a great sinner THou wilt abuse others by tearming thy self nothing and a great sinner if thou really thinkest not so but thou wilt deceive thy self if thou thinkest so and proceedest not accordingly treating demeaning thy self as such What thinkest thou is it to be a nothing to be no more sollicitous over thy self that thou maist atchieve Gods greater glory then thou art over those things which are not touched at all nor moved for wholly relinquishing and evacuating themselves Wouldst thou fret at him that should beat the aire or chafe at another who being placed in those vacuities of the imaginary spaces should spend his tongue and fists in chiding striking that empty nothing So thou if thou esteemst thy self also nothing and hast evacuated thy self of thy self thou must not as much as may be resent any injuries otherwise by so doing thou wilt esteem thy self something It will be as ridiculous and childish for thee who tearmest thy self nothing to seek thy own repute and interest as if thou shouldst be extremely anxious how to wish honour prosperity enough to one that is not as yet created nor ever shal be Wherfore thou must be no otherwise affected towards thee and thine then if thou hadst not as yet a being But by truly and seriously holding thy self nothing thou dost wonderfully purify thy self and puttest thy soul in a fit disposition to receive without stop or let
the guifts of God God himself Nature cannot endure a vacuity nor can God suffer the humble man to remaine evacuated but he must forthwith replenish him That God might become man he evacuated himself and that man may become God one spirit with God must not he do so too it wil be an evacuation of thy self to esteem and regard what concerns thee no otherwise then if thou wert a mere nothing to let no thought which favours of thy self or earthlines be predominant to divest thy self of all evil habits and affections dispoiling thy self of thy self as much as if thou wert but newly created of nothing God evacuated himself for thee demeaning himself as if he had not been God and procuring thy salvation in such sort as if thou alone wert to be saved thou must take divine things as much as lyes in thee so to hart as if thou wert God himself Thou must evacuate thy self in the highest degree and recede from thy self almost to an infinite distance more then if thou wert not at all which thou wilt compass if thou becomest quite another creature by grace and love passing from thy self to God who is infinitly remote from nothing and all essence There are two glorious prerogatives of the divine wil love and power but love seems in some sort more powerful then that very power which can t is true reduce thee to nothing but cannot promiscuously make thee another thing nor the nature of a man the nature of an Angel in which case thou wouldst be more distant from thy self then if thou didst become nothing but he that is beloved by God and reciprocally loves him that fire eating off the dross of all self-affection and humbling and annihilating his will he becomes in a manner a God breathing nothing but the divine wil and pleasure for although he remain still in his own essence yet he remaines not in self-affection but is conforme to Gods appointment as far distant from himself as if he were another thing One man feels not the smart of anothers wounds nor resents the affronts that are put upon others in like manner thou must not as much as is possible be ressentive at all of thy contempt for Gods glory no more then if it concerned not thee but another Again if thou reputest thy self a great sinner thou must consequently perswade thy self that all the crosses and calamities which befall even others are caused by thy defaults and negligences What affliction soever God inflicts is for a punishment and redress of sin and in the course of this life he many times chastizeth the sins of one upon another Therfore since I am the greatest of sinners they are my offences which occasion all miseries and being they are the effects of sin why of others and not them that are the most heynous wars plague famine are penalties and remedies of my delinquencies they are all to me both favors and punishments in my behalf the divine mercy and justice are every where engaged justice and peace give a mutual kiss mercy and truth embrace each other that every where and in all I may o Lord fear thee and love thee be confounded in my maliciousnes and hope in thy goodnes I wonder not at all that the world is plagued with so many calamities since it harbours me I like another Ionas am the occasion of this shipwrack and that tempest which involves many For one sin of Achan the innocent people of God was pittifully scourgd I am a greater delinquent then he why may not I presume that many innocent people are for my sake afflicted with general calamities I o Israel am an anathematizd person in the midst of thee I alone suffice to prophane the whole world I am so impudent that though I share the deepest in sin I make the least satisfaction for my self and others whom I behold groaning under such miseries believing my self to be the occasion I have wrongd all men by my sins I am a debter to all and guilty of all their punishments and humiliations The XXI Chapter That Gods glory is alwayes to be sought THou must acknowledg great obligations to Gods glory and it is but meet that thou be gratefull and a fervent zealer of its advancement We are endebted to Gods glory for our essence for our redemption beatitude and all the good we have God wrought all for his own glory and being he was so beneficial to us for its sake it is but reason that we consecrate all our endeavours solely to it O God of majesty thou seekest our honour upon all occasions is it not meet that man endeavour thine in all he can Thou didst honour man in his creation making him thy own task above other creatures and moulding him with thy own hands nor didst thou content thy self with creating him as thou didst the heavens and other creatures by a word of command but thou wouldst as it were labour in it being obsequious to him even before his being Thou didst honour man in the provision thou madest for him preparing him the magnificent pallace of this world and subjecting all creatures to his beck that he might use them as so many servants Thou didst honour man in his conservation allotting him an Angel Guardian a most noble creature who sees thee face to face and stands in a perpetual fruition of thy beatitude and this thou didst to honour us in all respects deputing for our custody one adornd not onely with the endowments of nature and grace but also of glory Thou didst honour man in his redemption elevating humane nature to the fellowship of thy throne and majesty Thou didst honour man in his remuneration affording him for his light and momentary afflictions no les salary then thy own kingdome and preferment into thy family Thou hast through all a studious regard to mans greater glory Let it confound thee o ungrateful spirit that thou seekst not the greater glory of thy God Procure his glory by thy own contempt he will be so much the more exalted in thee by how much the more thou art depressed God man stand proportioned as doth a cōtinued and severed quantity A number may be augmented without end a stick may be lessend to an infinitude the more a stick is diminished by an ablation of its parts the more the number is stil enhaunced the meaner conceit thou hast of thy self the sublimer wil be thy knowledg of God Thy knowledg of God may be augmented without end self contempt and the knowledg of thy unworthines may increase to an infinity because thou art infinitly despicable Employ thy self in pondering thy own ignominy and how thou art nothing but dust and ashes so shalt thou behold the glory of God which was the end of thy creation Thou wilt spend thy time much les profitably in other subtilties which rather hinder then further the knowledg of God It is certainly known by a wonderfull experience that a vessel fild and
were great for this respect that they were not the greatest nay although thou didst outrun a great many almost all if one alone outstripd thee the prize would be lost and all as good as nothing Now our merits are at a greater certainty and more fruitful now not the least of our works perisheth now all our services are recompensed according to the degree of their fervour Why then should we now be so pittifully sluggish with certain forfeyture of a secure reward what if thou wert ascertaind that none at all should be damned but all partake of salvation that ought not to give thee a pretence of being negligent but rather highten thy fervour towards a more ample enrichment of merits and increase of glory Go to the sufferings of this life are not condigne or commensurate to the future glory suffer not lazynes to reside in thee for it is the moth of merits and scab of vertues taking away all the grace of our actions rendring them so light of weight and distastful to God that his stomack wil not disgest them If thou yealdst thy self to slouth sadnes wil not a little annoy thee being forced to sustain the heat and burden of the day without any comfort the sting of conscience bereaving thee of that but promptitude and alacrity wil make thee insensible of the incumbrances of this life and is highly pleasing and acceptable to God What master of a family loves not to see his servants pleasantly merry and going cheerfully about their work If man love to behold a pleasant countenance so doth God a cheerful mind Let not the sad look of thy negligence contristate Almighty God neither do thou superadd to the bitternes of this life the wormwood of sluggishnes a sluggard partakes neither of the joyes of God nor of this world A tepid religious man in most things is in a worse condition then a wordling This though he share not of spiritual comfort yet he doth of temporal the tepid for the most part is deprived of both He that is habituated in sin is not without hope of being coverted and acquiring sanctity but he that growes tepid after his conversion hath forfeyted part of that confidence there being greater hopes of a sinner then of him Great sinners very often become great Saints but it is a piece of a miracle if he that is tepid become such a one Experience teacheth us that it is more difficil for the lukewarme to become fervorous then for a sinner to become a Saint for a tepid man is far from resenting his condition as evil because he deems himself secure and that a mediocrity in vertue sufficeth to salvation he doth acquiesce in this he must notwithstanding be wary and dread his security for the danger is very eminent But which is no mean subject of terrour God cals makes enquiry after sinners Christ takes his refection with them but as for the frigid they turn his stomack and he loathingly vomits them out of his mouth Shal I say somthing no les frightful the tepid obstruct the current of Gods mercy and suspend the influences of his profuse liberality while he is bountiful towards the greatest sinners but towards the negligent he is as it were sparingly parcimonious not communicating to them what he oftentimes more willingly confers upon the other I wil add something yet more formidable which ought to make each bone of our body shiver and quake God who is stil giving to all erecting every where trophees of his bounty with the tepid he is on the taking hand depriving them of those talents which he had mercifully lent them before What more noxious then to debar him as much as in us lyes from being beneficent what worse then not to suffer him to be good impeding the activity of his goodnes and munificence Is not he accursed who is the occasion of such a curse how deservedly then is he accursed who doth the work of God negligently Many things which are evil are at least serviceable in some respect but slouthfulnes is so naughtily naughty that it is in no sort conducible What can be imagined worse then heynous sins yet these many times through the wonderful wisdome and goodnes of God who knowes how to extract good out of evil conduce to our conversion and sanctification we seeking him after such foul lapses with greater fervour and humility Slouthfulnes obstructs all this it is so hurtfully evil that it shewes it self in part less good and proficuous then the very malice it self of greater sins Slouthfulnes is the worm of time it eats and spoiles the choisest things we have yea it is an enemy to eternity lessening life eternal by lessening our merits and it also wasts our temporal by its mortiferous idlenes If thou demand whose life is shorter I wil undoubtedly reply that of the negligent though he protract it to a hundred years if thou ask whose is longer I wil answere that of the diligent though he live but for a short space death and slouthfulnes is equivalently the same thing What marchant would sit idle at home if by one dayes paines he could compendiate the return of a thousand years do not thou set light by time one day of fervour is more available then a million of remisnes and tepidity A short life ful of a vigorous ardency is equivalent nay prevalent to a long one if it be cold and phlegmatique If thou covet to live long live diligently But how shameful is the shame of sluggish idlenes how ridiculously infamous would he be who being picked out from among all the peers of the realm to fight a duel in his kings behalf having before boasted much of his valour should now in the very lists of combat where his soveraign and all his court stand spectatours not have the courage to draw his sword nor move his arme to make a thrust but bend all his forces to flight leaving his adversary an unbloody victory O sluggard thou maintainst Gods quarrel many Angels beholding and enuying thy happines who would take it for a great honor to suffer and combat for the glory of God as thou mayst this favour is done thee to be his champion thou art become a theater or spectacle to God the B. Virgin his Saints and Angels thou hast often promised to behave thy self valiantly why art thou now being come to the push so dastardly cowardish o infamy of nature do not defame the grace of God nor frustrate those supplies which are kept for a reserve why art thou so hartles in this work consider how fervently God desires that thou performe it with fervour The III. Chapter How incommodious a thing is sleepines VVHAT more seemly to season the first thoughts of the day then the ancient of dayes my God that so our mind in its first undertakings may be consecrated to him The thought and love of God must not be intermitted and how much less denied at a seasonable time Pay the
first fruits of life to the Authour of life presenting thy self in the morning before him We must prevent the sun to thy benediction and adore thee o Lord at the rising of the same in the midst of our sleep it being as yet night when the pulse of the bel or some inspiration calls us to rise and behold thou our spouse comest and it is requisite to go forth to meet thee To make this encounter fruitfully it conduceth not a little to prepare oyle over night least the lamp of thy love o my soul want fewel to feed its flame and thou like a foolish Virgin be shut out which is too terrible Premeditate what language shal deliver thy first salutes to thy spouse and what affaires thou art to negotiate in time of prayer this being done if thou betake thy self to rest with sorrow thou wilt rise with cheerfulnes if thou hast a loathing of sleep thou wilt covet watching with much alacrity How can a soul enamoured upon God chuse but grieve that it must cease to love him prayse him improve its stock of merits and that all advantages of increasing his glory and its love towards so dear a spouse must be suspended how can it endure to see it self sustained by God loved by him and regaled in this interim with innumerable benefits and not to be able to relove him or as much as be thankful for such high favors Wherfore it is requisite both before and after sleep to make amends for that suspension of love and merits with more ardent affections and celestial desires supplying that loss of life wherin we cannot power out our whole harts upon God and be absorpt in him We must procure by this very cessation of merit and love to merit as much if it were in our power as if we were awake Vsurers even while they sleep increase their mony and thou wilt do the same if conforming thy self to the disposals of heaven with obedience and resignation thou make an ardent oblation of thy self and beare with patience this misery and the incident necessities of mans life He that embraceth patiently a necessary death whether it proceed naturally from some disease or be violently caused by another man he merits by it and so shalt thou if it be harsh and noisome to thee to repose and sleep as it is to those that serve love God fervently if I say thou accept of this necessary burden with equanimity it being wisely so ordained by the author of all wisdome Perchance if thou consider things in themselves and how much more burdensome sleep is then death to a true lover of God thou maist merit by sleeping patiently for his sake as by dying for patience Merit resides amidst great patience and patience is there greatest where greatest aggrievances are born most patiently Among all the burdens of mans life and all the annoyances which besiege it so closely none is greater then that of sleep or more worthily to be repented sin being excepted Other calamities are only tormentours of life sleep for its interim bereaves us of it other calamities are only opposite to the commodities of life sleep for a time impugnes its substance other calamities are in such sort noisome to our temporal life that they exceedingly conduce to eternal by affording matter of merit by raysing our minds towards God and drawing our affections as by an attractive quality sleep in it self during its raign is an enemy both to corporal and eternal life for as much as it causeth a vacancy both from merit and all thought of heavenly things other calamities are most welcome to Gods zealot because in them he doubles his spiritual advantages love is put to the rest God is glorified but sleep hath nothing at all desirable a cessation both of loving and honouring God attending it step by step wherfore sleep is more noisome and for a two fold yea manifold reason more burdensome then death it self to one that is enamoured upon God Death tyrannizeth only over the body sleep over both body and soul sleep on this behalf seems so much worse then death by how much the soul is better then the body nay much more to wit as much as the whole man soul and body is better then the body alone for death only deprives thee of thy body but sleep of thy soul also as wel as of it Death aymes only at the destruction of our body a thing frail and corruptible sleep at the soul also a thing eternal immortal which gives life to the body it being wholly insensible but for it death destroies a man sleep doth as much for a space of time as annihilate him Death is not to be dreaded for it leaves the best part of man untouched to wit his soul which makes him a man by which he loves God and apprehends his mercy and goodnes which is the glory of a man and ought to be his sole content and joy yea it leaves it more refined without impediment that it may honour love God more expeditly sleep overwhelmes and enters the noblest part of man unsouling as it were the soul it self Tel me I pray which wouldst thou resent most to die or to be annihilated if thou give glory to God by dying because such is his B. wil wilt thou not do the same if thou covet upon the same motive to be annihilated therfore if a patient acceptance of death be meritorious so wil also a patient acceptance of sleep if thou relish it as an equal burden If thou merit by embracing with patience the vexatious incumbrances of this life why shalt thou not also merit by sleep if it be the greatest incumbrance of all yea it being the sole and only thing which living and dying we must deem cumbersome for neither in this life nor after death is there any thing sin being set aside more burdensome to one that is feelingly devoted to the service of God What are accounted the burdens which press so heavily upon this life but its sufferings and miseries but one should be so far from esteeming sufferance a burden that it ought to be the scope and but of his desires next after God there is nothing more expetible then to suffer for God exhibiting this as the credentials of our love for by so doing we perfect the knot of true charity being more straitly united to him we dilate the confined raies of his glory and merit to be partakers of the same No body knowes throughly how burdensome sleep is to us besides him who is able to make a true estimate of the immensity of Gods glory the invaluablenes of his love and the least degree of grace in order to all which for this interim there is a dead surcease a suspension of all traffique for new merits After the cloze of this life what is noisome to the just besides purgatory but if thou be then in a condition of suffering it ought not to be resentive at all
upon thee by name when it stood â—ritten in the front of the book that he was to do the will of God he said o heavenly Father even for that contemptible Caytif Iohn will I also undergo a whipping a crowning a cross ignominy even death it self I give I offer I sacrifice my self wholly for his salvation And will it not be also thy duty to reflect upon Christ and say o my God this day for my Saviours sake wil I embrace all corporal labours and anguish of mind that I may love serve and glorify him with all the extent of my affection If God had created thee in the state of grace in an ample freedome of will and had by divine revelation indoctrinated thee in all the mysteries of our faith and thou didst see thy self dear to him and his B. Son become man and crucified with unspeakable love for thy sake were it not thy duty in these circumstances to give thy self wholly to God and power thy self forth upon him it is all one as if he had but just now created thee be oâ— good courage thou shalt awake in the state of grace behold thou findst thy redemption accomplishd to thy hand by the death and torments of thy God and this with so early a love that Christ sufferd for thee a thousand and so many yeares before thou wert born that he might have plenty of grace in store for thee Neyther Adam nor S. Michael nor Gabriel nor any other of the Angels no nor their queen her self the sacred Virgin found such preventing diligence such a feat of love to wit that God had already died for their releasment Be inflamed then forth with with a recipocal love and burning desires towards so magnificent a goodnes so speedily provident over thy affaires and do not contemn such an anticipation in what concerns thy eternal weal. Adam stood in expectation of this benefit the space of 4000. yeares but the benefit it self hath expected thee already above 1600 and it is neyther right nor reason that thou requite such sedulity and quicknes with so much sluggishnes and delay Procrastinate no longer thy conversion to God who hath so long expected thee in a great deal of patience Put case a proffer of coming to life were made to the soules which now are only in a possibility of existence and this upon the same conditions helps and favours which God hath daignd to bestow this day upon thee how would they joy how happy would they esteem themselves how officiously would they spend that day how would they in the very entrance of life sacrifice themselves to such a benefact or And what if he should make this proffer to those whom this very night he hath sentenced to hel fire while he so lovingly stood centry over thee in thy repose with what incredible fervour would they at their first return to life consecrate themselves to Almighty God as also the remnant of that day and their whol life if they did but once behold themselves adornd with divine grace with supernatural habits and such opportunities of serving so beneficial a God Be thou confounded for not sacrificing thy self more fervently to him who is much more munificent towards thee it is a greater matter to have preserved thee from damnation then to have reprieved thee being once condemned Spur up thy self to outstrip the fervor of many just soules and be thankful that thou findst not thy self this morning plungd in hell but freed from it as also from so many dangers and sins which innumerable others have this night incurd Do thou alone wish to give him if it were possible that glory which all the Saints will be still rendering through the great day of eternity which desire thou must unfaignedly iterate in the course of the whole day and that with sighs from thy very hart neither in the morning only but oftner as if then newly set on foot and created begin the journey of Gods service allwayes with a fresh and vigorous courage The V. Chapter That our daily fervour must be retained THOV providest but fondly for this dayes life neyther art thou secure of that if thou delayst it till to morrow If the use of this dayes life be granted thee live wel and perfectly for he only is said to live who lives wel Thou diest miserably being yet alive if thou leadest not a good life Each morning when thou awakest purpose to live that day as wel as possibly thou canst as if thou wert undoubtedly to dye the same night Delay not the amendment of any defect till another day which perchance thou wilt never see eyther the day or thy wil wil fayl thee The day to come wil go wel with thee if the present do One must never hazard a thing so good as is a good life but be alwaies in an active fruition of it Thou art industrious in avoiding any thing that may endanger life and why dost thou by delaying prepare and call danger to a good life Live to day and protract not to amend what is amiss after this week or month or the disposall of this affair To day God is our Lord and to day must thou be the servant of God for he is thy servant to day since he to day makes the sun rise to thy behoof He delaies not his guifts till to morrow neither must thou thy services To day God heaps benefits upon thee which thou canst not challenge be not thou wanting to services which he exacts The services of another day wil not suffice for the beneficence of their day why wilt thou have them satisfy for the day past and for the benefits of the present its own goodnes is not sufficient to pay its debt why wilt thou make it pay for the malice of another God especially redoubling thy debts and his graces to day God is God and to day thou art his creature to day Christ is thy redeemer and thou to day his redeemed IESVS is Christ yesterday to day thou hast a being to day and shalt perchance not have one to morrow To day and every moment art thou a debter to God who impends continually his omnipotency to thy behoof thou also must each moment impend all thy forces in his love and service How darest thou incur the loss of one hour since thou canst not make recompense for the least benefit which thou receivest this instant flowing from the ocean of Gods infinite love How darest thou suspend the quitting thy obligation for the interval of one day or hour for if God suspended his munificence but for a piece of an hour thou wouldst not be in the world or if he suspended his indulgence thou wouldst be in hell An eternal salary is promised thee thou must not merit by interrupted services If thou wilt truly live never intermit to live wel this is an eternal truth O Truth give me grace to serve thee truly henceforth for all eternity and that I may eternally
just a demand Atchieve o Lord great things and wonderful and I though ill versed wil be careful to celebrate them Be thou o Lord exalted in thy vertue and we wil sing and sollemnize thy vertues The X. Chapter How great a dignity it is to offer the sacrifice of Christ THE chief glory of the servants of God is to imitate Christ how glorious then wil it be for a Priest to be equal with him it is a matter of great joy to suffer for God but how great would it be to dye in lieu of God o what an inestimable favour would it have been judged if when Christ crownd with thornes steept in his own sweat and blood loaden with his cross pinioned with cords exhausted in his strength through waight of the tree and feeblenes caused by the foregoing torments fell to the ground if I say thou hadst then heard the voyce of this Father speaking from heaven most lovingly to thee in these words my wil is that thou dye for mankind in place of my only begotten Son and accomplish the work for which I designed my own beloved child O the desire of my hart how come I to be worthy of this who would confer such a blessing upon me which I am much more ambitious off then to be in a present possession of glory how unspeakable a curtesy should I repute it if I were thought worthy only to help thee with Cyrenaeus in carrying thy cross I would esteem it an immense favour to receive but one stripe for thy sake what would it be to carry thy whole cross and put my self in lieu of thee to be crucifyed melting into teares out of meer joy I would go to my IESVS and demand of him his crown of thornes and would press it feelingly upon my temples I would demand his cords and would pinion my self with them I would demand his cross load my self with it marching under that standard to the mount of Calvary O how all the Angels and the very queen of Angels her self would enuy my happines how the heavenly spirits would environ accompany reverence me for this work of redemption if this honour were granted to S. Michael the Prince of Angels to suffer in place of Christ our Lord with what fervour would he accept the â—ery paines of hell and burning with a zeal of Gods glory would cry out with greater ardour then before who is like to God the rest of the Angels would esteem it the greatest glory that could befall their nature would attend upon that vice-gerent of Christ A much greater favour and more special grace is granted to a priest Consider in the mean time when the priest comes to sacrifice that thou receivest a precept from the eternal Father to be Christs substitute in order to dying when thou puttest on the sacred vestments thou dost nothing else but transplant the crown of thornes from Christs hand upon thy own head put on his garment bind thy self with his cords and carry his cross Consider what thou goest to do and take those sacred ornaments as if thou receivedst from Christs hands the ensignes of his passion which he preferred much before the heavens thou contemplates Now when the priest comes forth thus vested what atrain of Angels doth attend him if fewer had been created then de facto are perswade thy self they would sooner have left heaven vacant and the guardianship of men then the attendance assistance of him that celebrates When a king deputes a Vice-roy or sends an Embassador about his affaires or publick concernments all the peers and nobles accompany him though for that interim they relinquish both king court such a concourse make the Angels to honour and assist Christs deputy and they are the more forward since by so doing they honour the Person it self of their king and Lord of glory who becomes after a wonderful manner present in the mass With what humility and modesty ought a priest to approach the altar but now when the time of sacrifice is at hand let him redouble his wishes of dying in lieu of Christ for the ransome of all mankind He may contemplate the whole world hanging in a deep suspense the doleful cries of the soules in purgatory the endles sins of men the innumerable dangers of the just the necessities of the distressed the inflamed desires of the blessed the profuse joy of the Angels and all these contemplating his sacrifice and the priest then knowing that his own death cannot be satisfactory for all let him rejoyce exceedingly that Christ is again allotted for the sacrifice he who alone was able to make a full satisfactory amends as also for that God accepting of the priests good wil as he did formerly of that of Abraham and Isaac would again substitute for victime an innocent ram and lamb who takes away the sins of the world one that will abundantly satisfy for all freeing the priest from becoming an oblation or being immolated but conferring nevertheles upon him the honour dignity of so great a function and embassy The victime that is to be offerd for the sins of the world must be without blemish of sin but because none but Christ is so qualified it was requisite that that high priest Prelate should offer himself he who needs not to make an oblation first for his own misdemeanours then for those of the people I see not o priest vicegerent of Christ how thou canst chuse here but melt and evaporate away through an excess of joy and love if any one did lie in prison as being lyable to some great crime or debt which he were not able to clear or cancel and another should come as bountifully as unexpectedly bestow upon him what were requisite for a full discharge how would he be overwhelmed with joy Behold thou art wholly uncapable of making God any proportionable satisfaction either for his favours or thy own fault thou being infinitly obliged to him upon so many other scores and hopeles of thy self ever to quit them and if thou lovest God after a sincere manner this ought to be an afflicting corrosive to thy hart what jubily must needs sieze thee when Christ comes into thy hands and makes himself thy oblation to his Father for a plenary satisfaction certainly he that loves God ought both day and night to be in expectation of this hour wherein poor miscreant man offers to an infinite God that which will be infinitly pleasing to him insomuch that he needs not now dread the debt of his own sins as not having wherwith to discharge it Pay thy self o Lord for my sins and restore to me what is overplus and I shal be rich enough the residue amounting to an infinitude I offer moreover that to thee in all their behalf for whome Christ offerd himself upon the cross for thy glory for thy mercies imparted to the whole world for the coming of the H. Ghost that he may breath upon my
not love thee o Lord who gavest us our whole creation are grateful towards robbers who pillage us but in part yea even towards dogs for guarding what is ours we love him that supplies us in our want and we melt not into love of thee who gavest as both essence and life when we were no better then nothing What greater want or penury then to have nothing yea to be nothing if God relieved us then by giving us a life and being why are we not mindful of such an almes since we are grateful to him who affords us but a mean support of life can it be judgd a more signal mercy to give wherewith to live then to give life it self benefits are esteemd much greater for coming in the nick of time when our indigency was most pressing and when what is given comes voluntarily and without paying so much as a begging for it What greater penury then to have nothing which is the greatest of all God then did us a great good turn worthy of the greatest love in relieving so urgent a necessity it is an inestimable benefit that he gave it so freely of his own accord when nothing of ours preceded which could exact it The more pressing ones want is although what is given be but a trifle it is more highly valued then when more is given in a less exigence thou o Lord when we were extremely penurious in our nothing didst not bestow a little upon us but all whatsoever we are Let us sum up all the benefits conferd upon men because it were too prolix to recouÌ„t all let us consider that which in the judgment of all nations is held the greatest and beyond all recompense and let us compare it with the least divine benefit of our creation Nature teacheth and preacheth that we can render no equality of recompense to our Parents and they what have they given us a stenchy body subject to sin and diseases and all the miseries of this life insomuch that they are in a certain manner more benevolent towards loathsome wormes then towards their children for they produced them undefiled with any fault nor lyable to the divine wrath but they bring forth their children accursed wearing the badg of sin worthy of death and imprisonment How o Lord can we be unmindful of thee and impudent in our carriage towards thee since thou gavest us all our being a body at that instant sitly accommodated unblemishd qualifyd with diversity of endowments a soul of a most excellent nature pure immortal spiritual the benefit we receive from our parents cost them but little for they gave us only of their superfluities not a whole body but a smal parcel of most loathsome matter and corruption thou o Lord gavest us all our selves our whol body our whol soul pure and unspotted which benefit cost thee no less then the expense of thy omnipotency Moreover what we have from our Parents they gave it not but thou by their meanes they of themselves gave us only a lyablenes to sin and an ill o men of future miseries What they afforded us was â—ot out of pure love to us but to their own â—mpure pleasure thou o Lord out of an excess of charity to us createdst us Perâ—hance our parents begot us against their wil they having many times a positive desire to the contrary it was not an effect of their affection that they begot us and not some other that being neither in their power nor choyse thy love o Lord created me and no other it was thy election thou o Lord beholding an endles multitude of men which thou couldst have created who would have servd thee much better then I pickt me out a poor miscreant for no merits of my own neither was thy love impeded by foreseing that I would prove more dissoyal then any of the rest and the greatest and wretchedest of sinners more ungrateful then Lucifer the first begotten of sin and Iudas the betrayer of thy Son and Anti-christ his opposite Behold o Lord for one only of thy benefits I stand not only endebted and owing my self to thee but am upon many scores end ebted how then shal I be able to acquit my self of others I owe my self wholly to thee because thou gavest me wholly to my self I owe my self wholly because thou disbursedst thy omnipotency upon me I owe my self wholly because thou gavest me my self not repiningly I owe my self wholly because thou didst it lovingly I owe my self wholly because thou didst it calling me by design out of millions I owe my self wholly because thou didst it foreseing that I would surpass all in ingratitude O Lord since I stand endebted my whole self under so many titles for one sole benefit grant that once at least I may pay my share for thy endles ones grant that I may make by way of discharge an oblation to thee of my whole hart and since thou conferredst not once only this one benefit so variously manifold but art still continuing and daily enlarging it by a perpetuated conservation this debt of my whole self is daily doubled to an infinitude be then endlesly taking my hart not for the good thy benefit works in me but for the good it effects in thee by making thee beneficial to me as also for the fruit I reap from it If therfore this least of thy favours be so great that I owe no les then my whole self upon so many several claymes for it what shal I do for my redemption that excelling my creation as much as God excelleth man in my creation thou gavest me to my self in my redemption thou gavest thee and restoredst me The II. Chapter That Gods benefits are without number BLess yet more and more o my soul our Lord and be not unmindful of his retributions whether towards his enemyes or towards his friends towards his Angels or the beasts of the field whether towards the blessed in remunerating them or the divels in tormenting them all his retributions are so many thy peculiar favours O God how am I engulphd in an Ocean of thy beneficence whatsoever thou dost is a benefit yea and my peculiar benefit The actuations and productions of light are light a light that is exposd for one mans direction illuminates all that stand about him so dost thou o light of truth o nature of goodnes and therfore because thou art beneficial thou canst do nothing which is not beneficial and it is necessarily consequent that the benefit thou bestowest upon one is not only proficuous to him but all Each best guift and perfect blessing is descending from above from the Father of lights because thou diffusest them like unto the diffusions of light thou communicating thy self to all and for all without any decrease or impoverishment A light remaining still intyre divides its beames to all and another without any prejudice to it may borrow some from its flame Whatsoever the sun darts forth is light all may see
by meanes of it unles they wilfully seale up their eyes All the effects which God produceth are so many benefits and by them each one may help and profit himself unles he wil be foolish and perverse Thy ardent love doth alwayes o Lord accompany thy guifts as heat doth light this is an immense priviledge concomitant to them that they are so many pawns and pledges of thy love although this be not patent to the eye yet it discovers it self in the benefical effect For though we see only the light which the sun communicates not the heat yet this doth still attend the other O Father of lights what thanks am I endebted to thee for the university of thy benefits conferd upon all those credentials of thy love which love I chiefly embrace and adore in thy works who wil not stand amazd at the inventivenes of thy goodnes making the benefit of all the benefit of each one and the benefit of each one the benefit of all private ones publick publick private all the works of nature all the wonders of grace all the predestinate all the blessed are my benefits all the prosperity all the calamityes that befall man are so many favours which thou lovingly bestowest upon me O ungrateful man wouldst thou not love God with the whole impetuosity of thy hart if he should exempt thee from damnation thou carrying the guilt of hell fire by dying in some damnable sin but should create another much better then thee deputing him in thy place to suffer for thee that hell of torments God did much more then this I omit that he fatherd our faults upon himself daigning to dye for our sake this now amazeth me although it be incomparably less that he would shut the gates of mercy against many sentence them to damnation to save thee for if thou didst see but few condemned thy fear would be much less thou perchance thy self make one in that heap if two onely or three thy fear would yet be more lessend and thou mightest presume with more certainty one of them would be thy self if none at all thy fear would be none and mayst wel think that thou alone wouldst incur that misery or which is worse be much more frequent in sinning and less observant towards God Therfore the torment and damnation of so many soules is to me a great benefit O light of my hart with how bright beames doth thy love shine towards thy elect thou madest other creatureâ— for man and him thou damnest for other men whom thou hast elected to salvation Angels become servants to men yea thou thy self being made man what if thou wouldst have one man serve another If for some respects of temporal life thou permittest man to serve man and a slave his master for the attainment of eternal life and increase of glory a reprobate must serve an elect Behold o ungrateful spirit if an evil so prejudicial as that of punishment is proves thy advantage the advantages also of others wil turn to thy benefit With such skill doth God mannage his works that each one redounds to the good of all the very paines of the damned are so beneficial to all that they are beneficial even to them themselves for in that height of misery their cup is not temperd merely with malice but hath some mixture of divine justice which is very savory God is so bountifully good such a skilful Alchymist that he turnes dross into gold that is our very miseries into mercies and which is yet more out of the worst minerals of sinfulnes they alone being only bad he extracts pretious mettals and sometimes even the most pretious Thou o Lord conferrest thy benefits with such a strong and open hand that even from sin where thou hast neyther power nor activity thou being both impotent to act in it or concur to anothers acting thou both drawest and art able to draw great good Thy skil knowes how to extract immense blessings and vertues out of sin Light reverberating upon a condense and obscure body uncapable of its operations is so far from being eclipsed that it doubles it self by reflection neyther is thy beneficence ever defeated or renderd ineffectual Out of sin where nothing is but preposterously bad thou rectifyest all to my good decreeing thence thy beloved sons Incarnation As well from my own sins as those of others thou knowest how to take an occasion of being beneficial on my behalf when I hear of a crime committed by another I am sorry for the misfortune of my brother but take an occasion thence of thanking thee because I hope for mercy at thy hands eyther for him or me I yeald thee thanks because thou wilt derive thence no smal good to me unles I wil become quite blind and shut my eyes against the light Sing prayse once more o my soul to the Father of lights and be not forgetful of all his retributions for they all are his guifts even those that seem to flow from men and thou receivest immediately from them for if thou must perswade thy self that all the cross aggrievances which befall thee from men come from God why wilt thou not also be of the same mind concerning good his nature being goodnes it self and he so prone to communicate it all the light which beautifies the heavens though some little star or the moon by night do dart it forth proceeds from the sun though he the Author be not seen in like manner each blessing benefit though receivd from man flowes from God and is but a ray of his goodnes This is the main comfort which sustaines mans life amidst such a world of miseries as attend it that nothing can happen but by Gods permission and whatsoever he permits can be no other then a benefit according to the nature of his goodnes and what benefit soever befalls us proceeds from him and whatsoever proceeds from him is my benefit and orderd to me and my good Corporal afflictions and the miseries of this life whether I or any other tolerate them general dearths diseases pestilences all these are my benefits o Lord thou afflicting others for my good O God how deeply am I endebted to thee who to the end I poor miscreant may receive thence some good inspiration stickst not to strike the very kings and Monarchs of the world dead being little or nothing moved with the teares and calamities of so many kingdomes that I may draw thence some good document A congruous thought of some poor peasant becoming contrite is more prevalent with thee then the diadems of some kings and sometimes whole nations of people Grant o Lord that I may be thankful for these and both in my own behalf and others love thee in all thy works as thou lovedst me in all thy benefits The III. Chapter That Gods love in our Redemption appeares infinite O Immense love how dost thou exhaust thy self in deserving wel at my hands since thou hast left
it Where is our ambition our desire if it do not display and power it self forth upon this harvest of joyes and magazine of true riches I should take it for no smal dignity to be a sharer of Christs ignominy what then wil it be to partake of his glory if the ignominy of IESVS be glory the glory it self of God what wil that be if he so magnifyd the contumely of the cross as to exalt it upon the diadems of Emperors if he did so honour his torments what wil he do to his faithfull friends if he impart greater honour to the bones of Saints here among us then all the Monarchs of the world enjoy how much â—il he impart to their soules while they are reâ—â—dent with himself wilt thou make a rude â—ssay of the greatnes of glory how much it â—xceeds our labours Calculate how much â—he celestial globe exceeds in magnitude the â—errestrial this latter being but a point in regard of the first heaven and the first heaven another point or rather nothing in regard of the highest in whose circumference to one fingers breadth of earth so vast is the disproportion thousand thousands of miles are corresponding in that heaven The self-same God is author both of grace and nature and in point of bounty he would have his guifts in heaven much exceed our labours on earth Let the expectation of this so great a good be to thee alwaies a satiating repast Whatsoever thou seest good on earth contemn it as perswading thy self that thou shalt enjoy others in heaven excessively greater What evil soever annoyes thee fear it not as hoping to be out of its reach for all eternity Whatsoever is violently plunderd from thee grieve not as believing that all is depositated for thee to be made good out of the treasures of heaven Whatsoever thou dost contemn or relinquish for the love of God deem it not lost or cast away as supposing that it is not onely to be layd up but also restord with a hundred fold seek not to shun transitory labour thou who hopest for a permanent good Thou whose desire should animate thee to suffer in conformity with Christ upon the Mount Calvary without all hope of quitting cross be sure not to quit patience that thou mayst be conforme to God in glory with an assurd confidence of arriving to so great joy If we believe all this to be true why put we not hand to work but stand like people in a dream How is it possible to have terrene things in any esteem if we make heavenly things a part of our belief Perchance we believe not so rightly as we ought Wilt thou know how thy mouth belyes thy hart when thou affirmest that heavenly things are only great if thy fortunes amounted to the value of a thousand pounds wouldst thou not willingly give them all if thou wert perswaded that by so doing thou couldst enhance them to a hundred thousand but how doth it appear that we hold heavenly goods more valuable since we are loath even being put in mind of the advantage to give what men both joyfully and of their own accord give for the base trumpery of the earth a hireling toyles all day long for a poor salary a souldier exposeth himself to a thousand deaths for anothers kingdome and we for the glory of God and our own purchase of the Empyre of heaven cannot watch somtimes one hour pray with Christ as it behooveth Let us despise base petty trifles that we may receive immense rewards It is not so estimable in it self to receive litle as to expect great matters O lover and zealot of God be sure to thirst breath after so great a good but regard not so much thy own repose and commodity as that thou shalt there securely love God without fear of interruption and the greater thy glory is the more shalt thou love him I am bound to thank thee o God of truth for joyning the reward of our labours with the love of thee and the desire of my wil which is nothing els but thy love The VII Chapter Of suffering death HOW much o Lord doth thy beneficence transcend mans hope and expectation since those very things which he accounts the greatest of evils and natures penalty prove to thy faithfull an unparalleld benefit He esteems it the worst of evils to dye and it is a great good without which we shal never arrive to the fruition of all good Thou dost very fondly o man in declining death which is indeclinable and not declining tepidity and faultines which may be declind For death hath no evil it which life gave not the sin of Adam caused in death but was not so powerful as to make it evil this dammage only proceeds from thy sin Avoid sin culpable negligence death wil be a thing desirable Men fear little and regard les the death of the soul which only is evil and may be avoided but the death of the body which is not evil and cannot be avoided they seek to shun though it be rather to be desird then that we adhere to this wicked world O the madnes of men who abuse play as it were bopeep with that precept of Christ about loving our enemyes while they care for none but the world who hates us is our professd enemy why do we affect this fleeting life which flyes us and do not affect that permanent life which expects us Why are we so sollicitous for our temporal life which we cannot retain and neglect eternal which we may obtain we may have life everlasting if we wil we shal loose this transitory whether we wil or no and notwithstanding all this men wil not do profitably for eternal what they do unprofitably for this temporal they covet not the first and they dread the death of this second as one would do a mischief Death moreover is a rare invention of Gods mercy for it easeth us of all the molestations of this life and takes away an eternity of miseries What a pittiful thing would it be if we were for all eternity subject to the necessities of rising daily and going to bed of eating of cold and heat of toyl and sicknes of seeking our sustenance of carking caring of suffering affronts or spending our whole life in a sordid and laborious drudgery what a misery would it be if one were to be a â—orter another a husband man a third a smith a fourth a servant and this for tearm â—ithout all end or respit many that were â—otoriously wicked sought death and made away with themselves merely to avoid these inconveniencies at least let us not dread it that it may be a passage to future felicity and for both these respects let us patiently accept it When God beheld us involved by the sin of Adam in such a labyrinth of woes he in his most indulgent clemency invented for our good the devise of dying that our calamities might not
would seem a mote but a mere nothing O my hart why art thou not extasied with such amiablenes and set on fire with such an abyss of light o my hart thy hardnes and heavines is greater then one of iron if this immense loadstone of love do not elevate and attract it But art thou perchance o Lord that clarity and seemlines which I conceit in regard of which so great light of the sun or an Angel multiplied to such an infinity seems no more then darknes no but thou art infinitly seemlier nor after so great light do I see thee though thou be most refulgent I only know that that refulgency is not thee because compared to thee it is darknes but what a one thou art is wholly unknown to me thy light dazlingly blinding me and the brighter it shines it leaves me in greater darknes But I never behold thee more clearly then in this mist nor do I find true day that is the ancient of dayes but in this night at noon day clear to me by reason of its obscurity and mid night O eternal love take now my hartand all my love But why do I say take it if thou hast forcibly siezd it why commandst thou me to give thee my hart if thou hast already robd me of it not in one hair or one eye of thine but in my blindnes and the hair-braindnes of my extravagancies Thou hast robd me because so great thou art that I cannot discerne thee thou hast robd me because though I so contemptibly dwarfish have offended thee thou so majestically great covettest to be loved by me But thou o Lord who hast wounded my hart with thy goodnes must out of the same power into it the oyl of thy mercy that it may be a healing salue to the wounds of my sins O hidden God if thou even in this ignorance of thee be pleasing to me above all I know what wilt thou be when I shal know thee intuitively and face to face in thy clear sun shine Sieze and dispoil me of my hart take all my wil never restore it to me again permit not a knife to be in the hands of a mad-man but reserve to thy self mannagement of it for what remains for me in heaven or what do I covet besides thee on earth I rejoice that my hart faileth me because thou hast taken it from me Let my hart be alwaies upon thee because my treasure is placed in thee O truly God of my hart because now thou art Lord of it but because thou art mine though my hart hath faild me yet a better then mine wil not thou wilt supply its room thou o God art my hart thou art that part which hath faild me To witt thou shalt be my hart eternally therfore supply for the functions of my hart Thou canst actuate my wil for me provide what thou knowest expedient in my behalf it shal only be my task and emploiment to love thee Thou shalt love me insteed of my self that all my love may be wholly bestowed on thee in such wife that self love may no way impede me O happy loss of my hart if God supply in lieu of it The last Chapter Of the superessential light of the most B. Trinity O Most clear shining light of the divine Vnity if thou be so great that thou dazlest the eyes even of the strongest understandings by thy dim shadow appearing in creatures and renderst them more purblind then the sun beames do the owl what an abyss of light wil invest thee in thy Trinity a shadow wherof is not afforded by creatures but it was to be reveald by IESVS if thou be here so refulgent to our eyes how wil these splendours of sanctity which never break forth shine within thee if the shadow of thy unity be so illustrious how radiant wil the light of thy Trinity be which cannot be shadowed O most lightsome darknes when some clarity of such a mystery is communicated to a soul that light is an abscurity because a soul sees not it self but is lost as in a maze Like as one that walk in darknes knowes not where he is so the mind surprizd in that light is ignorant what becomes of it self and having regaind it self in that brightnes which must needs be so it being in God there it looseth it self because it finds God which happens when being sequestred from the traffique of inferiour objects and becoming conforme to Christ crucifyd by a constant mortification and crucifixion of its wil it fixeth an undazled eye and humble mind upon the stupendious secret of the Trinity there it rellisheth life in its original purity as in its fountain there it admires the nature of a most simple simplicity in all points consonant with a Trinity When we know any thing worth our admiration we are touchd with a pleasing desire of beholding it What more admirable and consequently more pleasing then to know that most simple unity into which the Trinity of Persons combines it self as also that Trinity which a most simple simplicity doth not destroy Vnity doth shine distinctly in the Trinity the Trinity for as much as it relates to what 's within is conspicuous in Vnity The Father is the source of the Son the Son issues from the Father according to the distinction of a Person and remaines in him according to the unity of Essence from the Father the Son proceeds the H. Ghost and his substance remaines both in Father and Son where a Trinity hinders not Vnity nor Vnity impedes Trinity yea where Trinity furthers Vnity and Vnity favours Trinity Therfore God is more one because he is also three What more pleasing then to see those things mutually conspiring which seem repugnant to one another There would not be in God the greatest simplicity imaginable unles there were the greatest efficacy there would not be the greatest efficacy unles there were a Trinity of Persons there would not be a Trinity of Persons unles there were an Vnity of Essence The divine simplicity is so far from obstructing a Trinity that both Trinity contributes to unity and a most united Vnity requires a Trinity Therfore the more simple God is in his nature the more is he triplifyd in Persons and as no greater simplicity is conceptible then that of the Divine nature so there can be no truer distinction then that of the Persons in that Vnity The more things partake of simplicity and purity the more efficacious they are according to the tenet of Philosophers Because fire shares more eminently of these two qualities it is the most active amongst the elements and upon this score the heavens more then sublunary natures and spirits then bodies Vertue the more it is united and condensd the more forcible it is in its operations and the more simple a thing is the more it hath of the forme which is both its act and activity now in an infinite simplicity which is a most pure act and