the aforesaid separation then break forth into these-like expressions O rich treasury of all vertues What contentment doe I feele that all good is derived from thee and by thee onely and that all goodnesse compared to thy Divine perfection is a meer nothing 8. Stretching forth thy hand to Also when thou undertakest any action any action imagine thy Lord God to be the first cause thereof and thou onely the living instrument of his Divine Majesty to whom thy Soule may thus powre forth it selfe O Soveraigne Lord of this Vniverse how truly doe I rejoyce that I can doe no one thing without thee and that thou art the prime and principall agent in all good actions 9. Taking any refection of Meat Or refreshest thy body with meat and drink or Drinke reflect who gives that gust and savour to that Creature and taking no other content than in him onely say Be joyfull O my Soule that there is no true satisfaction out of thy God and that in him onely thou hast a full abundance of all pleasure 10. If some delicious smell be Or smellest delicious odours welcome to thy sense stay not there but ascend to him who is the source of all sweetnesse and with a heart softned with comfort say Alas O my Lord as I am truly glad that all sweetnesse proceeds from thee so grant I beseech thee that my Soule being truly despoiled and uncloathed of all earthly pleasure may purely soare up to thy delicious Paradise and render a perpetually pleasing odour to thy Divine Nostrils 11. When thou art taken with the Or art delighted with musicall harmony Musicall harmony of some excellent voyce or instrument turne thy soule to thy Saviour and speake to him O my Lord and my God how doe I joy in thy infinite perfections O what an admirable harmony doe they make not onely in thy self but also in the heavenly Citizens and in all other thy Creatures 12. Thus mayst thou my dearly Or any other sensible object Beloved raise up thy spirit from all sensible objects to the contemplation of the divinity as hath beene hitherto declared It remains that thou be now in like manner instructed how to passe from the same sensible objects to the meditation of the Word incarnate by frequeâ—t reflexions upon thy Saviouâ—s Life How to raise thy Soule by the same objects to contemplate the Word Incarnate and Passion And to this effect all things of the whole Universe will conduce by considering in them as before that Soveraigne and Supreme good which is the efficient cause of their whole being and beauty and thence passing on to the admiration of his immense goodnesse and greatnesse who being the absolute Lord of all these things would vouchsafe to descend so low as to become man and to dy for man permitting his owne Creatures to arme themselves against him their Creator Many things will also particularly represent to the eyes of thy Soule these sacred mysteries and put thee in mind of the severall instruments of his severe sufferings As for example by the sight of poore cottages Of Raine Poore cottages will remember thee of thy Saviours stable and cribb If it raineth thou wilt reflect upon that Divine moysture distilling from his Body in his bloody agony The â—tones which thou beholdest will Of Stones put thee in minde of the Rocks rending in sunder at his Death the Earth Of the Earth will seeme to tell thee how it then trembled and the bright-shining Sun how it's light was then obscured Of the Sun Of the Water c. If thou considerest the water thou wilt fall into contemplation of that which issued out of his opened Side and the like of all other objects So when thou tastest Wine thou mayst thinke of Christ's In tasting Wine Vinegar and Gall when sweete odours delight thee how ill savour'd In sweete Smells were the carkasses upon Mount Calvary where thy Saviour suffered Cloathing thy selfe reflect how the In cloathing thy self eternall Word put on our humanity to adorne thee with his Divinity In uncloathing thy self In hearing Noyses Uncloathing thy selfe how he naked was naild to the Crosse Hearing a noyse or acclamations of People remember those abominable outcries Away with him Crucifie him When the Clock strikes the houre In hearing the Clock thinke how thy Saviour's Heart panted in the Garden at the apprehension of his approaching passion or seeme to heare and count the cruell stroakes of the scourges or blowes of the Hammer fastning the Nailes through his Body to the Crosse If In time of Sadnesse sadnesse and sorrow seize thee whether by reason of thine own sufferings and sicknesse or out of compassion to others conceive alas how litle is all this compared to the incomprehensible Anguishes Distresses and Dolours which pierced the Body and Soule of thy deare Saviour 13. Having thus shewed thee the Other wayes to meditate upon sensible Objects way how to elevate thy understanding by meanes of all sensible things to the Divinity and to the mysteries of the Word incarnate I will now adde other means and methodâ— of meditation drawn from the same sensible objects that as the Soul's gusts are various so the spirituall diet may bee diversly dress'd and serv'd up for their sustenance though this variety may be also very usefull not onely to the simple but even to elevated Soules well advanced in the way of the Spirit which are not alwayes equally disposed to sublime contemplations Neither need'st thou feare that this variety will any way confound thee if thou art â—overned by the rule of discretion â—nd the direction of thy ghostly Father which thou art carefully and â—umbly to follow not onely in â—his but in all other thy underâ—akings 14. When therefore objects most By considering how mean the best of them are in themselves pleasing to the eye delicious to â—he sense and desirable to flesh and blood shall be represented unto thee mark well how meane these things are in themselves though never so highly courted and cherished extolled and esteemed by worldlings how the best of them is no better than dirt and dung in respect of Heavenly happinesse for which thou art designed which thou desirest and to which thou aspirest 15. When thou gazest on the As the Suns brightness Suns glorious splendour know for certaine that thine owne Soule is far more bright and beautifull than it if shee be in her Creatours grace and favour otherwise that shee is more obscure and abhominable than darkesome and dismall Hell it selfe 16. When thou castest up thy corporall eyes to the Heavens elevaâ—â— The Heavens greatnesse those of thy Soule to those higher holyer mansions of the blessed Sainâ—â— and Angelicall spirits and there fix and feast thy thoughts as in the happy mansion prepared for thy eternall abode 17. When thou hearken'st to the The Birds melody Birds warbling notes or other
I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
I will kiss thee I will conjure thee to remain with me I wil rather lose my self than leave thy presence My beloved is mine his honour is mine his heart is mine his heaven is mine And I am his behold the key the keeper the soul the body the lord the whole ô my God is thine Behold my liberty my life my love all is thine ô my Jesu and thine alone Repose therefore as a sweet posie between my breasts sleep like a bridegroom in my heart and reign like a King in the most intim closet of my soul Come Lord Jesu come quickly take full possession of thy own Come and please thy self love thy self and serve thy self in me as thou desirest and deservest to be pleased loved served Let thy love O King of love be the life of my soul and the lease of my life that when I cease to love I may cease to live In thy love O Jesu I end this act of love though my desire actually to love thee be endless Oh! let me live and dy in thy love and for thy love that by love I may for ever reign and remain with thee in thy Kingdom of love Amen THE THIRD TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Ascent of the pious soul by Steps and Degrees of Vertues to the happy Mountain of Perfection Psal 83. v. 8. They shall go from vertu into vertu The God of Gods shall be seen in Syon AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions tending to Perfection THis Spirituall ladder O dear Souls will shew you how much you have profited in pure solid devotion how far you have proceeded in the way of the Spirit how forward you are in seeking God forsaking your selves what progress you have made in your journey towards heaven Contemplate therefore your selves often in this impartial mirrour bewail your backwardness shake off your sloathfulness increase your fervour and encourage your diligence to climb this sacred Mountain of Perfection and to pass on cheerfully from vertu to vertu Psal 83. 8. till you happily come to the beatifying sight of your Lord God in Sion The Seven Degrees of Perfection 1. VPon the first Step stand they who are Faithfull Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgements and Careful to avoid mortall sin These are Beginners who have little inward light stand upon slippery ground and though they may be saved yet so as by fire 2. On the second Step stand Proficients who strive to avoid venial sins and conquer their sensuality but are slow in tending to Perfection and subject to be self-conceited 3. On the third Step stand they who casting off sloath tame themselves with austerities but their intentions are not pure nor they well grounded in self-denial 4. On the fourth Degree stand they who have gotten into their interiour but yet seek for solaces and are discouraged with adversities 5. On the fifth Step stand they who are fully resigned and perfectly obedient but fail for want of experience and courage 6. On the sixth Step stand they who have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and constancy but desire comforts to enable their perseverance Here also stand they who are indifferent to comforts or desolations but yet they rest in Gods favours with some propriety Here furthermore stand they who are satisfied with God only but are not absolutely as willing to leave divine favours as to have them 7. On the seventh and highest Degree of Perfection stand the elevated and contemplative souls Gods faithfull friends and favourites who are perfectly indifferent resign'd and obedient in all things to his divine will and pleasure The first and lowest Degree of Perfection THe first Step and groundwork of all vertue and perfection is To be well setled in the Vpon the first step of this ladder stand Beginners who are Faithful Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgments Careful to avoid mortal sin Catholick faith Fearfull of Gods severe judgements and Careful to avoid all mortal sin This is the Church porch and entrance into Gods holy Temple but they who stand here remain cold in charity carelesse and undiligent in their lesser duties remiss in spiritual exercises negligent in thinking of their obligation by which they stand ingaged to tend towards perfection and finally they greedily gape after all conveniencies of their corrupted nature and give up themselves to glut and solace their depraved sensuality These Beginners have very little But they have little inward light or no inward light they know not what is the meaning of mortification what it is to get into their interiour or what Introversion signifies but they seemingly satisfie and secure themselves in that they have a will to avoid the known and capitall sins whereby they hope to escape hell and avoid Gods heavy judgements Surely such souls stand upon very unsafe and slippery ground and Stand upon slippery ground their salvation is in a doubtfull and dangerous condition for they are so blinded and bewitched with self-love and sensuality that they cannot well distinguish perfectly discern nor rightly judge what sins are of mortall danger and what not so that conversing dayly amidst such multitudes of perils and shaking hands with the world the flesh and the devil with so much freedom so little care and precaution what do they else but dance as it were upon the very brink of hell from whence if they once tread awry they infallibly tumble headlong into that bottomless dungeon of eternall perdition Yet in case they should indeed And though they may be saved foot it so warily all their life time that death takes them not tripping nor fall'n into mortall offence a thing most rare and not to be presumed on by any one who carries himself so carelesly they shall surely be saved but so as by fire They must expect a most sharp and severe Yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. punishment a long and piercing purgatory by reason of their unmortifi'd affections to venial sins their giving scope to their unbridled senses their neglect of Gods love their coldness in charity and their tepidity in tendance to perfection And as for their good works they are not likely to be there much available since their groundwork was servil fear their end self-love and their whole drift and intention altogether sinister and deficient from that purity and perfection wherewith they should have been performed The Second Degree of Perfection THey stand on this second Step who hearkning to Gods holy inspirations following his internall On the 2. step stand Proficients Who are careful to shun venial sins and conquer sensuality attractions and obeying the sweet invitations of his Spirit keep themselves disingaged from all vain affections to the world yield not to the enticements of flesh and blood resist the suggested temptations of the devil and carefully avoid all occasions of offending their Lord and maker so much as venially To help on this pious design they put
possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy all if I could embrace crosses as crowns and swallow down all contemprs and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all foâ— One to be left by that One who iâ— my All and so remain quiet iâ— my own nothing How long shall I he wallowing in flesh and blood how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me aâ—l dross of self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee â—ternally Lord let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble sorrow for our sins ingratitâ—des disloyalties tepiditie c. O my God! how little did I love 3. Part. 1. Contrition thee when I so carelesly offended thy Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediately O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy sacred will and commandements Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future fallings How great ô Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferr'd thy benefits bestow'd and thy love powr'd out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my sins that my heart might break with sorrow Hide not ô Lord thy face from me shut not up thy mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolv'd upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thâ— mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our wanâ—â— wishes desolations and distresses â—â— the divine will and pleasure I am indifferent O my dear Lord 2. Resignation to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou â— my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledge my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all light all liberty all love all comfort all content yea even all vertu peace and perfection so long as it shall please thee O father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and confidence the first that our God is what he is the next that he will heal our wounds supply our wants satisfie our wishes and turn all to our good I am glad ô my glorious Lord 3. Complacence and Confidence God that thou art so worthy of all love though I of all others am not worthy to love thee I am as joyful for what thou art o great God as if all thou hast were all mine and I will love thee in all I am and have as being all thine Thy Cross is my comfort thy Will my well fare and thy love my life so that if I can but suffer for thee do thy will and follow thy love I shall do all that is necessary I am indeed dry dark and desolate but since it is thy will I am sure it is my good and therefore sufficient for me and satisfactory to thee I hope thou wilt one day compleat thy own heavenly design in my soul healing my wounds supplying my wants fulfilling my desires and filling my yet empty heart with thy sweet presence and perfect love In the mean space I will say and sing Live Jâ—sus Live my Lord my love my life my all whose name bâ— blessed by all whose will be accomplishâ—d in all whose honour be advanced above all An advertisement touching the precedent Exercise 1. We must perform it dayly diligently discreetly and with great confidence and courage 2. Yet without propriety that it may neither hinder the operation of the Holy Ghost within nor works of due obligation and obedience without 3. If in the practise of this introversion we find dryness and feel little devotion we may somtimes fitly resume in lieu of the second part or consideration our wonted exercises whereto our minds are more addicted ending the same with the Conclusion here prescribed being ever duly disposed to follow the holy Spirits invitation to higher matters If we faithfully observe these things we shall infallibly receive comfort and speedily perceive our own unspeakable profit and progress by the practise of this pious exercise as being indeed the end of all other externall devotions and the short sure simple and Râ—gia via leading to a spirituall devout and divine life The third Maxim That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable FOr the end and drift of all discoursive Prayer is to move inflame and enkindle our affections in the love of God and vertue and therefore all discourses must be left by little and little as our souls can more and more live in Faith and simplifie themselves from materiall objects images and conceptions and only tend to God by a sweet and secret motion of the will an amourous correspondency to the Divine operations and inward impulses of his holy Spirit treading down and transcending all things under God by discreetly forgetting and unknowing them The fourth Maxim That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God PRayer in generall according to As is more amply declared in our Introduction to the Spiritual Pilgrimage the known division is either Vocall or Mental Mentall Prayer is An Elevation of our spirits into God For as our Creatour is elevated above all creatures so our souls cannot see talk and treat with him purely and perfectly but by leaving them all and lifting up themselves above them all This Elevation is by means of Meditation Contemplation Thanksgiving and Petition Which
the morning and the other in the evening to his particular honour 4. That we must frame an act of pure Intention at our entrance into Recollection as thus I intend ô my God to employ each moment of the short time I shall remain in thy presence in adoring thy Majesty admiring thy goodness begging thy pardon for my offences thy mercy for the souls in Purgatory thy succour for the Churches necessities thy assistance in such an extremity thy strength against such an inclination thy grace for the getting such a vertue I am here on my knees ô Lord to perform these homages and present these petitions This Intention will virtually endure the whole time of prayer and make our seeming idleness and stâ—lâ—ess active and meritorious 5. That we must briefly examine our Consciences and produce acts of Contrition self-confusion humility and resolutions of amendment Saying from the very bottom of our hearts in this or the like manner O my Lord my God my 〈◊〉 thou deservest all praise honour and service because thou art good gracious and glorious I will henceforth rather lose all than leave thee ô my God without whom all is nothing and since thou art so good in thy self and so good to me I will by thy grace never more offend thee I will confess my sins amend my life perform my penance walk carefully humbly obediently resignedly in thy presence to all which I am principally moved by the infinite greatness beauty and bounty of thine own divine being and perfection In the particular examen of our consciences which must never be omitted in the beginning of our Recollection we must mark to what vice we are most inclin'd and wherin we are most frail and then trample Read the Spir. Confl c. 7. n. 1. 4. that down violently and resolutely for this Captain-imperfection being conquered the rest will soon yield and submit And in the next examen we must impartially search and censure our selves and see whether our falls in that kind are still as frequent as they were formerly and so set upon our enemy again with fresh fervour vigour courage and constancy till we have gotten the compleat victory 6. That we must also make an Act of perfect Resignation before we fall upon this Exercise Leaving our selves intirely in Gods hands He is our father let him dispose of his children and all that concerns them as he best pleaseth saying O my Lord my father my lover do with my life my health my temporals my spirituals my body my soul all all as thou wilt I come not hither to receive my own content but to learn how to conform me to thy will in all things and to remain in that very state neither more nor less nor otherwise which best pleaseth thy divine Majesty 7. That we must bring with us some theam subject or groundwork of our Prayer and Recollection As some mystery of our Saviours life death Passion mans last ends some vice to be conquered some vertue to be attained some divine perfection to be admired or some jaculatory sentence to be so long stayed on and chewed till our souls feel themselves inclined to quit all discoursing and acting and to remain quiet in an exercise of pure Faith and perfect Resignation as followeth 8. That we must look on God by Faith and leave off all discourseâ— When lively conceiving by Faith that our Lord is in us and in all things we humbly beg him to teach us the holy lesson of divine love and so keeping our selves in his presence bidding good night to all creatures objects and images whatsoever as at this time nothing concerning us we only and immediately eye the beloved object of our souls and rest quietly contentedly silently and sweetly absorpt into the Diviniâ—y 9. That we must carry God with us from our Prayer Let us not leave our dear Lord in the Oratory when we rise from Recollection but bear him along with us continually in our hearts talking still with him and of him eating and drinking in his company sleeping with him in our arms negotiating walking recreating doing all things with him in him for him and ever praying and praysing him whom we have with us and within us in the closet of our souls 10. That we must put on Christ and imitate his example in all our actions Our Saviour Christ is our Master let his life therefore be our modell and his practises the patterns which we always study to express and imitate Let us comport our selves in eating drinking sleeping speaking praying and doing all things as we conceive Christ did or would do upon the like occasions if he were now living upon earth in his humanity Let us study to have this Rule of three alwayes at our fingers ends 1. To think as Jesus did 2. To speak as Jesus did 3. To do as Jesus did So striving to become as it were a Jesus Christ by imitation Thus briefly we have the whole manner and method of this transcendent Prayer and divine exercise of Recollection to wit 1. To get into our retreat 2. and there placing our selves on our knees 3. Twice every day 4. to frame an act of pure Intention 5. To examin our consciences and produce acts of Contrition 6. and Resignation Then to 7. think on the subject of our prayer 8. Leave off all discourses and look on God by faith 9 Carry God with us from prayer and 10 lastly put on Christ by imitation Which is the short and secure way to divine union and Deiformity being faithfully performed discreetly practised and carefully accompanied with profound humility perfect obedience and an absolute submission to our spiritual director as shall be more fully deduced in the subsequent Maxims The sixth Maxim That for this pure perfect and Transcendent prayer no certain Rules can be prescribed THe ground of all Prayer even purest is as hath been said some mystery some devout sentence some vertu or some jaculatory dart c. untill our affection be moved Now if by continuall Introvâ—rsion and peculiar grace our Wils are drawn incontinently by the simple view of our beloved Lord it is needless to use this ordinary means When our affections are thus enkindled they break forth into flames of love and aspirations Then the heat increasing our Prayer grows more inward our sighs deeper our love greater our hearts more ardent in their desires of Union which is active Contemplation Wherewith our souls being overcome and drowned in tâ—eir lovers presence leave him to speak move act all things with us and within us and so we sleep in passive Contemplation freed from all objects of creatures and sweetly united by pure love to our Creator The degrees therefore of Prayer in generall are these 1. Devout reading or mix'd Prayer The degrees of Prayer in generall 2. Vocall Prayer 3. Meditation or consideration 4. When the affection is excited Vocall aspirations 5. The heat and light encreasing mix'd partly Vocall partly Mentall
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
of a sincere spirit of Devotion I have also made use of their pains for your profit and transferred hither by way of Explications whatsoever in that Edition seemed pertinent and conducing to the illustration of our Authour Yet still punctually observing the Text and division of his own originall Spanish and the Latin traduction of some learned Divines in the University of Doway where it was approved and reprinted in the year 1612. If you make your best advantage of these my labours your own souls will receive the true comfort and I the full reward I look for TO THE Devout Champions fighting in this Spirituall Warfare The Translator wisheth happy Victory the reward of eternal Felicity TO you dear Souls is this little work most fitly addressed who in this deplorable age when the deluge of all vices an universall inundation of wickedness covers the face of the Earth and to which that may be applied almost as properly as in the time of the generall flood All flesh hath corrupted his way having happily left the broad and beaten path of perdition and estranged your selves from the pernicious Contagion of the times imploy all your diligence and indeavours to preserve your souls pure and clean from all worldly filth and infection and whatsoever may displease the eyes of your Heavenly Spouse and take all possible paines that Gods sacred Image stamped upon you in Baptisme but defaced or at least much darkened through human frailty and infirmity may be again restored and imbellish'd within you An enterprise so high and heroique that no tongue of man can worthily praise or express it Take courage valiant Champions of Heaven and faint not in this holy pursute having Angels and Saints for your helpers and favourers and the Almighty himself stretching out his powerfull hand to conduct you with safety and security through all the throngs of difficulties and dangers and leading you as it were over the bellies of the Amorrheans Cananeans and all other uncircumcised and profane people into the true Land of promise the happy Land of Paradice replenish'd with Milk and Hony the blessed Land of heaven full-fraught with eternall and unexplicable solaces and sweetnesses You are also suited with such excellent armour of proof both offensive and defensive taken out of the rich store-house of sacred Scripture and the wholesom doctrin of the Catholique Church as will not only render you invincible against all opposition but make you glorious conquerors and triumphers over al your hellish adversaries It only remains that you seriously apply your selves to learn the use of these weapons to get the art and dexterity of fighting to your best advantage and to study well the manner of these spirituall skirmishes that so you may give home-blows both with point and edge and handsomly ward off those which are made at you by your enemies And then you may be confident of an assured victory And though this holy Science of Fencing is largely taught and plainly set forth by many spirituall and skilfull Masters both ancient and modern yet the whole doctrin therof is so briefly and familiarly comprised in this little Book that I know not of any other instruction which can be presented you in this kind more to your purpose and profit especially if you want leasure or conveniency to turn over many or greater volumes since you may here find the collected substance and as it were the marrow and cream of all the choycest precepts concerning the aforesaid necessary trade of training up your selves in the true and practicall knowledge of your spirituall weapons This ministred me the occasion to translate it that it might be accommodated to your benefit and to this I was urged and led on by the ardent desire of advancing your good to the utmost extent of that small power which the Divine goodness hath imparted unto me Receive it therefore gratefully and imbrace it willingly O most Dear Souls as an expert Tutor of arms and excellent School-master of the Spirituall Conflict by whose directions and documents you may fight undantedly and infallibly foil not only the Flesh and the World together which wage such cruell and continuall warre with you but also all the powers of darkness and malice of the Devil from whom neither peace nor truce can ever be expected waiting with patience perseverance for that happie hour in which it will please your loving Lord to give you a full deliverance to banish all war unto the utmost bounds of the earth to bruse the Bow break the Weapons burn the Buckler and withdraw your desirous souls from this place of tumults and alarms to the quiet residence of eternall peace and felicity To which his Divine goodnesâ— grant we may all at last joyfullâ— arrive THE SUBJECT OF THE SPIRITUALL CONFLICT THis Book correspondent to it's title is of warrs fights and combats not against the lawfull powers of this world but against the Eph. 6. 12. Against the rulers of the darkness of this world c. 2 Thes 2. 4 Shewing himself as if he were God c. Psal 11. 1. Truth is diminish'd amongst the children of men 2 Tim. 2. 5. No one shal be crowned who fights not 1 Thes 3. 3 We â—re appointed hereunto c. Job 7. 1. Man's life is a warfare 2 Tim. 2. 12. If we suffer we shall also reign usurped authority of the Prince of darkness who sits inthron'd as sole Monark of this inverted Universe in opposition to God and all goodness tyrannizing and trampling down all vertu piety and religion clipping Faith's sacred wings and blinding her with sin and sensuality destroying and driving out all justice and sincerity from amongst the sons of men and endeavouring to substitute double-harted fraud with all sort of prophaness impiety and infidelity in their stead The necessity of fighting against these monsters is a sufficient commendation of this our holy enterprise For we are put here expresly for this purpose All men are included in this Spiritual Warfare nor is there any exemption from combating where there is the least expectation of conquering or hope of being crowned How highly then doth it concern each Christian to learn so to combat that he may conquer if he attends ever to be crowned The Sum of this desired Conquest Ephes 4. 25. Depose all lying c. Coloss 3. 8 Depose all these wrath malice blasphemy c 1 Pet. 2. 1. Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Let not sin reign in your mortal body c. consists in deposing the devil and setting up God in our souls in subduing Sense to Reason's empire in bringing the Animal man under the feet of the Intellectual in raising up the Intellectual man to his proper Sphaer which is his Creator and in uniting the Spirit to it 's true object and Centre which is the Divinity The way to arrive at this high and happy Union is by continual and indefatigable tendencies of the soul to God in the track of sincere
affliction end they may truly understand their own state to send them some infirmity or permit some tribulation to befall them for such trialls are his touchstones whereby he proves his servants sincerity O how soon shall you discover the false foundation whereon they built the edifice of their feigned devotion how rotten is their inward man and how full of secret pride For they refuse to resigne their wills and to humble their hearts under God's powerfull hand in all the changeable courses of prosperity and adversity They will not according to the divine example of God's humble suffering Son subject themselves to all creatures nor take their seeming enemies that which truly they are to be their true freinds as being instruments of God's goodnesse pomotours of their perfection and helpers in the reformation of their unmortified passions which is an evident signe of their dangerous state For the eyes of their souls are dazzled and corrupted by gazing upon these outward actions though good arrogating to themselves I know not what degrees of perfection and from thence falling into self-conceit they judge rashly and contemn others Nor can they be recalled or cured unlesse God himselfe strikes strongly at the doore of their hearts and dissipates the darknesse of their interiour with the divine rays of his gracious light making them see their own danger and seeke the remedie For a great and manifest sinner is more easily reclamed than a seeming Saint whose secret iniquity is shrouded under the appearance of vertue and piety 9. Thus then it is manifest unto True perfection therefore consists in the knowledg of God and our selves thee ô my beloved that spirituall perfection consists not at all in the aforesaid practices and perswasions Know therefore that it is placed in no other thing than In the true knowledge of Gods goodnesse and greatnesse and of our own basenesse miserie and nothing and of the pronenesse of our naturall affections to all malice Also in the hatred of our selves and the love In the love of God and hatred of our selves In resignation to Gods will and denying of our own of God And lastly in the absolute denying of our own will and entire resignation of it to the divine will and pleasure That is that we totally submit our selves not onely to the Almighty God but even to every one of his creatures for his sake and this for no other end than onely to please his divine Majesty who deserves to be purely served highly honoured perfectly praised and glorified by all 10. This is the Abnegation which All which Christ hath taught us by word and example Christ our saviour so often inculcated This is the Obedience to which God's sonne invites and directs his faithful followers both by his words and by his example This is the desirable Crosse which his diligent servants are to lay on their shoulders and so follow the steps of their Saviour This is that love which our Lord so seriously frequently and carefully recommended to the whole world and especially to his Disciples as his particular friends and children after his last supper 11. If then my dearly beloved thou intendest to attaine to this high And we must also do it if we mean to purchase victory perfection thou must use violence to thy selfe and vanquish thine own affections both great and small thou must affect this fight and instruct thy mind to wage this holy war For the crown of victory is conferred only upon the stout and lawfull combatants Nor is there any thing more glorious to our selves or more gratefull to God 12. For as this battell we now treat of is the greatest and of most difficulty so is the ensuing victory most glorious to our selves and most gratefull to God in so much as if thou overcommest subduest mortifiest and rootest out thine own disordinate and unruly affections thou offerest up to God a more agreeable sacrifice than if neglecting this thou shouldst whip thy body till it were embrued in it's own bloud or fast beyond the austerity of the strictest Anchorites or convert thousands of Infidels and sinners to Christ's faith and perfect pennance For though the conversion of souls bee in it self more dear to our Lord God than the renouncing of our own wills in small matters yet it is thy part to will and do that chiefly and most carefully which Hee most strictly requires of thee And this is undoubtedly the serious mortification of thy untamed passions wherein thou shalt better please him than in any other highest and holiest employment 13. Being thus instructed ô dearly But to obtain it we must provide four necessary weapons beloved wherein Christian perfection consisteth and that to obtaine it thou must adventure upon a cruel and continuall warre if thou intendest to be a conquerour It befits thee like a stout Christian champion to arme thy-self with Four necessary weapons which are 1. Diffidence of thy self 2. Confidence in God 3. Continual exercise 4. Devout prayer Of all which weapons I shall by Gods assistance now briefly treat according to their several orders CHAP. II. Of the diffidence or distrust of our selves THis diffidence of thy selfe may be obtained by three manner Distrust of our selves which is gotten First by a deep sense of our own nothing of wayes First by a deepe sense of thine own basenesse and misery truly acknowledging that of thy selfe thou canst not doe the least good thing For man can no more effect any good or meritorious work by his own power than a stone if I may say it is able of it-selfe to ascend upwards and he hath almost the like inclination to evill as a heavie stone hath to the Earth's centre 2. The second way to get this self-distrust 2. By Prayer is to demand it of him whose gracious gift it is with humble and earnest prayers And to prevail in thy petition thou must first yield that thou truly wantest it and that of thy self thou canst never attain to it and thus totally naked present thy prayer with a constant faith and a couragious hope to be heard and to obtain this desired diffidence of thy self But let thy prayer encrease in dayly fervour and expect with perseverance the divine pleasure in the grant of thy petition and then be confident it will sooner or later be granted unto thee 3. The Third is That as oft as thou 3. By often reflecting upon our own weaknesse failest and fallest into sin thou presently turn thy soules eye toward thine own basenesse misery and inabilily to act any thing that is good for untill this be truly known and humbly acknowledged by thee never hope to be secure from falling 4. Whosoever therfore aspiâ—es to And this self-knowledge is leston musâ— needs be learn'd a blessed union with the increated verity must first study this necessary lesson of selfe-knowledg For God permits the proud presumptuous to fall sometimes into some grievous sin
my whole delight 5. Another remedy against such-like Mark well the craft of the Devill surprises of pleasure may be To ponder presently with thy understanding how cunningly the Devill who onely seeks to kill or at least to wound thy soule mortally lies lurking under this bait Which when thou perceivest tell him boldly Ah thou cursed serpent how craftily and covertly dost thou lie in wait to infect me with thy poison And then lift up thy mind to God-ward saying O the goodnesse of my God bee thou eternally blessed and praised which hast discovered my hidden enemy lying in wait to destroy my soul 6. But in other accidents which But when things which are unpleasant befal thee thinke upon God's eternall decree go against the hair and rather procure pain than pleasure thou maist thus exercise thy self when somthing happens which is of hard digestion to thy Sensuality as heat hunger sicknesse blows or the like elevate thy mind to that eternall will who would have it so and even from all eternity decreed that thou shouldest suffer this or that calamity at this very time thus grievously and with these circumstances as thou now endurest the same Therefore ful of hearty joy say within thy selfe Now is thy divine will ô my eternall Lord and love accomplished in mee whereby thou wouldest from all eternity that I now in this manner measure and number should receive and carry this crosse and I acknowledge all this to be for thine honour and glory and my owne soules welfare and salvation 7. And make use also of such like So likewise in any sudden or dismall chance thoughts upon all dismall occasions of wind weather and the like which are out of mans power and providence to hinder or prevent So when thou readest any thing which tickles thy fancy turne presently all thy delight to thy Lord God and conclude that he infallibly is hid under those words and now by them sweetly discovers himselfe unto thee And in like manner when good thoughts occure with complacency And in all felfe complacency and delight as proceeding from the reflexion upon some good and vertuous action turne thy mind sodainly to thy Lord God and adoring him with all possible humility and reverence acknowledge that good to have sprung from his grace and therefore thou gratefully returnest it his glory EXPLICATION A larger Declaration of the foregoing Chapter concerning the government of our outward senses THat thou maist rightly study this usefull science and learne how to governe regulate thy outward senses it imports thee to use all exactnesse of custody all curiosity care and diligence and a perpetuall and never-intermitted practise because the appetite which sits as Captaine The appetite is violently bent to seeke it's pleasure and chief commander of our corrupted nature is violently and inconsiderately bent to search after worldly solaces earthly pleasures and outward contentments but being of it selfe unable to acquire them makes use of the senses as his Soldiers And makes use of the senses to obtaine it and naturall instruments to apprehend their objects from whence drawing their images it imprints them in the soule and proceeds on to pleasure which by reason of the sympathy between it and the flesh dilates it selfe through all those senses which are capable of such pleasure and from hence is derived the common contagion which infects corrupts both body and soule Secondly Now if thou art truly sensible of the danger of this poison apply speedily The Antidot against this poyson this antidote which I have here prepared against it Beware of giving up the reines to thy senses or letting them run at randome after the unruly fancy of their leading appetite and never make use of them in things tending to meere pleasure without any further good end profit or necessity but if unawares they have gotten And how to curb the senses roaming abroad vent and are roam'd too far abroad either recall them back or else so regulate and curb them that whereas they had at first basely yielded up themselves and were become wretched prisoners to vaine pleasure they may now bring home some noble spoile or other from each object and place it as a trophe in thy soule where she recollected within her selfe displayes the banners of her affections towards heaven in the contemplation of her Creatour Which thou maist thus practise So soone as any object is presented to one of thy outward senses separate in thy thought the spirit which is in that creature from the creature it By separating the spirit of each object from the thing it self materiall selfe and conclude that it hath nothing of it's owne nature which can charm thy sense but that all is the work of God whose Spirit bestowes invisibly this being upon it gives it this goodnesse and indues it with this beauty with all other its prerogatives and perfections Then rejoyce heartily that thy God is the onely cause and source of so many and so great excellencies which he eminently contains in his divine essence and whereof these are the least and lowest images 3. So when thou findest thy sense fastened upon some creature which Whether it be a creature which hath onely a Being hath onely a Being reduce it in thy thought to it's first nothing looking with the interiour eye of thy soule upon thy Soveraigne Creatour there present who beautified it with this Beeing and taking pleasure in him alone thou may'st say O Divine and desirable essence how doth my heart leap with joy that thou alone art the infinit beginning of all created Beeing 4. In like manner when thou Or hath a Vegetation and increase takest notice of Trees Plants Herbs Flowers and such other things thy understanding will soone distinguish how they have no life of themselves but from that quickning Spirit which falls not under the sense of thy fight to whom thou mayst thus breath forth Behold the true life from which in which and by which all creatures live and encrease O the lively and lovely contentment of my heart 5. Also beholding brute-beasts Or hath sense and feeling let thy spirit soare up to thy God the free bestower of all their sense and motion saying O prime mover of all things yet remaining in thy selfe immovable how great is my joy in thy firm stability 6. Moreover when thy sense is Or is indued with rare beauty touch't and tickled with some rare Beauty separate with all speed that which appeares to the eye from the inward spirit which appeares not at all and considering that all the outward fairenesse springs onely from the invisible Fountaine say with a gladsome heart Oh! the jubilation of my Soule when it thinkes on that eternall and immense beauty which is the originall source and essentiall cause of all created comelinesse 7. Furthermore upon the consideration of any perfection in Creatures Or excellent perfection first making
INward or mentall prayer Is an 1. Mentall prayer includes aswayes elevation of the mind to God and it alwayes includes either to an actuall or virtuall petition of something 2. Virtuall petition is when the minde is lifted up to God to obtaine Either a virtuall Petition â— some thing some grace from him shewing him our necessities simply and briefly without any discourse or consideration of any other things As when I elevate my mind to God and confesse before him my weaknesse both to do well and to defend my selfe from doing evill This sort of prayer is properly tearmed Virtuall because when I thus briefly lay my minde open to God hee well knowes what is there wanting and how much I stand in neede of his helpe EXPLICATION ANd this virtually implies an humble supplication to his Divine Majesty that hee will vouchsafe to supply my necessities And by how much the more this confession of thine own want and weaknesse is reall and manifest and thy desire efficacious and thy confidence lively by so much also thy demand shall be of more force and value 3. There is also another kinde of inward virtuall Prayer which consists in a simple beholding or contemplation of God in our minds And this Prayer is When we silently desire and as it were put our Lord in remembrance of that grace wee formerly demanded 4. Learne O my beloved this way of Prayer and make it familiar unto thee by the frequent use of it For experience will give thee to understand that it is the best armour of proof against all enemies adversities and dangers Have it therefore always in readinesse that where and whensoever need requires thou mayst make use thereof 5. Actuall petition or actuall inward Prayer is when grace is asked Or an actuall asking by words expressed in the mind by words expressed in the mind In this or the like manner Give me O my Lord God this grace this benefit for the honour of thy most sacred name Or thus I steadfastly beleeve O my God that it is thy holy will I should begg of thee this grace which I stand in need of Do thou therefore O my God accomplish thine own pleasure in me 6. Thus also thou maist present before Gods Divine Majesty thine enemy which annoyes thee or thy sinnes which afflict thee joyning therewith thine owne weaknesse to resist them and say O Lord looke upon thine owne creature made by thy holy hands and redeemed by thy pretious blood behold also thine enemy and mine outragiously reaching at mee and striving to take mee from thee and teare mee in peeces O my God to thee I onely fly In thee onely I trust Consider my weaknesse and mine enemies strength who will infallibly subject mee to his tyranny if I am left destitute of thy powerfull protection CHAP. XXIII How wee may joyne Contemplation to this inward Prayer 1. IF sometimes thou art willing to settle thy selfe to mentall Prayer for a certaine space of time as an houre or more thou mayst joyn Take some points of Christs Death or Passion to this way of Prayer certaine Meditations upon the Life and Death of our Saviour Christ applying alwayes his Actions to that vertue thou then demandest and so meditating upon them both together 2. For example Patience is the vertue thou art now in quest of choose therefore for the subject of And apply his actions to the vertue thou demandest thy Meditation some mystery of Christs Crucifixion As how cruelly hee was despoiled of his garments which were barbarously rent from his Body carrying away part of his sacred Flesh which cleaved fast unto them With what ourcries and As for example to Patience curses they crowne and uncrowne him with Thornes iterating againe and againe that terrible torment How this most innocent Lamb was fastened with Nayles to the wood of the Crosse and lifted up into the Ayre with unspeakable griefe of his Wounds and new anguish of his whole Body And so of other the like points 3. And in these considerations first apply thy senses to feele see c. the paine which thy deare Saviour endured in these passages in all the Members of his sacred Humanity Then elevating thy heart to his holy Soule penetrate into his Pâ—tience and Meeknesse and see how pleasantly hee passeth over these so great and grievous afflictions and how ready hee is for his Fathers satisfaction and our salvation to suffer much more and farre greater torments After this behold him hanging Mark how meekly hee suffered and learne thereby to suffer patiently thy smaller adversities on his Crosse and compleating his sufferings by his Death stand thou close to him and contemplate him and thinke with what an ardent desire hee did all this for thee that thou by his example might'st learne to endure with patience thy smaller adversities for his honour And as hee turned himselfe to his Heavenly Father and prayed for thee so thou shouldst implore his Grace to beare and overcome this Crosse thou now groanest under and all other thy Of Resolution grievances with quiet of minde and constancy of resolution 4. And Lastly compell thy will to consent to these sufferings And And compell thy will to take up thy Crosse quietly speake to it to take up this Crosse quietly and cary it on constantly Then turne thee to God thy Heavenly Father and humbly beg of him the vertue of Patience and that he will be pleased to hear the perfect Prayer of his own dear Son powred out on the Crosse for thee CHAP. XXIV Of another certaine manner of Prayer by way of Meditation 1. THere is yet another manner of Praying and Meditating together As thus Having attentively and seriously considered upon thy To pray and meditate together Saviours bitter Passion sustained for thy sake and to save thy soule apply thine own senses as aforesaid and endeavour to feel as it were the like dolours in thy selfe and let thy thoughts pierce into the promptitude of mind wherewith Christ thy Saviour suffered all this 2. And having weighed his exceeding pains and his exact patience proceed to these two following considerations By considering Christ Merits the content his Heavenly Father took in his obedience First of the treasure of Christs Merits and Secondly of the high content and good liking which his heavenly Father took in his deare Sons perfect obedience Then 3. Having fill'd thy minde with these pious points of Meditation produce them and present them to And presenting them both to God thy Lord God and beg by vertue of these that grace which thou standest in greatest need of And thus thou mayst put up thy Petitions not only in meditating upon any mystery of Christs passion but also upon any internall or externall action of his CHAP. XXV Of a way of praying by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin 1. THere is yet besides these foregoing methods of Prayer and Meditation another way
future And for an acknowledgment of thy extraordinary obligation for thy Saviours sufferings undergone for thy sake with a resolution of amendment thou wilt resolve to serve him love him and suffer for him hereafter The third profit is that thou wilt fall out with thy perverse inclinations The third a persecution of our passions The fourth an imitation of Christs vertues and passions and persecute them to death be they never so little The fourth is that thou wilt force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to imitate the virtues of thy deare Saviour who endured all this not onely to save thee and satisfy for thy Sinnes but also to give thee an example to follow his sacred steps Another way to meditate on the Passion And now my beloved I will here declare unto thee another method of meditating upon Christs passion which thou maist make use of as thy devotion and occasion shall suggest unto thee If thou desirest for example to obtain patience in imitation of thy Redeemer consider these points following First What the afflicted soule of thy Saviour doth towards his heavenly Father By considering Secondly What the Father doth towards this soule of his Sonne Thirdly What this soule doth towards it selfe and its sacred body Fourthly What doth thy Saviour towards thee Fifthly What shouldst thou doe towards thy Saviour First therefore Consider how the soule of Jesus Christ being totally First how Christs soule carries it selfe towards his heavenly Father intentive upon God Is amazed to behold this infinite and incomprehensible Majesty in respect whereof all things created are as a pure nothing submitted though immutable in his glory to the sufferance of such unworthy usages upon earth for man from whom he never received any thing but disloyalty and injuries And how it afterwards adores thanks and offers up it self intirely to the disposition of the divinity Secondly how the Father towards him Secondly Consider how God willeth and exciteth the soule of thy Saviour to suffer for thy sake all those blowes buffets scourges spittles blasphemies thorns and death upon the Crosse giving him to know how well it pleaseth him to see him thus replenished with all sorts of affronts and afflictions Thirdly passing on to the soule of thy Saviour Christ Consider how with his understanding which is all Thirdly how the soule towards it selfe and its sacred body light knowing how highly his passion pleased God and with his will which is al fire loving the divine Majesty beyond measure which thus invited him to suffer for thee he disposeth himself readily joyfully contentedly to obey his sacred will and pleasure And who can dive into the depths of those desires which this pure and loving soule of thy Saviour had to suffer for thy sake It found it selfe as it were in a Labyrinth of troubles casting about to encounter new wayes of sufferings and therefore freely gave up it selfe and it 's innocent body as a prey to the pleasure and cruelty of the most lewd and worst sort of villains Fourthly Consider in the next Fourthly how thy Saviour carryes himselfe towards thee place thy sweet Saviour amidst his bitter torments fixing his eyes full of teares and tendernesse upon thee and conceive thou hearest him thus expostulating with thee Behold my Child whither thy immoderate desires and unmortified affections have brought me because thou wouldest not use a little violence to thy selfe See and consider how much and how willingly I suffer for thy love and to give thee a pattern of perfect patience I beg of thee ô my deare child and I conjure thee by all these my sufferings and sorrows that thou wilt willingly embrace and cheerfully carry this Crosse and any other which I shall think fit to lay upon thy shoulders and that thou abandon thy selfe intirely into such hands as I shall permit to persecute thee in body or fame how vile contemptible and cruel soever they be O didst thou but conceive the greatnesse of the comfort I should receive in this thy patience and courage But thou mayst read it in these my wounds wherein my love to thee is written in bloudy characters and which I willingly receive as so many precious pearles to enrich thy poore soule with all sorts of vertues and perfections because I love it above all things created And if I thy Lord and Creatour am reduc'd to this extremity for thy love why ô my deare Spouse wilt thou not consent to endure a little to satisfie my hearts desire to supple my wounds and to mitigate these my pains caused by thy impatience which more afflicts my soule than these grievous torments doe my body Fiftly Consider well who he is Fiftly how thou shouldst carry thy selfe towards thy Saviour that speakes thus unto thee and thou wilt find that he is the King of glory Iesus Christ true God and true Man Mark also the greatnesse of his grief the variety of his torments and the manner and indignity of his disgraces too bad for the worst of men or most infamous malefactor in the world Yet thou seest thy Saviour amidst all these affronts and afflictions not onely unmoveable mild and patient but even joyfull and content as if hee now kept his marriage-banquet And as a little water rather strengthens than extinguishes a full kindled fire so by the increase of his torments which were small in respect of his excessive love his content and desire of suffering farre greater was more and more enkindled and augmented Consider further that he endured all this by no externall violence nor for any self-interest but as he told thee for thy love and that thou mightst imitate him and exercise thy selfe in the vertue of patience And then penetrating into that which he desires thou shouldest doe and into the content thou shouldest afford him by this thy practice of patience produce acts of a passionate will to beare not onely this Crosse patiently and joyfully but any greater that so thou maist imitate him more perfectly and content him more abundantly And imprinting in thy mind a lively image of these his sufferings and of his constancy therein be ashamed to thinke thy patience so much as a shadow of his or that thy affections are really any at all being compared with his and tremble that the least thought of not enduring for the love of thy Lord should remaine in thy heart Thy Crucified Jesus my beloved is the best book thou canst read in Christ crucified is the best book to read in and the liveliest image thou canst look upon to draw the perfect pourtrait of all vertue For it being the book of life it not onely informs thy understanding by words but also inflames thy will by example The world is full of books yet all of them together cannot so speedily and perfectly teach the true means of obtaining all vertues as doth the right contemplation of Christ upon his Crosse But they And to learne all
sincere affection When shall I O onely life of my soul relinquish all self-will and vanquish all my passions and imperfections 8. In these and the like devotions thou maist spend the evening and morning to excite cherish and encrease thy desire to receive thy deare Saviour that so thou maist perfectly please him and be most happily united unto him And in thy pious practices of these things take this Caveat Be sure to keep each power and faculty of thy soule pure and But take heed of vanity and curiosity free from all curiosity of worldly things and from all idle and vaine thoughts Take also the like care of thy outward senses lest thy heart steale out by them and so thou lose all thy devotion EXPLICATION THe time of the sacred Communion At the time near the Communion drawing nigh think thou art to receive the Lord who created this great Universe and thee to his owne likenesse the Sonne of God who died for thee nâ—ked on the 1. Think what thou art going to doe Crosse that increased goodnesse which hath so often freed thee from danger death and damnation which thy sinnes deserved Thanke him with most profound Thank humility and adore him uniting Adore Implore all thy spirits and forces of body and soule togeather as true God and true man Beg also his pardon for thy faults and that the same love which moves him to grant thee this great gift may also induce him to purge thy soule from the staines of all sinne and uncleannesse thereby disposing it to a more pure and perfect union with his divine Majesty When the Priest pronounceth those sacred words Domine non When Domine non sum dignus is sayd sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy accompany him with these following and speak to thy Lord and love from the bottome of thy heart I am not worthy to receive thee ô my great Lord before whose Majesty the Angels of heaven tremblingly confesse their owne nothing I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest enter into my heart who am one of the meanest weakest and ungratefullest creatures upon earth I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest lodge with me because I love thee not and I remember thee not though these are prime reasons of thy instituting and remaining in this most blessed Sacrament Thus humble confound and abisme Humble and Confound thy selfe thy selfe at the serious consideration of thy sinnes malice and misery but then raising up thy heart with hope by the following words Sed But still raising up thy heart with hope tantum dic verbo sanabitur anima mea Doe thou onely speak the word ô my Lord and my soule will be saved Enter ô my love into this unworthy harbour and make use of thine infinite power and goodnesse in pardoning my sinnes supplying my defects and protecting me from my enemies 9. And after thou hast received Text. Having communicated entertaine thy guest with amorous expressions this divine Sacrament betake thee presently to the innermost closet of thy heart and there enter into communication with thy holy guest using these or the like loving and respectfull expressions What hath moved thee O great King of Kings to enter in to me who am nothing but a miserable despicable vild blind and naked creature And he will answer thee Love for thou art my dove my friend my sister my spouse and my dearely beloved Then thou maist reply O increated love ô sweetest dilection ô friendly and faithfull charity what wouldest thou have me doe what demandest thou what desirest thou I ask nothing saith he but love I would have nothing burne in the harth of thy heart but the fire of my love that it may devour all forraine love within thee and destroy all self-wil and seeking This this is my desire because I would be truly thine and would have thee likewise be totally mine Which can never be compassed untill thou freely deliverest up thy selfe to my will and pleasure For without this entire resignation thy fancy will be alwaies fastned to the loving and liking of thy selfe and thine owne actions be they never so meane I desire therefore that thou shouldest hate thy selfe that thou maist have the love of me I demand thy heart for my habitation that I may joyne and unite it unto mine for to this end was my heart opened to thee upon the altar of my Crosse My will is I say ô my dearly beloved spouse that thou desire nothing think nothing understand nothing see nothing feel nothing but my selfe onely that so I onely may be in thâ—e and thou totally turned into me and that thou maist possesse in me perfect quiet and I in thee pleasant context 10. Lastly thou shalt offer the holy And Lastly offer up the divine Sonne to his heavenly Father Sonne to his heavenly Father for thy selfe for the whole world and for the soules departed in memory and union of that divine oblation which he offered upon the holy Crosse presenting in like manner all the unbloody sacrifices to the divine Majesty which are that day offered up in his universall Church CHAP. XXXI Of Spirituall Communion ALthough my beloved thou canst receive thy sweeet Saviour 1. Thou maist thus often Communicate sacramentally onely once a day yet thou maist receive him spiritually every houre and moment For nothing can hinder thee from this but onely thine owne fault and negligence And this spirituall Communion may sometimes prove more profitable to thy soule and pleasing to thy Saviour than the sacramentall especially if there be a defect in thy due and diligent preparation 2. For as often as thou desirest By frequent desires to receive thy loving Lord God thus spiritually into thy soule thou shalt find him ever ready to feast thee with his owne sacred hands and thou mayest thus easily dispose thy selfe unto it Turning thy selfe to thy Saviour to this end reflect upon thine owne frailty and frequent failings and conceive an inward sorrow and detestation of thy defects then make thy supplication with a loving affection that he will not disdaine to enter thy poor cottage and feast thee with his owne true body and blood 3. So also when thou art moved And it is an excellent exercise against passions with a pious zeal against any perverse Passion and desirest efficaciously to mortify it or to plant some vertue in thy soule make use of this spirituall communion by converting thy thoughts towards thy Lord God and invoking his aid with ardent prayers beseech him to enter and possesse the secret part of thy soule Or calling to mind thy last sacramentall communion speak to him with an inflamed desire When ô my good God shall I againe welcome thee into the closet of my heart Come now O my Saviour and comfort me spiritually with the like strength and vertue EXPLICATION IF thou wilt practice this pious How to make
Or refectest thy body with Meat and Drinke 9. Or smellest delicious odors 10. Or art delighted with musical harmony 11. Or any other sensible object How to raise thy Soule by sensible objects to contemplate the word Incarnate Examples By the sight of poore Cottages Stones the Earth Sun Water c. In tasting Wine in smelling In cloathing and uncloathing thy selfe in hearing noyses or the Clocks striking In time of sadnesse 12. Other wayes to meditate upon sensible objects 13. By considering how meane the best of them are in themselves 14. As the Suns brightnesse 15. The Heavens greatnesse 16. The Birds melody 17. Walking abroad 18. Marking the flight of the Fowls 19. In time of Winds Thunder Storms 20. Also upon all other occasions as of grief 21. Looking upon Christ crucified 22. Or the image of the blessed Virgin 23. And the pictures of Saints 24. Or entrest into Churches 25. Finally make all objects and accidents instruments to thy perfection 26. How to regulate the Tongue Much talke proceeds from Presumption 2. Therefore avoid long discourses 3. And passionate expressions 4. And all talking of thy own affairs 5. Or of thy neighbours 6. But speake willingly of God 7. And ponder in thy hearâ— what thy Tongue is to utter 8. The praise and profit of Silence 9. Chap. XIV Of the order to be observâ—d in fighting against our enemies Mark which are thy greatest 1. And single out the fiercest to fight with 2. But when they apper not seek them 3. Chap. XV. What course he must take who is conquered grievously wounded by his enemies When thou art fall'n rise with speed And pray with fervour 1. Be not over solicitous or fearfull 2. But be diligent and use violence to thine own inclination recovering the quiet of thy Soule and Reconciliation to thy Soveraign 3. By forgetting thy fault 4. Chap. XVI That we should keep our hearts ever quiet and joyfull in our Lord. No accident can justly deprive us of quiet for though we must needs abhor things contrary to nature yet we may love them as comming from Gods Permission and so conforme our selves to his holy Will To obtain this quiet thou art to appoint a sentinell 1. And when thou art surprised with perplexity returne with all diligence to quiet thy heart 2. And therefore admit of no new affections before thou hast offered them up to God 3. and mortified thy wil and desire 4. which is the surest way to remain in peace 5. Chap. XVII That pious purposes are sometimes deceits of the Devill to hinder our progresse in vertues For he suggests unto us desires to fight against former faults that we may neglect the present 1. And fall into selfe-complacency 2. Therefore thou art to fight actually with thy nearest foes and not to irritate them which are quiet 3. unlesse thou art well vers'd in the acts of that vertue 4. Be not carelesse of small defects 5. Three things make our designs fruitlesse First the relying upon our own strength 6. Secondly the want of force to go through with them 7. Thirdly the not levelling at the right end 8. Chap. XVIII How the Devill strives to withdraw us from the way of vertue This deceit of the enemy is exemplified in a sick person falling into impatience upon pious pretences 1. and over-earnestly desirous of health 2. The remedy whereof is to admit of no purposes which thou canst not presently put in execution And to perswade thy selfe that either they would not have their effect or that God would not receive them from thy unworthy hands 3. There are divers pretences for impatience but all unwarrantable 5. As is explained by an example The remedy of all which is to separate the paine from the pretended circumstances 6. And not to desire a freedom from thy Crosse 7. But to conform thy will to Gods 8. Yet thou mayst make use of lawfull means so thou take heed of self-love How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscretion and pressing us to afflict our bodies 1. Which though it is sometimes good yet it must be prudently tempered 2. For all cannot imitate the Saints in austerity of life but each one may imitate their vertues 3. Yet beware of the other extreme which is to addict thy selfe overmuch to delicacies c. under pretext of health or the better performance of thy duty Discretion therefore is the best directour in this matter of mortification 4. And also in the acquisition of vertues which must be done by degrees 5. And one by one rather than all or many together because the obtaining of any one vertue is a preparation to all the rest 6. Further advices for the obtaining of vertues First thou must resolve to suffer 2. Thou must bear a great love to vertue 3. Thou art to practise it upon all occasions 4. Apply all thy exercises to this end 5. Form frequent acts thereof 6. Think upon such passages of Scripture as concern and commend it 7. Make use of Jaculatory prayers 8. Which being ayded with two wings will soare up to heaven 9. Above all things thou art to make a continuall progresse 10. For by going forward thy strength increaseth 11. Till thou art gotten up the mountaine of perfection 12. Thou art also to seek out all occasions of practising vertue especially such as are contrary to thy Sensuality 13. This being the most proportionate meanes to attaine to it 14. And comming from Gods providence for thy particular profit 15. The mistake of some rectifyed 16. To suffer voluntarily by them whom thou hast obliged is to draw vertue from sin and malice 17. Receive therefore the bitter cup mixed by thy heavenly Physician How to make use of sundry occasions in the exercise of one vertue 1. In all occurring accidents of suffering 2. Make acts of that vertue thou then practisest Examples in the vertue of Patience Humility Obedience Poverty Charity 3. As concerning the time thou art to stay in the practice of each vertue thy Director must be judge 4. Yet thou maist know thy progresse by these signes First if thou losest not courage in time of desolation Secondly If the rebellion of thy Sensuality be weakn'd 5. But take heed to think thy selfe a Conqueror because Vice may be cloathed in Vertues dresse and thou hast still much to doe 6. And therefore art to look forward upon what thou yet wantest 7. And to pursue thy exercises with patience and constancy Chap. XIX How our enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our ruine By making us take pleasure in them 1. But doe thou consider thine owne nothing 2. And mark well what is in thee of thine owne goods and what of Gods gifts What thou wert from eternity what in time 4. What good thou canst doe of thy selfe and what evill thou either hast or mightest have done Whereby thou mayst justly think thy selfe the worst of all men 5. Yet be just in thy self-accusation 6.
without any foregoing meditation or precedent search into divine mysteries draws up forthwith the lovers affection to his beloved Lord which is more and more stretched intended and inlarged by these ardent ejaculations of the soul thus familiarly conferring communing treating and talking with her Creator and raising up her self to him by acts of love and desires of conjunction And we may fitly say that the solid foundation of invvard perfection is contained in such acts motions and tendances of our Souls towards God their neighbours and themselves as the outvvard consists in the practical performance of our duties in relation to the same three objects Make use therefore O dear souls of these affective Devotions daily diligently and perseverantly and you shall soon perceive a happy and heavenly change in your souls you shall feel your faith strengthned your devotion actuated your good desires prepared and put in real performances your pious intentions ripened for executions and your well-made purposes and resolutions forwarded to leap into the punctual and particular observation of each part of your duty towards God the world and your selves The Seven Exercises The 1. Exercise For Monday Of the Knowledge of God and Confidence in him The 2. Exercise For Tuesday Of the Knowledge and Diffidence in our selves The 3. Exercise For Wednesday Of obtaining Remission of our sins The 4. Exercise For Thursday Of subduing Sensuality to Reason The 5. Exercise For Friday Of Mortification and perfect Abnegation The 6. Exercise For Saturday Of Conformity to Christ Crucifyed The 7. Exercise For Sunday Of perfect Vnion with God FOR MONDAY Of the Knowledge of God and Confidence in him The First Exercise 1. TO know thee O divine fountain of goodness is to be truly happy and yet none can know thee O boundless and bottomless Sea of all perfections but through thine own manifestation and mercy Vouchsafe therefore I beseech thee ô most loving and liberal Lord to enter this poor empty heart of thy meanest servant to inform my ignorant soul with a glimpse of this necessary science and to inflame my cold affection with a small spark of thy holy love O omnipotent Creator of heaven and earth both which thou fillest with thy greatness and glory O God of infinite power excellent wisdom unmeasurable goodness and incomprehensible love my soul thirsts after thee the essential source of all felicity my heart seeks thee the proper place of it's repose it sighs to thee the natural centre of all it's hope and happiness IN thy blessed mind ô my God it first rested in it's eternall possibility and similitude thither it must again return and there it must either rest eternally or perish for evermore O let it now find thee that it may ever love thee 2. O Lord most good glorious and gracious most blessed and bountiful most high and holy most excellent and ineffable What words or thoughts can express thy purity and perfection Let me know thee O thou life of my soul Let me see thee O true light of my eyes Let me seek thee O thou only solace of my spirit Let me find thee O thou desired of my heart Let me embrace thee O my heavenly Spouse Let me possess thee O thou soveraign sweetnes and full satiety of all my inward and outward senses O that my heart could alwayes think on thee my will ever love thee my mind still remember thee my understanding continually conceive thee my reason perpetually adhere to thee and my whole man incessantly praise thee O hide not thy face from me my joy my light and my life If I may not see thee and live O let me dy that I may see thee I desire to dy here and be dissolved that I may see thee know thee come to thee live with thee and love thee eternally O ever blessed and glorious divinity O Father who of thine own substance bringest forth an ineffable goodness coequal consubstantial and coeternal with thy self which is thy Some O Father and Son who loving each other with infinite charity and content are united together in one Holy Ghost equally and unspeakably proceeding from you both I admire thee adore thee and worship thee with all the powers of my body and soul 3. O sacred Deity O Tri-Unity and Vni-Trinity O Father Sâ—n and Holy Ghost Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts who wert art and shalt be for ever almighty I thy poor creature prostrate before the Throne of thy Divine Majesty from the abyss of my own nothing invoke adore and acknowledge thee the abyss of all perfection I present thee with al thine own gifts goods and graces which thou hast plentifully powred out upon all thy creatures I offer up to thy praise the affections of Angels and men the properties of the elements the beauty and motion of the whole universe and the essence of all being O that my soul were capable to comprise unitedly all their severall affections and perfections how joyfully would it employ them in thy praise how sweetly would it melt away in thy presence Behold O my God I make an intire oblation of them all I acknowledge and adore thee with them all and desire to do it as frequently as I breathe and as often as there are minutes in time stars in the firmament sands in the Ocean and numbers in all nature O my Lord whose love is the life of my soul increase my knowledge of thee that I may enlarge my love to thee Alas I love thee not ô amiable Lord God because I know thee not I know thee not because darkness and sin hath covered and incompassed my understanding Wherefore ô bright light who illuminatest all things expell this darkness from my soul drive off these clouds from my understanding draw the curtain from off the face of the abyss of my mind that I may see and know thee and then I shall not choose but love thee O my dear Jesu shew me thy divine Father dart a beam of thy heavenly splendour into my dull heart that I may have some degree of that holy science which may help me in thy love make me obedient to thy will and resolute in thy service To know all things of this world ô Jesu and not to know thee is but ignorance and folly let me therefore know thy eternal Father and thee whom he sent for my salvation and it sufficeth me O give me this knowledge that I may give thee my love and I ask no more Let me be unknowing ignorant and a fool in all other things so I may wisely know thee only ô my God and my all 4. O King of glory I acknowledge thy perfections to be above all knowledge but that of thy own divine understanding I confess that thy height is unreachable thy goodness unchangable thy greatness incomprehensible thy light inaccessible And all other thy divine attributes and perfections are so mighty and so many so good and so glorious so excellent and so admirable
so worthy and so wonderfull that were all the power and prerogatives all the vertue wisdom and qualities of all creatures united in one individual nature it were not so much in respect of thy glory and greatness as the least drop of water is in comparison of the vast Ocean Wherefore I beg of thee O immense and inaccessible Godhead only so much to know conceive believe and understand of thy hidden majesty as may efficaciously move my will to thee and I content my self with so much light of thy divinity as may force me to love thee ardently effectually perseverantly O my Lord and my love Fill my heart with the sweet influence of thy heavenly grace that I may in some measure discover how good and gracious thou art to me and to all thy creatures O let me still remember thy mercy ever dread thy justice and continually admire and adore thy power and providence Ah! my noble Soul stampt with thy Creators lovely image endowed with the excellencies of understanding to know him of will to love him of Memory to rest in him why adherest thou not fast to him only in pure and perfect delight forgetting and forgoing all sensible and worldly objects 5. O that I were so ravished with thy love and liking my only amiable Lord God that through joy jubily and admiration I might feel no self at all no sense no change no inequality That no prosperity might puff me up no adversity deject me no accident separate me from thee ô my God of infinite love and liberality O that I could be ever joyful in thee ever gratefull to thee and ever mindfull of thy inhabiting presence within me Thou are alwayes nearer to my soul ô my good God than my soul is to my body alwayes conserving counselling disposing directing inciting and inspiring it to thy love and wilt thou not ô my sensless and sinful soul be alwayes cautious and circumspect how thou behavest thy self in thy Lords presence who is so tenderly carefull of thy safety O let his love be no longer neglected his sweet invitations no longer slighted O that thou wouldst henceforth walk before him as befits his chast and holy Spouse with all respect and reverence fear and fidelity courage and constancy preparing thy self diligently for his divine embraces 6. Grant I beseech thee ô mighty and mercifull Creator that my whole time and thoughts may be totally taken up in the contemplation of thy unmeasurable benefits and bounty towards me For I know Lord that I am truly nothing and yet thou carest for me ô my loving maker as if thou hadst no other creature in heaven or earth thou deliverest me from innumerable dangers adornest me with many gifts and graces givest me leave at all times to have free access to thy throne of mercy so that with one holy thought one humble sigh one devout desire I may draw neer to thee and enjoy thee and in thee all comfort and content O divine privilege To discover to thee my wants lay open my wounds and boldly declare my wishes as to my neerest dearest and trustiest friend and familiar and to be sure of supplies salves and succour in all my necessities O what goodness what grace what mercy is this O my soul How loving and liberall a Lord have we how loving in mercy how liberal in bounty Ah! our unthankfulness to requite our unworthiness to deserve his favors Up my heart be no longer ungratefull and unfaithfull to so great good and gracious a benefactour Yes ô blessed and bountiful giver I now say cordially and will ever stand to iâ— coâ—ragiously I will henceforth love thee ô my Lord my love my life my strength my support my home my harbor and my happiness I will remember thy sweet words to all sinners Why will you perish O children As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but that he would turn to me anâ— live I will behold thy sacred wounds suffered for me able to move a rock to love and compassion And though I am ashamed to think what I have been and how little I have done how much thou hast endured for me how long thou hast expected me how lovingly thou hast besought me and how poorly I have corresponded to thee Yet I know ô my Lord thou ceasest not to be God and good though I am weak and wicked Therefore I will take yet courage in thy service and confidently hope that thou who sought'st after me a lost sheep wilt mercifully receive me now I seek after thee my loving shepheard with a right intention real resolution and inflamed affection 7. Yes ô my Lord and my love heaven and earth shall sooner perishâ— than my confidence in thy sweet mercies and my Saviours merits If thou repell me I will run after thee If thou shut thy door against me I will never leave knocking and if thou kill'st me yet I will trust in thee I wholly cast my self upon thy holy will providence and protection I protest with heart and mouth that I now am and henceforth will be entirely thine that I have nothing seek nothing fear nothing desire nothing demand nothing want nothing will nothing but thee onely My Lord my Love and my All. And I firmly purpose to serve and love thee ô sacred and supream Majesty simply sincerely purely and perseverantly not for any fear of pains or punishment not for any self-interest of what this world can offer or the next afford not for the least hope of heaven or happinesse but I will thee seek thee and love thee for thy self only ô my all-sufficient Lord God who art the sole object sweet compleatment and solid contentment of my soul Pardon me protect me and provide for me For thou art my only hope and happiness FOR TVESDAY Of the Knowledge and diffidence in our selves The Second Exercise 1. WHat is man ô Omnipotent Creator what is this man that thou shouldst be mindfull of him He is nothing ô Lord and I am the least and worst of those nothings because I have least corresponded to thy grace and made worst use of thy gifts O give me ligâ—t reach forth thy hand to this blind creature crying after thee O thou true light of the world and life of my soul that now at length I may duly diligently cordially and abyssally dive into my own basenes weakness misery nothing that knowing what I truly am I may really loathe hate distrust despise and deny my self and all my own proceedings sincerely love thee only trust and hope in thee and rely wholly upon thy divine providence and protection I am not only content ô my Lord God but even willing and desirous that all thy creatures should take me and treat me according to my true condition and unworthynesse And I am resolved by thy grace to humble my self not only under thy mighty hand but also under all their feet as their servant and slave to be troden on abhorred avoided and detested by
them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as dross among metalls chaff among grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the children of God I acknowledge my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the world the devil and hell it self can inflict upon me 2. And to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee ô my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty and a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence ô my Lord and my maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthyest element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction be ashamed to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceived in concupiscence nourished with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am ashamed to own my own beginning which is so horrid and lothesome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the ground-work of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time what nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and wofull thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgement of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. I came into this world ô my Lord with groanes and tears I live in it with griefs and cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horror to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of veâ—min and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay and ashâ—s why shouldest thou look to be so highly priz'd so daintily pampered thou stinking puddle Dust thou art to dust thou must return Hast thou not alwayes before thy eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and maker What thou â—â—st hitherto been I wel know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace and love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtfull of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came ô my Lord into this world in originall sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace ô merciful Lord God to avoid sin since I cannot eschew death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly sin 4. What art thou then ô my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou ô N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor nothing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not received Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledge my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdraw from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own Nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledge and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body soul will judgement memory understanding affection senses meat drink company habit books prayer Sacraments all creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honor the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. What creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in heaven if it had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountifull Lord God and made so little and bad use of them as I have done If I deny all this my conscience witnesseth against me If I confess it oh why am I not more humble Finally If such great troubles temptations and tribulations had hapened to me as have done to others I should by consenting have ere now burned in hell fire but thou O meek and merciful Creator hast spared me because thou knowest my weakness and sent me small crosses because I cannot bear greater c. Wherefore Not unto me O Lord but to thee be all honour for time and eternity O that I could know thee and know my self O that I could truly see my own nothing and totall dependancy on thee my misery and malice and thy perfection and total goodness Ay me weak and wretched N What are my forces that I should rely on them I have nothing O my Lord but what is
confession into my mouth prayers into my lips remorse into my memory resolutions of amendment into my will T is Thou O gracious God who chiefly actest all this good in me by me and for me O my All do then all in me that thou desirest And particularly overwhelm I beseech thee my whole interiour with perfect contrition not coming from a slavish and servile fear but from a faithful and filial love Grant me a true and intire grief for having offended thee not because of thy promises or threats but because thou art in thy self good amiable adorable 3. Or if mercenary interest do yet more move thee O my sensual and sinful soul For how hainously dost thou take a small injury how deeply dost thou resent a little disgrace the loss of a dear friend of health of honour or the like temporall and perishable commodities O whence is it then that thou so little apprehendest thy loss of grace and thy eminent and imminent danger of eternall damnation Is it a small matter to be Gods enemy To lose the good will of all heaven To destroy Gods image To cut up life root and branch To side with the accursed devils thy Creators sworn enemies to hatch Treason enter Conspiracie with the damned Yea and to kill as much as in thee lyes him who by his own death gave thee life O brutall and unnatural ingratitude Surely the annihilating of heaven The reason is Because the least degree of a higher order surpasses the highest degree of the lower order earth Angels men and all Nature cannot be compar'd with this malicious evil and willfull destruction of thy grace O Lord in my soul O eternal God! what a monster have I then been in grace what a prodigie in nature who have so little car'd to commit such enormous sins But O my Lord I will even now change my life I here detest all sin I make firm purpose of amendment I have a ful confidence in thee my Creator a good wil to do satisfaction and a totall resignation to thy divine pleasure 4. I am the woful criminal O just judge of my soul and I will be also the accuser and witnes the advocate and executioner in this tribunal I summon you therefore O detestable pride O abominable envy O execrable avarice O beastly lubricity and all you accursed crew of sins how long will you reign on earth how long will you dispeople Gods inheritance who brought you in amongst Gods children T is the perverted Will of man O dread Soveraign which hath done all these mischiefs Rectify ô my Lord I beseech thee this my crooked Will and murder these horrible monsters in me and grant that I may henceforth rather expose my body to a thousand deaths than my soul to one deadly sin Thy Saints will rejoyce ô God at my amendment and thy Angels will make a Feast but thy own resentment of joy will be infinite because thy love is infinite which goes hand in hand with thy essence and comprehends all love in supream eminency I will therefore expect from thee O heavenly Father the exact remembrance from thee my Redeemer the perfect knowledge from thee ô holy Spirit a true repentance and from thee ô Sacred Trinity an intire absolution and plenary indulgence from all my iniquities The grief I feel for my past offences the hatred I have against each sin at this present and the resolution I make to avoid all iniquity for the future are not equivalent in me to their enormity and hainousness I therefore humbly crave ô holy Lord God! that thou wilt accept thine own hatred against sin for that which I should and would have and in stead of the sorrow I want I offer that of thy Son my sweet Redeemer with the Sacrifice of his immaculate life and innocent death And since I cannot be impeccable by nature O my Lord nor dare presume to ask to be so by grace give me leave to prostrate my self before thy infinite bounty and clemency and beg by the merits of Jesus Christ thy dear Son and by the desires of thy essential love the blessed holy Ghost that though I may not be impeccable yet I may never sin more and if I must somtimes sin through my frailty yet that I may never sin mortally This thou desirest O Lord this thou demandest this thou commandest O give me what thou commandest and command me what thou pleasest 5. O my good Lord Jesu who art Lord of my life and shouldst be the love of my soul had I not like an ungracious and ungratefull wretch given my heart and sold my affection to fond frail filthy and fading creatures and comforts which are so far from bringing me eyther quiet of mind peace of conscience purity of soul or perfection of spirit that they leave me nothing but trouble confusion and remorse with a world of disquiet and desperate thoughts violent passions and vitious inclinations I find no other refuge or remedy but to return to thee my Centre to convert my self to thee O my good Lord and Master to cast my self in all humility at thy sacred feet and heartily to beg thy mercy pardon and reconciliation O mercifull Father I truly acknowledge my prodigality and humbly confess my treachery and am sorry from my heart that ever I offended thee who deservest so much love and service from me Beseeching thee as a guilty prisoner to be pitifull to thy poor creature and mercifully to forgive me the manifold rebellions and grievous iniquities that I have committed against thy Divine Majesty and goodness and for the love of thee I freely forgive all them who have any way offended or contristated me sincerely acknowledging that I deserve no comfort from any creature but all contempt and confusion and not only to be troubled by all on earth temporally but even to be tormented by the Devils in hell eternally 6. O how ungratefull a child have I been to offend so often and so grievously so loving and liberal a Father so meek and mercifull a Redeemer and so â—weet and soveraign a Majesty who hath always shew'd himself so benigne and bountifull to me tolerating me in my sins and expecting me to his mercy wooing me to his love and calling me to his service by a thousand means all which I have either rejected or neglected and still nevertheless given me time and opportunity to do penance O my poor soul how blind and bewitched hast thou been to leave the bread of Angels and to feed on the husks of swine for vanities villanies shadows and nothings to abandon God and all goodness on whom depends all thy hope and happiness quiet and comfort for time and eternity O blindness O folly O frenzie Would God I had never sinned Oh that I might never sin more O my God what have I done Would I had suffered on the Cross pains of body and pangs of soul when I thus N. sinned Oh what can I say or do more
of my eye at each morsell I eat at each member I move and at each inward and outward action I undertake I may first ask thy leave and permission and so do it or leave it accordingly as thy holy inspiration answers and allows me O that I could perform each naturall and necessary work with an actual reflexion upon thy praise and pleasure and with a pure intention to be united to thee my Lord and my love Thy outward senses ô my sweet Saviour were exactly subject to thy reason and perfectly obedient to thy sacred soul O let mine be swallowed up I beseech thee gracious Jesu and sanctified by the merits of thine Let me live love move and make use of my senses purely and only in thee for thee and by thee Thy sacred hands ô holy Jesu were harshly nailed to the tree of the Cross preserve mine I beseech thee from all sinfull touching Thy blessed feet were likewise pierced and fastned to the same rood O fix my steps that I run not to evil actions direct them in thy paths and make me speedy in all works concerning thy honour and the assistance of my neighbour Thy holy mouth was free from guile full of wisdom put thy words sweet Jesu into mine let it alwayes speak of thy love and only sing thy prayses Thy divine ears were filled with blasphemies and derisions Let not mine be open to hear vanities and detractions Thy sweet eyes poured out floods of tears for me O give unto mine tears of compassion for thy sufferings and of compunction for my own sins Thy taste was tormented with the novsome potion of gall and vineger O take from me I beseech thee all desire of delicacies let me not eat or drink but for meer sustenance and necessity Thy whole humanity ô gracious Jesu was martyred and murthered O grant that I may be truly and totally mortified Let me not see feel hear tast smell eat drink do any thing or make use of any thing as following my own gust sensuality and self-seeking but in pure conformity to thy divine will and pleasure 6. O mercifull Redeemer how great and grievous were the inward sufferings of thy holy soul O for those thy sorrows and thy tender mercies sake cleanse cure inlighten inform reform and transform all my inward man O permit not my Vnderstanding where the knowledge of thy greatness and goodness should be only seated to be overspread with ignorance and errour Let not my Memory which should be totally taken up with thee be stuffed with vain fancies or impertinent curiosities Let not my Will which thou gav'st me to desire and love thee O my only Lord and love above all thy creatures be inslav'd to any inferiour affection Repair ô gracious Redeemer this lively image of the lovely Trinity which is almost defac'd by my brutish sensuality Grant O dear Saviour that my Understanding Will and Memory may be incessantly busied in knowing loving and remembring thee and that they may forget and forgo all other objects but only in thee and for thee 7. O that my heart were perfectly disingaged from the love of all creatures Drain it sweet Jesu and deliver it from all forreign and domestick affection and fill it up again with thine only that it may never love desire nor will any thing but thee alone O my Lord my love and my All. O that my Will were conformable to thine without any reservation or retraction Take it unto thee Dear Lord freely and fully for time and eternity I will have no will but thine dispose of me as thou pleasest here and hereafter O that my Memory were disincombred from all imaginations and purged from all impressions but of thee only Empty it ô thou only amiable object of my soul and then replenish it with such holy and heavenly notions as may best please thy divine Majesty O that my Vnderstanding were imbued with some measure of the knowledge of thy divinity O my Lord infinite in goodness dreadfull in Majesty and unspeakable in all perfection O my great gracious and glorious God Quicken it sharpen it elevate it and illuminate it that knowing thee I may not choose but love thee and that knowing and loving thee I may be eternally happy Behold Lord I make an absolute divorce with all self-love sensuality and affection to creatures and give thee my self by an irrevocable donation Behold Lord the keys the lodging the treasure and the Master prostrate at thy sacred feet Enter freely possesse all fully dispose universally and command absolutely Put me where thou wilt give me what thou wilt treat me as thou wilt Thine I am ô my Lord my love and my All for time and FOR FRIDAY Of Mortification and perfect Abnegation The Fifth Exercise 1. O Eternal and ever Blessed Lord God! Thou hast framed me of soul and body and fitted me with faculties proportionable to attain the end of my creation which is to love thee intirely and to live with thee eternally But alas how far am I from observing thy blessed and beautifull order Thou ô Lord gav'st me a soul to bear all the sway in my body Reason to have the chief regency in my soul thy Law to be the guide of my reason and thy self to be the sole mover and governour of my whole man But Oh! how have I willfully cross'd thy sacred design contradicted thy intention and swerv'd from this perfection My body is all brutish my soul all animall and my reason all sensuall I am all blindness self-love and immortification Yet I know well and thou O eternall verity hast expresly told me that unless I renounce all deny my self take up my Cross and follow thee I can never become thy true Disciple Ah harsh words to my carnall ears If thou wilt be my disciple deny thy self If thou wilt be perfect sell all give away all reform all renounce all relinquish all If thou wilt possess life eternal contemn this life temporal If thou wilt be exalted in heaven humble thy self in the world If thou wilt wear a crown with me bear thy Cross with me But O my soul how wilt thou brook that more dismall sentence Depart from me thou accursed into eternall fire Wherefore O my Lord my love and my all Since Thou hast taught me these things by thy sacred word and shewed them by thy holy example and thou art the way the truth and the life Grant O infallible truth that I may couragiously walk in this thy perfect way that so I may happily come to thee the only true and eternall life and love of my soul 2. What dreadest thou O my fearful and faithless heart Behold Christ thy King and captain is march'd on before thee Take up thy Cross and travell after him he leads thee to a Kingdom heaven is worth thy pains O take courage to mortifie thy self deny thy self and die to thy self that thou mai'st live to Jesus and with Jesus eternally Learn O my soul this short
and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions disgest injuries the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence The end thou aymest at is perfection the reward of thy conqucst is eternall love eternal life eternall happiness Behold ô my Lord my strength and my salvation I am fully resolv'd to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveagling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disordered passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. I know Lord that it is bootless to study perfection without the practice of mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather ô my Lord the dispersed forces of my soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my understanding will memory imagination and all my inward and outward sences from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform ô my Lord all the naturall corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spirituall infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy divine will and pleasure 4. To this end O bless my weak endeavours al-mighty and al-merciful Lord God I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensuall and subject to sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward senses the windows by which death steals into my soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divine fire cooled and quenched not only by sin but also by the distracting images of outward objects I will keep a speciall and strict watch over my tongue on which depends my spirituall life or death and cheerish thee ô beloved silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferior This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct themselves according to Gods Spirit nature with all it 's evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope Anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the laws of reason and thy divine inspirations ô my Lord and my God Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous and my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the citadell from whence sin assails me and Satan fetcheth his forces to fight against me Grant good Lord that I may Therefore every one must strive to know his own natural inclinations and then imploy all his forces and apply all his prayers and spiritual exercises to quel them never yeild to this wicked Eve persuading Adam my Superior will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawfull pleasures O that I could tame these cruel beasts my naturall passions how soon should I be master of all morall vertues O that I could so till this vineyard so delve this garden so purge it from all ill weeds of affections and prune all superfluous surgeons and shoots of passions that the seed of thy grace ô heavenly husbandman might only there take root increase and fructifie 5. I will also mortifie my Superiour and rationall part with all the curious and fruitless speculations of my Understanding all conceits of self-wisdom naturall prudence proper judgement and good liking of my own proceedings All vain and foolish reflexions of my Memory And all petty desires and affections of my Will which relate not to thee the only object and Lord of my love I am resolved ô my Lord to nip off each budding passion as soon as it peeps up in my soul to trouble it in its true repose and to hinder its liberty and tendance to thy love I will by thy gracious assistance proceed faithfully and sincerely in the hatred denial and mortification of my self and in the prosecution of thy divine love And in order to this only end and aym I make in thy presence and from the very bottom of my heart and soul these particular acts following I renounce ô my Lord for the pure love of thee all affection to worldly things Give them unto me ô gracious God or take them from me as best liketh thy divine Majesty I resign up all my interest in any thing though never so near and dear unto me Behold ô my Lord and lover I uncloath my soul from all affections whatsoever to creatures and desire nothing but thy self-alone O happy nakedness O rich poverty of Spirit O pure obedience to the divine will in all things Be you my hearts delight my whole pleasure and patrinony 6. I renounce all self-seeking Ah! my corrupt nature I abhor thee Adieu all private-interest profit praise and preferment I will henceforth performe all my actions and exercises O my Lord God for thy only pure perfect love I will seek to please and praise thee with an inward ardent and amorous affection for thy self only and not for thy gifts or graces I renounce all sensuality whether it be in meat drink sleep apparel curiosity of my five senses or any thing else whatsoever O my Lord I will make no other use of any thy creatures than I am absolutly compell'd to by necessity of nature I look for no solace but from thee alone My only comfort and content I renounce all
disordered love to any woâ—ldly person No favour or friendship ô my only amiable Lord God no greatness or goodness of any one shall make me fwerve from my exact duty to thee-wards No carnall affection to kindred No tenderness of amitie No private or publick respect No connivency or correspondency shall make me partiall in the reproof of vice or praise of vertue O take up my whole heart with thy holy love that thy perfect image and perpetuall memory may blot out all species of forreign objects I renounce all vain vicious idle and unprofitable thoughts fancies and imaginations O let my mind not only yield no consent but no entrance unto them O let me never more contristate thy holy Spirit with these vanities nor hinder my souls advancement and union with thee by these divertisments I will henceforth compell my heart to some good employment I will no longer permit it to wander and wast it self in any idle and superfluous curiosities No my Lord and Saviour thy bitter and blessed passion thy blessings and benefits shall be the continuall occupation of my interiour O what have I to do with transitory things who am made for eternity I renounce all care and solicitude which necessity obedience and charity do not oblige me to No naturall passions of joy sorrow hope fear love hatred anger or shamefastness shall make any impression in this heart of mine which is preingag'd in thy affection sealed up and setled in thy contemplation No pretext of lawfulness nor shew of fittingness nor conceit of compassion nor excuse of necessity shall procure the admittance of such passions into my soul as may any way distract darken or dull the point of my affection and devotion towards thee my only Lord and love I renounce all bitterness of heart against any one Is he good be thou eternally praised in him and by him O bountiful bestower of all blessings Is he wicked Correct him ô mercifull Creatour comfort encourage and raise him to amendment Hath he offended affronted injured or sleighted me I deserve ô great God to be troden on by all creatures and therefore I freely forgive him for the past and give him free leave to add stripes to his injuries for the future Am I denied the grant of my most lawfull and just demands Thou best knowest O eternall wisdom what is best for my state and condition O deny not thy love to my soul and let me be refused in all other my requests whatsoever I renounce all vain-glory all self-liking and pride which may arise from worldly praises al delight springing from any gift of nature or grace which is in me Not unto me Lord but to thy holy name be given all honour and glory Alas what am I what have I what can I All is thine O my bountifull Lord God Nothing is mine but sin and therefore I deserve only shame and confusion 7. I renounce all desire of delight in my devotions all sensible gusts of grace and all sweetnesses and solaces in the inferiour faculties of my soul Ah my heart what is all this to thee follow thou thy Saviour Thou seekest thy crucified Jesus This is not he but his gifts O my Lord it is thy self I seek and sigh after If thou send'st me comforts for the incouragement of my weakness be thou ever praised for thou dost like a most benign and bountifull God If thou withdrawest them still blessed be thy providence which hath secret and severall wayes of conducting souls to thy self and if thou wilt make triall of my fidelity by permitting me to be dull dry and desolate in my devotions be thou equally and eternally blessed I renounce all scrupulosity of Conscience which reflects any way upon the least diffidence or distrust in thy mercy I am a sinner O Jesu but thou art a Saviour I have great reason to dread thy justice but greater to hope in thy goodness Heaven and earth shall sooner fail than my confidence in thee my mercifull maker If thou kill me I will trust in thee And if I had formerly hated thee and betrayed thee as Judas did I would now with penitent Magdalen run to thy blessed feet weep and bemoan my misery and hope to obtain thy mercy And finally O my Lord I absolutely intirely and irrevocably renounce my whole Will in all things and totally resigne whatsoever any way concerns me to thy holy will and pleasure I offer up unto thee the full sacrifice both principall and accessorie of all that by thy gift and grace I am have and can my self goods graces body soul senses heart will all I leave no right or title to any selfness in any thing whatsoever I am no more my self but thy slave O Lord not my will but thine be done for time and eternity O let me will what thou wilt or not will at all Let all my desires be involuntary if they swerve never so little from thy divine pleasure Dy self-will Live Jesus my Lord my Love my All. FOR SATVRDAY Of Conformity to Christ Crucified The Sixth Exercise 1. CRucified Iesu thou only Lord of my life life of my love and love of my soul O that I could reform my life Deiform my love and conform my soul to thee the absolute pattern of all perfection O that I could imprint thy lively and lovely image in my heart fasten all my affections and imperfections to thy sacred Cross drown all my desires and defects in thy dear wounds put off my self totally and put thee on intirely O sacred humanity ô my suffering Saviour O that I could perfectly imitate thee the pure exemplar of all vertues that I could give up my whole self to thee by an act of irrevocable donation as thou demandest and commandest But alas I am yet O my Jesu all self-love sin and sensuality I acknowledge O my Lord what I have and what I want I know what I desire and what I deserve I confess I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched and I tremblingly come to thee my heavenly Physician to be cured converted comforted O sweet Saviour for thy mercies sake and for thy passions sake Forget and forgive what I have been pitty what I am satisfie for what I deserve and supply what I desire 2. Behold most mercifull Iesu I first cast my self at thy sacred Feet pierced and fast'ned to the cruel Cross for my transgressions Pierce my flesh O my Lord with thy fear and fasten my soul to thy love O let not pride and presumption nestle any longer in that heart which thou O meek Saviour lovest so tenderly and redeemest at so dear a rate O my vain glory and arrogancie what have I to do with you how much do I now detest you Wash off these stains O Iesu from my poor soul in these sweet streams flowing from thy wounded Feet O drown these my imperfections in these sacred Seas of piety Give me O Gracious Lord such true humility of spirit that I may
perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness whereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Grant me also good Iesu by the merits of these thy wounds the vertue of perfect obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing self-judgement in submitting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiours injunctions but even to the commands of all thy creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholly mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Iesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me do so transforming my will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whole self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance of thee my crucified Lord. Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Iesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whole course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. From thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy al-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet fountain issuing from thy powerful right Paulm my manifold sins of malice and injustice with all my faults of hypocrisie and ingratitude falshood and infidelity rancor and revenge Renew O Lord God a right spirit within my bowels Let exact justice be the square of all my actions truth the touchstone of my words and sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratiâ—ude and obedience with my whole heart soul and strength next to my Superiors equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judge or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish enemies Lord Iesu give me grace to imitate thy vertues to be gratefull for thy gifts and to make use of thy goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divine Majesty 5. And in the Sacred wound of thy left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Neglâ—gence tepidity sluggishness cowardise and pusillanimity all my covetous desires all impurity and all intemperance Purge me O my powerfull Lord purifie me O my merciful Savior Give strength comfort and courage to my feeble and frail nature that I may pass undauntedly through all difficulties and dangers to come to thee my Iesu to lay hold on thee and to repose in thee the only Centre of my desires Grant me O my Lord chastity of body and cleaness of heart temperance in my appetites and sobriety in my senses gravity in my deportment and moderation in all my proceedings that nothing may dislike thee in my soul nor dissolve the sacred knot wherwith thou hast fasten'd me unto thee Give me also O Iesu my Lord perfect poverty of spirit O permit not my soul intended to enjoy thee the only solid and satiating riches to be intangled with the least affection to the poor and perishable trifles of this world Behold I cast my self uncloathed from all creatures into thy naked embraces O crucified Saviour I desire to clip nothing in my folded arms but a breast burning with desires to please thee my Creatour and a heart melting away in thy love I make choice of thy bare Cross O Christ for my best inheritance I stretch out my opened folds to meet thy holy and heavenly huggings O let me never more be unclasped from thy blessed bosom Be thou O my great-little-naked-Iesu my rest during the short time of my life and my refuge at the dreadful hour of my death 6. And now O mercifull Saviour I humbly convert my eyes and contemplation to thy sacred Head crowned with thorns and thy divine Face all besmeared with gore and spittle for my sake Here I implore strength O Jesu for the weaknesses of my head and pardon for the wickednesses of my five wits and senses O my Lord I desire to bury in these thy innumerous wounds the enormous number of my iniquities and I beseech thee for these thy sufferings sake to adorn my weak capacity with so much solid wisdom as may fitly suit with my condition O let me never think speak or act any thing which is not seasoned with the salt of discretion Let me seriously weigh each circumstance and patiently wait thy leave and leasure before I leap into any work Inlighten me to see clearly thy will and pleasure and impower me exactly to fulfil and follow it Open the eyes of my Understanding to behold my own baseness and wickedness and give me thy gracious assistance to reform it Help me to form a right judgement of the real vileness and vanity of all transitory things and indue my heart with courage to contemn them Inebriate my affection ô amiable Iesu with the sweetness of thy love and let all worldly solaces savour of bitterness to my soul Let me be deaf blind and dumb to all things which are not thy self ô my crucified Saviour Let me prudently discern and piously perform each parcel of my duty in it's due circumstance of time place order measure and manner Let that holy and innocent simplicity which is the vertue of thy Saints shine in all my actions Let me not be curious to know much but careful to practise much and cordial to love thee much O
languish not breathe but burn by reason of extasie and excess of love 3. O fire O flames Burn consume annihilate Alas Beauty of Angels how late and how little do I love thee O come into my soul behold a poor lodging yet such as it is it is all thine I conceal nothing I reserve nothing heart soul spirit all is thine own compose all dispose of all depose all unruly passions impose what penance thou pleasest I accept it o my Lord only repose peaceably in my soul and let no foul or false affection interpose it self or disturb this blessed union O that I could please and praise thee purely perfectly perpetually Oh that I could love thee faithfully freely and fully in all and above all things ô my all and only love I acknowledge my self bound ô Lord in thy chains of charity I am burned in thy fire I am wounded and won to thy love But what shall I say What can I give All I have is not worthy of thee and yet is thine already Ask my sweet Lord and have choose and take make me such as thou desirest and then take me to thy desire Give thy self ô great God to my soul and then take my soul with thy self in it My life liberty love and all is thine own My last will is already made in which I bequeath all to thee Thine own death and passion all thy mercies and merits all the praises and perfections of thy dear Mother and the blessed Saints and Angels and all the goods glories and splendors of all thy creatures All that I am have and can both spirituals and temporals kindred friends riches health honors estates offices devotion all is at thy disposition I am resolute ô my Lord I am resigned and indifferent to have them increased or diminished to use them to thy glory or to lose them altogether 4. I give thee back ô merciful Maker my whole being either to be what thou wilt or to be nothing at all to love thee or not to live at all I offer to thee ô pious Redeemer my sins to pardon my works to perfect my will to purifie I offer thee my wounds to cure my soul to cleanse and my spirit to comfort I offer to thee O holy Spirit my intentions to rectifie my inclinations to sanctifie my affections to deifie Finally I offer all for one I give all to one and all I desire is to be all one with thee my all and only Lord and love Thou hast given me O my bountiful Creator the whole world in free-hold for one penny of Rent saying Child give me thy heart O Lord Let this penny never want the superscription of thy grace and let me never want thy grace to pay this rent O my Lord all that I have is but two small mites I cast them into thy hands and had I more I would give more Dispose of them both dear Lord of my body and soul as best pleaseth thee that thy will may be perfectly performed and thy name purely sanctified in both O sweet God of my heart Let me embrace thee in the two arms of profound humility and perfect charity O let my heart faint and melt away in the fire of thy divine love let me lose my self to find thee be out of my self to live in thee and be empty of my self to be full of thee O fun of Justice dissolve with a beam of thy brightness the frost of my heart and resolve it into tears of affection 5. O beautiful and best-beloved of my soul I am weary of this wretched world and I breathe thirst and sigh after thee the sweet fountain of life-giving and soul-saving waters O thou true rest and refresher of my faint and feeble heart out of whom there is neither comfort nor content Let me shroud my self under the shadow of thy wings untill iniquity and infirmity have an end Come Lord Jesu Speak thy sweet words of love to my languishing soul for thy servant hears thee Give me courage alacrity fervour and fidelity in thy service the few remaining moments of my wretched and wearisome pilgrimage O rest long expected and much sighed after where shal I seek thee and when shall I find thee where sleepest thou O dear Spouse at midday in the heat of love Where is thy secret cabinet of Contemplation which thou hidest from the wisdom of worldling and revealest to little ones and humble of heart O shew me the bed of divine Union wherein thou reposest with the simple solitary and mortified soul O let my poor heart have the honour and happiness to rest in thee to remain with thee and to be united to thee O God of love wound my soul with thy sweet wounds of love which nothing can cure but death wean it from the worlds vanity and wed it to thy increated verity that treading all creatures under me I may be rapt into thee my Creator above my-self and there like the happy Dove in the secure Ark repose my weary and faint lims in the bosom of thee my Soveraign Lord and lover 6. O divine wisdom Lead me into the solitude speak unto my heart teach me thy holy will in all occurrences My deep sighs and secret desires are not hid from thee Thou knowest nothing can fully cure comfort and content me but thy self the one and only necessary thing O take my self and all and give me that one thing in whom are all things O sweet waters of divine Love which flow from the blessed bosom of the divinity and from the open side of my Saviours humanity Run into my bowels and like pure oyl penetrate and possess every parcel of my spirit Irrigate and inebriate it overflow and absorp it that it may be transformed and conformed to the divine Spirit so that all my actions cogitations and affections may be spiritual divine and Deiform O let my ravish'd soul full of life and fire break forth into these flames of joy and jubilation I have found him whom my soul loves I have him and I will hold him This is he which by reading I sought by meditation I found by prayer I desired and by contemplation I enjoy O how the earth stinks how loathsom are all creatures to me O tast O sweetness O true and solid pleasure O how great is the difference between this spiritual and all fleshly delights O the multitude of thy sweetnesses which thou hast laid up O Lord for them that fear and love thee O lights O delights O extasies of spirit Wound me O sweet God burn me consume me crucifie me Let me cry out with that Lover Retain O Lord the floods of thy grace or inlarge my heart for I can hold no longer I thirst Lord give me this water O when how long how much 7. O my soul how good is it for us to be here O sweet and secure home and harbour Let us remain and rejoyce here for ever I will keep thee O my dearly beloved and
our selves 18. If on the contrary Our nature is so facil and flexible that we scarcely find difficulty in any thing We wonder to hear mention of rebellions contradictions desolations c. From all which we are secure and quiet And therefore we fear our actions proceed rather from a natural promptitude than solid vertue 19. If we so addict our selves to Recollection that we look upon works of Obedience and the external practices of our duty as impediments to Perfection 20. If we find such a calm in our passions imperfections and temptations that we hope the worst is past 21. If scrupulosity overwhelms us 1. We must obey our Spiritual Directour 2. We must do our best endeavour But here arise two difficulties 1. If our Directours knowledge be small his experience less c. 2. If we cannot satisfy our selves that we have done our best c. 22. If we fear we detest not sin sufficiently because we feel not so great sorrow for the offence of God as we do somtimes for a temporall loss 23. If we cannot ground our selves in a firm hope of mercy for that we are so frail and inconstant we sin dayly and amend not our lives we repay unto God evil for good we promise fidelity and practise nothing less 24. If we go not on with alacrity because we know not that our sins are forgiven that our Confessions are good and that we are in the state of grace 25. Though we cannot in this life assure our selves infallibly to be in good state yet if we could comfort our selves with most probable tokens of grace whereby we might feel the pulses of our hearts and somwhat ease our anguish 26. If we are troubled because we know not well when we give consent to sinfull thoughts 27. If we cannot well distinguish between Venial and Mortal sin 28. If these sayings of Divines terrifie us They sin who do against their doubt And In doubtfull things the securer part is to be followed 29. If finally we are apprehensive and fearfull lest we should grow weary in the way of vertu and not persevere constantly in our Spiritual Exercises Maxims of Mystical Divinity The first Maxim That our end is perfection and Divine Vnion and That Prayer is the way to it IT is not sufficient for us who are resolv'd upon a spiritual course to lead an ordinary good life which consists in the avoiding of sin and scandal and in the punctual performance of our external duty to God and our neighbour But our end and aym must be to attain the perfection of Gods holy love and a happy Vnion of our souls with their first beginning by living in abstraction recollection and perpetuall Contemplation as far forth as Gods holy Spirit shall enable us and our frailty can correspond The chief means to attain this our end is Prayer without which all Religion is but a shadow without a body or a body without a soul and all outward observances will prove but a superficial not a real devotion For it is the constant doctrine of Divines that what God S. Augustine S. Basil S. Chrysostom S. Thomas 2 2. q. 83. a. 2. in his eternal disposition hath determined to bestow upon us he gives us in time by the intervention of Prayer tying as it were to this instrument the conversion of sinners the advancement of souls the perfection of Saints c. So that as his divine decree is that we must till the earth if we will reap the fruits thereof and provide mateâ—â—als if we will raise up buildings and the like so his absolute order is that we must pray if we will have spiritual benefits to be powred into our souls and supernatural gifts and graces to be granted unto us Let us therefore in the first place resolve to prosecute Prayer couragiously constantly and perseverantly at set times if we intend to make speedy progress in sincere vertue and lay a sure groundwork of solid spirituality and let nothing upon any pretext whatsoever hinder or divert us from it as far as obedience and discretion will give us leave Lord heal my wounds supply my wants satisfie my wishes The second Maxim That Beginuers may profitably make use of this following exercise of mental Prayer and Introversion until they obtain greater light and more experience in the way of the Spirit THis divine Exercise consists of three parts in general and Nine points in particular 1. Preparation of 3. acts 1. An affective lively apprehensioÌ„ of Gods presence 2. A cordial and profound act of humility 3. A pure intention to please and praise God only 2. Consideration of 1. My wounds both internal and external 2. My wants which are many in every degree 3. My wishes and humble desires 3. Conclusion also of 3. acts 1. Contrition for my sins 2. Resignation in my wants 3. Complacence in God and Confidence in his goodness A more ample and practical description of this Exercise The first part is Preparation of three Acts. 1. A lively apprehension of Gods Presence not only in all places and all creatures by his power and essence but in our souls by his mercy love care and providence O my Soul Where are we 1. Part. 1 Preseâ—ce of God who seeth us What is he that is with us and within us by whose light we see by whose fire we burn and by whose love we live Live my most glorious and gracious Lord in whose presence I kneel in whose arms I rest and after whose love I breathe O that thou wert as dear to my soul as thou art near it Alas why doth she not care as much for her God as he doth for her good Why do I not love thy presence ô my amiable Lord since thou art present by love Thou art my Father my Physician and my food hear me heal me help me I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched Out of thee there is no rest without thee there is no hope remain with me reign within me Let me be thine all thine ever thine 2. Profound and cordial humility acknowledging unfeignedly before God and his Angels our wickedness weakness and wretchedness what we are and what we deserve and so resting quiet in our Centre of nothing O my Soul What have we 2 Profound humility been What are we What have we what can we do What do we deserve What do we desire What hath our loving Father and liberal Lord that he hath not given us What have we proud and prodigal children that we have not received meerly from his mercifull hand and heart What have we received that we have not abused by self-love or self-delight O sweet Jesu Give tears to my eyes words to my tongue sighs to my heart and love to my spirit for I need them all to deplore my misery and implore thy mercy to admire thy beauty and adore thy bounty to sigh after thee and suffer for thee What I have been it grieves me to
4. Essentiall parts of Prayer S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 83. a. 7. are the wings by which our soul fly to God and the four essentiall parts of prayer all others as Preparation lecture examen oblation points conclusion and the like being only accidents and properties thereof The difference between Meditation and Contemplation is this We Meditate when we seek after truths and cast about for reasons The dâ—fference between Medâ—tation and to affectionate our wills to the embracing of Gods love Christian vertues or works of piety and perfection For our Vnderstandings are as it were the Steels and our Wills the Flints which no sooner touch each other but the sparks of holy affections presently fly out inflaming and actuating our disposed souls with heavenly love We Contemplate when we steadily Contemplation and unmoveably behold God by Faith believing that we have him truly with us and within us and so leaving all other subjects objects reasons and discourses to look on him as present love him in silence and feed on his only satiating sweetness And this Contemplation is either Ordinary or Perfect or Transcendent Ordinary Contemplation is when Contemplatâ—on is threefold 1. Ordinary S. Tho. in 3. dist 32. our souls make use of their imagination and such Species as they have drawn from sensible objects first purifi'd subtiliz'd and immaterializ'd by the Vnderstanding to conduct them to their Creatour Perfect Contemplation looks directly 2. Perfect upon the increated light fixes her view upon the eternall verity and perches immediately upon the divine being and perfections without any admixture of fancy or assistance of creatures This is call'd dark Contemplation because our souls discharged from all inferiour objects and receiving no enlightnings from below are wholly daz'led and as it were blinded with the bright splendour of Gods incomprehensible Majesty framing no sensible Idea of him but beholding him with the eys of faith by way of Negation and simple adhesion to his divine Essence Transcendent Contemplation 3. Transcendent mounts up yet higher above all intelligible species and may fitly be term'd the Cousin german of beatificall vision and that last heaven whereunto S. Paul was rap't where not only all use of Sense is extinguisht and all acting of Vnderstanding abolish't but the spirit is totally transported absorpt and inflam'd with Seraphical love and the whole inward man is drown'd annihilated extasi'd and ineffably united to the Divinity so that the thus elevated soul can neither say or consider God is with me or I am with God for such advertency or reflexion is sensible whereas this most eminent Contemplation imports an absolute silence and forgetfulness of our selves and all things whatsoever and an intire conjunction with our Creatour as shall be hereafter further declared The Practise of the four essential The 4. parts of Prayer exemplifi'd parts of prayer is in this or the like manner Taking some mystery of our Saviours life as for example his praying in the garden of Gethsemani As is shewed in the following Maxim for our subject or ground-work we first examine our consciences ask pardon for our sins and make resolutions of amendment Secondly we give up our willâ— irrevocably to God seeking purely his glory and not our own gust c. Then we enter upon the first essentiall part of Prayer which is Meditation considering our 1. Meditation dear Redeemer in his bloody sweat sighing weeping praying and his disciples sleeping Vpon this sad spectacle we make some discourses concerning the person that suffers the love wherewith he suffers the subject for which he suffers Then our affections being moved 2. Contemplatâ—on by these considerations and inflamed in Gods love we slide sweetly and insensibly into active Contemplation leaving all discourses and looking with our eyes of Faith upon our suffering Lord. And having melted away in his 3. Thaâ—ksgivâ—ng loving presence for so long time as our Devotion or the holy Spirits invitation lasts we heartily thank him for having thus suffer'd for our salvation And lastly we implore his grace 4. Petition that we may faithfully follow his steps and above all that he will grant us his love which we must filially affectionatly humbly and confidently beg at the conclusion of all our exercises The fifth Maxim That continual Recollection is the Exercise of Exercises and the immediate way to bring us to Perfection and divine Vnion THat we may rightly conceive the verity of this Maxim let us here in the first place take a view of the whole manner meaning method and practice of this sublime exercise in these ensuing Canons 1. That all places are proper for Recollection but the more quiet the more proper Wheresoever we live we may and should send up our Petitions and breathe forth our affections to our every where present Lord and lover in publick and in private in tempests and in calms amidst all noises of employments and in quiet corners of retreat Job prayed well on a dunghill and Jonas in the Whales belly but Judas did not so in his Apostleship and society of Jesus Yet when solitude silence and repose may be obtained they are the fiâ—test 2 2. q. 188. a. 8. instruments of Contemplation and therefore most highly to be prized and most diligently embraced I Ose 2. 14. will lead him into the desert says our Lord and there I will speak to his heart 2. That to pray on our knees is a posture most pleasing to God Let us not hunt for excuses pretend want of forces nor cloak our laziness and languour with that misinterpreted Maxim That Prayer must have the quietest easiest and least constrained composition of body but rather let us imitate our Lord Saviour since all his actions are our instructions whose humanity lay often prostrate on the earth Matt. 26. 39. Mark 14. 35. Ephes 3. 14. praying and adoring his divinity and let us follow the example of his Apostle who frequently bended his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us I say submit willingly to this direction unless evident weaknes or infirmity hinder us for this adoration and a far higher is due to the divine Majesty and therefore let us conceive the contrary to be a manifest temptation of our enemy 3. That we must especially at first prefix to our selves certain and set times of Recollection Let us not complain for want of conveniency time or opportunity to follow this exercise for if our wills be ready time cannot be wanting If our stomacks call on us for meat or our bodies for warmth we can find time to feed and clothe them are our souls less considerable Let us rather steal time from our sleep and recreation than want it for Recollection And since all our time is given us by God to be spent in his love and service let us re-give unto him at least the tithe thereof and dedicate two hours of four and twenty one in
militant and triumphant as far as God shall please and we need Next that we intend to pray for all and especially for them who have desired it or to whom we stand any way ingaged as we do for our selves And this without any personall reflexion is more profitable to our friends and less prejudiciall to our selves All which is to be understood when no peculiar promise occasion or circumstance induceth a speciall obligation and performance The eighteenth Maxim That all vertues are best practised by addicting our selves to Contemplation or this internal Exercise of Recollection THe chief way to practise vertue and prevent temptations is not by a direct and formall reflexion upon them which imprints images in the soul and averts her from attending purely to God in her interiour But by a vertuous and vigorous The practice of all vertues in contemplation binding of her will to God for being thus seriously and sweetly intent to him only she can by a happy disdain forget and pass over or through all occurring dâ—fficulties and so behave her self orderly and discreetly as to content both God and man Now that all vertues in particular are thus most excellently practised it appears first in Faith Whereof Of Faâ—th we are taught to make a lively Act in the entrance to this exercise And what way can this vertue be more heroically put in use than to have our souls lifted above all sensible objects all discourse all humane wisdom Hope is here practised for we Hope ly prostrate at Gods feet as poor beggers hoping to obtain his grace in order to the performance of his Will and expecting all good from his meer mercy Here also our Love is exercised Charity because our Will covets nothing but to content our Creator and rests separated from all that is not himself for the sole love of him Here is the practâ—ce of perfect Resignation Resignation for we wish neither quiet nor disquiet glory nor infamy pleasure nor pain but only the fulfilling of Gods Will and a desire to be left in what state he best likes Patience must be here necessaâ—ily Patience practised in respect of the crosses and contradictions suggested by So called by Thaulerus sensuality in this afflicting exercise All sin is here destroyed For that is an aversion from our Creator and a conversion to creatures but Destruction of sin here by means of perfect Faith we remain as it were agglutinated to God and governed by his inward grace which stills all outward motions stifles all concupiscences and makes us unknowing and forgetfull of our selves and all things created As for Mortification it is here Mortification S. Greg. the great practised in a high degree For he that tasts the sweets of the Spirit growes soon disgusted with all carnal delights here the flesh is totally supplanted and the senses quieted for the eyes see no outward object rhe ears attend to no noyse rhe tongue remains silent the understanding contemns all curiosities the memory drawes a curtain over all images the will is disingag'd from willing or nilling any thing finally here is an entire destruction of all sensuality Obedience is perfectly practised Obedience because the wings of discourse are clip'd and the understanding captivated by Faith Humility can no where more Humility appear than when a soul is so annihilated as to trust neither little nor much to her-self O Rich nothing What spirituall mines what Masses of treasures doth a soul find that hath thus happily lost her self in her loving Lord Adoration sacrifice devotion and Adoration and al acts of Religion all acts of Religion are here effectually practised in a word if we wil be perfect sayes Thaulerus we must learn this abstraction that is this suspension of discourse and silencing all the workings of Fancie understanding memory will leaving our souls to the absolute conduct of our Loving Lord according to the doctrine here delivered which is the short and secure way to make all our actions divine and celestiall Some examples for the practice of this divine way of Prayer 1. Receiving the Blessed Sacrament Examples How to communicate I say to my heavenly guest My God make me partaker of these sacred mysteries that my soul may enjoy the effects for which they were by you instituted Then being secured by my act of Faith that I have received his body blood soul divinity c. I settle my self in this holy idlenesse and abstraction before described and remain silent and recollected hearkning what my dear Lord will speak within me 2. So when I have taken some point of my Saviours Passion for How to pray the subject of my prayer I say O my Lord communicate to my soul what you endured in this mystery to the end she may enjoy those effects for which you suffer'd it c. 3. In like manner when I goe to How to take our rest take my rest I say Silence my soul for our God is here present with us and within us and in this verity Recollecting my self in him I rest all night in prayer or at least my Lord allows it me as if I did because my soul covets to continue in the same happy abstraction recollection and annihilation during the whole time of sleep 4. Thus a vertuous introverted And doe all things to God's glory 1 Thessal 5. 17. and recollected soul doing what lys in her to rest alwaies in her Centre which is God may follow and fulfill the Apostles counsel which is to pray continually and doe all things even her naturall and necessary actions of eating drinking sleeping c. to Gods glory and these pure desires and intentions render them all meritorious Some further advices for the practice of this pure Prayer 1. Before we thus recollect our selves in God we may make what The first advâ—ce acts we please but after wee are entred into it we are to remain still quiet silent insensible unmoveable as a stock to be fashioned or a stone to be carved according to the heavenly workmans design we must leave our selves entirely to be moved and managed as best likes our great Master who both knows what bee our necessities and how and when to supply them 2. We must take speciall notice The second advâ—ce That as all Arts have their proper tearms So this sacred science of Mystical Divinity hath its peculiar phrases and expressions Divine matters may not bee handled according to the manner and method of School subtilties but are to be represented only with simplicity piety and a holy liberty of words which Contemplatives make use of without metaphysicall questions and arguments When therefore we find in St. How to understand mysticall writers Bonaventure Eschius Thaulerus Rusbrochius Blosius and others That a soul divinely and intimately united to God doth clearly see and experience what shee obscurely beleeved by faith we are not to infer Read
hearts into which we may securely and sweetly retire in the midst of all worldly varieties This is to walk with God as Enoch did and to be in continuall conversation with the Divinity A more sublime way to practise Gods presence is To look alwaies upon him without any discourse by a simple act of lively Faith not to question how or in what manner he is present nor to A hâ—gher way to practâ—se Gods presence fix our eys upon his inaccessible splendours because it is yet nighâ— for us we are but travellers and we must expect untill the bright day of eternity shine upon us and shew him unto us as he is in himself we must not think here to behold him but be content to beleeve him present with us and within us and that we live move and have our being in and by him In this manner of practising God's presence it is not needfull to form any conception or representation of God as that he is here by us or in any designed place or in such a form or figure for wee speak here of the presence of God as he is God which excludes all these imaginations And therefore it sufficeth to behold him only by Faith simply beleeving that he is here and in all places that he fils the whole universe and each corner and creature therein contained S. Augusâ— and that he is more inward to us than we are to our selves The 23. Maxim That Humiliation is a relique of Gods love WHen any occasion is offered us of humiliation abjection or mortification let us not examine how whence or from whom it comes but joyfully accept it embrace it and kiss it as a rich relique and royall token of God's great love and favour towards us Let us force our sensuality to swallow it down and disgest it for though it be bitter it will purge and perfect our spirits The 24. Maxim That Humility is the solid ground-work of all Spirituality WE are to grave this necessary lesson not only upon our Oratory and in all our books but upon the very dores of our hearts and in the depth of our souls Learn of me who am meek and humble-hearted Christ's lesson is humility Mat. 11. 29. and you shall find rest for your souls O sweet Saviour O meek and mercifull lamb of God! teach me this lesson which I stand in such need of Oh that I could perfectly practise it How purely and peaceably should I both live and dye Meek and humble spirits converse together like mourning turtles like innocent lambs and like corporall Angels turning the blessed family where they live into an earthly Paradise c. In the externall practice of this vertue wee are to observe chiefly these three degrees First to forbear forgoe deny Three points for the externall pactise of humility and submit our own judgements heartily humbly and really not only to our Superiours but also to all others casting our selves at their feet yea and under their feet to be troden on as dust and dirt And this as near as may bee for Gods sake Secondly not to care what others say or think of us which point which that other Of not medling with what concerns â—â— not will soon bring us unspeakablâ— peace and purity thinking alwaies with our selves What is that to thee follow thou thy Saviour Thirdly to get a habit of patience condescendence yielding and being silent in all occurrences and contradictions In the internall practice of humility we are also to observe these three degrees First to confess and acknowledge Three points for the internall practice our selves more wretched and wicked impure and imperfect ungratefull and unworthy of all grace and favour than any soul created Secondly to be glad that others treat us for such as we really take our selves to be and repute us forlorn and forsaken creatures unworthy of all company and comfort Thirdly to dye utterly to our selves and be totally mortified in our appetiteâ— and desires renouncing absolutely all propriety and self-seeking These short words contain infinit perfection And to move us powerfully to the prosecution of this vertue we may thus question our selves 1. Doe not all things humble Motives to humility themselves to serve me both in heaven and earth The Saints to pity me the Angels to protect me the Mother of God to remember me thâ— Son of God to redeem me and God himself to remain with me reign within me comfort me in my prayers feed me in Communion releeve me in tribulation 2. O strange Humility of my Saviour Not only to descend unto but into a wicked worm not only to eat with a sinner but to be eaten by a sinner O strange pride in me to see the Lord of heaven and earth so humbled in his Incarnation Passion Communion and yet to see a begger so proud a sinner so lofty minded and dust and ashes have such difficulty to stoop 3. Upon earth Doe not all things serve me for body or soul some to nourish me some to cloath me others to cure me others to correct me others to comfort and instruct me Even my betters superiors and confessors must humble themselves to me because my pride will not bend to them All creatures must be subject to me and I will not be subject to my Creator Alas what mean I when shall I begin O secure and sweet Humility when shall I practice thee 4. Doth not all the world all that I am and have my body my soul my actions my sufferings my sins furnish me with sufficient arguments of Humility What was I from eternity What am I what shall I be What have I that I have not received what have I received that I have not abused c. 5. Upon whom doth the Holy Esay 66. 2. Ghost promise to rest but on humble and quiet souls Stoop O dust and ashes O amiable Humility how necessary art thou for me how pleasing to God and men With what comfort and quiet dost thou enrich thy possessour O heaven upon earth What doe I not get by Humility what doe I lose by Pride and presumption c. The 25. Maxim That Silence and Solitude are our heaven upon earth THese are the proper instruments S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 188. a. 8. Lam. 3. 28 of Contemplation where our souls sit silently and solitarily lifted up above themselves by transcending all things created and uniting themselves to their Creatour Wee must observe them diligently Read Cisnerius ch 39. discreetly and devoutly not out of a sullen or melancholy humour or in a disdainfull and disgustfull manner or out of pride and singularity or to wave matter of mortification or to avoid the company of such as we brook not and have a version from but with an internall cheerfulness to converse with God in spirituall joy and fervour And the ordinary practice of them may be reduced to these four points First To retire our selves and 4. Points
17. 31 in our own forces and trust in Gods help God protects them that hope in him and the generall reason of the Scripture why God helps his servants is because thâ—y hope and trust in him so that his honour becomes interessed if we rely upon his succour whereas if we trust to our own forces we have little to do with God and challenging much to our selves quickly fall into blindness of heart unless God bring us to the acknowledgement of our own nothing by some strong affliction and make us cry out with Job There is no help for me in my self The third Remedy is Prayer The 3. Remedy Mat. 26. 41 Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation Let us turn our hearts to converse with God which is better than to reflect upon our temptations and troubles Let us be so attentive to him that we have neither leave nor leasure to give ear to devilish suggestions but transcend them by a generous resolution rather to dy than admit any thing contrary to our Lords love and pleasure The fourth Remedy is To observe The 4. the root groundwork and occasion of the temptation and to pull it up cut it off and destroy it The fifth Remedy is to cure one contrary by another If we be The 5. tempted to Pride let Humâ—lity be our aym let us never cease from speaking writing reading meditating praying and practising it till we get an habitual loathing of pride The sixth Remedy is to Resist at 6. Resist at the beginning the beginning when it is yet weak Let us kill the Cockatrice in the shell lest being hatched it poyson us let us be wise and not save a penny to pay a pound nay to lose all we are worth eternally The seventh Remedy is to reveal 7. Reveal it it to him who is incharged with our souls this diminisheth our grief lessens our trouble is an act of humility meriting grace and comfort and confounding our enemy who cannot brook to have his deceits discovered The 8. Remedy is to avoid Idleness 8. Avoid Idleness This was the rule of the Egyptian Monks Let the Devil always find us well employed and we shall easily avoid his temptations He that is idle hath ten Devils to impugn him he that is well busied hath but one Let us therefore distribute certain exercises for all times that we may be sure to avoid this mother of all sin and mischief and the greatest bane of our souls Idleness The 9. Doubt If we want Comfort in long and dangerous temptations and troubles LEt us consider what Experience and Scriptures teach us That the life of man is a continuall Job 7. warfare That wars and commotions James 4. are within us from our concupiscences and originall corruption That there is a law in our Members Rom. 7. rebelling against the law of our minds That when we are resolv'd Eccles 12 to give our selves to Gods service we must prepare our hearts for temptation The great Apostle 2 Cor. 12. 8. and vessell of election was sore tempted and shall we poor worms and sensuall creatures wonder to feel contradiction and combats in our nature Let us not deceive our selves thinking to find present quiet as soon as wee convert our selves to God by prayer for then chiefly the Devill will storm the Flesh rebell the World murmure when they most fear to lose their possession And if it were not so what need Colos 3. 5 such continuall Mortification Why did our heavenly Master Luc. 11. 4. teach us to pray that we might not be led into Temptation Christ himself was tempted and Mat. 4. 1. why should we be dismayed Are we less pleasing to God for that wee are tempted and not rather more acceptable for suffering for his sake Thou errest brother says St. St. Hierom ad Heliod Jerome if thou thinkest a Christian can be ever free from persecution thou art then most dangerously impugned when thou knowest not that thou art impugned For all 2 Tim. 3. 12. they who will live devoutly shall suffer persecution whereas others who live sensually may seem to feel no rebellion because having nothing of Gods Spirit in them their enemies find nothing to war against Let us not then be troubled that we are tryed with Temptations for it is a most assured sign that we fight not under the Devils banner but are revolted against him who persecutes not his Friends but his Enemies c. The 10. Doubt If we wonder that God will have us suffer Temptation sithence our frailty is subject to yield and so offend his divine Majesty HE hath good Reason 1. Lest we should become careless in our duties Therefore he tels us I Isay 54. have for saken thee for a moment but I will return and recall thee and be mindfull of thee in my eternall pitty What is a moment in respect of Eternity wherein hee means to overflow us with delights Ne viator tendens ad patriam amet stabulum pro domo sua S. Aug. 2. Tim. 2. 12. Pro. 17. 3. Revel 2. 17. in his own kingdom c. 2. Lest we should take this place of banishment for our Country this Pilgrimage for our Paradise c. 3. To purge us for our past follies sins and ingratitudes to satisfy for future Purgatory and to prepare and perfect us for a Crown of glory 4. To make us truly wise truly humble truly vertuous 5. To Isay 28. 19. keep us in exercise for many would otherwise neglect prayer slight obedience and shun mortification whereas now they stand carefully upon their guards 6. To teach us how to help our neighbours by our own trials whereas he that hath Ecclus 43. never been tempted what knows he either for himself or others The 11. Doubt If we are solicited by our enemy to Unchastness 1. KNow that God hath calld us Read and put in practice the 11. chap. of the Spir. Con. to serve him with purity and integrity of body and soul this is the end of our Vocation Let us look how we walk worthy of it lest that terrible sentence of the holy Ghost be pronounced against us He â—ath done wickedly in the land Isay 26. 10. of Saints he shall not see Gods glory which none can see but clean eys 2. Let us comfort our selves in Wisdom 8. 21. this That as it is not sinfull but naturall to feel rebellious motions So it is not only possible but easy Philip. 4. 6 I can doe all things in God my comforter to overcome them not in our selves but in God the gracious giver of strength and comfort 3. Let us have an ardent desire to live chast and make firm and frequent resolutions so to continue what ever it costs us How many thousand chast spouses of God made of the same mould that wee are keep perpetual integrity c. 4. Let us seek diligently and practise
seriously such Remedies as are proper for the preservation of this Jewell Amongst which the chiefest is Mortification of our rebellious flesh by Austerities hence S. Thomas cals Chastity from chastising S. Thomas of Aquin. It is better our Stomakes pain us than our Consciences and that we lose health of body than purity of soul and salvation of both This remedy of Mortification is absolutely necessary when carnall motions arise first in the body and thence redound into the Imagination but if from the Fancie they descend to the body we are to apply these following remedies 1. Let us avoid idlenesse 2. Let us Amor otiosorum negotium change our Employments if we are assaulted in company let us seek solitude if in solitude let us hasten into company c. 3. Silence temperance S. Ephrem and custody of senses are three powerfull preservers of Chastity 4. Let us make great account of little things and shake off the first Motions of this nature as wee would a burning coale from off our new garment 5. Ler us humbly but modestly and discreetly lay open their nature and manner to our spirituall guide 6. Let us carefully avoid all suspected company familiarity meetings c. though our intention be never so spirituall 7. Let us strive rather to slight scorn and neglect these temptations than formally to resist them 5. In vehement temptation 1. Make the sign of the cross upon your heart 2. Use some brief and burning aspirations as Lord deliver me I suffer violence O my God answer for me I am thine O Jesu body and soul help me 3. Defy the Devill with St. Antony Fy Isay 38. 14. S. Antony beast thou wert an Angell I who am now a beast will aym to be an Angell and get thy lost place be gone the lodging is already taken up Iesus is here who is my Lord and love I am preingag'd in a former and purer affection 6. Let us prepare before-hand certain places of refuge for our shelter and succour till the storm be pass'd over 1. The presence of God and his Angels saying How is it possible God sees me and shall I sin in his sight 2. Death and eternity The delight is momentary the punishment is eternâ—lâ— death is at my dore and shall I adventure 3. Christs sacred wounds let us there hide and secure our selves and say My God hangs on the Cross and shall I think of taking my pleasure 4. The love of God O Iesu my love and my life I will either love thee or love nothing at all Let me rather lose my life than thy love 5. Humility Thou art just O my Lord God thy will be done My Pride is cause of this villany which I feel c. And take We must be humble or we shall not be long chast this for an infallible truth wee must be humble or we shall not be long chast Let us be obedient to our Superiors or let us not look to have our flesh obedient to our spirits 6. Devotion to Saints excelling in this vertue especially to the chastest Virgin Mary 7. The last Remedy is to make use of these antidotes timely orderly and discreetly without which no rules documents or directions will ought avail us The 12. Doubt If we are in extraordinary Desolation and darkness WE must live by Faith in this case and know that a sensible choice of God and goodness is not now necessary but a Rationall adhering to him is sufficient Our fidelity to God is shew'd in the performance of our duties now as at other times without losing either our Confidence in him or seeking Comfort in our sufferings but aspiring if not sweetly yet sincerely in this or the like manner Lord I choose thee and accept of thy divine pleasure and providence in all things I reject whatsoever may possess that place and dominion in my soul which is due to thee alone Dispose of me and mine as shall be most for thy honour and glory Let me be either all thine or nothing at all The 13. Doubt If wee are tempted to despair of Gods mercy by reason of our frequent falls and relapses into sin THis grievous Malady springs from three causes or errors For they who are troubled in this point doe not truly weigh 1. What God is 2. What sin is 3. What contrition and sorrow of heart is 1. Almighty God is a boundless 1. What God is and bottomless Sea of mercy he is natural bounty it self he is ever ready to receive revive and relieve a penitent soul though she alone had committed a thousand times a day the sins of the whole world He considers not what she hath been but what she desires and resolves now to be and who so denys his power or Will to pardon sinners as often as there are moments in time goes about to deprive him of his honor and divinity it self for he could not be God if he were not good and faithfull in his promise O loving Lord God who art not only ready to receive a penitents petition but even wooest him to present it Who can truly consider what thou art and despair of thy mercy 2. Sin 2. What sin is a voluntaâ—y and deliberate Aversion from God and Conversion to creatures 3. Contrition is of that efficacy that it delivers from all sin 3. What Contrition giving confidence of pardon for the past and courage to avoid it for the future Let us apply this to our comfort The 14. Doubt If we are perplexed with great sadness THis Passion is a great hindrance to devotion and perfection it is the bait of the Devil the bane of our spirits the root mother and nursery of infinite miseries and mischiefs The chief causes of Sadness The causes of sadness 1. Nature are these 1. Nature when Melancholy over-sways the sanguin humour this can neither merit nor demerit but the Devil takes thereby occasion to fill our spirits with unquietness These have need aswell of corporal as spiritual Physick 2. A tenderness of heart and 2. Self-love passionate love of our selves we cannot brook the least contradâ—ction c. but we sigh and sob as if all the world were interessed in our misfortune and should bear a part in our dolefull ditty The Remedy were to bid such weep on for their penance or use some coporall austerity 3. An immortification of our Passions which when we seek in 3. Passions good earnest to root out assault us so strongly that it seems impossible to cure them and hence we grow sad The Remedy is to conquer this bad nature by counsell courage and diligence c. Let us pray heartily suffer willingly stoop humbly 'T is for heaven we fight and suffer 4. A secret root of pride vain 4. Secret Pride esteem and false opinion we have of our selves when things fall not out according to our liking expectation or importunate desire whereupon we grow sad and troubled
abhominable Prov. 17. 15. in his sight who said Not every one that crys Lord Lord shall enter into my Kingdome but Mat. 7. 25. he that doth my Will c. The 20. Doubt If wee find such a calm in our Passions imperfections and temptations that wee hope the worst is past LEt us never flatter our selves Read the Conflict ch 20. with such fancies or admit the least conceit that we have intirely conquered any one passion or imperfection but humbly vigorously and constantly keeping on in our track of Mortification Recollection Introversion think that these calms comforts and Time videre unde possis cadere Noli fieri perversa simplicitate securus S. August cessations are sent us as hony-sops and milk for children because we are yet weak and want courage to encounter such stronger Temptations wherewith others are tried And that our Loving Lord communicates these his favours and friendships unto us not as best meriting them but most needing them The 21. Doubt If Scrupulosity overwhelms us AS Carelesness is a dangerous impediment of Perfection when one shall say This is not Mortal this is but a Counsell not a Precept this of Perfection not of Obligation For whosoever will obtain the true Spirit of Devotion and Recollection must be far from this opinion So Scrupulosity is another extream equally hindring our spirituall progress and hurting more than sin it self For this trouble of Spirit takes The danger of scrupulosity away all internall strength comfort and courage of well-doing and makes us slide insensibly into Despair of doing better till at length we give up all and either pine away in these melancholy and desperate thoughts or else yeeld our selves to Pleasure and Sensuality and sometimes to the Devill himself to find some means of solace and satisfaction Beleeve it inordinate Fear Sadness and Scrupulosity will soon bring a soul into a laberinth of miseries and a hell of mischiefs and therefore she must speedily get Confidence in Confidence in Gods mercy is the remedy Gods mercy and raise up her self to Alacrity of mind or she will never be able to overcome her difficulties nor persever long in Spirit The way to get this Confidence and Joy is briefly this The means to get this confidence 1. To Trust and Obey her discreet guide who is to assign her a set form of Confession for once a week 2. He must be resolute and rigorous taking all upon his own conscience if she promise faithfully to obey him 3. He must assure her that she more offends in want of Confidence and Obedience than in all other sins and that if shâ—â— will not beleeve this her disease is incurable This is the short and safe cure of tbis dangerous Disease but that we may better understand the nature of our malady Let us Note Seven sorts of Consciences 1. A cauteriz'd corrupted large 7. Sorts of Consciences and libertine Conscience making scruple of nothing but swallowing down all things 2. A chiverell Conscience stretching to all and caring for nothing but to avoid great and grievous sins 3. A quiet Conscience yet not good because they take occasion to sin out of a confidence in Gods goodness and hope of his mery 4. A troubled Conscience but not good for want of confidence 5. A troubled and also a good Conscience yet weak of those who being newly converted to God lament their past life with bitter tears and yet are full of rebellious passions c. 6. A good quiet and confident Conscience of those who are carefull to please God to avoid all sin to be beneficiall to all burthensome to none making use of friends by favour foes by patience and all men by good will c. 7. An erroneous timorous and scrupulous Conscience making doubts and difficulties of all things So that there are generally speaking 2. Sorts of bad consciences two sorts of bad Consciences The one too large calling good evill and evill good The other too narrow finding sin where there is none and taking imaginations for offences and shadows for substances The first of these Consciences 1. Over large Whâ—ch must be cured by removing the causes 1 Cor. 14. 38. which is over large must be cured by removing the causes which are generally four 1. Negligence to learn what belongs to our Religion vocation profession obligation and salvation for who so knows not what he is bound to know shall not be known by God 2. Pride and shame to ask and inform our selves 3. Obstinacy and presumption when we will trust to our own judgements and abilities and not submit to our betters 4. Bad affections and perverse wils led by passion and blinded with self-love from seeing the truth These have one foot already in hell which they must pluck out by violence using the contrary remedies The Second Conscience which 2. Over-strait which must also be cured by the removall of the causes is over-strait and scrupulous may be also cured by the removall of the causes which may be reduced to these 1. A fearfull nature coming from aboundance of cold here is need of a twofold Physitian One for the Body to prescribe them good diet The other for the Soul to confirm them in Hope by the consideration of Gods mercy Christs merits Scriptures promises Superiors warrants c. 2. Some infirmity or sickness as Mania which hurts the forepart of the head and diminishes the Imagination Melancholy which infects the middle part and diminisheth Reason Phrensy which seizeth on the purses or nets of the brain which are the cells of Judgement This cause hath need of the like cure 3. The Devill by Gods permission for divers causes This is cured by not caring what humour we are in but to endeavour with courage and confidence to please God whether we are sad or merry fervent or desolate making use of Prayer and Counsell 4. An indiscreet and preposterous treating of our bodies The way to cure this is to follow the rules of Discretion and to find out their own strength and complexion yet still taking heed of the contrary extremity of flattering our sensuality under pretence of spirituality 5. The keeping company with scrupulous persons or misunderstanding some Spirituall Books Remedy this by shunning such Company laying aside such Books and obtaining from your Director a Rule to rely upon and beleeving nothing against that 6. A secret and subtill Self-love and Pride under the counterfeit mask of fear and care of our souls Against which we must submit our judgment to Obâ—dience for we are all blind in our own cause and this is not only the best but even the necessary Remedy for such as are particularly bound to Obedience 7. Ignorance of the mysteris of our faith and of Gods mercy which makes us think our obligation greater than indeed it is God more severe than he is and his yoak more heavy than it is Which to Remedy we must see and consider