of his Closet we may say he shuts the door to the World saying to himself Get ye gone ye worldly Thoughts retire ye Objects of Vanity and approach not near this place let me rejoyce in the quiet of this secure Sanctuary and suffer me to give my self wholly up to my God The pious Soul after this manner dies many times a day for Death does not more efface the Images of worldly things than Devotion when it takes a Christian out of the World This Soul may say at such a time The World is crucified unto me and I unto the World I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me We need not wonder if the World quits the place in this moment since I suppose that it before took up but very little Room in the Soul whereof I speak God comes to possess it wholly of which he had before the better for the devout Heart ventures to say The whole is in God and God is in every part In this state if by peradventure it casts its Eyes upon the World it looks down from on high and with an Eye of Contempt Alas What are these same Riches says the faithful Soul these Honours and Advantages which frequently terminate in eternal Death to compare with the Riches that God here bestows upon me But near to God himself whom I possess these earthly Goods will vanish and be lost but I will never lose him who holds me and whom I hold and Death which will disrobe the Living of their Pomp will invest me with new Glory The fourth Effect of Devotion is an Alacrity in running and advancing in the Practise of Piety A General flies to the Combat when he sees an assured Victory but the devout Person has other kind of wings which make him fly whither Devotion conducts him He knows not that 't is the drooping and weight of the Body that retains them who are call'd to Travel he has not the Sentiments of the Sluggard who rouls upon his Bed as a Gate upon its Hinges who fight Battles with his Boulster and wages Wars with Sleep and Idleness with a Design to be vanquished He is one of those Eagles of which some think our Saviour spoke Where the dead Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together He knows that he shall find his Jesus once dead but now alive either in the Church or in his Closet he flies thither with the Swiftness of an hungry Eagle nothing is capable of stopping him Friends Enemies Employs Occupations Prayers Menaces Fears and Dangers all useless for in posting he can surmount all Obstaeles in the way Another Effect of Devotion is a certain Elevation of Soul which I cannot term otherwise than a sort of Extasie whereby the Soul is as it were ravish'd from its self 'T is so knit to the Contemplation of Coelestial Objects that not only it has no more intelligence of earthly things but it has no Sense no Ears no Eyes it sees not it understands not St. Peter while he prayed saw the Heavens opened and a certain Vessel descending to the Earth as it had been a great sheet knit at the four Corners St. Paul in Prayer was ravished even to the third Heaven and the Devout even at this time of day have their Extasie They see with Stephen the Heavens opened they are lifted up to Heaven with St. Paul for they enter into a secret Commerce with God The Soul inwardly is so taken up that it sees nothing at all of what passes without and contributing its whole force to the Contemplation of God no Wonder it has no more for other Objects Blessed are they says St. Basil who are fill'd with and infolded in the Contemplation of this true Beauty since being bound to it by the Cords of Charity and of an heavenly and divine Love they forget their Parents Friends Houses they forget even the necessity of eating and drinking And now why should it not be so in the Offices of Piety when ev'ry day this happens to us in the Affairs of the World While we are strongly fixt to Reading to disintangle a crabbed and knotty matter while we answer an Adversary a thousand Objects pass before our eyes whereof we do not take notice The devout Soul is so shut into it self so well gathered up and compacted that no external thing is able to move it If it prays it is intirely in Heaven if it hears it is wholly tyed up to the Tongue of him that speaks if it reads its heart is always where the eyes terminate themselves if it meditates it is all over plunged in it's subject and if a Flock of Birds of vain and light Thoughts come to soil its Sacrifice as that of Abraham it scares them away incontinently This is that which I understand by the Extasie of Devotion otherwise if you take this term for effectual Ravishments which were the Priviledges of the Prophets and Saints of the first Order I must take an infinite deal of pains to believe that the Holinesses of the Roman Cloyster do oblige God as some would fain perswade us so ordinarily to communicate such extraordinary Graces Now a days we do not see those Devotions which lift up not only the Souls but make the Body to lose its Earth and raise it to the very Clouds Nevertheless if we would believe some who call themselves good Authors there is nothing more common The last Effect of Devotion that I shall mention is a certain Fire that warms the Heart One cannot well conceive it unless one had felt it and I cannot express it otherwise than in the words of holy men Did not our Heart burn within us while he talked with us and while he opened to us the Scriptures My Heart was hot within me while I was meditating the Fire burned then spake I with my Tongue We are told how the Faces of the Saints have been oftentimes seen to be bright and inflamed in the midst of their Devotions which could not proceed but from the glowing and fiery affection of the Heart which manifests it self accordingly in the Countenance This Fire we may call a Fermentation of the Spirits of Piety which not seldom make Impressions even in the eyes And hence it may be came the shining of St. Stephen's Face of which it is said that his Enemies saw it as if it had been the Face of an Angel his Zeal and his Devotion were evident in his Eyes and render'd 'em sparkling Now this Lightning is not without its Rain I mean that this Fire is ordinarily accompanied with Tears The Heart is heated blows up that Heat makes it grow bigger then it self grows tender and at last the Eyes melt into Tears St. Austin represents himself in one of these Illuminations or rather Inflamations of Heart After says he that a strong Meditation
do not meet with sinful ones every where the Devil is in ambush he has made Nets of the very Roses Sin reigns in all places so that if we slip aside but a little we most certainly meet with it and then we shall find it a very difficult matter to avoid Infection But what shall we say of those that with a set design go into places where they are sure Sin domineers and Vice triumphs After having lost half of their time in preparing themselves for a Ball they will give the other part to the Devil and plunge themselves into criminal Pleasures These people are deliberate murtherers of themselves in Ambush and God will most justly demand of them an account of their Souls Of all this I conclude that the Devout Person ought to be very reserved as to the World that he is not to be seen but by very few and to see much fewer and that he ought to get rid of that vain curiosity to know what passes therein 'T is enough for him to know what passes in his own heart and well to regulate all its motions Of what Importance to him is it to learn what is become of such a Fleet what success had such a Battel how prospered such a Negotiation how goe the treaties on of Peace or the preparatives for War The knowledge of all this cannot make him happy these are only Ideas which are heapt in the memory and thence do not fail to make an irruption upon his Heart amidst his pious Duties Meditation HOW happy wilt thou be O my Soul when thou shalt be in that place where thou shalt have nothing to fear where thou shalt be able to soar aloft and fly successively on an infinite number of Objects and abandon thy self intirely to contemplation and diversity of thoughts This Happiness will arrive to thee when thou shalt be in Heaven All Objects there will tell thee of thy Duty and sollicit thee to Obedience Thou shalt be no more afraid least Snakes lye under the Flowers or the Devil be in Ambush in those places whither thy Mind and steps shall carry thee Thy mind being become vast will fear no Dissipation it will embrace all Objects without fear of being overwhelmed and for the being fill'd with an infinite number of the most different Ideas thy God will not have the less room in thee since all those Ideas will be hallowed and belov'd by God But now here there 's nothing of the like thou canst not take one Step without running into danger thou canst not go out from thy self without meeting an Enemy that seeks thee and has sworn thy Ruine thou canst not admit into thy Bosom all those Objects which in a Crowd come to thy Senses but thou fillest thy Heart therewith and robbest God of the place he ought alone to possess Make not therefore so many Sallies into the Universe where thou wilt always leave off thy own contain thy self within the Bounds of thine own Heart if it be not so large it is very deep and thou wilt find ample matter enough wherewith to exercise thy self Thou wilt never be able to sound it to the Bottom it cannot be known but by him that tryeth the Reins and Thoughts but at least pierce into that impenetrable Subject as far as thou canst Examine thy self and this Knowledge of what passes in thee will be worth more than the Knowledge of all that is done in the World and passeth amongst men Mingle not thy self with Wars or Disentanglings of Estates and such Particulars Take notice of those Combats betwixt thy Flesh and thy Spirit between the Law of thy Members and that of thy Understanding Pacifie these differences teach the Flesh to be obedient place Reason again in it's Throne give it Piety for a Counsellor tame the Passions and make them Slaves Put thy little Estate into a good order and both wisely and holily govern that great People which is shut up in so little a Country that is to say that multitude of Affections Thoughts Sentiments and Passions which are in thy Heart Prayer O God the great Governour of the World who not only holdest the Reins of the Waters and Sea lest it overflow the dry Land but brid'lest the Wickedness of Men lest that overflow the World who by thy profound Wisdom rulest the World after such a manner as thou drawest Light out of Darkness Preside over the motions of my Heart Draw Light out of this Chaos and Darkness take the Reins to conduct my Soul permit it not to wander about and lose it self in it's Rambles stop the Inclination and Turbulencies of its Passions that it may be recollected wholly into its self and labouring about its own proper Affairs may take care to prepare a Room for thee to retain thee to possess thee only to contemplate nothing but thee and banish thence all other Ideas so as by this means it may be disposed to Devotion CHAP. IV. The fourth general Direction To persevere in holy Duties and not to startle at any Difficulties WE have not represented Devotion as an easie thing to obtain and therefore the Faithful need not be surpriz'd to meet with difficulties therein much less are they to withdraw and despond 't is a new Advice I gave here to obtain it Every upright Soul has frequently made experience that in being willing to lift it self up it has found the Wings of its Devotion clogged either by worldly Vanities or the sluggishness of the Flesh in this Estate if it relax it is undone These Desires so necessary as we have seen must have Action and Courage joyn'd to them Solomon speaks in his Proverbs of the Motion of an idle Man whose whole Strength was exhausted in desires He always makes the best Resolutions in the World but never stirs out of his place This laziness of the Soul perhaps might be what Solomon refers so much to for he hath hardly a Chapter but as he passes along he has a hit at the Sluggard This sluggishness of the Soul is the Vice of those who drain themselves dry in praising Vertue and reserve no strength to run after and attain it The falsly devout one does the same thing he praises he desires it but he yields to the first Temptation his Devotion meets withal But dost not thou know that all Great things are difficult Doth a Pilot abandon his Vessel at the first rough Blast of Wind Doth not a Rower that goes against the Stream of a rapid River struggle stiffly to refist the Water He holds on tugs wipes his Fore-head takes Courage and at last he overcomes Does a Merchant renounce all Traffick for one loss or a Courtier all his hopes for one ill turn of Fortune Every one strives to regain by Diligence what his Disgrace had taken away from him We must also resolvedly bend our selves against Indevotion and when we perceive our Heart ill dispos'd its motions languishing and its Devotions travers'd by Wand'rings we are to
had drawn out all my Misery from the bottom where it lay hid to present it to the Eyes of my Heart there arose a great Tempest which was followed by a great Shower of Tears This weeping does not always come from a Sense of Sin 't is sometimes caused by a jarring diversity of Thoughts and a confusion of good Emotions which cast the Soul into a sort of Disorder but which is much better than the greatest Calm Meditation HOW were it to be wisht that men were as holy as they are Eloquent and knowing pourtraicts they make but where shall we find the Originals I see plainly that the characters of true Devotion are curious and ravishing but alas the more I enter into this Meditation the more do I continue confus'd When I consider what I ought to be to be devout and I examin what I my self am I find that I am nothing or that I am not just what I should be I do not find in my self those ardent desires to be with my God and to converse with him by holy Prayer and Meditation My Soul languishes but it is not after the house of my God nor after the solitude of my Cabinet It languishes for it is feeble and weak in all the motions of Piety I do violence to my own heart in drawing it out of the clutches of the World to put it into the hands of God I enter into my Closet to do my Exercises of Piety rather to acquit my self of a Duty which I have imposed on my self than to follow my own inclinations Where is that Joy which I ought to taste in the Acts of my Devotion Where is that being unbound from the World renouncing of all carnal thoughts where is that Fervour and Alacrity the Extasies the Flames the Illuminations of that heavenly fire whereof I am a reading the description All is dead in me If I would quit the World to enter into my Closet I carry it still along with me In all the faculties of my Soul I feel a monstrous weight and dulness which arrests all my Elevations and makes me tumble down back again to the Earth my Jertings up are feeble and of a short Durance they hardly go half Way to Heaven Prayer HAve pity on my sad Estate my Father and my God Draw me and I will run after thee Why should I remain in the shadow of Death Thou Sun of righteousness that carriest healing in thy Wings raise me up and quicken me Let the East from on high visit me with the Bowels of his Mercy Let my heart burn within me whilst I read thy Scriptures and hear thy Word Let my Prayers be ardent and my Piety constantly sustained by the force and flames of thy Grace and loving kindness And thou my Soul do not attend this loving kindness with Arms across go meet it call and say Come Lord Jesus come quickly O God of my Salvation awaken my heart Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Life Chase away sloath let it no longer lye in the bed of security banish all coldness rid thy self of that burthensome weight that oppresses thee Take the Wings of an Eagle and to Heaven fly into the bosom of thy Saviour and thou shalt find Sweets which thou hast never yet tasted never seen never heard of and which never enter'd into thy Imagination to conceive CHAP. III. The great necessity of Devotion WHO can doubt on 't and is it not sufficient barely to know and to describe it to perswade us to it Devotion is the Soul of the Soul and the very Life of Piety 'T is that which sets a price and value upon the Duties and the Worship of a faithful Soul A due Preparation is necessary to every thing An Orator who is to speak in publick first amasses his matter together and then assays to put it into a good Form A Souldier being to fight prepares his Army and rouzes his courage He that goes to a Marriage puts on a Wedding Garment And why then do we take upon us to present our selves before God in Prayer in reading or in hearing his Word in imploring his Assistance or rendring him Actions of Gratitude without having the holy disposition of Piety and Devotion that are before him of so great Price We do ever that thing well which we do heartily but when the Heart is no Party in the business it avails nothing The Souldier who carries not his Heart along with him turns his back in the day of battle and the Orator whose Heart is not toucht with what he says will never touch that of others If without the Heart we cannot perform the works of the Tongue and of the Hand how shall the work of the heart it self be done without the Heart This is what I call the Exercises of Piety and the Service of God A Lute can it be plaid upon unless it be string'd and tun'd can a Bow shoot unless it be bent the Heart is an Instrument and a Lute the sound whereof charms the Ears of the Almighty but it must be strung with all its Vertues as with strings and Devotion must be to it a kind of Soul that makes every thing else to act Prayer is an Arrow that flies to the Heav'ns but Devotion only gives it both strength and Feathers Prayer is a Sacrifice and an offering of the Heart We must not therefore present common Riches to God without preparation and choice and the Passover-Lamb was separated from the Flock four days before its Immolation Let not the Sinner then offer to God dirty and soyl'd Prayers but pure and devout ones let him separate his heart from the vanities of the World and the Folly of his vain thoughts if he will be well-pleasing to God Without Devotion the Soul is dead the heart is but in its Body as in its Grave What rashness then to lay a dead and corrupted Beast upon the Altars of God will not God say I hate your Oblations the Peace-Offerings of your fat Beasts and the perfume of your Incense I cannot away with them Devotion is a Fire without which our Sacrifices could not be consumed It 's a Fire coming down from Heav'n it 's an emanation of the Rays of the Sun of Righteousness it s what must lift up the Smoak of our incense to Heay'n Assure thy self thou Christian Soul that thy offerings are in the right way and that the Flames of Devotion are alone capable of piercing those Clouds thickned by Iniquity that separate us from God The matter that makes thunder-bolts so massy and heavy would not alwayes be mounted in the middle Region of the Air from whence we see 'em hurl'd down upon the Earth were it not carried upon the Wings of some inflamed Exalations In like manner our Earthly Prayers as well as our hearts would not be able to mount the Skies did not the flames of Devotion lift them up So that we ought to put our
most assured proof that we love not God 'T is not so when we search after the things of the World Seek for Wisdom says the Wise-man as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasures Ah! would to God we could make such an exchange of Sentiments as tó give to the World those thoughts which we have for heavenly things and to render to heavenly things what we have for the World Is not this a crime which cannot be aggravated to refuse God the Ardour the Attention the fond affections we have for the Earth a crime which deprives us of God is not at all trivial A Sin that robs us of the Divine Consolations is not to be neglected 'T is for this crime we tast so few Delights in our Devotions because God will not let himself be found but by those that seek him and bestows not those Divine Consolations but upon such Souls as are a living thirst after them as the Hart is a thirst after the running Waters But supposing with these flattering consciences that the Distractions and Lithernesses of Devotion are Sins of Infirmity and by consequence less severely punisht what shall we say of a great number of them and of frequent Relapses will this be taken for nothing too If thou slightest thy sins because they are little ones fear them rather by reason they are in a great number saith St. Augustin If they should appear light in the Balance of the Sanctuary the very reckoning will destroy us since in a word we return to 'em every day Than grains of Sand nothing is more small but yet if we heap them together we may in time make up a Mountain We advance step after step towards Hell and of what importance is it what brings us thither whether a great Sin or many small ones we are still Damn'd ne'rtheless The Egyptians that were oftentimes troubled with Frogs and Flies would not be reduced till the uttermost extremity Wherefore let us not call those small Sins which find a place in Hell if they be not expiated by Repentance but let us rather say with a Doctor of the eleventh Century Peradventure thou wilt believe some of thy Sins very puny and small would to God that our severe Judge would or could judge them such But alas does not all Sins dishonour God thorough Disobedience how then can the Sinner call those small that offend so great a God O dry and sapless Tree unprofitable and worthy of eternal flames what wilt thou be able to answer at that day when thou shalt render an account in the twinkling of an eye when thou shall put every moment of thy life into the Ballance and when it shall be demanded of thee in what thou hast spent thy time then shall a process be made of all that can be found in thee not only of thy words but of thy very silence Thy least thoughts will be examined even thy life will be a part of thy crimes if thou hast not liv'd for thy God Oh! how many Sins will start then out of some Place where thou hadst never seen them before they will seize upon thee as by Ambuscado They will appear to thee more terrible and in a greater number The Works which thou didst believe not to be evil nay which thou considerest as good shall be look'd upon by all as ghastly and black Sins This difference saith St. Basil of great and little Sins is not to be found in the New Testament one only sentence is pronounced against all he that does sin is the Servant of Sin And if we give our selves the liberty to distinguish and discriminate Sins into Mortal and Venial or great or little it ought to be in this Sense that we call all Sins great whereby we are overcome and all Sins little which we are armed to that pass as to vanquish As among Sword-men the conquered is ever esteemed the more Feeble and the Conquerour the stouter How happy then is that man that strikes a terrour into himself and is delivered from this dangerous Prejudice that Indevotion is a light and a pardonable crime Meditation ALas this is an Illusion against which I have great need to defend my Heart What a bending and an inclination have I to flatter my self in my Sins and to believe them light Wretched Soul thou perceivest not thy Disease thou believest thy self in a good constitution of Health and it may be thou art going down to the Chambers of Death 'T is a dangerous Malady This to fancy I am in health and not to be so O my Heart open thine Eyes and see the Dangers whereinto thou dost continually cast me To day my Sins appear very small but one day they will appear to me very great Let me not wait and delay any longer to acknowledge the greatness and feel the weight of them so that from this present I may have 'em in detestation and may repent of them in Sack-cloath and Ashes At such a time my repentance wou'd be too late I should know the mischief but could find no more remedy I drink Sin as a Fish drinks Water I do not think it affrightful because I am so accustomed to its sight and I fancy my Sins small for that I compare them to the greatest and above all I count my Dulness and my Indevotion for nothing seeing I persuade my self that the name of God cannot be offended but by Impieties and Blasphemies Prayer THIS comes from thence O my God that I do not conceive thee so Great as really thou art and I do not conceive thee so great as thou art because I do not see thee I tremble at the presence of a Man set upon a Tribunal the Scepter in his hand the Crown on his head invironed with a Royal pomp I fear him because I see him those Objects that strike my Eyes astonish my Soul I know that thou sittest between the Cherubims that the Angels cover their face before thee unable to sustain the brightness of thy Majesty I know that torrents of fire roul about thy Throne to consume thy Enemies I know there is nothing of either Angelic or humane sight that can withstand the splendour of thy looks nor the Fire of thine Eyes but I believe all these wonders tho I see them not and therefore 't is they make the less impression upon my heart Sensible I am not but of present things My eyes are more toucht during the darkness of the Night with the weak light of a glittering Glow-worm than my Imaginationis moved with all the light of the Sun when it is absent and fills the other part of the World with heat and brightness Take therefore away O my God take away the Veil make me to view thy Majesty redouble the force of the eyes of my Soul fill my Imaginations with Idaeas of thy greatness and of thy Divine Glory that I may return more and more from persuading my self of the smallness of my fault when I present
me out of this calamitous Estate this deplorable nothing Disengage me from under this Burthen of Mortality and corruption so as I may walk lightly and chearfully or rather I may fly swifth even to thee Pardon all my Sins that they may not terrifie me and banish me from thy Throne Stop the course of my Iniquities that they may not hinder my Prayers from mounting up before thee Let me not still continue to render my self unworthy of thy Favours by the ill usage I make of thee nor to grieve thy holy Spirit by the uncleanness of my Life that only can inspire me with the Ardour I seek after That only can render my Soul devout and it 's presence only can warm my Affections But will it be pleas'd to bring it's light into a Soul so polluted and so dark as mine Prepare for thy self O my God a lodging within me worthy so great a Guest and Stranger that it may come and enliven me that I may live and love-thee that I may burn with the Fire of thy Love and with that of Devotion CHAP II. Touching the love of the World the second Source of Indevotion BEhold one of the great reasons why there are so few Devout in the World It is because all are in love with the World and this Love is one of the most efficacious Temptations wherewith the Devil serves himself to distract and call us elsewhere This love has pierced our very marrow and entrails and seeing 't is the master of our Heart can the love of God dwell there can darkness and light can Fire and Water Life and Death be comparable together In him that loveth the World the love of the Father does not dwell Where there is no love of God how can there be any of Devotion which is nothing else but love what is it that makes up the fire and the zeal of Devout People but Love What is it that makes the desires spring up of union with God in Devout Souls but Love what makes us find a Gusto in the possession the same Love What does indue good Souls with a readiness and alacrity to serve God Is it not Love that renders every thing easie to him that loves But as much as the love of God succours and helps Devotion so much does the love of the World cruelly cross it It extinguishes heat it stifles the desires it estranges from God it takes away the taste of heavenly things it purloins the heart from it self and carries it elsewhere Lot's Wife advances towards the Mountain but hath her heart in Sodom she turns her Eyes thither The superiour part of the Soul which is in love with Heaven makes some efforts to lift it self up to God but this same lower part wherein the Passions reign turns its eyes towards the World and wheedles the heart out of the Commerce whereinto it entred with its God Rachel in craving her fathers house carries along with her his antick Images In quitting the World to enter into our Closets we bring with us its Idols that is its Ideas and vain Images and from thence proceed our distractions and those unhappy thoughts that traverse us in the midst of our Devotion These are the Idols of Gold Silver the Devils of Ambition and Covetousness which an hundred times pass and repass in our mind in a quarter of an hour to distract us When we come to Prayer our head is filled with a thousand I deas of good and evil of Desires and Fears of Dangers and distrust of hopes and despair of Joys and Divertise ments and a thousand other vain Objects A Soul at this rate taken up and imploy'd can it give place to the Ideas of God's greatness of his Majesty Goodness Mercy and Love Faith Repentance Charity Zeal Hopes Acknowledgments and a thousand other Vertues which compose or at least help Devotion can they agree well with these Emotions that the commerce of the World communicates to us We scarce ever think of things but such as possess our hearts if we lov'd â—â—e Worldless t would not come so often into ourminds We are hurried away with it it is a Demon we know â—ot how to lay we cannot find a Sanctuary against its â—ersecutions the solitude and affrightful Objects of the â—esert cannot banish it An Antient tells us that â—mid his Macerations his mind sometimes transported him out of his Solitude into the company of young Women a dancing I say then we ought to imploy 〈◊〉 our strength to dry up this second source if we â—ould be Devout My little children love not the World or the things that are in the World We should Crucifie â—he Old-Man if we would present our selves to God a â—ving holy and acceptable Sacrifice which is our reasoâ—able Service So that one of the most profitable Meâ—itations by which we can prepare our selves for â—rayer is that of the Worlds vanity It is good to enâ—er into our selves to consider the brevity of humane â—â—fe the inconstancy of the Worlds Glory which flouishes in the morning and fades and withers in the eveâ—ing It is good to repeat frequently to our heart â—hat the Holy Spirit has said heretofore All flesh 〈◊〉 as Grass and all the Glory of man as the flower of â—rass the Grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth â—way As for man his days are as Grass as a flower of be field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and 〈◊〉 is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of couble he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down 〈◊〉 fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not His riches â—anish away and his Sins continue his honours abanâ—on him but his torments do not quit him Thus by â—rying with a loud voice Vanity of Vanities in an heart â—nfected by the bad Air of the World it may chase away those worldly thoughts and fright away those â—irds which come to spoil our Sacrifices and devoureth good seed of Piety which the Heavenly sower had 〈◊〉 into our hearts Meditation HOw miserable am I I can stouth cry Vanity of Vanities to my Heaâ—â— depraved and corrupted with the love 〈◊〉 the World and yet still it is never thâ— better I am sufficiently persuaded of aâ—â— that is told me I know mighty well thâ—â— the World is only made up of appearances I know it hath very much Gall anâ— Wormwood for a little Honey I knoâ— that Pleasures are Twists that snarl anâ— intangle the Soul and train it to Death But I am not yet acquainted how theâ— knowledges remain in my understanding and make no manner of Impression upoâ— my Will I believe I see and I do nothing I see a thousand and a thousand People which the World plunges into corruption and brings to Hell I see it is a great enâ— my of my Saviour and that the chief thinâ— which it compasses upon them that givâ— themselves
up to it is to take away froâ— them the Love of God 'T is lewd ' tâ—â— dangerous I know it yet notwithstanding I know not how to break the Cords which hold me tied to it I fly it it follows me 〈◊〉 lays hold of me in all places and I meet 〈◊〉 every where O my Soul make one â—ast and utmost effort to break these misâ—hievous Chains to make a Divorce with his Enemy Say to it with a firm voice Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me The love of the World â—s an Enemy of the love of God And alâ—o interchangably the love of God is an Enemy to the love of the World Make therefore O my Soul the love of thy God â—o enter into thee that it may banish thence the love of the World Sethese two eneâ—mies to Daggers drawing and favour his side who wou'd save thee against him who wou'd destroy thee Love him that loves thee although he strike thee sometimes as if he did not love thee And have a hatred for him that hates thee albeit he acts as if he lov'd thee Return to this fervent Spouse a love as great as he has for thee Prayer BVT without thee O my God I cannot love thee nor cease to love the World without thy aid Pull up therefore this harsh and bitter Root which shoots up and turns me out of tâ—â— way of salvation Open mine eyes take thâ— Evil from off the World draw away the Maâ— and the Paint wherewith it is covered thâ— I may see all its Deformity and shiver at thâ— sight On the other side make me to see thâ— face and thy beauty that my Soul may be ravished and I may no more run after the vanitie of the World Enrich me with thy good things that my Soul being fulfilled may wish nothing more and that my desires may all expire in thâ— joy of thy Love Then shall I run in thy pathâ— with all my might Then my Soul being inflamed and fulfilled with heavenly fire shall not cannot any longer be hindred from lifting up its self to thee with all the ardour that one oughâ— to have for the Sovereign Good Then in its Devotions shall my Soul be no more troubled with the vain Idols of the World Being filled with thee and with thy Love it will not be able to furnish and afford room for any thing else CHAP. III. â—f the too great sensibility towards earthly Pleasures The third source of Indevotion THis Love of the World is a great Trunk which divides it self into many Branches that are also sources of Indevotion The first branch of this Love is the too great sensibility towards earthly pleasures These â—easures are of two sorts The first are highly criâ—inal and are those we call Debauches of the Men of be times and of these certain it is that not only the â—xcessive sensibility but the least taste we take of them â—s the mortal Enemy of Devotion Spiritual pleasures â—â—e of a taste so vastly different from carnal ones that â—t the same time one cannot love the one and the other 〈◊〉 palat imbrued with Gall and Wormwood and which has never tasted of other Savours cannot enâ—ure our Sugar and Honey A man sunk into the unâ—voury sweetness of Sin will find all the sweetnesses of Grace of ill taste There is another sort of worldly â—leasures whose Innocence the World maintains beâ—ause the crime is not so visible They are called â—nnocent and they may be so if they did not soon beâ—ome criminal by the abuse of them and they all may â—e great obstacles to Devotion more than we are â—ware of The Holy Ghost is called the Comforter â—nd the taste which the Pious find in the Exercises of Holiness is termed Spiritual Consolation But to whom is the Comforter and the Consolation destin'd â—ut to the afflicted For certain therefore those Souls â—hat are filled with the joy of the World are not proper to receive these Divine consolations and the whâ—som impressions of the Divine Comforter 'T is this reason the ever blessed Jesus saith Blessed they which mourn for they shall be comforted Anâ— Austin saith to God Thou art the only true and thâ— Sovereign pleasure capable of filling the Soul Do 〈◊〉 cast far from me all those false pleasures and at theâ—â— time enter thou into their place thou who art more 〈◊〉 and more agreeable than all Pleasures tho not to 〈◊〉 and Blood The Manna did not fall upon the Israelâ— but when the Victuals they had brought out of 〈◊〉 were consumed And questionless that divine Manâ— Grace those Ravishments and those joys of Devotâ— are not communicated to those that have a magâ— furnished with the things of Egypt and the pleasure the World A person that returns from a Ball or a Comed very much indisposed for Devotion Some may in favour of the Theater that it is become chaste 〈◊〉 and that we see there more Lessons of Vertue thâ— Examples of Vice But others may say that the Paâ—ons do not appear there animated but in defence Honour and that there are produced no other sentime but those of Generosity For my part I say that Vertues of the Theater are crimes according to 〈◊〉 mind of the Gospel and when there is any thing goâ— heard there it is very much sullied by the impuâ—â— of the Lips and the Imaginations thorough which passes Oh Impiety said Clemens Alexandrinus you hâ—â— made Heaven to descend upon the Theater and God is come a Comedy Oh Impiety we may say in imitatiâ—â— him you have made Vertue to mount the Theat and you have made her an Actress Our Saviour 〈◊〉 not have his Preachers wear Buskins on their feet Masks on their face Tragedy saies St. Cyprian makesâ— ancient Crimes to revive in its verses so as they may die of old age It draws them out from under the Tomb of ten or twelve Ages And in the present age we learn such Crimes as perhaps we should never have thought on we observe that what has bin done heretofore may also be done to day So we make examples of those Actions which had ceas'd to be Crimes nevertheless the innocence of Tragedy may be pleas'd with more colour The Lacedemonians were wise men who banished these evil Arts from among them by reason said they that it was not safe to violate the Laws even in appearance and that one ought to respect them even upon the Theater This makes me remember a saying of Cicero that it is not honest by way of sporting the mind to exercise one's Philosophy and Rhetorick against the Gods in arguing either their Existence or their Providence without being an Atheist This veneration we owe to them of not diverting our selves at their expence I say the same of Vertue It is not handsome to please ones self in seeing Vertue or rejoycing or wronged But besides all this these sights are absolutely disagreeing with Devotion since they fill the Soul with vain Passions
and we have need of a free mind They make real Joys and Griefs to spring up for imaginary Adventures Into the Mind they put Idea's and into the Heart vain Motions which ruine the holy Dispositions that we would establish in a devout Soul The same I say of a Play a Fury which agitates men like a kind of Demoniac Spirit A Man sees his Life and his Death that I may so speak his Fortune and his Misfortune a rouling with inconceivable Transports and Inquietudes His Soul is agitated at the same time with a thousand Passions with Fears Desires Hopes and his Heart is entirely put besides the Seat Is such a Man in a Condition to lift up his Soul to God Such fine Devotions as these are they which are made after having past half the Night in this exercise The Tempest has been over great a long time will the Waves be moving the Soul will be a good while levelling it self and yet after this the Sweetnesses Devotion will not be according to the Palate for thâ— they are not carnal Pleasures of which alone it sensible Whence it comes to pass that young Peâ—ple are very rarely fit for the Elevations of Devotion They are but lately come into the World and all 〈◊〉 it appears mighty fine These Pleasures they gâ—â— down by long Draughts and nothing appears pleasâ—â— unto 'em but what flatters Flesh and Blood whiâ—â— boils in their Veins Hence also it comes that thâ— Constitution where the Blood has the Ascendaâ—â—â— which is the Temperament of the World's Joy is 〈◊〉 proper for Devotion than that which has the Ingredâ—ents of Earth and Melancholy the former is like 〈◊〉 Matter extreamly combustible which takes fire 〈◊〉 the least Sparkle but the latter being more difficuâ— to be moved is less sensible of what charms other and that which pierces through them negligentâ—â— passes it by We ought therefore to draw Men out of this erroâ— They imagine they can divide themselves betwiâ—â— heavenly and earthly Joy but it is impossible In thâ— Rank of unclean Creatures the Law plac'd those Amphibious Birds which both swim and flye and live in 〈◊〉 double Element of Air and Water This is the Eâ—â—blem of worldly Men evermore they swim in fleshly Pleasure and sometimes by weak Soarings they try to get out thence and reach Heaven but it happenâ— to 'em just as it does to those Aquatic Fowls whose flight goes no further than to touch and curle the Superficies of the Water with their Wings and then they forthwith fall down again Delicate and rare says St. Bernard is the Divine Consolation 't is a chast Woman but jealous who deserving only to be beloved cannot give her self to him that runs after strange Women Wherefore Solomon pronounceth Vanity upon all the Pleasures of the Earth whereof he had made a very large Experience It 's for this also that David declares so of ten that he will not have any other Pleasure than that of his God To draw near to God is my Good to be united to him is my All. Forsake all says St. Austin and thou shalt find all for that Man will find all in God that despises all for God's sake Behold here one of the main Counsels which can be given to pious Minds which undertake to dispose themselves to Devotion Renounce renounce thou devout Soul all the Pleasures of the Earth and make choice of Spiritual ones let reading in holy Writings charm thee as worldly-minded People are charmed by their ill Books let religious Assemblies and preaching of the Word divert thee as much as they divert themselves by their criminal Shows let the Works of Mercy toward the Poor and Afflicted be used by thee as the men of the Age use their vain Courses their Sports and their Converse and if thou takest any Recreations and Refreshments let Honesty and severe Vertue be the Governess of all thy Pleasures Meditation HOW unhappy art thou O my Soul to be born in Aegypt and not to be ensible of the blessings of the true Canaan or this reason thou turnest thy eyes so ofâ—en upon the World and at the same â—our that thy Heart should be intite in â—eaven at the time of thy Devotion and â—ravers thou thinkest on Onions Garlick â—nd Flesh-pots which thou didst eat when thou wast the Slave of the Devil and thâ— World Thou hast not yet tasted thâ— delights of Pious and Devout Souls that say I am satisfied as with Marrow and Fatnesâ— Oh! how good the Lord is I have tasted him He brought me into his Banquetting-House His Love is sweeter than Wine and thâ— Honey Let him kiss me with the Kisses 〈◊〉 his Mouth Would to God I were honoured with these secret communication whereof my Saviour makes some Priviledged Souls to partake which fill them witâ— Joy even in the midst of Torments anâ— make them find musick in Prisons and 〈◊〉 the rattling of their Irons Learn O mâ— Soul learn to seek thy Pleasures and Dâ—lights in God he is the Source All Joâ— that comes not from him terminates aâ— length in grief saddness lamentations dâ—spair and gnashing of Teeth What doâ— my heart wish for what does it hunger anâ— thirst after dost thou love Beauty In Goâ— thou wilt find it and God will give it thâ— thy self for thou wilt become glorious anâ— full of light by the commerce thou shaâ— have with him Dost thou love Life anâ— Health He is the well of Life and in 〈◊〉 Light shall we see Light and he will communicate a Life to thee ever healthful and vigorous that is Eternal Life Dost thou love pleasures Lo he will make thee drink at the Stream of his Delights He will fill thee with the Wine prepared by the Divine Wisdom that saith I have mixt my Wine I have killed my fat Beasts He will cause thee to see such Objects as will ravish thee He will make thee hear a sweet and charming Musick in the consort of Angels and Saints who eternally sing the praises of our God After so many Blessings either already received or already possest in hope can I still be at all sensible of the vain Pleasures of the Earth Prayer O My God my divine Saviour come and fill my Soul with those sweetnesses that thou communicatest to thy faithful servants give me the bread which came down from Heaven the true Manna and bread of Angels that makes me taste of pleasures which stifle and choak the sense of worldly pleasures and the taste of sublunary divertisements Let thy Sabbaths be my Feast days Let thy word be sweeter to me than Honey and than the drops of Honey And let the meditation of those joys which thou preparest for me in Heaven ravish me in such a manner that I may be no more either the World's or my own but be intirely Thine Make Heaven to descend upon Earth in my favour Enlarge my heart Make there a little Paradise Shed down upon it so great an abundance of thy Light of
Grace as may imitate and approach the Light of Glory Make thy Rivers to run a cross this Paradise Plant therein the Tree of Life And lay up there so grand an influence of good things that my own Wealth may make me look upon that of the World with an high disdain and contempt and that from under the Throne where thou shalt have plac'd my Soul it may consider all the Palaces of the World like meer Cottages CHAP. IV. Of Worldly Troubles and Cares a fourth Source of Indevotion NOW we come to another branch of the Love of the World and a new obstacle to Devotion I mean earthly Cares and Riches Black and horrid Devils that come to cross us that draw us frequently out of the company of our Lord Christ Jesus to lead us among Sepulchres and that walk as in the sad Ruines of our Fortune and Grandeur There are more unhappy than happy Persons in the World so that this temptation is at least as ordinary as the precedent are and whereas the World possesses our Hearts when we have lost it we bewail it most bitterly A man whom against his will a contrary Wind drives from the Haven where he would be always turns his Eyes on that side and does not lose the View of it but with inconceivable Regret If he would take any rest the Images of his Country his dear Children and his Friends return incessantly into his mind to plague him and continue his Torture So the afflicted Soul that would retire into its self to be united with God doth see amidst its Exercises the Images of its misfortunes which awaken its Grief and draw it from Heaven into the bottomless pit These are the Wasps and Flies whose Stings are so piercing whilst we are fixt so on holy Work and give up to it our whole attention then these come and prick us so to the quick that we are forced to lay our hands on the part affected These are the Whips wherewith the Taskmasters of Aegypt serve ' emselves to hasten us to the work of the Flesh and the labour of Bricks These Task-masters are the Devils that say with Pharaoh this People is idle since they will serve their own God let us redouble their Imployments and hence they rowze up those smarting and stinging cares recalling into the memory of one the loss of a Cause in a Court of Judicature and of another the Ill estate of his affairs an he ruine of his Family And these thoughts like so many stings hasten a man to return to his works of Straw to his worldly occupation that make him to forget God's Service When therefore we would espouse our selves in the bosom of our God we must drive and fright away these Gnats that whizz about our Ears and we must lay these Demons And as the Spouse said I charge you O ye Daughters of Jerusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the Field that ye stir not up nor awake my Love till he please So we ought to say Go ye carnal thoughts thy earthly anxities and netling Cares away ye Devils return into your bottomless pits let my Soul rest and do not disturb its holy Conversations do not draw it out of the Arms of its beloved whose possession makes up all its Joy and all its Beatitude Good remedies there are against this Temptation which we ought to make use of The first is to discomfit and destroy in us the love of the World when we shall love it no more we shall no more be sensible of the mischiefs and misfortunes that befall us on that side So we do'nt love Money Riches nor Grandeur we shall not be touched with the loss of them So we love God only we shall evermore be content because we shall never lose him The World makes men pay Interest for its Pleasures the grief it causes in abandoning us is much greater than the joy we taste in possessing it and therefore we should diffeize our selves in good time that we may lose it without trouble If we have cares that seem lawful unto us and which we know not how to part withall let us follow the precept and example of David Cast thy care upon God and he will take care for thee We do not want examples to maintain this reliance We can produce an Elijah that was fed by Ravens a Prophet in the Lions Den that was respected by those Monsters Israelites in uncultivated and desolate Places upon whom the very Heavens rained down Bread Have we need of Assurance and Promises see that of our Lord Jesus Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows Behold the Fowls of the Air they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them God that takes care of the young Ravens that call upon him will he desert us without doubt we must have a great stock of Incredulity to resist so great Promises After all let us remember to think how our Cares do change nothing at all in the state of our Concerns and how they turn our Souls topsie turvy and render them incapable of Devotion Upon which account our ever blessed Jesus would not have us take care for the Morrow for fear it should trouble our Devotion to day Wherefore in entring into our Closet we must say to our selves why dost thou take care for so many things and it may be thou must die to morrow Afraid thou art of wanting necessaries for Life but thou considerest not that these necessaries may be reduced into a small compass Thou hast lost some Wealth thou art afraid of losing it 't is therefore God hath retrencht thee of the superfluity Whereas how canst thou be afraid of wanting any manner of thing when in that moment thou goest to find God to whom appertain all things and addest with St. Austin Cast thy self O my Soul into the Arms of God and fear not lest he should let thee fall for his Arms sustain Heaven and Earth And having said this shut the door against all the troubles of the Flesh and cast them under thy feet as thou fallest on thy Knees Meditation ALas I have good reason to weep Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might bewail my Sins This is a sadness after a godly sort and a Repentance not to be repented of In this Respect mine Eyes are without moisture and dry as Rocks Oh! that Moses his Rod struck me and the Terrour of Gods Judgments seiz'd me that I might be able to cast out Currents of Water Yet nevertheless I do not want tears to mourn my mishaps and my worldly misfortunes So that I am not covetous of Tears but I distribute 'em ill Wherefore O my Soul art thou so toucht at the loss of some goods whereof thou had'st only the use
neglects the other Life as if it were never to come I believe O my God but help thou my unbeleif Make me to see the Truth and Excellency of Eternal Life that I may flight the present Life that I may make me such Friends as may receive me into everlasting Habitations that I may acquire such Riches as I may carry along with me and that I may make choice of that good Part which shall not be taken away from me CHAP. VI. The Custom of letting the mind ramble 〈◊〉 different Objects A sixth Source of Indevotion I Believe that this is also another Source of 〈◊〉 Indevotion and especially of our Distraction During Prayer we know not how to fire oâ—â— Heart our mind wanders and our attention iâ— lost Whence proceeds this but from a pernicious custom we have of giving a soaring vaunt to our Imagination It is in man what Quick-Silver is in Mertals It rouls it runs glibly up and down A little fire makes it evaporate and as it were to vanish into Smoak it becomes so subtle We suffer it to 〈◊〉 what ever it pleases When 't is upon the Wing sometimes it flyes from East to West from South to North from Heaven to Earth and as if the limits of the Universe were too narrow for it it over-passes them and loses its self in the innumerable Whirle-pooâ— of Des-Cartes And no more can it contain it self within the bounds of Time it flyes to Eternity and asks what it is It would know what was when there was Nothing If it keeps its self within this World amidst this great space it curvets over all Beings it swims over all Matter and the compounds of it differently modified and yet penetrates none of them And as if the prodigioâ— Mass of Creatures did not furnish Imployment enough to its Actions it labours in the production or rather creation of Beings of its own forming It imagine Chimeras Phantomes it makes Mountains of Gold Worlds in the Moon Centaurs and Hippogryphicks And these motions for the most part are of such quick â—ispatch that in a quarter of an hours rambling we find â—ur selves so far off that the greatest Parted man in â—â—e World could never ghess by our last thought what was the first And after this shall we ask from whence â—ome those aberrations of our heart in the duties and exercises of Piety can we expect that a Soul accustomed to wander can fix and arrest it self all at once It is an Horse that has not as yet received the Bitt it does nothing night or day but kick and skip up and down in the Meadows When one would put the Saddle upon the back or the Rein in the mouth it flyes out and struggles it throws down him that gets up and returns from whence it came When we would gather our selves together it dissipates its self like a Flame it abandons us it breaks the Rein of Piety and before that we espy the first ways it took we find it plunged in the diversity of its vain thoughts St. Augustine â—acknowledges that this is the cause of our Distractions When our mind is fill'd with these Phantasins savs he and that incessantly it carries along with it an infinite number of vain thoughts thence it comes to pass that our Prayers are oftentimes troubled and interrupted thereby and that when being in thy presence O God we indeavour to make thee hear the voice of our heart An action of such importance is frequently traversed by frivolous Imaginations which come from I know not whence to break into the crowd in our minds If we did well comprize the nature of Evil we might easily conceive the Remedy Evils ought to be cured by their contraries So that let us learn to give bounds to our imagination and not permit it to go so far that we may have the less trouble to bring it back again That is to say For the disposing our heart to Devotion we ought to accustom our mind to think a little of things and of good things 't is a Mercury that must fix it self in being applied to Silver or Gold 't is a lively faculty whereto we must give the Bridle and the Rein. 〈◊〉 let us not imagine that the secret to cure this Malaâ—â— of the Soul consists in retaining our mind in a privatâ—â—â— of all thought this is not profitable to Nature nor useâ—â—â— to Grace The imagination of man is too active 't is iâ—possible to hold it from doing nothing 't is to bring 〈◊〉 Death upon it to leave it without imployment sincâ— it lives no longer than it acts God hath not given 〈◊〉 such noble faculties to bury them in an inglorious aâ—â— shameful Idleness In short a mind that is habituatâ—â— to think on nothing would nevertheless find it as muâ—â— trouble to fix it self upon the works of Piety as oâ—â— would to withdraw it from its ramblings and course that it formerly used From all which I conclude that the imployment of letter'd and knowing men are perhaps the most destructive to Devotion as any that are in the World The Eye is scarce ever weary with seeing nor the Eaâ— with hearing and we are so far from counting this among Defects that we reckon it a great Vertue Undeâ— favour to those Great Names of Sciences of fine knowledges of curious Researches of Sublime Speculations of miraculous Discoveries there is established in the World a method to mince the Soul and almost infinitely to subdivide it without Remedy would to God experience did not give us proofs of the Truth But it 's very certain and very well known that Atheists are not to be found in the croud of the common People The Epicures the Protagoras's and Diagoras's were knowing men of great Wit The thing is past into a Proverb And they say that they who by reason of the Art whereof they make profession are obliged to study Nature and the second Causes very much do â—ix themselves so strongly thereto that they forget to ascend to the first Cause These men so well read in Antiquity and that make so great a noise in the Common-wealth of Learning for their knowledge make none at â—ll in the Church for their great Devotion The study only of heavenly things can inspire an habit of Piety we also see enow great Divines continue bad Christians because they refer not their Labours to God nor to his Glory all their industry is for themselves and they are the end of all their own watchings I would never â—herefore advise him that has a mind to be very devout â—o imbrace so many things nor to fill his head with conjectures and his memory with these May-bees whereof those rare Sciences so called are composed besides that this Acquisition brings in a habit of self-conceited Pride and surly Scorn a great enemy to the Spirit of Devotion and it puts the Virtuosos up with Pyrrhonism and Doubt which from Philosophy passes into Divinity And whereas some find nothing
certain in humane Sciences they take the same liberty to doubt of Divine Revelations We accustom our selves to judge of things according to the light of Reason for to condemn whatever does not agree with it â—nd we are rash enough to introduce that Principle into the Church which ought to have been left in the Schools I do not say this as if I would be the advocate of Ignorance seeing we are Citizens of the World it is allowed us to inquire a little of what is done â—here But the Author of Nature whereof we make a part makes us see plainly with what discretion and advisedness we ought to advance in the Discovery of â—er Secrets He has not shewn us but the Effects and has hid from us almost all the Causes which teaches â—s that we may easily be without these knowledges by reason that hidden things are not for us I know not too whether a little Ignorance would not make more for â—he Glory of our Creator If we understood Nature â—s well as we would understand it perhaps we should have the less Admiration for its great Author for as they say Admiration is the Daughter of Ignoranâ— and it is certain that we get an habit of not admiriâ— the finest and most wonderful things because we see 〈◊〉 and are over-acquainted with them The desire of Knowledge deceives us but let 〈◊〉 guard our selves from its surprises our first Parents sted the effects on 't sufficiently for their liquorish haâ— kering after an equal knowledge of Good and Evil 〈◊〉 the Gods When they were in a good state thâ— knew not even if they were naked and they acquiâ— not this knowledge with the rest but in the loss of the Innocence Only the knowledge of God ought to be 〈◊〉 subject matter and end of our labours and this is implâ— ment enough for our whole life Blessed is he that know thee says St. Austin though he knows nothing else and 〈◊〉 ed is that creature that knows every thing with knowing thee But he who knows thee and every 〈◊〉 else is happy not because he knows those other things 〈◊〉 because he knows thee Run not therefore O my Soâ— after those vain shadows of Science or if thou ruâ—â— after them let it be as after shadows without fi 〈◊〉 and without Love Fix thy self only to the comâ— plation of thy God he is an admirable object he is 〈◊〉 finitely greater than all the Creatures together 〈◊〉 vertheless this vast Object will not cause that Dissipaâ— so inseparable from the contemplation of the Creatuâ— It is infinite but contracts it self in a point It 〈◊〉 Sun that re-unites all its rayes in the bottom of 〈◊〉 Heart to fill it both with Light and Flame Let the 〈◊〉 vout Soul says St. Basil be a Mirror and a pure Gâ— that it may not receive the Image of any thing but its 〈◊〉 vine Spouse Let it continue wholly imployed and tâ— up by this Image so as foreign things approaching nigh 〈◊〉 not find a place there to paint and contemplate themselâ—â— Thou eternal Star saith another who art the Source all created Lights pierce thorough my heart with 〈◊〉 thy beams which may purifie me and make me glad which may illuminate and quicken my Soul to unite all its power to thee If we do some violence to our mind to fasten it upon this one and sole Object we shall find the good we expect and seek after it being a remedy against our indevout Distractions When we have a long time held this slippery and evaporate Soul in the Chains of Divine Meditation it will become more stayed and weighty It will not escape us with so much ease and as in flying us it does not take its flight but in its known Roads and stumbles only on the Ideas that are familiar with it whilst that divers thoughts will become estranged from it by the little Commerce it will have with them it will not easily be able to get away Meditation HOW little do men know themselves or the extent of their Mind to embrace so many Objects at once Do thou O my Soul become wise by the faults of thy Neighbours Thou hast enough wherewith to busie thy self in the Contemplation of thy God Labour to know him only and if thou aimst to know other things do it in such a sort as that all other Knowledge may conduct thee to the Knowledge of thy God Vain is thy hope to joyn the Knowledge of the World with that of Heaven Thy Heart is already too little for that God that is infinite and for that Object which hath no bounds and if once thou sufferest thy self to be employed in the Images of all the Creatures where wilt thou find room for God's Image The Eyes of Owls being accustomed to darkness cannot endure the brightness and splendour of the Sun A Mind always taken up in the contemplation of bodily things cannot sustain the brightness of that Being of Beings of that pure Spirit that shines with so great a lustre Prayer O Invisible and glorious Sun that discoverest not thy beauries but to Souls purified from the vain Images of the World cleanse my Soul by the purity of thy Beams chase away that Darkness that blinds my Eyes And from my Imagination banish the vain Fantoms which hinder me from contemplating solely the pure Lights of thy Truth I know thee O my God because it has pleased thee to reveal thy self unto me But what is it that I know of thy Greatness in comparison of what is really and what may be known of it I see the obscurity I form to my self an Idea of thy Essence and Majesty which sinks infinitely below thy very self I do thee this wrong O my God yet I am not blame-worthy for I cannot do otherwise I ask thee forgiveness I am very sensible I do not know thee as thou art 'T is rather the fault of my Mind than of my Heart Purifie mine Eyes that I may behold thee which as vigourous an Aspect as that of an Eagle which looks upon the Sun Let the Knowledge of thy Beauty charm me and fill me in such sort as that I may conceive an holy distaste for all that is called in the World rare Knowledge and great Literature Let me not scatter my self in the circumference Let all my looks be toward thee who art the Center from whence flows all the Beauty and Truth in the World Let me but see thee and in seeing thee shall I see all that can be seen Let my Soul rally and recollect it self upon this Object only that it may penetrate it if it be possible O God aid me in this design make thy self visible make me to enter into the bottom of thy Mysteries and into the secrets of thy infinite Wisdome that I may slight and despise as unworthy of mee all the curious sciences whereof the men of the Age make so great a Mystery CHAP. VII The Rareness and interruption of holy
To remember him to whom we speak Can we doubt also that our slackness does not come from the little love we have for God One friend does not visit another nor a lover his mistress with such an air of negligence as we show in Gods Service If we were kindled with Love all our motions would receive impressions from that heavenly fire In a word if the hope of glory had touch'd our hearts we should not go so slowly to him of whom we think to receive coelestial happiness But I know not whether this can be counted among the Sources of Indevotion since that the want of Faith Hope and Charity is Indevotion it self To conclude we must confess that we often find our selves in some certain Indispositions of Heart whereof we can render no account nor reason to day we are all Fire to morrow all Ice An upright Soul instantly pursues and awakens its self thinks on every thing that may inflame it It examins its own Conscience to see whether it hath committed any thing to dissorder its heart and grieve the spirit of Grace it finds nothing whereof it can accuse its self and knows not from whence it hath this coldness Whence then proceed these inequalities Perhaps from the changable nature of man who is not always himself and peradventure from the Temperament too as well as the disposition of the Air. As the Soul imprisoned in the Body does not act but by its Organs and depends extreamly on the motion of its humours it 's very manifest that Devotion also depends on these dusty Springs and Wheels whose pace is frequently seduc'd and spoyl'd And it may be the Devil finds his time and amidst the good seed sows his Tares in our field In some perhaps God's holy Spirit the author of every good thought has hid himself for sometime This drought and barrenness of the Soul may proceed from that God hath lock'd up the Sources of those Waters springing up to eternal Life However it be this mischief does cause much trouble to devout Souls We need not for a cure imploy any other remedy but Prayers and Tears The Soul must say Come Lord Jesus come thou Son of my Soul disperse this darkness make the morning Starr to rise in mine heart Why dost thou hide thy self I have sought thee in the night and found thee not Open thy fountains and make thy Rivers of Water to flow on me that I may quench my thirst and be refreshed make haste O God of my Salvation Meditation WHAT Negligence is this I find in my self I take a great deal of pains to do all things well which respect the present Life but I take very little care of doing the only and main thing well for which I ought to Labour To make a progress in an Art I exercise it often I consult Masters I make reflection on my Faults that I may not fall into 'em again But alass my Soul thou dost not use thy self so in the Exercises of Devotion Very rarely it is thou dost them And frequently without Reflection and therefore thou dost them ill Thou dost them rarely because thou dost them without Pleasure And thou dost them without any good because thou dost them in a careless Fashion and not with thy whole Bent of Heart Return to 'em often and thou shalt find such Delights in them as the Heart of Man cannot conceive Prayer O my God my divine Saviour open the fountains of thy Grace and let Rivers flow upon me Make me sensible of the advantage of possessing thee and the pleasures of enjoying thee so that I may not draw my self both seldom and difficultly to the places where thou speakest to me and I to thee in thy Temple or in the retreat of my Closet Draw me that I may run after thee When I design to approach thee by the actions of my Devotion be not thou far from me I know I am unworthy thou should'st come under my Roof 'T is not long since mine heart was a den of Thieves and the haunt of unclean spirits but these filthy Guests have left some remainder of Impurities behind them which render this Tabernacle unworthy of thy Holiness Nevertheless thou Sun of my Soul whose rayes cannot be soil'd nor defil'd by the impurity of the places through which they pass pierce even to my Marrow put thy Fire within me which may purge me and kindle me with the flames of thy Love If I sleep in security awaken me if I tumble into neglect and happen to break off the holy exercises of Piety so necessary to conserve Devotion knock at the Door of my heart to make me vigilant and watchful and if the hammer of thy word be not sufficient spare not even that of Afflictions Rent me in-pieces rather than leave me in my own natural hardness for thy blows will not wound my head they will be to me sweeter than Balm Come to my help O my redeemer to accomplish the victory over my Infirmities I am heavy and material make me spiritual and heavenly The motions of Grace and of Devotion which lift me up on high are opposite to the motions of Nature that pull me down In this Duel tost I am grievously and turmoild betwixt two contraries Nature hath the Insolence to oppose Grace and this Combat makes the exercises of my Devotion to be so few But render them O holy Spirit easy and pleasant to me that I may return to them frequently PART III. CHAP. I. That Pleasure is the mortal enemy of Devotion what are the Sentiments and maximes of the world about Pleasure and Voluptuosness WE have examined the Sources of Indevotion and have indeavoured to stop and stem them But among all the rest one there is more lively more green and more abounding in Impurites and by consequence more an enemy to Piety and that is the Spirit of the World and after having well thought on 't we find that this Spirit of the World is the love of pleasure and sensual voluptuousness Experience lets us see that this Spirit is such an enemy to Devotion as 't is impossible to be animated with it and to be Devout This perpetual use of sensual Pleasures does fix the Soul so strongly to Matter as it becomes incapable of any Elevation The more we have of union with sensible things the more we are disunited from God We ought therefore to turn on this side our greatest industry and indeavours to strive to bring the Soul back to God and make that strong application cease it hath for Material things so as it may lean and adhere to God and imploy its self about him Upon which account although the overgreat sensibility we have of earthly pleasures has had its Chapter above among the other Sources of Indevotion we believe we have not sayd enough upon so great and so important a Subject This is a monster too redoutable to be beat and quell'd by the By and with so much negligence If we could
get rid of that we should gain all but if it continue the Master it 's in vain we strive to become devout And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein as may if possible ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion Certain it is Man was born for Pleasure since he was created to be happy and happiness consists in the Possession of Good and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love and pleasure arises from thence that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God that it hath no more sense of its pleasures Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us The Soul has kept this sentiment that it was born for Joy and Pleasure insomuch as being disunited from its God it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures and the stricter it is united to these the farther off it is from them The ligament of this union o' th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body so it disunites it from God so that sensual pleasures cause this Disunion and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she returns to her Principle and to the fruition of those pleasures that spring from her union with God Let worldly people take the pains to consult their own heart and that will tell them what we are about to say They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose themselves to Prayer to the love and Service of God is because they are posses'd by their passions and inchanted by the delusions of Sense That is to say they are absolutely turned toward sensual pleasures and wholly taken up in them The Soul is pinch'd and contracted the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its vanities so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire find no room therein Indeed a very difficult work this is we undertake to persuade that those who would become Devout ought to renounce worldly pleasures Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank we distinguish them into two orders There are those which are call'd excesses enormities and crimes but these the World abandons and has not the face to defend There are others styled innocent Pleasures Dancing Play good Chear great Meals Feasts Play-houses Shows vain Conversations the commerce of Gallantry and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours The Church distinguishes Pleasures as well as the World Both agree that there are Innocent ones But the Church puts the greatest part of those which the World upholds to be innocent into the number of criminal pleasures Voluptuosness is an Idol to which the World Sacrifices both young and old Men and Women Children and old Men great and small rich and poor all ages both Sexes all conditions have their Pleasures Insomuch much as if we go according to suffrages we should lose the Cause Especially Young men cannot indure one should takeaway the use of Pleasure they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and vitiate Mens minds represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman or Man laid upon a Bed of flowers environed with all the Objects which are bodily pleasures The Passions that are wholly carnal and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses are in boiling youth The Flesh all brisk active and vigorous having received no manner of Mortification Hectors and Domineers with insolence Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Crasis The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them So that reason destitute of this Succour is easily vanquish'd by the Passions We may say also that Reason in this age conspires with the Passions and serves only to push on young people into the greatestexcess and extravagences After their own fashion they reason they are persuaded that wisdom and prudence doe not become them they say that these properly belong to old men and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man To every thing under the Heaven there is a season If any one has more happy inclinations he is not so hardy as to follow them he is stricken with a criminal shame he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop He cast himself into the crowd and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream And even those who are reputed Wise in the World if they dare not authorize these Irregularities at least they excuse them They are young say they they will come to it at length we must allow somwehat to Age we are not born wise we were such as they are they may be one day what we are But alas we do not stay there we do not renounce Pleasures as we leave our youthful years behind us the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages We go as slow as possibly or to speak better we go on not at all Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure but we seldom view those that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time and foreslow themselves from being carried off the Stage They forget nothing that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness They would deceive Men and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care and have a part in all its Pleasures When old age is come and has lain its Characters open in their meen they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible You see these Women Idolatresses of the World to bury their head under an heap of Powder that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cousening Ceruse they shadow the wrinkles of their forehead with false hair and paints and in which they are most prudent they imbalm their Bodies and cover them with Perfumes to corrupt the ill odours that arise from the Carkasses In this equipage
I may be then punisht for a thousand crimes I never committed So that it will be useless to me not to find in my life either Paricides or Sacrileges or Adulteries or Idolatries or Apostasies since that I might have the seeds of them in my heart and might have fallen into them if I had been tempted and pusht on that awayes I must therefore give up mine Account before God O my heart canst thou answer for thy self Thou art profoundly and it may be desperately wicked who knows thee Canst thou say with a perfect confidence Although I saw the beauty of Bathskeba I would never fall into the snares of Incontinence with David If I were tempted as Solomon I would never become an Idolater as he did If I saw present death I would never deny my Master with St. Peter If these pillars were shook and broken what assurance canst thou have of resisting these winds nay Hurricanes of Temptation thou who art but a broked Reed And if I must be judged for all the crimes I could commit what will become of me what shall I do whither shall I turn my self since till this present minute I cannot give an account of the sins which I have commited Think thus for thy comfort O my Soul that if thou art capable of thy self to fall into sins of surprize and to yield to unforeseen Temptations by the strength of that Grace which is and God will preserve in thee thou art on the other side capable to lift thy self up again to break out and weep bitterly so as if God looks upon the sins as commited which thou might'st have commited if thou had'st bin tempted to commit them he considers them also as effaced by Repentance which he would thou had'st if thou had'st commited them though this does not hinder thee from working out thy Salvation with Fear and Trembling Fear that piercing and severe Eye which sees and punishes thy sins to come as well as the present which knows and abominates those evil dispositions of thy heart thou art not accquainted withal as well as the sins thou wottest of Choak the buds of thy Vices lest they come to bring forth bitter branches and be imputed to thee though they should bring forth nothing Endeavour in thy self to have Dispositions to all good works and habits of all the Vertues And in doing this although God Almighty's Providence does not present thee with means to exert and exercise those Vertues yet his goodness will judge thee according as thou would'st have done had'st thou had the means If thou art poor and out of a condition to give Alms the Judge will not fail to say I was an hungry and thou gavest me meat thirsty and thou gavest me drink naked and thou cloathedst me yes says he thou hast done it because thou would'st have done it if it had been in thy power Prayer THE more I think of thee O my God the more I find thy Judgments incomprehensible and thy Ways past finding out I stand in infinite arrears to thy goodness but I owe thee infinitely more than I see and the benefits that are hid from me surpass those which are known to me for thy mercy hath depths which it is impossible to sound I ought to look upon as so many goods all the evils I am saved by thee from seeing I am but a weak Mortal and a thousand enemies that continually are justling me would give me a thousand assaults and a thousand times wholly seize upon me were it not for thy protecting me and preventing them But above all into the number of Obligations I ought to put that which I have to thy Sovereign goodness the infinite number of sins which I might have but have not committed For I may thank the World for the seeds of all those crimes and those seeds had sprouted first and grown up to the height of the Cedars of Libanus if thy good Grace had not choak'd them I am environed with Temptations and there is not one of them but is allyed to some motion of my concupiscence insomuch that if thy Grace were not a Bridle to my heart that tames and breaks it it would fling out every moment and take its full swing in dissoluteness So I acknowledge O my God St. Augustin that to thee I owe all the good I have and all the evil I have not I owe to thee the Remission of all the sins I have commited because thou hast pardoned them and I look upon as pardoned all those I have not commited because thy Grace hath prevented my committing them This teaches me in what manner I ought to understand that which thou hast told me O my Saviour To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little This was to discover the proud Pharisee to whom thou spakest the source of his Indevotion and his little love He believ'd he had less obligation to thy Mercy because having committed fewer sins as he thought he believ'd he owed thee much less As for me I say to whom lesser is forgiven the same loveth more Yes O my God I have more obligation for the sins which thou hast prevented my committing than for those thou hast remitted me It is a much greater good to render a man invulnerable than to cure him of the Wounds he has received it is better never to fall into the Fire and Water than to be drawn out thence with the peril of continuing there And it is more happy alwayes to be well than to recover of a sickness But above all since it is a great unhappiness to have offended thee O God 't is a much greater blessing to have bin preserved from sin by thy Grace than to re-enter into favour after having violated thy most sacred Majesty O my Redeemer deliver me then from all iniquity to come prevent me in all my misdoings dry up the source of my crimes root every ill disposition out of my heart dispose me to all the Vertues that I may be judg'd in thy sight to have fulfill'd all Righteousness that I may be rewarded even for the good works I had not done because I had an intention to do them CHAP. III. Other Considerations upon this Truth That the pleasures of sense nor in their Vse nor in their Abuse agree with the spirit of Christianity and Devotion THE Pleasures of the World are for the senses or for the imaginations Now these faculties are corporeal and consequently all their pleasures are corporeal too this is enough to teach those that would follow the mind of the Gospel that they cannot lawfully seek them For the Gospel of our Lord Christ leads Men to neglect and contemn that Body And therefore it speaks of it with so much Slight According to the style of the Holy Ghost The Body is but Dust and Ashes an earthly Tabernacle an House of Clay destroyed by Worms a Flower that cometh forth and is cut down a River that runneth apace a Shadow which disappears a
Prayers let thy meat be to do both night and day the will of thy Father which is in Heaven Abstain as he did from all the pleasures of the World take his Cross upon thee and mortifie thy Sin in thy flesh since thy Saviour has mortified it in his If any one loves me says he let him come after me and follow me Alas my Soul how far off art thou from him how imperfect thy imitation and how much dost thou sink below thy example But lose no courage labour walk on let the things alone that are behind and tend to those which are before The holy Ghost that was sent by thy Saviour will conduct thee in the most difficult path as in a smooth and even Country If thou can'st not attain the perfection of that great Example God has set before thine eyes at least approach as near to it as thou art able For in short if thou wouldst be happy with him thou must with him be righteous and holy Thou must enter in at the strait Gate and walk in the way of Mortification to arrive at that life whereof he is both the Author and the Source The Soul of thy Saviour did not only continue void of all sensual Pleasures but it was penetrated by the most piercing Dolours To imitate him renounce fleshly pleasures and submit thy self to the Anguishes of Repentance Prayer O My divine Redeemer my Jesus my Saviour and my God thou wouldst I should imitate thee Thou hast said unto me Learn of me and thy Apostles say Look up to Jesus the Author and finisher of your Faith be ye Imitators of us as we are of Christ It is fit O my Saviour I should imitate thee Thou hast taken mine infirmities that I might glory in possessing thy Vertues But if this be glorious how difficult is that I can do all by thee who strengthenest me and I can do nothing by my self Give me therefore grace necessary to fulfil that which thou commandest me and after this command whatever thou wilt Thou hast made thy self like unto me in taking upon thee my flesh make me like unto thee by giving me thy Spirit I am thy Image O my God but a defac'd corrupted one over which the Devil has display'd his infamous Characters Cleanse me again and repass the Pencil of thy Grace over those effaced Lines of this Image and wash away all the impurities which the World has poured upon it If I cannot follow thee draw me that I may run after thee Give me the wings of thy love that I may flye to thee give me O my Saviour the desire of imitating thee for I would imitate thee I will it O my God but it does not come from a victorious but a slavish will I will it but I do it not and I see by this that I will it not Lord give me both to will and to do My flesh thinks the way thou hast walk'd in rough and uneasie it recoils and starts back at the sight of those Difficulties how wanton loose and wicked is this unhappy Flesh How would it have done hadst thou indispensibly commanded it to walk in the way of thy fore-runner John Baptist to dwell in the Wilderness to have for ones habitation a Grott at the foot of a Mountain or the Trunk or shadow of an old Oak to have a Rayment of hair to dine on Locusts and a little wild Honey for a great meal If thou didst not lead this sort of life thy self 't was to spare us and not make us imitate a life almost inimitable These are only the outfides of Piety which may sometimes be the mantle of Hypocrisie but thou hast given me to imitate the greatest Examples of real solid and internal Vertues If thou command'st me not to wear an hair Garment thou will that I should put on holiness and righteousness bowels of mercy and a patient mind If thou dost not send me into the Desart thou wouldst have me retire into the secret of the heart for to conversewith thee and comprehend the Truth which thou wouldst reveal unto me If thou oblige me not to eat only Locusts at least 't is thy good Pleasure I should oftentimes eat the Bread of Tears and mingle my Drink with weeping Thou wouldst that I make my repasts near the fountain of Haran upon Jacobs Well profound in mysteries full of living Water Consolation and Joy that I seek my delights in thee O my Saviour who art the fountain of Water bubling up to eternal life Thou wouldest that I feast my self with thy Love and that I find no Pleasure but in thee Do this therefore O blessed Jesus Take the taste away from me of all the Wordly pleasures make mine heart to be intirely imployed about these that in imbracing thee I may taste a Pleasure that may so fill the capacity of my Soul as it may cry out in the sense of that sweetness I am filled as it were with marrow and fatness CHAP. IV. What may be accounted innocent Pleasure That Devotion is no disquieting and uneasie thing nor an Enemy to Pleasure IN the foregoing Chapters I have proved that the Spirit of Devotion is an Enemy to sensual Pleasures and not only to those Pleasures which 't is confest on all hands are criminal but to those too that we call innocent ones In this rank I have placed the continual Divertisements whereunto the higher part of mankind give ' emselves up It is time now to explain and unfold a question which may be started here To know whether it be necessary to renousce all sort of Pleasure to be Christianly and truly pious Now in one word the answer cannot be return'd it being one of the most nice and delicate matters in Christian Morality I say therefore first of all That Devotion is no Enemy to Joy it suffers us to distinguish betwixt innocent and sinful Pleasures it is neither fierce nor brutish It ought to be courteous civil sweet and modest It flies softness nor does it invest it self with flowers yet it affects not to appear beset with Thorns nor habilimented with Prickles In short 't is not necessary That a faithful person to be sincerely devout should nourish in himself a pensive and lumpish melancholy On the contrary Piety is all gay and free The Heart of the righteous man is a continual Feast Our Lord Jesus would not have us affect a gloomy Visage or an abased Air he commands us even when we fast and are mortifying our selves to anoint our Heads when we must be seen by men that we may avoid Ostentation in our Piety To know what are innocent Pleasures we are to disâ—nguish with exactness and make a short but general Review over all sorts of Pleasures First all the Pleasures are either of the Mind or of the Senses Among the Senses some are more visible yed to matter others are more disengaged from them Of the first order are the Taste and Touch Of the latter he Sight
the love with which we love God and that by which we are beloved of him By this Love he is in us and we are in him because Love makes a transfusion of Hearts and the Soul is more in the Subject which it loves than in that which it animates As to the pleasures which spring from this union it is of the number of those things which cannot be conceiv'd without they be felt 'T is such that all the Pleasures of the World appear unsavoury to them that taste it 'T is so great as it hath often made the Saints to fall down who have been extraordinarily touch'd with its holy Extasies and Ravishments which seem'd to have entirely broke the Alliance betwixt the Body and the Soul Now without question it is that Devotion contributes and leads to this Pleasure It diminishes our union with sensual things disunites us from our Body lifts us up to God purifies our Souls in drawing nigh to him makes them partake of the Beams of that great Sun of righteousness and renders them as so many little Gods by communicating with the Glory of our great God Meditation NO wonder thou seekest Pleasure O my Soul thou seekest thy Good thou seekest what thou hast lost thou seekest what was given thee what thou once hadst and what thou shouldest have still hadst thou continued innocent Thy God created thee righteous and holy This holiness was the bond of his union with thee thou wert separated from him when thou becamest sinfull and thorough this separation thou hast continued void and deprived of Pleasure and Happiness Every where thou seekest the Good thou hast lost but blind as thou art thou catchest at Shadows for real Bodies Thou wanderest upon different Objects and if thou findest any one that flatters thee straightway thou embracest it with ardour as if thou hadst found that which thou hast lost and seekest for Thou disabusest thy self in a little time but it is to fall into an other Errour After having tasted bodily Pleasure thou perceivest that this is not the infinite Pleasure thou searchest after This Object being quitted thou dost cast thy self upon another thou Embracest this too and every day thou delightest to be fed with new and new Illusions Leave off O my heart leave off rambling and running after these Fantoms Be not decieved by thy Senses and Imagination Embrace thy God 't is to him alone thou owest this general Inclination which makes thee to love Felicity and Pleasure but thy blinded Eyes make thee love false Gods and fix themselves upon false Pleasures If thou wert not profoundly blind thou could'st not doubt that God is infinite that he is infinitely good and infinitely better than all the Creatures Thou could'st not also doubt but the pleasure which comes from Union with him and the Possession of him is infinitely greater than all the Pleasures of the World besides If the created Goods be so sweet how agreeable must the increated Good be The Good which is the Creator of all Goods the Good which comprehends the pleasure of all other Goods the Good which displays those Delights in our Hearts that are as far above all Pleasures as he himself is eminent above all Goods Herein thou art incredulous O my Soul because thou hast not relish'd the sweetness which springs from being united with God thou canst not believe them thou say'st with Thomas Except I should see except I touch and feel those Delights I will not believe Ah! how happy and blest is he who has believ'd before he hath seen who has overcome all the temptations of the Flesh and has desired to taste those divine Pleasures before he tasted them But that Person is incomparably more happy that hath believed and hath seen that hath tasted those Delights and felt those Pleasures which surpass all understanding which spring from the intimate presence of God If thou hast not yet been able O my Soul to feel such spiritual Pleasures the reason is thy God could not yet apply himself immediately to thee because of the Impurity wherewith thou art cover'd and defiled â—or his Eyes are pure they cannot behold Iniquity he is Purity and Light it self and thou art enwrapt in a dark Cloud of Ignorance and Unrighteousness How then could God joyn himself immediately to thee Therefore take away thy Veil this Wall of Separation cure thy own ignorances seek after the Knowledge of thy God and his Mysteries purifie thy self â—et rid of those ill Habits of Vice which â—â—rround thee like a Garment and thy God will invest thee with a Robe of Light and â—hen shalt thou perceive that the applying â—ensible Objects to thy faculties is not capable of raising in thee that Sense of Pleasure which thou mayst receive from God Then â—ilt thou have a perfect disgust to those vain Pleasures thou wilt wish to see thy God 〈◊〉 know him to embrace him that thou â—ayst be united to him Prayer O Father of Lights inexhaustible spring of Pleasure and Joy insinuate thy self into all the Faculties of my Soul fill up the emptiness of my desires and that vast extension of my Heart and make me to feel that Joy which thou communicatest to thy Saints and Favorites Vnto thee I discover my wants I confess my Nothing I languish after thee my True Good Without thee O Lord I should be the most miserable of all Creatures I should be plunged into an Abyss of Grief and Despair I should feel nothing but horror and anguish Thou comfortest me in this Valley of Tears thou feedest me with the bread of angels and makest me drink of thy Pleasures as out of a River The World is not acquainted with these delights the meats of thy Table to it are insipid it tastes nothing but the Flesh-pots of Egypt and knows not what iâ— the Honey of the Land of Promise I know it O my God but I do not know so as I would and ought to know I have learn'd of thy Saints that when thou speakest to thy children in their hearts this Sentiment is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb and that more pleasure is to be found in possessing thee than the covetous find in having the greatest abundance of Gold and Silver But alas my Soul hath not yet felt those divine Transports I begin to perceive that earthly Pleasures are uncapable of satisfying that hunger and thirst after pleasure and happiness whereof I labour but I have not as yet perfectly learn'd that thou alone art capable of quenching that thirst Taste and see how gracious the Lord is I taste thee as I see thee I see thee but imperfectly and as in a Glass I taste thee as covered from me Over thee indeed are no involving incumbrances for thou art all pure and single and whosoever is pure may taste thee purely But the veil is in my Flesh or rather it is my Flesh it self it is my corruption that separates me from thee Come therefore Lord Jesus come thou
has been a long time abus'd But above all let us consider how strong the Habits of Luxury and Debauchery do become when we permit them to take Root and let 'em arrive even to old Age. The young Plant which might be pluck'd up with one hand is now a trunck of immense Greatness which resists the Hatchet and Wedge This little Monster the love of Voluptuousness which might have been easily stifled at its Birth is become so great and so terrible as there is now no attacking nor fighting with it Sins simply considered do not become more strong by Age their number is multiplied These are Snow-Balls that wax bigger and bigger in rowling these are Torrents which swell bigger the farther they remove from their Spring-head 't was an easie matter at first to pass over them on foot but now one cannot cross them by swimming Now the number of multiplied Sins augments the difficulty of Devotion and Conversion We read in the Life of the Holy Fathers That an Angel made one of those solitary Inhabitants of the Desart to see in a Vision an old Man that cut Wood in the Forest to get a Burthen for his Back with design to carry them away When the Fardle was extreamly big he essay'd to lift it up upon himself but finding it too heavy he let it fall to the ground and fell a cutting new Wood and added it to his Burthen whereupon he endeavoured again to lift it up but that was more impossible for him than before Nevertheless it tumbling down again he put more Wood to it still and this he did several times The solitary Person admir'd the Folly of this old Man till the Angel took up his Speech and said Thou see'st this old Man he is the Emblem of Worldlings they heap Sins upon Sins a design of lifting themselves up to God comes across presently they sink under the burthen of their Sins They begin again to commit new Crimes as if this burthen by encreasing would become much lighter When they have push'd on their Excesses a good way a new desire of devoting themselves to God overtakes them but the burthen of their Sins is become very great and consequently the motions of Elevation are the more difficult This Parable was composed for our Subject and against those unhappy People that dedicate their youthful years to the Pleasures of the World and remit the practise of Devotion and the lifting up of their Souls to God to another time St Austin in expounding the History of Lazarus his Resurrection asks why our Lord employs Sighs Tears Prayers and a loud voice to raise him again from the dead which he did not do for the others whom he reviv'd as for the young man of Naim whose biere he toucht only and Jairus's Daughter to whom he only said Talitha Cumi Maid arise 'T is says he because Lazarus had been dead four days Our Lord would give us an Image of the Difficulty to be met withall in a smners Conversion when he is confirm'd in his sin The first day says that Father is that of Pleasure which we taste in the sin The second is that of Consent The third is that of Love and Application to the pleasure of the sin and the fourth is mere Custom and Habit. When we are come to this we cannot be raised again we cannot be converted to God but by Cries and Tears and the Voice of the Lord fruitfal in Miracles This methinks makes us comprehend well the interest we have to think on God in due time and to consecrate our Youth to Devotion 〈◊〉 know very well that the end obtains the Crown but I know too that 't is of the highest importance to begin well that we may end happily An Arrow which wanders and slides from towards the Butt just as it parts from the Bow will be found at a monstrous distance from the Butt before it comes to its journeys end One that in his youth is plung'd into debauchery and abandons himself to sensual pleasures will find himself far remov'd from God in his old age he must take a great deal of trouble to bring himself back again from such an Aloof And therefore I conclude with the wise man Young man Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth Meditation WHY dost thou delay O my Soul after these Considerations Dost not thou apprehend the necessity there is of consecrating thy self without any shifting or lingring to the service of thy God Thou evermore sayest to morrow to morrow but this morrow never comes and the day of thy Separation from the body will come in an hour when thou lookest not for it When thy God calls upon thee thou tellest him the Words of a slothful and sleepy Person Presently I say presently St. August Confess l. 8. cap. 5. let me alone a little but one Moment longer but this presently never comes and this Moment is an everlasting one I see thou art displeas'd at obliging thee to give up thy self so soon to God This is too soon say'st thou to begin and will it not be time enough some years hence Wicked and ungrateful canst thou think too soon on thy God It is just thou shouldst think of him assoon as thou beginnest to be and to know thy self since he thought on thee and thy Salvation from Eternity His Essence had no beginning and his Love for thee had none too Both Eternal What didst thou do to this great God to engage him to love thee so long a while before He lov'd thee before thou wast amiable He saw thee in thy Nothing and in the Abysse of thy Corruption and from all Eternity he prepared means for thee to get out of that Abysse he prepared thee a Redeemer He did not reserve one moment in Eternity which he has not given thee and thou would'st retrench from him many years of this short and uncertain Life whereof thou hast the use here below Perhaps thou wilt say that it would not be unjust if thy time were divided betwixt thy God and thee and that it is hard to give all one hath without reserving any thing to ones self But dost not thou consider that thy God has given thee all things He has given thee the Heaven and the Earth the Fields Rivers Fountains Plants Trees and Fruits hath he reserv'd any thing to himself Has not he given himself too entirely to thee has he not given thee his only Son and still has not he given him up to Death it self for thee wouldst not thou then be very ungrateful O my soul if thou wouldst divide with God and rob him of any thing which thou hast But alas when thou thinkest and speakest thus thou dost not well understand thy own interests Thou supposest that thou losest from thy self all the time thou givest to thy God whereas on the other side thou savest only those moments from ship-wrack which thou consecratest to him All the rest of thy time is lâ—st being
coufounded in that mighty abysse of what is past But the Moments thou givest to thy God are put in reserve thou wilt find them they will come before thee At the great Judgment they will be put to thy account and for some moments of Devotion thou shalt receive eternal Glory Do not therefore hang in suspence any longer O my Soul delay no more to renounce all the pleasures and all the hopes of the Age for to follow thy God only In him is the Well of Life in his Light thou shalt see Light thou shalt be fatted with the fat of his House and quench thy thirst in the Floud of his Pleasures In thy old age thou shalt not regret the loss of thy Youth Thy days shall not rise up in Judgment against thee to condemn thee when thou shalt be old and on the brink of Death The thought of thy God shall not put thee into an affright Thou wilt not look upon him as a Judge who comes to demand an account of so many years consumed in vain Pleasures but a Deliverer who will come to break thy Irons and as a Rewarder bringing days of Refreshment instead of painful and dolorous years which the World would make thee pass thorough Prayer O Most gracious and merciful Lord thou Guide of my Youth thou Light to the blind thou Instructer of the ignorant who enlightenest the simple bringest back those that have wandered into the way of Truth and perfectest praise out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings teach me thy ways and draw me out of the paths of the World make haste that I may do so too leave me not any longer in the World and in Sin By the effusion of thy Grace into my Soul make my Heart to desire thee that in desiring thee it may seek thee and in seeking thee it may find thee in finding thee it may love thee and in loving thee it may find in that love a sovereign Joy It is now too long a time I have consumed my self in my vain desires I would go to thee but I find not strength to vanquish those Habits wherein I am engaged by Custom Come therefore and tear me O my God out of the arms of Voluptuousness suffer not these delays of mine and if I should say yet a little while stay a little longer draw me by thy Powerfull Word and say unto me Awaken thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light If words be not efficacious enough to raise me up touch the biere strike the Body wherein the Soul is as it were buried It sleepeth in its Tomb or rather it is dead bodily Pleasures have overwhelm'd or slain it Smite therefore the Body that the Soul may awake for it is better that I enter into Life having but one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell-fire It is better that my Flesh here below suffer some pains and that my Soul one day taste those infinite Pleasures which thou preparest for it on high I abide in Sodom and I love my abode thou sendest thy Angels to draw me thence thy Word and thy Mnisters to make me depart before the terrible day comes in which thou wilt tumble down torrents of fire and brimstone upon this wicked World but I ever find pretexts to delay Lay hold then of my hand and draw me out by the force of thy Grace that I perish not among the wicked Shew me the way of thy holy hill that I may save my self and thence without danger behold the deluges of Corruption which overspread the Country and the Torrents of thy Wrath and Vengeance which suddenly and amazingly overwhelm the World Alas If it would please thee O my God to make me taste the speritual Delights of thy Love I should not be so sensible of Earthly Pleasures and I should not linger so long to seek thee for I most ardently wish after happiness If therefore I knew that my Beatitude lyes in thee I should flye to find in thee that happiness which I seek O Lord since Pleasure is the only Load-stone capable of drawing my Soul make me taste a little of that Joy which I ought to find in thee make me to feel thy infinite Goodness that without delay I may run after thee and consecrate my self to thy service walking in Holiness and Righteousness all the dayes of my Life and setting my Affections on things above that when Christ who is my Life and Pleasure shall appear I may also appear with him in Glory PART IV. Of helps towards Devotion CHAP. I. The first General Advice is to will desire and ask Devâ—tion WE have seen from how many Sources Indevotion springs let us now try to vanquish those Difficulties by some Advices that may lead us to Devotion Those Advices I would give here are either general or particular But before I pass further we are to presuppose that he whom we would make devout must have a Mind himself to become so he that has not this Disposition will very unprofitably pass farther How many indevout persons have we in the World that do not desire Devotion for themselves and contemn it in others Of this sort we find some that are so hardy as to perswade themselves they have a Religion I am it may be says one as religious as another though I laugh at Devotion and devout Persons If they believe what they say most assuredly they cheat their own Heart and we must confess that these People are really profane Others there are that esteem Devotion in another and yet like it not for themselves it doth not fit right with the Spirit of the World which they make their Idol They approve the better side they admire it but they fancy as to their own particular they may be saved with less Trouble I know not whether these be better than the former yet they are a little nearer to the Disposition we seek after but still alas in how bad a Condition is their Conscience They are in this worse than the former that they sin against their own Sentiment they know their Masters Will and do it not They are afraid of doing too much provided they be sav'd it 's of no great Importance how What a thought is this Is not Paradise worth the purchasing at the Expence of some Tears some Prayers some hours of Humiliation And how can we imagine we can obtain Heaven by the less since we shall find a hard Task to arrive thither by the greater If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Vngodly and the Sinner appear Do ye believe ye backward and lukewarm Souls that a truly devout Person has too much Righteousness to open to himself the gate of Heaven Do not you know that all the World praises that Saying of St. Austin Woe to the most praise-worthy Life if it be examined without Mercy and what the Psalmist says If thou should'st mark Iniquities O Lord who shall stand I
speak of the Iniquities of the Righteous If those truly devout Persons have not over-much Righteousness you will strangely want it then who come so much behind them but ye say God will supply what is lacking for this did Christ Jesus dye that we might obtain his Grace and Favour in the midst of our Infirmities But how do ye know that the Blessed Jesus would this does not he do what-liketh him best with his own You ought therefore to take the surer side What assurance have ye that God gives his Grace thus to those that slight it Although you could do it the mercy of the Lord will have employ enough and your righteousness though pusht on to the extremity of your strength will still have need of Supplements to attain to Glory There are other Indevout People which are still a little farther off than the former They would have a good deal of Devotion but they are not yet come to desire it that is to say the motions of their Will towards it are very imperfect I would willingly become so says one but I cannot the World bears me away my Affairs wholly take me up the temper and frame of my Body and Soul have not the necessary Turn for the practise of this Virtue I do what I would not and what I would that do I not for the law of my members continues Mistress of the Law of my mind they are not much afflicted at the not having that which they wish and it is a certain proof that they wish it very feebly In this Estate how far from Perfection must the Conscience needs be This is not to love God with all the Soul this is to seek him with the least part of the heart and to desire him with a most imperfect Will To will Devotion at that rate is to take the way never to obtain it for the Soul does not surmount the difficulties but by heartning it self against them and by acting with all its might and vigour Judge then if an Heart in this looseness can attain one of the most difficult things in the World We have seen how many strong Passions ruine and destroy Devotion the Love of the World its Pleasures and its Vexations If to these passions so violent and head-strong you oppose I know not what imperfect desires it is but the Fight of Dwarfs against Gyants So that the first general Counsel I give to attain Deâ—otion is to desire it ardently Some will say that they who desire it have it already but that is no necessary conclusion Some motions there are whereof we are not the Masters and oftentimes we passionately desire a thing we are not able to effect although it depend upon our Will Most terrible is the tyranny of Habits and the cord of Sin are difficult to break St. Austin most divinely paints out to us the motion of such a Soul as would elevate it self to God but cannot I panted after the liberty of thinking only on thee O my God but I sighed being still tyed up not by foreign Chains but by those of my own will which were harder than Iron The Devil held it in his Power he had bound it fast I had a Will to serve thee with the purest Love and to enjoy thee O my God in whom alone is to be found a solid and true Joy but this new Will which was but still-born was not capable of conquering that other which had fortified it self by a long habit in Sin Behold the Picture of a Christian Soul that wishes to be truly devout would only think on God and love him but cannot Nevertheless how happy is such a Soul and near to Devotion When we seek God we are on the Eve of finding him This is that Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness to which the Lord promises a Refreshment These Desires are the effects of Grace but if Nature doth nothing in vain with much stronger Reason does Grace These Desires therefore cannot be fruitless they will obtain their end they will be filled one day There 's hardly any thing but wherein the vigour of the Soul and the force of the Desires hit their mark and hereby rather than by the strength of his Armies did the Great Alexander vanquish the World gain so many Battels take so many Cities and trample on the Necks of conquered Nations when things necessary to the Accomplishment of his Designs fail'd him the vigour of his Courage that is the force of his Desires served instead of them If the Desires can perform so much in things without us and independent on our Will what cannot they do in that which depends thereon and is vertually our Will it self To make these pious desires succeed we are to call God to our aid these are younglings that he has caused to be born and 't is his Interest to nourish them these be the Aurora of that Sun who doth not fail to come and fully enlighten us provided he be invok'd with fervour Here is therefore another Adviso which is but a Corollary and a Deduction from the former We must ask of God the grace of Devotion and in his presence groan after what we have not If there be any favour of our Vows and Tears if there is any Gift that comes immediately from Heaven 't is this Virtue for nothing is more pure and more elevated among â—he Christian Virtues If any of you lack Wisdom says St. James let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberalâ— and upbraideth not I know not whether there be â—y part of Christian Wisdom more desirable than this Of God we ask our daily Bread our Food and Rayâ—ent health of Body and cure of our Diseases but â—e Soul is sick poor and dying when depriv'd of Deâ—tion which is its Fire Soul Life In a word there is noâ—ing to which we may more assuredly apply the proâ—ise of St. James that God refuseth no body but gives â—o all liberally since it is the Prayer of the World â—hich is most agreeable to him because it tends wholâ— to his Glory and our own Salvation We ask of God â—hat he would please to enter into us and that we â—ay enter into him to be perfectly united to him by a â—tual tye And how cannot this be well-pleasing to God seeing our Lord Christ himself the model of our â—oughts and actions hath asked the same thing for us That I may be in them and they in me that they may be â—ade perfect in one Here therefore we ought to begin â—r Instructions and the Faithful are to begin their Work for if nothing can be done without God of what â—â—th not regard him how can we do that without him which depends immediately upon him and is terminated in him Meditation 〈◊〉 consult my own Heart to know whether I can truly 〈◊〉 say My Soul fainteth for the Courts of the Lord. As the â—art-panteth after the Water Brooks so my Soul thirsteth 〈◊〉 the living God My Soul is
not bridle and keep in â—hese Passions they will raise terrible Tempests in the â—ea and Devotion which is a peaceable Vertue will â—arce be heard Every Passion carries the Heart to it â—elf and Devotion being a Stranger and standing only by it self will never gain it There is most assuredly a very near Relation beâ—wixt Words and Actions they come from the same Source and the same Heart produces them wherefore I think we cannot better employ the Mouth than â—o sing the Praises of God nor the Mind than to conâ—emplate his Wonders nor the Soul than to lift it self up by Piety and the practise of good Works We have said that a Man is ill disposed in coming from a Ball or Comedy to fall to pious Ordinances On the quite contrary I say that in returning from the House of Mourning where he has comforted the Afflicted succour'd the Miserable sustained the Weak â—ed the Poor and defended the Oppress'd he finds himself in such a Gayety of Heart and such a Disposition to Prayer as is inconceivable He comes to God with the Lightness and Alacrity of a Servant who presents himself before his Master after having done his Duty to obtain the Reward for although he acknowledges he deserves nothing at God's hands yet he knows that God liberally recompenseth us for what we do only by the help of his Grace He approaches to the Altar with the Confidence of a Subject that appears before his Prince with Presents which he knows are capable of opening the way to his Heart for though our good Works be most imperfect Gifts that hold not what they have good in them but from God's Liberality nevertheless he is not ignorant that he accepts them as if they were of great Price Insomuch as I will not make any difficulty to say that the Ancients and Moderns who have distinguish'd the Active Life of a Christian from the Contemplative and have believed that this can be without that and even that the Contemplative Life was far more excellent than the other are assuredly in a great errour for by seperating the Active life which consists in doing good to our Neighbour and practising Charity to the afflicted and miserable from the contemplative life to which they believed they could give themselves up entirely they have certainly depriv'd Devotion of a very great help I have already confess'd there to be no need that the Imployments of Martha which have regard to the bodily Service of our Saviour and his Members should take away from us the time consecrated to Mary's works toreading Meditation and Prayer But we have time enough for all When Mary shall have been sufficiently heard then its fit she take the place of Martha Wherefore I would not counsel him that wou'd attain to perfect Devotion to renounce that part of the World which consists of the afflicted Members of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the School of Virtue and Piety and so far is it that this practise of works of Mercy can distract devout Souls that it is the readiest and surest way to arrive at Devotion The Ideas of the World I confess are incompatible with those wherewith a devout Soul ought to be fill'd A tragical event the â—ight of a triumph the hope of a fortune for one's self the grandeur of that of another a duel a warr all this I say hath no alliance with the sweet Images of God of his Love and Benefits Wherefore it 's good to shut and bar the Door against these first Representations if we would with success labour to establish others in their room but the Images of a man languishing upon the Bed of Sickness or another that suffers for God's sake agrees easily with the thought of our Lord Christ suffering for us A multitude of poor Creatures to whom thou openest thy Bowels will easily lead thee to the Consideration of those Liberalities thou receivest from God The aid thou shalt lend one to defend his Life another for the defence of his Honour and Reputation will oblige thee to think on the Benefits and Helps thou continually receivest from Heaven Thou shalt have no-manner of need to banish the thoughts that attend an Active life lodge those in their place which spring from Contemplation They will be united in the same heart and lend one another mutual Succour Meditation I HAVE been told sometimes that the Vertues are Sisters that walk hand in hand that they are so many Rings in an holy chain which is broken by the rupture of one of those Rings They can't be without one another and therefore O my Soul thou canst not be truly devout because thou art not truly Vertuous and thou hast not in thy heart the Practice of all good works Dost not thou see that the World is exactly â—am'd to furnish employ to thy Vertues and to soilicit thee to good and holy actions the heavens declare the Glory of God and the extent of the Firmament sheweth his Almighty Power that thou mayest joyn thy Voice to those praises which all Nature rings and thy gratitude may have scope to act upon The Air forms outragious Tempests makes the Thunder and Lightning to break forth so as the fear of God may spring up in thee and thou mayest tremble under his hands which make the Mountains to tremble Dost not thou see that God here below makes miserable wretches that they may be the Objects of thy Compassion poor ones that thou mayest be liberal afflicted that thou mayest comfort them weak for thee to uphold sick that thou mayest visit them Doth not be permit too even that there be sinners straying like lost Sheep that thou mayst bring them into the right way ignorant ones for thee to instruct imprudent that thou mayest be their Director some that fall that thou mayest help them up again and for thy self that thou look to thy steps and even wicked persons who perish that thou mayest be put into a wholesom terrour for thy self does not he suffer examples of Vanity to be that thou mayest slight and contemn the World sudden and unlookt for deaths that thou should'st watch and be ever upon thy Guard proud men that fall into ruine while thou retainest thy self in Humility the wicked who are punisht for thee to dread sin good men that are rewarded for thee to seek Vertue yet amidst so many lessons thou art deaf and immoveable Thou makest thy Vertue to consist in not doing evil that is to say in doing nothing as if any one should make life to confist in death and in being depriv'd of Motion Thou remembrest not that the barren fig-tree was cut up by the root that God will cast out the unprofitable servant and will banish out of his Paradice both him that hath lost his talent and him that had only buried it in the Earth Prayer COme then O my Divine Redeemer come and cultivate my heart that it be no more a rocky and barren ground Soften this Rock by the
rain of thy Grace bless this Field to make it bring forth Fruits worthy of Repentance Let mine hands distill Myrrh and my fingers precious Spices Let them be alwayes opened to the miserable Let my feet run to the help of the afflicted Let my ears receive with earnestness thy Word and thy Praises Let my tongue continually celebrate thy most glorious Name and lift up even to Heaven the Acts of thy good Favour O Holy Spirit thou Principle of all good motions instill Life into me be thou the Soul of my Soul that it may be no more interred in the Grave of Sleep and Sin but that it may act mightily that it be inflamed by the fire of Charity that this Fire may never cease one moment to be at rest and without Action so that by continual practice of good Works I may be disposed to Devotion and to an Vnion with thee who art the Object of my Love O let me by this Purity invite Him more and more who is the Author of every good and perfect Gift to make me partake of the flames of Zeal and Piety CHAP. III. The third general Direction To be watchful over the Senses and not let the Heart loose SO near a commerce is there between the Heart and the Senses that our strife would be in vain to guard the one unless we set a strict watch over the other The Heart is the House the Senses are the Gates and Windows And hereat does the Devil enter and seises on our Souls This Enemy prepares so many batteries without as we have external Senses and if we escape Death on one side he sends it us on the other Notwithstanding this we may say in vindication of the Senses that they are more unhapy than criminal they have a sensation of what they ought to have according to the order of Creation and even the greatest part of Ideas which come to 'em are innocent but they are spoyled in arriving at the Heart The beauty of a Woman the glitter of Gold and Silver and precious Stones the sweetness of vocal Musick are the works of God and consequently they cannot be evil but 't is the Heart poysons these innocent Images Nevertheless since the Heart doth not scatter it's poyson but upon the Objects which are presented to it we should take away the matter of its Crimes and it 's mischievous Habits would be assuredly destroy'd and lost if they wanted Employment and therefore it 's of absolute necessity to have a constant guard over the Senses I made an agreement with mine Eyes says an holy man not to look upon all Women This has been ever the custom of those who would become truly devout to hold their Souls shut up to the multitude of Objects that might assault 'em on all sides True it is the usage of this Maxime has bin pusht on and wrested even to Superstition some have voluntarily banisht themselves into Desarts that they might see nothing at all Others have lock'd themselves up in Cells and Caves never to come forth And History tells us of an Egyptian Hermit who would never agree to let his Sister have the Pleasure of seeing of him He receiv'd Order from his Superiour at the intreaty of Athanasius to go and visit her he went but he presented himself before her with his Eyes shut and would by no means see her Glut thy self quickly sayd he to her with the sight of me These excesses do a greater wrong and injury to Reason than they bring help to Devotion The Soul draws a vast aid from its senses when it knows how to make a good use of them To stop all the Avenues whereby Knowledge may arrive to the Soul is to keep it in a darksome and lonely Prison and nourish it in Ignorance What is true herein is that 't is dangerous for it to be concern'd about evil Objects because it carries thence a tincture which indisposes it for Devotion 'T is no less dangerous to permit it to meddle too much with indifferent Objects fince this dissipates its strength and evermore it returns with somewhat of the Vain air of those Courses it takes Abroad This is the way of the Worlds living we give we receive Visits we expose our selves to conversation that is to the contagion of every Comer The eyes are always open'd to see new Objects the Ears to hear News Vain is our Discourse we say there a thousand impertinences and more of evil than good things One willl entertain you with a Dress Another with a little intrigue of the Town Others will pour profane or back-biting discourses into your Breast One will carry you to see a new House or any fine building One lately come from a new World will tell you strange things and enlarge his Recitals with Stories and Miracles which he himself had been concern'd in and your Soul will return to your House charged with these Toys and Gew-gaws When it would enter into its Closet it 's certain it will not find the Heart in its ordinary Dispositions and upon that account it is the more difficult to be Devout in great Cities where you can scarcely defend your selves from these Amusements so that I would advice the faithful Soul to keep its self up close The Souls of worldly people are like to your great Streets they are open to every Comer we are never there but in a crowd and Devotion which loves Privacy is not pleased with these publick places These are Inns where all Strangers are lodg'd well and the Master lyes oft out of Doors But the heart of the faithful Person ought to be for himself and God who is its Master is to be ever at Large A Garden inclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed says Jesus Christ to his Spouse that is to every Christian Soul Lock up this Garden if thou wouldst preserve the Flowers and Fruits and let not the purity of thy living Waters be corrupted by unclean Beasts Temples and Oratories are not to be accessible to the prophane our Hearts are the Temples of the holy Ghost and therefore let us shut the Gates against a thousand indiscreet Ideas and vain Objects that would prophane them The Soul is a vessel which Grace fills with sweet Odours but we should not give it too much Air otherwise it would evaporate and become insipid If the vessel be full it can receive nothing new without losing what it had before If it be filled with Devotion and we bring it into the World according to the measure it is filled with Vanities these Vanities will send what it had good a packing away 'T is a truth we are to fix in our memories that at all times we make any sally into the World we lose so much of our own Dinah went out to see the Daughters of the Land and she lost her best ornament the flower of her Virginity But especially let us remember that in seeking out harmless Objects we
Brightness and Splendor thy Light Thou art hid as to thy Creatures and lettest only have a glimps of thee But O Lord purifie my â—es that they may be able to view thee apparently put my â—art into thy wayes that I may seek thee and find thee thou art hidden and estrangest thy self from me I am on 〈◊〉 other part a strayed sheep strayed from thee O be â—ased then to seek me shew thy self to me and hide 〈◊〉 the light of thy Countenance from me Recall me from 〈◊〉 wandrings and let me not be drawn in by the World â—d the throng of it's vain Objects Tye my Soul to thee the cords of thy Love So as I may not be one Moment â—thout thinking on thee and when I put up my prayers to thee I may ever find thee near me CHAP. VI. The first particular Direction To have our hours of Devotion well chosen and ordered AFter these general Advices it will be necessary to give some more particular ones And first I believe that to have the hours of Devotion well regulated is a very great â—p to Devotion Man is a Creature of Habit as well 〈◊〉 other living Creatures An Horse that has been us'd to go one way will not fail to return that way again and when the hours of baiting come he will gâ— no farther so the Heart doth without any guidance or endeavour return by its self to those things which it has been accustomed to do Choose then your hourâ— of Evening Morning Mid-day at nine of clock aâ— three Make a Law for some time never to let those hours pass but to consecrate them to no other thing than to Devotion and without any trouble youâ— Heart will return thither at the same hours Those very Parts which in us are destitute of Knowledge are capable of these Habits When the Stomach haâ— been us'd to eat at certain hours if this be not done it feels somewhat wanting The Conscience being the Stomach of the Soul gives it its meals and if you happen to be wanting it will advertise you on 't buâ— have a care of doing violence to it and being earnest with it to hold its peace When it minds you amidst your Occupations that the hour is come do not deâ— ferr it till another time for it is undone if you put iâ— out of order 'T will no more remind you you youâ— self must be forc'd to sollicit it and then the Soul iâ— in a wretchless condition when the Conscience iâ— asleep when the Heart slumbers and when there iâ— need of awakening it by an express Reflection If you ask me what hours it is to choose and how many I shall perhaps be very much put to it to answer you Good David orders seven for himself Seven times a day do I praise thee Daniel had chiefly three Our Lord retir'd whole Nights together into a Mountain apart to pray Alas it were to be wish'd we could give all out hours to God but the necessities of Nature and the infirmities of the Flesh votâ— it fruitless and I know not what mood and tempeâ— those Devotes might be of who we are told pass whole dayes and nights in Meditation and Contemplation I will pronounce nothing herein and I leave every one to his own Conscience If we cannot give all â—o God certain it is we are to reserve to him the better part and that amongst our hours we ought to set some aside which may be proper to him and never bestowed upon the World The number must be regulated according to the diversity of Strengths and I believe it should increase according to the measure of the progress â—e make in Devotion A Child cannot lift up a Burthen which a vigorous man can carry with ease so that very one must regulate himself according to his â—â—rength 'T is good to eat when we are hungry and 〈◊〉 draw nigh to God when the Heart is warm and as â—ften as it pleases to do so there is no reason for a â—efusal herein But you are to observe that if your oppetite be buried and does not manifest it self you â—o not fail of having your set Repasts and rather love 〈◊〉 eat without hunger than starve your self for want 〈◊〉 Food 'T is the same here If you are so unhappy as 〈◊〉 be deprived of this holy appetite of Spiritual things 〈◊〉 not wait till it comes lose not the hours of your â—evotions and your Spiritual repasts eat without hunâ—er and perhaps your Appetite will be renew'd No â—an in health scarcely but eats twice a day and â—et sick People we see take nourishment much oftener 〈◊〉 observe only that their Repasts are very short and â—â—fie I am of opinion we ought to order the â—â—me Diet to those indisposed Souls which are yet â—ovices in the practice of Devotion We must obâ—â—e them to return oft to it but in short Exercises â—ut such weak Souls may not take a disgust at it If a Clock be not wound up sometimes a day it will â—t go long the weights that are tied to the ropes â—scending to the Earth whither as soon as they are â—â—me the whole Machine stands still The Soul is â—is wonderful Machine made up of its Faculties as of Theels and Springs the weights of the Flesh drawing down Pull it up often if you would have it go Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees They who look to these Automatous Machines observe daily to wind them up at the same hours otherwise they are put out of Order And this I say is to be observed in the conduct of a faithful Soul All hours are good for Heaven is alwayes open and God's Throne evermore accessible yet some there are more proper than others Those of the Morning are so truly God's that we cannot rob him of them without Sacriledge If God will have the first-fruits of our Herds with much stronger reason he will have the first of our hours And what time more proper to lift up our Eyes and our Hearts to the Sun of Righteousness than that wherein the sensible Sun arises upon the Earth Is it not time then that the Morning-star arise in our hearts and Prayer open the Gate to Grace At what hour with better effect can we lift up our hearts to God than at the beginning of a Race the success where of depends intirely on him In the morning we ought to seal our hearts with holy thoughts and fill our minds with chaste and good Ideas that the Corruption in the World which the rest of the day will by the Senses give a thousand assaults to our heart may find it well fortified This will be a morning-dew which in falling from Heaven upon our Souls will make them fruitful in all good works for the rest of the day This will be an Amulet against the evil air of the World without which we are not to leave our Lodgings nor expose our selves to the rencounter of contagious Objects As God
ought to be the first thing in our Hearts so he must be the last too for he saith I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End Let him open the door of our thoughts in the morning and shut it up in the Evening This will be a Seal which the Devils will respect tho we be disarmed all while asleep they will tremble at our sight and will not dare to come near us The destroying Angel in passing by will reverence this Impression and this fruit of the Blood of the Lamb. These Evening-Devotions will be an holy Seed cast on good Land which will not fail to spring up in the morning since the heart will find it no trouble to begin the present Journey where it had ended the preceding one And in as much as 't is true that the Soul abandon'd to its self in sleep is naturally carried to the last Objects of its waking we need not doubt but the dreams will be happy and the Images which arise from those last impressions which Piety had made upon the Heart will be very sweet ones The night it self is perfectly a friend to Devotion 'T is there that recollectings are very easie the Soul being not dissipated by present Objects Nothing is sweeter than to fill the heart with God when void of other things God is well pleas'd if a faithful Soul makes an Altar of its bed and makes him its vows in a retreat where are no witnesses Let thy body be laid provided thy Soul be elevated and thou fall upon the knees of thy Heart as Clemens Romanus phrases it These nightly Communications with God seem more near and strict since laying our selves down in our beds we bid fare-well to the World and banish its cares and troubles from us to give repose to the body The Soul finds it self in a blest estate and at its waking being disengaged from the World it hath all manner of Liberty to mount up to God Thus we see that a great â—â—rt of David's Psalms were compos'd in the night I will bless the Lord says he in the sixteenth Psalm who â—ath given me Counsel my reins also instruct me in the night â—eason He assures us in the sixth Psalm that he waters is bed with his Tears and the spouse saith by night I â—ught him whom my Soul loveth In a word we learn â—â—om History that Antony the Patriarch of the Hermits â—omplain'd very frequently of the Sun's return very â—ear in these Terms Why comest thou O Sun to trouble the rest of my Soul why risest thou so soon to tear me away from the service of my God why comest thou to rob me of the sight of my true Sun Meditation THE measure of God's love is to have neither measures nor bounds it is to contain all the degrees of Love The true rule for the hours of Devotion is to consecrate all our hours to him This is what thou oughtest to do O my Soul but thou canst not For thou draggest after thee a bodily prison which is an hindrance to thee Thy Affections cannot be tam'd so far thou art subject even to worldly necessities which will not suffer it How happy wilt thou be then when thou art in such a place where thou mayst give up all thy hours to thy Creator and Redeemer There being deliver'd from the bonds of Flesh thou wilt serve the father of Spirits in perfect Liberty But now thou dividest thy time betwixt thy Employments thy Divertisements thy Repasts and thy Devotions But then these four things shall not be distinct they shall all be blended together Thy continual occupation shall be to sing the praises of thy God and to contemplate his Glory Thy meat and drink shall be to do the will of thy Father which is in Heaven Thy Pleasure and Divertisement will be in a most intimate injoyment to possess him who is the Source of all Joy Thou shalt have no more hours of Devotion for this fourth thing will be mixt in the three others Thou shalt be ever all Flame and all Fire for the service of thy God in this will consisithy chief happiness wouldst thou then here belowâ— approach near the Glories of Paradice multiply and continue as far as thou canst thy Commerces and Communications with God If thou wert always with God God would be always with thee Now where God is there is Paradice When thou enterest into thy Close with most devout Dispositions God enters there with thee and after him a whole troop of Angels Cherubims and Seraphims for he incamps his Angels about them that fear him and especially at such times as they fear and serve him No Object is more charming to the Angels who seek the good and well-sare of Men than to see a person truly devout falling on his Face to the Earth bathing his Couch and Bosom in Tears breathing the most ardent sighs towards Heaven carrying his Eyes thither where his heart is and stretching forth pure hands to God that he may embrace him There is Joy in Heaven for one devout Soul as well â—s for one penitent sinner Wherefore it is Heaven seems to descend and come down as it were to this Spectacle Labour then O my Soul to be ever prastising Devotion as well as Repentance that Heaven may be glad and thy God come often to thee By these frequent Communications thou wilt become right like the Face of Moses The rays of that divine Sun will peirce and illuminate thee they will baâ—ish the Darkness out of thee and melt the Ice and Coldness that makes thee so heavy and neglectful And â—y beholding him often thou wilt become his Glass â—nd wilt be changed into the same Image from Glory 〈◊〉 Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Prayer O Sun of my Soul I seek thee with all my Strength hide not thy self from me and suffer no Eclipse disperse those Clouds which cover and separate thee â—â—rn me and rob me of the view of thy Light My sins â—confess continually raise thick filthy and malign vapours which may grow into Clouds and these Clouds afterwards â—â—duce the Storms and Thunders of thy severe Justice 〈◊〉 thou wouldst punish me as I deserve But from hence â—â—â—th O Lord hinder these Vapours from arising and dry 〈◊〉 their Source Let not my Heart be any more as a â—â—arsh full of unmoving and putrified Waters but let it be a living and pure Fountain Let it be no more an accursed Field abounding in Poysons but a fertile one in Flowers and Fruits of good-living and let none fly up to thee but sweet and kind Exhalations Prayers and giving of thanks that may cause a sweet-smelling Savour of atonement Let those sweet vapours be chang'd into sweet dews and let thy Grace falling upon my Soul like rain upon a thirsty Land make it to rejoyce and flourish and bring forth fruits of Righteousness Thou art my Light lighten me in the Darkness of the Night when I call upon thee in
my bed Come and honour me with thy presenceduring the absence of all other Objects that I may possess thee only and nothing may rob my Soul of thee Cause the sweetness of this rejoycing to display an heavenly fire in my Eyes and an holy gayety over my Countenance which may accompany me all ways and defend me from those many troubles and vexations whereunto I am exposed Let me lye down aâ— night as in thy bosom and let me cast my self betwixt thâ— arms that I may be afraid of nothing which is ghastâ—â— or terrible in Darkness CHAP. VII The second particular Help Solitude and Religious Aâ—semblies WE cannot but own with a great earnestned of mind that Devotion requires Solitudy We have our Master's word and decisiâ—â— in the case When thou goest to pray sayes he enter in thy closet Very strange Prayers were those of the Phyrisees that prayed in the corners of Streets or in tâ—â— Market-places Our Lord Christ had good ground 〈◊〉 indict them of Hypocrisie Solitude is necessary 〈◊〉 only to avoid that Pomp and Parade which God 〈◊〉 much detests in all things and especially in Devotioâ— but also to make our Prayer more pure and perfeâ— How should the Soul I wonder be recollected into it self if a thousand Objects lay hold on the Senses and draw it abroad We must therefore be in such a place where we need not defend it against the Assaults which sensual Objects make upon it Let us retire never so far from the World we shall be sure to carry enough of the World along with us and the Images of its Objects will persecute us sufficiently without being voluntarily exposed to the persecution of the Objects themselves Yes the Commerces of the faithful Soul with its God require a secret retiral Our Lord is its Beloved who casts not his Favours upon the Crowd and exposes them not to the sight of men as St. Bernard sayes He loves Shadow and Retreat And therefore the Spouse will not let him go whom her Soul loveth until she has brought him into her Mothers house and into her closet If we have a design to do any thing wherein is need of Application we seek a Retreat that we may not be distracted We are therefore to seek it for Devotion since nothing in the World asks a more fix'd Consideration Far from all Witnesses must the truly Devout Person be to be intirely Free in all respects Devotion has its Actions and its Words it impresses its transports and motions upon the Soul â—nd the Body frequently may have its too so that it should not be expos'd to the view of men who make so ill Judgments thereof If these Reasons have need of being upheld by Examples we have that of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom the Mountains did not seem secret or solitary enough since he added to them the darkness of the Night That of Daniel who shut the door of his Chamber to pray That of St. Peter who went upon the House-top to perform his Devotions But this Subject is so little disputed and indeed so little disputable as we need not dwell upon it longer The necessity of Solitariness for Devotion may give â—â—s more extensive Prospects There have been many great men and I would believe many great Saints who have thought Devotion and Solitude were so inseparable as that not only the truly devout were to set aside some hours of Retreat but their whole Life ought to be consecrated to it And 't was this Sentiment which sometime peopled the Desarts of Thebes and of Syria with so many Anchorites They fled the World to lift up their Souls more easily to God and to acquire an habit of more pure and ardent Devotion And hence perhaps might come the very name of Devotion which is deriv'd from vowing ones self to a thing because those Christians by a Vow in a particular manner consecrated themselves to God 'T is a matter extremely difficult to pronounce upon this sort of Life I would not condemn all those that follow it I do not doubt but many were led by the Spirit into the Wilderness as our Saviour was but I dare boldly say that this Estate is subject to as great Temptations as a worldly life is In my opinion it 's very much to presume on one's own Strength to go and lye exposed to the strokes of an Enemy so potent as the Devil In Society if one falls another helps him up again but in the Wilderness he must sustain himself he must stand upon his own bottom he must be his own Pastor Guide and Director of Conscience and he that believes he has Light enough to furnish for all these Duties hath too high an opinion of himself I would speak here nothing more forcible against this way of living than what St. Basil himself a great Lover and Admirer of the Monastic Life hath writ thereon He believes that that sort of Life is no more charitable than it is prudent They have either need of succour themselves or they are in a condition to give it to others If they stand in need themselves 't is an imprndence to be confined in a place where they can receive none If they can afford it to others this is to want Charity and to rob Society of what might be useful to it And with good reason he sayes that this is to deprive ones self of the Hope to hear one day those words from our Lord's Mouth Thou gavest meat to him that was an hungred drink to him that was thirsty thou clothedst him that was naked and visitedst him that was in Prison In short I fear the Remark of this Father in the same place is not over true that this Life so far out of the path of Humility is not a Stair-case to Pride for these men comparing themselves to themselves as St. Paul speaks and seeing nothing more accomplisht than themselves persuade themselves they are Perfect Every one sees himself too near to know himself well and does not know himself thoroughly enough to correct himself and therefore an Anchoret who uses not the eyes of another to examin himself le ts many sins without doubt escape him to which Judges more severe than we are to our selves would not have done that favour To be brief I have said that so far is this kind of living from any great use to Devotion as I believe 't is an impediment to it because it is depriv'd of exercising the Works of Mercy which are so necessary A man in the Desart hath his distractions and if he have not a Soul of an extraordinary temper 't is to be fear'd they are more dangerous than those met withall in the World A mind abandon'd without any Guide makes oftentimes strange slips The wide World and a narrow Lowliness are most assuredly two very dangerous Extremities There is need of extraordinary Grace to thrive well in either Conditions so that those who have receiv'd indifferent Gifts from Heaven
are to choose a Life that holds the middle betwixt these two Extreams But at least 't is without Controversie that Solitude is absolutely necessary at hours destin'd to Devotion Which is not to be taken in such a manner as to do any prejudice to holy Assemblies or Publick Devotions They have their Use for Devotion and under Pretext of praying in our Closet we are never to deprive our selves of so necessary an Aid to Piety True it is every where else our Senses are enemies to Self-recollection but there both the Senses and Imagination favour the motions of the devout Soul The looking upon Churches which are God's houses the presence of Angels who assist in those places the society of a multitude of Souls that joyn their Vows as well as their Voices together the Word of God resounding in our Ears the Prayers that are united and being conceived by many hearts make up but one Vow All these things extremely help the Soul to make its elevations and serve very much to banish worldly Ideas to make holy ones succeed in their stead Nay 't is not impossible too but that among such a crowd we may conserve Solitude it self A Soul truly devout in such places is so collected into its self that all the Objects which might do it an injury cannot find it the faithful Person is in the Closet of his own heart he leaves no door open but for God's Word and for things able to instill Piety but the doors are shut against the vain Objects that are too often to be seen in such places There is a Spiritual Solitude as well as a Corporeal sayes St. Bernard and that is only in the midst of a throng which is exempt from vain and frivolous thoughts But 't is an horrible Profaneness to have indevour Dispositions in the Church to have there an heart open to all Vainities to go thither to see and to be seen to hear to get matter to play upon and to catch at Syllables and Words How great an account will these People have to make 'T is enough sure to have offended man and God himself all the dayes in the Week there needs no coming on the Sunday to declare War against him in his face I shall not inlarge here to speak of the manner after which we should act in Religious Assemblies because I design here only to give Rules for Closet-Devotion Meditation WHere shall I find an happy Solitude that may be to me an assured Sanctuary against the Persecution of the enemies of my Soul If I go from the World I carry it along with me if I enter into my Closet I am followed by a crowd of fleshly thoughts that perfectute me cruelly When I would save my self in Desarts and dwell in the Rocks with the Owl and Cormorant Vulturs are there those griping Cares that would tear and prey upon my Entrails I should be assail'd there by Flocks of Birds and a multitude of vain and light Thoughts which would lift me up from my self to throw me into the World What must I do to remedy this great Evil Thou knowest the Remedy O Lord I do not know it do thou teach me Here below there is no Heaven that can shelter and shrowd me from these Tempests no charms that can lay these Devils and conjure down these Fantoms of my Imagination I must make me a new heart for this is not so much the World's fault as my own 'T is not because it pursues me but for that I have placed it within me and which way soever I go I carry it with me If my heart were pure and clean in the midst of Cities and the greatest Assemblies I should find Solitude My Soul being drawn up into it self would be environed on all sides with a contempt of the World as with a Rampart The love of God and Godliness would keep the Avenues They would be a good Guard and would drive all Objects away which might come to interrupt me so as I should be alwayes in a place of safety Prayer O Blessed Lord create in me a clean Heart purifie it from the vain Images of the World which Sin and Satan have engrav'd in my Soul that under the Wings of thy good Spirit and Love I may find that Sanctuary against my self which I seek every where but find no where But why O my God should not thy Grace while we are in the flesh be sufficient to deaden all its motions why should I have always these Amalekites and Moabites round about me while I march and advance towards the heavenly Canaan and the Jerusalem which is above why have we not here below those Rivers of Grace and why cannot I have a Floud and Sea to wash my Entrails and cleanse them from these miserable Impurities It is thy will O God that my Temptations be always near me and the Philistines be always upon me that I may watch and not sleep on the lap of Dalila It is thy will that I have evermore a Thorn in my Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me least I should be exalted above Measure O my Saviour command that the least Temptation as not seize upon me which is not common to man give me an happy success in all my Temptations and strength to be able to bear them It is true thy Grace is sufficient for me let it not fail me then let it work its work in the midst of my Infirmities let it disperse my different thoughts let it calm the Agitations of my Soul let it make me to find a Sanctuary where being far from Noise Passions and Affections I may consecrate to thee my Watchings my Words and my Thoughts where I may be able to sing thy Praises Eternally and celebrate thy divine Majesty CHAP. VIII The third particular Direction to help Devotion Meditation and Prayer THE Soul comes into the World at least as ill instructed in the affairs of Grace as in those of Nature It is in all respects a plain unscrolled Table and an Ignorant which has need to be informed in every thing Very easily it acquires the Knowledges which are necessary to the Conduct of Life because those Directions pass to it thorough the Senses and these Objects are of its own size but it hath need of the greatest endeavour to attain those Notices which regard the Spiritual Life since those Objects are disproportionate to its Strength and yet those Enowledges are of absolute necessity to the practising the Virtues and particularly that of Devotion This last Virtue is made up of Love and Zeal but we have not them but according to the degree of our Knowledge and therefore I know not of what nature those ignorant Devotions can be which are destitute of all Light and are not guided but by the Senses these are it may be rather weaknesses of Constitution than effects of Grace The Devotions of ignorant People are almost ever gross and superstitious they are ordinarily fix'd to sensible Objects
that every moment we might be able to repeat them to our own Heart We should if it were possible habituate our Mind not to conceive its Thoughts and form its Meditations but in the terms which the Holy Ghost useth in the Psalms To the reading of Holy Scripture it will be profitable to add that of other good Books and herein I would give a Direction which some People have found very good which is to choose such Places and Chapters of Devotion which have once warmed you and to return often to the same places that your Heart may get an Habit of awakening it self at that view 'T is the ordinary Turn of all Minds to joyn certain motions of Heart with certain Images so as that assoon as the Images present ' emselves to the Mind those motions arise in the Heart for example if a Man has run an extream danger in a Wood the Image of a Forest will never offer it self to his Imagination but his Heart is seiz'd upon by some Chillness So our Heart having been once mov'd at the reading of some pious Discourse which had touch'd it to the Quick will not fail of being awaken'd at the presence of the same Thoughts in case we read them with a devout Intention and a design to be touch'd therewith This may be compar'd to what happens to barking Dogs which are quiet or otherwise as soon as they hear the Voice of those they are acquainted withal so the Heart being become familiar with those pious thoughts that had mov'd it oftentimes will evermore perceive in their Presence very near the same motions for it is not so with reading in holy Books as in Profane these please the first time the second the pleasure ceases but the third they are most insupportable The same thing perhaps may happen if you read a Book of Devotion for Divertisement to see there the neatness of Phrase and the beauty of Thoughts as this way of reading is for the Mind and not for the Heart one thing will not please you a second time This Thought discovers a Mystery to us somewhat obscure why that which touches some should not have the same influence over others Now the Reason is because all do not read with the same Dispositions and the same Intentions A Preacher that would preach an hour upon a pious Subject will read Books which may instruct him therein but if he has not a Soul naturally very devout they will have no great effects upon him because he comes with no Intention to be moved by them he only seeks for matter to fill up his hour Our Heart does very near what we would have it do insomuch as pious reading that it may be an help to Devotion ought to be done with a most devout Intention without which Condition it will be a very hard matter to make any progress in it But as much as the reading of good Books brings in Auxiliaries to Devotion so much it is ruined by the reading of bad ones 'T is a great shame to Christianity that now adays it makes more account of some mischievous Books than ever did the most corrupted Paganism Our Age and in particular this Kingdom might be justly noted with Infamy for that swarm of Romances which the effeminacy of our Hearts the corruption of our Minds and the wiles of the Devil have sent into the World We must needs be great Lovers of Lying since fifty Years have produced more Fables than six thousand Years could produce Histories and the Church must needs be very much corrupted to suffer and as it were to authorize such shameless Products so full of impure Imaginations Every devout Soul will have those Legends in Detestation for certain it is that nothing puts the Heart into greater Disorder I wish People be safe from the last Corruption and they proceed not even to the acting and imitating those irregular Examples in good earnest which they saw before in Jest however 't is sure that from the reading of these Books the Mind returns loaded with Images which grieve and drive away the Spirit of God and which are absolutely inconsistent with the Spirit of Devotion Meditation IF thou art ignorant O my Soul in the things which concern thy Salvation it 's wholly thy own fault Thy God opens two great books before thine Eyes where thou mayst be taught and instructed in the wonders of Heaven and of thy Salvation Often have I cast my Eyes upon Nature upon Heaven Earth the Mountains Rivers Fields and Forests oft have I carried my Eyes to the Planets and to the Stars But to my confusion I avow these Contemplations were barren done negligently without Application and Reflexion Do that therefore now O my Soul which thou hast never done yet view the Heavens and admire their Greatness and vast Extension Acknowledge the Greatness of the Maker his Strength his Wisdom his Power See how he has on purpose painted himself in all places and left his foot-steps wheresoever he hath past Look upon the Sun which pours forth so much fire which men call the Light of the World This is the Image of Thy God who is Light himself In thee is the Well of Life and in thy Light shall we see Light That innumerable multitude of fires that burn in the Firmament is the Emblem of those glorious Souls which shine in the highest Heaven of the blessed The rapidity of those vast and prodigious Machines which roul over thy head ought to make thee think of that robust Art which gives them their swing and impresses upon 'em their Motions The equality and justness of those Motions as regular as swift preaches to thee the Wisdom and Evenness of God's Actions who does nothing but what is just and reasonable The magnificence of those visible Heavens may without much ado conduct thy Meditation to the thought of another life and give thee some foretaste and conception of the Glory God prepares for thee in Paradice Those visible heavens so Splendid so Beautiful are but the threshold of that Palace where God makes ready an abode for thee Oh my Soul how Rich and Glorious must that house be whose very Avenues and Entries are so fine and pompous If from the heavens thou descendest into the Air which is the region of Storms and Tempests of Rains and Dews in the latter thou wilt see the Emblems of God's Favour and in the former the Messengers of his Vengance and the Instruments of his Fury The one will lead thee to the Consideration of his Justice and the other to the Consideration of his Mercy If thou descendest to the Earth thou wilt discover almost every where around thee an incredible multitude of sundry Objects that will instruct thee divers ways Some as well as the Heavens will speak to thee of God's Wisdom and Power Others will tell thee of thy own Weakness and Vanity of Death and the Necessity of dying of the Inconstancy of humane things and will give thee
an hundred other Lessons But all this is nothing to compare with the Knowledge to be had from the reading of that other book which God hath dictated to his Prophets and Apostles 'T is there thou mayest see the Abysses of the Divine Wisdom the infinity of his Love and the depths of his Mercy Without engaging thy self very deep in these Abysses what Fruit canst thou not reap from the Death of my Saviour and the Contemplation of his Cross thou wilt learn there how thou art to love for that is the School of Love thou wilt view thy Divine Saviour eaten up with the zeal of God's House burnt with the Flames of Charity He so loved the World that he gave himself up to Death for the World and that to a shameful cruel and tormenting death even that of the Cross He expos'd himself to all the arrows of God's Wrath he suckt the venom and underwent the weight of his Indignation and for whom for his Enemies 'T is thus O my Soul thou must Love This is but a very small part of the things thou mayst learn in that heavenly Book Prayer BVT O Lord I read in vain I meditate without success O my Sun infuse thy Rayes into my Heart open mine Eyes that I may see the wond'rous things of thy Law Make thy Word to be in me like a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing of my Soul my Joynts and Marrow Thy Word is truth sanctifie me by thy Truth Let my Heart burn within me when thou speakest and declarest to me the Scriptures Let me receive thy word with a thirsty Soul and let it become unto me a Spring of living Waters bubling up to Eternal Life that I may be conducted by the Rivers of thy Grace to the Ocean of Glory CHAP. IX The fourth particular help to Devotion The use of Prayer I Do not design here to make any Commendation of Prayer nor to display all it's Uses which both the Antients and Moderns have done very Amply I shall only say that 't is one of the surest means to purifie the Soul since there is no Action whereby we approach nearer to God no time wherein he communicates himself more to us He hath been very often observ'd to give his Extraordinary inspirations in Prayer In praying St Peter fell into an Extasie Paul was ravisht to the third Heaven Cornelius in his Prayers receiv'd the Vision of an Angel Monica St Austin's Mother after her Prayers and Tears for the Salvation of her Son had in her dream that excellent Revelation of his Conversion An Angel tells her Afflict not thy self thy Son is with thee As God is the Sun of our Soul and jets his beams perpendicularly into our Hearts he must necessarily clarifie and heat them he disperses the vapours of the Inferiour part and draws his own Image there Now this Communication of the Raies of Grace is never made more than in Prayer I shall not stay to examine any further the Conditions with which Prayers should be made to be Devout it 's already shown enough that they ought to be Attentive Persevering and Ardent I shall only give here two Advices the one to avoid Weariness the other to avoid Distraction First I say that few Souls are capable of long Prayers For to render a Prayer perfectly devout there 's need of an extreme Contention of Mind an extraordinary Elevation and an entire loosening ones self from the World Now these Actions do a kind of Violence to the Soul which naturally tends to a releasing of it self and therefore they cannot be of any long Continuance If we give no relaxation to the Heart it takes it and rambles some where or other in spite of our teeth so as I would have the exercises of Devotion to be long tho divided into little spaces of time that they have many parts and each of 'em be short Devotion is composed of three principal Acts Reading Meditation and Prayer each of these need not be done presently so as to follow one another but they may be mingled for we must allow some grains to the Souls Weakness and we must keep it from disgust by variety A little reading may be the first degree of it's Elevation a little meditation on that reading will lift it a degree higher and after the reading and meditation a short Prayer will lead it to the highest degree of forgetting the World after which it will return wholly new to reading and Meditation in the same order In Prayer it will fly through the Air by the force of its own Wings and at its return to reading it will do like those Birds that weary with flying come to repose themselves not on the Earth but some very high Tree of their own choice so our devout Soul will come to rest it self not by falling on the Earth for 't will never set foot there nor permit the mind to return to the World but it will continue elevated upon the Props of the holy Prophets and Apostles Vr and Aaron will sustain it lifted up towards the Heaven and from thence taking its flight it will by little and little rise upon the Wings of Meditation untill it return by Prayers whither it was first lifted up This method undoubtedly will give it time to renew its strength it cannot hold out long if its course be push'd on to the utmost of its vigour but by taking breath and marching fairly on from time to time it will make a very great advance in a day The other Direction I would give regards those who having not been busied about the operations of the Mind are less proper for the great Elevations These People ordinarily make their Devotions in Prayers pronounced by heart from which way Distractions are almost inseparable These I would counsel to endeavour to untye themselves from Words and hold only to the Sense I do not mean that in their Family-Prayers they should dispense themselves from their Forms I know very well that all the World has not the gift of forming their thoughts and putting them into an order which may edifie the Publick but for the Devotions of the Closet they are rather to be made by Heart than by the Tongue When the Imagination does not make some endeavour for the production of its Thoughts and the choice of its Words in following the beaten Road which it fears not to lose it never fails of going somewhither else as having nothing to do in the place where we would retain it but when it gives Attention to the manner in which is necessary to express the things which the Heart has conceiv'd the Heart and the Imagination uniting their Forces make up a compleat Attention I cannot endure to hear some say That all the World is not capable of composing all are not able to compose for Men but to compose for God they are able Let us make never such Efforts to speak well we stammer in the Mouth before the Lord and
and are lift up so high This Drunkenness causes them to make a thousand Trips and false Steps their Footings are ever awry and oblique like those of drunken Men they have a great Conceit of their own Wisdom Prudence and Strength all this fails 'em sometimes they reel stagger and at last fall for Pride comes before Ruin Examine thy self O my Soul see if thou hast not a tincture of this Evil and if thou be not inebriated with the Thought of thy own Righteousness and thy own Merit Alas if thou denyest it thou knowest thy self ill This is a great Pride the belief of having none for it is to believe thou art worth as much as thou esteemest thy self but there is no Man but esteems himself more than he is really worth Thou wilt say to me perhaps thou hast an ill Opinion of thy self but be assured O my Soul thou dost not contemn thy self so much as thou art contemptible If thou contemn thy self thou makest a Merit of that Contempt so as there is Pride affix'd to the Contempt thou hast of thy self The other Vice which is the Gluttony of the Soul is no less dangerous View those Men that devour that are continually laying violent hands on the Prey and never say It is enough those ambitious and covetous Persons who suck up the Substance of the Poor who eat up Gods People like bread or who at least labour with an unconceivable desire to enrich and aggrandize themselves who go to seek the utmost bounds of the World and yet put no end to their desires who can mount up to the highest pinacle of greatness yet cannot fill the abyss of their Ambition Have a care O my Soul of running into these excesses for he who hungers after Silver will never be satisfied with Silver Quench the fire of thy Avarice for if thou furnish it with food thou wilt nourish it it will devour thy entrails and peradventure cause such a Flame as will consume both thee and thy Neighbours I must not then neglect corporal fasting but the principal one is Humility that will guard me from the Drunkenness of Pride and a contentment of Mind that will make me despise superfluous things so as I shall be content with those which are necessary This is the true Sobriety of the Soul these two vertues walk hand in hand together Be thou humble O my Soul and thou wilt be content with thy Fortune know how little thou art worth and thou wilt be persuaded thou hast more than thou deservest Prayer O Lord make me to know my self that I am nothing It is certain that I am nothing but yet I cannot confess it My mouth says it yet my heart doth not agree thereto and I always feel within me the Devil of Pride that sollicites me and says to me in a low Voice senseless as thou art why speakest thou of thy self with so much scorn If thou dost not esteem thy self who shall esteem thee Are men oblig'd to have a better Opinion of thee than thou hast of thy self since thou must needs know thy self better than they can know thee if I humble my self before thee O Lord it is because I look upon this as of no consequence by reason of the enormous disproportion there is betwixt thee and me But with men I keep to great measures I try to deceive them and to give them a vast Opinion of my self I strive to keep up my rank to be valued and I can suffer no slight or contempt O mercifull Jesus who didst humble thy self even to death inspire thy Humility into me and recover me from being overwhelmed with my Pride so that being persuaded I deserve nothing I may be evermore content with all thou bestowest upon me that Godliness and content of mind may be my great gain so I have as much food and cloathing as is sufficient CHAP. XI Of the rash Judgment which is made of Devout People I HAVE done with the Directions I thought necessary to help Devotion but before I conclude I believe there is some Consolation due to truly Devout Persons of whom so bad a Judgment is made in the World Some put them all into the rank of Hypocrites These are our false Devoto's say the profane who observe forms so exactly who are careful to be at all pious Ordinances who lend so great an attention to a Sermon who pray and communicate with so many visible marks of Devotion we are never the less good Christians for our little Affectation we have what 's solid in piety and they the appearance only It must be confest Hypocrisie doth a great deal of harm to Devotion I do not deny there are falsely devout People there 's hardly any veil wherewith evil Consciences cover themselves more ordinarily than with this of Godliness But because some Hypocrites there be is it necessary there are none others Because we find counterfeit Diamonds can none find true and effective ones because there are false and foolish fires is there then no true light Some indeed believe they have found out a good remedy against this mischief they affect an apparent Indevotion for having some zeal at the bottom they imagine 't is necessary to affect a Way and an Air of indifference to avoid the Accusation of Hypocrisie but this is to avoid one evil by a greater and being reduc'd to the necessity either of committing a Crime or of being the occasion of one we are to determine on the latter We are commanded to make the light of our good Works to shine before men and to edifie our â—eighbours by our good Examples Unhappiness thereâ—ore attends them who put their Candle under a bushel â—ut to speak the truth I believe those that so strenuâ—usly endeavour to hide their Devotion do not hide my great thing from us they have little enough within When a Chamber is fill'd with fire the light appears thorough the Windows Piety is a fire that casts its flame through all our vertues tho never so much care be â—aken to conceal it If the heart be full of godly zeal it will appear upon the Tongue in the Hands and even in the Eyes True no affectation is to be us'd God hates those pompous and vain-glorious Pieties which expose ' emselves at the corners of Streets and which wholly consist in the liftings up of the hands the â—ouling of the Eyes and a wan and deadish Visage Devotions the more secret they are the better But how easie is it to distinguish Sincerity from affectation If these prophane Judges did but know themselves a little they would not confound a modest Piety and sage Devotion which shines only thorough the veil of a profound Humility with a Devotion made up of Grimaces The Life Conversation and Manners are the best touch-stone to know the Sincerity of Devotion If the devout Person is Covetous Ambitious one that grows rich at the expence of the Poor or that is vindicative I agree we may put
are methinks the movements that compose Devotion but we must observe that in all People they are not evermore in the same degree Always some one of them does Reign sometimes Joy bears sway another while Grief oftentimes Alacrity other times the Desires And hence it comes to pass that if we consult the Devout upon the nature of Devotion they will answer us very differently because every one will say that he feels within himself and that every one feels within himself things very different from those of other men It happens also that one and the same Soul feels a different Devotion at divers times the Motions whereof we have spoken ruling by Turns To day a faithful Person shall be fill'd with hope in the view of a blessing to come and to morrow with joy in the possession of the present good One time by reason of his Sins Sadness shall domineer another time the Desires shall reign and this alteration proceeds from the diversity of Estates wherein the Conscience finds it self and the variety of Prospects which Meditations presents it withall in considering God some times with respect had to his Love and Mercy other times to his Severity and Justice Frequently too he will eye his Conscience both in its strongest and in its weakest parts and this may change some things in the Agitations of his Devotion Chearfulness likewise which seems to be the very Essence and Soul of this Virtue is not inseparable from it and sometimes the most heav'nly Souls find themselves under a gloomy and sad weight But when this Briskness is absent its place is possest by a stinging Displeasure for its Absence Meditation ALas my Soul how ignorant art thou in things Divine The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him These are profound Abysses which thou canst not sound Thy light is nothing but darkness But yet astonishing it is not that thou knowest not heavenly things which God has reserv'd to himself and lockt up in his own Breast 'T is more strange thou knowest not what God does in this and art ignorant of those Divine things which are in thy Heart Vain and haughty as thou art with the advantages which Nature has given thee above the visible Creatures thou saiest thou art an incarnate Angel say rather that thou art an Angel imprisoned in a dark and dismal mansion who knowest but in part and see'st but in part obscurely and as in a Glass through the thick veil of Flesh and Blood Prayer O My God thou Father of Lights from whom cometh every good and perfect gift open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law I am a Stranger upon Earth and a Sojourner Oh! hide not from me thy Commandments I am inquiring into the Nature of Devotion I shall not be able to know it without thee In vain shall I search for it in the works of another unless I find it in mine own Heart I do not find what I seek for there where then shall I find it Even in thee my God who art the Source of what I look for Raise therefore in my Heart those flames of Zeal and Piety that being filled therewith my Soul may not need but to study it self to attain this knowledge and after the attainment may be able to love it and make others do so too Let it sparkle and shine in all my Words and Actions like a Torch that lights my Neighbours and let it kindle in them the holy flames of Devotion CHAP. II. Of the Effects of Devotion IN speaking of the nature of Devotion in the precedent Chapter we insinuated all its Effects but it will not be amiss nor unprofitable to unfold them a little more for these Effects well understood will lead us to the knowledge of the Cause and serve us for a Touch-stone whereby pious Souls may try both the purity and the progress of their Devotion The first of these effects is a vehement Passion to converse with God and pour forth our grief into his Bosom to hear his Word and to receive the Gages of his Love in his Sacraments You see this Disposition in David who sighs after the House of God and finds nothing in his Exile more insupportable than his Banishment from the Court of the Lord's House Jealous he is of the Condition of the Swallows that build their Nests there He would be a Door-keeper in this house and never stir from thence My Soul hath a desire to enter into thy Courts says he I have asked one thing of the Lord that I may dwell in his house all the days of my life He avows that the hopes of seeing God again in his house do sustain him and keep him from falling into Despair I had fainted unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living The faithful Soul has no less Passion for the Solitude of its Closet than David had for the Temple of his God It looks upon those hours as lost which 't is obliged to throw away upon the World and as soon as it can withdraw it self from the hurry and bustle of Affairs it runs to the Bosom of its God as the Hart to the Water-brooks as a covetous Person to the search of Riches as a Courtier watches for the Hour and Place to see his Prince and to be seen and receive from him considerable Favours A second Effect is a Joy which we may call inconceivable when the Devout in their Devotions feel their Heart display'd and the Holy Ghost appears with all the Riches of his Grace and all the Treasures of his Consolations If any one should inquire of such a Soul why it is so satisfied perhaps it would be an hard matter for it to tell him but the true cause of this Joy is That God does exert in it his comfortable and wholsom Rays which are ever accompanied with a plenary Happiness The Pleasure which an avaricious man takes in counting his Money which the ambitious taste in hoping for new Grandeurs which the Epicurean finds in his Feasts and Debauches all this I say is unsavoury and of a bad taste in comparison of that Joy which the pious Soul perceives in communicating with its God This is an Ocean which overwhelms and drowns all the Perplexities and Troubles of the Flesh The Persecuted find here their Sanctuary the Poor Riches the Sick-man Health the Contemptible Glory the Humble Grandeur and the Miserable a general Oblivion of all his Calamities This is that wherein a Soul tired with the World finds that heavenly Repose which makes it with Indignation and yet with Pity look upon the cruel Agitations of worldly men that are tied to the racking Wheels and Stones of Ixions and Sisyphus's that is to say to Labours that always return and never have an end Hence springs another effect of Devotion namely To forget this World When the Devout Person shuts the door