by meanes of it unles they wilfully seale up their eyes All the effects which God produceth are so many benefits and by them each one may help and profit himself unles he wil be foolish and perverse Thy ardent love doth alwayes o Lord accompany thy guifts as heat doth light this is an immense priviledge concomitant to them that they are so many pawns and pledges of thy love although this be not patent to the eye yet it discovers it self in the benefical effect For though we see only the light which the sun communicates not the heat yet this doth still attend the other O Father of lights what thanks am I endebted to thee for the university of thy benefits conferd upon all those credentials of thy love which love I chiefly embrace and adore in thy works who wil not stand amazd at the inventivenes of thy goodnes making the benefit of all the benefit of each one and the benefit of each one the benefit of all private ones publick publick private all the works of nature all the wonders of grace all the predestinate all the blessed are my benefits all the prosperity all the calamityes that befall man are so many favours which thou lovingly bestowest upon me O ungrateful man wouldst thou not love God with the whole impetuosity of thy hart if he should exempt thee from damnation thou carrying the guilt of hell fire by dying in some damnable sin but should create another much better then thee deputing him in thy place to suffer for thee that hell of torments God did much more then this I omit that he fatherd our faults upon himself daigning to dye for our sake this now amazeth me although it be incomparably less that he would shut the gates of mercy against many sentence them to damnation to save thee for if thou didst see but few condemned thy fear would be much less thou perchance thy self make one in that heap if two onely or three thy fear would yet be more lessend and thou mightest presume with more certainty one of them would be thy self if none at all thy fear would be none and mayst wel think that thou alone wouldst incur that misery or which is worse be much more frequent in sinning and less observant towards God Therfore the torment and damnation of so many soules is to me a great benefit O light of my hart with how bright beames doth thy love shine towards thy elect thou madest other creatureâ— for man and him thou damnest for other men whom thou hast elected to salvation Angels become servants to men yea thou thy self being made man what if thou wouldst have one man serve another If for some respects of temporal life thou permittest man to serve man and a slave his master for the attainment of eternal life and increase of glory a reprobate must serve an elect Behold o ungrateful spirit if an evil so prejudicial as that of punishment is proves thy advantage the advantages also of others wil turn to thy benefit With such skill doth God mannage his works that each one redounds to the good of all the very paines of the damned are so beneficial to all that they are beneficial even to them themselves for in that height of misery their cup is not temperd merely with malice but hath some mixture of divine justice which is very savory God is so bountifully good such a skilful Alchymist that he turnes dross into gold that is our very miseries into mercies and which is yet more out of the worst minerals of sinfulnes they alone being only bad he extracts pretious mettals and sometimes even the most pretious Thou o Lord conferrest thy benefits with such a strong and open hand that even from sin where thou hast neyther power nor activity thou being both impotent to act in it or concur to anothers acting thou both drawest and art able to draw great good Thy skil knowes how to extract immense blessings and vertues out of sin Light reverberating upon a condense and obscure body uncapable of its operations is so far from being eclipsed that it doubles it self by reflection neyther is thy beneficence ever defeated or renderd ineffectual Out of sin where nothing is but preposterously bad thou rectifyest all to my good decreeing thence thy beloved sons Incarnation As well from my own sins as those of others thou knowest how to take an occasion of being beneficial on my behalf when I hear of a crime committed by another I am sorry for the misfortune of my brother but take an occasion thence of thanking thee because I hope for mercy at thy hands eyther for him or me I yeald thee thanks because thou wilt derive thence no smal good to me unles I wil become quite blind and shut my eyes against the light Sing prayse once more o my soul to the Father of lights and be not forgetful of all his retributions for they all are his guifts even those that seem to flow from men and thou receivest immediately from them for if thou must perswade thy self that all the cross aggrievances which befall thee from men come from God why wilt thou not also be of the same mind concerning good his nature being goodnes it self and he so prone to communicate it all the light which beautifies the heavens though some little star or the moon by night do dart it forth proceeds from the sun though he the Author be not seen in like manner each blessing benefit though receivd from man flowes from God and is but a ray of his goodnes This is the main comfort which sustaines mans life amidst such a world of miseries as attend it that nothing can happen but by Gods permission and whatsoever he permits can be no other then a benefit according to the nature of his goodnes and what benefit soever befalls us proceeds from him and whatsoever proceeds from him is my benefit and orderd to me and my good Corporal afflictions and the miseries of this life whether I or any other tolerate them general dearths diseases pestilences all these are my benefits o Lord thou afflicting others for my good O God how deeply am I endebted to thee who to the end I poor miscreant may receive thence some good inspiration stickst not to strike the very kings and Monarchs of the world dead being little or nothing moved with the teares and calamities of so many kingdomes that I may draw thence some good document A congruous thought of some poor peasant becoming contrite is more prevalent with thee then the diadems of some kings and sometimes whole nations of people Grant o Lord that I may be thankful for these and both in my own behalf and others love thee in all thy works as thou lovedst me in all thy benefits The III. Chapter That Gods love in our Redemption appeares infinite O Immense love how dost thou exhaust thy self in deserving wel at my hands since thou hast left
Nature many times effects that what is harsh to one is gustfull to another and will grace be less operative The longings of women make them couet ridiculous extravagancies coales clay mortar and to loth meats exquisitely seasond and that which happens so obviously to a womanish indisposition shal it be thought impossible to divine healthfulnes A corrupt and queasy stomack rules the appetite and shal a sound and masculine mind have less or no sway over the wil Be not then frighted o dejected creature with what thou hearest of a spiritual life for it is not at all troublesome or noysome although it necessarily imbrace al troublesome and noysome things Let not an empty name or conceyt terrify thee be but confident and accoast them and thou shalt frighten the very difficulties themselves Some relate of certain enchanted treasures which are in the custody of terrifying ghosts and sprits but if any one be so resolutely hardy as contemning those phantasmes to assaile them they are presently put to flight and vanish to nothing in such sort that they appear no more but permit the accoaster to enjoy those riches in all peace and security Nothing more is requisite to effect this but courage and resolution Be but valiant in purchasing these spiritual treasures and all those bugbeares of pretended difficulties wil suddainly disapear Set upon them undauntedly and thou shalt enjoy without any great plains-taking the hidden manna of a spiritual life Bees work hony shelterd under the homely roof of a rough-cast hive The IV Chapter How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue HE walks in falshood and forgery not in truth nor spirit who takes not faith for his path and guide Truth dwels very remote from sense This heavenly flower growes not in our gardens it is not nourished with flesh and blood it is not to be found amidst the dung of our muddy and material substances We are at al turnes cheated in corporal goods even those which we behold with our eyes and fingar with our hands A whole oare in the water seems broken a square tower to one that stands at a great distance seems round the very light of the sun which is al the faith our eyes are endowd with cozens them oftentimes by representing colours that are not existent and how then shal we avoid being misled in the affaires of our soul which we see not and in spiritual and divine things which are so much above our reach and capacity All the race of mankind was grown quite blind through the night of errour like one shut up in a dark dungeon without either window or chink to let in the least glimmering of light The learneder sort of Philosophers were of opinion we knew no more then what we knew was false or rather that we knew only this one truth that we knew nothing at all and they were so swoln and puffd up with vanity that none but heaven could give an allaying remedy One among them did think that the master of truth was to be some Son of a God Behold now o thou Son of the highest o thou eternal Truth behold o thou wisdome of thy father thou didst descend from heaven o light of the world to illuminate it to teach us truth and why do not men make more account of so great a benefit why doe they contemne this blessing of faith What imports it to believe truth if we our selves practise falshood saving truth is good works and the true word the deed of the word The word of God became flesh that the work of man might become truth because the Truth of God is become operative All is mere falshood and vanity which is not according to the doctrine of IESVS why doe we neglect the practise of this great blessing contenting our selves with a dead kind of faith We should reap great advantage from our faith if we knew how to use it and work as we ought according to its prescript greater then if we beheld those things it affirmes with our eyes All by faith believe true things but they ought also to believe truly which all seem not to do If thou believe o malepert soul what Christ taught work accordingly If it be true that it behooud IESVS to suffer and so to enter into his glory if it be true that God ordaines all for the good of the just why art thou afflicted at some trivial crosses and calamities Why dost thou account them losses which when they are patiently taken faith teacheth us to be the soules greatest enrichment If thou believe this to be true as in very truth it is thou oughtest rather to rejoyce and comfort thy self If thou shouldst behold some one of the H. Prophets with thy corporal eyes as David or S. Iohn Baptist if thou shouldst see one raised from death or an Angel from heaven who were to tell thee from Almighty God that his will is that thou beare this cross patiently because it will be for thy greater good and no little gain would it not suffice to make thee refrain from all impatience nay would it not replenish thee with such joy as siezd the Apostles when they went away rejoycing because they were made worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of IESVS And why dost thou not now do the same Thou oughtest not to esteem that miraculous message as infallible as a matter of faith for in that case one might lawfully somtimes entertain a doubt since the evil spirit might delude him or he himself be deluded in his senses Therfore if this truth as matter of faith be more certain then if an Angel had teveald it from heaven why ought it to be less perswasive Our manner of working followes the certitude of our knowledg and the judgment we frame of a thing and proportionable to this knowledg must needs be the excellency of our operation Wherfore whosoever desires to walk in truth let him square the actions and paths of his life according to the model of his faith believing not onely true things but after a true manner least he become ridiculous to the Angels and joynt-sectary with the Divels who are all solifidians their beliefe being barren of works What availes it to know the way to heaven if we doe not walk it The wicked spirits know it better then we and nevertheles because they stand stil and advance not they are divels Tel me who is in a better condition thou that wilt not doe good or the divels that cannot It is all one in most things not to have a will and to be impotent yea it is more damnable and reproachful to thee who wilt not when thou mayst The divels believe and tremble I wish thou when thou believest wert possessd with a just fear Why dost thou not tremble at the judgments of God considering their certainty and the uncertainty of thy own condition either to eternal punishment or joy what is the reason
wil alwayes be with us himself What mother loves her child so tēderly as that she wil continually have him in her armes Yet God doth this Grace is a knot which tyes God and man together it is the sweet and mutual embracement of the spirit divine and humane Among men the father may not be where the Son is but God cannot but be with him that is in grace Although God be existent in creatures both by his essence presence and power this is so because he is God and it cannot be otherwise not for any dignity or desert in them but by reason of his immensity and infinitude But grace not nature hath this attractivenes that although God could be absent and were limitable to locality yet it would make him present and existent with one in grace residing with him and becoming one spirit yea albeit he could forget his creatures he would be alwaies sweetly present to his memory share of his providence although he could relinquish them and not operate in them nor conserve maintain them yet he would stil be working some good in the just for as love is effectual so it never intends any good but it compleats it What a benefit and dignity is it to have God alwaies for our companion certainly we should be struck with amazement to see any creature so beloved by God and so noble that he commanded his celestial spirits those thousands of thousands that attend him to accompany it whether soever it went and be followd by all that traine so stately and majestical yet this would be but solitude in comparison of the fellowship and attendance of God What are all things before thee o lord but as it were a mere nothing and vacuity If we should admire such a creature why do we not also admire a sould in grace since it hath God for its attendance not waiting at its elbow but as it were in its essence enlivening it O most fortunate dignity of man and dignation of God to have that highest Majesty alwaies accompanying the Sons of men for God will not be a lazy and unprofitable companion to a soul not providing what is beho offul to it Wil he be like one that is sluggish or blind who neither sees nor resents the necessities and miseries which press it certainly God doth not associate himself to the just for nothing They may wel neglect both themselves and their temporal if only they be careful of what concerns him he wil have a care of them O my Father o friend o companion I beg of thy Majesty that I may alwaies carry a due reverence fidelity and affability towards thee I wil demean my self to thee as a child doth to his parent taking all thy affaires to hart reputing them my own not otherwise then towardly children are industriously careful of their parents busines because they look upon it as their own I beseech thee that I may be a faithful friend to thee seeking at all turnes thy greater honour glory advancing what concerns thee loving thee more then my self Grant that I may keep with thee all the rules of good fellowship least by my continual defects I may contristate thy holy spirit But if all grace be of such vertue and efficacy in it self that it makes us kinsmen and allies of God most dear to him yea in a manner Gods and this because it is given by Christ hence it followes that that portion of it which befals man is more happy more venerable and highlyer priviledgd then that which was bestowd upon the Angels or our first parents in the state of innocency Those children are ordinarily first in their parents affection who were deliverd into the world with the strongest throwes of a hard labour and what wonder then if our grace be dearer to Christ since it cost him so many sorrowes and he for it bestow on us greater priviledges affording us more helps tolerating us more patiently and longanimously raysing us to great spiritual advancement in so much that the very Angels themselves do honour men for this respect that they have grace by Christ are struck with a reverential fear to see our nature now prostrate before them which they sleighted so much before God became Incarnate by assuming it and this because a special dignity accrues to the grace we partake of we being made therby living members of Christ computed the same with him There redounds a certain veneration from the head to the members how can the Angels despise our nature which they admiringly behold exalted above theirs even to the throne of the Divinity and fellowship of God what wonder if they treat us not as their inferiours whome the Son of God the first begotten among many brethren under the title of equals exalted above the celestial spirits themselves calling men his brethren and esteeming them more then Angels He never honored any of the Seraphins so much as to call him brother This is the highest prerogative of grace which renders it so honorable and elevates it above all nature Moreover our nature it self by grace through Christ is dignified and exalted above all other natures for as much as the Lord of glory communicates the same his glory with his joyntly united members and living allyes Our grace also is founded upon the merits of IESVS and his union as if therby it gave us a juster title to merit from God and makes us do it after a perfecter manner For we are all children of sorrow we are Gods Benjamins the Sons of his right hand and dear above all others O most loving father who sacrificd they only begotten Son to death that I becoming thy Son might live grant that I may alwayes have a true esteem and knowledg of this inestimable benefit One Angel is more endebted to thee for the least degree of grace which he received then all creatures together for all the goods of nature and creation of the universe But I a silly wretched man owe thee more for the least particle of grace bestowd upon me then all the Hierachies of Angels for all the supernatural guifts conferrd upon them all together For to the end that I through grace might live a divine life thou wouldst have thy son in humane nature to suffer an unhamane death Thou hast done more for me then for all the Angels thou hast heapd more obligations upon me then upon the Cherubins and Seraphins There are two reasons for which men are obligd to preserve and highly magnify divine grace The one is its inestimable worth and unspeakable dignity the other is thy most pretious blood o IESVS which thou didst shed to merit grace If we be not satisfyd of its value in its self this may throughly convince us that thou wouldst purchase it for us at so deare a rate It must needs be a rare and stupendious thing which God who cannot err in his choise chose rather to give us then save the life of
to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any
The same royal colour of purple recreates men and exasperates buls this purple truth of God this lustre of sanctity delights those that understand it what makes matter if it offend those that have neithet wit nor braines to conceave it yea this makes more for its commendation Nothing shewes the inestimable worth and comelines of truth more then that it seems worthles and deformed to the wicked Consider but the causes of this their aversion and thou shalt see that they render it much more amiable Of all crosses and afflictions truth seemes the most harsh and burdensome because particular afflictions impugne either one onely pleasure or at least but some few but truth fights them all together and proclames warr at once against all other kind of vices Therfore they hold it the saddest adversary they have and for the same reason think they can revenge themselves no wayes more upon their enemys nor sting them more picquantly then by speaking truth to their disadvantage the reason is because what harme soever one most dreads to himself his passion makes him wish the same to his enemy and because he dreads no kind of evil more then truth therfore he tels all he knowes to his adversarys prejudice and seeks thus to wound him as with so many poysonous darts But these causes of offence are arguments which ought to heighten our love and esteem of truth is not that worthy of all love which hath all vice in such hatred and detestation If thou hadst one potion which would cure thee of all diseases thou wouldst not contemne it for being bitter and distastfull nay thou wouldst prize nothing more highly so truth upon that same score is to be loved and adored although it be even nayld to a cross though voyd of beauty and unhandsome But it is comely of sight and pleasant of tast not deformed but deâ—forme not unwise but the wisdome of God the voyce of truth is sweet and its countenance amiable It hath God for its seasoning it cannot be unsavoury or disgustfull or tainting That which makes God happy must not be noysome neither can it make thee miserable What shall I say God is truth and can he be either more distastfull to thee then gal or not more lovely then light Go to then take the courage to look it in the face to affect it to put thy self under its tuition and patronage This is the main maxime of a spiritual life that as carnal people hate nothing more then truth so those that walk the paths of spirit have nothing in higher esteem or desire What is more dear or useful to an archer then his eyes and what ought to be more desirable to a reasonable man then truth which is the eye of his soule Archers and other creatures also made for the behoof of man if they want their eyes become altogether unserviceable so our whole life without truth proves but a fruitles busines No one of the senses is more delectable then the sight and truth surpasseth all the other facultys of the mind neither is it more pleasing a midst the smiles of prosperity then the frownes of adversity Let us therfore begâ—n with an upright conceit of truth to exclude falshood deeming nothing more delightful nothing more excellent then sincere truth of spirit Most men because they believe not this are apt to grant themselves now and then a little indulgence to nature and self love and the propensions of the flesh though but in petty matters mixing with a most subtle dissimulation and self cozenage forraign comforts that so they may mittigate the austerity which they conceive or fear accompagnies the spirit and not trusting sufficiently to it and God they reserve as yet some reliques of their flesh and will of which they are loath to dispoyle themselves that they may make their retreat thither in time of need not daring by a total self denyal to give themselves entirely to God and the spirit as if some corrosives did attend his intimate familiarity These people deceive themselves for this is not the spirit of truth This spirit is a most simple and transparent thing and therfore that will not be true and genuine which is so confounded and intoxicated The flesh and the spirit are two things so different that they cannot be combind into one simple The spirit of truth ought to be so refind and sincere that it is not enough to dread and abhor all the faigned soothings of the flesh all the pernicious dictamens of worldlings and the forciblest insinuations of self love but one must moreover dispoil ones self of himself and his own soul and renounce totally his own will and all created contentments yea even intellectual and otherwise lawful to seek God alone and in him possess all things The spirit is somewhat more sublime and refind then is the soul the understanding or nature Hear thy Iesus saying God is a spirit and those that adore him must do it in spirit and truth Wherfore that thou mayst adore God as thou oughtest and serve him perfectly in truth of spirit thou must reare thy self above all creatures and created affections and breath after and be enamourd upon the divine truth alone and as one ready to depart out of this world bid adieu to thy self and all creatures adhering by pure charity to our Lord becoming one spirit as S. Paul speaks with God who is truth it self Force thy self from thy self that is from thy vicious stock that thou mayst be engrafted in him sever thy self from thy self that thou mayst be united to thy Creatour loosen thy self from thy self that thou mayst be fastned to the cross of Iesus root thy self out of thy wicked self that thou mayst be implanted in all goodnes fly from thy own nature and thou shalt find a sanctuary in God loose thy self unfaignedly and thou shalt find thy self really The III. Chapter Of Purity of Spirit DO not in any thing o coheyre of Christ become like unto the beasts thou who mayst be one spirit with God thou must resemble them in nothing at all Thou oughtest to tread underfoot all the delights of flesh and nature not reserving any one from a total renunciation One alone is able to marr the rellish of truth one alone wil tarnish the lustre of the spirit Great things are oftentimes over powrd by little ones a smal quantity of vinegar spoyles a whole vessel of the strongest wine a little drop of ink infects and discolours a violl of the fairest water Why wilt thou blemish the candour of truth and noblenes of the spirit with a petty delight so triviall and momentary Why dost thou debase thy self so much below thy sublime condition why wilt thou leave the bosome of God and his sweet embracements to solace thy self with the silly dregs of creatures since thou ought not to descend from the cross of Christ for all the kingdoms of the world O miserly and base-minded man since thou hast already employed
so many talents towards the purchase of an invaluable margarite wilt thou at last break of the bargain for one single half penny Nay thou art more foolish then this for such a marchant would loose nothing he onely would not gain the jewel all his mony would be restord him again but restitution wil not be made to thee of those incomparable delights thou didst forfeyt and because thou wilt not relinquish a frivolous toy thou loosest a genuine spirit Why having consummated so happily a long race dost thou fall short of the prize at the very goale for want of running a little further Doe not think it burdensome and noy some to abstaine from all as thou couldst weane thy self from greater so mayst thou from lesser as from many so from more as from most so from all What is the reason that having embraced so many mortifications corporall austerities humiliations disgraces fastings lying on the bare ground thou art vanquishd and made prisoner to thy own appetite by some bit of meat or other sensual delight Wilt thou be undone thinks thou if thou wholly mortify thy pallat The Angels fast continually and yet live most happily yea the divels are not tormented by their long abstinence no nor creatures for there are some of them which without this grosser food enjoy nature pleasantly and live onely as it were upon the spirit Hold alwayes thy self to be rankd in a higher class then apes and wolves and by that meanes thou shalt never be tempted with their pleasures Art thou sorry that thou sings not like a grass hopper I believe not or that thou feeds not with the vultur upon carrion much less and the reason is because these contentments are of another kind and order so if thou hold thy self a man thou wilt contemneal these pleasures which are proper to beasts as being impertinent What if thou consider thy self an associate of the Angels What if thou ad here to God becoming one spirit with him Thou mayst want now and not be miserable what thou art to want for all eternity and yet be happy As thou wert not sorry being come to mans estate to want the toyes and bables of children so being made an Angel or demy-God thou shalt not grieve for the pleasures of men If thou mighst at a wish be changed from being a man into an Angel wouldst thou not be content vpon supposition perpetually to abstain from eating Behold now for a time thou mayst enjoy thy wâ—sh When thou hast glutted thy self with good chear thou canst with out any difficulty despise all daintyes and why canst not thou doe the same out of a strong appetite to vertue Sicknes of body mâ—kes thee abhor and loath them and why canot health of mind Why deemst thou that impossible to vertue which is soe easy and necessary to infirmity If feebleneâ— of nature can make all sensuall delights irksome why cannot the strength of grace doe the same If thou find sometimes a loathsome tediousnes of heavenly and spiritual things perswade thy self the same of carnal Thou canst live in this exile even with danger of incurring hellfire though thou be not inebriated with the joyes of heaven so mayst thou also upon the future hopes of paradise though thou bid a long fast to these muddy and dreggy pleasures How many millions of men eat their daily bread in toile and sorrow and nevertheless stil maintain life and shalt thou alone dye because voyd of such contentments Thou hast lived sometimes in anguish live now without pleasure thou hast been often oppressed with griefe be now only not jocund If thou art ashamed to think with the commonalty of men be ashamed also to seek thy content with the commonalty of beasts Nay beasts are more abstemious as who are satisfyd with fewer and more obvious pleasures then the most part of men And thou must frame the same dictamens concerning other solaces both of sense and soul or whatsoever enjoyment of our own will Thou must be eternally divorced from all things and thou mayst be so and that without any danger to thy self yea without trouble But if thou desire to renounce all pleasure renounce thy own will even in the smallest things even in things just and lawfull Beware least if thou be found with the cloak of self will the domineering flesh which makes use of all advantages catch hold of its skirts as the Aegyptian lady did of Iosephs that is to say of thy appetites so linkt with thy will and sollicite thee to play the naught The very skirts are hold enough wherby to draw thee to such a fact great over throwes are occasiond by petty neglects unles thou wholly disrobe thy self and walk naked thou wilt not be altogether void of danger Dispoyle thy self I say intirely of thy own will doe not wear thy own undoing doe not cloath thy self with danger of thy self When Elias was carryed up to heaven he left his cloak behind him and each one that betakes himself to a heavenly life if he will doe it securely must relinquish his own wil. Quit all self-interest and self delight quit thy self of thy self in all things having broken the greater cords which manicled thee why wilt thou indure the lesser with such an abridgment to the liberty of thy spirit A mastif thats tyd up is not at freedome because his chain is so long that he can frisk and play a little to and fro It fares with the most part not much otherwise then with a sparrow which a child holds by a thred at its foot which being let of his hand thinks it self free and flyes cheerfully the length of the thread but then being checkt it falls to the ground and finds it self still captive so a soul remaines as it were with a thred at its foot if it doe not totally quit all and thinking it self at liberty after some time it will disgracefully fall into the filth or pudle of some gross imperfections Yea although it escape the ensnarements of the flesh and demeane it self uprightly nay even soare by contemplation up to heaven if it be clogd with its own will it will be detaynd and entangled even in those sublime regions Although a sparrow make an escape out of the prison of the childs hand if it carry the thred along with it it will find its destruction nigh to heaven being incumbred and entangled by it on the tops of trees But perchance thou wilt yet hold it very insupportable to be wholy deprived of thy own wil and pleasure What if I should tell thee that it is not insupportable even to wish for sorrow and suffering for it will not seem burdensome to be deprived of all pleasure if the privation it self be pleasant and delectable The vigour of the spirit reacheth to this the inuentivenes of grace can bring it to pass rendring all gustfull rellishes so distastfull that all sweet things become unsauory and fastidious and bitter on the contrary delicious and toothsome
behold with my locks least my Lord be forced to fly from the horrour and nastines of my sins I behold them fetterd with sharp irons and that was my doing But if it were a grateful piece of service which Magdalen did to these feet the torment also which was occasiond by my sins could not be ungrateful I o Lord fastned them my malice was more prevalent towards this then the goodnes of all other creatures The Angels grieve and stand amazed creatures tremble and complain all law disavowes it all right cryes against it my sins alone exacted the death of thy onely begotten Son and compasd it I mâ—ke publique profession of this to the end â— mâ—y have some share in the prayer of IESVS He he it was that prayd for those who crucifyd him Behold me here present I was the chiefe Crucifyer the prime executioner I furnishd his hands putting a hammer in his right and a naile in his left I first of all others gave that hand the dint which transpiered those tender feet O how much more heynous was my offence then theirs who executed only Pilates sentence and the will of the Iewes They being commanded crucified him whom they held no more then a man and a malefactour and one so dis-figurd in his whole countenance by that hideous nights work I have again as much as in me lay crucified him being now glorious who for me was heretofore crucified Which of the Iewes beholding Christ as Saint Stephen beheld him at the right hand of God durst cry out aloud crucify him but I have bin so impudently bold as not only to say it but even more then do it I clear and quit the executioners of Christ they will be confounded in the latter day beholding him glorious whom they treated so ignomiously I seeing him that was crucified for my sake glorious am not confounded but have again crucified him What excuse then shal I be able to pretend O Father as often as I call this to mind considering thy infinite mercy by which thou didst patiently sustain my so great in gratitude I cannot but wish thy exemplary justice upon me I cannot detrect the paines of hell as due to my iniquity supposing the paine were voyd of guilt Shal divine love be les forcible then humane or charity more feeble then concupiscence the love of thee then the love of me If my self love could make me contemne God why cannot the love of God make me throughly dispise my self and debase my self even to hel Again again I imbracingly kiss thy justice punish and revenge upon me thy affronts and just indignation for I who prophaned and violated all thy attributes seeking to destroy them by sin as much as I could do now wish such a penance and remission as would make a ful restitution of all and leave them in their integrity They wil remaine so o Lord if out of thy mercy thou give me thy grace and out of thy justice my due punishment Thy servants Moyses and Paul desird to be anathemâ—tizd for their brethren and I wil become accursed and Anathema for my God and the justice of my God as Christ IESVS was for me That skinner of Alexandria wishd others the joys of paradise but allotted for himself the paines of helfire and surmounted in perfection the great S. Anthony S. Christina chose rather to undergo here unspeakable torments for the relief of the soules in Purgatory then to go immediately to heaven and I to render the justice of God which I have violated undamnifyd ought not to refuse the punishments of hel O if I could imitate my IESVS who when he was unseparable from his heavenly Father stoopt to our misery that he might be acure for us and I unseparable from thy charity would become also accursed and anathematizd to the very pit of hel and even there would â— embrace my IESVS I have two armes the one is humility which I would put under him and unite my self to his Humanity the other and that the right is love and by it I would embrace his Divinity O Father prostrate at the feet of IESVS I beg and beseech of thee for his sake that thou wilt cleanse me from the ordure of my sins I hope for his sake to obtain pardon for whose sake thou couldst not obtain of me to forbear sinning Thy goodnes is greater then my malice and thy crucifyd Christ is prevalently powerful to bend and incline thy goodnes though he prevaile not with me to avert and decline my malice The IX Chapter Of the ardent desire of those that desire God IT is not meet that thou o faintharted spirit have but a faint desire of that which is the chiefest good Grace and nature are sisters and they have the same Autour parent God If thou learnst not of thy IESVS how to frame thy desires who desird so earnestly to suffer for thee that thou mayst be ashamd not to desire most ardently to rejoyce with him learn at least of natural things how thou art to covet heavenly Nature affords no good to any creature unles a strong appetite therof did go before and if there be not such a precedent appetency arising from grace thou shalt never be guifted with any signal vertue Natural things ayme at more then they can attaine to fire when it mounts upward covets nothing more then to reach its element and yet it never can reach its home but yet that excess of desire was requisite to carry it to a higher region A stone when it fals covets to descend even to the hart or center of the earth and yet it remaines on the surface or superficies What a vehement affection is inbred to beasts towards their of spring A cow in the absence of her calf bellowes without end and hastens thither as fast as she can where she thinks to find it The same innate love armes other creatures which are of a more fearful and soft disposition and exasperates and renders them fierce and hardy and this strong desire was necessary to make them break through all difficulties in rearing their young ones Perfect vertue and union with God is a busines ful of opposition and how canst thou overcome this unles thou eagarly and earnestly intend it A natural appetite is a disposition to natural perfection and a great and supernatural appetite disposeth a soul to supernatural perfection and to receive the graces and guifts of God in greater plenty Christ compard those that traffique for the kingdome of heaven to marchants bankers and stiled them happy that hunger and thirst after justice combining in the self-same thing two most vehement appetites There is no stint in desiring to please God there is no other meane nor stint but that one alwayes without all meane and interruption wish and imbrace indefatigably the cross never be satiated with suffering So ought thou to serve God with the whole extent and intensenes of thy mind and all this is very
requisite that thou faint not under the burden of difficulties neither is any strength imaginable equivalent to the least particle of the divine infinitude God is infinite and how then darest thou o strait-harted creature limit and bound thy desires The fading goods of this world are desird a hundred yea a thousand times more then they covet or deserve to be and are not for all that obtained God is immense and infinite and ought to be desird more then infinitely and why breathst thou after him so faintly and remâ—sly and labourst to possess thy self of him being void of this flagrancy of affection zowze up thy self and be confounded that thou dost not covet him more then an ordinary man covets created goods yea more then ever any other creature coveted him A most intense desire is a golden key that unlocks the gates of heaven and opens the passage to all our spiritual progress for as no meane thing is compassd without some precedent desire of it so the most difficult and pretious of all others cannot be attained but with a most ardent one To obtaine terrene joyes it is requisite that our desire far exceed their worth and value that so it may make us master all rubs that occur in their purchase and is it not an arrand shame that our affection to the eternal joyes of Gods infinity should be so pitty fully remiss and rate them so much below their worth below what they exact and we may afford Grant me grace o Lord thou who out of thy excessive desire of suffering for me wert straitned so far as to be baptizd in thy own blood that I may be carried with a most intense desire towards thee What ought to be dear to me either in heaven or earth besides thee my God and the lover of me and next to thee what but to suffer for and with thee It is a profound act of contrition and a love due to the divine goodnes to be willing to suffer for the least vemal sin yea to impede the least in any body else as much as in me lyes the paines of hel through all eternity and how much o Lord should I covet to suffer for my spiritual advancement and rather then I my self commit that And notwithstanding how little am I sollicitous for thy glory my whole employment ought to tend to the compassing of this by desire prayer sighs and teares and since all I can do is litle or nothing in comparison of thy greatnes my good wil must make amends for my inability and supply for my defectuousnes The X. Chapter Of contemning and relinquishing the world VVOrldly joyes as wel as discontents conclude alwayes with sorrow and bitternes but a vertuous course is so priviledgd that not only its consentive part but also the harsh and burdensome both containes and attaines true delight Why walkst thou the way of spirit with such heavines and tepidity Thou canst not set thy affection upon any thing of this world without thy great peril and hazard yea thou seekst thy own danger where those things which it prizeth for good are bad and â—ul of corruption and will corrupt thee also If a little leven mar the whole batch how can he be untainted and unlevened who is so incorporated with the world whose whole lump is stark naught where the bad a lone are accounted good and they so numerous He that is once dead to the world let him beware he revive not to it again by dying to God or coveting worldly things although he neither possess nor enjoy them The love of temporalities is wont to harme us more then the use and possession of them it s not the thing but the affection to the thing which hurts us which affection is more restlesly pressing in its absence Be not according to Saint Iude a tree twice dead and unfruitful He dies to the world who relinquisheth the world he is defunct to God who returnes to it again Such a one having lost the fruit and commodities of a worldly life looseth also the benefits of a spiritual and consequently is altogether unprofitable and barren to himself The world cannot endure the sight of one that is dead a worldly life is a sea and it harbours not dead bodies but within three daies space casts them up Beware thou be not deceived if now thou deemst it good when thou hast no commerce with it remember that it was evil when thou traffickst with it and knewst it not superficially and at a distance and therfore didst relinquish it Believe rather thy own certain experience then a deceitful opinion believe rather thy self an eye witnes then one that is absent Know that it is not changed since thou left it nor grown better by length of time nor that it affords any more security then it did but is rather worse every day then other It decayes daily it doats more and more by age an errour gaines autority by being old its wine drinks with a stronger relish of malice for being long kept vices the more inveterate they are get a more undeniable prescription and new ones arise daily Because the world was evil thou couldst not brook it now when it is grown worse why wilt thou embrace it It is intollerable and perfidious even to those who did stick constantly and without breach of trust to it what will it then be to thee who hast revolted both from it and God loyal to neither wherfore the world wil chastize thee as a fugitive and God will not defend thee by reason of thy treachery There are more urgent reasons now of not returning to the world then there were at first of leaving it or at least the same are now in force which forcd thee then to quit it It is blind and a cheat both to it self and thee of a base nature and to be despisd even although otherwise not despicable because it hinders great good and torments its lovers be set on all sides with the dangers not only of temporal things but which is more of eternal also it is nothing else but falshood and forgery for besides that it is malicious and habituated in cozening others it is also cozend it self in so much that worldly men will deceive thee even when they intend nothing less then deceits The very wisdome of the world is pure folly how then shal truth appeare in it and when all the light it hath is darknes how great darknes must that needs be its whole train of attendance foundations are instruments of blindnes and dim the eyes of our judgment to wit pride gluttony lust envy ambition anger to which we may add treachery in so much that Iudas like even when it fawnes most upon them it betraies its darlings by that kiss to perdition and the power of darknes The world is a cheat it sels its glory which is nothing at a high rate And it were a smal matter if it were only nothing and not ignominious also
Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
the world Principalities Dominations Seraphins were to acknowledg it of a Superiour Order as creatures did Adam what height of dignity would such a one carry But would it be decent thinke you that such a refind creature should sort himself with brute beasts in his carriage strive to become like them o man thou art exalted to a higher rank while thou art in grace thou excelst not only all created natures but also creable How wouldst thou wonder if thou shouldst see a despicable worme in a dead dog become not only a glorious spirit but equal even to the Seraphins and why dost thou not admire as much thy own elevation from sin to a divine state which is far greater Would a worme become a spirit covet to lodge in a rotten carcass why dost thou love perishable things since thou art become after a wōderful manner priviledge a kind of God a child of the increated God who made thee by creation a man by redemptiō divine Although thou seest not this dignity thou must believe it and frame a great conceit of thy self more groundedly then if thou beheldst it with thy eyes If all the perfection excellency and beauty of all natures both existent and possible were all collected into one it were all nothing in comparison of the least particle of grace which gives a soul preeminence above all preeminences a beauty above all the beauties of nature Ther 's no resemblance betwixt God and all natural perfection so he that is endowd with grace exceeds all the good that 's found in creatures for he is in a divine degree Suppose when thou wert yet in the abiss of nothing God was about to give thee a being that he demanded of thee in what class thou wouldst be created whether a mere element or a rock or some piece of mettal or a brute beast or a man or an Angel or one of the Seraphins wouldst thou not account this a great benefit wouldst thou chuse to be an insensible creature or rather to be classd among the intelligible or peradventure durst thou hope and presume to aspire to the same divine degree with God surmounting all the afore mentiond natures Behold how God hath of his own accord granted thee what thou durst not so much as cōceive in thought He did not place thee among the formes of animated creatures nor among the inanimate nor among the unreasonable but raysed thee not only to the degree of reason and immateriality but even to a certain divine one One man alone is more endebted to God for the least degree of grace then all creatures besides from the Seraphins to the sands of the sea for the creation of all other natures Thou art more endebted to God for making thee partake of his nature by grace then if he had made all created natures subordinate to thee even from the Angels to the beasts of the field All creatures are distributed into their proper files the lower mix not with the higher in animate things cannot attain to the perfection of the animate living creatures fal short of the sensitive the sensitive of the intellectual corporeal things of spiritual The eye cannot know an Angel they are of a different order so nature cānot reach God in himself he exceeding all created substances in a higher degree of disproportiō then spiritual things do sensitive No body can operate after a divine manner unles he be in a divine state wherfore to know God in himself and treat with him it was requisite we should be eleuated to a higher order above nature and plac'd in a supernatural and grace effects this carrying man beyond the bounds of nature and setting him in a deifical state and order making him partaker of the divine nature and by a wonderful manner and prerogative a kind of God For man by grace partakes of God according to the highest degree of the divine nature for as much as it exceeds all nature not only as it is existent living knowing but as it is God and above all being life sense and understanding He partakes of the divine Essence in as much as it is above all essence he partakes of the divine substāce in as much as it is supersubstantial superessential therfore a man in the state of grace is above nature above essence and all substances If this prerogative were granted to one Angel or soul alone to be in the world and adornd with grace though less then that wherewith an infant dying immediately after baptisme is endowed it would be lookt upon as a stupendious miracle and no creature but would adore it O my soul how canst thou but deem thy self worthy of veneration if thou humbly suspect thy self to be in grace do not trouble thy self for things that are below thee and indeed all things are below thee Notwithstanding it is not the sole prerogative of grace to excel all nature if we consider that it makes man a child dear to God O father what a charity didst thou bestow upon us that we both are and are stild the Sons of God we receive the Spirit which adopts children that justifid by the grace of Christ we may be coheyres of IESVS and thy inheritours O that we could understand how great a dignity it is to become the Sons of God! men account it a great matter to be the allies or retayners of an earthly king why make they not greater account of being the Sons and heyres of God we are wont to glory in the pedegree of men defunct of the discent of flesh and blood that ends in dust in our earthly parentage but why do we not glory in being in grace in sharing the nature of God and such a divine filiation One that is of the blood-royall even afters divers generations is had in great esteem by the world how much more ought he that is a kin to God and allyd to him in the same nature A parent loves his child more affectionately then he doth another who is of the same complexion of the same speech and features because he partakes of his nature so God loves him who is in grace more tēderly then he doth the Angelical order because he shares with him in nature though he be otherwise the most contemptible creature in the world There is a larger difference betwixt the substance of a Cherubin considerd in it self one that is in grace then there is betwixt a painted man the living original although each creature partake of God in some sort yet there is a vast disparity They partake of his nature much after the manner of a picture When a limmer drawes himself to life the picture partakes of him by way of representation in resemblance in colour in his lineaments and all his exteriour but not in the degree of life and a rational soul All natures are so many rude draughts and expressions of some divine perfection but without any part of the divine
body in the harshest manner he could both for apparrel and rigour of fare The austerities also of barbarous hethens destitute of our hopes may make us blush at our own tepidity they wore shirts of iron which goard their bodies on all sides with sharp pricks they shretchd themselves upon tenter hooks singing the whilst hymnes in praise of their God they cast themselves under the wheeles of the chariots which carried their Idols and sufferd themselves to be bruizd to pieces they abstaind from meat for many dayes together Let it confound us that superstition is more powerful then religion and the phantasticalnes of men then the love of God The XIV Chapter That too much love of our flesh hinders the spirit IF our flesh although it be born with us and the blood which enlivens us be such domestique enemies as to hinder the life of our spirit can flesh that 's only alli'd and consanguinity much avail The spirit ought to blush at the name of alliance how much more at the allies of a fond and disordinate love If the flesh be ashamd of its kindred of the same flesh if it disclaime from obscure kinsfolks and progenitours how much more ought the spirit to be ashamd of all flesh and blood and such like affinity The soul ought to renounce her own flesh which she animates and why doth she disordinately love anothers and that void of life which servd others and perchance serves now only for food and lodging for wormes The noblenes of grace and our alliance with Christ should in all reason be forcible enough to make us forget and blush at our nature without needing the incentives of its basenes corruption and loss of allies O divine truth thou commandest me to hate my kindred that I may become thy disciple If I love them more then thee how shal I become thy spirit adhering to thee one spirit with thee Grant me by thy blood that I may not love my blood but in thine let the blood of Christ obtain so much at our hands that we love not too much the blood of sinful men Christ by his sacred blood would redeem us and become our allie by blood for he was not ignorant of the taintures and defects of our blood and our allies by blood and therfore vouchsafed a reparation The spirit is not bound to follow the lawes and dictamens of the flesh see then o my soul that neernes of blood do not taint thy love God commands thee to hate thy self and thy own flesh and blood how canst thou then love thy friends and kinsfolks otherwise then for God and according to the prescript of vertue Thou mightst with as much reason love gnats or flies as thy allies which nevertheles thou seek'st to destroy Wormes are engenderd by the same carnal parents with thy brethren why adhor'st thou them with such a loathing of stomack more then all and lovest thy kindred with such affection of hart more then God If the ground of this extraordinary love beyond the dictamens of vertue be for that they are engendred of the same Parents wormes have more from them then thy brethren for they gave not these their soul nor are they totally producd by them as the others are Hence kinsfolks and parents love and regard only the bodies of their kindred being little sollicitous for what concerns the good of their soul it being Gods handywork not theirs Yea neither didst thou receive thy body from thy parents but by them from God What lovest thou thy allies because they are parts of thy common progenitours by the same reason thou oughtest to love any of their disseverd members yea though infected with a loathsome canker If thou lovest them for resemblance sake by the same consequence thou mightst love their statua or any other ordinary man What is it to descend from the same family but only to have drawn a litle stenchy matter and corruption out of the same stinking fountain and what is worse sin also Can two with any reason boast because they fel together into the same puddle and were bemird with the same dirt Thy parent begot nasty wormes of a purer nature then thee they being void of sin and thou staind with the filth of original neither wert thou sooner partaker of life then guilty of death He that vainly glories in the nobility of his carnal pedegree seeks to entitle to honour the disgrace of common nature What els is disordinate affection to kindred but a vaunting of that common basenes which we should be ashamd of and a complacence in the ignominy of sin The viciousnes of our nature takes growth and increase by flesh and blood and our misery prospers gaines ground thence the flesh is maximd in principles wholy repugnant to the spirit Our soul no sooner begins to be but by meanes of the flesh it is infected with sin and the contagiousnes spreading still more and more it is the prime cause of all our sinful mortalities We must renounce both blood and kindred that we may be freed from this death of sin by the eross of Christ which we must carry We shal not meet with such harsh encounters as many children and youths have done who by vertue of his cross trampled under foot all flesh blood S. Iohn Goto a Iaponian of our Society at the place of his martyrdome beholding at an equal distance on the one hand the teares and sighs sweet embracements of his weeping parents on the other crosses and gibbets bloody executioners nothing dismaid with such ensignes of cruelty chose rather to cast himself into the armes of the cross then those of his kindred and sleighting couragiously all their enticing allurements â—ann to that which stood prepard for him where dying he purchasd the kingdom of God which is not bought by flesh and blood The XV. Chapter Of the loss of temporal things THe spirit is not much troubled at the loss of temporalities for which it hath more reason to rejoyce One that lies groaning under a heavy waight would he lament if a friend should remove it That which is to be taken away it s much better that God take it then death If divested of all thou be pleasing to God and he pleasd with thee to what purpose seekest thou by the access of creatures and cares to become grateful to him Let himself alone content thee without his guifts and the assurances of temporal commodities God loves not what is thine but thee do not thou love so much what is Gods as God himself Christ dispoild of all mounted the cross dispoild of all he came out of his sepulcher there he left his shrowd behind him naked also he took the citty of heaven and enterd it triumphant For love of thee who art naked he dâ—â—d naked not for love of thy goods and fortuâ—es therfore he seeks thee not them and because he seeks thee he takes these things from thee expecting thee naked in heaven
not worthy o most sweetnaturd God who being ineffable art more affable then any I am not worthy to be the object of thy eyes How wouldst thou have me appear in thy presence and speak to thee o humble majesty who disdainest not the speeches and prayers of men yea desirest exhortest us to pray without intermission and such is mans clownishnes that he loaths thee and thy conversation and makes no other esteem of thee the lover of souls then one would do of a deadly enemy What is the first affront one puts upon his enemy but to deny him speech and we o sweetest truth will not converse with thee because we love not truth for what else would men do if thou hated them but what they now do when thou most tenderly lovest them as one enemy asks not advice of another concerning his affaires and dangers though he be held never so wise so men in the midst of perils and non-plus of redress will not seek to be advisd by thee giving no eare to thy oracles and instructions with which thou dost furnish us in time of prayer Passionate men chuse rather to perish then beg reliefe for their want of their mortal enemy that they may not be forcd to speak to him and such an obstinate malepertnes do they use towards thee o affable ineffability they are often pressd with want they are afflicted they perish because they demand not redress of thee nor will speak to thee what greater signe of enmity then that two living in the same house will not speak to one another man lies if he say he loves God and does not speak to him residing in him Dumb freindship is not distinguishd from hatred God from all eternity o ungrateful spirit cast his thoughts upon thee and thine it is but good reason that we in this short tearm of life consider his divine beauty and approach him who would be so neer to us that he united himself to our nature and lodgeth so often in our breast and that he might not depart from us when he ascended to his father he invented that artificial master piece of his divine Sacrament that he might stil remain with us But our impudence and rechlesnes found also out a way that when we come to God by prayer even then we leave him become absent by letting our thoughts wander abroad and busy themselves with distractions we procure to be estrangd from him that when he comes to us in his most amiable Sacrament we fly to the vain thoughts of other affaires and having entertaind such a guest we quit the room and appear no more But if o man thou carry not this reverential respect to God have at least commiseration upon thy self let thy own necessity perswade thee to a love of prayer if love of God force it not Thou art nothing but ignorance nothing but indigency in prayer alone wilt thou both grow rich and wise in prayer God will open thy eyes to the discovery of wisdome and thy hands to receive reliefe for thy needines Our prayers are as pleasing to God as it is acceptable to him to give that which is most pleasing of all the fruits of a beneficial nature God did not create the world out of avarice that he might have more then he had but out of munificence that he might have to whom to give for this reason he created all things that he might have both to whome and what to give But because we have made our selves unworthy of his liberality the end for which the universe was created fayling our prayers are grateful to God because they make satisfaction for our unworthines by sin by giving occasion to him of doing for their sakes that for which he made all things which is to be beneficent in so much that it seems in a manner to be the same to pray God and restore the universe God cannot hold nor contain himself from being liberal he is perpetually coveting to be beneficial and therfore he exhorts us to pray without intermission because he desires to be giving without intermission Why do we frustrate his desire and our own good beg importunely for this importune impudency in begging is grateful to him God many times differs to grant our demands although he be desirous to give either because we ask after an unworthy manner or not sorrowful for our sins or too confident of our own merits or not with due reverence or begging temporal things too earnestly and spiritual too remisly and for the most part we demand such things and after such a fashion that the very granting our request is sometimes deservedly its punishment Were it a decent manner of asking any thing of a parent if the murderer of his only Son carrying in his hands as yet imbrued with blood the sword wherewith he murderd him should beg of the father the Sons inheritance what an unparalleld impudence were this he deservd to have taken from him what waâ— granted before not to receive new courtesies Men frequently proceed thus either not detesting their faults or remaining impenitent they were our sins that murderd Christ We must go to pray pure and undefiled and not presuming upon our own merits but acknowledging our unworthines dress our selves in the garments of our brother IESVS according to the craft of Iacob that so we may receive a blessing from God Let us cloath our selves with the merits of IESVS which are ours for he lent us them not that they make us formally just and grateful to God but because they are the cause of our sanctification Being so apparreld let us appear in prayer using the mediation of his only-begotten begging of God what he cannot deny us then thou begst not for thy self but for Christ and the favour is done to him If thou make account thou givest to Christ what a beggar asketh in the name of Christ the same is done by the heavenly father If thou be moved when it is demanded for Christs sake how much more readily will God be moved to give an almes is he less merciful then thou art miserable Nevertheles many times thou art not effectual with the father although thou alledge the merits of his Son because the merits themselves and sufferings of Christ are not effectual with thee They say if an Oratour would perswade his auditory he must first of all perswade himself Thou canst not complain of God if he grant thee not those graces which thou demandest by the Passion of his Son since thou wilt not quit thy faults and daily defects for the same how canst thou expect to incline the will of the father to thee for the blood of his Son if for the same thou wilt not yet quit thy own will If thou ask after a les decent manner how canst thou hope to gain thy suit by a petition that 's worthy of punishment men expect to be petitiond not only civilly but submissively and thou presumest to be essicacious with
subject of complaint why shal I esteem what is done to mea contempt if with thee it be reputed a dignity why shall I esteem it an injury if thou reckon iâ— one of thy favours Who would not think himself well sped if being in a continual expectancy of death for an impeachment of high treason he be only fined in a pecuniary mulct or suffer forfeiture of his estate would he take it impatiently or think himself hardly dealt withall and not rather judg himself worthy of congratulation thou o sinner art guilty of treason against the divine maiesty thou deservest to be punished with fire either in hell or at least in purgatory why dost thou not take it in good part if in lieu of that a pecuniary fine be only set upon thee by loss of thy temporalities or decrease of thy reputation or some other commodity or worldly respect He that were to suffer death on a publick gibbet if he chanced to be reprieved by reason of some sicknes he would not a little rejoice although the disease were very painful yea he would wish it of a long continuance in which case nevertheles the penalty is not pardoned but only procrastinated and why dost thou repine at this light fit of sicknes if by it thou escape eternal death because it stirs thee up to compunction or at least the paines of purgatory Be mindful upon all occasions of the patience and fellowship of thy suffering IESVS that it may make thee bear injuries and stand in a true contempt of thy self If that suffice not remember how patient the Divinity is in tolerating the sins of men We contemne God even to his face and offend him in his very presence yea even while he cherisheth us in his bosome and carries us in his armes nor for all that doth he cast us thence or annihilate us but makes his sun rise equally upon the good and the bad Who would hold a lighted candle to an enemy lying in wait to ensnare and undo him that he might use its light to his undoing and would not rather forthwith put it out O the wonderful patience and humility of the Divinity which is both as obsequious to its contemners as any servant and while we contemne him provides us sustenance and ripens and seasons the delicious fruits of the earth that we may fare both plentifully and deliciously The XII Chapter VVhat a great good it is to be subject to another O Inscrutable Wisdome what thanks can I render thee for communicating thy self to me so ignorant by a holy and humble obsequiousnes which is the highest providence and knowledge of man It is proper to the divine wisdome to be inerrable in all and the obedient is also such while he humbly obeyes the commands of his superiour O how great and discreet a prudence is the obedience of the simple regarding all with an indifferent eye how great a blessing must it needs be amidst the darknes which our passions induce and the labyrinths of errour which our concupiscence weaues and the ignorances into which the depraved conversation of men and the customes and practises of the world lead us to hold the right way and be guided most securely without feare of errour no otherwise then if we were steerd by a heavenly conduct and discretion The invention of holy obedience effects this which is the vice-gerent of the divine wisdome the profitablest compendium of prudence What greater signe of wisdome can be imagind then to be secure from errour in all his undertakings prudence must lead the way to other vertues and that is not acquired but with great difficulty but sincere obedience is an easy-purchasd prudence The subject hath this preeminence above his superiour that he cannot err in his function A superiour in commanding may err and be faulty but an inferiour in obeying cannot Well may a superiour command imprudently but a subject in obeying cannot go against prudence unles when that which is commanded is a manifest sin and in that case it were not so much a precept as a temptation A prelate may be defective in commanding but not the obedient because in obeying he cannot but do the will of God The obedient man is alwaies secure and assurd of the divine will although what is enjoined be contrary to the will of God not approving such an injunction he nevertheles that obeyes works according to his wil and sometimes much more meritoriously A superiour may be naughty and command naughtily but because it is alwaies in our power to obey wel so long as no evil thing is imposed each superiour is to be loved yea and an evil one to be tolerated there accrewing thence a twofold merit both of charity and patience A subject may sometimes perswade himself that his own dictamens are more conducing to the good of his soul then the precepts of his superiour but for all that he must not omit to comply with his injunctions for nothing can be more advantagious then out of the motive of charity to relinquish and abandon his own wil and judgment There can be no safer conduct then that of obedience and therfore shutting the eyes of our mind we must without reply do what is injoind supplying by a prompt and affectionate wil what our understanding is not bound to discuss Obedience is such a welcome and rich commodity that no syllogistical discourses are required to induce us to it Obedience is a most evident inspiration from God and an unquestionable revelation wherin one cannot doubt whether it be from God or no. If thou be heldst an Angel approaching thee and denuncing Gods wil concerning the performance of any good work thou wouldst not be slow in compliance with it though it were accompanied with great difficulties thou must be more prompt in accomplishing thy superiours commands because thou maist be more secure of Gods wil in what man commands then in what an Angel And therfore a mans injunction being once made there needs no great busines of consideration nor tergiversation but the greatest praise is in a speedy execution but after the denouncement of an Angel one ought to consider who it is that treats with him whether a spirit from God or the divel whether what he commands be good or the opposite better one would take it for a great favour if in all his actions it were suggested to him by some Seraphin sent from God what he were to do this or that it is no les profitable for us to obey God in man his substitute and our superiour he being as secure a domestick oracle as if one were immediately inspired by the H. Ghost There are two primary causes of sin inconsideratenes of mind and depravednes of wil obedience annuls both these for the obedient submits to anothers judgment and by doing so not only supplies but exceeds the advantages of self-consideration prudence that his wil may not be distort he regulates it by the wil of God
esteem for as art commends it self most when it comprehends great skill in a little compass and we admire nature for compleating in each minute creature all the requisites of life so it is loves masterpiece to bestow its whole mind upon little things and shut up in them an ample and enflamed affection and such a diligence is much more praiseworthy the want of greatnes being supplied by our affection and that is it which adds worth and only is prizable No true estimate of things is made but according to ones affection the least service is great when the affection is great but that many times is greater in little things and therfore an exactnes and compliance with our duty in them will not be les acceptable Great things of their own nature stir up to attention and are les troublesome because les contingent smal things make les impression upon the mind nor awake it so throughly and because more frequent therfore more noisome wherfore the mind that is exact in them takes them more to hart makes it her task to be more vigilant more constant and perseverant in obeying Wherfore he will be held no great zealer of Christ who zeales only great things he will be esteemd no great lover of God who hath relinquished the world and himself in things of higher concernment unles he also do it in minute The perfection of a statuary consists not in unbarking a piece of wood or hewing it into great blocks any rude hand can do this but he only is a cunning artist who leaves not a superfluouschip who carues it to a complete shape the least bit not escaping him unaccomplished Any novice-painter can lay the first grounds or shadowes of a tablet but to bring it to perfection is the task of a skilfull hand and subtile pencil and to consummate such a piece the least limb must be elaborate in like manner Gods image in us is compleated by the least duties of a vertuous compliance That is no absolute picture which hath only a head belly and feet but in which all the parts are wrought to an exact proportion why wilt thou present thy self to God a rude and deformed image for want only of some petty trifle O infinite and most absolute Lord what can I deem little which causeth the least similitude or dissimilitude with or from thee why shal I repute little what thou wishest me to do or avoid why shall omit the least thing that may redound to thy majesty or glory not accomplish all since thou wert pleasd to embrace all without exception for my vile unworthynes and sin O remiss spirit if an Angel from heaven should come and tell thee that God for his greater glory and in thanksgiving for all the benefits conferred by Christ upon mankind would have thee suffer the torments of S. Laurence how ungratefull wouldst thou shew thy self if perchance thou shouldst sleight the favour and make but small reckning of it Behold what wilt thou say God exact not now of thee the girdiron or racks or imprisonment or other torments but only that thou apply thy self to the performance of this petty action and do it not perfunctoriously esteem this a main busines the will of God is that thou do this and it sufficeth Martyrs are esteemd Saints for their patient sufferance of great torments Confessours acquire sanctity by a patient shunning of little faults The former tolerating great pain eschewd the fault the latter tolerating no faults eschewd the paines of Purgatory much greater The XV. Chapter That self praise is to be avoyded HE that loves to be praysed loves an impossibility Prayse proclaimes one good but for this very reason that thou wilt be praised thou art not only void of all good but full of great evill to wit a diabolical evil pride and ambition Although thou hearst thy self praised not thou shalt be praysed but another Praise is only for the good but thou art stark naught who covetest to be praysed He cannot be good or prayse worthy who is so vain as to hunt after commendation Wherfore he ceaseth to be prayse worthy who seeks to be praysed and if he be not prayse worthy he is wholly uncapable of prayse for that will not be for the future which could not be for the time precedent If thou smilest upon thy prayser thou dost in reality applaud thy disprayser because thou art most unjust whether thou thinkest thy self just or no for if thou holdst thy self not such thou rejoycest at a lye if thou holdst thy self just this is unjust enough that thou be preferd before others who art nothing When thou hearest men say thou art extreme just extreme good he that really is such receiveth prayse not thou who neyther art just nor good and so to thee it is rather a dispraise The praise of the just is the dispraise of the unjust For this very reason he is unworthy of commendation and worthy of contempt for grieving at his being contemned and vilified or vainly puffed up with self esteem he that doth not hold himself contemptible pleads an excuse for his contemners Self conceit is the daughter of a lye and Mother of ignorance confusion shame danger self humility is the daughter of truth and mother of merit and instruction whether will be better to be confounded and deceived or to merit and be instructed love only to be praise worthy not praised and this sufficeth Thou shalt only be praise worthy by seeking solely the praise and glory of God and thy own vilification Why hadst thou rather seem good then be so since thou ceasest to be good by labouring to seem such and be vainly esteemd Why lovest thou more to deceive and see others deceived then to frame a true estimate of thy self Why dost thou vilify thy self below a stone thou procuring not only that it be of a sparkling brightnes but that it be not a counterfeyt insomuch that each one is ashamed to wear for an ornament a spurious gem O most laudable truth o glory of creatures with what face durst I so much as once seek my own praise and credit who have so often contemned thee with what face do I seek to be esteemd who although I had been but once negligent in procuring thy greater glory deserve eternally to be vilified how notoriously impudent or rather frantick would he shew himself who should covet to partake of the honour and credit he got who dishonoured thee by buffetting thee or calling thee blasphemer or mocking thee with a reed in the time of thy Passion I am worse then all these and am convinced to be a lyar if I prefer my self before any of them how then dare I so much as think of self praise and esteem what madnes and wickednes is it to seek it nay what impudence o faint harted spirit not to judg thy self worthy of all disgrace nor wish to be contemned by all Thou shalt not therfore be really good because
the guifts of God God himself Nature cannot endure a vacuity nor can God suffer the humble man to remaine evacuated but he must forthwith replenish him That God might become man he evacuated himself and that man may become God one spirit with God must not he do so too it wil be an evacuation of thy self to esteem and regard what concerns thee no otherwise then if thou wert a mere nothing to let no thought which favours of thy self or earthlines be predominant to divest thy self of all evil habits and affections dispoiling thy self of thy self as much as if thou wert but newly created of nothing God evacuated himself for thee demeaning himself as if he had not been God and procuring thy salvation in such sort as if thou alone wert to be saved thou must take divine things as much as lyes in thee so to hart as if thou wert God himself Thou must evacuate thy self in the highest degree and recede from thy self almost to an infinite distance more then if thou wert not at all which thou wilt compass if thou becomest quite another creature by grace and love passing from thy self to God who is infinitly remote from nothing and all essence There are two glorious prerogatives of the divine wil love and power but love seems in some sort more powerful then that very power which can t is true reduce thee to nothing but cannot promiscuously make thee another thing nor the nature of a man the nature of an Angel in which case thou wouldst be more distant from thy self then if thou didst become nothing but he that is beloved by God and reciprocally loves him that fire eating off the dross of all self-affection and humbling and annihilating his will he becomes in a manner a God breathing nothing but the divine wil and pleasure for although he remain still in his own essence yet he remaines not in self-affection but is conforme to Gods appointment as far distant from himself as if he were another thing One man feels not the smart of anothers wounds nor resents the affronts that are put upon others in like manner thou must not as much as is possible be ressentive at all of thy contempt for Gods glory no more then if it concerned not thee but another Again if thou reputest thy self a great sinner thou must consequently perswade thy self that all the crosses and calamities which befall even others are caused by thy defaults and negligences What affliction soever God inflicts is for a punishment and redress of sin and in the course of this life he many times chastizeth the sins of one upon another Therfore since I am the greatest of sinners they are my offences which occasion all miseries and being they are the effects of sin why of others and not them that are the most heynous wars plague famine are penalties and remedies of my delinquencies they are all to me both favors and punishments in my behalf the divine mercy and justice are every where engaged justice and peace give a mutual kiss mercy and truth embrace each other that every where and in all I may o Lord fear thee and love thee be confounded in my maliciousnes and hope in thy goodnes I wonder not at all that the world is plagued with so many calamities since it harbours me I like another Ionas am the occasion of this shipwrack and that tempest which involves many For one sin of Achan the innocent people of God was pittifully scourgd I am a greater delinquent then he why may not I presume that many innocent people are for my sake afflicted with general calamities I o Israel am an anathematizd person in the midst of thee I alone suffice to prophane the whole world I am so impudent that though I share the deepest in sin I make the least satisfaction for my self and others whom I behold groaning under such miseries believing my self to be the occasion I have wrongd all men by my sins I am a debter to all and guilty of all their punishments and humiliations The XXI Chapter That Gods glory is alwayes to be sought THou must acknowledg great obligations to Gods glory and it is but meet that thou be gratefull and a fervent zealer of its advancement We are endebted to Gods glory for our essence for our redemption beatitude and all the good we have God wrought all for his own glory and being he was so beneficial to us for its sake it is but reason that we consecrate all our endeavours solely to it O God of majesty thou seekest our honour upon all occasions is it not meet that man endeavour thine in all he can Thou didst honour man in his creation making him thy own task above other creatures and moulding him with thy own hands nor didst thou content thy self with creating him as thou didst the heavens and other creatures by a word of command but thou wouldst as it were labour in it being obsequious to him even before his being Thou didst honour man in the provision thou madest for him preparing him the magnificent pallace of this world and subjecting all creatures to his beck that he might use them as so many servants Thou didst honour man in his conservation allotting him an Angel Guardian a most noble creature who sees thee face to face and stands in a perpetual fruition of thy beatitude and this thou didst to honour us in all respects deputing for our custody one adornd not onely with the endowments of nature and grace but also of glory Thou didst honour man in his redemption elevating humane nature to the fellowship of thy throne and majesty Thou didst honour man in his remuneration affording him for his light and momentary afflictions no les salary then thy own kingdome and preferment into thy family Thou hast through all a studious regard to mans greater glory Let it confound thee o ungrateful spirit that thou seekst not the greater glory of thy God Procure his glory by thy own contempt he will be so much the more exalted in thee by how much the more thou art depressed God man stand proportioned as doth a cōtinued and severed quantity A number may be augmented without end a stick may be lessend to an infinitude the more a stick is diminished by an ablation of its parts the more the number is stil enhaunced the meaner conceit thou hast of thy self the sublimer wil be thy knowledg of God Thy knowledg of God may be augmented without end self contempt and the knowledg of thy unworthines may increase to an infinity because thou art infinitly despicable Employ thy self in pondering thy own ignominy and how thou art nothing but dust and ashes so shalt thou behold the glory of God which was the end of thy creation Thou wilt spend thy time much les profitably in other subtilties which rather hinder then further the knowledg of God It is certainly known by a wonderfull experience that a vessel fild and
all o wretched spirit be confounded be confounded it will not cost thee so deare to eschew sin it will be enough to shake of slothfullnes Many make but a slender advance because they perswade themselves that such an endeavour towards perfection is not requisite to salvation O ungrateful and pusillanimous creature why dost thou frame such a miserable conceit of thy beatitude or settle such dangerous principles concerning thy eternal weal and have so narrow ignoble thoughts of Gods glory which is immense I beseech thee if thy salvation depended not only upon the keeping the commandments but also the counsels and on it did hang the salvation of all men Angels and the most sacred Virgin and Christs reprievement from the cross wouldst thou not use all possible endeavour to compass it certainly thou wouldst consider then that something of main consequence to witt the glory of God and his good will pleasure which is of higher concernment then the salvation and happines of the whole world considerd by it self then the life of Christs humanity exacts perfection at thy hands If then it be so very important have a care to be exquisite in each minute action and this according to the manner of Gods proceeding whose workmanship is most admirable in little things as an emmet a gnat a bee and the cunning he shewed in the composure of the heavens and stars surpasseth not them in point of art Commence each action with a resolution to performe it Christs grace assisting thee more perfectly then ever hitherto to the benefit of the Church militant to the glory of the Church triumphant to the greater honour of God as if he expected no other benefit from the creation of the world from the redemption of man from the goodly furniture of heaven where he is to be glorified by all the blessed besides this action of thine no otherwise then if thy salvation the weal of the universe and glory of the divinity depended upon each thy least work as if thou wert not to iterate it again nor hence forth to do any other but forth with to give up the ghost Be not sparing then of a little labour with loss of such a commodity God desires that thou shouldst performe this work most exactly and if thou considerest this his desire thou wilt shew thy self extremely perverse if thou compliest not with it or darest reflect upon any annoyance of thy own Sufferance is of it self desirable only to imitate Christ our Saviour without the juncture of any other good neither will it be less acceptable towards the avoiding some fault and accomplishing all most absolutely to Gods greater glory Mans emploiment is doing good for this end hadst thou thy beeing to do good but remember that man is born to labour because without it no good work can be durable or of continuance Do not frustrate thy self of thy end but endeavour by the assistance of Gods grace to imitate the brave attempts of nature which strives alwaies what it can to yeald thee her fruits most complete that thou mayst serve God in the compleatest manner thou canst Be allwaies mindful that thy services are in all respects extreme slender nor carry any proportion at all with that glory which is promisd thee nor with the paines of hell which thou hast deserved by thy sins nor the labours which thy redeemer did undergo for thy sake nor the divine benefits which he hath heapt upon thee nor the immense goodnes of that God to whom thy services stand consecrated The II. Chapter That we must shake off all negligence BE ashamed o lukewarm spirit to sit still upon the race when time and place requires thy running Behold how puddles standing pooles do putrify and iron that lies useles becomes rusty go to the way of spirit is like the eagarnes of racers one must not lag and how much les stand still how will one have leasure to sit when he hath time neither to be weary nor so much as to fall All indeed run but one only wins the prize run so as to reach the goale If God had created all men at the same instant endowed with the use of reason and equal in the enrichments of grace and shewd to them all on the one side the treasures of heavens glory and on the other the hideous torments of hell and let them know by revelation that one onely of all that number were to be saved to wit he who served God with most fervour and diligence who surpassed the rest in sanctity and charity and that all others were to be sentenced to damnation which of all these contemplating the horrour terrour of that infernal pit would not bend all his forces to excel his competitors in sanctity and so escape those dreadful punishments and obtain happines becoming that one who were to be saved with how much zeale of serving God would each ones hart be replenished Every one striving to exceed others none would be found who would not employ his whole endeavour to the end he might out do the rest There would be no place then for loyterers tepidity would not dare to shew her head But with how much more powerful incentives oughtest thou to be inflamd to serve God with greater fervency then any saint hath hetherto ever been who trod the paths of this mortal life The glory of God and compliance with his holy wil ought in reason to be beyond all comparison a stronger motive and more pressing endearment to the service of God then that incumbency of thy salvation O eternal truth why should my profit move me more then thy wil why should self love be more urgent then love of thee it is a benefit incomparably greater that many are entitled to heaven and for this my obligations to thee are much hightned why then art thou now o infirme spirit so tepid and sloathful be mindful of the labours which Christ embraced for thy sake put before thy eyes so many youths who forestall thy victory and tender Virgins who lead the way behold the fervour of the ancient Fathers the pennance humility charity and torments of Martyrs why art thou so lazy since thou hast so many precedents Yea although thou aymedst more at thy own commodity then the glory of God yet it behooud thee not to slacken the raines so much to tepidity Thou needst not fear least thy advantage be les then if thy fervour were eminent above all others and thou that one who were to be saved nay it impots thee now to be more fervourous and more intensely bent upon Gods glory No services now are frustrated of their salary and the better they are the greater glory wilt thou purchase This would not be so in case one onely man were to be saved since one might undergo great labours and reap no profit at all neyther would a greater reward be corresponding to greater services which as then would run hazard of being null and ineffectuall though they
attempt things both unknown and uncertain why can we for love of vertue and the honour of God sustain nothing with constancy he that hopes for a continual and eternal good unjustly shuns labours in its pursuance he that is to be alwayes happy must be alwayes good for Each day condemns mans irreligious facts All seasons open are to vertues acts as saith S. Prosper The greatest grace of all other is to preserve the grace which is given thee and thy chief work not to surcease from doing works As a creature would be very deformed without head and life such a monster is a good life without a corresponding end We have received grace without any paines but we must conserve it both by grace and paines The beginning of a thing is accounted half its accomplishment but unles it end wel all comes to nothing In the matter of perseverance the end is all in all for nothing is done so long as any thing remaines undone It imports little to have laboured hard all ones life long if he faulter in the end The sole last moment of perseverance is more available then all the years by past for all their fruit proves rotten if it did not borrow thence a preserving soundnes Thou wilt think it a hard task to persever but it is much harder to begin again and much more then that to begin often Wherfore it is both more easy and more conducible to persever once then to begin often Horses force themselves les in a continued course of drawing a chariot then after having stood stil when they are to move it again Water which hath been once heated being taken of the fire becomes more cold then at first If fervour be wanting in thy proceedings thou also perchance wilt be more tepid then in the beginning Many grow faint-harted in the course of perseverance because they find difficulty in doing good but they do not therfore evade that difficulty for it is only perseverance that makes all easy If thou hadst the courage to begin a hard task thou mayst wel continue it that being much more easy Thou hast found so long by experience that it is neyther disproportioned to thy strength nor grace why then contrary to so long proof art thou now diffident thinking thy self unable to bear it what is eyther past or to come is not burdensome for the present do not grasp the difficulty all at once for it comes not so but by piece meale cōmensurate to the parts of time As thou wast able before to support it so art thou now and wil be henceforth It wil not be more noysome then it was but the heat of the difficulty wil remit by length of time and custome Accustome thy self to do wel and thou wilt forget to do ill Custome overcomes difficulty because it overcomes nature and what then wil grace do if custome overcome nature much more wil a wel-orderd charity in thee overcome the deordinations of nature It is better many times to fulfil a good purpose or consummate a work already begun then to begin another though otherwise more perfect because by inuring thy self yealding to a ficklenes of mind neither wilt thou performe that other Seldome can any work occur which is better then constancy in fulfilling a good purpose Good purposes are to be kept although they be not of any great regard because albeit in themselves it imports but little whether they be kept or no yet it is extremely important to be constant no wayes changeable Who is more constant in making good purposes then he who least intends to keep them If thou learnst a firm perseverance in one good against another thou wilt learn it more firmly against evil wilt not vary like time in this time of serving God O eternal truth grant me grace to serve thee eternally help o Christ my weaknes thou who with such indefatigable love tookest upon thee all our infirmities thou who never art weary with tolerating my impudent negligences grant that I may never be negligent any more nor desist impudently from thy service but may learn to brook swallow all morsels of difficulty Let me learn o Lord perseverance by thy love who when thou lovedst thine thou didst love them even to the end thou who didst persever hanging upon the cross and wouldst not desert it though the Iewes promised upon that condidition to believe in thee the Son of God who being ful of irksomnes anguish and a bloody sweat didst persist nevertheles and seeke redress by red oubling thy prayers Go too o remiss spirit tel me what must thou covet to do for thy IESVS who persevered for thee amidst the sorrowes of death and the cross who when he loved thee loved thee even to death what I say must thou covet but to do good and suffer evil These are the chief ambition of a soul that loves IESVS that which makes most for perseverance A good work presents it self what hinders thee from doing it but the trouble which accompanies it but mark wel that here concurs a second commodity of suffering evil and attend now that the good is doubled ther is superadded to this work both to suffer evil and do good Thou canst pretend no excuse for thy non-perseverance because that only hinders thee which ought to be the sum of thy desire to suffer for thy beloved If the love of IESVS were enkindled in thee all backwardnes tribulation and extrinsecal impediments would no more oppress thee then fire is with wood which forthwith more inflames it But if thou be so coldly chil that the love of God finds no fewel to feed on let thy own advantage and hope of future joy incite thee Dispair of coming off with life is wont to add valour to souldiers make them way through the thickest dangers divine hope of eternal life is yet more forcible and wil make thee more valiant and daring With this hope attempt thy enterprizes and persever cheerfully A cheerfull acceptance feels neyther labours nor trouble though otherwise the thing be laborious enough He that exerciseth himself in military games or at ball is wont to take more paines then one that hires himself forth to day-task and yet he feels it not because he takes it by way of pleasure and content If thou wilt conclude happily in the last hour be sure to begin each hour if thou intend to persever begin alwayes a new Excuse not thy negligence by indisposition of body self love for the most part deceives thee and makes thee do thy actions remisly Thy body is able to do more then thou thinkst if thy fervour of mind were but vigorous its force infusing strength even into weak and feeble limbs A lunatique person though exhausted with sicknes can do more then 4. that are sound the vigour of our mind sometimes communicates it self to the body If the infirmity of a malady can make one strong how much more the strength of grace and
soul and inflame it with his lightsome ardours But with how great charity and obedience must I make this oblation of Christ with so much greater then Abraham did when he was to sacrifice his dearest Son by how much Christ exceeds Isaac and the common cause of all mankind the particular of one single man If God should have commanded the most B. Virgin as he did Abraham to sacrifice for mans redemption her only and dearly beloved Son and she full of a motherly affection were to naile his hands and feet to the cross with what vehement flames of love amidst a torrent of teares with what quicknes promptitude and obedience would she have done it deeming her self happy for such a task o priest consider what an office is deputed to thee that thou thy self art the sacrificer of the Son of the Virgin the Son of God But a greater favour is done to thee then would be done in that case to the most H. Mother of God for thou never canst thank God sufficiently for inventing a meanes how thou mightest sacrifice the Son of God without any payn to him without expense of blood or the torments of death and mayst offer all the paynes of IESVS all his blood and deadly pangs to his Father in the self-same manner as if they were here really exhibited Stand amazd o Priest at thy function behold the world all in suspense over thee how dreadfull is it to see thee stand voyd of all attention where thou shouldst be replenishd with an awfull veneration and immersed in the dregs of creatures while thou performest an office next in dignity to the divinity it self when thou elevatest the body of Christ thou drawest all the Saints to such a spectacle and engagest as I conceive the eyes and knees of the admiring Angels and yet for all this canst thou be distracted the very dead themselves adore God in thy hands as a devout servant of God F. Peter Savedra beheld the body of S. Didacus to arise and worship Christ in the hands of the priest and canst thou thy self who elevatest him be in the mean time unmindfull of so redoubted a majesty and not reverence him from the depth of thy hart contemplate round about thee the Hierarchies of Angels with bended knees and multitudes of divels forced to an humble acknowledgment for if each knee both celestial terrestrial and infernal bend at the name of IESVS how much more will they at the presence of IESVS Consider how signal thy purity ought to be who art appointed Christs substitute to cleanse the world by him from its sinful ordures Thou shouldst not appear like a man but a very Angel and shine more purely then the heavens themselves What do I say o how mean and disproportioned is the comparison of an Angel to a priest since the power of priestly dignity is higher exalted above the prerogatives of a nature Angelical then is an Angel in its kind above a worm God who is so profusely good was pleased to honour his creatures by calling them into part of his charge and providence he designd the Angels chiefly for his coadjutors and Vice-gerents in natural things and therfore made them publique ministers of nature not dispensers of grace and his substitutes in the work of our redemption They preside over the parts of the earth and chief quarters of the world it is their task to conserve the kinds and natures of things but as for producing in others the supernatural guift of grace they have no lawful nay nor any ordinary authority as Priests have whom he chose for his immediate coadjutours in the stupendious work of our redemption and justification they as the Vicars of Christ dispence forth grace and make men the children of God They exercise a kind of power over the naturall Son of God himself IESVS while they consecrate his Body and offer sacrifice They work prodigious miracles The Angels take complacence in serving a Priest as they did Saint Eusebius esteeming this service a high piece of honour How much is grace elevated above nature certainly more sublimely without comparison then the nature of an Angel is above dung How much will guarding a man fall short of making a man God by elevating him to a divine state Which is more honorable to have a care of one or of all to provide for one or all to govern some particulars or appease God for the generality thou mayst hence conclude how eminently a Priest is priviledgd in power above an Angel The sole dignity of Christ is onely worthy of Priesthood IESVS alone as being the first begotten of God obtaynes by title of right a dignifying dignity Notwithstanding this o Mary most loving Mother Mother of Christ and all sinners cloath me in the garments of thy first begotten by a perfect imitation of life as Rebecca did Iacob that I may at least with less unworthines offer that lamb to his eternall Father which thou gavest me for a delicious dish on which thou knowest him to feed with much gust and appetite The XI Chapter That God is to be desired and received with longing in the Eucharist O Desirable truth what do I hear from thy mouth the oracle of all truth with a desire have I desired to eat with you this Paschal How comes it to pass that a man of desires obtaines of God whatsoever he covets and the God of desires cannot obtain of miscreant man his just demands the abstemious Daniel obtaind grace of God by desiring and thou o Lord the replenisher of soules and divider of the bread of heaven shalt not thou prevail so far with me by so many desires and engins of love as to make me yeald up the cittadel of my hart to thee who seekst entrance by so many stratagems and services o languid spirit what canst thou desire but what God desires desiringly but what o Lord desirest thou by entring into my body dost thou covet to become identifyd with me whilst thou covetest to be united to me what object suitable to the greatnes of thy majesty canst thou desire besides thy self thou covetest o Lord to be with me but after such a manner that I may be transformd into thee becoming one body or concorporeal with thee as the members are with their head as also one spirit adhering to God that he may be with me and I with him Charity used a strange disposall when it ordaind that I should be thy mansion-house and thou shouldst remaine in me and I in thee I living for thee as thou for thy Father thou desiring nothing of me nor for me besides thy self nor ceasest thou to covet upon so due a score or just pretence though prescinding from thy self thou findest nothing in me desirable Come o Lord come and take possession of my hart which thy desires most justly challenge O how much do I betray my nothing nor can I resist this claym of desires was it not sufficient o benesicent truth to have
obligd me with deeds and guifts why was it necessary to engage me with thy desires my miseries have bereaud me of all comfort for seing my works to carry but smal proportion with thy benefits it was some relief to endeavour satisfaction by wishes and desires but they also becoming due to thee what now is remnant o Lord how worthily art thou the butt of all desires who desird so desiringly how can I have leasure to fix my desires upon any thing els besides thee the God of desire how can my thoughts or concupiscible powers suspend themselves from the desire of thy most H. Body where the whole man becomes Christ In other Sacraments participations of grace he is made one spirit with God but in this he moreover becomes one flesh with Iesus such a strict union interceding that it is tearmd by the H. Fathers substantial natural and real in so much that now I am wholly thine and one with thee regard and reverence my self as flesh partaking of thy flesh which the most B. Virgin handled and worshipd with so much devotion being jointly two in one flesh I being able to glory and say I am now flesh of Christ a bone of the bones of IESVS This is a great Sacrament in Christ and his Church by that mystery in which we become concorporeal with the king of glory the Son of God and the Virgin Mary Now loving thee o Lord I wil love my self for no body ever hated his own flesh and thou loving thy flesh lovedst me also making both thine mine joynt-sharers of the same favours treating mine as thy own by the priviledg of the resurrection for although other just men both antient Prophets Patriarchs were not to enjoy a resurrection yet those should who dye partakers of this Sacrament of our Lords Body neyther shal this befall them only in regard of the merits of their soul but also for the dignity of their flesh O Lord thou wast desired by all nations that common nature might share of thy communications why do not I desire thee that thou mayst become individual to me one with me by that admirable inconfused conjunction with my particular flesh spirit Therfore o Lord because we do not desire as we ought thou didst vouchsafe to do it least so great a benefit should be deprived of its due love esteem Thou causedst other blessings to be sought and chiefly that of the Incarnation but thou wouldst have the institution of the venerable mystery of thy body and blood to come merely gratis without the expense of the desires of all nations That Sacrament came as an unexpected boon and unlookd-for charity that all our desires might be reserved and employd in a due reception of it and yet for all this we are not enflamed a desire of this mystery is so acceptable to thee that thou wonderfully secondest it and condescendest to a soul that longs to receive thee B. Stanislaus a novice of our Society being more then once in such acondition that he could not satiate his longing desire by feeding on this celestial bread with much ardour of devotion desired what he could not then enjoy and forthwith the Angels brought what he desird and made him eat of that sacred banquet Because the Body of Christ is seldome received with a due desire God would not let this occasion of a worthy reception slip or frustrate it beholding that B. soul in such a spiritual famine and eagernes of appetite Thou taughtst us o IESV teacher of all truth to come to this Sacrament with much tendernes of devotion but we do not imitate the devotion thou exhibitedst towards it by desiring I know not how we can if we love Christ behold this mystery without weeping eyes for a spouse cannot behold the pledg which her fellow-spouse bidding adieu towards a long journy left her for a memorial without a longing desire of his return We must not only endeavour to receive it worthily but even as worthily as possibly we can For besides that an infinite majesty requires all possible reverence and the immense sanctity of IESVS all purity imaginable we shal derive thence a great increase of grace Thou gavest us o Lord 3. documents to make us approach it with greater worthines a fervent love in desiring an exquisite purity a profound humility which thou didst exhibit in washing the feet of thy Disciples What shal I say of purity thou oughtest o lover of Christ in thy access to this table to possess it in such eminency that its beames must be no less refined then if thou wert presently to give up the ghost Thou must endeavour with more earnestnes desire and sollicitude to prepare thy self to the Eucharist then to death nay in some respect of profit more then if thou wert about to enter into the glory of God IESVS washed the feet of his Disciples being to impart his Body to them although they were already clean and notwithstanding when he sent them like lambs in the midst of wolves in such a present hazard of death when he took them along with him to Mount Tabor as eyewitnesses of his glorious Transfiguration he used no such preparative nor when in glory he eat with them after his resurrection One would be pretty wel disposed for death if he were but in the state of grace for although he were not altogether free from tax of paine or venial culpablenes yet before he stood in the presence of God he would be purifyd by cleansing flames I wish with all my hart that a Purgatory did precede the receiving of this Sacrament but because it doth not it imports me to look most narrowly into my self and prepare and refine my self from the least blemish of imperfection or debt of any penalty and supply as wel as I can by diligence and an ardent love the fire of purgatory and although all immunity both from paine and fault be requisite to gain admittance into glory nevertheles no respect is had but to precedent grace and works neyther is the divine indulgence doubled in regard of the disposition as it is distinct from merit but in the Eucharist a more ample clayme and title to glory wil be acquird even in regard of each ones disposal over and above that which is allotted to his merits he that makes it his task to till the soyle of his soul and dispose it better and better the richer Crop shal he reap thence besides the reward of his good works one ought to be much more ambitious of pleasing God and standing gracious in his eyes which is the effect of grace then of joying in the fruition of his glory if the amplenes of his beatitude were not commensurately corresponding to his grace the proportion which God holds All mediums that dispose us to glory by good works distinct from the Sacraments obtaine grace under one only title but preparation to the Eucharist under a double gains afterwards
lives and most remote from a soul endowed with reason how much more from a spirit which breaths God A dog will hear his masters call so will not an oak or fig tree the husbandmans nor he that over feeds himself the voyce of God He to keep Adam to his duty enacted the first law of fasting the only one of that most happy state so to recommend more earnestly to us the vertue of abstinence as if it alone were sufficient to preserve innocency and other vertuous endowments putting man in a fit disposition to hear and adhere to God Our Lord would commit the tuition of his beloved child Adam and his Benjamin of creatures to no nurse but fasting into whose faithfull hands he entrusted him that it might be the foster-Father of man and his instructer to obedience But this precept being violated Adam forth with fled from the voice of God caring so little to adhere to him that he would not only not seek nor approach him but sought to avoid God who sought him He renders himself wholly unfit for all who is not abstemious he will resist Gods holy inspirations and withdraw himself from his familiarity being weand as much from the divine breasts as he yealds to these sensual appetites What commerce betwixt God and ones belly how can God affect him who affects only his gut as his God How canst thou endure o divine truth to dwel in him who is such an arrand idolater it was anciently held a high strain of folly for men to kneel by way of worship to those things that were the handy-work of men and how fond a thing is it for thee an intemperate man to set thy hart upon that which thou destroiest and wil destroy thee towitt meat and its rellish How intendest thou to feast with God to lead a celestial kind of life to fly with him upon the wings of the winds to immortality if thou takest complacence in the life of those things which stick to the earth and are rooted and half-buried in it The life of self-pamperers is extremely mortal for such is the life of plants which are in part overwhelmed with earth Those that feed their belly increase their mortality by fatning what is mortal in them becoming more mortal by hindering eternal life by defiling their mind and so contracting their soul as to render it only corporeal Adam by breaking his fast became forthwith mortal thou becomest every day more mortal by stuffing thy self with dead things and feeding greedily on slaughterd creatures and seasond for this end that they may be entombed in thee but so much more happy shalt thou be by how much thou partakest of immortality and thou shalt partake so much the more of it if thou inure thy self to a spare dyet and to feed on unsavory meats All our life in this world is bitter full of labour and afflictions wherfore it is impertinent to go about to repayr maintain it with sweet things Eat only that thou mayst live let thy meat be such as is the rest of thy life Thou livest not to eat but to dye and thou eatest that thou mayst not dye quickly Death assailes him sooner that feeds too plentifully and delicately Food must be the medicine of life not its poyson and destruction Let thy own hunger and the gall and vinegar of Christ be all thy sauce and seasoning who for that end drunk it upon the cross because whosoever combats against sin must not seek after savory meats and the adjoyning of hyssop with a spunge signifyes the vertue of cleansing that we might have a model how to purge our soules By frugality and untoothsome meat the divine character which is engraven in us becomes more resplendent and the holy purity of our mind is refind that it may be united to God made more capable of divine impressions for if fasting drive out the stubbornest dive is from anothers body much more forcibly wil it attract God so facil and benign into our own If such be the vertue of fasting that by it thou canst purify others much more wil it sanctify thy self He breaths somewhat divine who breaths abstinence and hunger the body it self is in a certain manner elevated by the force of a disengagd spirit Iron is ponderous but it becomes light by the spirit and vertue of the loadstone and if thou also fasten and hang thy self upon God he wil sublimate thy body by the vigour of thy spirit rendring it intellectual and incorporeal The composition also of thy body is rarefyed by abstinence in such sort that divine irradiations penetrate more easily into the soul and she more dextrously steers the other squard more fitly to it by a proportionable demolishment as being disbarked of that fat rind that environd it for a great weight is no wayes weildy or commodiously mannageable Lastly abstinence containes so great a good that there is nothing to which it is not extreme beneficial Other vertues adorne the soul but abstinence is salutiferous both to body and soul Both Saints Philosophers by embracing it protracted their life to a faire old age We men designd to be immortal had contented our selves in that most happy state of innocency to feed only upon hearbs the fruits of the earth now temperance also restores to man that golden age Spare diet conduceth to the health of the body it is a natural restaurative an universal medecine fit to be applyed to al kinds of diseases The skilfullest Physitians prescribe it for the first recipe in all maladies for oppletion is the metropolis or head-city of diseases and deaths chief sergeant All the untimely deaths of yong people are in a manner caused by excess in diet But if frugality be effectual against all the indispositions of the body it wil also give redress to those of the soul Hunger makes the proud to stoop the covetous to disburse the lazy slouthful it forceth to work it renders the luxurious chast the angry man calmely patient If then frugality even when it is forced makes head against all vices if when it is no vertue it can engender vertues what remaines when it is a true and sincere one but that must needs associate God to a soul and make him its constant sejourner God took complacence in conversing with Moyses and Elias when they were both in a long fast But after the same manner that it expels puts the divels to flight saturity bereaves us of God Vnles thou resolve to banish this vice and establish in thy soul the vertue of temperance thou maist wel dispaire of the rest It wil be the same as if one being desirous to beat away a troublesome dog should in steed of a stone throw at him a crust of bread A domestique enemy must first be vanquishd ere we can fal abord with a foraign The XIII Chapter That one must take account of his proceedings by a frequent examen of himself MEN do seldome cast a
reflex eye back upon their life and therfore frequently they find it very bad for the most part they never deliberate about their actions if now and then at the most it is what they are to do seldome what they have done and yet they can scarse know how it is to be wel done unles they reflect what hath been amiss Future gaines arise from the consideration of losses by past Merchants summ up their dayes traffique and if they find themselves loosers they purpose to make it up another day by other advantages Masters exact an account of their servants even to a minute busynes and why is the soul of man more pretious then heaven and earth sleighted as a thing of no reckning in the expense of a three penny matter they are precisely scrupulous but can easily disgest the loss of an eternal gain The commonwelth without magistrates wil become the mere sink of villany a field untild a nursery of brambles The sin of Adam corrupted our heart more then it did the earth If thou dost not cultivate thy conscience it wil branch forth into innumerable vices Thou must o remiss spirit be unmerciful in exacting an account of thy self that thou mayst deserve mercy at the hands of God Many have run evident danger of miscarrying by reason of their hidden sins The world is involved in darknes thou wilt scarse be able to know thy self when thou searchest into thy self how wil the case stand if thou search not at all but if thou knowst not thy self why art thou sollicitous eyther to know or have any thing els for although thou possess the whole world and be expert in all sciences thou wilt both be a fool and poor and despicable because thou dost not possess thy self who art better then all things and by whome thou shalt have all and not possessing thy self thou wilt possess nothing and thy knowledg wil serve to no other purpose but make thee err and abuse creatures The sole wise man is rich happy is he who is master of himself acknowledging his own vilenes and makes that his search and comes as it were to finger it One loves to know the horse he is to ride on one wil have the number of his cattle and sheep and is content to be only ignorant of himself and sin without number Why wil man be such a great enemy to himself as not to regard himself but if thou wilt hate thy self to thy advantage do it I pray by abhorring thy self not by forgetting By looking into thy self thou wilt abhor thy self by abhorring thy self thou wilt correct thy self and by correcting be acceptable to God Although we wil not examine our selves God wil leave nothing unrevengd But if we would judge our selves we should not at all be judged But while we are judged we are chastizd by our Lord that we may not be condemnd together with this world O meekest truth who appointest us judges of our selves in a case of delinquency against thee what more merciful o unspeakable clemency that the divine justice rests satisfyed with our humane verdict if any one that is assoild for some heynous fact expected a judge to be designd by his Prince to determine the cause and give sentence how desirefully sollicitous would he be that some one of his kindred or country or acquaintance should be deputed how would he rejoyce if one allyed by blood or intimately familiar with him were appointed behold thy happy lot and the divine benignity who wil have thee to be judge of thy self if two courts of judicature were proposd to a criminal in one wherof presided an uncouth rigid man who proceeded with the strictest severity in the other his kinsman of a milder temper who used a more favorable interpretation of the law if he would chuse to be arraignd at that most rigorous tribunal what would such a choise differ from madnes and dispair o how madly desperate would that man shew himself who should refuse to be brought to a bar where I wil not say his friend and allye but even the criminal himself shal be judge but would stand to the verdict of that other most impartially just where God shal be the severe inquisitor and offended judge If thou wert to have thy wish in chusing an umpyre of thy misdemeanours eyther thy partner in the same fault or thy accuser and the party offended wouldst thou refer thy self to this latters arbitration not thy companion but thou thy self or God offended must be thy judge and he who is undoubtedly to punish thee It is impossible for thee to avoyd some punishment and condemnation eyther judg thy self or our Lord wil severely adjudge thee to torment Do not then shun thy own judgment for so thou shalt shun the divine and not be condemned at that tribunal Be sure not to make greater account of any temporal thing then of exacting an account of thy self neyther is there any thing more reasonable then this If we be desirous to reforme others why wil we leave our selves deformed and irregular summon thy self at least twice a day to the bar and judge thy self most impartially as if that were the dreadful day of the last doom If at that hour when all mankind standing appalld with horrour perplexity before the judgment seat of Christ to receive their definitive sentence the judge should deal so favorably with thee alone as to separate thee from that huge mass content thou shouldst on this condition be thy own examiner that if thou judgd and punishd thy self in good earnest he would stand to thy judgment but if superficially thou wert to be added to the main heap to be adjudgd without all mercy together with them to torment what immense thanks wouldst thou deem this favour of Christ worthy off with what sollicitude wouldst thou search prye and sift into thy self not sparing thy self in the very least such a favour is now granted thee negotiate in thy daily examens and Confessions Gods cause seeking seriously his greater glory and thy own confusion Next consider Christ judging with all severity the rest of mankind and pronouncing the concluding sentence of damnation beholding him on the other side crucifyed for thy sake and thy self alone busy in discussing thy self at his feet on Mount Calvary together with the Mother of IESVS Iohn and Magdalen melting into teares even the beloved IESVS himself weeping and crying father forgive him for he knowes not what he doth Employd in the self-same thoughts come to thy Confessors feet in full hope of pardon if thou be not too indulgent in pardoning thy self considering thy IESVS little regarding thy sins and their punishment and only sollicitous to sign thy pardon laying aside all thought of their number and greatnes as being only desirous to shew favour and indulgence because he had committed to thy care and trust a diligent enquiry into them and a due revenge by way of satisfaction Be faithful to Christ and let
nothing pass unpunished and he most faithful to thee will exhibite nothing but mercy Reduce first of all into thy mind the matter wherof thou art to give account to witt all the benefits heaven hath conferred upon thee next examen in what thou hast abused them together with thy ingratitude lastly humble thy self be sorry bewail even thy least defects and purpose firmly by Gods assistance never to fall into the same Strengthen this thy purpose as men are wont to strengthen their contracts first before witnesses renew it in the presence of the Angels and Saints and then security for performance being given call the B. Virgin and thy special Patrons and appoint them suerties adding also a penalty of forfeiture Impose upon thy self in case of relapse some voluntary affliction by way of pennance strive allwaies to advance in goodnes for if the Angels conceive joy for one sinner becoming repentant why will there not be much more jubily for the just in his progress from vertue to vertue wax not negligent in this search into thy self it being the key which unlocks all the treasures of fervour Many religious men become tepid by reason of their remissnes in this exercise hence many grow lukewarm hence diverse old souldiers in the service of piety have forsaken their colours after a lamentable manner because contenting themselves with a sleight and superficial search and sorrow what they seemd to bemoan this hour they committed the next Thou neglectest not daily to renew and reenforce the decayd spirits of thy body twice a day by corporal refection it imports thee to be no les industrious in recruiting the forces of thy soul and good purposes by sifting into thy actions yea not twice but at the end of each work whether thou hast performed it wel or no God who was no way obnoxious to errour considered examined all his works as soon as he had made them He created light and presently taking a view of it saw that that fair creature was good He made the luminary bodies and forthwith contemplating them perceived they also were good He daily entered into examen of each work in particular and then a general survey of them all and found that they were very good So must thou view each of thy actions apart then all of them together If thou hast not performed them well thou wilt by the line square of a due discussion of thy conscience discover what is amiss to amend it for the future Moyses in the bosome-retirement of his breast cleansd that hand which he found coverd over with leprosy This serious examen of ones self is the storehouse of vertues there the fear of God there humility self-knowledg compunction perseverance fervour there prudence is minted to a currant coyn Lay wait chiefly to intercept some one vice which thou must with importunity both prosecute and persecute till thou hast utterly vanquishd it and after this manner by little and little must thou endeavour to subdue them all The XIV Chapter How we must be affected towards others LET this be thy employment all the day long in all thy own actions even those that are commendable to accuse thy self and in thy neighbours though discommendable to excuse others It fares not with our conscience as it doth with our countenance we see other mens faces not our own but we behold our own conscience not anothers wherfore we ought and are only able to judg and condemn our selves If thou thy self who art only able to discerne thy own conscience findst it a difficult busines to pass verdict upon many of thy actions whether they be good or bad whether thou hast given consent or no how darest thou judg others whose harts are unfolded to none but God If thou canst not discover thy own mind why dost thou judge of anothers if thou art unable to discern thy own how darest thou pass sentence upon thy neighbours If thou weighest not thy own proceedings why dost thou draw others into thy ballance but for the most part those that stand idle in the market-place are the people which busy themselves in murmuring and slandering others so he that neglects his own soul spends his censure more freely upon his neighbours We might long ago have learnd by experience how lyable our judgments are to errour Even in corporal things and those which have but an extrinsecal appearance and colour our senses are very frequently deluded how much more obvious is it to err in judging the harts of men of which they have no perceivance at all whose motions are swaid by free will and in which Gods grace works secretly so many miracles Although one seem to have clear arguments to ground a sinistrous suspicion yet one ought not to judge sinistrously because he may easily judge amiss While the companions of S. Boniface were busy in his search they suspected not without ground according to the tenour of his former behaviour that he was in the company of some lewd harlot but he in the meane time burning with a far different flame of the love of God was suffering cruel torments for the faith of Christ So fallacious was a probable judgment how much then wilt thou miscarry in thy groundles and improbable suspicions he that is in superiority over another and is by office to judge must not condemn him unles he prove evidently faulty in things doubtful the criminal is absolved how darest thou of thy own uncertain and erroneous brain condemn him who is better then thy self by whom thou art to be judged If thou didst love others as Christ commands thee thou wouldst not judg them charity covers a multitude of sins â—or this reason thou forbearest to judg thy self because self love inclines thee to excuse thy self and if thy love towards thy brethren were such thou wouldst not censure but excuse them Christ being to judge mankind he himself became man and vested himself with our nature and thou also if thou wilt judg or reprehend another must put on his person and proceed with him as thou wouldst be proceeded with all Let this be the first feat of thy charity not to be scandalized or offended with thy brother the second not to offend him the third to help and assist him in what thou art able nevertheles because thy love is but lukewarm thou art often defective in thy duty and takest offence unjustly even at the innocent disdaining them many times that are acceptable to God Where is thy charity towards him where is thy love to IESVS if those be a displeasing eye sore to thee who are so pleasing to him so deep in his favour and do him better service then thou a sinner if thou lovedst God and his immense goodnes thou wouldst love all for his goodnes the good because they are good the bad because they may be good Not only an elaborate piece of workmanship but the very materials of which it is made are had in no smal request
fruition of good things is sayd to be casual because they happen casually but seldome so doth not the multiplicity of evils wherfore his joy wil suffer les interruption who joyes least in wordly solaces O what a content is it to disburden ones self of himself and to live exempted from all importune and carking care of self seeking interest I conceive that he who hath quitted and relinquished himself hath evaded in greatest part the miseries and vexations of this life Neyther is it a mean fruit of a serious and sincere hatred of our selves that it causeth us to love others Consider how insolent and powerful an enemy self love is it hath so much of the tyrant that it intrencheth upon charity and outing it supplies its functions both towards man and God himself it alone consuming and devouring all the affection intended for both He that loves himself disordinately knowes neyther how to love God nor his neighbour he that truly hates himself will love even those that annoy and persecute him he wil rejoyce if any one do wrongfully oppress him knowing that to be depressed in him which is his main obstacle opponent and ought in all reason to be hated and persecuted by him and since no body takes it ill if one jointly together with him molest and infest his deadly enemy but rather holds him worthy of thanks so he that is a hater of himself wil rather love then be otherwise affected towards one that lends a helping hand to persecute him Another and no sorry fruit of self hatred is that it makes us detest sin all that viperous brood descends lineally from self love which is the parent and nurse of all vice and concupiscence and from it all the rest of that gang derive their pedegree He that rejoyceth at an injury wil not offend by being angry nor he that covets to be contemned by pride nor he by impatience who esteems himself worthy of all punishment It is no mean fruit that it removes all impediments in the love of God it is no smal benefit that it subdues thee to thy self and puts thee in a full and peaceable possession of thy self Lastly if thou wilt know what huge advantages arise from self hatred thou must consider how much grace surpasseth sin and vertue vice it is so much more excellent to hate ones self out of vertue then to love out of vice If men even to their utter undoing hate those that have much les endammagd them then thou thy self thou who of all others hast been thy saddest foe must out of the motive of vertue prayse recompense do no les The XI Chapter How we are to love our neighbour O Amiable Truth grant that I may love thee above all and all others for thee give thy self and not riches nor deceitful goods unworthy of love to my friends and all those whom I wish wel Learn o infirm spirit to love creatures without being injurious Many times the manner of loving stands parallel with that of hatred or contumely Thou wilt do a friend whom thou lovest a great injury if thou wish him riches as a real and solid good for by so doing thou shewest thy self to love them better then him for them thou lovest as being all sufficient him as needy wherefore thou wilt rather chuse to want him then them Hence fortune is the umpyre of friendships and its vicissitude is the death of love and birth of treachery Hence an equal danger ariseth to sincere fidelity whether thou lovest thy friend for riches or riches in thy friend As it is also a like tenour of true friendship when thou lovest all for God when thou lovest him alone in them because he alone is the object of thy love Thou wouldst love nothing els but God in all if thou lovedst nothing but him This must be the touch stone of thy love to try whether it be true charity or no. He that loves not riches at all cannot love them as good to another Let God be the common benefit which thou intendest to bestow upon all whom alone if thou give thou wilt make them rich enough And be sure to regard more such benefits in which thou lovest all then such by which thou shalt be loved by all for he that loves all truly as it behooveth shal be saved but he shall not therfore be saved because he is loved by all We must not be so base-conceyted of love as to hold it saleable at any rate it must allwayes be given gratis He sels God who bestowes a charity upon another out of any other motive then charity Cast thy courtesyes into no bodies dish but as thou esteemst whatsoever is conferd upon thee by others as so many blessings coming from God and thankfully attributest them to him alone so must thou esteem it Gods blessing not thine whatsoever thou impartest to others yea reckon this as the greatest of all that he would be pleased to use thee for his instrument and Almner in dividing his benefits Ground thy love towards others not upon temporal motives but spiritual for that foundation which is layd upon them and not upon the H. Ghost is covetousnes not charity not love towards man but list and lust of creatures In like manner be as forward in doing good offices to others as thou wouldst have God to be towards thee proceed upon no other tearmes with others then he doth with thee Grant o love of loves that I may love all as thou lovedst me and all grant that I may love all for thee and none love me for my self I could rather wish if it might be done without sin that each one should hate me rather then love me if they would love me for my self for if each one did hate me I should have but my due if they loved me for my self I should usurp what is thine All that love is impure which is not purely for God The sole love of God alone is onely sincere and refind from â—ll dregs since it neyther mixeth it self nor suffers mixture with contrary affections Other loves are wont to occasion eyther envy or anger or hatred against the party beloved or some other the love of God is immutable and eternal other loves are flitting â—â—eeting Therfore I shal reckon it among my gaines to be loved for thee my God not for my self The XII Chapter That nothing is to be covetted but what God willeth VVHich is more conforme to reason that thou by conformity subject thy wil to the divine or that it servant-like become conforme to thine wilt thou perchance be so self conceyted as to think that thou eyther art better then God in thy wishes or more sound in giving advise remember how often thou hast preferd evil before good how often thou hast stood in thy own light and on the contrary what a sure and certain proof hath God given of his good wil was it perchance a sinister wil to become
done which God wil have done according to his order or permission The XIII Chapter That we must give no eare to our own wil. HIs triumph over himself wil not be complete who leads pleasure captive unles he can master his own wil it is not enough to be rigidly severe against our senses but we must carry our selves also after the same fashion towards our soul and its free wil neyther must we debar our selves only of unlawful pleasures but also of lawful desires nor mortify only our flesh but loose also our soul that so we may gain it totally at long running Both our flesh our spirit have been found delinquents to almighty God It were a piece of injustice to punish one co-partner and quit the other to fine the servant and let the master go scot free We must do justice both upon flesh and soul not as many who contenting themselves with outward austerities are not sollicitous to reduce the interiour But since the soul is the prime criminal she in the first place must smart for it and there is no other way of sequestring her but in her wil by denying or cutting short whatsoever she likes or takes gust in The soul which hath been contemptuous towards God is worthy of death therefore it must die to its own wil in all things suffer in that wherein it hath been delinquent In nothing at all neyther little nor great must it procure or regard its interest otherwise if it be thus open-eyd it is not to be numberd among the dead Be mindful in nothing of thy own wil. Do the wil of God do the wil of thy brother do the wil of thy enemy him that injures thee rather then thy own if it may be accomplished without sin Thou wilt not arrive to a sufficient degree of mortification unles thou resign and transmit thy wil not only to God but also to man yea even to thy very enemies Be not too credulous in those things to which thy wil is carried with an impetuosity without having regard to the rule of reason but hold them all suspected although they hold forth never so faire a shew of good they are for the most part but a mere officiousnes or branchings of the sensual part which the divel makes use of to cloak his craft Let thy wil seek the glory of God and not grieve at the contempt of men let it attend and be sensible of the divine pleasure not thy own affliction let it be wholly emploid upon God and it wil find enough to do let it learn to wave all self content and proper gust though spiritual Although God relinquish thee to thy self in thy hardest pressures in thy spiritual desolations amidst the very powers of darknes assaild on all sides with tribulations and temptations thou must still persist faithful seeking no redress of comfort being ready to sustain that shock and any other inculpable calamity of thy soul so long as God shal be pleased to continue it though even to the day of judgment or for all eternity He that covets to serve God in truth must serve him gratis rather wishing and begging to be debard of all comfort deeming this abundantly sufficient if he can but conserve that place of his soul where God hath fixt his residence pure and unblemmished not permitting any thing else to enter and appear there as in the holy of holyes Thither must the high Priest IESVS only find entrance Some servants of God who were deluged with a sea of comforts obtaind by prayer the shutting up of these heavenly sluces and to be deprived of all sweetnes neyther would they afterwards admit of any such infusions though from heaven for some have not been wanting who refused Angels for their comforters For what great matter dost thou in rejecting acorporal gust which wil rather prove an affliction that bodily solace which hinders divine joy and sweetnes of spirit is too afflicting God deserves more at our hands then this For him thou must contemn all jubily of spirit and whatsoever is pleasing to nature and self wil. The service of a hireling is neyther constant nor faithful If thou serve God out of hope of comfort or relief though it be spiritual thou lovest not God himself and this comfort failing thee thou wilt often become slouthfully tepid Hence it is that we are subject to so many mutations that we are remiss that we make smal progress for as mariners hope for the wind so do we for the spirit of devotion and consolation without which we are becalmd and any adversity like a contrary blast beats us back yea we are much worse then mariners who know how to make way with a side or adverse wind Let us learn to advance forward even amidst oppositions aridities and tribulations It imports not whether thou serve God for the sensibility of interiour comfort or for some corporal commodity but only that thy service comes of les freely because requiring this gust of spirit thou sellest it at a dearer rate God is more valuable then thy gust it is better to have God then joy and yet where canst thou be o most delicious and sweet-rellishing God and the spirit shal not exult if thou discoverest thy self to it where shal thy benignity display it self the soul shal not be replenished with excess of joy but grant me that I may never wish my own joy but that thou maist be it never seek the gust of my own wil but the good pleasure accomplishment of thine O afflicted spirit if thou wouldst never seek thy own content comfort how much content wouldst thou find he that leaves house or land for God shal receive a hundred fold reward there is no equity that he who relinquisheth more should receive les He that relinquisheth his own wil and its content shal receive a hundred fold more in the same species for denying it then if he had given way to it for he doth the wil of God and shal deservedly receive a more ample recompense The more thou divorcest thy self from all gust of self wil and interest the more deliciously wilt thou rellish the divine wil a heavenly kind of tast and joy wil be infused into thy hart If God had made any one man so happy as to be in a perpetual fruition of his own wil no sooner said but done and so powerful as to be able to compass all his designes and that lawfully yea and were securely certain of the continuance of this power and good hap I am perswaded such a one would enjoy les content then another who followd his own fancy in nothing but renounced it in all for the love of God A certain contentive rellish of the wil doth accompany its fulfilling and there is no content nor complacence greater then that which God hath in the performance of his wil. If God should communicate to thee one drop of that delight of his wil which he imparts to those
who only do and desire his wil thou wouldst take incomparably more joy in a total denial of thy own then if it were allwayes accomplished for he that enjoyes his own wil hath only the joy of a humane wil but if he renounce it to do the wil of God he wil partake mediating the grace of the divine goodnes of the gust of the divine wil. To be allwayes doing what one listeth is esteemd the height of humane felicity what wil it then be to do what God listeth Mans wil is impure it is accompanied with anxiety and sprinkled with the hysop of unsavory contrarieties the divine wil is most pure and in a continual possession of joy Wil and pleasure are one the self same thing in God wherefore he that hath the former must needs have the latter In God appetite is not distinguished from joy in creatures it is much otherwise In the elements motion to a place is one thing and repose in a place another in heaven they are all one light heat in the fire are two things in the sun and stars the self same so mans wil and joy are things distinctly different in God uniformly the same Neyther can one safely place his joy els where but in the fulfilling of the divine wil and total renouncement of his own for a man having then in wish and possession the divine is so priviledgd that joy inseparably attends him for all falls out according to his harts desire Therfore it is no such sad busines to stand at a defiance with his own wil to dispoil himself of all propriety and wholly deny himself in all No body stands in such an utter abnegation of this nor dies so intirely to it nor renounceth so fully all self-interest as do the blessed in heaven who are without the least touch of willing or not willing nevertheles in such a rigorous mortification of it they find a special gust and live most contentedly Why then dost thou refuse to deny thy self who seekst salvation in that heaven where there is the highest self denial train thy self up to glory and relinquish thy self Perswade thy self that thou canst not be happy there but by doing that which now thou esteemst a great unhappines Goe to then and begin that which if thou be saved thou shalt never cease to prosecute Do that at length which if thou comest to a state of happines thou shalt do for all eternity In that endles perpetuity of bliss thou shalt never seek thy own wil being for ever and ever not only conforme to the divine but also transformd into it through the ardours of charity Who is there that being thirsty and having an earthen pot and it empty had not rather have a golden one and full of some sweet and refreshing liquour who is there that being ill at ease and having a crazd body would not rather chuse to have one sound and robustious who is there that being dul of capacity and doltish in conceiving things would not covet the intellect of an Angel and to be as quick of comprehension as a Cherubin O man why wilt thou not exchange thy unhappy frustrable diseasd foolish wil for the wil of God infrustrable joyful and consummated in happines if thou desirest to understand as doth an Angel which thou art not able to compass why dost thou not desire to wil as God willeth this being within thy reach he that wil be alwayes in joy let him never seek it in himself nor to himself yea he must extirpate all private and created love otherwise whither soever he flyes whatsoever he goes about he carryes lets and incumbrances along with him yea multiplies them insomuch that the further he flyes and the more he undertakes the more he is entangled being les capable of the repose he seeks Who goes once astray from the right path the further he goes the more he wanders how much the more a man busyeth himself in chusing this or that in order to joy or acquiescency the les shal he find it because he is in a greater exercise of self wil which is the cause of his disquiet and trouble and makes him stray further from the way of joy and repose A sparrow falling into a net the more it struggles to free it self the more it is entangled God is so good that an overplus of his goodnes remains for a more capacious wil then thine and all the Seraphins why dost thou then strayten thy humane wil busying it about thy self as if in half of it self it could sufficiently satisfy the divine goodnes if God be to be loved there is no room left neyther for self love nor any thing els Take o Lord my whole love take my whole wil nor let me slip this happy exchange by which for this my naughty one I may own thine the best of all others The XIV Chapter That we must continually be mindful of God HOw canst thou o ungrateful spirit be at any time unmindful of God who is so mindful of thee as if he were forgetful of the rest and thou the only object of his thoughts who is allwayes sollicitous for thee and thine registring in the table of his sweetest memory all the good thou ever dost it is held a matchles favour if an earthly king be mindful of any one and admit him to his presence and I esteem it scarse an obvious favour that the king of heaven never is forgetful of me nor absent from me A sick person is not a little comforted if any one give him a visit and why doth not a sick and miscreant soul exult with joy that her God hath her continually in his eye providence If a Prince cast but once a favorable look upon his servant it rejoyceth him to his very hart and I o Lord am nothing moved though thou never cast thy eyes off me nor divert thy hands being wholly taken up and busyed in mercy towards me Men run through hast to behold a temporal king as he passeth by and I am slow in reflecting upon thee an eternal king being present and permanent with me Men are sollicitously curious to behold a monster stick not to give mony for that end I though gratis care not to behold thee the beauty of heaven and earth on which the Angels themselves love to gaze The queen of Saba made so many dayes journey to see the magnificence of Salomon and his court and I regard not thee my God though so nigh me as to sejourn in my house If my very slave gave me but a cup of cold water I would look him in the face and daign him my countenance and yet I wil not look upon thee but desist from praysing thee the Lord of Angels who art perpetually serving me in all and replenishing all for my sake with thy blessings O Lord thou who art so operative as to work all in all for me why am I so useles in thy behalf as not only
not to make thee the subiect of my action but not so much as the obiect of my memory O most loving God how could I behave my self worse towards my capital enemy then I do towards thee not so much as daigning thee a look when thou meetest me and meetest me so often though thou be stil ingratiating thy self by new favours and services O how continually o God art thou present in me and yet I so little present to thee and take so little notice of thee thy essence penetrates each part of me much more intirely then the sun beames penetrate each part and parcel of a transparent christal more perfectly then our soul is diffused through our body The presential assistance of thy wisdome provides for me and playes it self the purveyer that nothing may be wanting and if I do any good that it may impart a reward thou committest not this to the intercourse of thy Angels only and their relation but thou thy self becomest my overseer Thy power carryes me in thy bosome as a nurse or motherdoth her dearest child and because these duties of being in me of seing me of preserving me in my being are necessarily annexd to thy divinity thou wouldst have me engaged to thee o good IESV for a voluntary presence and there being but one way wherein thou couldst necessarily be absent thou didst invent a meanes even in that to be also present in thy most holy body that thou mightest be present with me both corporally and spiritually O ungrateful soul why wilt thou not be thankful to so loving a Lord and if thou canst not bodily be present with this divine Sacrament be not forgetful at least in spirit and thought of so benefical a soveraign who hath made thee his tabernacle and place of residence Carry o soul respect to thy self and the Altar of thy mind where God dwels by grace which thou perchance now partakest of and woe be to thee if thou dost not the divinity being there communicated We reverence inanimate things and deservedly which are imbrued in the blood of Christ but why do we not the same to a part of our soul spirit where the H. Ghost diffuseth himself we dare do no unseemly action before an Altar where the sacred body of Christ our Lord is kept nor darest thou do les before thy self because thy mind as thou maist wel hope is by grace the Altar and throne of God he residing in it with greater pleasure then in a Pix of gold How dost thou compose and recollect thy self when thou art to receive the Body of Christ habituate thy self allwayes in such a modesty such a decency since God is thy guest lodging not in thy body only but within thy soul If the Body of Christ being thy guest thou compose thy self with such decency thou must stil retain the same since the spirit of God becomes resident in thy spirit since the Father and the Son come to thee and take up in thee their dwelling place Whether in publick or private comport thy self allwayes after the same manner God beholds thee God is nigh thee God is with thee God is within thee If Christ should come visibly to thee when thou art all alone in thy chamber wouldst thou in his presence put thy self in any les seemly posture or rather stand in a reverend submissive composd manner trembling at the aspect of such an awful majesty Behold the divinity is allwayes present with thee and we owe it no les dutyes of respect The divinity is present not after one manner but many by filling and surrounding thee with his boundles essence as the ocean doth a spunge by carrying thee in the eye of his all seeing providence by sustaining thee by his power by cherishing imbracing and adopting thee for his child by his heavenly grace O soul why sendest thou thy desires in so long a pilgrimage since God is so nigh at hand why dost thou aspire to other joyes he being present thou hast a speedy redress for all thy miseries why art thou contristated a refuge sanctuary against all thy calamities is close by what needst thou fear let all thy affection spend it self in embracing and kissing this thy most loving parent in whose bosome thou art nurturd and brooded up Consider thy self more neerly allyed to God then to thy brother then to thy Father then to thy mother for the kindred and allyance betwixt thee and God is greater then betwixt a child and his parent Let him then be allwayes present to thee who is present after so many wayes As a mirrour becomes the image of that which is present to it so a holy soul in some manner will become divine if it have the divinity present with it This presence of God is the vital action of grace a holy soul is so long in an actual and waking exercise of life as it loves God and is mindful of him whether it be employd in the contemplation of his perfections or seek actively to advance his greater glory For as God is not only present to us by his essence knowledg but also by his power and activity so the best method of framing the presence of God is to consider him playing the good Operarius and directing his actions to our behoof Who wil not become active on Gods behalf since he works all in all for ours but yet though a soul surcease from this she shal not therfore dye by sin but wil be like one that is a sleep not dead but yet scarse alive as not enjoying the use of life so a soul that is in oblivion of her God though she be not voyd of life yet she is in so sound a sleep that she reaps no benefit of her spiritual vitalityes O how long-lifd wil one be that is stil mindful of God! o how many ages wil he complete which even those that otherwise are held spiritual do ordinarily forfeyt this presence of God is also the sense of grace for without it the soul lyes like one in a palsey The palsey is a disease not a death but it deprives ones limbs of all sense and vital motion life and grace are then to smal purpose when the memory of God is benumd and obstupifyed whether it be in action or contemplation One palm tree becomes fruitful merely at the presence of another and the soul at the presence of God is loaden with all variety of fruit Without the presence of the sun all is buryed in obscurity nothing doth partake of beauty by the presence of God a soul is illustrated and is made most comely to the eye The elements cannot brook to be absent from their center and no les is a soul carried to her center of repose God As a stone if it be detaynd in the ayre keeps alwayes a propension to the earth and if it be left to it self tends thither without any more adoe so a soul enamoured upon God even when it is detaind from its
which is perfect as also of Gods simplicity wherfore the Trinity of Persons is an authentical testimony of the divine Vnity What complacence doth a soul take in knowing this not as I have rudely explicated it or as it can be explicated for this is only felt by an inexplicable manner for as there are no natural species which can bring us to this knowledg so neyther are there words significantly expressive of what is manifested to some pious soules concerning the word eternal Therfore the soul of a creature is so over joyd when the mutual proportion and harmony of the increated Trinity and Vnity and the necessity of both to the accomplishment of the divine perfection is communicated to it that it is all in jubily and exultation transported besides it self and quite spent through amorous desires and the languishments of true charity thirsting earnestly to discover in the other life this stupendious goodnes of the Trinity Why longst thou o my soul to see any thing else besides this great spectacle of the world for whose sight alone the Seraphins and all the Hierarchies of Angels and Saints were created and introduced into heaven as so many spectatours Where is thy curiosity where thy desire of knowledg if thou covet not to be dissolved and contemplate that mystery and to dive into this hidden secret but thy longing must remit thee to the other life and not put thee upon inquiry in this how he is three and one Thou must not search the cause why he is so since thou art not able to give the cause of what he is Thou seekst in vain a cause in him who hath no cause God were not to be stiled great if he were not greater then our capacity Thou must not â—nquire after what manner he can be so who never could be before he was so Philosophers could never sufficiently penetrate into the nature of divers wormes and no body knowes himself throughly how then canst thou hope to make a ful discovery of the divine nature thy Author wherfore thou must captivate thy reason to the simplicity of faith in this supernatural mystery for that perspicuity which the divine indulgence daignes sometimes to insinuate belongs not to all but only to whom God calls out of the number of those who dwel with his Son in the mount Calvary and in a totall ejurement of themselves who denying self wil have taken up their cross followed IESVS to that mount and wil have them follow him thence to the mount Olivet glory those he priviled geth somtimes in such sort as to make them partakers of his majesty Where I am saith IESVS there also shal my servant be He that shal partake with Christ in suffering shal also partake of this extraordinary light and joy So when our Holy Patriarch Saint Ignatius had wasted exhausted himself with corporal pennances and austerities it was more copiously and clearly imparted to him then one is able to express So that mirrour of fervour F. Didacus Martinus did almost allwayes behold himself environed with a glorious light of the Trinity or some one of the three Persons Nevertheles it appertains to all to covet with most ardent desires the sight of this ancient and eternal novelty in the life to come It was reveald to that holy servant of God F. Iohn Fernandius that a certain religious man of our society was long detaind in purgatory because he had omitted to wish with ardency the sight of the most B. Trinity O my soul why art not thou more enamoured upon the sight of this theatre of the blessed to whose spectacle all minds are summond allrational creatures are invited What a joy wil it be to behold that which now by reason of the narrownes of our thoughts or ignorance through an excess of jubily and love we are not able to comprize how exultingly shall we rejoice while we contemplate these first fruits of the divine perfection that fore-tast and new expression of the divine goodnes where it communicates it self to the Son and that primitive bounty of God what a pledg and assurance wil a soul receive of the divine benignity towards it self when it beholds this profusenes of benevolence if God without deliberation gave all that he is wil he not by the advise and vote of his goodnes grant that we may at least see what he is if he permit us not to be what he is he wil permit us to admire what he is if not to possess him at least to enjoy him if not to live by the same life at least by such another and that eternal of which a soul hath a pawn when it beholds a generation excluding death How can we chuse but love God with all our mind and strength considâ—ring that purple morning of ardent charity which he displaid where the first and Virgin dew of his guifts is the furnace it self of charity love it self in the same substance so that the love is as great as God in the same guift of love he gives his own infinite essence for love it self is the first guift and all that infinite being which is in God What assurances of benevolence wil a soul take hence beholding such a happy and ominous essay of Gods future bounty and such a promising beginning of his goodnes insomuch that it takes huge complacence in being loved by that unparalleld love and doth what it can to love him reciprocally by imitating so great goodnes by giving it self to God by leaving it self nothing since the Father leaves himself no parcel of his substance which he communicates not to the Son and both of them to the H. Ghost In the excess â—â— this consideration and the consideration of this excess by means of a mysterious darknes there passeth an ineffable communication and intimate union betwixt God and a soul The soul passeth into God by grace love which though she remain in herself by nature yet not by affection and God passeth into the soul by indulgence and charity though he still remain in his majesty O immense goodnes of the Father immense wisdome of the Son immense sweetnes of the H. Ghost grant that I may reverence thee in thy Vnity adore thee in thy Trinity admire thee in thy goodnes imitate thee in thy love grant that I may humble my self to thy â—uperexcellency that I may enjoy thy Vision â—dhering to thee through all eternity becoming one spirit with thee and in this interstice â—n adorer of thy majesty In spirit and truth â—et me desire truth spirit to contemplate face to face the more then most true the more then most spiritual and superessential excellency of thy Trinity and Vnity To the honour of the ever B. Trinity the word Incarnate and his V. Mother S. Ioseph and all Saints FINIS A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in the I. Book 1. THe deceitfullnes of a secular life fol. 1. 2. Of the Truth of the Spirit fol. 8. 3. Of Purity
of Spirit fol. 13. 4. How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue fol. 19. 5. Of the hope of pardon and zeal of pennance 25. 6. The model of a sinner is set before our eyes 30. 7. The â—â— part of the Parable and how we must use Creatures fol. 38. 8. The affections of a true Penitent fol. 45. 9. Of the ardent desire of those that serve God 55. 10. Of contemning relinquishing the world 58. 11. How peace is to be obtaind fol. 62. 12. Of the excellency of one that is in the state of grace fol. 69. 13. How penances and corporal afflictions help us f. 85. 14. That too much love of our flesh hinders the Spirit fol. 90. 15. Of the loss of temporal things fol. 94. 16. How profitable temptations are fol. 98. 17. That we must fear God and hope in him 102. 18. That we cannot but suffer something and of the good of patience fol. 108. In the II. Book 1. OF diligence in Prayer fol. 114. 2. That we must not intermit our practise of Prayer fol. 122. 3. How efficacious the grace and favours of Christ are fol. 127. 4. How devoutly we ought to be affected towards the most B. Virgin Mary fol. 142. 5. That we must imitate Christ and of the sorrow and suffering of his most B. Hart. fol. 156. 6. How farr we are to follow Christ fol. 166. 7. That necessities and afflictions sent by God are to be born patiently fol. 176. 8. How purity of body helps the Spirit fol. 183. 9. That our practise of mortification must be continual fol. 187. 10. Of the sufficiency and good of poverty fol. 193. 11. That Patience is necessary in all occasions fol. 201. 12 VVhat a great good it is to be subject to another 206. 13. How great harm proceeds from daily and light defects fol. 213. 14. Of exactnes in smal things fol. 225. 15. That self-praise is to be avoyded fol. 231. 16. Of the basenes of man fol. 235. 17. VVhat things ought to humble man and that he can have nothing besides God alone fol. 243. 18. How much we owe to the grace of God Christ fol. 248. 19. That man must not only esteem himself nothing but also a great sinner fol. 256. 20. VVhat it is to stile ones self a nothing a great sinner fol. 262. 21. That Gods glory is alwayes to be sought fol. 266. In the III. Book 1. HOw careful we must be to do our actions wet fol. 275. 2. That we must shake of all negligence fol. 280. 3. How incommodious a thing sleep is fol. 287. 4. That we must rise fervorously to our morning prayer fol. 297. 5. That our daily fervour must be retaind fol. 304. 6. Of maintaining our fervour fol. 310. 7. How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works fol. 315. 8. How sollicitous we must be to increase grace 321. 9. How God is to be praised fol. 328. 10. How great a dignity it is to offer the Sacrifice of Christ. fol. 335. 11. That God is to be desired and received with longing in the Eucharist fol. 343. 12. That in time of refection we must not be more indulgent to our bodyes then necessity requires fol. 354. 13. That one must take account of his proceedingâ— by a frequent examen of himself fol. 364. 14. How we must be affected towards others fol. 371. In the IV. Book 1. HOw ungrateful we are to God fol. 377. 2. That Gods benefits are without number 382. 3. That Gods love in our redemption appears infinite fol. 388. 4. How deservedly God is to be loved and chiefly for himself fol 395. 5. That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God fol. 402. 6. How great benefit of glory we hope for 405. 7. Of suffering death fol. 415. 8. That man must give himself to God for his benefits fol. 422. 9. That God alone is to be loved fol. 425. 10. That self love must be rooted out fol. 429. 11. How we are to love our neighbour fol. 442. 12. That nothing is to be coveted but what God willeth fol. 445. 13. That we must give no care to our own wil. 448. 14. That we must continually be mindful of God 456. 15. That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved fol. 463. 16. Of the superessential light of the most blessed Trinity fol. 469. FINIS