victory into your own peacefull consciences and keep there a delicious Call'd by Isay Sabbatum delicatum Esa 58. 13 Sabbath of repose in the happy enjoyments of unspeakable delights The Seven chief Ambushes of our Enemies 1. SElf-love Which is the root of all sin and cause of all inproficiency in the way of perfection 2. Few are found free from it 3. To avoid this snare we must seek Gods honour in all our actions 4. To self-love belongs unmortified sensuality which must be tamed by cutting off superfluities 5. To the same pertain Pride Self-conceit c. Which must be remedied by the Practice of humility 6. Also the passions of our inferiour nature Love Hatred c. To which we must oppose Peace of heart 7. Lastly the adhering to our own wills and judgements which must be cured by Obedience 8. Note a triple Obedience 2. Immoderate affection to creatures 1. This distracts us from our Creator against which we must provide Poverty of spirit 2. Affections to persons corrupt our judgements 3. We must remedy it by loving all impartially in and for God 4. Spirituall comforts may be sometimes snares of the Devil therefore we must not stay in them but transcend them 3. Extroversion or an inordinate application of our selves to externall things 1. Which choakes up Devotion therefore we must not thrust our selves upon imployments 2. But curb our fancies 3. Perform works of obedience necessity and charity without ingaging our affections 4. And strive to get into our interiour 5. By fixing our heart on Christ crucified 4. Bitterness of heart sadness frowardnesse c. 2. All which proceed either from nature indiscretion thoughtfulnesse presumption or immortification 3. And must be sweetned with Charity 4. To this belong a certain grudging at Gods providence which must be avoided by a cordial Resignation 5. Scrupulosity inward affliction fearfulness c. 1. Which aym at the destruction of our Faith and Confidence in God 2. To avoid this we must rely upon God and our guide 3. And assure our selves that we cannot erre in Confidence if we fall not into Negligence 6. Excessive and unnecessary study 1. Which busies the Understanding but leaves the Will barren 2. Puffs us up with Vanity but leaves us empty of true Piety 3. The remedy is to rectify our intentions in our studies 7. Tepidity and coldness in Devotion 1. Which is the bane of all spirituality We must alwayes go forward towards perfection with perseverance and excite our sluggishness with frequent aspirations 2. An excellent document of Saint Anthony Latet hostis et otia ducis The first Ambush Self-love 1. THis in S. Austin's opinion is the root of Self-love is the root of all sin and cause of all inproficiency in the way of perfection all sin and we may fitly add and avouch it to be the cause of all inproficiency in the way of perfection For our subtil nature so constantly seeks her self in all her actions and omissions that even the spirituall man who treads in the pleasant paths of piety is subject to be drawn into this dangerous ambush He will find upon due examination some sinister and self-intention Read the second ch of the Spir. Con. creeping in and corrupting his sincerest endeavours and perceive unless highly illuminated that there is more of private commodity than pure and perfect charity in his most transcendent and heroique exercises 2. Who is not generally more diligent in the performance of his Few are found free from it duty for the fear of hell and hope of heaven than for the sole and substantiall love of his Creator who hath not rather some small clause and secret condition of self-interest in his actions than the only fulfilling of Gods holy will and the following of his Divine inspirations Whom shall we find though never so great pretenders to perfection so totally untangled from this net of Self-love that they neither hover after humane respects and praises nor look upon rewards or punishments nor overvalue their own wayes and exercises nor solace themselves with the sweets of sensible devotion nor please themselves with their high-towring contemplations and raptures into Gods immediate perfections nor finally dresse up devotion by the pattern of their own passions and so fall in love with their own conceptions and make to themselves in Bethel golden calves in stead of 3. Reg. 13. 8. the Cherubins in Jerusalem Whose will is so truly devested from all propriety as to remain untouch'd unmov'd undisquieted resolute and resigned in all temporall chances and changes and in all spirituall dryness desolation dereliction and affliction whatsoever 3. To avoid this pernicious snare To avoid this snare we must seek Gods honour in our actions we must strive to level all our actions at Gods pure honour and pleasure as the only end we aym at the only object of our love life and labour in whom only and not in the best of his creatures is found true quiet and content 4. Unmortifi'd Sensuality is the To self-love belongs unmortified sensuality dear darling of Self-love This proposes nothing but pleasure and pastime to our seduced appetites roamings abroad to our affections makes us sedulous to satisfie our fancies covetous to content our curiosities to hearken after vanities to Read the 7. ch of the Arraignment glut our gusts with dainties and to evaporâ—te our pretious time and talents in extravagant adhesions to creatures What hope Alas of internal repose and recollection where such tumults and troubles prepossess the spirit What place remains for the holy entertainments of heavenly love when such affections have fill'd up each corner of the heart Wherefore a soul that seeks God Which must be tamed by cutting off superfluities must scorn to rest in these seeming goods she mâ—st banish all superfluities and be content with the meer supplies of her necessities she must admit of no excesse in meat drink sleep attire talk or other solaces whatsoever if she really intends to make the body pliable to the spirit and the spirit proper to tend to perfection 5. Pride presumption vanity self-esteem self-complacency self-content To the same belong pride self-câ—nceit c. self-praise self-seeking self-delight with all the rest of like nature are but severâ—ll noozes of the same net and sprouts out of the same main root self-love And whosoever hopes for honour praise preferment or profit from others for any goods of nature gâ—fts of grace or prerogatives of vertue is faln into this snare of the Devil robs God of his proper due is rotten at the heart and hath already received his full reward The remedy of all this O dear Which must be remedied by the practice of humility souls is unfeigned humility Cast one glance of your souls eye upwards upon your Creators might and mercy all your perfections come out of his treasury and are lent you to be improved for his service not to be proud
and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions disgest injuries the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence The end thou aymest at is perfection the reward of thy conqucst is eternall love eternal life eternall happiness Behold ô my Lord my strength and my salvation I am fully resolv'd to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveagling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disordered passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. I know Lord that it is bootless to study perfection without the practice of mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather ô my Lord the dispersed forces of my soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my understanding will memory imagination and all my inward and outward sences from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform ô my Lord all the naturall corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spirituall infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy divine will and pleasure 4. To this end O bless my weak endeavours al-mighty and al-merciful Lord God I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensuall and subject to sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward senses the windows by which death steals into my soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divine fire cooled and quenched not only by sin but also by the distracting images of outward objects I will keep a speciall and strict watch over my tongue on which depends my spirituall life or death and cheerish thee ô beloved silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferior This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct themselves according to Gods Spirit nature with all it 's evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope Anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the laws of reason and thy divine inspirations ô my Lord and my God Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous and my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the citadell from whence sin assails me and Satan fetcheth his forces to fight against me Grant good Lord that I may Therefore every one must strive to know his own natural inclinations and then imploy all his forces and apply all his prayers and spiritual exercises to quel them never yeild to this wicked Eve persuading Adam my Superior will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawfull pleasures O that I could tame these cruel beasts my naturall passions how soon should I be master of all morall vertues O that I could so till this vineyard so delve this garden so purge it from all ill weeds of affections and prune all superfluous surgeons and shoots of passions that the seed of thy grace ô heavenly husbandman might only there take root increase and fructifie 5. I will also mortifie my Superiour and rationall part with all the curious and fruitless speculations of my Understanding all conceits of self-wisdom naturall prudence proper judgement and good liking of my own proceedings All vain and foolish reflexions of my Memory And all petty desires and affections of my Will which relate not to thee the only object and Lord of my love I am resolved ô my Lord to nip off each budding passion as soon as it peeps up in my soul to trouble it in its true repose and to hinder its liberty and tendance to thy love I will by thy gracious assistance proceed faithfully and sincerely in the hatred denial and mortification of my self and in the prosecution of thy divine love And in order to this only end and aym I make in thy presence and from the very bottom of my heart and soul these particular acts following I renounce ô my Lord for the pure love of thee all affection to worldly things Give them unto me ô gracious God or take them from me as best liketh thy divine Majesty I resign up all my interest in any thing though never so near and dear unto me Behold ô my Lord and lover I uncloath my soul from all affections whatsoever to creatures and desire nothing but thy self-alone O happy nakedness O rich poverty of Spirit O pure obedience to the divine will in all things Be you my hearts delight my whole pleasure and patrinony 6. I renounce all self-seeking Ah! my corrupt nature I abhor thee Adieu all private-interest profit praise and preferment I will henceforth performe all my actions and exercises O my Lord God for thy only pure perfect love I will seek to please and praise thee with an inward ardent and amorous affection for thy self only and not for thy gifts or graces I renounce all sensuality whether it be in meat drink sleep apparel curiosity of my five senses or any thing else whatsoever O my Lord I will make no other use of any thy creatures than I am absolutly compell'd to by necessity of nature I look for no solace but from thee alone My only comfort and content I renounce all
Conductor in the way of the Spirit if they mean speedily and securely to arrive at their desired port of perfection All other Books should serve as certain solaces of their appetites some changes of diet or holy divertisements in devotion but this which they have advisedly made choyce of should be their Souls Dayly bread and the ordinary familiar and naturall food and sustenance which it should strive to chew and digest This I say should be their School of Defence where they are to learn the right use of their spirituall weapons how to Train Muster and Order the Army of their unruly passions and affections how to stand upon their guard when an Alarm is given or an assault made by their enemies how to apply fit salvs to their sores when they are worsted and wounded in the skirmish and finally how to behave themselvs in all emergent occasions of troubles and temptations or other accidents whatsoever And though I presume not to propose unto you this Brother of yours as a more absolute master in this Art than your famous and renowned Abbots Gersen Cisnerius Blosius and many other excellent and experienc'd Champions of your Order with whom he will not enter into the least competition Yet I may In the 40. chap. of this Book with him safely promise that whosoever shall faithfully and perseverantly practise what he here prescribes shall find this Book though very little in bulk yet large enough in vertue and substance to conduct him to the happy end he ayms at to his soul 's unspeakable comfort and content Neither is he to be disesteemed for the plainness of his expressions for his intent being to touch the heart rather than to tickle the Ears he delivers solid sense in undisguised words And the Interpreter being to present a true draught of his Originall and not to take upon him the privilege of a Paraphrast could not shape the quaint language of these profane times to the divine notions of his Authour without evident danger of sacrilege and therefore purposely avoids all curiosity of speech which oftentimes in these high matters rather puzzles than edifies and more amuzes the devout Readers understanding with niceties than moves his affectioÌ„ to true piety or makes him resolute in the performance of his duty which ought to be the only end and aym of all spirituall writers and he is most happily and sufficiently eloquent who hits this mark and workes this holy effect as no doubt but this Religious Author will do in their zealous souls who make the right use of his doctrin in order to their spirituall advancement and unioÌ„ with God whom holy S. Denys styles the Father of unions and who by thesweet bands of love draws his intelligent creatures to himself the essentiall and eternall Unity To the which lead and conduct us ô God one in Trinity and Trine in Unity Father Son and holy Ghost Amen An advertisement To the devout Reader YOu may justly seem to mervail why this golden Tract is now said to be taught the English tongue which was â—â—ove fifty years since transplanted into this Printed at Lovain in the year 1598. Island out of the gardens of certain Italian manuscripts But if you will take the pains to confront both the Copies and compare them with their Originall Spanish or else with the Printed at Doway in the year 1612. and reprinted at Witezburg 1641. Latin pattern you will easily perceive this though not the better yet to be the far truer Translation For besides very many and materiall differences the 33. Chapter is in that edition altogether forreign to this Authors work and the whole six last Chapters which are most excellent and usefull branches of this little tree are absolutely lopp'd off and as it seems purposely skipp'd over the Conclusion being in each of them one and the same The reason of which omission as it is obvious to every understanding which considers that to be directed to Religious women and some of these left-out Chapters Dedicated to the Nuns of S. Andrew 's in Venice by Hierome Count of Portia to concern chiefly the Priestly function so it seemes to carry with it sufficient grounds where upon to build an excuse for the so doing because women are uncapable to make use of that kind of devotion But if a Translators duty be well look'd into whose chiefest praise consists in faithfulness and sincerity we shall no where find that any such privilege of defalkation from his Author's Text or of addition to the same doth at all belong to him Neither do I hereby glance at the least thought of accusation against that first pious Interpreter of this Treatise in our Mother-tongue who without all doubt deliver'd it to us as it was given him But only render an account of my own fidelity in Copying out my Author 's Originall and withall desire such pious women who shall peruse these excellent Devotions that The 37. Chapter How to offer up devoutly the Sacrifice of the Mass they will rather patiently admit one Chapter which concerns them not to be inserted into their books than uncharitably to desire the razing out of the least tittle which may be profitable to any one And you are to be furthermore advertised that this Spirituall Conflict hath been very often printed in the French language Into which it was also translated by the Religious men called Fulians and this These Fulians are reformed Monks following S. Bernard as their Patron St. Bennet as their Patriark law-giver men of great esteem for their sanctiâ—y of life eminency of learning and exercises of charity Edition of theirs was as it truly deserved receiv'd with the highest applause and liking of all those worthy and illuminated divines of that age and namely of that famous and blessed Bishop of Geneva Francis de Sales the mirrour of his time and most skilfull conductor of souls in the way of the Spirit who usually recommended the reading and practice thereof to his dearest Disciples tending to Perfection One of which a man of no mean rank and quality undertook another Translation of the same Treatise out of an Italian Copy which he dedicates to the same holy Bishop of Geneva augmented as he saith with 27 Chapters though they are indeed either bare subdivisions of some one Chapter of our Author into divers as for example Our third chapter is there divided into three severall ones Or else they are more ample explications of that Doctrin which is concisely delivered in the Text and so may with more propriety be termed These Theatins are so called from â—heir Institutor John Peter Garaff who was first Bishop of Theate in the Kingdome of Naples afterwards Pope Paul the fourth men also renowned for their sanctity Commentaries than added Chapters and written by the Reverend Fathers commonly call'd Theatins And because the endeavours of these pious men serve much to the elucidation of this Subject and savour
of a sincere spirit of Devotion I have also made use of their pains for your profit and transferred hither by way of Explications whatsoever in that Edition seemed pertinent and conducing to the illustration of our Authour Yet still punctually observing the Text and division of his own originall Spanish and the Latin traduction of some learned Divines in the University of Doway where it was approved and reprinted in the year 1612. If you make your best advantage of these my labours your own souls will receive the true comfort and I the full reward I look for TO THE Devout Champions fighting in this Spirituall Warfare The Translator wisheth happy Victory the reward of eternal Felicity TO you dear Souls is this little work most fitly addressed who in this deplorable age when the deluge of all vices an universall inundation of wickedness covers the face of the Earth and to which that may be applied almost as properly as in the time of the generall flood All flesh hath corrupted his way having happily left the broad and beaten path of perdition and estranged your selves from the pernicious Contagion of the times imploy all your diligence and indeavours to preserve your souls pure and clean from all worldly filth and infection and whatsoever may displease the eyes of your Heavenly Spouse and take all possible paines that Gods sacred Image stamped upon you in Baptisme but defaced or at least much darkened through human frailty and infirmity may be again restored and imbellish'd within you An enterprise so high and heroique that no tongue of man can worthily praise or express it Take courage valiant Champions of Heaven and faint not in this holy pursute having Angels and Saints for your helpers and favourers and the Almighty himself stretching out his powerfull hand to conduct you with safety and security through all the throngs of difficulties and dangers and leading you as it were over the bellies of the Amorrheans Cananeans and all other uncircumcised and profane people into the true Land of promise the happy Land of Paradice replenish'd with Milk and Hony the blessed Land of heaven full-fraught with eternall and unexplicable solaces and sweetnesses You are also suited with such excellent armour of proof both offensive and defensive taken out of the rich store-house of sacred Scripture and the wholesom doctrin of the Catholique Church as will not only render you invincible against all opposition but make you glorious conquerors and triumphers over al your hellish adversaries It only remains that you seriously apply your selves to learn the use of these weapons to get the art and dexterity of fighting to your best advantage and to study well the manner of these spirituall skirmishes that so you may give home-blows both with point and edge and handsomly ward off those which are made at you by your enemies And then you may be confident of an assured victory And though this holy Science of Fencing is largely taught and plainly set forth by many spirituall and skilfull Masters both ancient and modern yet the whole doctrin therof is so briefly and familiarly comprised in this little Book that I know not of any other instruction which can be presented you in this kind more to your purpose and profit especially if you want leasure or conveniency to turn over many or greater volumes since you may here find the collected substance and as it were the marrow and cream of all the choycest precepts concerning the aforesaid necessary trade of training up your selves in the true and practicall knowledge of your spirituall weapons This ministred me the occasion to translate it that it might be accommodated to your benefit and to this I was urged and led on by the ardent desire of advancing your good to the utmost extent of that small power which the Divine goodness hath imparted unto me Receive it therefore gratefully and imbrace it willingly O most Dear Souls as an expert Tutor of arms and excellent School-master of the Spirituall Conflict by whose directions and documents you may fight undantedly and infallibly foil not only the Flesh and the World together which wage such cruell and continuall warre with you but also all the powers of darkness and malice of the Devil from whom neither peace nor truce can ever be expected waiting with patience perseverance for that happie hour in which it will please your loving Lord to give you a full deliverance to banish all war unto the utmost bounds of the earth to bruse the Bow break the Weapons burn the Buckler and withdraw your desirous souls from this place of tumults and alarms to the quiet residence of eternall peace and felicity To which his Divine goodnesâ— grant we may all at last joyfullâ— arrive THE SUBJECT OF THE SPIRITUALL CONFLICT THis Book correspondent to it's title is of warrs fights and combats not against the lawfull powers of this world but against the Eph. 6. 12. Against the rulers of the darkness of this world c. 2 Thes 2. 4 Shewing himself as if he were God c. Psal 11. 1. Truth is diminish'd amongst the children of men 2 Tim. 2. 5. No one shal be crowned who fights not 1 Thes 3. 3 We â—re appointed hereunto c. Job 7. 1. Man's life is a warfare 2 Tim. 2. 12. If we suffer we shall also reign usurped authority of the Prince of darkness who sits inthron'd as sole Monark of this inverted Universe in opposition to God and all goodness tyrannizing and trampling down all vertu piety and religion clipping Faith's sacred wings and blinding her with sin and sensuality destroying and driving out all justice and sincerity from amongst the sons of men and endeavouring to substitute double-harted fraud with all sort of prophaness impiety and infidelity in their stead The necessity of fighting against these monsters is a sufficient commendation of this our holy enterprise For we are put here expresly for this purpose All men are included in this Spiritual Warfare nor is there any exemption from combating where there is the least expectation of conquering or hope of being crowned How highly then doth it concern each Christian to learn so to combat that he may conquer if he attends ever to be crowned The Sum of this desired Conquest Ephes 4. 25. Depose all lying c. Coloss 3. 8 Depose all these wrath malice blasphemy c 1 Pet. 2. 1. Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Let not sin reign in your mortal body c. consists in deposing the devil and setting up God in our souls in subduing Sense to Reason's empire in bringing the Animal man under the feet of the Intellectual in raising up the Intellectual man to his proper Sphaer which is his Creator and in uniting the Spirit to it 's true object and Centre which is the Divinity The way to arrive at this high and happy Union is by continual and indefatigable tendencies of the soul to God in the track of sincere
and solid Devotion This solid Devotion depends upon Religion as the branch on it's tree and since there can he but one right Religion as there is one only Faith one law one Lord one Jesus Christ Ephes 4. 5 One Lord one Faith one Baptisme c. so there can be but one real Devotion and all others must needs be concluded unsecure superstitions hypocriticall hypocondriacal Now lest we should miss this right way or mistake this real Devotion we may here fitly at our first entrance into these holy list take a general view of this Animal Sensual and Carnal man which is to be destroyed of this Counterfeit Hypocritical and Hypocondriacal man which is to be undeceived and of this Spiritual Supersensual and Perfect man which is to be brought into us and built up within us that so framing a right I dea of the end we aym at we may follow those means which appear most proportionable for the attaining therof THE ANIMAL CARNAL AND SENSUAL MAN Is he who gives up the raynes of his Reason to the intire conduct of Sensuality and puts his soul into the devils power by submitting to all sinfull suggestions to be driven and dragg'd on uncontrollably to all Ephes 2. 2 You walked according to the cours of this world according to the Prince of the ayr c. 1. Cor. 2. 14. The animal man perceives not the things of God's Spirit c. Philip. 3. 19. Whose God is their belly James 3. 15. This Wisdom descends not from above but is earthly sensual devilish c. Jude v. 19 Sensual having not the Spirit Ps 31. 9. wickedness He walks after the world 's perverse course and custom living in all things according to his own lust and liking acknowledging no other Superior than his own all-swaying affections no law but that of his own will no God but his belly He easily yields to all his untam'd passions and appetites glutting his senses unrestrainedly with all alluring objects and making pleasure his only end heaven and happiness Briefly he is all earth all sin all sensuality in whom is nothing of the Spirit of grace of God his Understanding is a dungeon of darkness his Memory a Magazin of bestial imaginations his Will a confusion of base and brutish affections and his whole man totally depraved and degenerate resembling the filthy swine the unclean goat and the unbridled horse and mule which have no understanding THE HYPOCONDRIACAL HYPOCRITICAL AND COUNTERFEIT MAN Tinnit inane est Tinnit Inane est Is he who makes a great shew of sanctity and devotion but hath Ps 143. 5. Touch the mountains and they will smoak nothing of substance sincerity and solidity Touch him and he turns into smoak sound him and you shall soon find him to be but a windy cask Nahum 20. 2. She is empty void and waste 1. Cor. 13. 1. As sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal Mat. 6. 2. to the 16. Luke 18. I am not as other men are tunnd up with ayr an empty eccho a hollow noyse a flatuous anâ— foolish nothing He wilfully mistakes the means for the end and places perfection in pompous forms Pharisaical fashions and external practices If he prays 't is in publick if he gives alms he sounds the trumpet if he fasts he disfigures his countenance if he seemingly punish his body 't is to deceive more surely under the guise of sanctity finally all his actions rather savour of self-satisfaction and hypocrisy than have any sense of true piety Yet he ever pretends to high lights of the Spirit finds out new and unheard-of ways of walking with God sleights all that is common though never so commendable and catches at all that is curious though never so dangerous Thus he loseth himself in his own Chymerical conceptions and pretending to refine ancient piety becomes puff'd up with secret pride and presumption and grasps nothing but froth and vanity THE SPIRITUAL SUPERSENSUAL AND PERFECT MAN Is he who walks not in the wayes of this wicked world nor follows the tenents of flesh and blood but of Reason Religion and Understandâ—ng Rom. 8. per totum If you live after the flesh you shall dy 1 Cor. 3. 16. You are the temple of God Gods Spirit dwels in you c Rom. 8. 36 Ps 44. 22. For thy sake we are mortified all the day long c. Coloss 3. 5 His only end and aym is the Perfection of God's love in his soul his unwearied endeavours are bent against Satan Sin Sensuality and all Selfishness his main study is to make his body obedient to the Spirit his Spirit to Reason his Reason to Faith and All to God and his daily practice is self-mastery and Mortification And having 1. Trampled down the Man of sin 2. Layd a sure and solid ground-work of Devotion 3. He faithfully applies himself to fight under Christ's banner and learns exactly the right use of his spirituall weapons 4. He carefully eschews his enemies Ambushes 5. He keeps himself to the continual practice of prayer introversion recollection abstraction annihilation contemplation 6. He couragiously climbs up to the mountain top of Perfection 7. And lastly he sweetly reposes in divine love and Union as is more amply held forth in these following Treatises Galathians 6. 8 9 c. What things a man shalâ— sow those also shall he reapâ— For he that soweth in his flesh of the flesh also shall reap corruption But he that sowetâ— in the Spirit of the Spiriâ— shall reap life everlasting Psalme 125. 6. They that sow in Teares shall reap in Joyfullness Going they went and wept casting their seeds But coming they shall come with Exultations carrying their Sheaves â—he INDEX of all the CHAPTERS of this Spirituall Conflict OR Arraignment of the spirit of Self-love and Sensuality â— I. WHerein Christian perfection consists and of four things necessary to obtain it pag. 1 â—ap II. Of Diffidence or distruct of our selves p. 10 â—ap III. Of Confidence in God p. 14 â—hap IV. Of Continuall exercise and first that the Vnderstanding is to be carefully kept from Ignorance and from Curiosity p. 20 â—hap V. Of the will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions p. 29 â—hap VI. Of a two-fold Will in man and the continuall combat between them p. 38 â—hap VII Of the fight with Sensuality and of the inward way of the Will to acquire Vertues p. 43 Chap. VIII What he must doe who feels his superior Will or Rcason overcome by his Sensuality p. 52 Chap. IX That we must not avoid the occasions of the combatâ— p. 57 Chap. X. Of thâ— fight against suddain tempâ—ations p. 60. Chap. XI Of the fight against our flesh and fleshly Concupiscence p. 64. Chap. XII How to fight against slackâ— and negligence p. 7â— Chap. XIII How to govern our Sâ—suality p. 7â— Chap. XIV Of the order to be observed â— fighting against our enemies p. 10â— Chap. XV. What course he must take
honour is to him For to suffer for God is the best prayer and makes thee truly devout the most acceptable prayer And therefore to endure this drynesse with perfect patience and humble resignation makes thee truly devout because true devotion consists in no other thing than to have a ready will to follow Christ thy Lord with thy crosse on thy shoulder whither and which way hee pleaseth having and desiring God only for God and sometimes leaving God for God 9. If therefore spirituall persons especially Religious men and women would seeriously examine and measure their progresse in the way of perfection and piety by this Rule and not by the feeling of sensible devotion which many doe chiefly And not sensible devotion regard they surely would make better use of sensible comforts in their exercises of devotion which their loving Lord affords to make them more zealous in submitting to his sacred will which disposeth all things in order to our salvation and benefit Wherein many are deceived 10. And in this also many are much deceived that when they are troubled with impure and perverse thoughts they presently become fearfull and faint-hearted and as if God had utterly forsaken them thinke it impossible that his holy Spirit should inhabit a heart so troubled and tormented And they so intricate themselves in these fancies till by degrees they fall into a grievous dislike of themselves and lastly into a certain dangerous despaire Which they no sooner apprehend in themselves but they presently run to their wonted wayes to recover their quiet But hereby they shew themselves little gratefull to God who therfore permits them to be thus troubled and tempted to bring them to the cleare knowledge of their owne nothing that so as wretched frail and desolate creatures they may more seriously seeke him and more diligently draw near him 11. Wherefore ô my beloved What thou art to do in this distresse that which thou must doe in such a distresse is this Enter straight into a profound reflection upon thine own basenesse and there humble thy selfe and confesse thy peevish affections and passions and acknowledg thy pronesse to fall if left to thy selfe into all manner of wickednesse and that without thy loving Lords care and custody helpe and defence thou wouldst be cast downe headlong incontinently 12. This done raise thy heart with a good hope and confidence in thy Creatour seeing it is hee only who permitted thee to fall into this adversity that thou might'st take hold of the occasion to draw neerer unto him by humble prayer and therefore thou art obliged to render gratefull thanks to his divine Majesty for these-like troubles and temptations And take this as a certainty That all such perverse thoughts are sooner expelled with meeke sufferance and patience than with much solicitude and study CHAP. XXIX That the worthy frequenting of the most Blessed Sacrament is an efficacious meanes to conquer our passions THe sacred Communion or most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is received by devout Christians for divers ends But if thou desirest to take it for the particular strengthning of thy soule against the assaults of evill inclinations attend to what I shall now teach thee 2. The day before thou intendest Meditate the day before thy Communion of thy Saviours desire c. to come to thee to communicate meditate if thy leasure give thee leave of the great desire thy dear Saviour hath to unite himselfe to thee by the meanes of this Sacrament and thereby to root out thy vitious affections For this his desire is so immense that no created understanding can comprehend it 3. But that thou maist have a small glimps thereof consider these two things First What pleasure our Lord takes to dwell in us since the holy Scripture calls this his delights and in My delights are to be with the children of men Child give me thy heart And how much he hateth sin requitall of this love he only requires our hearts Secondâ—y how much he hateth our sinnes which â—â—â—der his nearer union with us and are directly opposite to his incompaâ—â—ble perfections For he being the â—â—ely and chief good the purest light â—â—d most perfect beauty cannot but detest that which is meer darknesse frailty and the corruption and Canker of our wretched soules 4. And that this loving desire of thy dear Lord may take yet deeper impression in thy mind meditate often of his mervailous works related in the Old and New Testament especially of his most bitter Passion and cruell death which he did expresly suffer to deliver thy soul from sinne and to cleanse it from such affections as are contrary to his divine Majesty Concerning which point all the illuminated Doctours of Gods Church doe unanimously conclude and teach That Christ our Saviour would againe if it were needfull exposâ— himselfe to a thousand deaths to free us from the least evill passion or affection 5. By such considerations thou And move thy soul to a reciprocall desire and affection towards him wilt easily gather the great desire thy deare Saviour hath to dwell with thee and from thence conclude how fitting it is that thou shouldst reciprocally stirre up in thy selfe an ardent affection to receive and entertain him Which thou mayst do by these and the like jaculatory prayers Come ô my Lord and my love helpe thy caitif creature to conquer her enemies When ô when my deare spouse will that happy hour come that I may receive thee the bread of life and being comforted and encouraged by thee may fully conquer my selfe and totally subdue my owne evill passions and disordered affections 6. And when thou art hightned And then provoke thy passions to battail with the hope of thy sweet Saviours comming into thy soule then provoke thy passions to battaile call up thy affections and curb them againe and againe with perfect hatred and disdaine and this done produce acts and desires of the vertues which are opposite to these vices And let this be thy evenings entertainment and mornings â—mploymâ—â—t 7. But when the hour of sacred Being near the time of Communion thou art to fear communion draws neare think seriously of thine owne faults failings and unfaithfulnesse to thy Lord God since the time of thy last approach to the sacred table for which ingratitude and unworthinesse thou tremblest with fear and confusion before his dread Majesty But then againe encourage and comfort thy But also to have courage and coÌ„fidence selfe with the consideration of his goodnesse his readinesse to pardon and his inclination to mercy and with a pious confidence that he will have thee receive him notwithstanding thine own indignity go on with alacrity of spirit to the holy banquet and joyfully embrace thy Lord God in thy soul 8. The Sacred Communion thus After Communion discover thy wants performed presently shut up thy self within the closet of thine own heart and discover to thy Saviour thy
our souls For when humane favour and respect strive to oversway the love of God and strike in for a part of that which is due to God only we do or leave undone say or unsay what we neither should nor would but for their sakes Ouâ— kindred corrupt oâ—r judgments and courtesies blind our reasons so that we neither discern their follies nor correct their faults but rather comply with their imperfections and somtimes wink at their open wickednesses for the continuance of our own content 3. O how far is this from that The remedy is to love all impartially in and for God pure love which obligeth us to affect all without exception of persons only in and for God as bearing his image as being truly vertuous and as far forth as they are furtherers to our souls salvation and perfection Fy upon all friend ships and affections which are attended with such dangers accompanied with such distractions and followed with such disquiets which busie our fancies and bend our imaginations to things so unprofitable and impertinent and so much impeding us in our intended pâ—ogresse to the perfection of Gods love 4. So also all disordered delight Spiritual sweetnesses may be somtimes snares of our enemy pleasure and propriety in spiritual sweetnesses and inward solaces of devotion are meer traps of the enemy laid to catch and insnare our unwary souls and to make them rest with complacency in things which are not God himself the end of our desires but only his creatures guifts and graces You must not stay here O devout We must noâ— stay in them but transcend them souls but pass on your way and transcend all for his sake whom you only seek and not his solaces These are helps and encouragements in your course not the goal you must touch These are neither security Read the 28. ch of the Confflict nor sanctity but only baits of the divine piety to strengthen you in climbing the steep mountain to his perfect charity The Third Ambush Extroversion or an inordinate application of the soul to external things 1. THis choaks up the Spirit of Extroversion choaks up devotion Devotion quenches the souls ardor in her holy exercises hinders her hastning to perfection and buries the whole heart and mind the whole time and talents in mean and inferiour employments which should be totally taken up in divine contemplation Take heed of being drawn into this dangerous ambush O dear Therefore we must not intrude our selves into employments souls intrude not your selves into any business and when Necessity Obedience or Charity the only pretexts which can make extroversion lawfull and laudable urge you abroad keep your heart still at home converse there with your Lord and love and commune with him concerning the more important affairs of eternity abstract your selves from all outward multiplicity and there treat sweetly and secretly with him of your souls union to that one thing which is only and absolutly necessary 2. Abridge therefore your fancy But curb our fancies from fruitless roaming abroad upon all occurring objects which proceeds from instability of heart and argues a neglect of your interiour Curb and suppresse all extravagations Read ch 4 n. 6 of the Conflict of your mind not only from sinful but from superfluous and unprofitable conceptions which nothing advance your soul in it's tendance to perfection but contaminate it with the dust of vanity and contristate the holy Spirit of God within you 3. Perform such works as concern your calling without solicitude of mind or ingagement of affection Perform workâ— of obedience necâ—ssity and charity without engâ—gâ—ng your affections lest your senses become darkned your soul distracted your fervor diminished your prayers neglected and you sliding insensibly into negligence and a total discomposition in your inward man be hardly ever again reclaimed and recollected For how can a soul which is totally environed with worldly impertinencies have any vacant time left for the entertainments of piety how can a mind dull'd and astonish'd with the continual noyses of mundanity hearken attentively to Gods holy inspirations 4. Wherefore strive timely and And strive to get into your interiour diligently to get into your interiour prevent your soul which is ever active never idle with pious thoughts lest evil habits press in first and pre-possesse it apply your selves speedily and seriously to introversion spiritual silence and inward attendance to God alone adhere to him only and remain unremoveable from this maxim To desire nothing demand nothing think of nothing love nothing labour for nothing but him alone that One and All which is needfull for you Do this as if nothing else concern'd you and as if there were nothing but He and your self and You and himself considerable in the whole world 5. The surest way to compass this happy and heavenly design is to keep your eyes and heart fix'd By fixing our hearts upon Christ crucified constantly and continually upon Christ crucified This is the solid ground whence the highest contemplatives take their first rise hither into this sacred Ark of our Saviours humanity they must again return after their lofty soarings into the divinity and here they must settle when elswhere they can find no footing And surely a soul that seriously considers his sufferings contemplates his mercys and reflects upon his vertues will find her whole time too short to visit each room of his several perfections and none at all left to be lost upon extravagant and worldly fancies The Fourth Ambush Bitterness of Heart 1. WHich comprehends all kind Bitterness of heart comprehends all sadnes frowardnesse c. of Sadness Melancholy frowardness restlesness indignation despitefulness proness to impatience discontent tediousness of mind aversion distast of all things dislike of others suspicions sinister interpretations unpleasantness murmurations detractions rancor malice rash-judgments and the like 2. The source of these bitter All which proceed either from nature indiscretion â—n austerities thoughtfulness persumption or immortification streams is either perverse nature or indiscreet austerities or an over-serious application of the mind to study and thoughtfulness or a secret presumption of self-perfection and sufficiency or an immortification of passions or a reflexion upon past injuries or an envying at others vertue praise preferment and prosperity And all these anguishes of mind and harshnesses in conversation are great impediments in our progress to spirituality and must necessarily And must be sweetned with charity be sweetned and season'd with the Sugar of perfect Charity For if we truly love our Lord God how can we scorn his image stamp'd in the souls of our Brethren Do they cease to be Gods amiable creatures because they displease despise or Read c. 16 of the Conflict neglect me may they not be Gods friends though they are my foes are they not more likely to love God because they dislike me who am so truly unworthy to be loved
as the working of miracles c. And we must uncloath our wills from any Joy proceeding from these prerogatives since they may be conferred upon reprobates Or they are such goods as have relation to sanctifying grace as Faith c. Which if they are not accompanied with perfect Charity and final Perseverance are nothing worth and nothing can be no true subject of joy We may here take notice how little reason some persons have to be troubled because they have not these extraordinary gifts when as they may be rather impediments if ill used or over-much adher'd unto than helps to divine Union For says S. Denys all these things are S. Denys not God but only some effects of his favour ordered by his providence to indear us in his love Thus the three powers of our souls Understanding Mâ—mory and Will are to follow their three objects Faith Hope and Charity Now our Lord is our loving Master to whom we must have continual recourse and who seeing our longing desires and diligent indeavours will infallibly instruct us in the particular and unexplicable ways of this divine and perfect Contemplation The fourteenth Maxim That this Exercise of Recollection and Annihilation is the short and secure way to divine Vnion FOr a soul which is truly humbled and annihilated hinders not at all Gods holy operation within her but leaves her self in his hands not at all relying upon any discourse or imagination which is coined in her F. Cisnerius ch 29. own mint as a child in his mothers arms who corrects it cherishes it washes it and orders it as she pleaseth And must not this needs be the shortest nearest surest and most proportionate way to divine Vnion For before God created us we were either nothing at all or we were in Gods Ideal being and so were God himself because all that is in God is God now his divine Majesty gave us our present being and we losing our selves because we abused this our being have no better way to regain our selves than by a no-being that so we may come to be that which we are not by denying that being which we are O secure annihilation What can hurt that which is nothing If we thus leave our selves will-less self-less being-less we sodainly become plunged into the increated being of God and living in him only by Faith Hope and Love our enemy as is already said finds nothing to lay hold on because our annihilated souls are no where but in God where they are securely covered and protected under his wings and who is obliged if we may say it to be our bulwark of defence against all assaults of our enemies The fifteenteth Maxim That all sorts of people may safely addict themselves to this holy exercise of Recollection 'T Is true that this way of Prayer is delicate and slippery for Beginners to tread in Yet if they will faithfully observe those few necessary precautions here prescribed they will find to their unspeakable comfort that most true in themselves which experience hath proved F. Cisnerius ch 22. to be true in others who though deeply ingaged in worldly vanities and affections falling seriously resolutely couragiously and humbly upon Divine Contemplation and Recollection became after some time employed in purging their souls from sin and setling themselves in vertue according to counsell and obedience quickly truly and totally changed and were conducted as it were by a nearer cut without pains and tediousness to higher perfection than by the ordinary wayes of discoursive meditation they could in long time have attained For this is most certain That If we use our endeâ—vors Goâ— always gives us his grace God denies not his grace to them who do what ly's â—n their own power Now any one of us being assisted with Gods grace and a good will may do this which follows 1. We may purge our souls from sin by Confession contrition satisfaction the means ordained by God and his Church 2. Resigne and give up our selves and all that we have are and can to Gods Divine Majesty 3. Adore him in spirit and truth and present our selves before him as his poor needy naked creatures 4. Abstract our Vnderstandings Memories and Wills from all objects and images of creatures though never so good high and holy 5. Enter into the obscurity of Faith hope and love and leave our souls as it were sleeping and swallowed up in the abysses of the Divinity Finally all we have to do is briefly this We must leave our houses empty that our Lord and lover may take full possession and then we may assure our selves that at the very instant in which our dear Lord shall find our hearts vacant he will enter presently into them inhabit them instruct them and shew them how sweet he is to those souls which Lam. 5. 25. truly seek him Let us but persever constantly and couragiously in this pious practice and we shall soon perceive our unspeakable profit and progress and though it seems to our selves that we perform it with much impurity and imperfection yet our continued endeavours enabled with Gods concurring grace will speedily raise us up to divine Vnion The sixteenth Maxim That outward Observances are helps in the practice of this Exercise ALl externall practices duties and mortifications as fastings Read F. Cisnerâ—us ch 68. disciplines retirements vocal devotions c. must be directed to further our internal conversation with God and to help us in the acquisition of solid vertue and divine Vnion for else they will but puff us up and make us proud of nothing profiting little with much labour Yet we must be wary of offending against the least ordinance of We must not offend against the least ordinance c. the Church order of the House or disposition of our Superiours we must be conscientious careful and punctual in each ceremony and constitution omitting nothing upon pretence that it is no great matter not commanded under sin or not much conducing to our spiritual advancement For this is a token of an ignorant unfaithful or indiscreet spirit Gods will is as well in little as in great things and who so is careless in small matters will soon fail in higher The seventeenth Maxim That Prayer for others is best practised by a general intention WE are not lightly to promise We must not lightly promise the performance of particular Prayers for others either living or dead This sort of charity hinders diverts and dissipats our souls breeding multiplicity when as one thing is only necessary We must therefore omit all such obligations as may renew old affections and Nor oblige our selves to pray for others labour to forget and forsake all that we may more purely adhere to one who is our all in all wherefore let this generall vertuall and cordiall intention suffice for all cases of this nature First that we desire to be partakers of all prayers sacrifices and merits of the whole Church
thy self and more in God and with a new-enkindled zeale and greater courage than before wilt follow thy begun enterprize to get the victory in this spirituall warfare and pursue thy enemies even to death 6. And would to God these A necessary caveat for all spiritual people truthes were diligently div'd into by some who seeme to bee spirituall and yet they no sooner fall into defects but they presently become impatient and cannot be quieted till they have recourse to their ghostly Father rather for their own solace than for any true devotion when as the prime motive of their comming to him should be to purge their soules from sin by absolution and to obtaine new strength against their enemies by the sacred Communion EXPLICATION AS we can promise to our selves By God's assistance we can do all things nothing but faylings fallings because we are of our selves nothing so also we may certainly promise to our selves from our God an intire victory over all our enemies if we arm our hearts with a lively confidence in his divine Majesty But Wherein many are deceived many deceive themselves in supposing that the pusillanimity and disquiet following their fall is an effect of virtue because it is accompanied with a displeasure for their offence when as indeed it springs from pride and presumption and is founded in selfe-confidence and conceit of their own strength to which they too By reason of their pride and presumption in their owne strength much trusting find by the wofull experience of their fall that they are truly weak and really nothing and thereupon they become troubled astonished as at a new thing and so lose their courage seeing that prop which sustained their vain confidence fallen down to the ground But this befalls not them who are truly humble For they confiding in God alone nothing presuming of themselves when they chance to fall into any fault feele indeed a true grief in their souls but are neither disquieted nor astonished seeing clearly by the light of truth that this proceeds from their own misery frailty and presumption CHAP. IV. Of continuall exercise and first that the Vnderstanding is carefully to be kept from Ignorance and from Curiosity IT hath been hitherto declared The third spirituall weapon is continuall exercise how much this Distrust of our selves and trust in Gods goodnesse help us on in our spirituall conflict But they alone are yet insufficient to gain the victory and keep us from relapses and therefore besides these two a third weapon is necessary which we above tearmed Continuall Exercise and this chiefly consists in the rectified use of our Understanding Which consists in the right use of the understanding and Will 2. First therefore the Understanding is to be carefully kept from two great evils Ignorance and Curiosity From Ignorance that it may bee pure and cleare and so we may The understanding is to be kept from Ignorance see what is necessary for the taming of our passions and overcomming of our affections 3. And this light may be obtained two manner of wayes First and chiefly by earnest Prayer invoking First by prayer and imploring God's holy Spirit to infuse this light into thy soule Secondly Secondly by a diligent search into our owne actions by daily practice of a profound and accurate search into all thine own actions and affairs not only as they appeare outwardly but rather as they are truly in themselves Doe but make tryall of this exercise for a time and thou wilt come easily to understand what things and actions are good and what are evill as also what are truly good and what are onely in shew promising much by their outward splendour but performing indeed nothing nor any way conducing to the quiet of thy conscience EXPLICATION THis point which is to estimate This search into all things according to their true worth will open our eyes to see the meanesse of all worldly vanities all things according to their true and reall worth and goodnesse being well practised will open our eyes to see the poornesse of all such toys which worldlings most desire and delight in It will shew us that earthly honours and pleasures are meer vanities and afflictions of spirit That injuries infamies and affronts patiently suffered are the harbingers of true happinesse and glory That afflictions are indeed freindships and that seeming crosses are followed with certain contentments That to despise the world is better than to be master of it and that to be willingly obedient for the love of God to the meanest creature is a more magnanimous action and the signe of a more generous spirit than to command the greatest Kings That the humble ackowledgment of our own nothing is more acceptable to the divine Majesty than to dive into the height and depth of all sciences That to quel and conquer our owne appetites and imperfections though they be never so small merits more praise than to force the strongest holds than to triumph over the greatest armies than to worke the greatest miracles or raise the dead out of their graves All which things and others of like nature are not sincerely discerned by us because before we enter into our selves to weigh them well as we ought and as they truly are we permit our fancy to be prevented prepossessed and surprized with some sensuall affection towards them which so darkens and dimms our understandings that they are rendred uncapable to judge of those objects rightly and impartially as they should and they truly deserve 4. Wherefore give an attentive Text. A necessary caveat to keep the will from fixing it's love care ô dearly beloved to what I shall now tell thee for it will much further thee to fight successefully The means to know the true nature and properties of all things which occurre in thy daily transactions is by taking speciall care to keep thy Will pure and free from all motion of love and affection which looke not directly upon God himself or upon the means leading unto him For to the end thy Vnderstanding may rightly distinguish good from evill it must first consider it before thy Will hath made it's election or Untill the Understanding have first pondered the object reprobation of it because when the Will hath fastned once it's affection upon the object the Vnderstanding is hindred from comming to a true knowledg thereof by reason that the consent of the Will intervening leaves it so involved and obscured that it appeares farre fairer to the Vnderstanding than it is in it self And hence it happens that the object being thus falsly represented to the Will becomes too too passionately beloved and embraced without the due enquiry of its reall goodnesse And by how much the desire or love of the Will is more vehement by so much the Vnderstanding is more grosly clowded in its judgement and being so deceived invites the Will to a◠encrease of
my whole delight 5. Another remedy against such-like Mark well the craft of the Devill surprises of pleasure may be To ponder presently with thy understanding how cunningly the Devill who onely seeks to kill or at least to wound thy soule mortally lies lurking under this bait Which when thou perceivest tell him boldly Ah thou cursed serpent how craftily and covertly dost thou lie in wait to infect me with thy poison And then lift up thy mind to God-ward saying O the goodnesse of my God bee thou eternally blessed and praised which hast discovered my hidden enemy lying in wait to destroy my soul 6. But in other accidents which But when things which are unpleasant befal thee thinke upon God's eternall decree go against the hair and rather procure pain than pleasure thou maist thus exercise thy self when somthing happens which is of hard digestion to thy Sensuality as heat hunger sicknesse blows or the like elevate thy mind to that eternall will who would have it so and even from all eternity decreed that thou shouldest suffer this or that calamity at this very time thus grievously and with these circumstances as thou now endurest the same Therefore ful of hearty joy say within thy selfe Now is thy divine will ô my eternall Lord and love accomplished in mee whereby thou wouldest from all eternity that I now in this manner measure and number should receive and carry this crosse and I acknowledge all this to be for thine honour and glory and my owne soules welfare and salvation 7. And make use also of such like So likewise in any sudden or dismall chance thoughts upon all dismall occasions of wind weather and the like which are out of mans power and providence to hinder or prevent So when thou readest any thing which tickles thy fancy turne presently all thy delight to thy Lord God and conclude that he infallibly is hid under those words and now by them sweetly discovers himselfe unto thee And in like manner when good thoughts occure with complacency And in all felfe complacency and delight as proceeding from the reflexion upon some good and vertuous action turne thy mind sodainly to thy Lord God and adoring him with all possible humility and reverence acknowledge that good to have sprung from his grace and therefore thou gratefully returnest it his glory EXPLICATION A larger Declaration of the foregoing Chapter concerning the government of our outward senses THat thou maist rightly study this usefull science and learne how to governe regulate thy outward senses it imports thee to use all exactnesse of custody all curiosity care and diligence and a perpetuall and never-intermitted practise because the appetite which sits as Captaine The appetite is violently bent to seeke it's pleasure and chief commander of our corrupted nature is violently and inconsiderately bent to search after worldly solaces earthly pleasures and outward contentments but being of it selfe unable to acquire them makes use of the senses as his Soldiers And makes use of the senses to obtaine it and naturall instruments to apprehend their objects from whence drawing their images it imprints them in the soule and proceeds on to pleasure which by reason of the sympathy between it and the flesh dilates it selfe through all those senses which are capable of such pleasure and from hence is derived the common contagion which infects corrupts both body and soule Secondly Now if thou art truly sensible of the danger of this poison apply speedily The Antidot against this poyson this antidote which I have here prepared against it Beware of giving up the reines to thy senses or letting them run at randome after the unruly fancy of their leading appetite and never make use of them in things tending to meere pleasure without any further good end profit or necessity but if unawares they have gotten And how to curb the senses roaming abroad vent and are roam'd too far abroad either recall them back or else so regulate and curb them that whereas they had at first basely yielded up themselves and were become wretched prisoners to vaine pleasure they may now bring home some noble spoile or other from each object and place it as a trophe in thy soule where she recollected within her selfe displayes the banners of her affections towards heaven in the contemplation of her Creatour Which thou maist thus practise So soone as any object is presented to one of thy outward senses separate in thy thought the spirit which is in that creature from the creature it By separating the spirit of each object from the thing it self materiall selfe and conclude that it hath nothing of it's owne nature which can charm thy sense but that all is the work of God whose Spirit bestowes invisibly this being upon it gives it this goodnesse and indues it with this beauty with all other its prerogatives and perfections Then rejoyce heartily that thy God is the onely cause and source of so many and so great excellencies which he eminently contains in his divine essence and whereof these are the least and lowest images 3. So when thou findest thy sense fastened upon some creature which Whether it be a creature which hath onely a Being hath onely a Being reduce it in thy thought to it's first nothing looking with the interiour eye of thy soule upon thy Soveraigne Creatour there present who beautified it with this Beeing and taking pleasure in him alone thou may'st say O Divine and desirable essence how doth my heart leap with joy that thou alone art the infinit beginning of all created Beeing 4. In like manner when thou Or hath a Vegetation and increase takest notice of Trees Plants Herbs Flowers and such other things thy understanding will soone distinguish how they have no life of themselves but from that quickning Spirit which falls not under the sense of thy fight to whom thou mayst thus breath forth Behold the true life from which in which and by which all creatures live and encrease O the lively and lovely contentment of my heart 5. Also beholding brute-beasts Or hath sense and feeling let thy spirit soare up to thy God the free bestower of all their sense and motion saying O prime mover of all things yet remaining in thy selfe immovable how great is my joy in thy firm stability 6. Moreover when thy sense is Or is indued with rare beauty touch't and tickled with some rare Beauty separate with all speed that which appeares to the eye from the inward spirit which appeares not at all and considering that all the outward fairenesse springs onely from the invisible Fountaine say with a gladsome heart Oh! the jubilation of my Soule when it thinkes on that eternall and immense beauty which is the originall source and essentiall cause of all created comelinesse 7. Furthermore upon the consideration of any perfection in Creatures Or excellent perfection first making
musicall charmes soare up in spirit to the sweete harmony of Heaven where Alleluja's do forever resound and beg of thy deare Lord that thou may'st become worthy to chant forth his perpetuall prayses amongst those heavenly quiristers 18. When thou walkest on the way Walking abroad ponder how each one of thy paces is a step towards thy death 19. When thou markest the Fowls Marking the swift flight of the Fowls of the Aire how swiftly they glide through that yielding Element and the running Waters hastning to their originall Ocean thinke how thy life slips away and thy Soule runs on to eternity with greater speed and celerity 20. When impetuous Winds are In time of Winds Thunder Stormes rais'd or Thunder and Lightning rage in the Skyes remember the â—earefull day of Judgement and â—rostrating thy selfe at the foot â—f the Crucifix adore thy Saviour â—nd implore his gracious assistance â—hat thou mayst now make such good use of the time hee lends thee â—hat thou mayst be then prepared â—o appear couragiously before his dread Majesty 21. As concerning divers Accidents Also upon all other Accidents and Occasions As of grief sorrow which are personall and peculiar to thy selfe thou mayst thus behave thee When Griefe or Sadnesse hath seized thy Heart when melancholy oppresseth thy minde or when any inconveniency troubles thy body raise up and resigne thy spirit to the supreme and eternall Will of God who is pleased this molestation should even now and thus touch and torment thee for thy good and his owne glory and bee glad of this occasion to serve him according to his owne Decree and Disposition 22. When thou castest thine eyes When thou lookest upon Christ crucified upon Christs sacred Crosse consider it as the banner of thy warfare from under which thou maist not step aside without eminent danger of being surprised by thy sworne enemies but following it closely and valiantly thou hast certaine hope to conquer them and climb up to heaven loaden with their glorious spoils and trophees 23. When thou seest the image Or the image of the Blessed Virgin representing the holy Virgin mother turne thy heart towards her now reigning in Paradise and give her thanks for having been ever ready to performe the divine will for bearing and bringing up the Redeemer of the world and for never denying her favour and succour to thee and all spirituall combatants humbly imploring it 24. So let the pictures of Saints seeme as so many representatives of And the pictures of Saints stout champions and Soldiers who by their courages and conquests have made thee a free and safe passage to follow them imitate them overcome with them and be crowned with them in eternall glory 25. Let the Churches which thou Or entrest into Churches frequentest put thee in mind that thy soule is Gods temple and should be therefore kept most purely and prepared most perfectly for his comming 26. Finally let each creature all Finally make all objects accidents instrumeÌ„ts to thy perfection objects and every accident be so spiritualized and distilled by thy understanding from their earthly and materiall drosse that they may serve thee as true instruments to the perfection of thy soule and become powerfull helps to thee contrary to thine enemies intention in thy tendance to divine union which is the onely end thou aimest at How to regulate the Tongue 1. And because the tongue hath a neere assinity with our senses for we willingly discourse of those things wherein we take delight I will here before I descend to the following doctrine briefly shew thee how thou art to regulate bridle and master this unruly member 2. Much pratling proceeds ordinarily Much talk proceeds from presumption from a certain presumption which perswades us that we are very knowing in the things we talk of and so pleasing our selves in our own conceptions we endeavour to imprint them in the hearers hearts with soperfluous repetitions and replications of the same subject to appeare thereby more masters of Reason than others and as if they stood in need of our instruction Few words cannot expresse the evill which ensues upon over-much talking for it is the parent of idlenesse an argument of ignorance the dore of detraction the instrument of falsehood and the blaster of all true devotion and spirituall fervour 3. Wherefore I advise thee in the Therefore avoid long discourses first place not to enlarge thy selfe in long discourses before unwilling hearers which is to break the lawes of civility nor yet before them who are willing to hearken to thee lest thou exceed the bounds of modesty 4. Avoid also all patheticall and And passionate expressions passionate expressions and an over-high elevation of voyce for both these are generally odious to the hearers and alwayes arguments of thine owne vanity and presumption 5. Speak not at all of thy selfe of And all talking of thy owne affaires thine owne affairs of thy patentage or kindred unlesse in case of evident necessity and then also with all possible brevity simplicity sincerity and modesty and if another seeme superfluous in such speeches concerning himself be thou edified thereat but imitate him not though his words tended to his self-abjection and accusation 6. Discourse not of thy neighbour Or of thy neighbours nor any thing concerning him unlesse a just occasion urge thee to defend him or speak well of him 7. Shew a willingnesse to talke But speak willingly of God alwayes of God and particularly of his love and liberality yet still with profound reverence for fear of failing and therefore take more content to hear others discourse than to talk thy self and conserve what good words are delivered in the cabin of thy heart 8. As for all other discourses let the only sound strick thy eares but keep thy mind fixed upon thy God And if thou needs must lend an eare because thy answer is expected yet let thy souls eye glance up to heaven And ponder in thy heart what thy tongue is to utter where thy Lord and love is and first examin briefly in thy heart what thou intendest thy tongue should utter wherby thou wilt quickly resolve whether speech or silence be now more to the purpose 9. Lastly thou wilt find by experience my dearly beloved that The praise and profit of Silence Silence is an excellent and usefull weapon for thy spirituall combat giving courage to fight constancy to continue and confidence to overcome It is his sure friend who distrusts himself and trusts in his God it conserves us in devotion and comforts us in the exercises of our duty And surely the bare consideration of the disasters caused by inconsiderate talking is a sufficient motive to make us in love with silence to which that thou maiest habituate thy selfe make frequent use of solitude and retirement from fruitlesse company and frivolous conversation whereby instead of men thou shalt
for that he is impeded from the practice of good wotks So that the cause of Divers pretences for our impatience his impatience relates not to the sicknesse or adversity it selfe but partly to himselfe as deserving it partly to others whom he must be forced to trouble against his will and partly to the omission of his spirituall exercises 5. Thus he who failes in his ambitious But all unwarrantable seeking of honours and offices will tell you he complains not for his owne sake but for the necessity of his family and friends whom he might thus have helped Now that such men deceive themselves is made apparent by this that they are not much troubled when the very same effects come to passe by some other meanes or persons which seemed to afflict them and under which they covered their owne imperfection 6. For example Thou tellest me As is explained by an example that thy sicknesse makes thee not impatient because it is in it selfe grievous to thee but for that they who are about thee are thereby overburdened But should they whom thou so much compassionatest be as much overburdened in serving other sick persons it would not much trouble thee From whence it is evident that not the sense of their trouble but thine owne desire and selfe-love was the true root of thy Impatience And in this manner thou maist discover the hidden deceits in the rest of thy affaires EXPLICATION TO remedy this I advise thee The remedy is to separate the pain from the pretended circumstances my beloved that as soone as thou doubtest of such a deceit thou presently separate by the help of thy conception the pain which presseth thee from those circumstances which are pretended excuses for thy impatience and then reflecting upon that alone force thy selfe to produce true and efficacious acts of patience and resignation to suffer it willingly Thus thou wilt either become a true practiser of vertue or at least thine eyes will be opened to discover thy owne defects whereof thou wert formally ignorant 7. Wherefore I exhort thee that Text. Therefore desire not to be freed from thy Crosse if thou art able to carry thy Crosse with patience thou never desire to be freed from it for this desire brings with it two great evills The one is that if it destroyes not thy patience yet it disposeth thee by little and little to impatience The other is That it deprives thee of merit before God who esteemes that only a work of perfect Patience though short in reference to time which is done with the resignation of our wils to his divine pleasure 8. In this therefore and in all But conforme thy will to God's thy other works and proceedings follow this Rule Withdraw and purge thy heart from all other desires and demands than that onely purely and simply which is conforme to God's will And this is the way to be no more disquieted with adversity since no such thing can befall thee without his will and liking 9. But when some lawfull meanes Yet thou maist use lawfull meanes so thou takest heed of self-love must necessarily be used for the expelling of some overburdening adversity take heed left selfe-love creep into thy heart with them and see thou apply them not to bee thereby freed from thy pressure but onely because it is Gods pleasure that thou shouldst make use of those instruments and then thou canst not be discontented in case they should not conduce to thy deliverance from adversity EXPLICATION How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscretion VVHen the Devill perceives 1. How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscreâ—ion that thou walkest on warily in the right track of vertue so that his common cunning is become uselesse to his designe of making thee goe astray he then transformes himself into an Angel of light and solicites thee with delightfull thoughts flatters thee with passages of sacred writ and suggests examples of the Saints that so conceiting thy selfe climb'd up to the top of perfection thou maist fall more dangerously into the precipice which he hath dig'd for thee To this end he presseth And pressing us to afflict our bodies thee to the punishment of the body with disciplines abstinence hair-cloath and other extraordinary austerities that either thou may'st be puffed up with pride as thinking thou dost very much or mayst destroy thy health and so become uncapable to doe good works or lastly that having endured much in this kind thou maist grow weary of doing penance and abhor thy spirituall exercises and so become a prey to thine enemies and a slave to fleshly and worldly pleasures which hath hapned to very many whose presumption having led them on and left them to the conduct and violence of an indiscreet zeale after they had gone beyond the limits of their owne vertue by immoderate rigours perish'd at last in their owne inventions and so became laughing stocks to their enemies all which disasters will never befall him who diligently observes this doctrine Whiâ—h though it is sometimes good Yet it must be tempered by discretion For all cannot imitate the Saints in austeâ—ity of life 2. For although these voluntary pernances are sometimes praise-worthy and may be meritorious when strength of body and humility of spirit doe correspond and accompany them yet they must be temper'd and moderated by discretion according to each one's nature and quality Thus hee that is unable of body to imitate the Saints in severity of life may right well be able to imitate their vertues by being fervent in devotion frequent in prayer continually aspiring to his Lord and love setting naught by the world and himselfe and loving silence and solitude HEE may be humble and affable to all patient in suffering affronts glad of the occasions to doe good to his greatest enemies and finally resolved to performe his Lords will and promote his honour to the utmost of his power and never to offend his divine Majesty in the least matter whatsoever 3. All which inward acts and But each one may imitate their vertues mortifications are far more pleasing to God thâ—n the outward macerations of the flâ—sh and therefore I counsell thee to be very punctuall in those things which concerne thy duty and obligation but as for extraordinary rigours be rather backward and fearfull than indiscreetly forward â—o embrace them 4. Yet I speak not here to those Yet take heed of too much addicting thy self to delicacies c. delicate ones who though in other things they are sufficiently spirituall are over-much inclined to indulgence towards themselves and to an exâ—ct doting and diligence in the preservation of their health under Under pretence of health or the better performance of thy duty pretence of being thereby better able to serve God and perform their duty for they strive to couple two capitall enemies together the Spirit and the flesh
sufferest either in these-like inconsiderable occasions or perchance in matters of more difficulty to bee supported wherewith this miserable life is replenished 3. In all which accidents though it be good to produce divers acts of Make acts of that vertue thou then practisest vertue conformable to the variety of the subjects yet following the Rule already prescribed thou art to exercise thy selfe in such acts as directly aym at that vertue thou then practisest As for example If at the time when these occasions are Examples in the vertue of Patience offered thou art upon the acquisition of Patience thy way is to form acts of induring those particular contrarieties with all willingnesse joyfulnesse and chearfulnesse If thy vertue bee Humility acknowledge Of Humility thy selfe most justly deserving these and far greater indignities If it be Obedience yield readily and submit to Gods powerfull Hand Of Obedience offering to obey if so he pleaseth not onely all reasonable creatures but even to sinke below the brute beasts and debase thy selfe under all things which any way disgust or displease thee If it bee Poverty Of Poverty content thy selfe in the want of all worldly comforts and conveniences whatsoever If it be Charity Of Charity produce acts of love both towards thy neighbour as being instrumentall to thy purchasing of vertue and also towards God as being the principall and loving cause whence these crosses proceed or at least are permitted to come upon thee for thy spirituall practice and profit And by this Doctrine here delivered concerning the divers accidents which may dayly befall thee thou mayst easily learne how to behave thy selfe and make acts of the vertue thou practisest in any one occasion of sicknesse persecution or other pressures which are of longer durance 4. As for the space of time which Concerning the time thou art to stay in the practise of each vertue Thy directour must be judge is to be imployed in the practice of each vertue it is not for mee to determine but it must be regulated by the condition diligence and necessity of each particular combatant and according to their much or litle progresse in the way of the spirit whereof none can be a competent judge but hee who is the Guider and Directour of their soules 5. But whosoever shall heartily settle himselfe to worke with the devotion and diligence aforesaid Yet thou mayst have some signs of thy progresse may without doubt make great profit in few weekes practice And take this for one sure signe of thy proficiency if amidst all drynesse darknesse and distresses of thy Soule and feeling thy self bereft of all spirituall Whereof one is if thou losest not courage in time of desolation gust comfort thou ceasest not to continue with courage in thy vertuous enterprises Moreover the contradiction of thy sensuality in the forming of acts of vertue will afford thee a manifest testimony for the more that is weakned the more this is strengthened Another if the rebellion of thy sensuality be weakned so that to feele no rebellion in the inferiour part especially in unforeseene assaults is a true token of thy having obtained the vertue And as far forth as thy actions are accompanied with a promptitude and alacrity of spirit so farre thou hast just reason to thinke thou hast profited in this exercise 6. Yet take heed of perswading thy selfe that thou art in sure possession of perfect vertue or absolute Yet never thinke thy selfe a conquerour master of any one passion though happily thou hast not a long time and after many hot skirmishes felt these rebellious motions for the deceit of the Devil and the corruption Because vice may be cloathed in vertues dresse of thy nature may herein be too hard for thee since that thing may bee really a vice which secret pride cloath's in the habit of vertue â—f furthermore thou steadfastly beâ—oldest And thou hast yet much more to do the perfection to which God hath called thee thou wilt eaâ—ily grant that hadst thou made a far greater progresse in the path of perfection yet thou art scarcely well entred into the first confines thereof 7. And I must here put thee in Therefore looke forwards upon what thou yet wantest mind my dearly beloved that thou art still to looke forwards and advance thy selfe towards those many vertues thou wantest and not to reflect backwards upon thine owne small profit and progresse For this is to be left to thy Lord God the true searcher and onely knower of hearts who layes open this secret to some and conceales it from others according to his Divine knowledge of the pride or humility which will ensue thereupon and so as a loving Father takes away from these all danger and gives those an occasion to increase their vertue 8. Wherefore let the pious practitioner And pursue thy exercises with patience and constancy pursue his exercises with patience and constancy though his perceives not it's owne progresse assuring himselfe that he shall in due time see and feele it when the Divine Providence shall be so pleased for his greater profit CHAP. XIX How our enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our Ruine 1. OUr deceitfull and dangerous enemy the Devil tempts us also by those very vertues which wee have acquired and casts them as it were stumbling blocks in our way to occasion our ruine To this end Our enemies strive to make us take pleasure in our vertues hee strives to make us please and delight our selves in them that so being puffed up in our selfe-conceits wee may fall afterwards into the dangerous precipice of pride 2. But to secure thy Soule from this fearfull fall stand alwayes in the open and plaine field and persevere securely in the true and profound But do thou consider thine own nothing consideration of thy owne nothing confessing that of thy self thou art nothing thou knowest nothing thou canst do nothing and thou hast nothing else in thee of thy self but eternall damnation 3. And take a serious care to drive far from thee all such of thine owne cogitations which seeme to whisper against this selfe-knowledge For they surely are suggested by thy sworne enemies and therefore if thou excludest them not from thy heart they will either kill or cruelly wound it 4. Which truth that thou may'st apprehend I prescribe this Rule unto thee When thou goest about to contemplate thine own basenesse thinke not of the Benefits Blessings And mark well what is within thee of thine own goods and what of Gods Gifts Gifts and Graces which thou findest in thy selfe for these are none of thy goods but Gods Gifts turne thee therefore to take a view of what is thine own and so thou shalt rightly judge how great or rather how truly nothing thou art which thou mayst thus do Imagine the time before thou hadst a being and What wert thou from
is the foundation of all vertues the deeper thou layest this ground-work the higher will be thy spirituall building yet never thinke thou canst digge it deepe enough but rather imagine that if an infinity could befall a creature thy unworthinesse would be infinite This point to wit selfe-acknowledgement being well practised gives thee the possession And without which thou art lesse than nothing of all that is good and without it thou art lesse than nothing though thy actions are more perfect than those of the greatest Saints and thy heart be in continuall recollection with thy Creatour O blessed knowledge which makes us happy on Earth and glorious in Heaven O true light shining out of our darknesse O great nothing which rendrest us masters and monarchs of all things No my dearly beloved I will never give over the pressing of this Point which thou art ever to practise 13. If therefore thou desirest to praise God accuse thy selfe if thou wilt exalt his Divine Majesty dive into thine own misery If thou wilt find him climb not up to Heaven for hee will fly from thee but rather descend into the abysse of thine own nothing and hee will thither come to And it is the onely way to praise find and please God thee and there embrace thee Yes hee will court and cherish thee by so much the more dearly deliciously and tenderly by how much thou seemest abject and vild in thine own eyes and art well pleased to have all others slight and scorn thy company as a meere out cast an object of derision and a thing abominable 14. Know furthermore and consider Therefore thou art bound to him for permitting thee to be scorned thy selfe most unworthy of so high a favour from thy Lord God as to bee neglected and scorned by all and faile not to render him most hearty and humble thanks Finally thou art to be gratefull and sensible of thy great obligation to them who have administred the occasion of this thy spirituall improvement and to acknowledge And to them who do it thy selfe most bound to them who have most master'd and mortified thee 15. But if notwithstanding all these true and weighty considerations the subtilty of the Devil thy own ignorance or an evill inclination should have yet the power over thee so as to disquiet and And be ever wary of the devil and thine own inclination trouble thy minde with fancies of selfe-praise and make some impressions in thy heart of thine owne merits and deserts 'T is then thou art chiefly and couragiously to beat downe and humble thy selfe since thou findest by experience how poorly thou hast profited in the way of the Spirit and knowledge of thy selfe and what deepe roots thy pride and vanity have taken in thy entralls And this is the way to suck hony out of poyson and to draw health from wounds Of Rash Judgement 1. From this vice of selfe-esteem springeth up another no lesse dangerous which is Rash-Judgement Rash-judgemen springs from Self esteeme concerning our neighbouts and this is commonly followed with contempt of their persons and detraction from their good name This vice as it hath its beginning from a pâ—evish and proud inclination so likewise And from Pride it is nourished and fomented by no other food for Pride and Rash Judgement increase together comply with each other and doe both joyntly covertly and insensibly concurre to deceive us For wee presume to exalt our selves by iudging meanly of others and we thinke our selves free from those imperfections which we are fully perswaded are in our Brothers 2. Now our wylie enemy the Devill no sooner discovers this perverse disposition in us but hee is busy in keeping our senses open to â—he Devil â—trives to â—eepe open our senses upon our Neighbours actions see heare examine controll and heighten the faults of our Neighbours hee is diligent to imprint this imperfection or that indiscretion of such or such a person in our spirits If therefore my dearly beloved thy foe is so forward and watchfull to intrap thee be thou equally carefull and vigilant to avoid his plots But wee must be as vigilant to shun as he is to lay his plotts and rescue thy soule out of his dangerous snares and in the first place when anothers defects are presented before thee presently withdraw thy thoughts but if thou art solicited to give sentence let it bee a flat First by denying to give any sentence deniall and short answer that thou hast no such power given thee and if thou hadst any such privilege thou couldst hardly forme a right and sound judgement being invironed and prevented with such a number of passions inclining to thinke more amisse than there is just cause 3. Then make use of this second and singular remedy Let the consideration Secondly by looking homewards upon our own selves of thine owne wants and interiour necessities so take up thy whole time and thoughts that seeing how convenient it is to looke homeward and how much thou art concerned to take order in thy owne bleeding affaires thou mayst recall thy mind from roming abroad and have no leasure left to lend away to others superfluously who hast scarcely time enough to looke after thy selfe in things of absolute necessity And this serious search into thine owne wants will cleare the inward eye of thy soule from those ill humours which ingender this pestiferous imperfection of Rash judgement For know that when thou conceivest amisse of thy Neighbour Where we shall finde some root of the same fault wee blame in them there is some root of the same evill in thine own heart which is apt to take the impression of that object which is like it selfe When therefore thou feelest this itching desire to censure anothers fault fall into passion at thy selfe as if thou wert equally culpable and enter into these terms with thine owne Soule Is it possible that I who am so miserable not onely because I wallow in the same mire but am also full of greater faults and inperfections shall notwithstanding be so proud and presumptuous as to take upon me to judge another Thus the weapons which first pointed at thy neighbour but have thus pricked thine owne heart will prove a perfect cure of thy wounds and a true comfort to thy soule 4. But when the fault which is If the fauâ—t be manifest put a charitable construction upon it committed is become manifest then excuse it with a charitable construction and piously conclude that thy brother hath many hidden vertues and perfections for the custody whereof he is thus permitted to fall or that it is to humble him for a time to make him see his owne nothing and so from this contempt of others raise him afterwards to higher perfection in the sight of the divine Majesty whereby his gaine may prove greater than his losse But if the sinne be not onely manifest but even monstrous and proceeds
sincere affection When shall I O onely life of my soul relinquish all self-will and vanquish all my passions and imperfections 8. In these and the like devotions thou maist spend the evening and morning to excite cherish and encrease thy desire to receive thy deare Saviour that so thou maist perfectly please him and be most happily united unto him And in thy pious practices of these things take this Caveat Be sure to keep each power and faculty of thy soule pure and But take heed of vanity and curiosity free from all curiosity of worldly things and from all idle and vaine thoughts Take also the like care of thy outward senses lest thy heart steale out by them and so thou lose all thy devotion EXPLICATION THe time of the sacred Communion At the time near the Communion drawing nigh think thou art to receive the Lord who created this great Universe and thee to his owne likenesse the Sonne of God who died for thee nâ—ked on the 1. Think what thou art going to doe Crosse that increased goodnesse which hath so often freed thee from danger death and damnation which thy sinnes deserved Thanke him with most profound Thank humility and adore him uniting Adore Implore all thy spirits and forces of body and soule togeather as true God and true man Beg also his pardon for thy faults and that the same love which moves him to grant thee this great gift may also induce him to purge thy soule from the staines of all sinne and uncleannesse thereby disposing it to a more pure and perfect union with his divine Majesty When the Priest pronounceth those sacred words Domine non When Domine non sum dignus is sayd sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy accompany him with these following and speak to thy Lord and love from the bottome of thy heart I am not worthy to receive thee ô my great Lord before whose Majesty the Angels of heaven tremblingly confesse their owne nothing I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest enter into my heart who am one of the meanest weakest and ungratefullest creatures upon earth I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest lodge with me because I love thee not and I remember thee not though these are prime reasons of thy instituting and remaining in this most blessed Sacrament Thus humble confound and abisme Humble and Confound thy selfe thy selfe at the serious consideration of thy sinnes malice and misery but then raising up thy heart with hope by the following words Sed But still raising up thy heart with hope tantum dic verbo sanabitur anima mea Doe thou onely speak the word ô my Lord and my soule will be saved Enter ô my love into this unworthy harbour and make use of thine infinite power and goodnesse in pardoning my sinnes supplying my defects and protecting me from my enemies 9. And after thou hast received Text. Having communicated entertaine thy guest with amorous expressions this divine Sacrament betake thee presently to the innermost closet of thy heart and there enter into communication with thy holy guest using these or the like loving and respectfull expressions What hath moved thee O great King of Kings to enter in to me who am nothing but a miserable despicable vild blind and naked creature And he will answer thee Love for thou art my dove my friend my sister my spouse and my dearely beloved Then thou maist reply O increated love ô sweetest dilection ô friendly and faithfull charity what wouldest thou have me doe what demandest thou what desirest thou I ask nothing saith he but love I would have nothing burne in the harth of thy heart but the fire of my love that it may devour all forraine love within thee and destroy all self-wil and seeking This this is my desire because I would be truly thine and would have thee likewise be totally mine Which can never be compassed untill thou freely deliverest up thy selfe to my will and pleasure For without this entire resignation thy fancy will be alwaies fastned to the loving and liking of thy selfe and thine owne actions be they never so meane I desire therefore that thou shouldest hate thy selfe that thou maist have the love of me I demand thy heart for my habitation that I may joyne and unite it unto mine for to this end was my heart opened to thee upon the altar of my Crosse My will is I say ô my dearly beloved spouse that thou desire nothing think nothing understand nothing see nothing feel nothing but my selfe onely that so I onely may be in thâ—e and thou totally turned into me and that thou maist possesse in me perfect quiet and I in thee pleasant context 10. Lastly thou shalt offer the holy And Lastly offer up the divine Sonne to his heavenly Father Sonne to his heavenly Father for thy selfe for the whole world and for the soules departed in memory and union of that divine oblation which he offered upon the holy Crosse presenting in like manner all the unbloody sacrifices to the divine Majesty which are that day offered up in his universall Church CHAP. XXXI Of Spirituall Communion ALthough my beloved thou canst receive thy sweeet Saviour 1. Thou maist thus often Communicate sacramentally onely once a day yet thou maist receive him spiritually every houre and moment For nothing can hinder thee from this but onely thine owne fault and negligence And this spirituall Communion may sometimes prove more profitable to thy soule and pleasing to thy Saviour than the sacramentall especially if there be a defect in thy due and diligent preparation 2. For as often as thou desirest By frequent desires to receive thy loving Lord God thus spiritually into thy soule thou shalt find him ever ready to feast thee with his owne sacred hands and thou mayest thus easily dispose thy selfe unto it Turning thy selfe to thy Saviour to this end reflect upon thine owne frailty and frequent failings and conceive an inward sorrow and detestation of thy defects then make thy supplication with a loving affection that he will not disdaine to enter thy poor cottage and feast thee with his owne true body and blood 3. So also when thou art moved And it is an excellent exercise against passions with a pious zeal against any perverse Passion and desirest efficaciously to mortify it or to plant some vertue in thy soule make use of this spirituall communion by converting thy thoughts towards thy Lord God and invoking his aid with ardent prayers beseech him to enter and possesse the secret part of thy soule Or calling to mind thy last sacramentall communion speak to him with an inflamed desire When ô my good God shall I againe welcome thee into the closet of my heart Come now O my Saviour and comfort me spiritually with the like strength and vertue EXPLICATION IF thou wilt practice this pious How to make
source of all goodnesse thank him for all his benefits and blessings for the inspirations he hath sent thee and the good desires of vertue he hath given thee for his deliverance from dangers and defence against thine enemies CHAP. XL. Being a Conclusion of the whole Worke. 1. MUch more might be said of This short booke weâ—l practised is sufficient these important matters but let this which is here delivered according to my poore Talent suffice for the present which surely if thou endeavourest to keepe in thy memory and accomplish in thy actions thou hast sufficiently learned and laboured 2. But in respect of thy weake capacity and my proposed brevity it will be necessary that thou use a studious diligence in often revolving and meditating upon these foregoing Precepts For by frequent consideration and continuall exercise thou wilt certainly increase thy inward strength whereby to conquer all thine enemies EXPLICATION ABove all things beg incessantly of the Divine Goodnesse the gift of perseverance in thy unwearied endeavours against thy passions and imperfections it being the chiefe weapon in this spirituall warfare against thy never-dying enemies which like ill weeds are ever budding and breaking forth so long as the Earth hath any life in it to nourish them 3. Resolve therefore to betake thy Texâ— If thou resolvest to fight manfully selfe to these proposed Armes of defence and to fight stoutly manfully and constantly because no man can avoid this combat without endangering the losse of the conquest Nor can there be any hope of Peace with such enemies which endommage them most who most dâ—sire to enter league and friendshâ—p with them 4. Neither be thou terrified at And not to be terrified at thy enemies power their seeming power and cruelty since all their force and fury is in the more powerfull hands of that Supreme Captaine for whose honour thou art ingaged in the battail wherein none can be vanquished but they that will themselves And if thy Lord for whom thou wagest this war doth seem sometimes to withdraw his Assistance and delay thy conquest over thine enemies for a time yet be not thou faint-hearted but fight on couragiously being most certain and secure that his Goodnesse Power and Providence directs all events and more especially all adversities to the best profit of his souldiers 5. These thoughts will beget in Though the victory seems to come slowly on thee a generous spirit and a constant heart to resist and fight with courage and therefore though the victory comes slowly on beleeve firmly that this deferring is either to free thy soule from secret pride and conserve thee in true humility Or else to perfect thee in vertue and to teach thee to become a tryed Souldier by these long continued conflicts Or surely for some other good of thine which thy Lord then conceales from thee for thy greater merit and improvement 6. Go on therefore O my dearly beloved and enter these lists with a cheerfull and heroick minde lest thou seem ungratefull to thy loving Lord God who so much tendred thy good that he suffered death for thy sake And attend carefully to every Counsell and Command of thy Captaine Christ Jesus that thou mayst totally rout and ruine all thine enemies For if thou permittest but one only to live and lurk in thy Soul it will be as a moat in thy eye and as a Launce in thy bowels and prove a perpetuall impediment in the progresse of so glorious a Victory APOC. 2. 7. To him that overcommeth I will give the hidden Manna 1. KINGS 15. 18. Thou shalt fighe against them untill their utter destruction The generall Table containing the severall Chapters of this Treatise as they stand divided into numbers And being a brief compendium of the whole worke The Spirituall Conflict Or The Arraignment of the Spirit of Self-love and Sensuality at the bar of Truth and Reason Chap. I. WHerein Christian perfection consists The importance of this knowledge is very great Numb 1. Some place perfection in austerity 2. Others in reciting many prayers 3. Others in exact observance 4. All which are good meanes but not directly tending to perfection 5. And they that rest in these lower exercises are in great danger 6. As may appeare by the rest of their actions 7. And especially by their want of resignation in time of affliction 8. True perfection therefore consists in the knowledge of God and our selves In the love of God and hatred of our selves In resignation to God's will and denying our owne 9. All which Christ hath taught us by word and example 10. And we must also do it if we meane to purchase victory 11. Nor is there any thing more glorious to our selves or more gratefull to God 12. But to obtaine it we wust provide foure necessary weapons 13. Chap. II. First Distrust of our selves which is gotten by a deep sense of our owne nothing 1. By Prayer 2. And by often reflecting upon our owne weaknesse 3. And this self-knowledge is a lesson must be well learn'd 4. And we must be carefull to rise speedily after our fall 5. The great necessity of this distrust in our owne strength is inforced by the corruption of our nature and the frailty thereof and by considering how much this acknowledgment pleaseth God and presumption displeaseth him 6. Chap. III. Secondly Confidence in God which is obtained 1. By prayer 2. By considering the divine power wisdome and goodnesse by which he can knowes how and is willing to help us 3. By meditating upon holy writ 4. Another means is by thinking on our owne frailty and Gods omnipotency at the beginning of each action Whereby we shall not be foolishly dejected at our frequent failings 5. A necessary Caveat for all spirituall people 6. By Gods assistance we can doe all things But many are deceived in presuming upon their owne strength 7. Chap. IV. Thirdly Continuall Exercise 1. Which consists in the right use of the Understanding 2. Which is to be kept from Ignorance by prayer and by a diligent discussion of our own actions judging things according to their true worth And this will open our eyes to see the meannesse of all worldly vanities 3. A necessary caution to keep the will from sixing its love untill the Understanding have first pondered the object 4. And the same caution is necessary also in holy things 5. The understanding is to be furthermore weaned from curiosity 6. How highly this conduceth to perfection and how cunningly the Devill plots against it by suggesting pride to our Understanding 7. Which is farre more dangerous and more difficultly cured than Pride of the Will 8. Chap. V. Of the Will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions A will to doe well sufficeth not But our actions must also be performed onely to please God 1. Which to attaine to Apply thy Understanding to know Gods will 3. And take heed of being deceived because nature is
of for your own satisfaction And look down with your other eye upon your bottomless nothing see there your own base indignity and brutish ingratitude your great impurity and gross impiety and be ashamed to desire any temporal esteem who so truly deserve eternal damnation 6. Other knots of the same To self-love appertain also all the passions of our inferiour nature love hatred c. snare are all those passions which have their residence in our inferiour nature love hatred joy grief hope and fear with their severall attendants these raise up broiles to disturb our inward tranquillity to discompose our Reason and interpose their earthy exhalations between our superiour will and the grace of God Peace of heart is the secure refuge To which we must oppose Peace of heart against all these peevish Passions do but cast your whole care upon your Creator and call away your inordinate affection from creatures and what then can punish or perplex you Remit and refer all accidents whether adverse or prosperous sweet or sowre good or bad to Gods high power and holy providence comfort your selves in his mercy content your selves in his all-sufficiency and quiet your selves in his love Ah! how poor how vain how vile how unregardable Read the 4. ch num 3. of the conflict are the best of worldly blessings how is it possible that things in themselves so contemptible can have the least entrance or admittance into a soul setled in Gods pure love and presence O let the children of this world who place their final felicity in such fading fooleries who have their souls buried in this earth and swallowed up in sensuality be solicitous to seek them glut and burst themselves in the enjoying of them and be dejected to be deprived of them but we O souls aspiring to perfection whose master is God whose aym is vertue whose reward is heaven what have we to do with these inferiour passions Away with these Mammons My heart is signed with the signet of Gods love my hatred is only bent against sin and my self my joy is in God my Saviour my grief is that I am not all his my fear is to offend him and my hope is to enjoy him 7. Lastly all adhering to our proper will and judgment appertains to this ambush of our enemy The adhering to our own wills and preferring of our own judgments are also points of self-love Read the 5. ch of the Conflict This draws us off by degrees from doing our duty diverts us from following divine motions and superiours commands daunts us from relying entirely on Gods providence and fulfilling perfectly his holy pleasure we dare not disobey this master nor will we venture to destroy this Idol of our hearts 't is death to be cross'd in our conceits or contradicted in our exercises which we have chosen according to our private fancy accustomed with self-complacency and keep with unpardonable propriety Perfect obedience breaks through Which must be cured by obedience submission and resignation this snare and a totall resignation to Gods good will pleasure is the secure refuge against this deceit How can a soul be disquieted to receive or refuse act or omit that which she truly conceives to proceed both in substance and circumstance from the divine providence and permission How can that person go astray who is perfectly obedient to God and his superiour gives up himself wholly to the guidance of Gods holy Spirit and the government of a discreet directour observes each beck of the divine call first examined and approved by them who are incharged with their souls and waits upon the divine will as the shadow on the body 8. Where you are to take notice Note a triple obediencâ— 1. Of vow of a triple obedience One is of vow another of conformity and a third of union The first concerns all religious people and imports an external exact and necessary performance of that which is commanded The Second concerns all spiritual 2. of Conformity souls and consists in their inward promptitude and readiness to execute Gods will manifested by faith and their ghostly guide purely for himself and precisely for his own sake without the least touch of proper interest or self-seeking The Third concerns all perfect 3. Of Vnion persons and consists in so entire a connexion of their wills to the will of their Lord God that they seem both one hence it is that they embrace all that happens to themselves or others good or bad life or death for time or eternity as immediatly proceeding from his divine goodness and as the very best that could happen Here the soul elevated above it self and all things into God and stedfastly fixed in divine contemplation patiently expects and obediently attends to what he speaks wills and acts within her remaining ever ready and really resigned to suffer outward pains or inward pressures to receive comforts or endure crosses as the supream providence best knows permits and pleases being fully content with all and faithfully constant in all The Second Ambush Immoderate affection to creatures 1. THis infects distracts disquiets and diverts our minds from their pure and perfect tendance to our Creator Ah! what have we whose inheritance is heaven to do This affection to creatures distracts us from our Creator with the poor and perishable commodities of this world yet our subtil enemy strives to make us serious in searching after them solicitous to keep them and impatient to part with them Against this we must provide true poverty of spirit which consists Again which must prâ—vide Poverty or spirit in a perfect denudation of our souls from all propriety of love to any corruptible creature whatsoever we must use them only and not rest in them we may enjoy them but take no joy in them if Superiours command them from us we must cheerfully part with them if any accident bereave us of them we must willingly let go our hold saying Our Lord gave them our Lord Read the 13. ch of the Conflict hath retaken them his name be ever praised his will always performed Farewel uncertain and unsatisfying profits wellcome sweet and secure poverty We must throw away couragiously all such cloggs as retard our soul's flight to perfection Away with superfluities Oh! that we could live with the only love of our naked and crucified Jesus That we could support our feeble Nature without the supplies of any creatures that so our souls disingaged from the depressing necessities of flesh and blood might soar aloft and sweetly repose in the bosom of divine love 2. Nor is the overmuch tenderness of affection to any person Affection to persons corrupts our judgements whomsoever under what pertext soever any other thing than a meer ambush of our enemy for it corrupts our purest actions and vitiates our most pious intentions it is the bane of Gods love the poyson of our hearts and the venome of
by any one Are not my seeming enemies upon due consideration my surest friends since by mortifying me they encrease my stock of merit occasion my more serious application to the practice of verâ—uâ— aâ—d egg me onwards in the way of all perfection 3. You must therefore buckle up your selves O dear Souls against all these bad and bitter dispositions by loving all in and for God by being amiable to aâ— And by being amiable and affable to all affable to all meek to all mercifull to all Strive to be gentle in words cheerfull in countenance pleasing in your proceedings patient in enduring compassionate to others in their failings charitable in assisting them ready to pardon them pious to interpret their actions for their best advantage far from troubling or thwarting them free from contristating or confounding them 4. There is also another privat To this ambush belongs a certain grudging at Gods prâ—ceedings Which must be warily avoidâ—d and perilous corner in this ambush of bitterness of heart which is a certain grudgâ—ng at the proceedings of Gods providence and a repining at his permission of adversities to fall upon us Take heed dear souls of slipping into this sad and dismal gulf of discontent and murmuration against God in the least thought word or gesture be not dejected or disquieted at any thing but say cordially cheerfully faithfully and resignedly It is the By a cordial Resignation Lord let him do what seems good in his own eyes Alas Can Self-love so blind my understanding as to make me think I deserve not to suffer this and much more I offer up my self to thy sweet pleasure O my God my heart is ready and prepared to perform what thou pleasest and to endure what thou permittest and I am wholly resigned to thy holy will in all things which shall befall me for time and eternity The Fifth Ambush Scrupulosity WHich includes all inward affliction fearfulnes perplexity vexation and trouble of the soul and is an evident effect of some secret pride and self-love 1. This dangerous Ambush is designed by our enemie to cut off Scrupulcsity ayms at the destruction of our Faith and Confidence To avoid this we must rely upon God and our guide all succours of Faith and Confidence in Gods mercy and goodness from us that so by degrees he may lead us on and cast us headlong into the precipice of despair 2. To avoid this deceit which ayms at your utter ruine and destruction your only secure and short way O dear souls is to cast your selves really resignedly cheerfully and confidently into the bosom of the divine bounty and to the guidance of your ghostly Father there is no other hope of shelter or safety from these storms of troubles and temptations There you may make a happy exchange of your servile slavish fear into sweet filial love there you will drown and destroy these dismal dreadful and desperate Imaginations and fancies in the abysses of Gods infinite mercy there you will admire adore and implore his power wisdom and goodness whereby you will confess yield and confide that he can knows how and is willing to help and heal your sick and sorrowfull souls in his own good time and liking there you will truly see that you are nothing of your selves but are all things have all things and can do all things in him your all-sufficient creator and comforter We cannot err in Confidence so long as we fal not into Negligence 3. And you may securely stand to this infallible verity That you can never err in overmuch trust hope and confidence in God and in his mercy and bounty so long as you slack not in the punctual performance of your duty cease not in the serious mortification of your passions and sensuality continue your practices of patience in adversity of gratitude in prosperity and of indifferency and resignation to the divine will in all occurrences The Sixth Ambush Excessive and unnecessary Study 1. THis busies the understanding Which busies the Understanding but leaves the Wil barren S. Bernard Jerm 36. super Cantica about curious notions and useless speculations and leaves the will barren of all true devotion and affections For there are some who study to know much that they may become learned and it is a foolish curiosity Some study that they may fell their skill and it is a foolish avarice Some strive to know that they themselves may be known and it is a foolish vanity Some study knowledge that with it they may edifie others and that is charity And finally some desire knowledge that they themselves may be edified and their own souls better'd and this is wisdom 2. Wherefore all such study as ayms at the bare knowledge of things without any â—uâ—â—her relation Puffs us up with vanity but leaves us empty of true piety to piety and proficiency in the way of the Spirit is a meer trap of our enemy thereby to puff us up with pride and vanity to take up our time and fill up our souls with self-conceits and presumption It makes a great noise and furnisheth our tongues with fair expressions concerning the spiritual life divine feelings and the secret wayes of Gods proceedings with his faithfull friends and servants but hath no true tast at all of that which it talks so much 't is an empty discourse void of all inward experience a meer Hypocondriacall wind 3. The remedy against this The remedy is to rectify our intentions is to rectify our intentions Read not dear souls nor study to be accounted learned but to become perfect desire rather to love Gods goodness than to know Read the 1. 2. 3. cha of the first Book of the Imita of Christ And the 43. ch of the third Book much of his greatness to lead a holy life than to speak high words concerning it Confesse your own ignorance in all things and content your selves with the sole-knowledge of your Saviour This is the sum of all Science and this alone will suffice for your Salvation The Seventh Ambush Tepidity and coldnesse in devotion THis is the bane of all spirituality This is the bane of all spirituality Read the 12. ch of the Spir. Conflict nor hath the devil any more alluring bait than this seldom perceived and yet highly prejudiciall luke-warmness in devotion want of vigour in our spiritual exercises and defect of fervour in our tendance to perfection 1. Think not therefore dear souls that it sufficeth you to perform your accustomed practices of piety but that you are continually We must alwayes go forward towards perfection to aym at a further and dayly encrease of charity Consider that not to advance in the way of the Spirit is to recoyle and that it is not the multitude of your good works which makes them considerable but the fervour wherewith they are performed Be sure to keep your heart and soul alwayes as much as humane weakness
and the rule of discretion will permit elevated to your Lord and love cry continually for his grace knock And sigh after it perseverantly incessantly at the gate of his mercy sigh after him perseverantly seek to perform his will diligently and follow his pleasure purely and perfectly give that day for lost wherein you have not made some progress in the way of perfection and finally rouse up your selves and prick forward your sluggish dulness in devotion with some brief and burning aspirations which you are to have alwayes ready in your heart and mouth As Excâ—ting our sluggishness by frequent aspirations O my Lord ô my God the life of my soul and the only love of my heart when shall I love thee as I desire and thou demandest O my Jesu when shall I die perfectly to the world my self and all things that I may live purely and intirely in thy only charity O when shall I be nothing to any creature and every creature nothing to me but only in thee and for thee alone O that I could go out of my self and get into thee That I could thrust my caitif heart out of this breast to establish thine ô my sweet Saviour in it's place O let thy true love transform me totally into thee Let me not live any longer but in thee Let me not love any creature but by in and for thee my Creatour O incomprehensible bounty Either take my soul out of this world or take the love of this world out of my soul Either bereave me of my life or bestow on me thy love c. In all which raptures and affections the holy Spirit is the best directour whose inward impulse and dictamen you are diligently to follow still according to discretion and obedience with a perpetuall longing and loving sighing and seeking to advance your soul to divine Union 2. Finally I conclude with this hearty and heavenly counsell of S. Anthony to his disciples against this dangerous coldness in devotion An excellenâ— document of S. Anthony My brethren Let this be my generall and particular precept unto you the first and last lesson I teach you Never to lose your first fervour and good purposes nor to grow slack in your observances but to go alwayes forward and renew daily your devout exercises as if you daily were new beginners in the way of perfection This he often repeated and inculcated and being on his death-bed that his last words might remain more lively imprinted in their mindes he bequeathed unto them as his final and never to be forgotten testament this piercing and pithy document able to win wound and melt a flint into fervour and compunction O my loving children I go the way of my forefathers our Lord calls and invites me and my soul thirsts after him and heaven But you ô my bowels what will you do I have often admonish'd you and do at this last gasp leave it you for my will and testament Take heed you grow not tepide and go backward and so on a sodain lose the pains and profit of so many years past Think still you are to begin anew as though what you had already suffer'd for Christ were nothing Let your good will and desires get every day new strength and vigour forget what is past and run to what is before you live and labour with such fervour and purity as if it were your first work that ever pleased God or the last service you should ever render him in this mortal life O devout souls Our dayes pass away swiftly death is alwayes at our heels eternity approches wherein our God whom we have serv'd and lov'd will wipe the tears off our eyes the sweat off our brows the blood off our wounds crown us with glory peace security immortality Let us not lose heart in his service nor hope in his goodness He expects and invites us Angels and Saints offer their helping hands The question is of eternal life eternall light eternal liberty and eternall love THE SECOND TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST or The use and Practice of those necessary weapons which are prescribed in the Treatise of the Spiritual Conflict Here Methodically managed and drawn into seven Exercises Affective Acts or Aspirations according to the dayes of the Week Psal 118. v. 34. Give me understanding and I will search thy Law and I will keep it with my whole heart AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions aspiring to Perfection THat you may make the right use O devout souls of these ensuing Exercises you are first to be premonished That Aspirations or jaculatorie prayers are short and fervent acts elevations desires and requests of the Soul to God And they are of divers sorts and may be performed either in the heart only or by the heart and mouth jointly First they may be practised by way of petition begging love vertue perfection devotion c. As O Lord give me light to know thy Will grace to embrace it and force to follow it Help me to overcome my self and my sworn enemies Assist me to disgest difficulties and disgraces for thy love Pitty a poor sinner Pardon a proud beggar Receive a prodigall Child Redeem a perishing soul confirm my frailty confound my Pride comfort my Dull Dark and desolate Spirit And the like short amorous and pithy petitions Secondly they may be expressed by way of wishing and sighing after God goodness piety perfection c. As O Lord vvhen shall I knovv thee and my self When shall I truly love thee and perfectly hate my self When shal I live in thee and be dead to my self Or thus Oh that I vvere truly vertuous truly religious truly mortified Oh that I vvere all thine O my poor soul take courage hovv shall vve abound vvith delights vvhen vve shall see our Master and Maker in his heavenly Kingdom Thirdly they may be performed by way of expostulating and complaining sometimes to God other-times to our own souls and then to all creatures As Hovv long Lord vvilt thou forget me for ever Why hidest thou thy face Why art thou sad my soul O heavens are you shut against me c Fourthly by shorter expressions as by Expressing the whole affection in few words thus Good God! Svveet Jesu Hovv long O fire burn O one O all c. These must differently be made use of according to the various disposition of the souls dryness or devotion In all which you are not to binde your selves to any set form or sorts of words but only use such as holy and fervent love shall suggest unto you And this manner of prayer by fervent Aspirations frequent acts of love and enflamed elevations of the soul is according to the divine doctrine of S. Denys the easiest shortest sweetest and perfectest means of uniting the soul to her last end which is God and consequently of corresponding to our creation and calling This saith he is that admirable holy and hidden Unitive vvisdom which
thine my merits are thy mercies my goods thy graces yet I neither have been thankfull for receiving them nor faithfull in using them O! when did I trust in my own strength and was not foiled and confounded Grant therefore O my Lord ô my only hope and help O my sole safety and security that I may totally trust to thee and distrust my self truly acknowledge thee and deny my self entirely love thee and hate my self 6. I confess ô my Lord that I am the poorest ungratefullest unprofitablest and unworthyest worm of the earth a thing altogether useless to the world and only active to offend thee and to do wickedly in thy sight and is it possible that I can harbor any thought of self-love or self-I king O God of infinite glory greatness and majesty before whom the powers of heaven do tremble what are all creatures in thy sight and what am I the meanest of them all O what proportion is there great God between me and thee between thy All and my Nothing And yet have I infring'd thy laws disobey'd thy commands contemned thy Counsels resisted thy callings and contradicted thy will to prefer my own O monstrous impiety and ingratitude And shall I not willingly submit to all pain punishment contradiction and contempt which thou ô my highly offended creatour shalt suffer thy creatures to inflict upon me Behold O my Lord I debase humble and annihilate my self under all things that have a being I will henceforth utterly hate distrust and detest my self and wholly love thee and relie upon thy mercy O holy self-knowledge O sacred humility thou art the key of all perfection the door of all solid vertue piety and devotion 7. I now cleerly see by the light of thy divine goodness O gracious Lord God what hath hitherto been the cause of my â—on-proficiency in the way of the Spirit and why the path of vertue seemed and so unpleasant thornie tedious and troublesome to my deceived soul It was because I had not learned to leave loath deny and distrust myself and to rely wholly on thee O my only comfort and support I will therefore henceforth faithfully practise what I perceive so necessary I will profoundly humble my soul both inwardly in thy presence O my Lord and outwardly to the whole world I will joyfully and voluntarily embrace all injury indignity contempt correction and confusion which can befall me with as much pleasure as I have formerly any cherishings and kindness I will utterly destroy ruine and root out all self-love self-liking self-seeking self-praise and self-complacencie I will cast my self under the feet of the vilest creatures take pleasure in the meanest employments and obey them most willingly whom my nature most distasts and dislikes I will walk before thee O my Creator as thy needy naked desolate and destitute vassal acknowledging my self void of all vertue and attributing to my self nothing but sin ingratitude defects failings imperfections I will fully perswade my self that no one can contemn confound persecute and punish me as I deserve I will not regard whether I am honored or hated but imagine my self as a thing dead forgotten or as that which never had a being and is now truly nothing I will be contented to be accounted an hypocrite in my sincerest actions and to be thought full of inward impatience secret grudgings and desires of revenge against them who shall any way mortify or misuse me though my heart be never so free from it Finally I will have these and the like thoughts and words alwayes in my heart and mouth I am nothing I have nothing I do no good I am an unprofitable servant I utterly hate and distrust my self and totally rely upon thee O my Lord my love and my All. FOR WEDNESDAY To obtain Remission of our Sins The Third Exercise 1. WHo will give water to my head and fountains of tears to my eyes And I will weep day and night for my sins which cover me all over like an incurable ulcer from the soal of the foot to the crown of the head Where art thou O my wretched and wicked soul In what labyrinths dost thou walk In what sinks of sin and puddles of uncleaness dost thou wallow Awake arise lament repent how long wilt thou sleep why wilt thou dy when wilt thou shake off thy fetters Ah return silly sheep to thy good Pastour return poor prodigal to thy pious Father whose goodness so lovingly invites thee whose mercy hath so long expected thee O great and glorious God the mighty Monarch of heaven and earth King of Kings and Lord of Lords behold a poor and penitent Publican who is ashamed to lift up his eyes to heaven and unworthy to take thy sacred name into his sinfull mouth humbly knocking at thy gate of mercy clipping thy holy feet and craving thy accustomed pity and compassion O merciful Lord hide not thy self from me shut not the door against me Oh! one crum of comfort one dram of devotion to my sad and sick soul to my dry and desolate spirit 2. I am conscious of my ingratitude against thee O supream majesty and my sin is always before me and confounding me But whither should I retire my self from thee To whom should I have recourse but unto thee Art not thou my Father my Father of mercies which have neither limits nor measure Art not thou my Maker my preserver my governor my deliverer my King my Pastor my Physician my Priest and my Sacrifice If thou art not all this and more to me and if I am nothing to thee refuse me reject me and relinquish me a prey to be swallowed up by thy enemies But it is time O my Lord that heaven and earth take notice of what thou art to me and what I am to thee It is time thou enter into thy right And I must now either give my self to thee or thou must take me unto thee Not that I aspire to those excellent prerogatives of thy dearest servants No my Lord it sufficeth me to be in the out-rank of thy meanest slaves to be only stamp'd with thy mark and link'd fast in thy chains that I may never more have the power to fly from thee O grant me this favour most merciful Father which thy dear Son hath purchased for me by the price of his death and passion I am fall'n without thee by my own frailty but can never hope to rise but by thy mercy O my Lord and only support I am sick without thee but cannot be cured without thee my heavenly Physician I am dead without thee but can never be revived but by thee ô life of my soul So true it is that to make me come to thee thou ô most gracious Lord God must first come to me O the admirable goodness of my loving Lord Even this little I am doing is rather thine own work than mine Thou O my Lord puttest repentance into my soul desires into my heart sighs into my brest
disordered love to any woâ—ldly person No favour or friendship ô my only amiable Lord God no greatness or goodness of any one shall make me fwerve from my exact duty to thee-wards No carnall affection to kindred No tenderness of amitie No private or publick respect No connivency or correspondency shall make me partiall in the reproof of vice or praise of vertue O take up my whole heart with thy holy love that thy perfect image and perpetuall memory may blot out all species of forreign objects I renounce all vain vicious idle and unprofitable thoughts fancies and imaginations O let my mind not only yield no consent but no entrance unto them O let me never more contristate thy holy Spirit with these vanities nor hinder my souls advancement and union with thee by these divertisments I will henceforth compell my heart to some good employment I will no longer permit it to wander and wast it self in any idle and superfluous curiosities No my Lord and Saviour thy bitter and blessed passion thy blessings and benefits shall be the continuall occupation of my interiour O what have I to do with transitory things who am made for eternity I renounce all care and solicitude which necessity obedience and charity do not oblige me to No naturall passions of joy sorrow hope fear love hatred anger or shamefastness shall make any impression in this heart of mine which is preingag'd in thy affection sealed up and setled in thy contemplation No pretext of lawfulness nor shew of fittingness nor conceit of compassion nor excuse of necessity shall procure the admittance of such passions into my soul as may any way distract darken or dull the point of my affection and devotion towards thee my only Lord and love I renounce all bitterness of heart against any one Is he good be thou eternally praised in him and by him O bountiful bestower of all blessings Is he wicked Correct him ô mercifull Creatour comfort encourage and raise him to amendment Hath he offended affronted injured or sleighted me I deserve ô great God to be troden on by all creatures and therefore I freely forgive him for the past and give him free leave to add stripes to his injuries for the future Am I denied the grant of my most lawfull and just demands Thou best knowest O eternall wisdom what is best for my state and condition O deny not thy love to my soul and let me be refused in all other my requests whatsoever I renounce all vain-glory all self-liking and pride which may arise from worldly praises al delight springing from any gift of nature or grace which is in me Not unto me Lord but to thy holy name be given all honour and glory Alas what am I what have I what can I All is thine O my bountifull Lord God Nothing is mine but sin and therefore I deserve only shame and confusion 7. I renounce all desire of delight in my devotions all sensible gusts of grace and all sweetnesses and solaces in the inferiour faculties of my soul Ah my heart what is all this to thee follow thou thy Saviour Thou seekest thy crucified Jesus This is not he but his gifts O my Lord it is thy self I seek and sigh after If thou send'st me comforts for the incouragement of my weakness be thou ever praised for thou dost like a most benign and bountifull God If thou withdrawest them still blessed be thy providence which hath secret and severall wayes of conducting souls to thy self and if thou wilt make triall of my fidelity by permitting me to be dull dry and desolate in my devotions be thou equally and eternally blessed I renounce all scrupulosity of Conscience which reflects any way upon the least diffidence or distrust in thy mercy I am a sinner O Jesu but thou art a Saviour I have great reason to dread thy justice but greater to hope in thy goodness Heaven and earth shall sooner fail than my confidence in thee my mercifull maker If thou kill me I will trust in thee And if I had formerly hated thee and betrayed thee as Judas did I would now with penitent Magdalen run to thy blessed feet weep and bemoan my misery and hope to obtain thy mercy And finally O my Lord I absolutely intirely and irrevocably renounce my whole Will in all things and totally resigne whatsoever any way concerns me to thy holy will and pleasure I offer up unto thee the full sacrifice both principall and accessorie of all that by thy gift and grace I am have and can my self goods graces body soul senses heart will all I leave no right or title to any selfness in any thing whatsoever I am no more my self but thy slave O Lord not my will but thine be done for time and eternity O let me will what thou wilt or not will at all Let all my desires be involuntary if they swerve never so little from thy divine pleasure Dy self-will Live Jesus my Lord my Love my All. FOR SATVRDAY Of Conformity to Christ Crucified The Sixth Exercise 1. CRucified Iesu thou only Lord of my life life of my love and love of my soul O that I could reform my life Deiform my love and conform my soul to thee the absolute pattern of all perfection O that I could imprint thy lively and lovely image in my heart fasten all my affections and imperfections to thy sacred Cross drown all my desires and defects in thy dear wounds put off my self totally and put thee on intirely O sacred humanity ô my suffering Saviour O that I could perfectly imitate thee the pure exemplar of all vertues that I could give up my whole self to thee by an act of irrevocable donation as thou demandest and commandest But alas I am yet O my Jesu all self-love sin and sensuality I acknowledge O my Lord what I have and what I want I know what I desire and what I deserve I confess I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched and I tremblingly come to thee my heavenly Physician to be cured converted comforted O sweet Saviour for thy mercies sake and for thy passions sake Forget and forgive what I have been pitty what I am satisfie for what I deserve and supply what I desire 2. Behold most mercifull Iesu I first cast my self at thy sacred Feet pierced and fast'ned to the cruel Cross for my transgressions Pierce my flesh O my Lord with thy fear and fasten my soul to thy love O let not pride and presumption nestle any longer in that heart which thou O meek Saviour lovest so tenderly and redeemest at so dear a rate O my vain glory and arrogancie what have I to do with you how much do I now detest you Wash off these stains O Iesu from my poor soul in these sweet streams flowing from thy wounded Feet O drown these my imperfections in these sacred Seas of piety Give me O Gracious Lord such true humility of spirit that I may
perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness whereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Grant me also good Iesu by the merits of these thy wounds the vertue of perfect obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing self-judgement in submitting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiours injunctions but even to the commands of all thy creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholly mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Iesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me do so transforming my will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whole self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance of thee my crucified Lord. Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Iesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whole course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. From thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy al-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet fountain issuing from thy powerful right Paulm my manifold sins of malice and injustice with all my faults of hypocrisie and ingratitude falshood and infidelity rancor and revenge Renew O Lord God a right spirit within my bowels Let exact justice be the square of all my actions truth the touchstone of my words and sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratiâ—ude and obedience with my whole heart soul and strength next to my Superiors equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judge or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish enemies Lord Iesu give me grace to imitate thy vertues to be gratefull for thy gifts and to make use of thy goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divine Majesty 5. And in the Sacred wound of thy left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Neglâ—gence tepidity sluggishness cowardise and pusillanimity all my covetous desires all impurity and all intemperance Purge me O my powerfull Lord purifie me O my merciful Savior Give strength comfort and courage to my feeble and frail nature that I may pass undauntedly through all difficulties and dangers to come to thee my Iesu to lay hold on thee and to repose in thee the only Centre of my desires Grant me O my Lord chastity of body and cleaness of heart temperance in my appetites and sobriety in my senses gravity in my deportment and moderation in all my proceedings that nothing may dislike thee in my soul nor dissolve the sacred knot wherwith thou hast fasten'd me unto thee Give me also O Iesu my Lord perfect poverty of spirit O permit not my soul intended to enjoy thee the only solid and satiating riches to be intangled with the least affection to the poor and perishable trifles of this world Behold I cast my self uncloathed from all creatures into thy naked embraces O crucified Saviour I desire to clip nothing in my folded arms but a breast burning with desires to please thee my Creatour and a heart melting away in thy love I make choice of thy bare Cross O Christ for my best inheritance I stretch out my opened folds to meet thy holy and heavenly huggings O let me never more be unclasped from thy blessed bosom Be thou O my great-little-naked-Iesu my rest during the short time of my life and my refuge at the dreadful hour of my death 6. And now O mercifull Saviour I humbly convert my eyes and contemplation to thy sacred Head crowned with thorns and thy divine Face all besmeared with gore and spittle for my sake Here I implore strength O Jesu for the weaknesses of my head and pardon for the wickednesses of my five wits and senses O my Lord I desire to bury in these thy innumerous wounds the enormous number of my iniquities and I beseech thee for these thy sufferings sake to adorn my weak capacity with so much solid wisdom as may fitly suit with my condition O let me never think speak or act any thing which is not seasoned with the salt of discretion Let me seriously weigh each circumstance and patiently wait thy leave and leasure before I leap into any work Inlighten me to see clearly thy will and pleasure and impower me exactly to fulfil and follow it Open the eyes of my Understanding to behold my own baseness and wickedness and give me thy gracious assistance to reform it Help me to form a right judgement of the real vileness and vanity of all transitory things and indue my heart with courage to contemn them Inebriate my affection ô amiable Iesu with the sweetness of thy love and let all worldly solaces savour of bitterness to my soul Let me be deaf blind and dumb to all things which are not thy self ô my crucified Saviour Let me prudently discern and piously perform each parcel of my duty in it's due circumstance of time place order measure and manner Let that holy and innocent simplicity which is the vertue of thy Saints shine in all my actions Let me not be curious to know much but careful to practise much and cordial to love thee much O
languish not breathe but burn by reason of extasie and excess of love 3. O fire O flames Burn consume annihilate Alas Beauty of Angels how late and how little do I love thee O come into my soul behold a poor lodging yet such as it is it is all thine I conceal nothing I reserve nothing heart soul spirit all is thine own compose all dispose of all depose all unruly passions impose what penance thou pleasest I accept it o my Lord only repose peaceably in my soul and let no foul or false affection interpose it self or disturb this blessed union O that I could please and praise thee purely perfectly perpetually Oh that I could love thee faithfully freely and fully in all and above all things ô my all and only love I acknowledge my self bound ô Lord in thy chains of charity I am burned in thy fire I am wounded and won to thy love But what shall I say What can I give All I have is not worthy of thee and yet is thine already Ask my sweet Lord and have choose and take make me such as thou desirest and then take me to thy desire Give thy self ô great God to my soul and then take my soul with thy self in it My life liberty love and all is thine own My last will is already made in which I bequeath all to thee Thine own death and passion all thy mercies and merits all the praises and perfections of thy dear Mother and the blessed Saints and Angels and all the goods glories and splendors of all thy creatures All that I am have and can both spirituals and temporals kindred friends riches health honors estates offices devotion all is at thy disposition I am resolute ô my Lord I am resigned and indifferent to have them increased or diminished to use them to thy glory or to lose them altogether 4. I give thee back ô merciful Maker my whole being either to be what thou wilt or to be nothing at all to love thee or not to live at all I offer to thee ô pious Redeemer my sins to pardon my works to perfect my will to purifie I offer thee my wounds to cure my soul to cleanse and my spirit to comfort I offer to thee O holy Spirit my intentions to rectifie my inclinations to sanctifie my affections to deifie Finally I offer all for one I give all to one and all I desire is to be all one with thee my all and only Lord and love Thou hast given me O my bountiful Creator the whole world in free-hold for one penny of Rent saying Child give me thy heart O Lord Let this penny never want the superscription of thy grace and let me never want thy grace to pay this rent O my Lord all that I have is but two small mites I cast them into thy hands and had I more I would give more Dispose of them both dear Lord of my body and soul as best pleaseth thee that thy will may be perfectly performed and thy name purely sanctified in both O sweet God of my heart Let me embrace thee in the two arms of profound humility and perfect charity O let my heart faint and melt away in the fire of thy divine love let me lose my self to find thee be out of my self to live in thee and be empty of my self to be full of thee O fun of Justice dissolve with a beam of thy brightness the frost of my heart and resolve it into tears of affection 5. O beautiful and best-beloved of my soul I am weary of this wretched world and I breathe thirst and sigh after thee the sweet fountain of life-giving and soul-saving waters O thou true rest and refresher of my faint and feeble heart out of whom there is neither comfort nor content Let me shroud my self under the shadow of thy wings untill iniquity and infirmity have an end Come Lord Jesu Speak thy sweet words of love to my languishing soul for thy servant hears thee Give me courage alacrity fervour and fidelity in thy service the few remaining moments of my wretched and wearisome pilgrimage O rest long expected and much sighed after where shal I seek thee and when shall I find thee where sleepest thou O dear Spouse at midday in the heat of love Where is thy secret cabinet of Contemplation which thou hidest from the wisdom of worldling and revealest to little ones and humble of heart O shew me the bed of divine Union wherein thou reposest with the simple solitary and mortified soul O let my poor heart have the honour and happiness to rest in thee to remain with thee and to be united to thee O God of love wound my soul with thy sweet wounds of love which nothing can cure but death wean it from the worlds vanity and wed it to thy increated verity that treading all creatures under me I may be rapt into thee my Creator above my-self and there like the happy Dove in the secure Ark repose my weary and faint lims in the bosom of thee my Soveraign Lord and lover 6. O divine wisdom Lead me into the solitude speak unto my heart teach me thy holy will in all occurrences My deep sighs and secret desires are not hid from thee Thou knowest nothing can fully cure comfort and content me but thy self the one and only necessary thing O take my self and all and give me that one thing in whom are all things O sweet waters of divine Love which flow from the blessed bosom of the divinity and from the open side of my Saviours humanity Run into my bowels and like pure oyl penetrate and possess every parcel of my spirit Irrigate and inebriate it overflow and absorp it that it may be transformed and conformed to the divine Spirit so that all my actions cogitations and affections may be spiritual divine and Deiform O let my ravish'd soul full of life and fire break forth into these flames of joy and jubilation I have found him whom my soul loves I have him and I will hold him This is he which by reading I sought by meditation I found by prayer I desired and by contemplation I enjoy O how the earth stinks how loathsom are all creatures to me O tast O sweetness O true and solid pleasure O how great is the difference between this spiritual and all fleshly delights O the multitude of thy sweetnesses which thou hast laid up O Lord for them that fear and love thee O lights O delights O extasies of spirit Wound me O sweet God burn me consume me crucifie me Let me cry out with that Lover Retain O Lord the floods of thy grace or inlarge my heart for I can hold no longer I thirst Lord give me this water O when how long how much 7. O my soul how good is it for us to be here O sweet and secure home and harbour Let us remain and rejoyce here for ever I will keep thee O my dearly beloved and
themselves into good company seek to converse with vertuous people are diligent in their devotions zealous frequenters of the Sacraments and painfull practisers of the corporall and spirituall works of charity But by reason they are yet slow in the pursute of solid vertue and slack in their tendance to Perfection But are slow in tending to perfection they are still subject to fall into their enemies snares and ambushes For they are terrified at the difficulty of getting an entire conquest over their passions and imperfections and therefore seem to satisfie and solace their minds with what they have already done and left for the love of God presuming overmuch upon his goodness flattering themselves with a certain self-security fancying that they are in a sufficiently good condition whence they fall into a false opinion of their and â—â—bject to be self-conceited own worth and an erroneous conceit that little or nothing is wanting to them All which maxims manifest their secret pride and presumption and render them by degrees careless of their further increase and progress in the path of spirituality The Third Degree of Perfection VNto which those proficients are ascended who have more perfectly vanquish'd all affections to the On the 3. step stand they who casting â—ff sloath tame themselves with austerities world subdued their sensuality to the rule of Reason and changed their sloathfull and sluggish indisposition into a noble and generous resolution of mortifying each unruly passion and wrestling with their evil inclinations And to this end they fall seriously and severely to work applying corporall austerities fastings watchings wearing of hair-cloaths long vocall prayers and faithfully practise such painfull means as may probably help them forward in their desired conquest over themselves in the acquisition of vertues and in their tendance to perfection But because their intentions in But their intentions are not pu the performance of these pious practices are not pure sincere divested of all selfishness and simply for Gods supream honour alone but have some small mixture of servil fear which looks upon hell and punishment or of self-love which eyes heaven and reward rather than Gods only pleasure and liking therefore they are yet seduced by the devils subtilty and drawn into a certain secret delighting in their own supposed good deeds relying over-much upon these outward exercises and neglecting Nor are they wel-grounded in self-denial their inward man by not laying there the true groundwork of solid vertue which is perfect mortification and self-deniall but following the track of nature in it's love to these seeming sensible and satisfying practices not duly weighing how highly they hinder the operation of Gods holy Spirit in their souls The Fourth Degree of Perfection VNto which they are clâ—mb'd who rightly considering the nobility of the inward exercise get Vpon the 4. step stand they who have gotten into their interiour into themselves and there study diligently how they may unite their souls to their Creatour with fervent desires and filiall affections Yet these are oftentimes self-seekers But yet look for solaces lovers of their own will and desirers of solaces and sweetnesses in their devotions rather than the pure pleasure of God they glory in their own way of the Spirit and prefer it before that of their brethren which shewes them to have a touch of spirituall pride and argues them of immortification And though in time of comfort they seem well resigned to endure all dereliction yet they are troubled when any cross comes upon them and discouraged when and are discouraged with adversities the least adversity befalls them If they are commanded to leave what they love or act what they like not they soon shew what they are what spirit leads them they declare their disobedience fall into grudgings and murmurations and make apparent the hypocrisie of their pretended resignation Such persons therefore must strive seriously to restrain this willfull propriety and give up themselves truly and totally to Gods good pleasure and the guidance of their spirituall conductor without any manner of restraint or reservation which is the only secure and short way for them to attain to the next higher Degree of Perfection The fifth Degree of Perfection IN which are placed those pious souls which truly renounce their own wills in all their actions exercises On the 5. step stand they who are fully resigned and devotions and are fully resigned to the divine pleasure and disposition These promptly obey not only Gods inward calls and their Superiours commands and perfectly obedient but even the becks of all men living in all things which appear consonant to Gods honour and conducing to their self-denial and mortification Their chiefest care is to conserve cleanness of heart their dayly prayer is to purchase purity of conscience and their unwearied endeavours drive onely at the perfect union of their souls to their sweet Saviour But because they are not yet masters in this sacred art but young and raw Scholars in this track of true and totall resignation But fail for want of experience and courage they somtimes fail for want of courage constancy Stediness and solidity in it all their affections are not absolutely rooted out and mortified by sufficient use and experience in spirituality which makes them yet waver in their station stagger in their resolution slip down now and then into some lower pit of self-love and admit of some little point of propriety yet they soon arise return and regain their standing by the help of self-denial and resignation The Sixth Degree of Perfection VPon which stand those holy On the 6. step stand they who have a habit of resignation Contemplatives who by much experience and long continued diligence have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and a resolute perseverance and constancy in their good purposes free from all mixture of self-will propriety or the least taint of contradiction from their Lords will and pleasure faithfully acknowledging that all things whatsoever even the greatest adversities and most grievous temptations turn to the spiritual advancement of such souls as truly seek God which is their only aym and employment Yet even into these high entertainments with God there may creep in a certain secret inclination to themselves and an over-eager But desire comforts to enable them appetite towards gusts and ghostly comforts upon pretext to be thereby enabled to endure all desolations and adversities which intention being not precisely pure from all propriety and absolutely perfect in divine charity is a great impediment to the operation of the holy Ghost in their souls For what gifts soever of nature or grace outward or Note well this excellent maxime inward temporal or spiritual are not directly used in order to our own humiliation and our Creators honour are abused by us to our greâ—t prejudice in spirituality and prove hinderances and stumbling-blocks in our way to perfection And
the soul is wounded with love fick of love and languishing for love after a long experience in the way of the Spirit and a serious application of her self to the practice of solid vertue having truly gotten into her own interiour and happily ascended the steep mountain of Perfection is become deeply wounded with love sweetly sick of love and heartily languishing after love So that she crys out with that fainting Spouse in the Canticles O tell my beloved that I languish with love This infirmity is not to death but for Gods glory for the Soul in this state defyes all sin deserts whatsoever is not God and desires him only she grows weary and sick of all creatures and aspires after the embraces of her Creator And as an infirm person loseth appetite and loathes all the wonted contents of nature so here the soul feels no gust takes no pleasure findes no comfort in any earthly objects Shee lyes sick and seized on by this mystical feaver caused by the violent heat of heavenly love and here she is in the degree of contemplative purgation when she findes no support no stay no tast no quiet no content in any thing whatsoever And therefore she â—oon soars up from this Step to the next The Second Degree of Love WHerein she rouseth and raises In the 2 she seeks her Physician up her self and casts about which way she may seek and find her loving Physician who can only cure and comfort her she gets up early and eagerly enquires after him without intermission or cessation whom she failed to find in her bed at night in the first degree She faithfully follows the prints of his steps turns over natures book dives into all creatures questions all she meets Oh! have you seen him whom my soul loveth Yet she stays no where stoops not to the lure of any created object she demands and passes on she leaves all for him whom she only loves and longs after She holds no discourse with Angels themselves but listens only to his heavenly voice and desires nothing but to see a glimpse of his beatifying countenance O shew me thy face let thy sweet words sound in my ears Here love bears all the sway and hath made so deep an impression in the pious soul that she is perpetually solicitous for love ever sighing after love and still carping caring and seeking for her well beloved in all things All her throughts tend to him all her discourses drive at him all her affairs end in him If shee sleeps she dreams of him if she wakes she talks of him Finally she is always in all things in all places transported into this object of her love and swayed towards this Centre of her life And recovering new strength ascends upward to a further Degree The Third Degree of Love WHerein she works with more heat and vigour and of which the King-Prophet speaks In the 3. she fears her own unworthiness and the loss of her beloved Psa 111. Blessed is that person who fears the Lord for he will exceedingly desire to fulfill his holy laws Whence may be inferr'd that if Fear which is Loves daughter cause such effectual desires how efficacious will those desires be which proceed immediately from Love it self The Soul in this Degree beleeves that her best works done in the behalf of her beloved are very base inconsiderable she runs over her Registers of accounts sums up her numerous exploits measures her long suffâ—ances and surveys her high services and they seem at best but poor and mean performances of a greater duty she finds them nothing worth by reason of the excess of affection which inflames and consumes her If Jacobs love to Rachel had so powerful an influence upon his spirit that his twice seven years apprentiship seem'd to him but a Gene. 29. 20. few dayes by reason of the ardour of his desire What admirable effects will the Creators love produce in that Soul which it hath absolutely seized upon entirely possess'd and throughly penetrated in this third Degree She will be piously troubled and angry with her self that she doth so little for so great a Majesty and if she might lawfully she would most willingly give up her self to be minc'd into a thousand morcels for his love honor and service and receive therein full comfort content joy and satisfaction It truly seems to her that shee troubles the earth she treads on and the ayr she breathes in and that she unprofitably takes up a place in the world as a barren tree which brings forth neither flowers nor fruit Hence springs a further admirable effect that she verily thinks her self the worst of all things created considering what she owes and calculating what she pays for Love teacheth her how much God deserves and Humility tells her how little she doth and because shee finds that all her best endeavours are full of defects and imperfections and that her highest way of corresponding to the love of her heavenly Lord is so low and unbeseeming his Majesty she is inwardly pained and confounded in her self A soul in this state is far from any puff of pride presumption vain glory or censuring of others and is therefore duly disposed to mount up to the next Degree The Fourth Degree of Love WHich is of suffering for her In the 4. she willingly suffers for love beloved freely and cheerfully without the least repining or reluctancy because true love makes the heaviest burdens seem light and the greatest labours easie In this estate was that Spouse when she spake to her beloved Place me as Cant. 8. 6. a signet upon your heart put me as a seal upon your arm because love is strong as death c. The Spirit hath here such a vigour that it absolutely subjects and subdues the flesh and as much slights all motions of sensuality as a well rooted tree doth the wagging of one of his little leaves Here the soul seeks not at all her own gust or comfort either in God or any of his gifts nor demands any grace in order to her own solace or support but all her care is to cast about her which way she may render some acceptable service to the Divine Majesty and how she may content and please him in any thing which she can do or suffer for that he deserves it for his love and goodness Many seek their own content in God But Few seek to give God content towards her though such her services cost her never so dear Ah! Good God how many of your followers seek in you their own content and comfort sigh after your favours expect your cherishings and run after your gifts and graces But alas how few are they who strive to give you content and to present you with any worthy donative at their own cost and charges without some touch of self love or proper interest You are ever open-handed ô bountifull Creator and ready to showre your heavenly benefits
upon our heads but we are always loath to employ that in your love which we receive from your liberality though this is the only way to have them continued and increased This degree of love is very high and heroick For as the soul here seeks her Lord so seriously and adheres to him so sincerely that she is ready willing and desirous to suffer any thing for him So his divine Majesty often ordinarily rewards thiâ— her fidelity with putting her in possession of joy and giving her many secret sugred and delicious visits For the immense love of the Word incarnate Christ Jesus permits him not to see his loving Spouse suffer purely for his sake without hastning to her comfort and succour Hence she speedily gets up to The Fifth Degree of Love WHich moves the inflamed soul to a certain holy impatience In the 5. she is impatient in her desires of love in her desires of being joyned to her beloved She is seiz'd with such a vehement ardour to overtake him and to be united to him that all stay and tarriance seems to her tedious and insupportable She thinks often to have found him caught him in her arms clasp'd him in her bosom but perceiving her self still frustrated of her desired object faints through her eagerness of spirit as he did who cry'd out My soul covets and decays after the Courts of Psa 83. 1. my Lord. She cannot subsist long in this And must either obtain it or dy for it condition She must either obtain her love or cease to live she is as eager in her desires as Rachel was to see her self a mother when she said to Jacob Give me children or Gen. 30. 1 else I dy Here the soul feeds altogether on love as she only hungers and thirsts after love So that she quickly raises her self up to The Sixth Degree WHere she runs lightly swftly and nimbly after her beloved In the 6. she runs lightly swiftly sweetly after love Isai 40. 32 being fortified with Faith lifted up with Hope and quickned with Charity Of which degree the Prophet speaks They who hope in our Lord shall exchange their strength shall take Eagles wings and fly without fainting The reason of this lightness is the overspreading and dilatation of these three Theological vertues in the soul whereby it becomes so elevated that it wants but little of a totall purification Wherupon that enlarged soul said I have Ps 118. 32 run over the way of your commandments when you dilated my heart Hence she grows hardy in love grows bold and confident in love and putting on a confident boldness is piously amorously and strongly transported beyond the ordinary limits of reason So that she stays not according to judgement retreates not according to counsel nor governs and represses her impetuosity violence and forwardness by the rules of modesty and shame-fastness because the peculiar favor which her best beloved shews her communicates to her a holy and heavenly audacity In this state was that hardy spouse which beg'd a Cant. 1. 1. kiss of her beloveds mouth And Moses when he peremptorily said Exo. 32. 32 to God Either pardon this people or blot my name out of the book of life wherein thou hast registred it And then burning sweetly in and becomes united to her beloved pure and perfect union with her beloved she cryes out I have found the long desired object of my affections I will not let go my hold nor permit him to escape out of my embraces c. Here her holy thirst and hunger is satisfied and she enjoys such unexplicable treasures of delicious love that were whole volumes fill'd up with the description thereof the greater part would still be left uncomprised And from thâ— estate the amorous Soul passeth â— to the last Degree which belong not to this mortall life The Seventh and last Degree WHich likens her totally to her well-beloved Creator by In the 7. she enjoys her beloved perfectly c. the clear vision of divine essence This she enjoys as soon as being here in this world arrived at the Sixth degree of this divine ladder of love she departs hence to her happy eternity These blessed Souls which are very few in number are sufficiently purged and purified by Love which hath done that in them here which Purgatory doth in others elswhere so that to them belongs that Beatitude Blessed are the clean-hearted Matt. 5. 8. for they shall see God Now we say this divine vision causeth a totall resemblance of the soul with God following that sentence of S. John We know that when he shall appear we shall be like 1 Joh. 3. 2. him because we shall see him as he â—â— So that all that which the soul â—s and hath shall be like God by â—articipation Here nothing at al can â—e concealed from her according â—o our Saviours words In that day Joh. 16. 23 you shall ask me nothing Because â—he eyes the clear glass of the God-head wherein her self and all things are most plainly and perfectly contained But untill that day comes though the soul be perched never so high yet God is alwayes hid from her in some manner as far forth as there wants in her somthing of this totall resemblance with the Divinâ—â—y Thus ô amourous souls by climbing this mysticall ladder of divine love upon which God himself leaneth you get out of your selves and all things and fly up into the divine being for love like fire tends alwayes upwards with a perpetual desire to be plunged and ingulphed in the Centre of its proper Sphere Apply your selves therfore seriously to this holy and inward exercise that you may attain to these heavenly effects Embrace with open heart and arms your good great and gracious Lord and love and resolve with that holy Spouse I have laid hold on him and I will never leave him Draw near Cant. 3. 4. Psal 33. 6. this divine Sun and be illuminated he will clear your darkness errours and ignorances dissipate all your dulness in devotion dry up the dirt of your concupiscences encourage you in the carrying of your Cross give you a general alacrity in the performance of all your actions and undertakings and replenish your souls with unspeakable sweetnesses comforts and contents Come I say and only bring with you these three companions Faith Love and Resignation and leave all other things to the divine disposition Represent to your thoughts a wofull and bedridden creature lying grievously tormented with a burning feaver his Physician prescribing abstinence from drink as the only and assured way for his cure and recovery his compassionate friends visiting him seeking to divert his pains with their pleasant discourses and to charm his disease with the delight of musick c. Ah! what unwellcome comforts are all these things to him who can fix his mind on nothing but drink who thinks on nothing talks of nothing demands
our selves 18. If on the contrary Our nature is so facil and flexible that we scarcely find difficulty in any thing We wonder to hear mention of rebellions contradictions desolations c. From all which we are secure and quiet And therefore we fear our actions proceed rather from a natural promptitude than solid vertue 19. If we so addict our selves to Recollection that we look upon works of Obedience and the external practices of our duty as impediments to Perfection 20. If we find such a calm in our passions imperfections and temptations that we hope the worst is past 21. If scrupulosity overwhelms us 1. We must obey our Spiritual Directour 2. We must do our best endeavour But here arise two difficulties 1. If our Directours knowledge be small his experience less c. 2. If we cannot satisfy our selves that we have done our best c. 22. If we fear we detest not sin sufficiently because we feel not so great sorrow for the offence of God as we do somtimes for a temporall loss 23. If we cannot ground our selves in a firm hope of mercy for that we are so frail and inconstant we sin dayly and amend not our lives we repay unto God evil for good we promise fidelity and practise nothing less 24. If we go not on with alacrity because we know not that our sins are forgiven that our Confessions are good and that we are in the state of grace 25. Though we cannot in this life assure our selves infallibly to be in good state yet if we could comfort our selves with most probable tokens of grace whereby we might feel the pulses of our hearts and somwhat ease our anguish 26. If we are troubled because we know not well when we give consent to sinfull thoughts 27. If we cannot well distinguish between Venial and Mortal sin 28. If these sayings of Divines terrifie us They sin who do against their doubt And In doubtfull things the securer part is to be followed 29. If finally we are apprehensive and fearfull lest we should grow weary in the way of vertu and not persevere constantly in our Spiritual Exercises Maxims of Mystical Divinity The first Maxim That our end is perfection and Divine Vnion and That Prayer is the way to it IT is not sufficient for us who are resolv'd upon a spiritual course to lead an ordinary good life which consists in the avoiding of sin and scandal and in the punctual performance of our external duty to God and our neighbour But our end and aym must be to attain the perfection of Gods holy love and a happy Vnion of our souls with their first beginning by living in abstraction recollection and perpetuall Contemplation as far forth as Gods holy Spirit shall enable us and our frailty can correspond The chief means to attain this our end is Prayer without which all Religion is but a shadow without a body or a body without a soul and all outward observances will prove but a superficial not a real devotion For it is the constant doctrine of Divines that what God S. Augustine S. Basil S. Chrysostom S. Thomas 2 2. q. 83. a. 2. in his eternal disposition hath determined to bestow upon us he gives us in time by the intervention of Prayer tying as it were to this instrument the conversion of sinners the advancement of souls the perfection of Saints c. So that as his divine decree is that we must till the earth if we will reap the fruits thereof and provide mateâ—â—als if we will raise up buildings and the like so his absolute order is that we must pray if we will have spiritual benefits to be powred into our souls and supernatural gifts and graces to be granted unto us Let us therefore in the first place resolve to prosecute Prayer couragiously constantly and perseverantly at set times if we intend to make speedy progress in sincere vertue and lay a sure groundwork of solid spirituality and let nothing upon any pretext whatsoever hinder or divert us from it as far as obedience and discretion will give us leave Lord heal my wounds supply my wants satisfie my wishes The second Maxim That Beginuers may profitably make use of this following exercise of mental Prayer and Introversion until they obtain greater light and more experience in the way of the Spirit THis divine Exercise consists of three parts in general and Nine points in particular 1. Preparation of 3. acts 1. An affective lively apprehensioÌ„ of Gods presence 2. A cordial and profound act of humility 3. A pure intention to please and praise God only 2. Consideration of 1. My wounds both internal and external 2. My wants which are many in every degree 3. My wishes and humble desires 3. Conclusion also of 3. acts 1. Contrition for my sins 2. Resignation in my wants 3. Complacence in God and Confidence in his goodness A more ample and practical description of this Exercise The first part is Preparation of three Acts. 1. A lively apprehension of Gods Presence not only in all places and all creatures by his power and essence but in our souls by his mercy love care and providence O my Soul Where are we 1. Part. 1 Preseâ—ce of God who seeth us What is he that is with us and within us by whose light we see by whose fire we burn and by whose love we live Live my most glorious and gracious Lord in whose presence I kneel in whose arms I rest and after whose love I breathe O that thou wert as dear to my soul as thou art near it Alas why doth she not care as much for her God as he doth for her good Why do I not love thy presence ô my amiable Lord since thou art present by love Thou art my Father my Physician and my food hear me heal me help me I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched Out of thee there is no rest without thee there is no hope remain with me reign within me Let me be thine all thine ever thine 2. Profound and cordial humility acknowledging unfeignedly before God and his Angels our wickedness weakness and wretchedness what we are and what we deserve and so resting quiet in our Centre of nothing O my Soul What have we 2 Profound humility been What are we What have we what can we do What do we deserve What do we desire What hath our loving Father and liberal Lord that he hath not given us What have we proud and prodigal children that we have not received meerly from his mercifull hand and heart What have we received that we have not abused by self-love or self-delight O sweet Jesu Give tears to my eyes words to my tongue sighs to my heart and love to my spirit for I need them all to deplore my misery and implore thy mercy to admire thy beauty and adore thy bounty to sigh after thee and suffer for thee What I have been it grieves me to
possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy all if I could embrace crosses as crowns and swallow down all contemprs and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all foâ— One to be left by that One who iâ— my All and so remain quiet iâ— my own nothing How long shall I he wallowing in flesh and blood how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me aâ—l dross of self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee â—ternally Lord let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble sorrow for our sins ingratitâ—des disloyalties tepiditie c. O my God! how little did I love 3. Part. 1. Contrition thee when I so carelesly offended thy Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediately O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy sacred will and commandements Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future fallings How great ô Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferr'd thy benefits bestow'd and thy love powr'd out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my sins that my heart might break with sorrow Hide not ô Lord thy face from me shut not up thy mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolv'd upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thâ— mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our wanâ—â— wishes desolations and distresses â—â— the divine will and pleasure I am indifferent O my dear Lord 2. Resignation to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou â— my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledge my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all light all liberty all love all comfort all content yea even all vertu peace and perfection so long as it shall please thee O father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and confidence the first that our God is what he is the next that he will heal our wounds supply our wants satisfie our wishes and turn all to our good I am glad ô my glorious Lord 3. Complacence and Confidence God that thou art so worthy of all love though I of all others am not worthy to love thee I am as joyful for what thou art o great God as if all thou hast were all mine and I will love thee in all I am and have as being all thine Thy Cross is my comfort thy Will my well fare and thy love my life so that if I can but suffer for thee do thy will and follow thy love I shall do all that is necessary I am indeed dry dark and desolate but since it is thy will I am sure it is my good and therefore sufficient for me and satisfactory to thee I hope thou wilt one day compleat thy own heavenly design in my soul healing my wounds supplying my wants fulfilling my desires and filling my yet empty heart with thy sweet presence and perfect love In the mean space I will say and sing Live Jâ—sus Live my Lord my love my life my all whose name bâ— blessed by all whose will be accomplishâ—d in all whose honour be advanced above all An advertisement touching the precedent Exercise 1. We must perform it dayly diligently discreetly and with great confidence and courage 2. Yet without propriety that it may neither hinder the operation of the Holy Ghost within nor works of due obligation and obedience without 3. If in the practise of this introversion we find dryness and feel little devotion we may somtimes fitly resume in lieu of the second part or consideration our wonted exercises whereto our minds are more addicted ending the same with the Conclusion here prescribed being ever duly disposed to follow the holy Spirits invitation to higher matters If we faithfully observe these things we shall infallibly receive comfort and speedily perceive our own unspeakable profit and progress by the practise of this pious exercise as being indeed the end of all other externall devotions and the short sure simple and Râ—gia via leading to a spirituall devout and divine life The third Maxim That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable FOr the end and drift of all discoursive Prayer is to move inflame and enkindle our affections in the love of God and vertue and therefore all discourses must be left by little and little as our souls can more and more live in Faith and simplifie themselves from materiall objects images and conceptions and only tend to God by a sweet and secret motion of the will an amourous correspondency to the Divine operations and inward impulses of his holy Spirit treading down and transcending all things under God by discreetly forgetting and unknowing them The fourth Maxim That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God PRayer in generall according to As is more amply declared in our Introduction to the Spiritual Pilgrimage the known division is either Vocall or Mental Mentall Prayer is An Elevation of our spirits into God For as our Creatour is elevated above all creatures so our souls cannot see talk and treat with him purely and perfectly but by leaving them all and lifting up themselves above them all This Elevation is by means of Meditation Contemplation Thanksgiving and Petition Which
4. Essentiall parts of Prayer S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 83. a. 7. are the wings by which our soul fly to God and the four essentiall parts of prayer all others as Preparation lecture examen oblation points conclusion and the like being only accidents and properties thereof The difference between Meditation and Contemplation is this We Meditate when we seek after truths and cast about for reasons The dâ—fference between Medâ—tation and to affectionate our wills to the embracing of Gods love Christian vertues or works of piety and perfection For our Vnderstandings are as it were the Steels and our Wills the Flints which no sooner touch each other but the sparks of holy affections presently fly out inflaming and actuating our disposed souls with heavenly love We Contemplate when we steadily Contemplation and unmoveably behold God by Faith believing that we have him truly with us and within us and so leaving all other subjects objects reasons and discourses to look on him as present love him in silence and feed on his only satiating sweetness And this Contemplation is either Ordinary or Perfect or Transcendent Ordinary Contemplation is when Contemplatâ—on is threefold 1. Ordinary S. Tho. in 3. dist 32. our souls make use of their imagination and such Species as they have drawn from sensible objects first purifi'd subtiliz'd and immaterializ'd by the Vnderstanding to conduct them to their Creatour Perfect Contemplation looks directly 2. Perfect upon the increated light fixes her view upon the eternall verity and perches immediately upon the divine being and perfections without any admixture of fancy or assistance of creatures This is call'd dark Contemplation because our souls discharged from all inferiour objects and receiving no enlightnings from below are wholly daz'led and as it were blinded with the bright splendour of Gods incomprehensible Majesty framing no sensible Idea of him but beholding him with the eys of faith by way of Negation and simple adhesion to his divine Essence Transcendent Contemplation 3. Transcendent mounts up yet higher above all intelligible species and may fitly be term'd the Cousin german of beatificall vision and that last heaven whereunto S. Paul was rap't where not only all use of Sense is extinguisht and all acting of Vnderstanding abolish't but the spirit is totally transported absorpt and inflam'd with Seraphical love and the whole inward man is drown'd annihilated extasi'd and ineffably united to the Divinity so that the thus elevated soul can neither say or consider God is with me or I am with God for such advertency or reflexion is sensible whereas this most eminent Contemplation imports an absolute silence and forgetfulness of our selves and all things whatsoever and an intire conjunction with our Creatour as shall be hereafter further declared The Practise of the four essential The 4. parts of Prayer exemplifi'd parts of prayer is in this or the like manner Taking some mystery of our Saviours life as for example his praying in the garden of Gethsemani As is shewed in the following Maxim for our subject or ground-work we first examine our consciences ask pardon for our sins and make resolutions of amendment Secondly we give up our willâ— irrevocably to God seeking purely his glory and not our own gust c. Then we enter upon the first essentiall part of Prayer which is Meditation considering our 1. Meditation dear Redeemer in his bloody sweat sighing weeping praying and his disciples sleeping Vpon this sad spectacle we make some discourses concerning the person that suffers the love wherewith he suffers the subject for which he suffers Then our affections being moved 2. Contemplatâ—on by these considerations and inflamed in Gods love we slide sweetly and insensibly into active Contemplation leaving all discourses and looking with our eyes of Faith upon our suffering Lord. And having melted away in his 3. Thaâ—ksgivâ—ng loving presence for so long time as our Devotion or the holy Spirits invitation lasts we heartily thank him for having thus suffer'd for our salvation And lastly we implore his grace 4. Petition that we may faithfully follow his steps and above all that he will grant us his love which we must filially affectionatly humbly and confidently beg at the conclusion of all our exercises The fifth Maxim That continual Recollection is the Exercise of Exercises and the immediate way to bring us to Perfection and divine Vnion THat we may rightly conceive the verity of this Maxim let us here in the first place take a view of the whole manner meaning method and practice of this sublime exercise in these ensuing Canons 1. That all places are proper for Recollection but the more quiet the more proper Wheresoever we live we may and should send up our Petitions and breathe forth our affections to our every where present Lord and lover in publick and in private in tempests and in calms amidst all noises of employments and in quiet corners of retreat Job prayed well on a dunghill and Jonas in the Whales belly but Judas did not so in his Apostleship and society of Jesus Yet when solitude silence and repose may be obtained they are the fiâ—test 2 2. q. 188. a. 8. instruments of Contemplation and therefore most highly to be prized and most diligently embraced I Ose 2. 14. will lead him into the desert says our Lord and there I will speak to his heart 2. That to pray on our knees is a posture most pleasing to God Let us not hunt for excuses pretend want of forces nor cloak our laziness and languour with that misinterpreted Maxim That Prayer must have the quietest easiest and least constrained composition of body but rather let us imitate our Lord Saviour since all his actions are our instructions whose humanity lay often prostrate on the earth Matt. 26. 39. Mark 14. 35. Ephes 3. 14. praying and adoring his divinity and let us follow the example of his Apostle who frequently bended his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us I say submit willingly to this direction unless evident weaknes or infirmity hinder us for this adoration and a far higher is due to the divine Majesty and therefore let us conceive the contrary to be a manifest temptation of our enemy 3. That we must especially at first prefix to our selves certain and set times of Recollection Let us not complain for want of conveniency time or opportunity to follow this exercise for if our wills be ready time cannot be wanting If our stomacks call on us for meat or our bodies for warmth we can find time to feed and clothe them are our souls less considerable Let us rather steal time from our sleep and recreation than want it for Recollection And since all our time is given us by God to be spent in his love and service let us re-give unto him at least the tithe thereof and dedicate two hours of four and twenty one in
affections 6. Then more still abstract and simple Prayer 7. After which come's Active Contemplation 8. And lastly Passive In which estate we may and must leave all Rules and help our selves by experience and the â—â—ght â—f Earth but especially by following and humbly obeying the internall motion and attraction of the holy Spirit of God upon whom chiefly depends the perfection of this great work For further explication whereof The seventh Maxim That the Contemplative must be very observant of the divine visits lights and calls WE must take heed of tying our selves to any set forms of words points or methods of Mental prayer after we have made We must ty our selves to no set methods some progress in this practice of Recollection for this were directly to impede the free operation of Gods holy Spirit within us When therefore we shall perceive our souls drawn from discourses to this higher exercise we must humbly and readily relinquish our former hold and give scope and leave to the divine invitation busying our selves no longer in our former fears and customs but making use of such inward or outward expressions as fervent love will suggest and furnish us withall conforming our selves perfectly to God's will and cooperating with his grace yet so as not to run before it which is the other extream equally hindring the divine Spirit 's intention Wherfore a quiet indifferent and industrious attention and correspondency still willingly giving way to Obedience for fear of delusion is the very best disposition to receive these heavenly visitations We must not then be troubled But willingly quit our old customs if we break our old customs to embrace Gods will he is the end of all our exercises and the end being obtained the means must cease O how many are called by God who refuse and resist him by tying their Spirits to this or that practice and so bar him from elevating their souls to himself as he pleaseth They are loath to leave God in their usuall Devotions for God in Contemplation If they begin not their prayers thus and thus end them they think they have done nothing and remain wholly unsatisfied Thus they become proprietarians in their Wils and slaves to their exercises and because they cast not themselves absolutely into the two arms of Gods will and love they make small progresse in the way of solid perfection The eighth Maxim That the only way to get true peace of mind is to be totally Resigned to God REsignation is a putting away of What Resignation iâ— our own Will and a placing of Gods Will in its stead it is as it were a certain transfusion of our Wills into his and an uncloathing our selves of all desires but only that God's holy Will be fully accomplish'd in heaven and earth Without this Resignation we There is no true quiet without it shall never find quiet in God nor our-selves and the way to attain to it is to receive all that happens as from Gods holy hands and to be content to bear it as long and in what manner and measure he pleaseth Let us not be troubled under a false pretence of zeal at this place that company c. For it is not that but our selves who stand in our own light First then let us seek God purely in all 2. See him present in all 3. Take from him all 4. Return to him all Let us be indifferent in all praise God in all bee quiet and content in all in sickness and health in light and darkness in peace and trouble in life and death To be expell'd out of Paradise with Adam to lye full of sores and sorrows with Job on a dunghil to be forsaken by all with Christ on the crosse to bee poor needy naked nothing being ever ready to say cordially cheerfully and with an humble and habituall indifferency Yes O Father yes I will It pleaseth thee it shall pleaâ—e me well good best of all So be it my good Lord for time and eternity in this and in all things A soul thus resigned can never be troubled with any cross or calamity for she eys Gods Will and embraces his Providence in all occurrences nothing toucheth her but only thâ—t his divine pleasure is not perfectly performed in her self and in all creatures If in her prayers she be seiz'd with How to be resigned in desolations drynesse dulnesse desolation shee gratefully confesseth that state to be best for the perfecting of her spirit She neither complains of nor considers her inproficiency in her pious exercises for she comes not to prayer for gusts or graces but to doe Gods will to receive what he pleaseth to suffer what â—e permitteth And because this Resignation is the Key of her true progress she makes frequent and fervent acts thereof in this or the like manner Take my Will totally to thee O Acts of Resignation my God! govern it absolutely and submit it perfectly to thine own and because I cannot deliver it up O my dear Lord as thou desirest take it from me by violence cut off all impediments break all my fetters for me bring me forcibly and bend me absolutely to a blessed conformity with thy Will and pleasure Let my whole employment in this life be the practice of this point Let me neither think of pain nor look upon recompense but resignedly behold thee because thou art in thy self so good so great so glorious so amiable so admirable I give up my Will O divine Artist to bee plung'd purified polished hammer'd filed and fired in the fornace of thy love O doe with it and with me as thou best knowest and pleasest 'T is for this I now come to prayer and for this only that I may be taught this happy lesson of denying mine own and doing thy Will Or thus briefly Lord I put my Will and alâ— that concerns me inwardly out wardly temporally eternally intâ— thy holy hands dispose of all aâ— thou pleasest and direct me in aâ— to doe thy divine Will Having made this act and oblation let us reflect seriously upon what we have said and done and that in giving away our Will wee have put the best pawn wee have into Gods hands and out of our own power let us then beware of so infamous and ignoble an action as to re-take the gift so solemnly delivered or to doe again our own wil in any thing whatsoever The ninth Maxim That a Contemplative soul must lay a solid groundwork to serve her in time of Desolation FOr no soul can in this life be alwaies elevated to the Divinity and therefore will sometimes need a stay to rest upon till she can take breath and repair her forces in order to her higher soarings in Contemplation This resting place This groâ—ndwork may be Christs humanity may most fitly be the Humanity of Christ which is the very way and dore to the Divinity upon which when she returns to her self after she hath been absorpt
hearts into which we may securely and sweetly retire in the midst of all worldly varieties This is to walk with God as Enoch did and to be in continuall conversation with the Divinity A more sublime way to practise Gods presence is To look alwaies upon him without any discourse by a simple act of lively Faith not to question how or in what manner he is present nor to A hâ—gher way to practâ—se Gods presence fix our eys upon his inaccessible splendours because it is yet nighâ— for us we are but travellers and we must expect untill the bright day of eternity shine upon us and shew him unto us as he is in himself we must not think here to behold him but be content to beleeve him present with us and within us and that we live move and have our being in and by him In this manner of practising God's presence it is not needfull to form any conception or representation of God as that he is here by us or in any designed place or in such a form or figure for wee speak here of the presence of God as he is God which excludes all these imaginations And therefore it sufficeth to behold him only by Faith simply beleeving that he is here and in all places that he fils the whole universe and each corner and creature therein contained S. Augusâ— and that he is more inward to us than we are to our selves The 23. Maxim That Humiliation is a relique of Gods love WHen any occasion is offered us of humiliation abjection or mortification let us not examine how whence or from whom it comes but joyfully accept it embrace it and kiss it as a rich relique and royall token of God's great love and favour towards us Let us force our sensuality to swallow it down and disgest it for though it be bitter it will purge and perfect our spirits The 24. Maxim That Humility is the solid ground-work of all Spirituality WE are to grave this necessary lesson not only upon our Oratory and in all our books but upon the very dores of our hearts and in the depth of our souls Learn of me who am meek and humble-hearted Christ's lesson is humility Mat. 11. 29. and you shall find rest for your souls O sweet Saviour O meek and mercifull lamb of God! teach me this lesson which I stand in such need of Oh that I could perfectly practise it How purely and peaceably should I both live and dye Meek and humble spirits converse together like mourning turtles like innocent lambs and like corporall Angels turning the blessed family where they live into an earthly Paradise c. In the externall practice of this vertue wee are to observe chiefly these three degrees First to forbear forgoe deny Three points for the externall pactise of humility and submit our own judgements heartily humbly and really not only to our Superiours but also to all others casting our selves at their feet yea and under their feet to be troden on as dust and dirt And this as near as may bee for Gods sake Secondly not to care what others say or think of us which point which that other Of not medling with what concerns â—â— not will soon bring us unspeakablâ— peace and purity thinking alwaies with our selves What is that to thee follow thou thy Saviour Thirdly to get a habit of patience condescendence yielding and being silent in all occurrences and contradictions In the internall practice of humility we are also to observe these three degrees First to confess and acknowledge Three points for the internall practice our selves more wretched and wicked impure and imperfect ungratefull and unworthy of all grace and favour than any soul created Secondly to be glad that others treat us for such as we really take our selves to be and repute us forlorn and forsaken creatures unworthy of all company and comfort Thirdly to dye utterly to our selves and be totally mortified in our appetiteâ— and desires renouncing absolutely all propriety and self-seeking These short words contain infinit perfection And to move us powerfully to the prosecution of this vertue we may thus question our selves 1. Doe not all things humble Motives to humility themselves to serve me both in heaven and earth The Saints to pity me the Angels to protect me the Mother of God to remember me thâ— Son of God to redeem me and God himself to remain with me reign within me comfort me in my prayers feed me in Communion releeve me in tribulation 2. O strange Humility of my Saviour Not only to descend unto but into a wicked worm not only to eat with a sinner but to be eaten by a sinner O strange pride in me to see the Lord of heaven and earth so humbled in his Incarnation Passion Communion and yet to see a begger so proud a sinner so lofty minded and dust and ashes have such difficulty to stoop 3. Upon earth Doe not all things serve me for body or soul some to nourish me some to cloath me others to cure me others to correct me others to comfort and instruct me Even my betters superiors and confessors must humble themselves to me because my pride will not bend to them All creatures must be subject to me and I will not be subject to my Creator Alas what mean I when shall I begin O secure and sweet Humility when shall I practice thee 4. Doth not all the world all that I am and have my body my soul my actions my sufferings my sins furnish me with sufficient arguments of Humility What was I from eternity What am I what shall I be What have I that I have not received what have I received that I have not abused c. 5. Upon whom doth the Holy Esay 66. 2. Ghost promise to rest but on humble and quiet souls Stoop O dust and ashes O amiable Humility how necessary art thou for me how pleasing to God and men With what comfort and quiet dost thou enrich thy possessour O heaven upon earth What doe I not get by Humility what doe I lose by Pride and presumption c. The 25. Maxim That Silence and Solitude are our heaven upon earth THese are the proper instruments S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 188. a. 8. Lam. 3. 28 of Contemplation where our souls sit silently and solitarily lifted up above themselves by transcending all things created and uniting themselves to their Creatour Wee must observe them diligently Read Cisnerius ch 39. discreetly and devoutly not out of a sullen or melancholy humour or in a disdainfull and disgustfull manner or out of pride and singularity or to wave matter of mortification or to avoid the company of such as we brook not and have a version from but with an internall cheerfulness to converse with God in spirituall joy and fervour And the ordinary practice of them may be reduced to these four points First To retire our selves and 4. Points
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
goe on in our Introversion with perfect freedome and liberty simplicity and purity without further fears or reflexions Let us I say keep on soft and fair according to order and obedience in our exercises of Humility recollection and inward conversation with God checking and We must curb importunate desires curbing all importune pretensions desires and resolutions of doing strange matters and resting content in what God sends and our poverty affords neither running before his grace nor beyond our own strength Let us leave all intermedling Of little medling comes great peace with others doings and affairs looking only to our own care and charge thinking all others more perfect than our selves and being truly glad that our dear Lord is purely loved and perfectly served by them This is a sure way to avoid many stumbling blocks of our enemies to begin to tast the joys of heaven in this life to live without solicitude and dye without fear or trouble For the further practice of this Further practices of this point important point and to obtain this happy quiet and content of mind First We must carefully avoid and contemn all curiosity to see hear know or have a hand in what concerns us not Secondly we must labour to be as it were blind deaf dumb insensible passing by all things or letting them passe by us For all is vanity Salomon One to one S. Giles My God and all S. Francis Whatsoever hath an end is nothing S. â—erese What is that to thee follow thou me Jesus Christ Thirdly What is it we will see hear or know novelty vanity a transitory toy a foolish fable an impertinent object a flying shadow a false deceit Fourthly to what end Either it will defile our souls or disquiet our minds or distract our spirits or divert our intentions or imprint idle images or excite our passions or renew our vitious affections All which are great hinderances in a spirituall and contemplative course Ah! poor souls what amiable and admirable light and love doe we leave and lose for a vain curiosity c. The 30. Maxim That Crosses are to be suffered not sought to be taken not made to bee conceal'd not complained of IT is far beter to take crosses when where and how we find them than to make them our selves for this is losse of time and a nourishment of Self-love Let us not therefore cast our selves indiscreetly upon difficulties or seek out occasions of humility and patience but be ready to receive and indifferent to accept such as befall us and wee shall find enough to doe Let us make as little outward shew as may be of our inward sufferings but keep that secret to our selves till obedience and just reason induce us to reveal it and then let us doe it simply sincerely and resignedly O what peace what profit what pleasure shall we find in this reall proceeding Complaints are commonly accompanied with self-seeking and small troubles are sooner cured by quiet suffering than much shewing or speaking of them Doth this cross come from See the Conflict ch 10. n. 2. men and is it not rather permitted and provided by our beloved Lord from all eternity to purify us from pride to purge us from the love of creatures and to dispose us for heaven and happiness The 31. Maxim That Temptations cannot hurt us if we cast our whole care upon God WHen temptations passions 4. Rules of practice repugnancies or repinings rage in the inferiour portion of our souls wee are presently to reflect 1. That wee have made choice of God's love for our end and resolve to stand to it till death 2. That we must willingly submit to the trouble as long as it shall please God to permit it 3. That we must continue in our practices of piety and Recollection as if we felt no afflictions neither thinking on them nor fearing them but assuring our selves that nothing can injure us so long as wee rely upon God and resent our own weakness 4. That Prayer may be our chief refuge and support against all their surprisals and therefore we may say briefly and heartily Perfect thy strength O powerfull Lord in my weakness let thy mercy triumph on the throne of my misery I detest from my heart whatsoever is contrary to thy holy will in this point N. and all things I resign my self to suffer it as long and in what manner thou pleasest though never so cross to my crooked nature Sweet Saviour remain with me and let thy love reign in me and then I neither want other company nor desire further comfort The 32. Maxim That Desolations derelictions afflictions distractions are to be transcended by generous Resolutions IN time of desolation c. we are not to dispute with our selves nor examin the causes or circumstances of our sufferings for we are then neither competent nor indifferent judges but we must referr that untill the time of Prayer talk not now with your passionate and partiall heart but speak to God about some other thing transcending and dissembling your trouble in some such manner Good God! when shall this Pilgrimage have an end My life is a continuall warfare upon earth wherein all is vanity all is affliction of spirit all is full of frailty misery instability O Lord what is man that thou shouldst mind him a weak reed wagg'd with every wind and contristated with every little cross and contrariety burdensome to himself and troublesome to others c. There is more profit and less danger to suffer Desolation than to abound with Consolation to desire sensible love and contrition than to feel it to resist temptations distractions passions with patience and resignation than to have none at all It 's a signe of high and heroick vertue 1. To be Resigned when it seems we neither are nor can be resigned 2. To be Patient when we are fullest of motions to anger 3. To be Humble meek and quiet in time of sickness serious business multiplicity of employments 4. To be Constant and invariable in all the diversities and varieties of our own changeable humors dispositions inclinations internal invitations external instigations Let us not think we lose our time when we are involuntarily distracted in Prayer but rather comfort our selves in being deprived of all comfort because we then remain in that state in which God would have us Let us conceive our selves as within the walls of a strong castle without which are great noises outcries tumults alarms but we safe and secure within sleighting their vain attempts If our desires be to love God and our intentions to be with him and we hold no discourse with other divertisments we have made a good and profitable Prayer c. The 33. Maxim That Perfection consists in putting off all Propriety and putting on pure and naked Charity THis will make us love God above all things and all things in and for him only uniting our spirits to God and in him to our
neighbours The practice of this spirituall uncloathing of our souls Behold ô my Lord and love I generally and totally renounce all things but thee casting my self into the arms of thy most holy disposition and protection O my soul return sweetly to thy seat of rest repose quietly and confidently in the bosom of Divine bounty Remain here without diverting or distracting thy self to other objects Rely securely upon his mercy and providence cutting off incontinently all superfluous cares and solicitudes and protesting thou desirest nothing but the advancing of his honour accomplishing of his will his love and himself Take courage my naked soul for if thou art uncloathed somtimes and deprived of thy Lovers embraces feelings of his comforts and pleasures of his presence it is only that himself alone may purely possess thee O my Lord and lover Look upon this soul which I have endeavoured to strip entirely from all sensuall affection therefore I have not only abandoned but hated Father Mother brethren sisters lands living liberty yea and my own life that I might become thy disciple And were it yet to do again I would cast off Mother and run over Father to come to thee my loving Jesus Confirm O Lord my courage Live O rich nakedness Live my beloved to me and I to him Let me see no one but only Jesus Let alone his other gifts though never so excellent and holy I am indifferent to leave them or keep them in the manner and measure he pleaseth 't is naked Jesus I only seek and sigh after Uncloath me then my Lord 1. Of all sin great and small 2. Of all affection to it even the least venial 3. Of all curiosity 4. Of all sensuality 5. Of all inordinate passion 6. Of all vanity 7. Of all self-love and self-will Let me be reduc'd to nothing Put off my self and put on me thy self crucified Deprive me of all that distasteth thee that thou mayest say of me This is my beloved son in Mat. 12. 18 whom I please my self This is my disciple whom I Jesus love This is my rest for ever Here I will dwell because I have made choice of it In this heart is my harbor there you shall infallibly find me The 34. Maxim That Zeal and eagerness must be temper'd with Moderation and discretion WE must moderate our natural vivacity activity and agility of spirit by shunning all precipitation and indiscreet forwardness and fervour Soft and sure Let us look before we leap Let us take our eyes in our hands For that which is well done is twice done and a thing warily begun is well nigh half brought about Let us lend our hands and not give our hearts to any work Let us endeavor to perform all our actions with a free and disinteressed mind without which all is drudgery and slavery Let us not be over eager Perfection consists not in multiplicity of action but in simplicity of intention not in variety of exercises and devotions but in peace of mind and purity of heart not in saying or doing much but in suffering and loving much c. Let us sometimes check our importunate spirit as Jesus did Martha Martha Martha thou art Luc. 10. 41 troubled about many things when as there is but one thing only necessary which is A real cordiall and totall Abnegation of thy self in all things Let not indiscreet zeal serve for a cloak to cover our passionate hearts and inward hatred of others True Zeal is ful of compassion free from indignation and perfect charity either will not see what is amiss in others or seek out the best interpretation of it excusing the fault and pittying the party The 35. Maxim That we must never rely upon our own naturall judgement experience and knowledge THis hath deceived many and cast them headlong into confusion despair hence so many Apostasies rebellions dissensions divisions and scandals in Religion O how pleasant beautifull and edifying a thing is it to see persons of great perfection glorious endowments venerable for age honourable for learning renowned in dignity c. to be truly humble supple simple soft like Wax capable of any impression and condescending to others reason and command Blessed are the meek humble and obedient spirits for God will not permit them to goe astray or be deceived The 36. Maxim That we must seek no comfort in any creature FOr the practice of this We must The practice cheerfully forsake all and be content to be forsaken by all resting only in God by prayer patience and confidence Adieu friends familiars Confessours counsellours books exercises Angels Welcome solitude crosses eclipses shames wounds want◠darknesses desolations deaths Yes O Father because thou so pleasest Is the creature in which I delight more loving lovely or beautifull than God my Creator Hath it been more bountifull or beneficiall tome Can it more justly require or more liberally requite my love Can it make me holy or happy quiet or content Shall I leave light for darkness life for death substance for shadows All for nothing Answer impartially and resolve effectually The higher practice of this The higher practice Maxim in order to Contemplation is To estimate things according to Read the Spir. Con. ch 4. n. 3. their reall value And then Alas what comfort can a devout soul which hath tasted the sweets of her beloved in Contemplation find in the best of creatures How far are they from affoording her any solid and substantiall satisfaction in her spirituall sorrows sadness or desolation Therefore shew wisely and carefully keeps her self to holy Recollection resigns her self absolutely to the divine pleasure continues stedfastly in the presence of her Creator seeks to treat with him one to one and leaves worldlings to follow their appetites as the horse and mule which are void of under standing Oh! how much more happiness is it to suffer in the sweet company of God than to enjoy all such false and phantasticall pleasures as all creatures can confer in the company of men My soul refuseth this comfort I remember my God and in him I am only delighted And indeed they who faithfully The true Contemplatives are never sad or solicitous and fervently addict themselves to spirituall Recollection are neither sad nor solicitous but only in shew For what can they want who are with God In him they find gardens to walk in fountains to bath in pallaces to dwell in dainties to feed on and all pleasures to delight in with such infinit advantages that they ravish'dly cry out My God and All These contemplatives need not your compassion O worldlings They are not so drownd in melancholy so plung'd in sorrow so little enjoying themselves as you esteem and censure No your own poor souls are seriously to be pitied which are so wide of wisdom and so wedded to sensuality as to relinquish true life and liberty sincere comfort and content for the shadows smokes of the world For this is