immutable too and arrive without feare of change to that true life which is none other but God himselfe where without all succession or variety of actions without all vicissitude of time she may repose eternally in that interior quiet and secret mansion of the divinity unto which the contemplation of Jesus Christ will bring her who is the way that all they must travaile in who propose heaven for their journeies end and is the truth of the Understanding and the life of the Soule CHAP. VIII How in all chances a spirituall man ought to resigne himselfe to God I Conceive that by what is hitherto said you now discerne how the more you cleanse your imagination from the ideas of all outward things and sequester your selfe from all wordly and created objects and unite your selfe to God by your Will and Vnderstanding so much the more you approach to the state of innocency perfection And what condition can be better happier or more delightfull then that strive then to keep your mind free from all impressions that may amuse or intangle it and let not your thoughts have any commerce with the world or even with your freinds nor be you concerned in the prosperities or adversities either of them or of your selfe nor busie your mind with any worldly affaire whatsoever either past present or to come Nay not so much as to be over sollicitous of your owne past sinnes but with a kind of confident simplicity and purity of heart imagine your selfe to be out of the world singly with God almighty as though your soule were already in the state of Eternity sever'd from your body Which if she really were it is certaine she would then no longer trouble her self with secular affaires nor care what posture the world were in nor be concerned with peace or warre or faire weather or foule or any other secular occurrent whatsoever but would attend wholly uniformedly to God alone and would rest in him and cleave inseparably to him Begin from this very houre in some sort to doe thus Sever your selfe even now by your affections from your owne body Banish from your thoughts all created things whatsoever either present past or to come and fixe the purified eye of your soule as steadily and as earnestly as you can upon the eternal increated light And when you are throughly cleansed from all corporeal images your soul is delivered from all worldly incumbrances and mists you will become like an Angell that were assigned to a body but received no prejudice in his operations by that society nor were annoyed with vaine and ungovern'd thoughts Let your spirit therefore strengthen it selfe against all manner of temptations trouble and injuries that in all fortunes it may remaine unmovable in God And when any disturbance or tediousnesse or opression of mind shall grow upon you be not for that dejected or out of hart or betake your selfe to vocall prayers or to outward consolations but attend onely to raise your selfe up to God by pure acts of your will and of your understanding and to adhere to him in the superior part of your soule whither your corporeall part will or no. For a soule that is truly devout ought to be so united with God and to conforme her will so entirely to his that she have no relation or adhesion to any creature no more then if her selfe were not yet created or as though there were nothing else in being but God and she And such a one will receive all things with indifference from the hand of divine providence and resigne her selfe uniformely in all occasions to God with patience tranquillity and silence When therefore you shall have arrived to this state no creature will then interpose it selfe between God and you And this is that which by the profession of religion we aime at For by the vow of voluntary Poverty we deprive our selves for the whole durance of our life of all outward goods by the vow of Chastity we renounce our bodyes and by the vow of Obedience we forsake our wills and even our soules themselves so that after these nothing remaineth that may intervene between god and us to keep us at a distance from one another This we engage our selves unto when we enter into religion cloth our selves with the habit of our order But whether or no our inward purity do answer to our outward profession that resteth between God and our own consciences But certainely we should degenerate exceedingly and sin grievously against God and against his Justice if we should do otherwise and should preferre the creature before our Creatour and by our affections and desires cleave rather to that then to him CHAP. IX That the contemplation of God is to be preferred before all other exercises Now because all things that are not God are but works of his hand effects proceeding from him their Creator that their powers beings are limited and as being produced of nothing are allwayes tending to nothing it is evident that whiles they exist there cannot passe a moment wherein they draw not their beings their conservations their working and all else that followeth of their beings from God their Creatour who is the fountain well-head of all Being in respect of whom they are not onely lame and defective but even as nothing is to that which is Being it self and as that which is finite and narrowly circumscribed is to what is infinite And therefore in him onely and about him and for him let us employ all our whole life admitting his infinite Wisedome his infinite power and other his infinite perfections who is able with one act of his will to create if he please infinite new worlds each of them infinitely more perfect then this which he hath created Without doubt no contemplation of the understanding nor fruition of love by means of the affections is so profitable so perfect and so blissfull as that which hath directly for its object God almighty our Creator and true supreme good from whom all things doe flow in whom all things are contained by whom all things are preserved and for whom all things were made who is infinitely all-sufficient both to himself and to all things else who containeth in himself from all eternity the perfections of all things whatsoever resumed in so pure a simplicity that he hath no mixture in him nor hath any accident belonging to him but all that is in him is he himself with whom and by whom all the causes of fleeting and decaying things have a permanent stability in whom reside the immutable originalls of whatsoever is subject to change and vicissitude and in whose essence do live the eternall principles and modells of all creatures whatsoever either reasonable or unreasonable or any wayes depending of time who completeth all things who entirely filleth all things and every thing essentially with himselfe who is more inward and more present to every thing then the thing is
exercises and the top of all perfection in this life and the happinesse of the next And therefore our Saviour told his beloved and loving penitent that the share she had chosen should never bee taken from her Upon these grounds Albert recommendeth the continuall meditation of Christs passion to be alwayes joyned with the other exercise of depuring our imaginations and hearts from the images and affections of all created objects whatsoever Making thereby a ladder of his humanity to climbe up to his divinity which if we should look upon it without that veyle between us and it would strike us blind As when a medicinal simple is too strong for our stomack to bear singly in its own substance physitians use to allay and weaken it with some gentle liquor that is agreeable to our taste and then drinking what delighteth us with pleasure we swallow health But Madam I perceive I engage my selfe before I am aware in a talk I am not able to go through with Nor is it needfull for this little treatise of as great value as it is of little bulk requireth neither commentary nor apologie My sending it to your Ladyship is an action of duty and of affection The first in giving you an account of the expence of my time in this place where I have bin now a just week and intitling you to all I shall ever do or bring to passe in any kind whatsoever during my whole life And the other in communicating to you what hath afforded me so much contentment and may prove so solidly beneficial to me if it please God to give me grace to make right use of it I beseech your Ladyship pray him so to do and to be pleased to give me your blessing Calis the 6th of October the feast of the glorious Patriarke of the Carthusians who most admirably practised and instituted what this treatise recommendeth in the year 1649. Your Ladyships most humble most obedient and most dutiful Sonne K. D. To my Lady Winter the wife of Sr. John Winter late of Liddne in the County of Glocester MADAM THe worthy Author giving me the view of this Translation in Paris at my comming from thence I begged a coppie which he was pleased to bestow and as he performed the work for his private use and recreation and after dedicated it to his vertuous Mother the Lady Digby So I who have no other share then the conveying it to be printed for the publique good do offer up my little industrie therein to your La Yet not for this only but that indeed I willingly take occasion to tell the world how much my Lady Winter is esteemed and valued by her faithfull Friend and Kinsman and most humble servant W Gr A TREATISE OF Adhering to God CHAP. I. Of the utmost and highest perfection that it is possiblefor a man to arrive unto in this life I Have been casting with my selfe how I might frame for my owne use a compleat perfect draught as far forth as our nature is capable of in this lifes banishment and peregrination of what is the highest and noblest action for a man to employ himselfe about And surely this is none other then a ready vigorous constant and immediate adhesion unto God Almighty by a totall abstraction as much as is possible from all creatures whatsoever For the end of Christian perfection is Love and Charity by which a Soule cleaveth to her Creatour And unto this adhesion of Charity every man in particular is undispensably obliged under paine of loosing Heaven so far forth as concerneth the obeying Gods commands and the conforming himselfe to his Divine will which obedience shutteth out whatsoever is repugnant to the essence and habit of Charity and consequently all mortall sinnes But religious persons have a further obligation then this by having bound themselves to Evangelicall perfection and to such duties as though they be but of counsill and superogation yet by them the way is made more ready and more secure to bring the observers of them to their journeys end which is the possession and fruition of God And the observance of these shutteth out not only what is destructive to Charity but also all other obstacles that may in any wise hinder or loose the fervour and activity of Charity or that may retard or slacken the soules union with God Almighty which is in a great measure performed by an intire and efficacious abrenunciation of all creatures whatsoever even of our owne selves Now seeing that God is a spirit and that he ought to be adored in Spirit and in truth Joh. 4. that is to say by knowledge and love by understanding and affection voide of all mixture with any corporeal species or materiall imaginations hence it is that we are thus taught in the Gospel when thou shalt pray enter into thy chamber that is into the inner roome of thy heart and shutting the doore Mat. 6. to wit of thy senses there with a pure heart a good conscience and a firme faith pray to thy father in spirit and in truth in secret All which is done when a man laying aside all other affaires and thoughts withdraweth himselfe wholy into himself then shutting out and forgetting all created objects whatsoever the superiour part of his soule onely powreth out before Jesus Christ her desires to her Lord God in deepe silence and with confident security and in so doing dilateth diffuseth drowneth inflameth and resolveth herself into him through the violence of love with the whole weight of her heart and with the utmost straining of all her faculties and powers CHAP. II. How one may cleave and intend wholy to Christ despising all other things BUt he who desireth and is resolved to apply himselfe to such a state must lay downe for an absolutely necessary ground that he must shut his eyes and all his senses to all manner of outward implications and affaires that may cause any trouble and must cast from him all cares sollicitudes as being altogether unconcerned in any creature whatsoever or rather looking upon them as hurtfull and pernicious to him And then he must retire his whole life into himselfe and there have no other object to entertaine his thoughts withall but Jesus Christ wounded and crucified And that with a continuall attention and with all earnestnesse and straining himself to his utmost power he must make it his onely businesse to passe by him into him that is to say by his Manhood into his Godhead by the wounds of his humanity into his glory and Divinity and there readily and securely commit himselfe and all that concerneth him to his unwearied and al-seeing providence according to St Peters expression when he saith casting all your care and solicitude upon him 1 Pet. 5. who ruleth and disposeth all things And to St Paul when he biddeth us bee solicitous for nothing Phil. 4. And to that direction of the Psalme which adviseth us to settle all our thoughts upon the Lord
us otherwhiles begetting in our minds needlesse sollicitousnesse superfluous cares and indiscreet anxieties otherwhiles disordering us with unquietnesse within our selves or with dissolute conversation without us or with unreasonable curiosity of what concerneth us not sometimes with begetting in us an itch to read Books of unprofitable Subtilties or to discourse of what belongeth not to us or to inquire after newes occurrences of the world otherwhiles by assaulting us with adversities and contradictions with an innumerable company of stratagems that he imployeth against us whereof though many may seeme to be but of small moment and not to be accounted as sins yet in very truth they are exceeding great hinderances of this holy and sublime exercise And therfore be they concerning great affaires or concerning but small ones nay though they may seem to be advantageous to us or even necessary to be attended neverthelesse they ought to be wholly cut off and cast away and our sences ought to be divorced from them And accordingly whatsoever we happen to heare or to see or whatsoever in any sort chanceth to passe before us we must have a singular care that we transmit it not from our outward senses to our fantasy and there frame an image or representation of it and entertaine our thoughts with it Which if we be diligent in and do keep such images from residing in our memory and from recurring to our thoughts they will be of no impediment unto us nor cause us any distraction whiles we are praying meditating singing Psalmes or about any other spirituall exercise nor will ever after returne to molest us againe Therefore upon any occasion of what important affairs soever that may occurre unto you let your security fortresse be to keep it out from admittance into your thoughts and from making any impression upon your mind and to cast it and your selfe readily and confidently and entirely with peace and silence and calmnesse into the arms of Gods all knowing and all governing providence and then he will fight for you and will certainly deliver you from all the evills that might arrive unto you from that coast and will shine in your soule by Divine consolations Whereas if you should thinke to overcome the difficulties that will arise against you by your owne industry and vigilancy and by taking them to taske and wrestling against them in your owne thoughts all that you will gaine by wearying your self out with continuall sollicitude and with having your restlesse imaginations day and night fixed upon what you would prevent or compasse will be to discover plainly in the conclusion that all humane wisdome is meer folly and that the result of such toylesome enslaving of the soule to vaine and unreasonable occupations is but losse of time abasing of our mind and even a fretting out of the spirits that give life to our body without effecting what we have so earnestly and passionately laboured for When therefore any accident happeneth to you of what kind soever it commeth make account it is sent you by a tender Father that is continually watchfull over you and accordingly receive it with an even and unmoved mind and let it not afford you matter either for discourse with others or for thoughtfullnesse within you But uncloath your imagination from all ideas and images of corporeall objects according to the duty of your condition and profession that so you may cleave fast with a pure soule to him you have bequeathed your selfe and that no created thing whatsoever may intervene betweene you and him and that through the sacred wounds of his humanity you may be securely and steadily wafted over to the incomprehensible light of his divinity CHAP. V. Of the purity of heart which above all things is to be aymed at IF therefore you desire to walke in the straight and direct way that will bring you readily and safely to your journeys end both of grace in this life and of glory in the next you must with a constant and never interrupted attention employ all the diligence and industry you are able to purchase a perpetuall cleanenesse of heart and purity of mind and untroublednesse of senses You must recollect as it were into one burning point all the inclinations and affections of your Soule and cast it upon God and fixe it irremoveably upon him Which to doe efficaciously you must withdraw your selfe from the conversation of your friends and indeed of all mankind as much as is possible for you and from all businesse of what kind soever that may in any sort divert or retard this designe of yours laying hold of all conveniences that may beget a quietnesse and tranquillity in your soule and may advance your contemplation betaking your selfe for that purpose to the silence and solitude of some close retreate where you may lye secure at anchor free from the Rocks and dangers of this fading life against which so many doe suffer unhappy shipwrack and be sheltered from the noisefull stormes of the deceitfull world But while you are in this haven you must not grow remisse as though now all dangers were past and your worke were at an end but you must see your selfe with a continuall vigilancy to keepe your outward senses strongly shut and to watch narrowly your owne hart so as no enemy may breake in upon it and cause in it any disquiet or taint the purity of it with the drossie images of sensible and terrene objects This purity of heart is the top of all spirituall exercises and is the end for which he that aspireth at Evangelicall perfection forsaketh the world and is the compensation that in this life he can have of all his labours And therefore you must strive with all earnestnesse to free your heart and to sequester your senses and affections from all objects whatsoever that may hinder the liberty of your spirit or that may have any power to draw or inveigle or bind you to them And you must summe up all the affections of your soule and recollect all the dispersions of your heart and fixe them inseparably upon that true and supreame good which being but one and in it selfe most simple containeth all good in it And by such close adhesion to God and dereliction of all created objects and rejecting of all terrene and fraile affections you must endeavour to transforme your heart through Jesus Christ into a kind of divine nature and when once you come to thrive so happily in this high imployment of unclothing and purifying your imagination from all species and images residing in it and of refining and exalting your heart to such a simplicity that it can rest no where but in God and that you now begin to suck into the bowels of your soule pure streames from the fountaine of his divine providence and that you relish them savourly and that you unite your selfe to him by conforming your self in every thing to his divine will then this alone this single exercise is
And by thus doing he is in a manner transformed into God so that he can neither think nor understand nor love nor remember any thing but God and of God and if he chanceth at any time to see either himselfe or any creature he seeth them not as they are in themselves but onely as they are in God Nor doth any share of his love rest in them but all of it passeth through them to God and resteth in him And this knowledge of truth alwaies rendreth a soul truely humble and maketh it severe to it selfe without ever judging others whereas worldly wisedome swelleth a soule with pride vanity and empty winde Take this then for the foundation of all spirituall doctrine that if you desire to arrive to the true knowledge service familiarity and full possession of God Almighty you must necessarily devest your heart of all sensible love not onely of all persons whatsoever but of all creatures whatsoever that so you may with a pure and entire heart and with all the powers of your soule apply your selfe freely without all doublenesse care and solicitude to your Creatour casting your selfe in all occasions with a full confidence upon his single providence CHAP. VII In what manner ones heart is to be recollected within ones selfe IT is very truely said in the book of the Spirit and the Soule Cap. 21. that to ascend up to God is to enter into ones selfe For without all doubt he who turning his operations inwards pierceth through himselfe and goeth beyond himselfe is really and truely raised up to God Wee must therefore have a care to recollect our heart from the dispersions and distractions of this world and to recall it to those joyes it will find within it selfe that so it may in time be enabled to keepe it selfe steady in the light of divine contemplation For the life and rest of our heart consisteth in fixing it by earnest desires upon the love of God and in tasting the sweetnesse of those consolations which with a liberall hand hee giveth to those who love him And the reason is obvious why we are so frequently frustrated of the experimentall enjoying of this happines and are not able to tast and savour it in the full sweetnesse of it For whiles our soule effuseth it selfe upon exterior objects and is choaked with the sollicitude of transitory things shee entreth not into her selfe by the setting before her eyes those solid considerations which her memory ought alwaies to be stored withall whilst she is pestered and overclouded with the images of creatures she returneth not into her selfe by the superiour part of her understanding into which no such object can have admittance and whiles shee is intangl'd with concupiscences she is hindred from reverting into her self by vehement desires of that interior sweetnesse and spirituall joy which belongeth onely to a purified and enflamed soule so lying groaning among these present materiall and fading objects she is not able to turne her selfe inwards and discerne the image of God that is formed there It is therefore absolutely necessary for him who aymeth at this noble and high pitch that with profound humility and yet withall with entire confidence he raise himselfe above himselfe and above the whole machine of creared beings by the abnegation of them all saying thus to himselfe he whom my heart hath chosen from among all things whom it seeketh above all things and whom it loveth and desireth beyond all things is not to be knowne by my senses nor comprised by my imagination but is above all that is Sensible above all that is Intelligble he is not perceptible to any faculty of mine but yet he is such as I may desire and love him with all the powers and faculties of my soule he is not representable by any shape yet I may thirst after him with the most enflamed affections that can be raised within mee nor can he be prised or valued neere his worth by all I can say or thinke of him and yet my heart if it be cleane from all drossie affections can seise upon him and unite it selfe to him by excesses of love For he is beautifull and delightfull infinitely beyond all things in the world is of infinite goodnesse perfection And then after such like discourses and considerations his soule entereth yet deeper into it selfe and raiseth it selfe yet higher above it selfe and looseth it selfe as I may say in the divine mist of incomprehensible light And this manner of ascending even to the aenigmaticall beholding of the most holy Trinity in Jesus Christ is by so much the more enflamed and vehement by how much those operations which carry the soule upwards are more interiour and is by so much the more profitable raiseth one so much higher as the love one soareth with is more vigorous and fervent For in spirituall operations the measure of their height and excellency is their interiournesse and recollectednesse from all outward dissipation Therefore you must not give over or sit you down to rest till you have gotten some tast as it were an earnest-penny of that fulnesse which will hereafter swell you up and till you have obtained some first fruits of that heavenly sweetnesse which will hereafter please beyond all measure the spirituall palate of your soule nor must you slacken your pace in running after that divine odour you begin to have the wind of till you come to see the God of Gods in Sion For you must settle this as a fundamentall rule in the progression of the soule and in the adhesion and union to God within you that you must never retire nor repose till you have obtained what you ayme at Consider those who travell up a mountaine and apply to your case what happeneth unto them If a soule engulfe her selfe by concupiscence among those things that slide along beneath her she presently loseth her way in a labyrinth of infinite distractions and of oblique and crooked waies and is as it were divided from her selfe and is torne into as many peeces as there are severall objects that she is glewed unto by her desires And from hence proceedeth the instability of mens actions without any fixednesse upon the resolutions they had once taken their toylsome running without arriving to the end of the course and their perpetuall labour without any rest But if a soule doe raise her selfe by divine affections and love from what is beneath her and would entangle her in a multitude of distractions and forsaking all creatures without her do recollect her selfe within her selfe unto that one immutable all-sufficient good whereof she will find the image within her selfe and doe learne to dwell and converse alwaies with it and doe cleave inseparably to it by enflamed desires and affections such a one will encrease daily in strength and perfection proportionably to the knowledge and desire that lifteth her up to that one supreame immutable good Till she herselfe become at the last
whereby to give them yet further a supernaturall assurance and infallibility which they may with an humble confidence in his unlimited goodness expect and claim at his divine hand when they are reduced to that state as is convenient for the reception of such a supernaturall gift 14. Our fourteenth conclusion therefore shall be that God hath given to his Church thus composed the holy Ghost to confirm it in the true faith and to preserve it from error and to Illuminate the understanding of it in right discerning the true sense of those Mysteries of faith that are cōmitted to the custody of it and to worke supernaturall effects of devotion and sanctifie in that Church And this I prove thus Considering that the doctrine of Christ is practical and aymeth at the working of an effect which is the reduction of mankind to beatitude and that mankinde comprehendeth not onely those that lived in that age when he preached but also all others that ever were since or shall be till the end of the world It is apparent that to accomplish that end it was necessary Christ should so effectually imprint his doctrine in their hearts whom he delivered it unto as it might upon all occasions and at all times infallibly expresse it selfe in action and in the delivery of it over from hand to hand should in vertue and strength of the first operation produce ever after like effects in all others Now to have this compleatly performed it was to bee done both by exteriour and by interiour means proportionable to the senses without and to the soule within The outward means were the miracles that hee wrought of which himselfe saith If I had not wrought those workes that no man else ever did they were not guilty of sinne but now they have no excuse or to this purpose and he promised the Apostles they should do greater then those And that miracles are the proper instruments to plant a new doctrine and faith withall the Apostle witnesseth when he saith that miracles are wrought for the unfaithfull not for the faithful and God himselfe told Moses that hee would once do some prodigy in his favour that the people might for ever after beleive what he said to them But it is manifest by the fall of the Apostles themselves that onely this exteriour means of miracles is not sufficient to engraft supernatural faith deep enough in mens hearts when as they upon Christs Passion not onely for fear through human frailty denied their master but had even the very conceit and belief of his doctrine exiled out of their hearts and understanding notwithstanding all the miracles they had seen him work in almost four years time they continually conversed with him which appeareth plainly by the discourse of the Disciples going to Emaus when they said we hoped c. and expressed their sadnesse for the contrary successe to their expectation and by saint Thomas his saying that he would not believe his resurrection unless he saw him and put his fingers into his wounds c. And by the rest of the Apostles that were so long before they would believe his resurrection as having given over the thought of his divinity and after his death considered him but as a pure man like other men Therefore it was necessary that some inward light should bee given them so clear and so strong and so powerfull as the senses should not be able to prevail against it but that it should overflowingly possesse and fill all their understandings and their souls and make them break out in exteriour actions correspondent to the spirit that steered them within And the reason is evident for while on the one side the senses discerne apparantly miracles wrought in confirmation of a doctrine and on the other side the same senses doe stifly contradict the very possibility of the doctrine which those miracles testify the soul within having no assistance beyond the natural powers shee hath belonging originally unto her is in great debate and anxiety which way to give her assent and though reason doe prevail to give it to the party of the present miracles yet it is with great timidity But if it happen that the course of those miracles be stopped then the particular seeming impossibilities of the proposed faith remaining alwaies alike lively in their apprehension and the miracles wrought to confirme it residing but in the memory and the representations of them wearing out daily more and more and the present senses and fantasy growing proportionably stronger and stronger and withall objecting continually new doubts about the reality of those miracles it cannot be expected otherwise but that the assent of the soul should range it selfe on the side of the impossibilities appearing to the present senses and renounce the doctrine formerly confirmed by miracles unlesse some inward and supernaturall light be given her to disperse all the mists that the senses raise against the truth of the doctrine Now the infusion of this light and fervour we call the giving of the holy Ghost which Christ himselfe foreknowing how necessary it was promised them assuring them that he would procure his father to send them the holy Ghost the spirit of truth that should for ever remain among them and within them and suggest unto their memory and instruct them in the right understanding of the faith he had preached unto them And this was prophesied long before of the state of the law of grace by Hieremy whose authority S. Paul bringeth to prove that the law of the Gospel was to be written by the holy Ghost in mens hearts and in their mindes and accordingly he calleth the faithful of the Corinthians The faith of Christ not written with inke but with the spirit of God nor graven in stony tables but in the fleshy ones of their hearts And in performance of this prophesy of Christs promise the history telleth us that on the tenth day after the ascension of Christ when all his disciples who were then all his Church and were to preach and deliver it to all the world were assembled together the holy Ghost was given them and that in so full a measure as they not onely were confirmed so perfectly in their faith as they never after admitted the least vacillation therein but they immediately casting away all other desires and thoughts were inflamed with admirable love of God and broke out into his prayses and into a vehement ardor of teaching and converting others and when by reason of that zeal of theirs any thing happened to them contrary to flesh and blood humane nature as persecutions ignominies corporall punishments and even death it selfe they not only shunned it as before but greedily rann to meet and imbrace it and joyed and gloryed in it all which were effects of the holy Ghost residing in them and filling their minds and governing their soules Where upon by the way we may note that in what Church soever we find not a state of
an excellent judgement and strong naturall witt to be able to wield and make good use of these weapons without which they would but advance him the faster to ruine and pernicious error With which excellencyes how few are there in the world fairely adorned Fourthly it is evident that the Roman Catholicke Church onely hath had a constant and uninterrupted succession of Pastors and Doctors and tradition of doctrine from age to age which we have established as the onely meanes to derive downe the true faith from Christ Whereas it is apparent all others have had late beginnings from unworthy causes And yet even in this little while have not beene able to mantaine themselves for one age throughout or scarce for any considerable part of an age in one tenor of doctrine or forme of Ecclesiasticall government Lastly we may consider how the effect of the holy Ghost his inhabiting in the Church in regard of manners making the hearts of men his living temples shineth eminently in the Catholick Church and is not so much as to be suspected in any other whatsoever For where this holy spirit raigneth it giveth a burning love of God as we have touched before and a vehement desire of approaching unto him as near as may be Now the soule of man moveth towards God not by corporeall stepps and progressions but by intellectuall actions the highest of which are mentall prayer and contemplation in which exercises a man shall advance the more by how much he is the more sequestred from the thought and care of any worldly affaires and hath his passions quieted within him and is abstracted from communication with materiall objects and is untyed from human interests and according to the counsailes of Christ in the Gospell hath cast off all sollicitude of the future and remitteth himselfe wholly to the providence of God living in the world as though he were not in it wholly intent to contemplation when the inferiour part of Charity calleth him not downe to comply with the necessity of his Neighbours This forme of life we see continually practised in the Catholick Church by multitudes of persons of both sexes that through extreame desire of approaching as neare unto God as this life will permitt doe banish themselves from all their friends kindred and what else in the world was naturally dearest unto them and either retire into extreame solitudes or shut themselves up for ever within the narrow limits of a straight Monastery and little cell where having renounced all the interest and propriety in the goods of this world and using no more of them then is necessary for the sustenance of their exhausted bodyes which they mortifie with great abstinences watchings and other austerities that they may bring them into subjection and roote out as much as may be the very fewell of concupiscence and passions and having of their owne accord barred themselves of all propriety of disposing of themselves in any action and renounced even the freedome of their will and thus in summe having taken an eternall farewell of all the joyes and delights that this world can afford and that carnall men would bee so loth to forgoe for any little while yet by the internall joyes that they find in their prayer and contemplation unto which all these actions of retrenchment from superfluities or outward solaces doe serve as a ladder to ascend unto the top of it they live so happily and cherefully and with such tranquillity of mind and upon occasions say so much of the overflowings of their blysse as it is aparent they enjoy there the hundred fold that Christ promised in this life Nor can it be objected that men usually betake themselves to this course of Religious life upon being distempered by melancholy or for the ill successe and traverses they have had in affaires of the world or out of simplicity and weaknesse of understanding since it is evident that this angelicall forme of living hath ever heene practised by persons of the best composed and cheerfullest dispositions and by multitudes of such is and hath beene imbraced and that in the world overflowed with all the blessings it could afford them and were of strongest parts of understanding and judgement and were most eminent in learning So that it is apparent they had no other motive thereunto but purely the love of God and fervour of devotion which being an effect of the holy Ghost residing in their hearts to his inspirations and admirable wayes of working in those his temples of flesh and blood these extraordinary effects are to be imputed Whereas on the other side no such examples or supernaturall forme of life are to be mett withall in any other Church whatsoever Rather they disclaime from them and like men of this world which is the expression that Christ useth in the Gospell to designe those that are not of his Church not being able to discerne things of the spirit but being blinded with the lustre of them too great for their weake eyes they neglect and disdaine them and imagine that all Christian perfection consisteth in an ordinary humane morall life which is the uttermost period that any among them seek to attaine unto And therefore we may hence conclude that they have no interior worker among them more sublime then their owne humane discourses and judgements and that supernaturall sanctity an effect of the holy Ghost is confined onely to the Catholick Church Besides wee may observe by daily experience how those persons that addict themselves to such an extraordinary way of life doe absolutely prove the very best or the worst of mankind the one excelling in admirable piety fervour of devotion abstraction and sanctity of life and some of them soaring up to a pitch even above nature the other abounding in all sorts of impiety wickednesse and dissolution of manners till at length their hearts become even hardened against correction and all sence of spirituall things whereas it ordinarily happeneth that the most flagitious men among those who live in a vulgar worldly estate of life doe upon occasions frequently receive notable impressions from divine objects to the amendment and change of their dissolute course And this being a constant certaine effect noted at all times and in all places it must be attributed to a constant and powerfull cause which can be no other then the neere approaching of those persons to the originall fountaine of sanctity goodnesse which being like a consuming fire worketh vehement effects in them according to the disposition they are in and to the nearenesse that they have unto that fire so that as the sunbeames which are the authors of life and foecundity to all plants and vegetables shining upon a tree that hath taken solide rootes in the earth maketh it budd flourish and beare fruit and on the other side if it be weakely rooted their heate and operation upon that tree maketh it the sooner to wither and die And as the fire sendeth an influence