Another is that his Words be few necessary simple and concerning Divine things the Third is that his whole life all his VVorks and whatever he doth be so compleat and blameless that in nothing he may be reprehended by any one And of the Internal the first is that his Thoughts be pure and Heavenly the Second that he purely seek and intend God alone the Third that he be able easily and readily without any Trouble to bid farewel to all for God that is that whatever befalls him an Unmoveable undisturbed and true Peace be in his mind that as Water not moved with any blast of wind is quiet so his Soul may in all things persevere calm and immoveable For as in water so long as it swells with VVaves and is stirr'd with continual motion no man can behold himself so that most simple and most pure Good which is God can never direct the Rayes of his Light into his Soul into his Spirit or Interior part so long as he is moved with prosperous or advers occurrences For no Prosperity or Honour tho never so great for no Riches or Friends or whatever fortunate accideâ—â— must our heart yield to Levity Dissoluteness 〈◊〉 vain Joys Again on the other side he must perâ—â—… undaunted and immoveable against all Adversiâ—… so that he be not disturbed or hindred in his Souâ— by any damage done him nor wish any Evil Withiâ— or without to any other whatever he suffers from him whether he deprive him of all his Goodâ— whether Honour or Friends or Commodities or aâ—… his comforts yea tho he pull out his Eyes fire 〈◊〉 House or whatever other mischief he do him hâ—… must by no means bear an Evil thought againsâ— him nor defire Revenge but taking all not from Man but from the hand of God render him devouâ— thanks that he is in any thing made conformable to him Yet notwithstanding we must know that there is none so happy or holy Christ only and thâ— Glorious Virgin excepted but he may sometimes suffer at least the first motions of passion for all the Saints have suffered them But as soon as ever they perceived them they knew how by the Grace of God so to suppress them so as that they could not easily be perceived either in their Countenance in their VVords or their Gestures Lastly to this Quiet condition this also is required that he be so affected so disposed that tho he be encumbered with Diversity and multiplicity of business is soon as ever he turns himself to God in Prayer no Image thereof no appearance not so much as any shadow of it may remain whence in his Intellect or mind he may become indisposed or hindered Our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant that to these things we may all in time attain Amen A TREATISE OF Albertus Magnus of adhering to God CHAP. I. Of the Vltimate and highest Perfection of Man as far as the same is attainable in this Life I Have purposed with my self with the greatest accuracy as far as it is possible in this our Exile and Pilgrim State to give a description of the Absolute and Plenary Abstraction from all things and our ready secure naked and firm adhering to our Lord God alone And this the rather because the very End of Christian Perfection is Charity or Divine Love whereby we cleave to and are made one with the Lord our God To which Divine Adhesion by Love every one is bound that hopes for Salvation and is performed by the observance of the Precepts and Conformity with the Will of God the observance whereof excludes whatsoever is repugnant to the Essence and Habit of Charity such as are all Mortal Sins But those that are in Religious Orders have over and above this bound themselves to the Practice of Evangelical Perfection and of those things which are matter of Evangelical Councel and Advice rather than strict Imposition and by means whereof we more readily arrive to our ultimate End which is God by the observance of which are likewise excluded all those things which clog and hinder the Activity and Fervor of Charity from carrying us up into our Lord God such as are the denying of all things yea even of our own Soul and Body for seeing that our Lord God is a Spirit they that would worship him Joh. 4.24 must do it in Spirit and in Truth That is with Knowledge and Love with the Understanding and Affection devoid of all Phantasms or Images To this purpose is that Command of our Lord But thou when thou Prayest Math. 6.6 enter into thy Closet that is the inmost retreat of thy Heart and when thou hast shut thy door viz. the door of thy Senses upon thee there do thou with a Pure Heart and Good Conscience and Faith unfeigned pray to thy Father which is in Secret in Spirit and in Truth Which is then best done when a Man being disentangled and divested of all other things and wholly retir'd within himself and having forgot and shut out all and every thing in the Presence of Jesus Christ the Mind alone doth in silence with Faith and Assurance lay open her Desires before her Lord God and thus by the entirest Affection of her Heart and Love doth most sincerely and fully pour forth and plunge her self into God with the inmost Marrow and Strength of all her Powers dilating inflaming and dissolving her self wholly into him CHAP. II. How a Man may despising all other things adhere to and intend Christ alone NOw whosoever Desires and makes it his Business to undertake and enter upon this State or kind of Life it is needful that he as it were shutting his Eyes and Senses do not concern or trouble himself with or be careful and sollicitous about any thing whatsoever but totally reject and renounce all things as impertinent hurtful and pernicious and in the next place that he wholly retire within himself and in that Retirement entertain no other Object but Jesus Christ alone and him Crucified and so press on through him into him i. e. through Man into God through the Wounds of his Humanity into the inmost recess of his Divinity and there without any further disputing readily and securely commit himself and all his Concerns to his indefatigable Providence according to that of St. Peter Casting all your care upon him 1 Pet. 5.7 who can do all And again Be sollicitous for nothing Phil. 4 6. And that of the Psalmist Cast thy care upon the Lord Ps 55.22 and he shall sustain thee And again But it is good for me to Ps 73.28 cleave unto God And again I have set the Lord always before me Ps 16.8 And with the Spouse in the Canticles Cant. 3.4 I have found him whom my Soul loveth because Wisd 7.11 as Wisdom saith All good things come together with it This is that hidden Heavenly Treasure and that precious Pearl which cannot be purchased Mat. 13.44 5 6. but
by the parting with all that we have which being preferred before all in the Strength of the Spirit is to be sought for with humble Confidence most instant Endeavours and quiet Silence even to the loss of all outward Conveniencies and Advantages of Praise or Honour in the Strength of the Spirit For what Advantage will it be to one that hath dedicated himself to God if he gain the whole World but at the same time suffer loss in his Soul Or of what profit is the highest Profession of Religion or a seeming Holy Conversation without living in the Spirit of Truth and Humility wherein Christ dwells through Faith wrought and formed by Love wherefore we are told that the Kingdom of God is within us Luke 17.21 which is no other than Jesus Christ himself CHAP. III. Wherein the Perfection of Man in this Life doth consist SUre it is that the more sollicitously busie the mind is in thinking and managing these Inferiour and Humane Affairs at the greater distance it puts it self from Superiour and Heavenly Objects and true inward Devotion and on the contrary the more fervently she recollects her self from the Memory Affection and Understanding of things here below and betakes her self to those above the more perfect will her Prayer be and the more pure her Contemplation because it is impossible she should be perfectly intent on both these together they being as opposite as Light and Darkness For he that cleaves to God is and walks in the Light but he that sticks to the World gropes in the Dark Whence the most sublime Perfection of Man in this Life is this to be so far united to God that his whole Soul with all its Powers and Faculties be to that degree gathered up into the Lord his God that he may become one Spirit with him so as to Remember nothing but God to feel or Understand nothing but God and that all his Affections being united and centred in the Joys of Love may sweetly repose in the sole Fruition of their Creator For the Image of God impress'd on the Soul consists in these three Faculties viz. Reason Memory and Will And as long as these do not wholly receive their Stamp and Impress from God the Soul is not Deiform according to the intent and scope of its first Creation For God is the form of the Soul by whom the Soul must be impress'd as the Wax is by the Seal Now this can never be fully performed until Reason be according to its capacity perfectly illuminated with the knowledge of God who is the Soveraign Truth and the Will be perfectly bent and taken up in loving the Supreme Good and the Memory be wholly employ'd in the beholding and enjoying of Eternal Happiness and in a sweet and delightful Repose and Acquiescence in the same And forasmuch as in the Consummate Possession of these consists the Glory of the Bliss of Heaven it is evident that the true beginning and anticipation of these is the Perfection of this Life CHAP. IV. How the Activity of Man ought to be in the Intellect alone and not in the Senses HAppy therefore is the Man who by a continual effacing of all Phantasms and imaginary Representations and by Introversion and the lifting up his mind into God doth at last in a manner forget and leave behind him all I mages and by this means consequently operating inwardly with a Naked Simple and pure Intellect and Affection about the most Pure and Simple Object God Wherefore thou must reject and cast out of thy mind all Phantasms Representations and Images and the forms of all things besides God to the end that thy whole Exercise about God within thee may depend only of thy naked Intellect Affection and Will For indeed the true End of all thy holy Exercises is this that thou do intend and repose in the Lord God within thee by the purest Act of Intellection and the devoutest Affection without all Representations or Intanglements whatsoever Now this Exercise cannot be discharged by any corporal Organs or the external Senses but by that part in Man by which he is Man Now that which constitutes a Man is Understanding and Love And therefore as long as Man sports it with his Imagination and Senses and fixeth there he is not yet got beyond the Motions and Bounds of his Bestial Nature that is of that part within him which he hath common with Brute Beasts forasmuch as they do perceive and are affected with such sensible Representations and no other because the power of their Soul reacheth no higher But the case is otherwise with Man who is Created in the Image of God according to his Intellect Affection and Free-will which must be immediately purely and nakedly imprest by God and become united and firmly cleave unto him Wherefore also the Devil doth with all possible diligence endeavour to hinder and disturb this Exercise as far as in him lies forasmuch as he knows it to be an Entrance and Anticipation of Eternal Life which makes him to envy so great a Happiness to Man For which reason he always endeavours to estrange and alienate the mind of Man from his Lord God sometimes by one Temptation sometimes by another sometimes by one Passion and sometimes by another sometimes by superfluous solicitousness and indiscreet carking sometimes by Disturbance dissolute Conversation and unreasonable Curiosity sometimes by the study of curious and subtile Writings impertinent Discourses Reports and News sometimes by Adversity and sometimes by Prosperity Which though sometimes they may seem to us to be very light and in a manner no Sins at all are nevertheless great lets and hindrances to this holy Exercise and Work And therefore however they may represent themselves to us as profitable and necessary yet are immediately to be rejected and disowned as hurtful and pernicious whether they be small or great and to be wholly expelled and cast out of our Senses Accordingly it is highly necessary that all things heard seen done or spoken and other such like be received by us without any Phantasms Images or dwelling upon them and that neither afterwards nor before nor at the perceiving of them we do form of feed any Representations and when thus a Phantasm does not enter the Memory and the Mind then can it neither hinder a Man in his Prayer Meditation and singing of Psalms or in any other Spiritual Operation or Exercise whatsoever neither will it ever again obviate and disturb him Thus do thou readily and securely commit thy whole self and all and every one of thy Concerns in silence and rest to the infallible and most certain Providence and wise disposal of the Divine Majesty who himself will appear for thee in this Combate and fight for thee and will with more Honour and Sweetness deliver and comfort thee than if thou should'st continually night and day hammer upon the Anvil of thy thoughts and Imagination about it and with a vain vagabond and yet captiv'd
relish those things that are above do thou endeavour to quit all Phantasms and imaginary Representations of Bodily Things because nothing is more pleasing and acceptable to God than a Mind divested of all such like Forms and Images for his Delights are with the Sons of Men that is such who with a Calm Mind Purified and Simplified from all these Occupations Distractions and Passions do intend apply and cleave to him making this their whole business For otherwise if thy Memory Imagination and Thoughts be often busied about these things it must needs be inveigled either with some new things or the remains of some formerly entertained or be variously affected and distracted with other occurring Objects Wisd 1.5 For the holy Spirit of Discipline as the Wise Man saith removes its self from thoughts that are without Understanding Wherefore a true Lover of Jesus Christ must be so united in his Intellect through good Will to the Divine Will and Goodness and be so naked and stript of all Phantasms and Passions as not so much as to take notice whether he be derided and flouted at or Loved and Honoured or whether any thing else happen to him For a good Will makes up all and is above and beyond all Wherefore if there be a good Will and that the same in the Intellect be purely conform and united to God it can do no hurt tho' the Flesh or Sensuality and the outward Man should incline to Sin and be backward and dead to that which is good yea even though the inward Man also should be dead and listless to any thing of Devotion for in this case it is sufficient for a Man by Faith and good Will nakedly to cleave to God in the Intellect or Supreme part of the Soul And this he will do if he throughly perceive and be sensible of his own imperfection and nothingness and know that all his good consists and is in his Creator and if with all his Powers and Faculties he abandon himself and all Creatures and totally plunge his whole self into his Creator so as to direct all his Actions purely and entirely to his Lord God as the sole end and scope of them all seeking nor desiring any thing besides him in whom he perceives himself to have found all Good with all Happiness and Perfection And by this process he becomes in a manner transformed into God to that degree that he can neither think nor understand nor love nor remember any thing but God and the things of God nor doth he see himself and other Creatures save only in God Neither doth he love any thing save God alone nor remember or make mention of them or of himself but in God Now this knowledge of the Truth makes a Soul very humble judging it self but not another whereas on the contrary the Worldly Wisdom makes the Soul proud Vain Arrogant and pufft up with Wind. Let us lay down this therefore for a Spiritual and Fundamental Doctrine that he who would draw near to the Knowledge Service and Familiarity or Communion with God and that would really possess him must of necessity wholly strip and divest his Heart from all sensible Love not only of every Person whatsoever but of every Creature to the end that with a simple and entire Heart he may reach forward and press into the Lord God his Creator freely without all Duplicity Care or Sollicitousness with a full assured Trust and Confidence in his Providence as to all his Concerns CHAP. VII How the Heart is to be gathered up or recollected into it self MOREOVER as it is said in the Book of the Spirit and Soul Chapter 21. To mount up to God iâ— to enter into ones self For he who inwardly entring and intimately penetrating into himself gets above or beyond himself he truly mounts up to God Let us therefore gather up our Hearts from the various Distractions oâ— this World and recall them to the joyâ— within that we may at last be able to fix them in the light of Divine Contemplation For this is the true Life and Rest of our Heart when by Desire it is fix'd in the Love of God and sweetly refresh'd with his Divine Comfort But the reason why in the experimental taste and relish hereof we are manifoldly hindered so as that we can by no means reach to him is plainly this because the Mind of Man being distracted with solicitousness doth not enter into it self by the Memory being overshadowed clouded with Phantasms doth not retire into her self through the Intellect being allur'd by Lusts and Concupiscence doth not turn in to her self through the desire of internal sweetness and Spiritual joys and being thus wholly taken up with these sensible and present Things she can never enter in to her self viz the Image of God in her self It behoveth therefore above all things and is necessary that with humble Reverence and great Confidence the Mind raise it self above it self and every Creature by a total denying and renouncing of them all and say within her self he whom of all things before all things and above all things I seek love long for and desire is neither sensible nor imaginable but above every thing that is sensible and intelligible too He is not to be perceived by any sence but wholly desirable by full and perfect desire neither is he figurable or representable but to be most perfectly long'd for by the most intimate affection He is not to be rated or valued but wholly to be affected with a pure heart as being above all things amiable and delectable and of infinite Goodness and Perfection And thus she is carried into the darkness of the Mind and becomes higher raised within her self and enters deeper into her self And this manner of ascending to the Aenigmatical or obscure Vision of the most Holy Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity in Jesu Christ is by so much the more fervent by how much the power of Elevation is more intimate to the mind and so much the more fruitful and profitable by how much it is nearer and stronger in Affection For in Spiritual Things those are accounted higher which are more inward as to Spiritual Experience Wherefore do thou never leave never rest until thou get a taste of some Pledges or foretastes of the fulness that is to come and 'till thou perceive the sweetness of the Divine Loveliness by some little first Fruits and do not cease running after her in the perfume of her good Ointments unti thou come to see the God of Gods in Sion For in thy Spiritual Progress and in this Union with and cleaving to God within thy self thou must neither desist nor give back until thou hast obtained what thou lookest for whereof we may take an Example from those who are going up an high Hill For if in this ascent our Spirit through Lust and Desire comes to plunge it self into the Transitory Things here below it immediately is led out of the way
by infinite Distractions and crooked winding Paths and being manifoldly divided is scatter'd in it self according to the multiplicity of the Objects its Concupiscence desires Whence necessary follows Motion without steadiness Running without attaining and Labour without Rest But if on the other side our Heart and Spirit do withdraw it self by Desire and Love from the infinite distraction of inferior Things here below wholly quitting them and by little and little gathering up her self into that one Unchangeable All-sufficient Good learn and accustom her self to stay at home and with her whole affection do inseparably cleave unto it so much the more she is gathered up into one and fortified by how much she is elevated by understanding and desire to the Things that are above and becomes so habitually fixed and established in the true Supream Good within her self 'till at length she be made altogether immutable and arrive to that true Life which is the Lord God himself so as that perpetually without any vicissitude of Change or Time she now reposeth her self in that inward Quiet and secret Mansion of the Deity being perfectly fix'd and setled within her self in Christ Jesus who is the Way to those that come to him John 14.6 the Truth and the Life CHAP. VIII How a Devout Person must Commit himself to God in all Events and in all his Concerns I Suppose that from what hath been already said thou dost perceive that the more thou shalt divest thy self from Images and all Worldly and Created Things and by Good Will be united in thy Intellect to God the nearer thou wilt approach to the State of Innocence and Perfection Than which what can be conceived better more happy or more delightful To which purpose nothing can be of more avail than that thou keep thy mind naked of all manner of Phantasms and Images and from all Intanglements whatsoever so as not to be concerned or trouble thy self neither about the World nor about Friends or Relations nor about Prosperity or Adversity neither about any thing past present or to come either in thy self or in others No nor over much about thine own Sins but with a certain pure simplicity suppose thy self to be naked and alone with God without the World for if thy Soul were already launched into Eternity and separated from the Body surely it would not be busied about Secular Matters nor would it be concern'd about the course of the World neither about Peace nor War fair or foul weather or any other Temporal Thing but would uniformly and totally intend be at leisure for and cleave to God alone In like manner do thou now according to the present possibility leave thy Body and all Creatures present and to come and steadily fix the view of thy Mind and Spirit according to thy utmost power nakedly and readily upon that increated Light that thy Spirit may be so stript and divested from all Phantasms and from all Intanglements and clowdy overshadowings as may be suppos'd that of an Angel tyed to a Body who is not hindred by the activity of the Flesh neither is intangled with vain and hurrying Thoughts Let thy Spirit therefore fortifie it self against all Temptations Vexations Injuries and Affronts whatsoever so that with the greatest unconcernedness and evenness of Temper it may immoveably persevere in God in Adversity as well as Prosperity And when any thing of trouble listlessness to any thing that is good or confusion of Mind do chance to seize thee do not thou therefore think strange or be discouraged neither run thou upon this account to vocal Prayers or other ways of comfort but let this only be thy exercise that thou awaken and stir up thy self through good will in the Intellect that so thou mayst cleave to God with thy mind whether thy sensual Part will or not For a Devout and truly Religious Soul ought to be so intimately united to God and to have and make his Will so conform to the Divine Will that it may not busie it self with nor cleave to any Creature whatsoever any more than she did before she was Created and as if there were nothing at all besides God and the Soul and that it may with an even temper take all and every thing that happens to it securely and infallibly from the gracious hand of the Divine Providence in all things uniformly suffering the Lord in Patience Tranquility and Silence Wherefore it appears that to strip the mind of all Phantasms doth above any other Exercise whatsoever avail and conduce to a Spiritual Life in which by good will thou mayst be united to and become like to God in thy intellect For by this means there will be nothing to mediate or intervene betwixt thee and God Consider therefore how greatly thou dost degenerate from the Nobility of thy Being and how highly thou Sinnest against the Lord thy God and against all his Righteousness if thou with thy Will and Love do cleave unto the Creature rather than to the Creator by this means preferring the Creature before the Creator CHAP. IX That Divine Contemplation is to be preferr'd before all other Religious Exercises whatsoever FOrasmuch therefore as all things besides God are the Effect and Work of the Creator having their Power and Being and whatsoever they are or can stinted and limited and as at first they were produc'd out of Nothing so are still surrounded with nullities and nothingness and of themselves tend to nothing it follows that they must necessarily every moment receive their existence conservation activity and whatsoever else may be in them from the Soveraign Workman God as being in and of themselves insufficient for themselves and others to whose Divine Working they being compared have the same proportion as Nothing to Something or a Finite thing to that which is Infinite Wherefore let all our Contemplation Life and Operation be in him alone and about him and for him and to him who with one hint of his Will is able and knows to produce things infinitely more perfect than those Creatures we now see There can be therefore neither with respect to the Intellect or to the Will any Contemplation and Fruition of Love more profitable perfect happy and delightful than that which hath for its Object the Creator the true and Soveraign Good from whom in whom through whom and to whom are all things who alone is infinitely sufficient for himself and all things Who most simply fully and supereminently contains and has concentred in himself from Eternity the Perfections of all things in whom there is nothing that is not himself with whom and through whom the Causes of all unstable things have their lasting subsistence and establishment In whom are the Immutable Ideas and Principles of all Mutable Things and in whom the Eternal Reasons of all Rational and Irrational and Temporal Things do live for ever who fulfills all and essentially fills all and every thing with himself and who is more intimately
present by his Essence to every thing than the thing is to it self in whom all things are united and one and in whom they live Eternally Moreover if by reason of weakness or the unaccustomedness of the understanding any Man be oblig'd to Meditate or Contemplate on the Creatures then this will be the best truest and most profitable way for him that at least in all his Contemplations and Meditations whether about Creatures or about the Creator a delight in the Creator himself the One and Trine God may arise within him and that the fire of Divine Love and true Life may thence flame forth in himself and in others for the obtaining of Eternal Felicity And here we may observe the difference there is between the Contemplation of Christian Believers and that of the Heathen Philosophers For the Contemplation of Philosophers is intended only for the perfection of the Contemplator and therefore stops in the understanding and so their end herein is intellectual Knowledge But the Contemplation of the Saints is taken up for the Love of him whom they Contemplation that is of God and therefore does not stop in the Intellect by Knowledge as in its ultimate end but passeth over into the affection by Love Wherefore the Saints in their Contemplation have the Love of God for their principal end and aim because it is far more happy and blissful to know and have the Lord Jesus Christ Spiritually by Grace than without Grace corporally or essentially Now whilst the Soul thus abstracts it self from all things and reflects into it self the eye of Contemplation by this means becomes dilated and raiseth it self like a Ladder whereby she mounts to the Vision of God From which beholding the Soul becomes inflamed with the Love of Coelestial and Divine Good Things and looks upon all Temporal Things aloof as if they were just nothing Thus when we draw near to God by the way of Negation or removing from him all that is perceptible or comprehensible in the first place we remove from him all that is Bodily Sensible or Imaginable in the next place all that is Intelligible and last of of all Essence or Being it self as it is in the Creatures And by this means according to St. Dionysius the Areopagite we approach nearest to the Divine Essence and are in the ready way of being joyn'd to him And this is that thick Darkness where God is said to dwell and into which Moses entred and through it passed to his inaccessible Light But that which is Spiritual is not first but that which is Animal so that according to the natural and accustomed Order we are to proceed from the Labour of Action to the Rest of Contemplation and from the Moral Virtues to the Theorical and Speculative Wherefore O my Soul why is it that thou busiest thy self to no purpose about the many vain and superfluous Things where thou art always in want And dost not rather fix thy intention and love upon that one Best and Soveraign Good which contains all Good and is only sufficient for thee and all things Unhappy therefore yea thrice unhappy he who knows and has all things besides him but is ignorant of him For if a Man should be supposed to know all things and him yet would not he be the happier for knowing them but him only whence St. John tells us and this is Life Eternal Joh. 17. v. 3. Psalm 17. v. 15. that they know thee the only true God c. And the Psalmist I shall be satisfied at the appearance of thy Glory or according to the Hebrew when thy image or likeness shall awake in me CHAP. X. Actual and sensible Devotion is not so much to be minded as the adhering or cleaving to God with our Will MOreover do not thou greatly mind actual Devotion sensible sweetness or tears but let it suffice thee to be by good will in thy intellect with thy Mind united to God within thy self forasmuch as nothing is more pleasing to God than a Mind strip'd naked of Phantasms Images and Reptesentations of the Creatures It becomes therefore a truly devout Person to estrange himself from all Creatures that he may nakedly and readily intend apply himself and adhere to God alone within himself Wherefore deny thy self that thou mayest nakedly follow Christ thy Lord God who being truly Poor Obedient and Chast humbled himself and suffered for us and at whose Life and Death many were greatly offended as appears from the History of the Gospel Now as we see that a Soul separate from its Body doth not mind or take notice what becomes of it whether it be burnt hang'd abus'd or cursed and is not at all troubled or grieved for any injuries that are done to it but has all its thoughts fixed upon that ever present Now of Eternity and the one thing necessary our Saviour speaks of in the Gospel In like manner be thou also affected to thy Body being so unconcern'd with it as if thou wast already out of the Body and have always thy mind fixed upon the Eternity of thy Soul in God and earnestly direct and level thy thoughts at that one thing of which Christ saith But one thing is needful Luke 10.42 and by this means thou wilt feel great incomes and assistance of Grace for the attainment of true nakedness of Mind and simplification of Heart And most certain it is that this one thing is most present to thee and will appear so as soon as thou shalt have rid thy self from thy imaginary representations and all other intanglements and thou wilt soon find that now thou canst with a naked free and ready mind apply thy self and cleave to God and by this means thou shalt be invincible in all things whatsoever that can happen to thee as the Holy Martyrs Fathers and all the Elect and Blessed Saints were who despising and rejecting all things only minded the Eternal Salvation of their Souls in God And being thus armed within and united to God by Good will they contemned all the Things of the World even as if their Souls already had been actually separated from their Bodies Consider well therefore how great the power is of a good will united to God yea how by this impression of God upon the Soul as by its virtual and spiritual Division from the Flesh the Soul comes to look upon the outward Man as if it were none of hers and is so unconcern'd at any thing that is done to it or its flesh as if they were done to another Body for he that cleaves to God becomes one Spirit with him Wherefore do thou never dare in the least to think or imagine any thing in the presence of the Lord thy God within thee which thou wouldest blush that Men should hear or see and that because of the highest Reverence which is due to the Divine Majesty in his Holy Temple It is also fit and just that all thy thoughts be erect and lifted up to
things cannot be learned of Men. NO Man can teach another the things that can no other ways be known but by Sense and Experience no Man can teach another to see hear smell taste feel or experience and much less to love rejoyce to be sorrowful and such like which must be felt and experienced before they can be known We must taste it in our selves and God must work it in us And therefore David saith Taste and see that the Lord is Good Ps 34.8 sweet or gracious We may indeed inform others of the visibility of colors and of the qualifications that are required in the eye to perceive its proper Objects but by all our diligence we can never teach others to see so we may discourse much and at large concerning the perfect and supreme Goodness of God and the manifestation of his Love which also is very good and commendable In like manner we may discourse of the property of the will of purity of heart of a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned as St. Paul saith 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the command is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned But we can never teach another how to love and much less to love above all things for this is a work of God and reserved to him as his peculiar Royalty who has the heart in his hand and the will in his power Pro. 21.1 to turn and incline them how and which way it pleaseth him CHAP. V. To Love God above all things a Man cannot learn of himself IT is true that the natural Understanding of Man may from the knowledg of the Creatures raise it self to the knowledg of God and of his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 and accordingly the Philosopher tells us that there is nothing better than God but forasmuch as they only continue in the speculation hereof without feeling and experiencing the Love and Goodness of God operatively in themselves which must be before that knowledg can beget or kindle Divine Love wherefore neither do they know God aright Accordingly St. Paul tells us Rom. 1.21 That tho they knew God they glorifyed him not as God neither were thankful wherefore also this their knowledg turns to their greater hurt and prejudice particularly in that in renders them inexcusable making them to become vain in their imagination and darkning their foolish hearts to that degree that they bestow the honour which is due to him alone viz. Love above all things upon the Creature wherefore also God suffers them to fall into Sin and Shame and to defile themselves with unnatural Lusts that they may receive in themselves the recompence due to their Error and because they do not like or value the true knowledg of God God gives them over to a reprobate mind so as to fall from one Sin into another and do those things which are not convenient Wherefore certainly it is much better for a Man never to know God than not to glorifie the known God as God or not to love him above all things CHAP. VI. To Love God above all things cannot be learnt from the Letter of the Scripture IN the Old Testament we are taught the written Law of God and therein also we find wise Instructions how the said Law must be kept or observed As likewise the good and advantage which accrues to Men by keeping of the same as well as the loss and evil that happens to Men for transgressing of it But when we come to compare our duty with our performance then it appears that we never kept any one of the Divine Commands and that we are throughout defiled with Sin We know also that no Man can keep the Law except he love God above all things and that the Letter of the Scripture can never teach us this for if the Love of God above all things did grow out of the Letter of the Old Law then it would follow that none did love God more than the Jews who abound in the knowledg of the Letter of the Law But the Apostle tells us that the Law never brought any one to Perfection that is to the Love of God above all things which is the highest perfection of Man for the Letter of the Old Law brings forth nothing but the Knowledg of our Duty that we ought to keep the Commandments of God the knowledg of our Sin that we have transgressed them the knowledg of our weakness and inability that we are not able to keep them and knowledg of the eternal punishment we must suffer for it whence fear and bondage is engendred and more than this the Letter cannot do wherefore also the Letter kills as St. Paul tells us but cannot-quicken it discovers our sickness but cannot recover us to health it manifests Sin and declares the greatness of our Fall but cannot raise us up again yet there is this comfort in it for that under this Letter the Spirit lyes hid and because the Old Law is big with child of Christ through whom the Grace of Loving God above all things is conferred They who have found this Spirit and who know and acknowledg Christ to be hid in the Law to those I say the Scripture is a profitable Doctrine and as St. Paul saith full of comfort and particularly in this that such as these as they find their Sickness in the Scriptures so likewise their Strength and Health as they find the Death of Nature so likewise the quickening of Grace through Jesus Christ our Lord in whom also they love God above all things and are able perfectly to fulfil and perform the Law From all which we see that the Law is only an Affrightment or Terror driving us from Nature to Grace from our selves into God from Flesh into the Spirit in and by whom we cry to God Abba Father and come to desire or long for God above all things In like manner also is the Letter of the New Testament a Murtherer of Souls more than the Letter of the Old Law because it represents God more lovely than that doth even as our Redeemer and who for our sakes was made Man suffered was crucified dead and buried upon all which accounts we cannot but acknowledg our selves in the highest degree bound to love him above all things Now it is evident that we make our selves lyable to greater Sins and Damnation when after so unexpressible great mercy and benefits received we continue unthankful and go on in our Sins These and such like are the effects of the Letter of the New Testament and therefore it kills as well as that of the Law For tho it represents Christ to the Eye and his Doctrine to the Ear yet forasmuch as it is unable to bring the Spirit of Christ into the heart it serves only to work a more grievous Death The Jews had Christ before their Eyes in their Ears and in their Hands but they had not the Spirit of Christ in their Hearts
and therefore were in a more damnable condition than the Heathens They had received many more benefits from him than from any one besides but yet did not love him in the highest degree who had loved them to the utmost so as to give his Life for them And thus at this day we frequently find that those who have Christ most in their Tongues have him least in their Hearts whence follows that they also communicate or impart him to others so as they have him themselves viz. on the Tongue and not in the Heart they teach them to talk much of him but to love little by which means the poor simple People are much hindred in the way to true Perfection and happiness CHAP. VII The Love of God above all things cannot enter into a Man except the Holy Ghost be there before SAint Paul saith The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which is given unto us even the Spirit of our heavenly Father the Spirit of Christ whom he that hath not is none of Christs neither is it possible for such an one to love God above all things Wherefore we are to take notice that the first the greatest and the highest Favor God bestows upon a chosen Soul is that he vouchsafes to take up his Dwelling in him By this means it is that the essential Self subsisting Love which is God himself is always in Man before his own Love or any thing that can be called Good and much the same thing happens to every pious Soul as befel the blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God when it was told her by the Angel That she should conceive and be with child of God whereupon when the Virgin demanded how this should come to pass and by whom seeing it was not to be according to the Order of Nature To which question she and all holy Souls with her received this Answer The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee Luk. 1.35 As if he had said a Child of God is not born of Blood nor of the Lust of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but is born of God alone Job 1.13 In which Birth the Soul is endued with Divine Power to fulfil all things and all Commands through the Love of God Wherefore if at any time any thing that is holy or good be done by us we must not attribute and appropriate it to our selves but to God only who is the only Father of all good Fruits and Gifts in us Upon which Account also the Angel gives us this further Information saying therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God O happy yea more than happy is that Man into whom the Holy Ghost is come down from above in whom the self-subsisting essential Love which is God himself hath taken up his abode for in him continually and for ever Divine Fruits grow and spring forth whether he knows it or not for the Holy Ghost is never idle Sometimes he stirs in us motions of Anger to reprehend and reprove that which he will have reproved sometimes he moves us to mirth and jocose words to revive and rejoyce those whom he will have comforted c. and frequently makes us in those very things his Fruits and Children whereby we are apt to fear that we were become his Enemies Many very many Fruits of our Salvation doth he work in us whereof we know nothing neither more nor less Could we now in this manner always see him in our selves and clearly discern and know him this would be to be happy indeed here on Earth but it hath rather pleased him and seemed good in his Eyes to be hidden and concealed in us according to the Saying of the Prophet David Ps 18.11 He bowed the Heavens and came down and Darkness was under his Feet he made Darkness his hiding Place his covering round about him were dark Waters c. CHAP. VIII From the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost first proceeds the Light of true Christian Faith THat no Man can reach the Sense and Power of the Holy Scriptures or the Love of God above all things from any outward Learning or Information whatsoever our Lord Jesus Christ himself plainly declares when he saith to his Disciples Job 16.12 I have yet many things to say to you but ye cannot bear them now It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Holy Ghost will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you And when He the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and teach you all things and will open to you the hidden mystical Vnderstanding of the things I have spoke to you Christ must depart and pass away from the Eyes into the Heart from the Flesh into the Spirit before ever he can be known to Salvation Upon which Account he himself disowns the Fruit of his outward Doctrine when the same is separated and divided from the inward Teaching It is in this sense St. Paul declares that as well his Teaching as that of all the other Apostles was nothing except God himself teacheth in the Heart Neither can any man with any words how high and choice soever they may be declare make out or represent the above measure lovely Love of God if God do not first reveal himself in the Heart Wherefore it is without all doubt that God himself brings into the Soul of those by whom he will be loved above all things that Light whereby his great Loveliness and Kindness are clearly seen and discerned through a firm Faith without doubting before ever we know or understand what is right and good Wherefore we must conclude that the knowledge of the True Christian Faith is a pure meer Grace of God CHAP. IX That Man is never comforted in hope whom the Spirit of God himself doth not comfort ALL the comfort of this World is Vain Useless and Empty all confidence in the Creature is deceitful for which reason the Holy Scriptures denounce Curses against all those who confide in their own Jer. 17.5 6. or others created power or ability and by this means seek their comfort in and from the Creature The only true comfort upon Earth is founded and grounded in this as St. Paul assures us that we boast our selves and Triumph in the Glory of the Children of God Rom. 5.2 11. that is in our indubitable assurance that we are the Children of God foreknown and Elected to Eternal glory This is the comfort which no Creature can give neither can any deserve it it must and can only be given by the Holy Ghost the Comforter to whom only it belongs to comfort his People and whose property it is to convey a lively hope into the heart of his chosen and this even before there is any Merit in them Neither hath our saving hope
Children Brothers and Sisters yea even his own Soul and loseth himself wholely and altogether in this World that he may find himself in his Beloved He is got beyond self choosing and his own Works and only waits upon what God will be pleased to choose think speak and work in him with total profound Obedience and perfect Resignation He lives even as if he lived not for his Spirit cleaves so fast to God that he becomes one Spirit with him Fear takes no place in him his Labour is without Weariness and his Sufferings are become his Joy Triumph and Exultation But to whom are we to ascribe all these great strange and wonderful Works To Man Surely no That be far from any Christian Mind God himself is the Worker the Holy Ghost is that Fire which totally consumes Man and burns him to Ashes yea wholely and altogether annihilates or brings him to nothing that so he alone may remain the All in All in him and in All things Let every Soul in this Station carefully take heed not to attribute or appropriate any thing of activity or operativeness to her self But let her rejoyce in her most faithful and most loving God who hath drawn her out of her self and hath of Free Grace favoured her to live in himself in his own Spirit And therefore let such a Soul examine her self whether she finds those Fruits in her which spring from the foresaid highest degree of Love whether or no she be that Tree which God himself hath planted for whatsoever God hath not planted must be plucked up by the Roots cast away and burnt in the Fire Wherefore the Great Duty of the Soul in this state is to have an Eye to two things more especially the one is that she be never without good Thoughts Words or Works the other is that she in her inactivity or ceasing from her Works do find her self to be wrought upon by the Holy Ghost from whence proceeds the Divine Adoption as St. Paul tells us Rom. 8.14 for they who are Led and actuated by the Spirit of God are the Children of God and cannot Sin an St. John saith 1 John 3.6 9. For the Holy Ghost bears witness with their Spirit that they are the children of God Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 8.15 16. He who hath this witness in himself he doth not own his Works to be his own but the Holy Ghosts to whom it is impossible to sin and therefore wholly leaves Nature and acknowledgeth himself to be a Child of Grace as having by the new Birth passed out of Nature into Grace CHAP. XV. The Degrees of the Love of God above all things have a mutual Subordination and Respect to one another but yet are not all given by God in the same Order FRom Imperfection according to the order of Nature we advance and go on to Perfection and nothing grows Great which has not before been little in all cases where the order of Nature is kept But when Perfection comes from abroad and is a free gift then it is wholely in the Power of him that bestows it to give it in a lower or higher Degree as pleaseth him best For he that hath a mind to bestow a thousand pounds upon any one of his free Will he may at first give him one pound at another ten at another an hundred and so on or if he please he may invert this Order and give at first an hundred next ten and afterwards one or else may give the whole thousand pounds at once as best liketh him Forasmuch therefore as to love God above all things is a free Gift of the Holy Ghost it depends wholely of his Will to bestow the same in the highest or lowest Degree sooner or later or all the Degrees of it together and at once according as it seems good in in his Eyes for notwithstanding the Beginners Love be in it self inferior and less the Proficients better and the Love of those who are Perfect best of all yet is it one and the same thing with him to make a Sinner Perfect in Love at the first as to make him a Beginner according as frequently he has done Thus verily we see that the Repentance of Paul Peter and Mary Magdalen were perfect Works in which Paul was caught up into the third Heaven Peter became melted into sweet tears of Love and Mary Magdalen with Joy of heart washed the feet of God with her Tears and wip'd them with the hair of her head notwithstanding that Repentance in it self be the work of Beginners Many Persons likewise experience in themselves that at their first taking leave of Sin by true Repentance they find in themselves a readiness to forsake themselves and all the World which is a Work of Perfect Love and yet two or three days after it may be the same persons find great difficulty and opposition to deny themselves in parting with the least part of their Goods or some filthy Lust which is the weak and defective Work of Beginners Sometimes at the Beginning of our Conversion we are able to bear an hundred weight which belongs to those that are Proficients when it may be sometime after we are not able to bear a pound weight which is a state beneath that of Beginners The reason of this alteration is because we do not bear our burthens by our own strength but by the Might and Power of the most High who imparts the same unto us when and how he will not according to our but his own good Pleasure and Liking This discovers the great Folly of those who think by their good Deeds to move and incline God according to their Will and Pleasure who in their own conceit would make themselves lovely and acceptable to God and allure God to them by their Vertue and Goodness as they lure Hawks with a Bait by which perswasion they rob the Divine Mercy of it's due Priviledg and Prerogative and carry blasted Oats to Market they would fain purchase Gold with Dung and be saved by their own Righteousness and to defend their Folly alledg the Sayings of the Holy Fathers which they never yet understood And are also extremely displeased with those who cannot comply with them in this their Folly O Folly beyond all Folly To mistake about the number of the Stars the Height of Heaven the Depth of the Sea and such like is no great damage or loss but to mistake in those things that concern our Salvation is a Loss inestimable and irreparable and more especially in the Love of God for he that mistakes in this Love mistakes in all things that are necessary to Salvation whereas he who is not mistaken in this cannot err in any thing that of necessity conduceth to Salvation Would to God that all the Books were lost wherein Men have taught us to practice Vertues so that Love alone were but found by us for then every one would do what he ought But
against it and lays hold only on the Cross trusting and confiding in that Fight and Combat which Christ without Sin maintained against the Sins of Men to exterminate the Diabolical Poyson and in the same came off a Conqueror and Triumphator And thus a Christian boasteth of Christ alone and wholly despairs of himself Wherefore it is much better for a Man to commit and resign himself wholly to God neither Praying for this or the other feeling or Perception of the Divine Love but that he would order all things according to his own good Pleasure When a Man comes to this State he enjoys a constant and abiding Peace Tranquility and Comfort founded and bottom'd on the unchangeable Love God bears towards us however Dead Barren or Heavy he may find himself But they who will not rest save in the highest degrees of Love and who do not believe God is with them when they do not feel in themselves the Sweetness of his Love or at least some Comfort and Solace of his Spirit such as these have no constant abiding Comfort here on Earth and are in Eminent Danger both as to Soul and Body CHAP. XVII That all things work together for the best of the Elect that Love God above all things ALL things and all Creatures are theirs who belong to Christ and are his as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 3. v. 21 22 23. The Apostles the World Life Death Things present and things to come and in a Word all Creatures are his who himself is Christs and Christ without a mean is Gods but we are his through or by means of Christ Wherefore also the Elect Soul is by means of Christ so highly Seated in Gods favour that all Evil yea even Sin it self is not only not hurtful to her but also conducive and helpful in the hand of God her great Physitian to her best State Verily a true Christian is a Miraculous Creature of God with whom God from Eternity in the highest Love has so intimately United himself that tho' as David saith Psalm 89.30 31 32. He forsake the Divine Law and walks not in his Judgments tho he prophane his Statutes and keep not his Commandments yet God for all this will only Chastise him Temporally and not utterly take away his loving kindness from him So that even his Sin must be helpful to his Salvation For what God hath once determined can never fail and whatsoever he hath once promised must Eternally be true whom God Loves and Favours to him Heaven and Hell Good and Evil must be helpful and advantagious And for this Reason it is that we are very Subject to be mistaken and confounded in our Reflecting on the Works of other Men and find that we are not able in the least to pass a true Judgment or Estimate what is profitable or hurtful to Men forasmuch as we find by experience that God sometimes out of great and faithful Love permits him that stands to fall Who doubts but that Peters Fall wherein he denied his Lord and Master was far more profitable and advantagious for him than to have continued and persevered in his self-confidence Our Lord and God has a greater Interest and is more concerned to manifest and display the glory of his own Grace Mercy than to maintain and keep up our Righteousness His least suffering was sufficient to reconcile his Heavenly Father to us to Justifie to Preserve or make us persevere in Righteousness and to save us but this would not have been sufficient to hold forth the unmeasurableness of his Love or the unalterableness of his Mercy Therefore Paul tells us Rom. 11.32 That God hath concluded all under Vnbelief and Sin that he might have Mercy upon all If you take away Sin who then will be able clearly to understand that Gods Mercy is above and beyond all his Works or that Christ the true Son of God is the Redeemer of the World Which no other way could ever have been manifested but by his unalterable Love and by that great instance of his Transcendent Pity and Compassion to us miserable Sinners And therefore Gregory calls Sin Salutary or Saving because by Divine Mercy it procur'd us so glorious a Saviour and Redeemer Forasmuch then as God makes use of Sin for the advancement of his Divine Glory it is no longer any Wonder that he makes the same also advantagious to the Sinner But we must not argue from hence that if it be so we may therefore freely sin without Danger by no means but on the contrary it is our Duty at all times with our utmost Diligence and Strength to avoid Sin as we would the most deadly Poyson for to cover Sin with Mercy is the Work of God alone 'T is he only that can bring good out of Evil we can fall of our selves but not rise again of our selves this rests only in the gracious Mercifulness of God which excells and surmounts all his Works CHAP. XVIII Whosoever hath not received the Love of God above all things to him all the Temporal good things that God affords him are of no Profit ST Paul faith 1 Cor 13 1 2 3. Tho' I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels and have not Love or Charity I am become like a sounding-Brass or a loud Cymbol and tho' I have the gift of Prophesie and understand all Mysteries and Knowledge and tho I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing Moreover tho I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be burned if I have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Yea what 's still more where Love is not it is to a persons Hurt and Loss that ever he was born a Man and the highest Gifts or Benefits God hath bestowed upon him serve only for his greater condemnation It had been better for Judas he had neverbeen born as Christ himself testifies that he had never been an Apostle that he had never wrought any Miracles that he had never seen or heard of Jesus and had never eaten the sweet Food with him at the same Table than that after such great and inestimable Favours received he should become his Betrayer sell him and deliver him to the Jews From whence we may take notice that our dearest Lord God bestows that often in his Wrath which he denies in his Love From whence also follows that the higher the Gifts are we receive from God the more they engage us to the Duty of loving God above all things tho they cannot make us to Love God so and therefore are rather Poyson than Gifts if Love does not come along with them neither can they certainly assure us of that love wherewith God loves us to Salvation Moreover these Gifts when they ate separate from Love are the cause of a puft up Spirit Pround Mind censorious judging arrogant Actions imprudent Behaviour and converse Self conceitedness Hypocrisie and Contempt of the simple
so freely and powerfully move his own work or how the unutterable Loveliness of God tasted and felt in the Heart doth sublime and raise the spirit in Love kindle it melt it and make it triumphantly joyful and full of Jubilee Doth the stone draw the Iron to it self without so much as touching it how much more then must needs the most Rocky and obdurate Soul being touched by the Eternal Heavenly Load-stone be raised above it self and run into the Embraces of this powerful Drawer Cantic 1.4 Or how can it be otherwise but that after this taste of the transcendent Divine sweetness all Tribulation and Suffering strewed over with this Sugar must needs become sweet and desirable Or how is it possible but that all the sweetness of the Love opposite to this must needs lose its taste and become bitter and loathsome seeing the common Proverb assures us that to him who rellisheth the Spirit the Flesh becomes ditasteful and abominable For the Nature and Property of the Holy Spirit of the self-subsisting Love of God is this that wheresoever she touches she draws and allures where she is rellished she drives and impells where she is felt and experienced she rejoyceth the Heart Moreover she has this particular property that she robs the Flesh of all its sweetness like as the Meridian Brightness of the Sun discountenances and darkens the Light of a Candle Furthermore she hath this also amongst the rest of her properties that she sweetens all pains and griefs comforts and relieves Misery and Wretchedness restores all weakness makes all labour light and easie turns weeping into laughter and sorrow into joy He that experimentally finds her rejoyceth to suffer for the sake of Christ from his very heart desires to bear the Cross with Christ and longs for the Fire of Temptation that therein his Love being tried and refined from all Dross may purely and nakedly cleave to God and therefore cries out with the divine Spouse Caâ—tic 4.16 Arise thou North wind and come on East wind and blow upon my Garden that my Spices may flow forth and give their sweet Odour As if she had said come Temptation from all quarters try and prove my Vertues and Graces that they may become pure Gold and be for the amendment and edification of all that hear or see them O Holy and Divine Spirit O sweetest Guest and Inmate of the Soul O only life of men He that wants thee tho' alive is dead before God and he that hath got thee can never die with God tho the world be carrying him forth to his grave Thou art far more necessary to the Soul then the Soul is to the Body VVhere thou art not there the outward dying is the beginning of Eternal death but where thou art of Eternal Life In thee most Holy God we are in thee we live in thee we are savingly moved and all this from the Merits and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ the only Redeemer of the VVorld in whom the unutterable Mercy of God and over great Love to us is so clearly manifested and through thee O Holy Ghost so plainly imaged and deeply imprinted in our hearts that we cannot look for any thing else but Love from the Father Son and Spirit so that it is now no more possible for us to take any strange God for our God than it is possible for any one else to shew us such transcendent and unmeasurable Mercy Kindness and Love as thou hast made us partakers of It is possible and it hath oft happened that even wicked Men have wrought Miracles being the same thing Scripture testifies that Antichrist shall do at his coming It is also possible that the Enemies of God may in outward Gifts of Charity shew themselves more liberal to the Eyes of Men than ever thou hast done and to make others by their Liberality rich and powerful and such like But all these are but uncertain signs and marks of the right true Love To suffer and die for the sake of the Beloved Object is a true and infallible sign of Love when this is done for Gods sake it shews a Love sufficient to Salvation and if it be done for the sake of a Friend then is it an expression of the highest degree of Human Love as the Lord Jesus witnesseth No Man can have greater Love than this that he lay down his life for his friend Joh. 15.31 But if this Love rise get higher even to that degree as to make a Man willing to suffer and die for his Enemy then is it a certain Mark of the Love of God alone VVe read of Antichrist that he shall do his utmost endeavour and diligence as far as is possible to appear outwardly like to Christ in Miracles VVorks of VVonder and in all his other Actions and Behaviour yea to be more kind and beneficent in outward Gifts and Liberality He will as was before hinted by his Liberality make those Rich and Powerful that believe in him and will also draw to his Party such as are Rich and Powerful with rigour and severity and by fear compel them for he will horribly afflict torment and put to Death such as will not believe in him But it will never please him to suffer for his Enemies and to die for those that hate him by which it appears that his Love is so far from being the true Divine Love that it is not so much as the highest Degree of Human Love VVherefore also all these pompous Shews of his Love will be of no force with the Elect of God to deceive them Out of Christ alone as was said before the highest Love of God breaks forth and manifests it self out of him alone flow forth the waters of Grace Neither is there any other Name under Heaven wherein and whereby we may be saved save only the sweetest Name Jesu to whom alone therefore we point and direct all who are desirous to be inflamed with the Love of God for in him alone we meet with all that ought and must be sought for in order to our Salvation CHAP. XXI The most sure and certain Sign of all as well of our entire Love to God as of his Gracious Love to us is a perfect Emptiness or Exinanition of Spirit THE Heart of a true Lover of God above all things becomes emptied and void of all Creatures as soon as it is arrived to the degree of Perfect Love so that nothing but God free and alone remains in his Spirit all Creatures whatsoever soever being driven thence But as long as this is not yet come to pass in our Souls all the most specious and apparent Signs of Gods dwelling in us are uncertain doubtful and to be suspected But when a Man is become void and empty of himself and all Creatures when he forgets his own Life his Merits his Salvation and seeks nothing but the Honour of God when he is only well pleased with his Will whether it be to
it Joh. 14.13 14. As if he had said as long as men do not ask in my Name they have no assurance of being heard But if you do ask in my Name then need you no other Intercessor Joh. 16.26 27. For the Heavenly Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came forth from God If therefore any one would be sure that his Prayers are heard let him believe in Christ For he that believeth in Christ is beloved of God and needs no other Inteâ—…ssor But if all the Saints in Heaven should pray for thee and thou have no Faith in Christ it would be all in vain and unprofitable to thee CHAP. X. Concerning our indissoluble Union with Christ THE Faith that is in Christ suffers no man to remain or abide in himself but draws us out and raiseth us above our selves and never ceaseth till it have united us unto God In the first place God doth so unite all Believers amongst themselves that they all become one Heart and one Soul in God wherein Christ's Prayer is heard and fulfilled which he prayed to the Father for them Joh. 17.11 19. Holy Father keep through thine one Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one Which Words do not only respect the Twelve Apostles of Christ but all those that for the future should believe on him through their Word as the Text manifestly holds forth and this is the only true Ground and Original of the Unity of the Church Now all that believe in Christ shall in like manner be united in and with God as the Father in Christ and Christ in the Father are of one Will one Mind one Sense one Meaning and one Desire Moreover God doth so unite all those that believe in Christ with Christ that they become one Body with him of which he is the Head and they the Members and as all the Members are Ruled and Influenced by the Head so are they Govern'd and led by Christ in Christ so that no body can be helpful or advantageous to them as to their inward guidance in the Spirit save the only most intimate Jesus With respect to this intimate Union Jesus said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9.4 As if he himself had been only concern'd whereas indeed he persecuted those that believed in him By means of this Mystical Union Christ poures forth all Spiritual Gifts and Graces into our heart through the Holy Ghost yea and his very self too But besides this Union there is yet another whereby God the Father Espouseth those to Christ that believe in him so that a Believer and Christ are inseperably United and Joyned together in the indissoluble Band of Wedlock This Marriage-band is the Marriage in Paradise a Sacrament and Seal that Christ hath taken upon him all our Weaknesses Defects Wants and Sins and is become Sin for us that we might become the Righteousness of God in him and made our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption not without us but within us To us Christ is given to us he is born and for us he dyed his Life Death and Suffering his Doctrine and Works are wholely ours and we in Christ through Faith are united and made one with God This is the Eternal Heavenly Marriage Band that we abide eternally betrothed joyned and united with Christ forasmuch as we are born of God himself and still-are in him who hath born us And this is and is called Faith viz. Christ dwelling in us and that is the true Love viz. God and his Holy Spirit in us This is the highest Union in the which Christ and he that believes in him give up themselves wholely into God that he alone may be All in All and work All in All. Of this Union much might be said but it is above our Understanding and as long as this Life lasteth it will but be in part with us However this is and abides undoubtedly true that he who believes in Jesus Christ becomes thereby Eternally united to God For he that cleaveth to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him which God of his Mercy grant unto all Amen Dr. John of Staupitz Jesu thine I am Save me FINIS