be prepared But you are happy if by grace you have proceeded soe farre that all greife and affliction whatsoever become truly pleasing to you for Gods sake what thinke you brother is my glasse bige nough or is not this yet sufficient for you but you yet desire to heare in more expresse tearmes more abundantly and fully howe to compose your selfe within and without or howe according to reason you ought to order every day before God CHAPTER II Howe wee ought to bestowne our time from our first rising to mattins in the moring AS soon as you are wake and ready to rise to mattens devoutly arme your selfe with the signe of the crosse and breifly pray to God that he will vouchsafe to blot out the staynes of sinne in you and be pleased to helpe you Then casting all vayne imaginations out of your mynde thinke upon some other thing that is spirituall and conceave asmuch puritye of heart as you can rejoysing in your selfe that you are called up to the prayse and worship up of your creatour But if frailty of body if heavinesse of sleepe if conturbation of spirit depresse you be not out of heart but be comforted and force your selfe overcominge all impediments with reason and willingnesse for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent beare it away certainely according to the labour with you undergoe for the love of God such shal be your recompense and reward being come of from your bed commend and offer your selfe both body and soule to the most high make haste to the quire as to a place of refuge and the garden of spiritual delights untill devine office begin study to keep your mynde in peace and simplicity free from troubles and the multiplicity of uncertaine thoughts collecting a godly and sweete affection towards your God by sincere meditation or prayer In the perfourmance of the devine office have a care to pronounce and heare the holy wordes reverently perfectly thankefully and attentively that you may taste that your lord is sweete and may feele that the word of God hath incomprehēsible sweetnesse and power for whatsoever the holy Ghost hath dictated is indeed the life procureing foode and the delightfull solace of a chast sober and humble soule remember therfore to be there faythfully attentive but avoide too vehement cogitations and motions of mynde especially if your head be weake least being hurt or wearyed confounded and streightened internally you shutt the sanctuary of God against your selfe reject likewise too troublesome care which commonly bringeth with it pusillanimity and restlesnesse and persever with a gentle quiet and watchfull spirit in the praises of God without singularity But if you cannot keepe your heart from evagations be not dejected in mynde but patiently endevour patiently doe what lyeth in your power committing the rest to the divine will Persever in your godly affection towards God and even your very defects which you are noe way able to exclude will in a manner beget you consolation For as the earth which is of a convenient nature doth by the casting of dunge ostentimes more fruitfully send forth her seeds soe a mynde of good will out of the defects which by constraint it susteyneth shall in due time receave the moste sweet fruit of divine visitation if it endure them with patience And what profitt do you reape by being impatient doe you not heape callamity upon calamity doe you not shew your wante of true humility and bewray in your selfe a pernitions propriety As long as you do reverently assist and are ready with a prompt desire of will to attende you have satified God neyther will he impute the inordinatenesse of this instability to you if soe be by your negligence you give not consent unto it and before the time of prayer you sett a garde over your sences if you cannot offer a perfect dutifulnesse offer at least a goodwill offer a right intent in the spirit of humility and soe the devill shall not finde anie occasion to cavill against you Although you have nothing else to offer but a readinesse in body and spirit to serve our lord in holy feare be sure of it that you shall not loose your reward But woe to your soule if you be negligent and remisse and care not to give attendance for it is writte Cursed is the man that doth the worke of God negligently Be diligent that you may perfourme what you are able if you be not able to perfourme what you desire upon this security be not troubled when impediments happen and you be not able to perfourme asmuch as you would when I say distraction of your sences dejection of mynde drynesse of heart greife of head or any other misery and temptation afflicted you beware you say not I am left our lord hath cast me away my duty pleaseth him not these are words befitting the children of distrust endure therefore with a patient and joyfull mynde all things for his sake that hath called and chosen you firmely beleeving that he is neare to those that are of a contrite heart For if you humbly without murmering carry this burden layde on you not by mortall tongue to be uttered what a deale of glory you heape up for your selfe in the life to come You may truly say unto God As a beast am I become with thee Beleeve me Brother if being repleat with interne all sweetnesse and lifted up abone your selfe you fly up to the third heaven and there converse with angells you shall not doe soe great a deed as if for Gods sake you shall affectually endure greife and banishment of heart and be conformeable to our saviour when in extreame sorrowe auginsh feare and adversity crying unto his father lett thy will be done who also being thrust through his hands and feete hanging on the crosse had not wheron to leane his head who also most lovingly endured for thee all the griefes and disgraces of his most bitter passion Therefore in holy longanimity conteine your selfe and expect in silence untill it shall please the most high to dispose otherwise And certainly in that day it shall not be demanded of you hove much intetnall sweetnesse you have heere felt But howe faith full you have bin in the love and service of God CHAPTER III. God hath too sorts of servants and the description of both AMonge those that are called the servants of God many serve him unfaythfully few faithfully indeed unfaithfull servants as long as they have sensible devotion and present grace of teares doe serve God with alacrity they pray willingly joyfully goe about good workes and seeme to live in deepe peace of heart But assone as God hath thought it good to with drawe that devotion you shall see them troubled chafe become malicious and impatient and at last neyther willing to be att theyr prayers nor amy other divine exercises And because they feele not internall consolations as they desire they perniciously betake themselves to those that
more sometimes fewer according to the internall motion of the holy Ghost he would also often accuse his soule that it was too slowe stuggish tepid ingratfull hard insensible unstable miserable and unhappy Againe he would comfort it being dejected with pusillanimity or feare and would encourage it with these or the like words dispaire not my soule take comfort daughter and be confident most deare If thou hast sinned and art wounded behould thy God behould thy phisitian is ready to cure thee He is most courteous and most mercyfull and therefore willing he is omnipotent and therefore can pardon thy sinnes in a moment Peradventure thou art afraid because he is thy indge but take heart for he that is thy indge is also thine advocate He is thy advocate to defend and excuse thee doing peanance he is therefore also thy indge to save not to condemne thee being humbled His mercy is infinitly greater then thy iniquity either is or can be which words I say not that persevering in evill thou should de make thy selfe unworthy of his mercy but that being averted from evill thou shouldest not dispaire of indulgence and forgivenesse thy God is most gentle most sweete he is wholy amiable wholy desireable and wonderfully loveth all things which he hath created when thou thinkest of him or conceivest him in thy memory far be all imagination of terrour austerity and bitternes from thee When we say he is terrible it is not in respect of himself but of those that abuse his patience and deferr to doe peanance Whose most bitter and poysonons sinnes as contrairy to his most sweet and pure goodnes he repelleth and punnisheth let not thime imperfections discourage thee too much for thy God doth not dispise thee because thou art imperfect and infirme but loveth thee exceedingly because you desirest and labourest to be more perfect he will also helpe thee if thou persist in thy good intention and will make thee perfecter yea peradventure which thou little hopest for wholy fayer and every way pleasing to him Thus and innumerable other wayes would he frindly talke with his soule and invite her by chast speeches to the chast love of her beloved he would also turne his speech to our lord and aspiring to him by holy love would say and good JESU pious Pastor sweet master king of eternall glory when shall I bee immaculate and truly humble before thee when shall I truly dispise all sensible things for thee and when shall I perfectly forsake my selfe when shall I bestript of all propriety For vulesse there were propriety in me there would not bee selfe-will in me passions and inordinate affections would have no place in me I should not seeke my selfe in any thing propriety only maketh thee impediment and medium betweene thee and me propriety only doth hinder thee from me when therefore shall I cast of all propriety when shall I freely resigne my selfe to thy divine pleasure when shall I serve thee with a cleane quiet simple and calme mynde when shall I perfectly love thee in the armes of my soule when shall I love thee with most fervent desire when shall all my tepidity and imperfection be swallowed up by the immensity of thy love and my desire my treasure ô my totall good ô my beginning and end O my God ô sweetnesse of my soule ô my consolation my life my love O that my soule might enjoy thy most sweet embracings O that were indisolubly bound with thy love would it were perfectly united to thee For what is to me in heaven And besids thee what would I upon earth God of my heart and God my portion for ever When shall the world be silent to me when shall the impediments troubles and vicissitudes of this life cease to me when shall my pilgrimage be ended when shall my sejourning be consummate when shall the miserable captivity of this bannishment be disolved when shall the shadowe of mortality decrease and the day of eternity draw neare when shall I lay downe the burden of this body and see thee when shall I praise thee with thy saints without impediment happily and eternally O my God my love my totall good He was often wont to use such aspirations knowing that by the exercise of them humane spirit is more effectually united to the divine spirit and that there by man attayneth the sooner to the perfect mortification of himselfe He had then ready every where But if at any time he had more sufficient leasure he would then sitting as Mary Magdalen did rejoyce to linger more freely and that more to the honour of God then to the inordinate pleasing of himselfe he would not in the meane time omitt with a certaine internall effusion of heart by a sincere and sweete affection to adore blesse give thankes and pray Moreover tourning his speech to the blessed virgin the mother of God as to a most mercifull lady and most liberall stewardesse of heavenly treasures he would ingeminat his pions complaints before her and with an holy importunity extort a benediction Another day he would sert before himself howe our saviour betrayed by Judas was taken and concerning this point he would iterate his foresaid exercises and so would goe through with the passion in order and having ended would begin agayne And about that part of the passion which did represent Christ hanging on the crosse he did not employ himselfe in order and in his proper day but every day at least breifly if so be he thought it convenient exciting his soule to the earnest contemplation of these things On every solemnity of our saviour or the blessed virgin he would if he thought it good propose to the eyes of his mynde the representation of that feast in steed of parte of our lords passion which otherwise was that day to be frequented And would performe his internall exercises or frindly discourses with his soule and about the worke cause mistery and joy of that festivity He was also much delighted with singing the psalmes And I knowe that by the continued custome of this holy exercise he reaped great consolation and singuler profitt of his labours I vvill sett downe an example imitate of it if you please For by this meanes you shall be accustomed to apprehend the presence of God by this meanes you shall begin to have your sences sober watchfull exercised and calme by this meanes you shall prepare your selfe away to the highest contemplation and perfection thus wheresoever you are you shall spend your time profitably vayne and instable cogitations being caste forth out of the corners of your heart and such as are serious being entertayned in their place you may frame your selfe meditations and aspirations in other termes then wee have if you perceave the looking in your booke to hinder your mynde where by you are the lesse able to reach to God and to be united to him lay a side your booke againe if you perceave it doth further your exercise make
of God performe your worke prudently devoutly and with alacrity but that also in those workes which you faithfully doe to the honour of God with Mary you direct your mynde being freed from the tumult of cogitations and the confused imagination of sensible things to God or those things that are divine especially if reasonable discourse or any other necessity hinder not CHAPTER X. Martha may serve as a mirour for imperfect Religious men Mary Magdalen for such as are growne to perfection MArtha because she is distracted in her externall actions and in her right intentions by the multiplicity of vaine cogitations and is troubled about many things although peradventure she bee not deformed yet is she not comely enough But Mary because she knoweth howe to forsake the troups of unstable cogitations and persisting in unity and tranquillity of mynde doth strive to cleave to goodnesse it selfe is of more perfect beauty Wherefore howsoever you are externally occupyed love not only to be right and innocent with Martha but also to be cleare and simple with Mary Mary hath chosen the better parte which shall not be taken away from her And you have chosen the same which unlesse you keepe according to your power you produce not fruit worthy your profession Have therefore alwayes a charitable simplicity of mynde if you be yet a little one in Christ and are not able to followe Mary soaring soe high in mynde imitate her humility imitate her affectionate watring our lords feete with teares imitate her sweetly feeding on our lords words imitate her most amorously seeking our lord in the sepulcher For even in these she had simplicity of mynde she loved one thing She thought on one thing she sought one thing But imitate her not for your owne delight but to please our lord For if by spirituall delectation you doe principally seeke your selfe in these your soule is not the chast spowse of Christ but the most baise servant of sinne I might say the divells impure hackney you shall at length merit to be admitted to the apprehension of higher misteries by these that are more lowe if I may soe call them which indeed are not lowe but of a wondrous hight In all things that differ not from the sincerity of a monasticall life conforme your selfe to the community still avoiding vitious singularity And because you live amonge Monkes that live laudably according to the sweete austerity of a holy rule be not singular in abstinence and watching neyther exceede the rest of the Monkes therein unlesse by the revelation of the holy Ghost you knowe it to be the will and pleasure of God Neither attempt any thing without the counsell and consent of your superior least while you presume of your owne head to afflict your body beyoud measure you make your selfe unable for good workes and wholy deprive your selfe of the fruite of your labour God requireth of you purity of mynde not the overthrowe of your body He would that you should subject it to the spirit not that you should oppresse it Therefore as well in externall exercises as internall temper the fervour of your mynde with a holy discretion If your will being more slowe to vertue and remisse doe as it were sleepe rowse it up spur it forward But if having to much bridle it runne too fast represse and cheeke it Alwayes asist it with holy feare in the presence of God And let these words alwayes resounde in the eares of your heart looke to thy selfe Consider not over curiously the deeds of others what are their manners and behaviour unlesse it belong unto you as an officer Let your curiosity and businesse be about your selfe Howebeyt thinke not in this that I would have you make noe accompt of the excesses or finnes of others or neglect to amende them asmuch as in you lyeth or procure them to bee amended For we condemne curiosity not holy zeale of justice We discommend not what in this case is not against mature stability or contrary to the sincere love of your neighbour These vices that you see in others or heare of them either thinke them not to be simply true or interpret them in the better parte but if they be soe manifest that no interpretation can qualifie them endeavour to seperate your sight both of body and mynde from them and reflecting on your owne sinnes if you have leasure humbly pray to God both for your selfe and for them For soe shall you more easily avoide unquiet suspicions and rashe judgements But beware that with consent of reason you rejoyce not at anothers sinne though of smale moment or of any adversity but mourne for your brother before our lord calling to mynde that we are mēbers one of another all one body and redeemed all with the same blood Learne not to be angry but to pitty the defects of others and patiently to beare with them whether they be defects of body or mynde For it is written beare one anothers burdens and soe you shall fullfill the lawe of Christ Let not the heavenly grace with you observe in others excite you to satanicall envy but to a faithfull imitation and godly congratulation And although you have not the spirituall good that you knowe another to be blessed with yet rejoyce in heart that God is honoured by it as readily thanke our lord for it as if it were your owne And indeed it will be to your owne good and you shall be crowned for anothers as for your owne Nay more it shall become your owne soe order your mynde that you desire not to please the world nor feare to displease it In man although very neerly allyed love nothing but good or the grace and workmanship of good And agayne hate nothing but vice Le trompe tout le monde Ainsi 〈◊〉 la gloire du 〈◊〉 Nay esteeme noe man your enemie but love even your persecutors as the moste deare furtherers of your salvation What soever you see heare or perceave in creatures to be delightfull and worthy of singuler admiration either by their naturall disposition or the art and industery of man referre it to the praise of the great Creator or the use of eternall beatitude that you may be delighted in our lord Alwayes be afraide of sensuall delectation whencesoever it have its beginning For if you seeke your selfe by that and cleave to it you will be entangled and defiled utterly detest the love of all sinnes yea even of the very least By which not withstanding if peradventure being over reached you fall out of frailty afflict not your selfe unreasonable with inordinate pusillanity but humbly confesse your fault before our lord and renewing your good purpose and piously taking heart caste all your defects into the unsearchable profundity of his mercies or his moste holy wouds As long as you live in this clay building of your body you may mortifie in your selfe the affections of lesser sinnes but wholy avoide to slip into them you cannot godly