Lord that I lifte vp my eyes who dost inhabite the Heauens * Alas doe not chastise me in thy fury correct me not in thine angar * And a number of others the like eleuations of of mind which the Psalmist breathes out in so many passages of his heauenly Canticles Whereby we are taught that Prayer is the towre of DAVID an Armory wherin are all sorts of armour against the assaults of temptation so that we alwayes conclude ouer prayers in those words of perfect resignation Let thy will ô Lord be done not myne * Be it done in earth as it is in Heauen * Be it done according to thy blessed pleasure not according to my guste or liking For if we desire that God should doe our will is it not most reasonable that we should submit our selues vnto his And that we should repute him our soueraigne law * put downe in the beginning of our booke * and engrauen in the midst of our hart We doe often aske and receaue not because we aske amisse * And God who is good doth sometimes out of Loue deny vs that which if he were offended with vs he would grāt vs. S. PAVLE petitioned to be freed from that shamefull temptation which did afflict him but was answered that grace did suffice him because his vertue was perfected in infirmity * So that he was heard in one sense and not in another Let vs therefore aske what we ought and as we ought and Gods promisse will neuer faile vs. For his Truth remaines foreuer and his word passeth not The word of God another Antidote CHAP. IV. BEsides Prayer there is yet another weapon very powrefull against temptations especially that with which you are afflicted THEOPISTE it is the sword of the Holy Ghost the word of God * whether it be heard for faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ * read or spoken for its redounding is the voice of thunder which doth daūt the accursed spirits The tryall of this remedie was made by our Sauiours temptation in the desert who repelled the Tempters darts with the words of life life euerlasting * The Authour of it is S. HIEROME writing to his EVSTOCHIVM deliuering her verie particular and ample documents touching it S. GREGORIE in his Moralls S. BASILE in his short Rules and CASSIAN in his twenty two Conference all who with one consent doe aduise vs to store our selues with sacred darts opposite to the vices which temptation doth suggest as with so manie sharpe arrowes quiuered vp in our memorie where of we may make vse in time of neede to beate downe all the enemys plots by a constant and couragious cōter-batterie Howbeit I must ingeniouslie confesse this remedie is not so commō nor is it vsefull for euerie one but such as are conuersant in holie write or bookes of spiritualitie And indeed THEOPISTE I speake to you as to one that knowes the law * as S. PAVLE saith that you may make vse of this weapon in this your extreamitie according to the skill you haue therat All the Holie Fathers hold it soueraigne Hence DAVID said that the arrowes of God that is of his word were sharpe headed powerfull aboue his workes fit to beate downe the enemies of the King of Glory * That melancholie is to be auoyded CHAP. V. BVT I perceaue the tempest of your mynd requiers that I should sound search your wound yet deeper and presse and prie with more diligence into your sore O God THEOPISTE take-heade least that bitternesse of mynd which doth possesse you proceeding frō the smart of your euil endured with melancholie and impatience may be worse then the temptation it selfe It is a remedie which nature without the helpe of Grace can applie vnto it selfe while yet in lieu of disengaging it selfe it inueigles it selfe in lieu of curing it impoysones its woūd in lieu of lightening it makes its owne burden more vnweldie In vaine THEOPISTE in vaine doe you striue to build your interiour house vpon a solide and sure foundation vnlesse God put his hand to the worke If God keepe not the Citie of your soule in vaine doe you stand sentinell in vaine you walke the round of the walls * Vnlesse that strong armed keepe the Fort you are neuer to hope for Peace * If he awake not if he speake not the storme will not cease * the calme will not come * If you thinke to find out the meanes in your selfe whereby to conserue your Faith against the powers of darkenesse * you seeke for birds in the sea fishes on the drie land you looke to finde out fountaines of liuing water in broken cisternes and in Nature fruites not to be found in her garden effects that are beyōd her reach Yes for Faith being infused into our hart by a diuine and supernaturall way she will not be stayed there By humane meanes nor by our endeuours strife alone If you thinke by your owne endeuours to quite your selfe of the assaultes which are made against you you shall neuer be freed from them because this buckler is not of a temper strōg enough nor is this armour proofe The more that you drinke of the water of your Cisterne * the more you demand the more you are inflamed the more your thirst is augmented and your melācholie will increase by the very meanes you vse to remoue and put it away It is as oyle cast into the fire which in steede of extinguishing doth kindle it Haue recourse therefore to God in this behalfe in him you shall find Peace and repose for he assures vs that his yoake is sweete and his burden light * But that I may no further dilate my selfe vpon this remedy I referre you not to the bare reading but to the diligent and faithfull practise of the eleauenth and twelueth Chapter of the fourth part of our B. F. his Philothee where he speakes of vnquietnesse saddesse There you shall find soueraigne receptes for your desease and in the storme wherein you are tossed the Seagalls calme In fine that Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding and all humane conceipt That we are in no wise to omit the ordinarie exercises of our vocation CHAP. VI. ABOVE all things THEOPISTE be ware that this affliction of mynd which doth crosse you doe not delay you as an importune Remora in the course of your nauigation that is in the exercises of your vocation For as the Crampe-fish hauing takē downe the fishers baite sends out by the line such a mūnesse into his arme that he is forced to lett all goe so the Angell of darknes who striues still as the Prouerbe goes to fish in troubled waters perceauing him selfe not able to staggar a soule by temptation takes pleasure at least to put him out of the racke or path of his dutie casting woode on his breade * as well as snares in his way * that he may forget to eate that or at least stumble at this He thinkes he
deafe eare to your friendly inuitation without violating this diuine ordinance and infringing brotherly charitie which we owe to euery one as the great Apostle said since God hath commended our neighbour to euery one of vs * and hath put downe in his law that we should loue them as ouer selues * And seeing by Gods prouidence I was ordayned to be one of the Pastours of his Church am I not obliged by my state and condition to contribute to the necessities of my bretheren * vnlesse I would be lyable to the reproch and expect the sad effect of the dreadfull threates which the diuine zeale thunders out by the mouth of one of his Prophetes woe be to the Pastours who feede thēselues who eate the flesh and are couered with the woole of their flocke who sucke the marrow and drinke the milke and yet nourish them not They doe not strengthen that which is weake cure not that which is sicke reioyne not that which is broken reduce not what is strayed they seeke not that which is lost so that the sheepe were scattered and exposed to the rage of the rauiuous beastes But behold I liue saith our Lord and I will exact my flocke at their hands * And my hande vpon them shall take vengance of their blood * And behold saith he by the organe of another Trumpet how my people are led away captiue because they wanted knowledge * the knowledge of Saintes * which doth reclaime from the slauerie of sinne and enlarge vs with that precious libertie which doth cast off the heauie yoake of sinne and which is the true libertie of the children of God * Now to whom doth it belong to communicate to others this knowledge of the God of knowledge but to those who are called the salt of the earth * and the light of the world * who together with the holy Ghost receaued the knowledge of the voice * by the imposition of hands in their ministerie and whose lipps keepe the depositum of the diuine knowledge who are to be a law †and a Rule of life to their subiectes and to the soules of whom they are liable to giue an accompt Shall it euer be said that the Samaritane powred his wine and oyle into the wounds of the hurt-man * and performed euen workes of supererogation †to saue his life and that yet the Preist and Leuite shall passe without pittie not casting an eye of mercy vpon him * He saith the beloued Disciple of our Sauiour who is possest of good things and seeing his brother in necessitie shutts his bowells of mercy vpon him with what face can he affirme that the Charitie of God is in him * No saith he going on whosoeuer saith he loues God and yet takes no thought for the necessitie he vnderstands spirituall and temporall Of his neighbour is a lyar and the truth of God doth not inhabite his soule * Loue one another saith the Apostle to all Christians with a brotherly and mutuall charitie * and beare one anothers burden and so you shall fulfill the law of CHRIST * reputing your selues each others members or rather members of IESVS CHRIST and that you doe but compose one misticall body with him But it doth principally apertaine to the Heades of the People * which are the Pastours and who haue the bands of Charitie and perfection * for the portion and honorable part of their inheritance to watch ouer the necessitie of the soules committed to their trust as the shee heards who were first of all aduertised by the Angells of the birth of our redeemour because during the deade of the night they were watchfull ouer their flocks Blessed is that seruant who shall be found wakeing in the day of the coming of the great Maister * and who shall be able to say with him of the Ghospell behold fiue talents profit which I haue made out of the fiue which thou gauest me to vse * and with Iob I haue bene the foote of the lambe and the eye of the blinde * and with the Doctour of the Gentils Who is infirme with whom by compassion I become not infirme * Who are those litle ones asking for bread to whom I haue not communicated what I haue learnt without enuie or fiction in simplicitie of heart * Prayer to God for a soule in temptation CHAP. II. OIESVS my Lord can I haue the hart to see my brother in tribulation without bearing a part of his paines since I clearely discouer that thou thy selfe art together with him in that anguish which doth trouble him with intention to deliuer him from it and crowne him for it with Glorie Art thou not continually neere vnto those who haue their hearts shutt and doe inuoke thy holy name * Art not thou he who doth saue the humble of hart * ô what a hight of happinesse is it to be Coadiutour and Cooperatour with thee * in this good worke what am I not able to doe together with thy helpe * verily I can doe all things not I but thy grace within me Woe be vnto me if I Euangelise not * if I reteine veritie prisoner in Iniustice * if I hold my peace when there is question of Sion * and of the good of a soule redeemed with the inestimable price of thy precious blood If I become a dume dogge which ether cannot or will not open his mouth * If my tongue be not a penne or my penne a tongue to direct in thy wayes the foot-steps of such as want direction * Alas most amiable Sauiour Loe THEOP poore THEOPIST whom thou louest * and who I know loues thee with an vnfayned Charitie and a true affection * THEOPIST my deare brother in thy holy Spirit is not onely sicke but euen suffers violence ti 's thy part to make answere for him * since being vnited vnto thee as a vine-branch to its stocke as a member to its head * thou bearest part in his afflictions as in the tymes of Saule whom thou madest a PAVLE thou didst resent the persequution of thy Faithfull That which doth most torment him is the knowledge he hath of his owne frayletie and a feare to offend thee in this great tempest which the enemy of his saluation hath sturd vp against his Faith He is driuen to the maine sea being weather-beaten he dreads ship-wrake he cryes out vnto thee saue me ô Lord I perish * thou who sauest those which hope in thee * how long wilt thou be forgetfull of him ô Lord how long wilt thou turne thy fauorable face from him * thou who dost command the sea and the winds * And who in the twingling of an eye dost turne the most desperate storme into a plasant calme * O God increase his Faith * purifie his hart with that vertue * Restore him the ioy of thy saluation * and with thy principall spirit confirme him * This is the prayer my deare THEO which I make vpon your affliction It is the balme which
feruour of your first Charitie * But in very deed THEOPISTE I doe not proceede with you in spirit of guile but speake out of the abundance of my hart* and according to the true sense of my soule A sense so true and solide that all the holy Scripture which is the word of Truth of Truth and of life euerlasting * is all full of it nor are pious bookes furnished with any other instructions vpon the matter of temptations Which I assure my selfe you will be constraind to confesse vnto me if allaying for a while the tumult of your hart and silencing the noise of your disquiete you would call to mind the precepts of our B. F. in the fourth part of his Philothee For what he speakes there of temptations in generall ought and may easely be applyed to yours in particular And if my ignorance dare adde any thing to so great an Oracle I beseech your humilitie to arme her selfe with patience to reade what I am about to put downe An holsome Feare CHAP. VII YOv thinke you are lost and I hold that you walke in the way of saluation You repute your selfe an Ethnike worse then an Infidele and I admire your Faith you apprehend your selfe defeated and I sing not your victorie For all victorie proceeds from the God of Hostes but the victorie of the Tryumph of Gods Mercy in you You neuer saw your selfe say you so feeble in point of Faith and I neuer saw you so constant in it It is true in deede that your aduersarie like vnto a roreing Lion doth roame about endeuouring to make you his prey marrie the resistance you make against him by the force of Faith * doth make me iustly beleeue that grace superaboundeth where you deeme sinne doth abounde * For you haue to doe with an enemy whom IESVS CHRIST by his death did so weaken that he can gaine no aduantage against vs but by our owne disloyaltie and dasterdlinesse all the feelings which he can rayse vp in vs not being able to forme any sinne at all without our consent So that as from Grace which is neuer awanting all our succour comes so from our selues alone is our ruine * Which when it arriues we are not so much to accuse the enemyes force as our owne malice But you feare say you to fall by consent and that force of the Tempest driueing your fraile vessell against the shelues you may suffer shipwrake in Faith * which is the most deplorable that can be suffered in spirituall life While I for my part dare assure you that he is blessed who feares continually * for he that feares to offend God doth truely loue his Law * and his Faith This feare of our Lord doth driue away sinne * and permits it not to raigne in the soule * DAVID tearmes it the ferme Pillar and firmamēt of the mynd * Who knowes not that it is the will of God that we should worke our saluation in Feare and Trembling * O Lord said DAVID pierce my flesh with the nayles of thy Feare and make me to dreade thy iudgemēts * I should be exceeding sorie THEOPISTE that this Feare should forsake your hart and I should intertayne a farre worse opinion of your desease if your pulse did not beate so hard That which makes you sorrowfull glads me what afflictes you comforts me what you conceaue to be signes of death are to me markes of life in you To doubt and to consent are incompatible CHAP. VIII YOu stād in feare THEOPISTE that your consent should follow your sense or feeling and I hold according to all Diuinitie a farre better warranty then your apprehensions that it is as impossible to ioyne a doubt and a consent together as a certaine with an vncertaine thing For consent doth presuppose so full and absolute aggreement and yeelding vp of it selfe and so constant a determination that it leaues no doubt at all behind it The Archer that hath a shaking hand hardly euer hits the white The ayme to be leuell and straight must also be stiddie and constant The surest signe that we consent not is to doubt that we consent So that the same thing which doth trouble you doth free and cleare my iudgement of all doubt Thus your blinding Egiptian fogges are to me a light as to the Israelite The darke cloud which doth incompasse you is to me a Pillar of fire * for its light a fire for strength a pillar I would to God that you had ether my eyes or at least would credit my words you should presently be cured That in the temptation we are to feare the fault and not the paine CHAP. IX BVt happily it is the too inordinate desire of health that delayes the cure Fire is fallen vpō them * saith the Psalmist speaking of the children of Israel nor haue they seene the sunne * Nothing doth so much hinder a man to discerne the light of reason as the heate of a violēt passiō which is neuer without smoke THEOPISTE I doe a litle doubt me that in this tribulation which doth afflict you you doe more fly the Paine then the Faulte or at least that you feare and flie not the Faulte but by reason of the Paine which followes it as the inseparable shadowe of this infortunate body This peraduentures is the roote of your euil God will be loued for his ownesake Not for the reward which he promiseth otherwise the reward would be loued as God and God as the reward He will haue vs to abstayne from sinne not so much for the feare of his Iustice as for feare to offend his goodnes Thence it may be he leaues you to be tempered and seasoned in this temptation By meanes of it he vrgeth you on by frightes to th end that being gotten to a higher degree of Charitie this sterne and seruile feare may giue place to filiall feare And then this yoke shall rott away that is shall burst by the application and force of that heauēly oyle * following the tearmes of one of the Prophetes Lay your hand vpon a good not an erroneous conscience and vpō an vnfayned Faith * and tell me in words of Truth * THEOPISTE whether I haue not put my fingar vpon your sore and touched you to the quicke For the knowledge which I haue of the goodnes of your soule makes me as I cōceaue clearely see that this feare causeth you to runne vp and downe searching for Dittanie to draw out of your thigh or rather out of your hart the arrow of tēptation the smarte wherof doth more trouble you then any ferme beleife you haue of faulte cōmitted But tell me then in simplicitie of hart my deare THEOPISTE if it be not as I say or rather as I coniecture since like vnto NABVCHODONOSOR you will haue me not onely to interprete but euen to arreade your dreames and thoughtes For loe Phisitians doe onely cure the deseases they know nor doe they know them but by a true relation which
against me * If thou be with me saith the diuine Apostle who can be against me * Now as starrs doe not onelie looke downe vpon the earth but also doe dart downe vpon it diuerse influences so the eyes of God are not meerely cast vpon vs as IOB saith as one man beholds another but as the scripture doth teach vs they doe infuse a certaine force into vs * which makes vs become valourous against our enemies So we reade of SAMSON who ouerthrew the Philistians while the spirit of God did assiste him This supplie of courage doth also appeare in humane vallour For what doe souldiers performe when they haue the honour to fight in presence of their Prince doe they not lend belowes about them euen beyond their force Yet are they ordinarily moued therto by humane respectes and vanitie too often is their motiue * What then ought not a truelie faithfull and generous soule doe for an Eternitie Is she not in this behalfe to imitate the Angels of light who threw downe to Hell those of darknesse in that great battell which was fought in Heauen by that word which testified their inuiolable alleagance WHO IS AS GOD who is as God In like manner when those legions of wicked thoughtes of infidelitie abomination and blasphemie shall discouer thēselues to your thoughtes and as importune Drones shall buze about your hart you are but to make this protestation WHO IS AS GOD Who is like vnto our Lord God who doth inhabite the heauens aboue and doth lend a fauorable ey to things below * Thence proceeded those sacred eiaculations which wee see in manie passages of holy Scripture holy Saintes made in like occurrences IOSEPH being tēpted protests that he will not offend his Master SVSANNA also resistes temptation out of the apprehension she had of Gods presence S. PAVLE I liue in the Faith of the Sonne of God who hath loued me and who gaue himselfe for me * S. BLANDINE being drawen to martirdome vsed no other words then that she was a Christian and dyed in that holy protestatiō S. PETER MARTYR being wounded to death and left vpon the place by the Murderers had yet leasure to write these words vpon a stome with his fingar dipt in his owne blood I BELEEVE * And Saincte TERESA drawing neere vnto death said sometimes at the least Lord I die a child of thy Church making thereby a briefe profession of her Faith whereof she made vse as of a fierie sword to driue away all illusiōs cōtrarie to her beleife and intire loyaltie Thus it is that those that are faithfull in Loue * doe exercise thēselues against the assaultes of the midday diuell * For the rest I will assure you that those who by interiour or exteriour actes of Faith doe make heade against the temptations of the spirit of infidelitie doe soudainely dashe all his designes and doe what he can they frustrate his attēpts For like as a Maide can neuer be married while she saith No because it is the consent that tyes the knot of marriage so temptation can neuer cast a soule into sinne and by sinne marrie her to death and Hell * till free-will yeald it selfe vp to so loose a disloyaltie as to forsake the Creatour for the Creature and the liuing fountaine for a drie Cisterne The difference betwixt Meditation and Contemplation CHAP. VIII NOw these actes of Faith wherof I haue spoken THEOPISTE are produced in this life which the Misticalls tearme Actiue by meanes of vocall Prayer if they be exteriour or by Meditatiō if they be interiour But if you desire to make them equall in vigour and force to their excellencie as dartes by how much they are sharper by so much they are the more penetrating I will yet furnish you with other meanes which are in my iudgment two of the most forceable remedies that are to be found not onely to disperse repell those troublesome tēptations but euen to draw so great a riches out of them that you will be cōstrayned to crie-out with that Aunciēt we had bene lost if we had not bene lost Both of thē shall be taken out of the boxe of Contemplation the vse of which doth Wonderfully refine Faith as it doth also inflame Charity but in two different degrees For the first shall be drawen out of simple the other out of eminent Contemplation And this being said I haue no more to say vnto you but onely to leaue you in the hands of God almightie and with MOYSES to the kisse of our Lord. * You are alreadie sufficiently instructed in spirituall affaires to discerne the difference betwixt Meditation and Contemplation yet to renew in you the memorie therof you may please to looke what our B. F. saith of it according to his ordinarie that is excellently in the 6. booke of his Theotime I will say onely that which is absolutely necessarie for the clearing and illustrating of that which I am about to tell you Meditation which is no other thing then the groning or murmuring of the Doue * a misticall ruminating * or recogitating * wherof frequent mention is made in holy Scripture is made by an attentiue consideration or interiour discourse which tends to moue and excitate the soule to holy affections and resolutions To this pourpose it doth bend apply and imploy all the faculties of the soule replenishing the Memorie with the presence of God and with the pointes which she is about to examine The vnderstāding with discourse reasons and intelligible species The will with aspirations resolutions affections The Imagination with figures and Idea's following that which the Philosopher doth teach vs that he that doth meditate is to frame vnto himselfe Idea's or Images So that Meditation doth sound examine the truth of things or hidden misteries by peace-meale making as it were an anatomie of them imitating therin the Fisher and fowler the one wherof doth beate the feilds and bushes th' other the riuers to find out their game or els to one that is eating who turnes and chewes the meate in his mouth before he be fed with it It s game and foode are the diuers Actes which the powers and faculties of the soule doe produce which is neuer done without labour and paine though indeede that paine is solaced by Charitie For he that loues labours not or if he labour he loues that beloued labour by reason of the Obiect which is the deare cause therof All IACOBS labours seemd light to him by reason of the loue and affection he bore to the beautifull RACHEL It fares not so with Contemplation for it resembles drinking a flowing action sweete and easie It is made in vnitie not in multiplicitie It leaues the actiuitie of MARTHA to meditation and takes to it selfe MARIE'S best part which shall neuer be taken frō her * It is a simple singular and louely looke cast vpon any Truth or Misterie yet a looke which in its one onely simple and naked Act doth comprehend in
dreadfull Giant who in his brauadoes threatened to make him haulkes meate I doe not affirme that the Actes of Meditation are not good weapons weapons as S. PAVLE saith of our spirituall warefare able to ouerthrow the enemy * But as it happens often that those that are ouerburthened with too heauie armour doe fall downe vnder the waight of them and are lesse able and actiue in the fight thē though they were but armed with light armour so in spirituall Combates the multiplicitie of actes contrarie to the vice wherwith we are tempted doe more oppresse then succour the soule and with the simple acte of Contemplation it giues a more victorious blow then with the varietie of others All those litle Actes are like vnto the dew dropes or perles which the nighte's freshnesse vpon the Aurora's approach doth spread ouer the face of the earth wherwith it is but superficially watered but the act of Contemplation resembles a full flood which ouerflowing it's bākes doth throughly water the whole feilds and sinkes euen into the tree rootes The Father of a possessed person as S. MARKE doth teach vs in his Ghospell brought his sōne vnto our Sauiour beseeching him to deliuer his child from the wicked spirit which did torment him and said vnto him I beleeue ô Lord helpe myne incredulitie This word of Faith inuoking the Diuine assistāce inuited our Sauiour's sweetnesse to be mercyfull vnto him If you could but once THE OPISTE recollect all the powers of your soule in the vnitie of your spirit and with a louly and louing aspect expresse before God this onely word I beleeue with as much heate of the will as light of the vnderstanding I doubt not but ether this Spirit of Blasphemie would depart frō you or if by the Diuine permission he should persiste to persecute you it would be to bring the verie vertue which he seekes to ruinate to a greater perfection in you Exercise your selfe therfor with care and attention in this interiour recollection and in this act of simple Contemplation which is that eye of the doue washed in the milke of meekenesse and mourneing ouer the floodes of afflictions and you shall see God will restore you your wished Peace and will place you in a plentifull deepe repose * calling you into the holes of the rocke into the holow places of the wall An act of Contemplation CHAP. XI BVt what is this holow place Marrie Contemplation but in a higher degree then the former and which doth extend it selfe not to the hight of passiue Contemplation which depends not of him that doth plante and water but of the onely mercy of God * who giues that grace to whom he pleaseth the Spirit being free to blow whet it will * a hight which I will in no sort striue to touch THEOPISTE but such an one as will beare you vp vpon the wings of the Doue * that is of Grace to the highest point to which that actiue Contemplatiō can raise a truely faithfull soule one that is holily inamoured of the soueraigne good * Now which is this high point this supreame degree but that whereof the diuine S. DENIS the Areopagite the Apostle of France speakes in these tearmes to the Bishope of Ephesus TIMOTHEE in the first Chap. of his booke of misticall Diuinity As for you my deare Timothee applying your selfe with an attentiue and recollected study to misticall speculations forsake both sense and intellectuall operations all sensible and intelligible things all things that are and those that are not too and after an vnknowen manner rayse vp your selfe words that doe point out an actiue Cōtemplation proceeding from our owne endeuours assisted by Gods grace without which we are able to doe nothing rayse vp your selfe as much as you can possibly to his vnion who is beyond all essence and knowledge for being disintangled from your-selfe all things all which you haue forsaken and cleared your selfe of with a purely free issue you shall be carried vp to the super-essentiall raye of the diuine darknesses * Hitherto are the words of this great Sainte whom all the misticall diuines behold as their light Words of gold and which would not onely merit to be written in marble but vpon the harts of all those that make profession of a spirituall and contemplatiue life Here is no place to explicate them I doe but onely represent them to your eye or rather to your mynd THEOPISTE to th'ēd that you might note by the way the high and inaccessible couert or hole where you are to take vp your refuge if your desire with the doue to saue your selfe from the Hawkes tallon which by the tēptation of infidelity doth so eagerly pursue you You shall find out this refuge if during the storme renoūcing all the operations of your sense reason of the inferiour superiour part of the soule as well sensitiue as reasonable you retire and betake your selfe into your inmost chāber the Center bottome point and vnity of your Spirit into the essence of your soule for all these termes signifie the same thing amongst the misticall Diuines And there in the high silence and repose of all your exteriour and interiour faculties you be quiete see that God is God* you taste and see how sweete he is * And if in a close vnion you adheare to him by a liuely faith this adhesion will make you one same spirit with him according to that of the Apostle he that adheares vnto God is made one spirit with him * Thus shall you imitate the shells of the Sea which that they may not be the billowes game cleaue to the Rocke as soone as they perceaue the tēpest approch remaining there immoueable and vnuariable and you shall cleaue to God you shall hold him and not let him goe like to the Spouse in the Canticles you shall tye your selfe to the pillar firmamēt of Truth * the holy Church which doth propose vnto vs his oracles a pillar against which all the Gates and Powers of Hell shall neuer be able to preuaile * This is that secrete to you * or rather which is in you wherof the Prophete speaketh whither you may retire your selfe neere vnto God who is present to the most inward corner of your hart as all the Contemplatiues hold in a most peculiar manner This is the couert of his countenance vnder which we may shelter our selues frō the violence of contradictions and temptations no otherwise then litle sucking children who doe thrust into and hide themselues in their mothers bosome whē any thing feares them This is the denne where DAVID persecuted by SAVLE hidde himselfe and where his very enemy fell into his power This it that great City of Refuge that Sanctuary where you may free your selfe from your inuisible enemies and where they are not permitted entrie This is that high place that sharpe toppe of the Rocke where the Eagles build their nest * as IOB saith And that most high
interiour powers and faculties and in this sort you shall find out that so much desired Peace tearmed best * by the wiseman When a towne is beseiged at the first the inhabitants make sallies to free thēselues till the enemy force them in and then they conteyne themselues within the compasse of the walls But if the towne come to be taken by assaulte they retire and betake themselues into the Castle which being also takē they imprisone themselues in the dūgeon where they come to reasonable tearmes of composition We are to proceed in like manner in our temptations First we are to vse sensible Actes to rayse the Seige but finding the enemy too violent and strong we are to retire our selues into our interiour yea in case the appetire and Powers suffer violence we may shutt our selues vp in the verie botome of our soule where full and absolute Consent doth reside and hart whence the wiseman saith life doth proceede * and neuer depart or render vp that place till we accord an honorable composition to witt that our Soueraigne be not offended It is better to fall innocēt then criminall to liue saith an auncient Father And doth not holy write say what better were a mā to gaine the whole world and loose his owne soule * for an Eternitie Certes this retireing of our selues into the bottome or inmost roome of our soule makes vs resemble the Tortis who is as it were impregnable while she keepes her selfe within her shell and the Irchine which cannot be bitt by a dogge nor taken by the bare hand of a man being as a cheshnut vpon the tree beset on euerie side with prickes The diuell knowes not where to catch hold on vs in this happie estate nor where to hitt vs for hauing renounced sense humane Reason and all created things he knowes not how to assaulte vs while we leaue no place or footing to his illusions Happie is the soule that is come to this degree for one may affirme of her that God hath raysed her a Horne of saluation in his house where freed from the hands of her enemyes she may liue deuoyd of feare in sanctitie and Iustice And which is yet more remarkable he makes her draw aduātages from her enemyes from all that hate her and profit from her temptations and tribulations A generall abstraction CHAP. XIV MAKE haste THEOPISTE to enter in this Repose * But by what gate are you to enter by a mentall abstraction from all that is created and all that can be any impeachment to the vnion of our soule with God Then it is that you are to imitate the Commanders of the Armie of Israel who hauing made their garments and weapons a troupe of testimonies and placed IEHV vpon them they proclamed him King and cryed liue IEHV IEHV is King When you shall haue turnd the old man out of his vitious habites and shall haue renounced all the impressions of sense and reason then in that intire humane ignorance you shall meet with the obscure brightnesse or bright obscurity of Faith which will appeare vnto you as a Pillar of bright light fire a pillar in strēgth in truth a light and burning in Charitie This eminent degree of Actiue Contemplation doth not behold God in any affirmation or negation as the Misticalls speake nor yet in any particular species but as an vniuersall Obiect eleuated aboue euery created knowledge and capacity In which respect this practise would be soueraignely good against your tēptation which being onely generall would be much more efficaciouslie repelled by this generall aspect then by anie one in particular Against generall temptations CHAP. XV. FOr I must here tell you for your consolation that in matter of temptations the most vniuersall are the least to be dreaded For as in good Philosophie the arguments that conclude too much conclud nothing at all so excessiue suggestions doe fill the soule tempted with such a horrour and distaste that they neuer get admittāce since the soule cannot be carried so soudenlie to such an extreamitie Whereas particular ones which come with a lesse noyse doe runne like water into the interiour and as oyle into the bones * that is in a sort insensibly and imperceptibly The baite is quicklier swallowed downe then the hooke that is hid vnder it is thought of We gather Aspalata delightfull to the ey without euer thinking of the Aske that lyes vnder it whose sting is mortall This will be more easily conceaued in an exāple You are tēpted in generall against all that faith doth teach vs and there is no kind of abominable Idea to this effect no kind of brutish infidelity of execrable blasphemie of detestable impietie which the wicked spirit doth not represent vnto your hart to bring you to Athisme Loe the Picture of your affliction But doe you not also discouer the folly foolerie of the diuell therein as malignant mischeeuous as he is doe you not perceaue that that which you esteeme force and violence is meere want of force and infirmity in him who vsed so little flight and guile in laying his snares For your soule conceauing an incōparable horrour against such like illusions falls into the other extreamity and though imperceptibly which is admirable and indeed is the worke of the fingar of God * in you diues deeper and takes better roote in faith which that hellish Feind striues to roote vp or shake Whereas if the temptation were against some one article of our beleife as against the reall presence of the body blood of the Sonne of God in the Eucharist of the Trinitie of persons in vnity of Essence or the like doubtlesse his battery were more to be feared for like as in an ALARVM if one linke or ring breake the whole is spoyled so taking away one Article of the Catholike Faith we faile in the whole that is we forsake vniuersality which makes the true Catholike and cōsequently the whole frame doth threaten ruine At the Seige of a towne though it be inuironed rownd about to preuēt the entrie of any succour yet is batterie layd onely to one side of it where the breach being made as great as they desire the assaulte is giuen vnlesse good resistance oppositiō be made the falls towne into the beseigers hands who entering onely that way and not ouer all the walls at once make themselues notwithstāding Masters of the towne The diuell our sworne enemie doth cōtinuallie lay seige vnto our hart and roaes about it like a Roaring lyon seeking his prey * But to make himselfe Master he mist his marke in assaulting vs so generally without making a particular breach whereby he was to enter This is it that makes me iudge that the temptation which doth assault you THEOPISTE being too generall is but a false ALARVM which the enemie giues rather to trouble your inward repose and quiet then anie hope which he conceaues to ouerthrowe or reduce you to the Abisse of misery Take
a good hart therefore and say with the Psalmist that though all the forces of Hell should make head against you yet would you not feare though a million of companies incōpassed you yet would you not dread because God doth rise vp to succour and saue you Vnite your selfe vnto him in the high point of Contemplation which I haue discouered vnto you keepe your selfe there without all discourse without all reflection vpon your selfe without framing any particular act in a profound and generall silence For it was in the vniuersall Peace and silēce of all the vniuerse and in the midst of a darke night that the Omnipotent WORD came from Heauen to earth to vnite himselfe to our nature * to enlighten euery man coming into this world * and to illuminate those who were in darknes and in the Region of the shadow of death * And with what torch but the torch of Faith wherby he makes our darknes lightsome I remember THEOPISTE I made once a litle spirituall treatise or EXERCISE OF LIVELY FAITH which might as I conceaue not a litle comfort you and more amply instruct you touching this act of Contemplation which I haue marked you out for your last refuge I made you this Paraclese or Consolation being at our villemond where I am detayned this winter to distribute the word of God After my returne to my Residence I will looke out that writing from amongst the papers of my Studie where it lyes buried and I will make a copie of it be taken to send you Meane while make vse of the instructions which are conteyned herein not onely in the temptation which doth presently presse you but in all the rest that may chance to assault you after you shall be deliuered of this For these precepts which for the most part I haue gathered out of the aduises of that blessed Prelate FRANCIS DE SALES of holy happie memorie our most honoured Father and Directour may be applyed not onely to the temptations of blasphemie and infidelititie but euen to all other temptations for that these endeuours are not so tyed to particularities as that they doe not also descend to generalities being of the number of those Antidotes which are tearmed vniuersall An Exhortation to spirituall vallour in imitation of IACOBS wrastling CHAP. XVI IN cōclusion I must make the Apostolike trumpet sound in your eares fight I fight THEOPISTE as a good and faithfull seruant of IESVS CHRIST * Fight generously māly incessantly that by that good Combat you may conserue your Faith and obtayne the crowne of Iustice * Our whole life is a warfare a temptation Sweete and gentle calmes are blowē ouer by rough stormes In the world as on the Sea the still calme day is most doubted most subiect to rayne The Calme of the mynd is still essayed by some rebellion that so standing alwayes vpon our gard temptation may not surprise vs. * Doth the greatnes of your aduersarie astonish you call to mynd that IACOB'S antagonist was yet stronger An Angell at libertie must needs exceede those Angells of darknes who be loaden with their chaynes Yet at IABOC'S well the Pacriarke held the Angell play and though he came halting away yet victorie and benediction was his Be couragious and the like will befall you And though you haue not a like aduersarie yet like IACOB you fight by God's permission a try all of your fidelitie you fight in the night of Faith which is inuironed with types enigma's clouds At IABOC'S well signifying that you are to cleanse your selfe from all naturall lightes and reasons all sensible and intellectuall know ledge to betake your selfe naked and pure to the toppe of the Spirit without all the formes and shapes of terreane things where liuelie and pure Faith keepes her Residence IACOB neuer quitted his hold till the Angell blessed him and the day began to breake So are you inseparably to hold God till the rayes of his countenance beginne to shine vpon you * And till he restore the ioy of his Saluation * Thus shall you become a true Israelite victorious and seeing God * Be not troubled that humane reason in you comes off halting you shall walke hereafter vpon a right legg the Diuine reuelation wherin consistes the essence of Faith An essence by so much the more pure by how much it admitts lesse of the mixture of naturall light and experiēce For Faith doth loose its merite saith S. GREGORIE where experience hath place being saith the Apostle of inuisible things and such as appeare not * If you desire to be armed with the Armour of God to defeate the Diuell throw away with DAVID SAVLS armour stripe your selfe of humane reason and sense We are not onely to wrastle against flesh blood but Powers and principalities also against the Gouernour of the world wordly darknes against the hyest and most subtile malice of our mortall enemy * The armour of God therfore is necessarie for vs to stand constant to stand immoueable like vnto the Mont-Sion * And to this end we are to retire our selues into the verie topp of our Spirit where God doth soueraignely rayne He that remaynes there vnder the wings of the Highest shall infallibly be deliuered out of the Fowlers snare and vnder that shelter shall sing to God the song of his deliuerie adoring this Mercy in the 30. 90. 123. ps or in the Canticle of our B. La. ZACHARIE SIMEON But aboue all be sure to keepe your selfe in this learned ignorance and Adhearing onely faythfully to the prime vniuersall Truth which is God banish from you hart all manner of curiositie in point of Faith Protest with the Apostle that you will know nothing here below but IESVS CHRIST * Stand fermely least the enemy bereaue you of your crowne Forsake the foule troubled waters of Egipt to drinke of the pure source Sacryfice your ISAAC your naturall light vpon the toppe of this mountaine Repose peaceably in him WHO IS Be not separated from his Charitie and your faith is in assurance CHRIST hath reuealed a faithfull promise by the mouth of his beloued disciples whosoeuer shall remayne faithfull till death shall be rewarded with a crowne of life FINIS
betooke your selfe to pious bookes especially those which doe treate of temptations and of the meanes to put them to flight or to vanquish them As the PHILOTHEE of our B. Father the Spirituall workes of Grenado Point ALVEREZ RODRIGVEZ and the like And as great fires are enkindled by the same wind which doth extinguish litle weake ones so you apprehend that your greife gathers strength from the very meanes which you vse ether to lessen or loose it Following your Directours Counsell you haue multiplied the hearbe Borith which is that whereof the Fullers make vse to take spotts out of cloth I meane you haue had recurse to the sacred exercises of Penance and mortification knowing that a contrite and humble hart * is the greatest present which can be offered vnto God You haue extraordinarily frequented the vse of prayer reading spiritualitie of the Sacraments of Confession and the Euchariste with due attention to the word of God being all of them soueraigne Antidotes to strengthē assaulted Faith In a word there is no practise of deuotion whether counselled by writing or word of mouth whether inspired or found out by your owne vnderstanding being opened by vexation which you haue not imployed opportunely importunely to make those horrible thoughts vanish away which like a broode of vipers doe threaten their parents death according to that which the Psalmist saith of him who hath conceaued iniquitie ingendred greife and brought forth iniustice To what Saintes did you not make vowes to be deliuered of those importune motions which keepe a continuall bussing in the Temple of your hart which being consecrated vnto God by Pietie that raignes therin ought onely to be adorned with Sanctitie not admitting any thing that is profane or defiled since the Temple of the Citie of God had a priuiledge that it should not be disturbed with any of those lothsome beastes What violent endeauours haue you not vsed like another ABRAHAM to driue away those rauinous birds from aboue your interiour sacrifices How oft haue you taken your hart as it were in both your hands to force it to produce Actes of a liuely Faith and quickned with Charitie to repelle the firie dartes of the midday-Diuell who doth dazle your eyes with his execrable illusiōs Me thinkes I see my Theopiste vseing all kind of defence in this skrimish imploying as it were his whole man vpon it inuokeing Heauen and earth to this succour Heauen which seemes to be Brasse to him and the earth iron and God pittifull and rich in mercy becomes cruell and inexorable to him Being thus abandoned he is burdensome to himselfe his sinnes as he thinkes multiplied beyond number doe oppresse him as a heauie loade Euen Giants would grone vnder so many waters of anguish And his greatest torture is the verie same which affected Iob who complayned of nothing so much as to find himselfe contrarie to God euen while God himselfe a thing farre from his conceipt calld him iust vpwaight and a man full of a chaste feare Happy estate and signe of Gods fauour CHAP. VI. MY deare THEOPISTE the ey which seeth all things sees not it selfe so blind we are in our owne deedes Whence Phicitions and Aduocates doe rather referre their owne deseases and suites to the iudgement of some other of the same professions then to their owne directions I doe not wonder that the wayes of of God which are Mercy Truth and Iudgement are as farre beyond our reach and capacity as the Heauen is distant from the earth And if the thoughtes of our imaginations be so different sithens in that which you now propose vnto me the opinion which I constantly imbrace of you is so far different from your owne and that which you tearme Gods Iustice Rigour and abondoning of you I consider as Gods Grace Benignity Bounty and Mercy to your soule O my dearest THEOPIST if you knew the gift of God * his hand which now seemes so heauy vnto you would appeare light and you would perceaue that that sweete and fauorable hand doth sustaine you by the right hand and doth leade you in the way of his will to conduct you to his Glory These temptations which doe essay and affray you and which you take for torents that doe violently beare away your Faith are to me as so many honorable argument of your loyalty and your wounds in this good Combat of Faith as the Apostle calls it appeare in mine eyes so many glorious markes and euen this also vnlesse I deceaue my selfe will be the iudgement of all those that loue and setue God and who haue any experience in this interiour commotion and Combat which is raysed not against flesh and blood but against the powres of darkenesse and spirituall malice You curse and I blesse it and though I would curse it yet should it be no more in my power then it was in Balaam's to fasten his imprecations vpon the Armie of Israel Why are we ignorant that he who like vnto your selfe doth range himselfe in the discipline of God is to prepare his soule against temptation * as the wise man said and the Angell to the good Tobie because thou wast aggreable to God it was necessary marke this word that temptation should trie thee * Who knowes not that the trees which are most shaken with the winds doe spread their rootes more deeply into the ground that incense doth not smell but when it is burnt that the Vine is not fruitfull vnlesse it be prun'd that a souldiers vallour doth onely appeare in dangerous exploites nor doth vertue shew its solidity but by resisting its contrarie Take courage THEOPISTE thou walkest in good companie No saincte doth serue for a liuely stone in the celestiall Citie which was not squared cut carued in the quarrie of this world by temptatiō And the Saint of Saintes was he not tempted in the desert Yea and that in all things as saith his great Apostle euen to that great abandoning whereof he complaines and with a loude voice cries out vpon the Crosse And the same Apostle speaking of the members of his misticall body to witt the faithfull saith he not after the great wonders of Faith which he racounts in the eleauēth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrewes some were stoned others hewed all were tempted and many put to death by diuers sorts of punishmēts or banished dispersed into diuers parts of the world forsaken afflicted tormented wandering in deserts and mountaines and rockie dennes the world being vnworthy of their presence and by their sundrie tribulations they bore testimonie to Faith and gaue a triall of their fidelitie You apprehend peraduenture THEOPISTE that I flatter your griefe and that to asswage it by the leuitiue of consolation I vse these discourses more delightfull then true and that mine aime is to inchante that Aspe * with pleasing passages which notwithstanding you apprehend doth kill you and doth extinguish the light of your faith with her could poison and the