be esteemed and honoured by men Wherefore in view of the contempt which you indure I purpose to alter my course of life and to imitate you if I can and with this resolution I cast my selfe at your feet O my Iesus I adore your profound humility I implore the power of this vertue to come upon me and I give my selfe intirely to you to beare the effects thereof in such sort as to you shall seem good I know very well that I ought to affect humiliations confusions and contempts I know that they are my portion they are the most conformable to my state since I am a sinner But my perverted spirit and quite corrupted nature is averse thereunto Neverthelesse Lord I will love you succour only my weaknesse annihilate my aversions and fortifie my will that I may put in practise the good resolution which I have taken in your presence Point III. IESUS beares the Rigours Dolours and Humiliations which our sinnes have merited It is for this cause he presents himselfe unto the people to suffer and unto his Father to satisfie his justice Cast your selfe at his feet O my soule and say affectionately Behold the man whom I seeke for he is my Jesus my Saviour and my All I see him I embrace him and I resolve that he shall be my King and reigne alone in my heart PRAYER AT the sight of what you act and suffer for me O my Iesus I remaine distracted and fall into a kind of rapture for what am I Lord And what need have you of me that you should seeke my salvation at the cost of so many labours What is there in my soule capable of inviting you to offer your selfe unto your Father to appease by your torments his Justice which I have irritated by my offences Surely is is nothing but love which exercising the power and rigour thereof made you become man and suffer death for me O Love how powerfull art thou since thou hast reduced my Iesus into state wherein I contemplate him in his life and death O Love how strong is thine arme since thou hast drawne my Iesus from the Throne of his glory to place him in humiliations and to subject him to so many paines Love if thou hast power over my God must not thou have it over my heart No there is no meanes to withstand it whatsoever it costs I must love him who hath loved us more then his own life who in giving himselfe requires nothing but our love I resigne my self then unto you ô Love of my Soule to love you with my whole heart Grant onely if you please that I may love nothing but you for you both command and oblige me to love you I am content but unable to do it without your grace Effect then this work in me of loving you and loosen my heart from all earthly affections to the end I may entirely unite my selfe to you And be pleased to give mee a holy inability which may render me uncapable of severing my selfe from you and of loving any other IESUS carrieth his Crosse Point I. COnsider the hunger and insatiable thirst the extreme love and desire which Jesus hath to suffer for us having never said It is enough nor refusing any torments which are inflicted on him allowing all persons to torture him Ask of Jesus that he would vouchsafe to estrange you from the pleasures of the world and admit no longer any repugnancy in your selfe to indure for his sake PRAYER O Amiable Iesus How just is it that I now confesse the excesse of your love and acknowledge the mercies which you shew me for you are not satisfied in purchasing me by the profusion of your bloud and appeasing the divine Justice by your death but excited by the love which you beare me and by a desire of my salvation you expose your selfe to all sorts of confusions and by a divine patience you refuse no tortures and shun no paines which impiety invents to make you suffer At the sight of so much goodnesse and at the object of your vertues what can I do lesse whereby I may become the most acceptable to you then imitate your life and imbrace with you all crosses and sufferances For I know you have said of it that he is unworthy of you who beares not his crosse with you and refuses to follow you I purpose then O Saviour of my soule I purpose willingly to follow you and renouncing my owne pleasures sufferance shall be my onely love and delight I cannot effect it without your grace be pleased therefore to bestow it on me for without you I can do nothing and with you I am inabled to doe all things Point II. IESUS loaden with his Crosse sinkes under the burthen not of the heavinesse of the wood but under the weight of our offences wherewith he charged himselfe before the Iustice of his Father And in view of the whole world he carrieth the confusion and contempt which our crimes have merited Beg of him the spirit and gift of Penance to the end taking part in the satisfactions of Christ Jesus you may endeavour in some measure by your self to satisfy God whom you have so often offended PRAYER MY Iesus give me light to discerne the weight of sinne the grace to detest it as it deserveth and love to become repentant as I ought for I intend Lord to doe Penance I know that you have suffered for me and that you died to give me life and to associate me to the number of your children And true it is that all that you have done was only to obtaine pardon for my offences and to satisfie for the paine due unto my crimes finally it is true Lord that your merits are infinite But yet it is likewise just and you give it me in command that I alter my course of life and doe Penance to sati fie your divine Justice for otherwise I cannot partake of the satisfaction of your Crosse nor of the merits of your sufferings Be pleased then to bestow on me the spirit of Penance and the zeale of your Justice that I may exercise it on my selfe But vouchsafe to give it me from this instant for feare lest I be surprized and excepting the houre of death and the day of vengeance I find my selfe unworthy of mercy I desire to prevent lest I be prevented It is a blessing which depends on you and which I beg of you with my whole heart Point III. COnsider the humiliation which Jesus hath borne in the thoughts and judgements of men who esteemed him strucken and reproved condemned and abandoned even of God himselfe judging him worthy of all the torments which he indured Render him thanks for supporting all this in satisfaction for the pride of men and from henceforth strive to affect humility and learn to despise the vaine judgements which may be made of you PRAYER ALl the sinnes of men O amiable Iesus are the cause of your death but pride which
nothing but you It is high time and I implore it of you Be pleased then not to deny me this grace my good Iesus since you refuse me not your owne life deprive me of all things if you please provided that I love you Point II. IN this mystery Jesus covers his greatnesse and veiles his Majesty in contempts and mockeries and by a miracle of love he renders himselfe capable of suffering the sharpest points of thornes filthy and unclean spittings blowes and buffets which bruise his body and face and by this holy artifice which love hath contrived he triumpheth over the Devill and sin Open your heart unto this Jesus that he may place there the throne of his love and triumph over your malice and all the impure love which may reside in you PRAYER CAn I possibly behold you my Iesus covered with spittings bruised with blowes crowned with thornes and your body pierced with all sorts of dolors and not dissolve into teares but remaine insensible at the sight of so sad a spectacle Permit it not O God of love rather pierce my heart with griefe and give me the grace to have a sense of what you suffer for me Grant me this favour that I may beare the effects thereof for it is not just that your sacred body should be immersed in sorrow and your adorable head crowned with thorns whilest I bathe my selfe in pleasures or crowne my selfe with Roses living alwayes amongst delights I rather wish and would gladly implore if I had love enough that I might no longer affect any creature and that nothing might afford me contentment but that I might finde wormewood every where and every thing prove distastfull to me to the end I may take no delight but in you alone This is what I aspire to but I have not force enough to practice it nor sufficient love to aske it There remaines one onely desire on my part that I may give my selfe entirely to you to suffer whatsoever shall suit with your good pleasure Point III. JESUS in his Passion practiceth all sorts of vertues to merit them for us by the actuall exercise of them to leave them unto us by way of testament and to bring them into esteeme with the world which contemns and rejects humility patience poverty and all sufferances Addresse your selfe unto Jesus Christ to desire of him the love of his vertues and the grace to bee able to practice them in such a degree as hee requires of you PRAYER YOu have promised me O my God by your Prophet to engrave your love in the midst of my heart and to imprint it in the center of my soule I summon you in order to your promise for I offer unto you my heart opened and commit into your hands my soule and spirit to receive of you the motions of grace and the impressions of your law But what is this law which you give me but the imitation of your life and of the vertues which you have been pleased to practise on earth For you had no need my Lord of this great poverty which I discern in your birth of the patience which you shew in your torments of the obedience which sets you on the Crosse of meeknesse in the midst of your enemies nor of the humility and contempt of the world which is manifested in all your life But you have subjected your selfe unto all this not only for my salvation but also to teach me both by words and actions the vertues which you affect the way which I am to follow to obtain salvation and the life which I ought to lead to become the most acceptable to you In this sort your life and vertues O Jesus are the square of my actions and the rules which I am to follow Grant me then the grace that I may know them to esteeme them that I esteem them to love them and that I love them to practise them in such sort as you require of me For I am well assured that I shall have no share in your glory if I doe not imitate your vertues and shall not partake of your triumphs if I beare not a part in your combats Ecce Homo Point I. SEe the extreme confusion and contempt unto which Jesus is exposed since his owne people preferre a notorious Robber before him condemne him to the Crosse and demand his death to give life to a Malefactor O blindnesse of humane Spirit which makes more account of Terrene then Heavenly things which honours Barabas to reject Jesus Deplore this unhappinesse and beseech the same Jesus never to permit that humane respects or complacency may ever cause you to prefer men before God or the Creature before the Creator PRAYER LOrd I blush for shame and confusion seeing the little account is made of you that they condemne you unto the Crosse to give life to a Thiefe and reject you to receive Barabbas Neverthelesse this is done in your Passion and at present O unhappy soule I find even that in my selfe which I condemne in the Jewes for alas God of goodnesse how often in my life have I rejected your grace to obey the cupidities of my heart How often through a damnable blindnesse have I endeavoured to satisfie my selfe and please the Creature against your intentions Finally how often have I preferred the Earth before Heaven men before God and my owne private contentment before your holy will It is high time O Saviour of my soule that I acknowledge my fault that I change my life and open my eyes to discerne how the world is nothing to me and that you are my All. I confesse my crime I accuse my infidelity and condemn both my life and all my actions past Be pleased O good Jesus to give me a true repentance of them and grant that my heart may breake with sorrow and my eyes distill fountaines of teares to expiate all my offences for I desire my Iesus to satisfie your love and to live under your Lawes Point II. THe Sonne of God abaseth his holy and adorable humanity to become the reproach of men the refuse of his people and the object of their scorne and derision And he truly saith I am a worme of the earth At the sight of your Jesus dissolve into humility and affect rather to be low and humble with the humble Jesus then great and honour'd with Pilate PRAYER IF you say that you are but a worme of the earth the reproach of men and the refuse of the people what must I be my Iesus For it is just that I should be much lesse then your selfe If you hold so low a rank amongst men who are the Sonne of God what place shall I find who am but a sinner a child of Adam and unworthy of your grace O how much constrained do I now find my selfe to confesse that I am nothing and worthy of contempt and confusion I confesse that I am too blame and elevate my selfe above reason when I desire to
not fall and governe me by your Spirit that I wander not in the nations of my perverse inclinations Defend me good Iesus and deliver me from my selfe and permit me not to adhere to my affections nor to follow my owne appetites I renounce them all since they separate me from you and I conjure your goodness to annihilate them to the end that adhering wholly unto you I may be for nothing but your selfe for such is my desire you know it O love of my soule To ask the love of God OBject of all Love perfect Beauty ineffable Goodnesse who can choose but love you I purpose it but am unable I will love to death and will die but in loving you Transpierce my heart with your love and my body with your feare effect O powerfull God! effect powerfully that your Spirit may consume in me all that is of my selfe that I may bee wholly yours and love none but you and that living in you I may die to all other things A protestation of Love Shall I be alwaies overlightned in my selfe distracted in my thoughts inconstant in my motions How long will you permit me Lord to follow my owne inclinations and to be violently affected with the Creature Recall my spirit withdraw it from all things to retaine it for your selfe Let not your just conduct O most amiable goodnesse abandon me for leaving me to my self blind that I am I should lose my selfe in my Cupidities and separate my selfe from you to live no longer but for my selfe Let death rather force me away yea fill O God of love fill rather my life with bitternesse my heart with feare and my soule with continuall displeasure then permit that to please the Creature or to satisfie my selfe I may displease your divine Majesty An Act of Love WHy shall I not love you O most amiable goodnesse You oblige me thereunto by your love you attract me by your benefits and you command it by your goodnesse I will then love you because I ought and I desire that my heart may love you with all his power because nothing is amiable but your selfe But I cannot love if you inspire me not with love Abide then in me O desirable love live in me to the end that following the lawes of your love I may live and consummate my selfe in you Aspirations of Love VVhether are you gone sweet Spouse of my soule Alas I carry a heart replenished with bitternesse when I have no sense of you I keep my self aloofe from you loft in my thoughts I perceive my selfe wandring in various objects for a heighth of miserie I walke in the night of a heart darkened with selfe-love My life is all humane and as a child of Adam my life is in the old man I know not whether I have a being or no only I know that I am miserable but to live in this sort is a cruell death it is not to live at all to live without you it is too long a Martirdome Take pitty on my soule returne and possesse me entirely Restore me your spirit give me your life and change my whole heart Why can I not like a Phoenix consume my selfe in the ardors of your eternall love and alter my course of life being to be no longer but in you to live no longer but for you You can effect this O God who can do all things Sighes of Love MY eyes are bathed in teares and my voice is broken with sighes my life is but a death and all things are but a Martirdome to me when I thinke where my God is Alas this thought makes me powr out all my soule and I languish both day and night when I know that I must remain in this abode of miserie I cry out from the bottome of my heart How long Lord how long And must I yet live for a long time in the land of the dead and absent from your face remain among the perills of this miserable life Must I being oppressed with my body feele my selfe removed from the sweet attractives of your Caresses I am content with it since it is your Pleasure Great God Master of my soule your will is my delight your love my direction But effect O God who can do all things effect by your mercy that as your Son and my Iesus lives only in love and this love makes him die so I may live no longer then in loving you and that love may make me suffer To sue for the contempt of all things TOo long O my soule doest thou seeke vanity and affect lies This world hath nothing in it stable permanent all is perishable therein Goodnesse truth peace and repose are found only in God thou losest thy selfe in selfe-loving and seeking thy selfe thou art estranged from God Come then to my succour O Saviour of my soule and reach me your hand dissipate all these allurements which detaine me captive Open to me your heart O my so amiable Iesus to shelter me in the midst of so many surprizes see Lord see how from all sides snares are laid for me to make roe fall in love with this world Doe not permit it O love of my soule my heart is for you alone preserve it then as yours Another MY eyes discerne not O Adorable verity the errour of vanity and my heart feels not the horrour of all vices But come O Sun of Iustice come and shine upon my soule consume with your beames all that is displeasing to you give me your spirit which opens my eyes to discerne verity which inspires me with love to adhere unto it which redresseth my will and teacheth it to detest the world and gives me the grace to seek you alone and to live only for the love of you To demand light and direction for your soul SUnne of Iustice illuminate the darknesse of my spirit Comforter of soules draw me out of the ignorance wherein I live I walke in the shadow of death amidst the perils of this life and severing my selfe from you who are the way and life of my soule I run like a vagabond into the curious research of the objects of my senses Do you not see it O my God who see all things Come then to my succour light of my soule I aske nothing but your selfe my heart fighes after you and my eyes seeke you every where Dart therefore O Iesus a glance of your face infuse a ray of your beauty into the bottome of my Soule to call me back to you and make me know who you are and what I am to the end I may be wholly yours and that being no longer mine I may love you alone To invoke Grace GReat God! your Treasures are unexhaustible and your hands full of gifts You are rich only in goodnesse and in shewing mercy you evidence what you are Mercy then Lord mercy for I am a sinner one glance of your eye one word of your mouth can deliver me from evils for while you look on me I shall love you while you speake to me I shall follow and run after you in the odour of the sweet perfumes of your heavenly grace To call for Contrition FRom the depth of my misery I elevate my heart unto you O God of goodnesse my soule sighes after you God of mercy And now that I am sensible of my misfortune that the weight of my sins oppresse me within I cry aloud unto you lend me your eares and fix on me your benigne eyes to withdraw me from the evill whereunto I find my selfe fastned Give me your arme Father of mercy to sustaine the yoke of my offences light to know them teares to bewaile them and the zeale of your justice to satisfy for them I can no longer endure the foulenesse of my life nor to live any longer distant from you O happinesse of my soule I pant after you you know it but I cannot escape out of the place which captivates me nor breake the bands which fasten me if the power of your Spirit and the Spirit of your love doe not dissolve and break them in pieces loosen them then O Lord and render me the liberty which you have purchased for your children at the price of your life Affection to accomplish our good purposes I Feel my selfe seized with a flame of love which makes me protest never more to forsake you O Jesus the love of my soule I am weary to see my selfe in the midst of so many inconstancies I desire to be entirely yours you know it very well Lord for it is of you as of a spring of goodnesse that my soule is full of desires and my will of good affections it is a gift of your hand preserve it by your grace and give me your arme and benediction to uphold me in my good purposes and that I may punctually accomplish what I have promised you stimulated and incited by the motions of your Spirit alwayes holy to the end you may finish and perfect in me what you have begun by your infinite mercy for without you I can doe nothing and by you am enabled to doe all things FINIS A PRAYER which the Church useth to invoke the love of God DEVS qui diligentibus te facis cuncta prodesse da cordibus nostris inviolabilem tuae charitatis affectum ut desideria de tua inspiratione concept nullâ possint tentatione mutari Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum c. Amen
it to be an exercise absolutely necessary especially for such as live in the world and desire to lead a vertuous life in the midst of the turmoyles and distractions which are frequent in our ordinary course of life We cannot doubt but that the most part of Christians have their spirits still distracted their thoughts wandring their hearts divided and if every one will consider in what manner he liveth he shall perceive that the soule is but seldome within the body wholly distracted and as it were evaporated into exteriour things which is a great misfortune to her Now it is requisite to find out a meanes to recall her surely I see none better then that of the presence of God in the same manner as I explicate it Make use of it if you please and you shall find by experience that there is nothing more profitable and advantagious I recommend it as much as I can possibly for if every one would but consider at leisure the disposition of his own soule he should discerne that it will be almost impossible for him to performe any exercise of piety as one ought if he place not himselfe in the presence of God for this posture is absolutely necessary to recall our soule which is straying and to render her attentive to what she is doing and moreover this is necessary in respect we cannot performe any good work without the grace of God And when the soule is thus presented unto God she craves assistance and grace of him without which she is unable to act any thing This is what I desire to offer unto you I beseech our Lord to affect you with it and to favour u◠all with his grace to prepare ou◠hearts for him and to render us worthy of his love THese or what other Erraeta's the Printer through his unskilfulnesse in this Language hath committed the courteous Reader may please to pardon and correct thus Errata Pag. 33. l. 10. read require you p. 107. l. 8. r. into the state p. 111. l. 6 7. r. I know and you have said it p. 114. l. 14. r. expecting DEVOUT ENTERTAINMENTS OF A CHRISTIAN SOULE Of the love of GOD The first Entertainment §. 1. Of the Excellency and Necessity of Love 1. THe first thing I desire to propose unto you upon this subject and which I would gladly engrave in your heart is the acknowledging that the reasonable creature was created by God for no other end then to love and serve him This is a verity which I beseech you often to consider and if you can call it often every day into your thoughts 2. In order to this principle remember that you have no right to live on earth but to love and serve God for all that you have in the world whereof God hath given you the use he hath put it into your hands onely to testifie his love and to oblige you to love him so that all things ought to serve you as motives to love him who hath bestowed them on you For as God hath created nothing which doth not raise you to the knowledge of him if you will consider it so hath he made nothing which doth not attract you unto his love and fastens you to him if you bring no opposition thereunto 3. You know very well that we are obliged to love God above all things with our whole heart and soule c. It is a Commandement which Jesus Christ calls Maximum the greatest in as much as it compriseth all the duties of a soule towards God and if you can accomplish this you will doubtlesse fulfill all the rest Wherefore esteeme principally this Commandment examine your selfe seriously upon this point and omit not to accuse your selfe of it in Confession whensoever you faile therein 4. As God doth nothing but to oblige us to love him so he demands nothing of us but love This moved the Apostle to say that the whole law of God is accomplished in loving God Wherfore all your exercises ought to tend onely unto love I meane that all the practices of piety all your desires all your prayers and even the use of the Sacraments ought to aime onely at the placing you in the love of God to establish conserve and advance you therein Finally you are to act nothing but by love or for the obtaining the love of God 5. Consider this vertue as the onely happinesse of your soule for by charity we adhere unto God and are united and conjoyned unto him Nor can you be ignorant that all the good and happinesse of the soule consists onely in her being united unto God and adhering inseparably to him because he that adheres unto God saith the Apostle becomes one spirit His meaning is that Charity invests us with divine properties and makes us little Gods 6. We should be very unfortunate if God did not love us Now he loveth us onely to the end we should love him and in loving us he can give us nothing of greater value then love For it is love onely which renders is happy It is love onely which gives us God and unites us to him Love onely guides us unto God Briefly it is by love onely that we become acceptable to God and nothing is agreeable to him but what is done in love See then what that soule loseth which wants this love and of how little account all exercises are without this act of love 7. All other vertues may be found amongst the good and bad but Charity only is the character and stamp of Gods children Finally she is the Queen which commands all the powers of the soule and every thing obeyes her And to speak it in a word she is the true vertue for take away Love and Charity all that is tearmed Vertue is so but superficially and in appearance 8. This is enough to affect you with the desire of acquiring Charity and Divine Love But to know how one may obtaine it and by what meanes we may attaine unto the possession of this happinesse is the subject wherewith I intend to entertain you §. II. Of the meanes to attaine unto the love of God 1. TO acquire Charity which we call Love we must earnestly demand it of God besides wee ought frequently to desire it Finally we must labour seriously therein and act on our part what wee are able These are three points which I am to explicate 2. To affect God with a supernaturall Love is a pure gift of God Wherefore I advise you to beg it of him continually And the first thing you are to aske of him is that you may love him as he would have you conformable to your obligation 3. When I say continually I meane that the most usual Prayer you are to make and the grace which you ought to demand still of God is to have Charity and Love for if you possesse this love you have all and if you want it whatsoever else you may have is of no value saith the
for you and I dare say in a manner necessary 7. The subject which you are to take for your entertainment shall be the Passion of the Son of God or the foure finall ends of man sometimes Gods love towards you sometimes the vanity of all things finally take some point of Faith or of the Creed for your application 8. The manner and method which you are to observe herein must be very naturall I doe not require to make use of reason or discourse but of your affection and will Apply your whole heart unto it and that sufficeth procure also that your attention therein bee entire 9. The first thing you must doe is to place your selfe in the presence of God because in all your prayers you speak with God and treat of things of great consequence for you speak to him of the honour and love you owe him you treat concerning your owne salvation and the benefits of your soule 10 This exercise or practice of the presence of God is absolutely necessary for you for if you have a care of your salvation and desire to live in the feare of God surely you ought to know how to keepe your selfe continually in the presence of God remembring still that in what place sâ—eveâ— you are God sees and considers you not exterâ—â—lly onely but even into the center of your heart The presence of God is an exercise which detaines the soule and obligeth her to act nothing which may bee unworthy of God 11. Moreover when you will pray and what Prayer soever you make were it but saying the Pater noster or your Beads you still ought to doe it with respect and attention for sure you cannot performe these Devotions as you ought if your spirit be not recollected Now the means of recollecting your minde is to place your selfe in the presence of God Wherefore I advise you to habituate your selfe in this exercise I meane to place and keepe your selfe often in the presence of Almighty God 12. You will say peradventure that you are not able to fix your spirit to which I answer that it is no good signe and for this reason you ought to pity your self For how can you hear well the holy Masse say well your ordinary prayers use the Sacrament of Penance or communicate as you ought if you know not how to setle your cogitation see you not that this is to be sick indeed without discerning it Now the practice of the presence of God as I will explicate it to you is the true only remedy for your disease 13. It is a practice which is common necessary for all good Christians who are willing to avoid sin preserve themselves in grace or desire to treat with God with that respect as becoms them this is what I desire that in the beginning of your prayer you place your self attentively in the presence of God 14. You may do it in two manners The first by imagination when you recall your mind and all the powers of your soul and when you represent God unto your self with a Majesty worthy God and figuring to your selfe that you are prostrated before the Throne of his infinite greatnesse and that you remain there to treat with him about the affaires of your soule and what concerneth the service and worship which you owe him 15. The other manner is by faith then you make no use of your imagination but having sweetly called back your soule into it selfe you conceive your selfe to be before God whose greatnesse and Majestie is infinite and incomprehensible that this is the same God whom the Angells and Saints do serve and adore You consider how faith teacheth you that this self same God is every where and he presides in the bottome and center of your soule with the same Majesty Power and Love as he doth in Heaven Rest somtime upon this thought and if you can procure to enter into your owne heart to adore God as you conceive him to be there 16. This last manner of considering the Presence of God seems to me more beneficiall then any other and hath more force to recall our spirit and to bring back our soule into her selfe it teacheth us to seeke God not as farre distant from us or in Heaven but in our selves and in the center of our heart And for this reason I advise you to make often use of this exercise for I promise that you shall derive from it great advantages And if you shall persevere you will make a little Paradise of your heart and your soule will performe on earth what the Angells doe in Heaven §. III. A manner how to recollect ones selfe for mentall Prayer 1. AT the first entrance then into Prayer place your self in the presence of God conformably to the manner I have newly exhibited to you And if this thought of Gods presence possesseth your soule and retaines you in great attention keep your selfe therein as long as you can were it during the whole Masse and omit without scruple the rest of your devotions for you enter not into the Church and apply not your selfe unto Prayer but to remaine before God to adore him with respect and humility and to keepe your selfe in his presence as his devout servant When you have attained unto this rest content since God seems to be so with you And in this case you are to desire nothing more because you have all when God is satisfied 2. And if this thought of Gods presence will not serve to entertaine you any long time in that case take presently some verity or mystery for your meditation For example consider how Iesu Christ hath loved you so much as to suffer death for you Then pawse a while how little soever you please to consider this benefit strive onely to ponder it with attention And out of this consideration endeavour to extract some little affection or frame some conference with God upon that which you considered Now to the end it may prove more facile to you I prescribe at the end of this Booke some Meditations upon the principall points of the Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ which will serve you for a Modell 3. During the little time you shall employ in this manner of Prayer if God gives you some good inspiration or pious desire do not neglect it but hearken unto God and receive his grace and inspiration with respect and love Resolve to put in practice what God proposeth to you and give your selfe unto Christ Iesus and his holy Mother the Virgin Mary to the end they may be pleased to preserve in your soule the good desires which you feele and supplicate them to give you the grace to put them in practice conformable to that manner which God requires of you 4. The profit which I would have you to make of this exercise which I call recollection of spirit is to establish and preserve your selfe in the feare of God to excite and advance