if compared with the Life of Christ and how as nothing his life was compared with the immence charity of Christ Great contrition and sorrow for all his sins and for all his ill spent and lost time ceazed upon him So that with his whole affection with heart and voice he said to the Lord Ah! merciful and compassionate Lord God have mercy have mercy upon me for the abiss of thy mercies sake because I am not worthy that the earth should bear me Whilest these words were in his heart and mouth being broad awake he heard with his bodily cars yet seeing nothing a voice saying unto him Now receive thy peace and put thy trust in God and take it for certain that when he lived upon earth that whatsoever sick person he cured in body the same he likewise healed in Soul Which words being ended instantly the Doctor fell into an extasie and was deprived of all rational understanding insomuch that he knew not what was done unto him where he was or whither he was snatch'd But after that he was restored to himself he found in himself in his whole nature a new and great power and vigour such as he confessed he had never in all his whole life time felt by experience before as also so clear and enlightned a discerning or illuminated reason as never was in the least known to him before that time But being amazed he wondred with himself from whence these things should so suddenly happen unto him and began to think thus with himself Certainly thou wilt never be able to clear up this matter of thy self send therefore for thy Friend to come unto thee and lay open the whole matter in order unto him And so he did The Layman being sent for readily obeyed the Doctor came to him forthwith the Doctor told him every thing in order as it happened unto him which when the Layman had beard he said How gladly even with my whole heart Sir do I hear this news I know that you have first now truly experienced the true grace of God and are now first touched in the superior powers of your mind Know also that as heretofore the Letter killed you so now the same will quicken you because all the holy Scripture proceeded and flowed from the holy Ghost Neither doubt Sir but the knowledge of the holy Scripture will for the future very much profit you now that you have been found worthy to be illuminated by the light of the holy Ghost For many things now will be made manifest to you by the Scriptures which were altogether unknown to you before For you know that the holy Scripture seemed to you and many other Theologists to be contrary to it self in many places But he who rightly knows how to look into it in the light of the holy Spirit as you hence-forward will be able to do such a one doth plainly know how that it agreeth with it self throughout Wherefore now you will begin wisely to understand Scripture and rightly to follow the true Pattern and Exempler of Truth our Lord Jesus Christ Now also you must again take upon you the care of Preaching which for some time hath been intermitted that by the Word you may edifie and instruct your Neighbours And now the time is come also that you must fetch home your Books again and fall to reading and perusing them And be certain that hereafter one Sermon of yours will be more profitable and fruitful than a hundred of your former for those that shall hear you hereafter will be profited and amended far more than they have been heretofore and that because the Word which you shall hereafter utter will flow from a clean vessel and therefore will be very grateful and acceptable to a clean mind and a lover of God Furthermore know this that as heretofore you have been by many accounted contemptible and appeared to them dispicable so now you will appear to them all an hundred times more amiable and be more acceptable than ever heretofore And now multitudes of people will begin to flock together to hear you so that it will for this cause be exceeding good for you to keep your self very humble and more carefully to watch over your self For as you know he that hath any great Treasure hath the more need carefully to guard them from Robbers And certainly those hellish Robbers the evil spirits are very much affrighted and always terrified as often as they perceive that God Almighty hath bestow'd upon any man so great a treasure And therefore be sure they will turn every stone and make use of all their strength and cunning to steal from you or rob you of this Treasure Therefore it exceedingly concerns you to keep it with all care and vigilancy But you will be able by no means better to preserve it then by a silent true and profound humility Finally as things are with you there is no more need that for the future I should converse with you as an instructer of you No verily I now exceedingly desire to be taught by you and intend here to remain so long till I have heard diverse of your Sermons And because as you have acknowledged you have felt and experienced a certain great power and such as is understood both in Nature and Grace I very much desire if the Lord permit that you would again Preach Master What advice therefore do you give me dearest Son for I have pawned several of my Books and have taken up upon them no less then thirty Crowns Layman Send some body for them and I on Gods behalf will redeem them and will give thee so many Crowns and if after you have redeemed your Books any thing shall remain you shall restore it to God so the Books were brought and redeemed After these things the Doctor caused it to be given out and spread abroad that upon the third day after he intended to Preach which when it was heard every body much wondered and because of the novelty of the thing a huge multitude of People came together The Doctor therefore when he was come and saw so many People come together got up into the Pulpit and covering his Eyes with his hood he thus prayed to himself O Mercyful God of it may be pleasing to thee grant I may so speak and do as that thy most acceptable will may be done in me Presently after he had spoken these Words 2 pang of weeping without any endeavour of his fell upon him he shed many most sweet Tears which continued so long that the People began to be weary of so tedious expectation So that one of the crowd said with a loud voyce How long I pray Sir do you intend to keep us Now it grows late and if you will not begin say so that we may rise and go home And when the Doctor himself did take notice that the time was nigh past he said again unto the Lord. Ah Merciful Lord my God if it be
himself and as much as possible renounce cast away and mortifie all whatsoever shall be found in him unlike to the lovely Image of our Saviour 24 The Twenty fourth and last point That after all he now as it were first begin like a little Child as yet to make proficiency in true profound deep and perfect humility and think no other ways than that he is now to begin to implore Divine benignity that it would find him out a way and afford assistance whereby he may become a good man And if he be esteemed so by some or else for that cause he appear vile and base in the eyes of men even that will be more grateful and acceptable to him then if he should enjoy the favour and good-will of all But I fear my beloved least I have been too tedious Therefore these are the signs of a rational and purged ground which the Splendour and beautiful Image of all truth doth enlighten and teach Let every one therefore look within himself and diligently search whether he find within himself these twenty four Points which if he do let him rejoyce but if he do not let him know that his understanding though never so lofty and towering nor all his subtile and witty works of his own reason worth a rush for he that is the Fountain Pattern of all truth can perform in him no supernatural work unless he do prevent him by his singular and special grace as we read he did to St. Paul But this in my judgment happens very â—arly in these our times Finally let the Eternal Truth our Lord God grant that we may all be made by his grace true Contemplators in true and perfect humility to his Praise and Glory Amen It follows how the Layman did in secret partly discover to the Doctor his hidden Sanctity and how he convinced him that he was yet in the night of Ignorance and that his Vessel was unclean and that himself was of the number of the Pharisees THE fore-written Sermon being ended the Layman straight hastning to his Inne there Writes it out word for word as it was delivered by the Doctor comes with his Notes to the Doctor and said thus to him Reverend Sir your Sermon I have writ out fair and if it be not too troublesome I will repeat it out of my Paper Doctor Truly I 'le very willingly hear it then the Layman read the whole Sermon which being done he spake thus to the Doctor Layman I pray Sir tell me if I have omitted any of your Words that I may write them Doctor Believe it dear Son you have exactly taken my Sermon word for word as I Preach'd it and I 'le assure you might I gain never so much I could not again write it so exactly and verbatim as you have done unless I would take again the same pains which I did in the search of Scriptures and I profess I cannot now sufficiently admire your happy wit and parts and that you should so oft make your confession to me and yet I never perceive till now Then the Layman made as though he would take his leave of the Doctor and said to him Layman I entend Sir God willing to return home Doctor Away away what is it that should compel you to return home whereas you have neither Wife nor Children to take care of and what hinders but that fith you have no body at home you may as well live here as there I 'le promise you shortly God willing I will Preach another Sermon of the utmost perfection of a Spiritual Life Layman I 'le assure you Sir I came not hithet for the Sermons but that I hoped by Gods Grace assisting I should do some good Doctor What good prethee Son did you think to do here fith you are a simple Lay-man and ignorant of Scriptures neither permitted to Preach Pray stay here a while and peradventure by Gods assistance I will give you such a Sermon as you will gladly hear Layman There is something Sir that I would willingly have spoke to you but I doubt whether you can patiently bear it Doctor Prethee Son speak boldly what thou hast to say I trust in God I shall patiently bear it what ever it be Layman Behold Reverend Sir you glister in your Priestly dignity lately Preach a Sermon to us full fraught with excellent precepts but you take no care to hold them forth in your Life and Conversation and even now how childishly did you say to me stay here and I will Preach you another Sermon that shall please me But take this for certain Sir that neither your Sermons nor any Words whatever which can in this Life be outwardly spoken can be much profitable to me Nay I 'le assure you the Sermons of men do oftner do me hurt then profit me because that oftentimes various Images or Imaginations do insinuate themselves into me by reason of those Sermons which afterwards returning home I can hardly with much and long labour again rid my self of or forget and Sir if you be remembred you had among others this passage in your Sermon That he ought to be free and clear from all Images or Imaginations to whom the chief Doctor and Teacher of Souls Christ Jesus will vouchsafe to come who I will assure you as oft as he is pleased to come to me he teacheth me more in the space of an hour then either you Master Doctor or all the Doctors in the World could teach me till Dooms-day Doctor Prethee dear Son for the Lords death sake stay with me here a longer time Layman Truely Mr. Doctor you enforce me to stay by this deep adjuration and if out of obedience to God I do yield to stay here it shall be upon this condition that you promise me faithfully that whatever hath past or shall pass between us you will keep secret under the privacy of confession Doctor That I will assure you dear Son I will willingly do upon the condition that you will stay longer with me Then the Layman after this manner spake to the Doctor Layman Mr. Doctor in your late before-mentioned Sermon you delivered indeed to us many excellent good things yet whilst you were speaking such a similitude as this came into my head that me thought your good discourses did no otherwayes proceed from you then as if good and generous Wine were drawn through muddy dregs Doctor Prethee Son what meanest thou by this similitude Layman Nothing else Mr. Doctor but me thought your Vessel was not clean nor rinced from dreggs and that 's the reason that the Letter killeth you and alass you dayly suffer it yet dayly more and more to kill you for as you better know the Scripture saith the Letter killeth but the Spirit quickeneth and maketh alive Nevertheless the same Letter that now doth kill you would if you would quickly quicken you But truly at present for your condition it is this You are yet in the Dark and there is no
in a marriage league And taking both the Bridegroom and the Bride leads them both together to the Temple and joyns them mutually to himself and with so strong and great a mutual nuptial love doth couple and bind them one to the other that neither in time nor in eternity can they ever more be put asunder or separated one from the other Now whilst these nuptials are celebrating the Son the Bridegrom saith to his Father Eternal and most loving Father whom will it please you shall be our Cup-bearer and Comptroller of our nuptial Feasts The Father made answer and said This office and business belongs to the Holy Ghost and he shall be the Governour of the Feast that day Presently without any delay that Magnificent Highest and Most adorable Cup-bearer gives the Spouse to drink and take off such an overflowing Cup of Love that she is wholly overflowed and drowned in Charity and altogether flowes forth and is dissolved and melted into her Bridegroom And falling into an Exstasie she becomes so drunk even with over much Love that she looseth and forgetteth her self and all other Creatures both such as are in time and such as are in Eternity For truly beloved whoever attaineth to these nuptials the same then first is arrived at the very true solemnity of joys indeed and of Eternal nuptials And whosoever is made such a Spouse such a one is become a true Worshipper adoring the Father in Spirit and Truth John 4 and the same hath found peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For verily in these nuptials there is joy upon joy as also there the peace is greater and Triumphant joy more abundant in one hour then all Creatures whether in time or in Eternity can make For the joy which the Spouse here takes in her Bridegroom and receives from him is such and so great that no Reason no Sense can possibly understand it attain to it or be capable of it At these words One cryed out with a lond voyce It is true it is true it is true And immediatly fell to the Earth as if he had been dead At which sight a certain Woman spake aloud to the Doctor give over Master Doctor or else this man will give up the Ghost in our arms The Doctor answeared Well dearly beloved if it seems good to the Bridegroom to take away with him this Spouse we ought willingly to leave her to him But be ye silent a little while for I shall even now make an end Let us all I beseech you dearly beloved let us all with one consent lift up our voyces unto Heaven unto the Lord imploring his mercy For truly it is a thing extreamly to be bewailed by us that we should be made such Fools so dull and sottish as that notwithstanding we are none of us ignorant how we are all called the Spouses of God yet scarce one of us or very rarely hath the courage to hazard his Nature in manfully following the Bridegroom until he be found worthy to be made partaker and taste by experience somewhat at least of the wonderfull and most pleasant solemnization of these supream Triumphs and most happy nuptials Verily in these latter times there are but few such found as do in truth go forth to meet the Bridegroom such as of old time there were many Wherefore it exceedingly concerns every one to examine and seriously and diligently to try himself and to have a vigilant care of himself For now the time draws near and is even at the door when the greatest part of men will indeed have Eyes and yet see not and Ears and yet hear not Wherefore now my dearly beloved come on let us all do our utmost endeavour to come to the experiencing of these most pleasant even too too happy nuptials Bâ—… that I may pursue my purpose come to a conclusion After that the Bridegroom and the Bride are gone asunder withdrawn each from other the Bride again coming to her self perceives that she is yet left in this time of exile she saith to her self Ah me miserable wretch am I here again And begins to be somewhat sad But she is now so modest so sunk into the depth of humility and finally so perfectly and fundamentally resigned to her Bridegroom that she durst in no measure think of the injoying or desiring his company for she very well knowâ—s that she is altogether unworthy of it Notwithstanding the Bridegroom neglects not ever now and then to have an Eye upon his fair beloved and dearest Bride knowing full well that none can comfort her but himself And now in the winding up of my Discourse let me give you this caution dearly Beloved Let it not seem strange unto you what I have said unto you touching the Discourse which the Bridegroom and the Bride have with one another Certainly no man can believe except he have had experience of it what strange kind and unheard of Discourses the Bride hath with the Bridegroom Nevertheless the Holy Scriptures also oft make mention how a loving and devoted Soul Discourses with the Bridegroom and in such a manner that her words hardly will bear sense with them Which also sometimes happens even at this day namely that the Bride useth such expressions to the Bridegroom that if any one heard them he would certainly say she were either drunk or mad But I fear Beloved I am too tedious God therefore and our Lord Jesus Christ the true Bridegroom grant that we may be all made his true Spouses and be able to go forth to meet him in true and great Humility and deep and perfect resignation of our selves to him to the Praise and Glory of the Almighty God Amen Of certain wonderful Things which befel some upon the Hearing the foregoing Sermon which afterwards were understood From whence we may take notice How great things God worketh by fit Instruments namely by the Sermon of any one Illuminated Mans much more then by the Sermons of an hundred others THIS Sermon being ended the Master went into the Temple dispatched Divine Service and administred the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Body to very many good men But in the Garden of the Monastry there remained sitting above fourty men Which thing the Layman had taken notice off And when the Sacrament was ended coming to the Doctor he told him of it and taking him with him led him to the place where he might see it But in the mean time whilst the Master was administring the Sacrament all were risen except twelve whom they found sitting there still When the Master saw this he said to the Layman Dear Son what shall we do to these men Then the Layman went to them and touched and jogged them one by one but they felt nothing and seemed to be no otherwise then dead At which the Master did not a little wonder for he had never seen any such thing in the least before And saith again to the Layman Think you
certainly as some men now a dayes who when they receive peradventure some small grace from God instantly break forth and tell it others without the permission of God and declare it sometimes to such men as do as little understand therby what it is or whither it tends as themselves whereby also very many times it comes to passe that such Grace is taken away from such like Bablers and given to another more illuminated Therefore see my Beloved that without the permission of God ye never divulge the gifts which are conferred upon you by him being sure that few are to be found now a dayes who are endowed with illuminated reason or discretion And therefore heed is to be taken that the gifts of God be not brought forth suddenly and without his licence Now that it was permitted to S. Paul by God to speak of those things which had hapned to him it was permitted by God for our warning and necessary instruction namely that if it should happen that he should infuse into any one of us his preventing grace winhout any merit precedent such a one should not afterwards be shaken with terrour if he suffer him to be afflicted even as it usually befell blessed Paul To whom the gifts of God do come Yes verily it is to be taken for certain that the gifts of God come by afflictions but if they come before afflictions certain it is that yet they ought to be confirmed and proved by afflictions When as therefore it is a matter of so much nobleness and profit to endure adversity for that reason the Almighty God hath suffered so heavie afflictions to meet with all his beloved Saints and for the same cause he gave leave to the blessed Apostle to relate to us his afflictions for he saith in this same Epistle 2 Cor. 11 Are they the Ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I more In very many labours in prisons more abundantly in stripes above measure in deaths frequently five times of the Jews received I forty stripes but one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea in journies often in dangers of rivers in dangers of robbers in dangers from my kinred in dangers from the nations in dangers in the city in dangers in the desarts in dangers in the sea in dangers among false brethren in labour and toil in watchings in hunger and thirst in much fasting in cold and nakedness c. These and many other things the blessed Apostle commemorates in this dayes Epistle by him to have been endured in reciting of each of which lest I should be the more tedious I will adde only this one which among the rest he adjoyns saying 2 Cor. 12. Lest the Greatness of Revelations should lift me up there was given me a prick of my flesh the Angel of Satan who might buffet me Because of which I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he answered me My Grace Paul is sufficient for thee for strength is perfected in weakness VVillingly therefore saith he will I glory in my infirmities that the vertue of Christ may dwell in me Now therfore Beloved after that St. Paul a vessel of Election hath in this his Epistle abundantly proved unto us how great the profit of Afflictions is truly it deserves that we should give credit to so great an Apostle and imitate and follow him Yea truly it cannot be that ever we should attain to a praise-worthy and fruitful life except we willingly renounce the pleasures of Nature What it is to renounce Nature Because to renounce Nature is nothing else but voluntarily to refuse and deny all things in which Nature is delighted those things only excepted which upon a rational account are necessary to the sustentation of Nature which shall be such things as may be helpful to us in the service of God and in the coming to God all other things are to be forsaken for God's sake Neither indeed can any one experience or receive the superiour sweetness of God except he bid adeu to the sweetness of fading things and to the inclination and pleasure of the senses And hence the Apostle saith Rom. 8. If ye will live after the flesh ye shall die but if by the Spirit ye shall mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Here let us contemplate and to the utmost of our power follow the every way lovely example of our Lord and Saviour so as the same Apostle doth admonish Rom. 13. Put off saith he the old man and put on our Lord Jesus Christ And furthermore there is yet another much more noble and excellent Self-denial than that is by which we deny Nature Ephes 4. and that is when willingly we renounce the Spirit which how it is done I would have you mark After that the Spirit hath wholly tamed the flesh and reduced it to obedience and now is climed above all caducal and slippery things then it taketh as it were a leap into everlasting good things themselves which doubtless are much more delightfull to it both in tast and fruition than natural delights were before When therefore any one cometh to tast and enjoy those excellent highest goods he ought then no lesse to renounce those delights and affluences of Spirit than before he was fain to do those of Nature so as he may know how to leave to God his gifts and operations according to his will and pleasure This Renunciation also is not a little difficult at the beginning to them who have tasted God according to the deliciousness of Spirit This same Renunciation is called Poverty of Spirit of which the Lord speaketh saying Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Yea verily oft-times it falls out that some come to that passe that they exceeding subtilly snatch and draw what ever shineth and savoureth in them to themselves into their ground into their will and arbitrement neither leave themselves to God by way of mortification But whoever are thus they doubtless use the grace and gifts of God too too unfruitfully the reason of which is that when it is not hidden to God that unless he infuse into them light and savour they will quickly depart from him therefore he retains them with some sweet lesser comforts lest they should altogether forsake him Such like men are as yet exceeding frail weak because they are such as are full of self-will and love and imbrace the shadow instead of the thing it self who have also this fault That though they are mostly outward and external yet they think themselves after a manner to be of us but they are too much deceived in their opinion Furthermore they that from the bottom or ground resign and offer themselves to God and who do receive from him sweet and bitter alike who lastly though the influence of
light and savour be withdrawn from them do not in any wise therefore depart from God these are the true internal ones Verily whoever after this manner now spoken of have denied themselves and with a willing mind have penetrated through the sweetnesses aswell of Spirit as of Nature and have got above them these certainly have made a profitable and fruitful thorow progress and have penetrated through more than can be spoken But afterwards such have need of very much vigilancy and watchfulness whereby alwayes they must diligently observe themselves be circumspect and careful that they may ever persevere in very great humility For their hellish enemies cease not then but continually endeavour by all means they can to draw them back Believe me Beloved profound resignation and voluntary denial of our selves through our whole nature is a certain good beginning if so be it be joyned with true humility Even as St. Peter saith Dearly Beloved humble your selves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the time of visitation And O that we could learn how we might attain to true subjection of spirit in profound humility that when God doth withdraw from us sensible Grace we may be able easily to resign it to him and to restrain our appetite or desire so as not willingly to cover it This is that which St. Dionysius saith When God makes his abode sensibly in my soul I am filled with such joy and it is so well with me that if he should bestow upon me such authority that all creatures that very hour should no lesse obey me than himself it would not go so wel with me as it doth by his presence only But when his sensible presence is withdrawn from me I confess then some desire of it layes hold on me But when that happens to me my weakness surely is the cause of it Seeing Solomon saith that in all the Works of God we ought to have rest and peace Behold that breathing and languishing desire holy Dionysius accounts his weakness Why so but because the holy man clearly understood that himself was not as yet fully resigned to God when as he so desired the presence of God seeing it is the greatest resignation to resign our selves to desertion and in all manner of desertion to be resigned Which thing doth chiefly belong to them who have deliciously experienced the sweetness of God It behoveth us truly Beloved so manfully to strive that we may be made so prudent in God that we may be able having divine assistance to transcend and penetrate all creatures untill we attain unto God himself There now we are taught in the Holy Ghost to tread upon by our reason and get above all natural things that we may be able with St. Augustine to say All creatures are unto us an high-way unto God So as what ever we happen to see or hear of what nature soever it be we may have the skill to bend all to our own use and turn it to the best and to draw some good out of it Certainly a Christian ought by his reason so oft and so humbly to exercise himself and so often to penetrate all creatures until he hath lost all created things and he should so strongly and manfully and that not once but many times abstract himself from all things until he find God alone the joy of his soul and the beloved of his heart of whom the blessed Apostle speaks when he saith 1 Cor. 6. Who adhereth to God is one Spirit In which transformation the spirit of such a one is transformed and is made one with the one If any one in this matter would venture himself and perfectly renounce both himself and all creatures he surely would by Gods help or by the power of God overcome all things which thing Paul witnesseth where he saith Philip. 4. I can do all things in him that strengthneth me Go to now Beloved make speed be doing hasten learn to live being also sure that a man may in this present time attain to that condition that he may experience so immense supernatural joy such as all creatures cannot afford even until Dooms-day Lastly Come on then and let us all endeavour to learn by what means we may be made true Worshippers John 4. worshipping the Father in Spirit and Truth But I fear lest I am too tedious sith those Incluses have entreated me that I would declare unto them what is the duty of a true Incluse What the Duty of Inclusis is And now this I shall dispatch in a few words and will tell what manner of one every true Incluse ought to be It belongs therefore to every Incluse that she be simple and both in mind and body that is both inwardly and outwardly to be an Incluse It doth not become her to look out at the windows and be inquisitive what is or what hath been transacted here or there it is meet that she should lead so pure so abstracted a life that if she should pour forth prayers for all the Souls that are detained in places of Purgatory she may be found worthy sufficient and able to free them all from thence Truly an Inclusory life is no small matter It behoveth plainly an Incluse so sincerely and purely to live that she may be able to obtain all that of God which the Universal hely Church by the seven told grace of the Holy Ghost doth obtain If she do otherwise she is not a true Incluse She ought also to lead such a life that if all Ecclesiastical Laws were taken away it might not at all prejudice her to God-ward The corrupt state of Incluses But alas things are now come to that pass that Incluses entertain Guests in the evening and in the morning administer to them many things which is not the Office of Incluses but of Hospitallers Incluses must keep silence And moreover it belongs to an Incluse diligently to observe silence except only upon reasonable and real necessity as also purely and earnestly to pray It belongs not to her to perform the office of an Hospitaller and to discourse with men but this rather is her duty that she perpetually persist so resolutely and immovably in true and divine resignation that she may be able even with a sensible delight and joyful consent alwaies to wait the sensible presence of God and nevertheless persevere faithful unto him and therewith to renounce all creatures for his sake To whom it belongs to serve the Poor But now you may hear some Incluses say That it is their duty to exercise themselves in vertues towards their neighbours but such ought to have betaken themselves not to an Inclusory but to an Hospital rather and there humbly exercise themselves about the Members of Christ which then had properly belonged to them as their office for this they ought faithfully to do who live in Hospitals Again others say I must serve and succour my neighbours for