Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	good_a	word_n	1,776	5	3.8038	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52343	Of adoration in spirit and truth written in IV. bookes by Iohn Eusebius Nieremberg native of Madrid. S.I. And translated into English by R. S S.I. In which is disclosed the pith & marrow of a spiritual life, of Christs imitation & mystical theology; extracted out of the HH. FF. & greatest masters of spirit Diadochus, Dorotheus, Clymachus, Rusbrochius Suso, Thaulerus, a Kempis, Gerson: & not a little both pious & effectual is superadded.; De adoratione in spiritu et veritate. English.	Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio, 1595-1658.; Strange, Richard, 1611-1682.	1673 (1673)	Wing N1150A; ESTC R224195	255,001	517

Nature many times effects that what is harsh to one is gustfull to another and will grace be less operative The longings of women make them couet ridiculous extravagancies coales clay mortar and to loth meats exquisitely seasond and that which happens so obviously to a womanish indisposition shal it be thought impossible to divine healthfulnes A corrupt and queasy stomack rules the appetite and shal a sound and masculine mind have less or no sway over the wil Be not then frighted o dejected creature with what thou hearest of a spiritual life for it is not at all troublesome or noysome although it necessarily imbrace al troublesome and noysome things Let not an empty name or conceyt terrify thee be but confident and accoast them and thou shalt frighten the very difficulties themselves Some relate of certain enchanted treasures which are in the custody of terrifying ghosts and sprits but if any one be so resolutely hardy as contemning those phantasmes to assaile them they are presently put to flight and vanish to nothing in such sort that they appear no more but permit the accoaster to enjoy those riches in all peace and security Nothing more is requisite to effect this but courage and resolution Be but valiant in purchasing these spiritual treasures and all those bugbeares of pretended difficulties wil suddainly disapear Set upon them undauntedly and thou shalt enjoy without any great plains-taking the hidden manna of a spiritual life Bees work hony shelterd under the homely roof of a rough-cast hive The IV Chapter How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue HE walks in falshood and forgery not in truth nor spirit who takes not faith for his path and guide Truth dwels very remote from sense This heavenly flower growes not in our gardens it is not nourished with flesh and blood it is not to be found amidst the dung of our muddy and material substances We are at al turnes cheated in corporal goods even those which we behold with our eyes and fingar with our hands A whole oare in the water seems broken a square tower to one that stands at a great distance seems round the very light of the sun which is al the faith our eyes are endowd with cozens them oftentimes by representing colours that are not existent and how then shal we avoid being misled in the affaires of our soul which we see not and in spiritual and divine things which are so much above our reach and capacity All the race of mankind was grown quite blind through the night of errour like one shut up in a dark dungeon without either window or chink to let in the least glimmering of light The learneder sort of Philosophers were of opinion we knew no more then what we knew was false or rather that we knew only this one truth that we knew nothing at all and they were so swoln and puffd up with vanity that none but heaven could give an allaying remedy One among them did think that the master of truth was to be some Son of a God Behold now o thou Son of the highest o thou eternal Truth behold o thou wisdome of thy father thou didst descend from heaven o light of the world to illuminate it to teach us truth and why do not men make more account of so great a benefit why doe they contemne this blessing of faith What imports it to believe truth if we our selves practise falshood saving truth is good works and the true word the deed of the word The word of God became flesh that the work of man might become truth because the Truth of God is become operative All is mere falshood and vanity which is not according to the doctrine of IESVS why doe we neglect the practise of this great blessing contenting our selves with a dead kind of faith We should reap great advantage from our faith if we knew how to use it and work as we ought according to its prescript greater then if we beheld those things it affirmes with our eyes All by faith believe true things but they ought also to believe truly which all seem not to do If thou believe o malepert soul what Christ taught work accordingly If it be true that it behooud IESVS to suffer and so to enter into his glory if it be true that God ordaines all for the good of the just why art thou afflicted at some trivial crosses and calamities Why dost thou account them losses which when they are patiently taken faith teacheth us to be the soules greatest enrichment If thou believe this to be true as in very truth it is thou oughtest rather to rejoyce and comfort thy self If thou shouldst behold some one of the H. Prophets with thy corporal eyes as David or S. Iohn Baptist if thou shouldst see one raised from death or an Angel from heaven who were to tell thee from Almighty God that his will is that thou beare this cross patiently because it will be for thy greater good and no little gain would it not suffice to make thee refrain from all impatience nay would it not replenish thee with such joy as siezd the Apostles when they went away rejoycing because they were made worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of IESVS And why dost thou not now do the same Thou oughtest not to esteem that miraculous message as infallible as a matter of faith for in that case one might lawfully somtimes entertain a doubt since the evil spirit might delude him or he himself be deluded in his senses Therfore if this truth as matter of faith be more certain then if an Angel had teveald it from heaven why ought it to be less perswasive Our manner of working followes the certitude of our knowledg and the judgment we frame of a thing and proportionable to this knowledg must needs be the excellency of our operation Wherfore whosoever desires to walk in truth let him square the actions and paths of his life according to the model of his faith believing not onely true things but after a true manner least he become ridiculous to the Angels and joynt-sectary with the Divels who are all solifidians their beliefe being barren of works What availes it to know the way to heaven if we doe not walk it The wicked spirits know it better then we and nevertheles because they stand stil and advance not they are divels Tel me who is in a better condition thou that wilt not doe good or the divels that cannot It is all one in most things not to have a will and to be impotent yea it is more damnable and reproachful to thee who wilt not when thou mayst The divels believe and tremble I wish thou when thou believest wert possessd with a just fear Why dost thou not tremble at the judgments of God considering their certainty and the uncertainty of thy own condition either to eternal punishment or joy what is the reason

Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not ra●kd amōg good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary

OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH Written in IV. Bookes by IOHN EVSEBIVS NIEREMBERG Native of Madrid S. I. And Translated into English by R. S. S. ● I H S In which is disclosed the pith marrow of a spiritual life of Christs imitation mystical Theology extracted out of the HH FF greatest masters of spirit Diadochus Dorotheus Clymachus Rusbrochius Suso Thaulerus a Kempis Gerson not a little both pious effectual is superadded Printed Anno M.DC.LXXIII The Translatour to the Reader Courteous Reader I Present thee here with a stranger whom I have put in an English vest and if thou deem him not worthy to be naturalizd at least I pray entertain him civilly When thou art throughly acquainted with him hast dived into a discovery of his perfections thou wilt find rich pearles shrowded under a course shel I am confident it wil never repent thee no more then me of his acquaintance One that knowes how to distinguish fruit from leaves pith from bark a solid substance from a superficial show one that delights in truths seeks rather his own spiritual advance then a frothy feeding of his fancy wil here find entertainment right for his purpose that is both substantial and delightful He wil teach thee how to serve God in spirit truth not by an empty sound or canting use of these two words as do our sectaries who when they have named them think all done but by a real practise of Christian vertues in the discharge of our incumbent duty to God our selves and our neighbour To speak without metaphor I offer thee a plain Translation of a Latin treatise a piece in high esteem with me and many and I require only thy perusal therof to make thee esteem it so too That which moved the Author to compile it moved me also to translate it yet with this difference that he sought only his own behoof I my own chiefly others He a Parent of many such issues having labourd long with his pen for the advance of his neighbour in the way of vertue judgd it but meet to a make some provision for himself as a store house of spiritual truths maximes which he might have ready at every turn both for his meditation and practise And I think he was much in the right since charity begins at home it availes very little to perfect others if we be stil truants our selves self-interest ought to be the first concern nor are we to let our family starve at home while our endeavours are labouring to feed others abroad This prudent ceconomy and sage care of his own good is the common case of us all who have a soul to save it being also our task to provide in the first place for its indemnity that being the grand affair of our whole life which if not done all is utterly undone And how can we provide better then by making use of his provisions where the common exigence is the same For by the dictamen of charity it seldom happens that one is so treacherous to himself as not to provide himself of the best if what was best for him cannot be but good for us what he communicates without envy let us make use off with much freedom little cost a harty welcome There is not so much applause in translating as writing but the common benefit no whit the less yea more because no man of judgment wil translate what he deems not more then ordinarily good taking but who can promise so much of his own conceptions amidst so many miscarriages abortions as daily happen This our age kingdome is a little unfortunate in this respect that our best wits are forcd so to employ their pens for the defence of Catholick religion against the common adversaries and their assaults as that they cannot fully attend to what is as necessary in its kind the writing of spiritual treatises for the preservation encrease of piety in the harts of the faithful The former indeed is necessary but is a misfortune it is so upon such a score or that among the children of the same Mother some should be found so rebelliously bent especially with such prejudice to the latter this being the nursery of devotion consequently promoter of vertue and piety Spiritual bookes are the ordinary tongue by which God speakes to our soules the conveyancers of his holy inspirations when he is pleased to knock at the dore of our hart for entrance yea the key which unlocks it How many by reading them receive both light in their understanding love in their wil not only to acknowledg but perform what conduces to a vertuous life How many have quit the filth of sin in which they wallowed by wonderful conversions how many more of better principles found therby effectual incentives to Christian perfection Certainly the benefits redounding thence are unspeakable great pitty it is that we are not better stored with such books for as our appetite cannot feed long upon the same meat without being cloyed though otherwise both wholsome savory no more can our understanding without a nauseousnes employ it self in matter of reading unles there be variety to season it I have heard even spiritual persons bemoan their own the common scarcity in this kind Besides the excellency of the treatise it self this was a motive to me to contribute my mite towards some smal redress of the aggrievance This premisd I must speak a word or two of the Title it carryes which is Of Adoration in Spirit and Truth the which he borrowes from the words of our B. Saviour to the Samaritan is the subject of the whole work In that conference Io. 4. the great master Of Spirit Truth told her the time would come when true adorers should not be confined to Ierusalem or the mountain in Samaria but were to adore God in spirit Truth for God being a spirit covets to be adord in spirit Now what it is to adore him in Spirit Truth he explaines through the whole treatise chiefly in the 4. first Chapters of the first Book where he explicates what he understands both by the one other so clearly that nothing needs to be superadded Only it wil not perchance be amiss to forewarn some les skilful Reader that he be not frighted into a prejudice of the Book by the title it seeming to sound somwhat of the Sectarist who hath nothing so frequent in is mouth as I said above as Spirit Truth nothing les in substance The words indeed are easily named and may serve for canting among the ignorant but if one go to the pith substance of spirit truth as the Authour uses them to a true denial of our selves more then a lipp-love of God here the sectary wil be found as void of spirit as truth in both a nut without a kernel When the reader sees the Authour

to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any

ornament of speech since the word of God not unlike a sword the more naked it is the more deeply it pierceth much deeper then if it were sheathd in the richest phrases of humane eloquence and it is the sincerity of the speaker not the gorgeous attire of Rhetorique which makes it majestical I aymd sayth he at the self same in this Treatise which the zealous Bishop Salvianus mentions in his Epistle to Salonius We who love deeds better then words saith this holy Prelate seek rather after profit then applause neyther do we labour so much that the vayn pomp of the world be praysed in us as wholsome and substantial matter in our writings we covet not to set forth a fine dress but to give redress This was the reason sayth my Authour why I was not curious at all about the stile which I thought was not to be uniforme but attemperd to the nature of the subject it treated of for a pious and sincere matter is to be handled without all pompousnes and Oratorical figures and I preparing it for my self slender ornament would serve the turn Thus much he and all this I have inserted as pertinent to teach my Reader how little regardable these things are where spirit and truth sway the ballance the hart being not touched but the fancy onely tickled with such vanities What no judicious reader will condemne in him will not I hope be mislikd in the Translatour so far as wauing all matter of stile he attends to the englishing of the Authours sense yea words in as proper phrase and expression as he can he being a Translatour not a Paraphrast Which how farr he hath attaind must be left to the readers verdict and that be what it will he stands not much upon if the fruit he aymes at be produced in his soule following in such a fair view of truth as it expresseth her footsteps to a sincere Adoration in Spirit and Truth misled no more by the world and its impostures The Division of this Work In the I. Book are containd those things which concern the Purging of our soules In the II. what appertains to its illumination and the Imitation of Christ our Lord. In the III. what belongs to a most perfect practical performance of our actions In the IV. what helps to enflame us with a most ardent love of God and elevat our soules to the divin Vnion OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH THE I. BOOK THE FIRST CHAPTER The Deceitfulnes of a secular life THe proceedings of men in this life● intercours are a continual piece of forgery as voyd of credit as ful of imposture Be not too zealous of death in a mistake of life for the H. Ghost hates dissimulation in matter of discipline An imposture is so much more pernicious by how much the affair in which it is used is of greater concern and consequence Men deem nothing dearer then life how then can they endure to be deluded in it how can they brook forgery in matters of Spirit and worship of God which are infinitly to be prizd above life it self An imposture concerning life is the worst of evils It is too dangerous and formidable to be seduced in a thing of all others the most important and pretious Men suffer not willingly their eyes to be cheated and how ill do they mannage their busines if they suffer their minds They fret and chafe if they be cozend in pretious stones and how much more ought they concerning themselves How careful and vigilant are those that traffique in gems least a counterfeyt be put into their hands insteed of a true one no man will buy a jewel unles the seller give both oath and suerty that it is not adulterous This is the madnes of men they are content to set a false rate upon their life though not upon a stone they love not to be deceived in their eye-sight but can disgest a greater fallacy in their mind in their life yea and in their heaven We take it very ill to be cheated by another though but in smal trifles and we willingly cheat our selves even in the price of our selves We love neither to hear nor tel a lye and yet we make both our selves and our life a continual lye O miserable who are both the deceived and deceivers of our selves and we bear this two fold misery which men so much abhor with patience and we tolerate this double infamy in a busines of such consequence whereas we should brook neither in a trivial one If thou judge it a heynous crime to deceive thy friend and holds it the greatest of wrongs to be deceived by thy friend what ground or pretense in the world canst thou have to cozen thy self or be cozend by thy self who shouldst be dearer and faithfuller to thy self then any friend whatsoever But we willingly entitle our losses through our own default which nevertheles are the heavyest and in a double kind with the fair name of patience and animate our selves to our own destruction by not only holding our selves unworthy of blame but worthy of Congratulation The covetous man would take it ill if one should cozen him in the fading goods of fortune he would deem it an intolerable injury if one should stuf his Coffers and bags with dirt or rubbage in lieu of gold or silver and why doe we not onely endure but even affect to be cozend by our selves in the goods of vertue and grace nor grieve that our life is soyld with the staines of vices and defects or that our vertue is hypocritical our charity but forged our mortification superficial our humility counterfeyt A main reason of this endammagement is because we doe not pursue or rather throughly persecute self love lurking in us and put not this domestique enemy to the sword It 's no charity to save the life of an enemy to the prejudice or endangering of our own by giuing ear to his pernicious counsels We harken to our appetits as to so many Oracles although they utter nothing but lyes He that lends his ear to soothing flatterers must needs give credit to many things that are false and he that attends to the fawning charmes of self love shall ever and anon be deceived Tell me o my soul if a court or Senate of wise and cōscientious men should all with joynt consent determine a cause and the malefactour alone pleading nevertheles guilty and convinced by witnesses one as foolishly fond as desperately wicked should stand out against the verdict of the whole Court as unjust and partial wouldst thou believe this one wretch rather then so many wise and upright Senatours Why then dost thou follow the toyes and fancies of self love and its brutish appetites how darest thou oppose its verdict alone to that of God of his Angels of the Doctours of the Church of ancient Philosophers of reason it self nay even of thy own conscience all these condemning for naughty what it approves for good yea

which is perfect as also of Gods simplicity wherfore the Trinity of Persons is an authentical testimony of the divine Vnity What complacence doth a soul take in knowing this not as I have rudely explicated it or as it can be explicated for this is only felt by an inexplicable manner for as there are no natural species which can bring us to this knowledg so neyther are there words significantly expressive of what is manifested to some pious soules concerning the word eternal Therfore the soul of a creature is so over joyd when the mutual proportion and harmony of the increated Trinity and Vnity and the necessity of both to the accomplishment of the divine perfection is communicated to it that it is all in jubily and exultation transported besides it self and quite spent through amorous desires and the languishments of true charity thirsting earnestly to discover in the other life this stupendious goodnes of the Trinity Why longst thou o my soul to see any thing else besides this great spectacle of the world for whose sight alone the Seraphins and all the Hierarchies of Angels and Saints were created and introduced into heaven as so many spectatours Where is thy curiosity where thy desire of knowledg if thou covet not to be dissolved and contemplate that mystery and to dive into this hidden secret but thy longing must remit thee to the other life and not put thee upon inquiry in this how he is three and one Thou must not search the cause why he is so since thou art not able to give the cause of what he is Thou seekst in vain a cause in him who hath no cause God were not to be stiled great if he were not greater then our capacity Thou must not ●nquire after what manner he can be so who never could be before he was so Philosophers could never sufficiently penetrate into the nature of divers wormes and no body knowes himself throughly how then canst thou hope to make a ful discovery of the divine nature thy Author wherfore thou must captivate thy reason to the simplicity of faith in this supernatural mystery for that perspicuity which the divine indulgence daignes sometimes to insinuate belongs not to all but only to whom God calls out of the number of those who dwel with his Son in the mount Calvary and in a totall ejurement of themselves who denying self wil have taken up their cross followed IESVS to that mount and wil have them follow him thence to the mount Olivet glory those he priviled geth somtimes in such sort as to make them partakers of his majesty Where I am saith IESVS there also shal my servant be He that shal partake with Christ in suffering shal also partake of this extraordinary light and joy So when our Holy Patriarch Saint Ignatius had wasted exhausted himself with corporal pennances and austerities it was more copiously and clearly imparted to him then one is able to express So that mirrour of fervour F. Didacus Martinus did almost allwayes behold himself environed with a glorious light of the Trinity or some one of the three Persons Nevertheles it appertains to all to covet with most ardent desires the sight of this ancient and eternal novelty in the life to come It was reveald to that holy servant of God F. Iohn Fernandius that a certain religious man of our society was long detaind in purgatory because he had omitted to wish with ardency the sight of the most B. Trinity O my soul why art not thou more enamoured upon the sight of this theatre of the blessed to whose spectacle all minds are summond allrational creatures are invited What a joy wil it be to behold that which now by reason of the narrownes of our thoughts or ignorance through an excess of jubily and love we are not able to comprize how exultingly shall we rejoice while we contemplate these first fruits of the divine perfection that fore-tast and new expression of the divine goodnes where it communicates it self to the Son and that primitive bounty of God what a pledg and assurance wil a soul receive of the divine benignity towards it self when it beholds this profusenes of benevolence if God without deliberation gave all that he is wil he not by the advise and vote of his goodnes grant that we may at least see what he is if he permit us not to be what he is he wil permit us to admire what he is if not to possess him at least to enjoy him if not to live by the same life at least by such another and that eternal of which a soul hath a pawn when it beholds a generation excluding death How can we chuse but love God with all our mind and strength consid●ring that purple morning of ardent charity which he displaid where the first and Virgin dew of his guifts is the furnace it self of charity love it self in the same substance so that the love is as great as God in the same guift of love he gives his own infinite essence for love it self is the first guift and all that infinite being which is in God What assurances of benevolence wil a soul take hence beholding such a happy and ominous essay of Gods future bounty and such a promising beginning of his goodnes insomuch that it takes huge complacence in being loved by that unparalleld love and doth what it can to love him reciprocally by imitating so great goodnes by giving it self to God by leaving it self nothing since the Father leaves himself no parcel of his substance which he communicates not to the Son and both of them to the H. Ghost In the excess ●● this consideration and the consideration of this excess by means of a mysterious darknes there passeth an ineffable communication and intimate union betwixt God and a soul The soul passeth into God by grace love which though she remain in herself by nature yet not by affection and God passeth into the soul by indulgence and charity though he still remain in his majesty O immense goodnes of the Father immense wisdome of the Son immense sweetnes of the H. Ghost grant that I may reverence thee in thy Vnity adore thee in thy Trinity admire thee in thy goodnes imitate thee in thy love grant that I may humble my self to thy ●uperexcellency that I may enjoy thy Vision ●dhering to thee through all eternity becoming one spirit with thee and in this interstice ●n adorer of thy majesty In spirit and truth ●et me desire truth spirit to contemplate face to face the more then most true the more then most spiritual and superessential excellency of thy Trinity and Vnity To the honour of the ever B. Trinity the word Incarnate and his V. Mother S. Ioseph and all Saints FINIS A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in the I. Book 1. THe deceitfullnes of a secular life fol. 1. 2. Of the Truth of the Spirit fol. 8. 3. Of Purity