Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A25370
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The English nvnne being a treatise wherein (by way of dialogue) the author endeauoureth to draw yong & vnmarried Catholike gentlewomen to imbrace a votary and religious life / written by N.N. Hereunto is annexed a short discourse (by way of conclusion) to the abbesses and religious women of all the English monasteries in the Low-countreys and France.
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Anderton, Lawrence.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing A3109; ESTC R29040
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86,325
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178
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beginning of this mayne passage Yf a Religious life be so worthy in it selfe and of such efficacy as being a state of Continuall Penance as that by it a Religious person may labour daily to cancell his sinnes and to escape the paines both of Hell Purgatory how weake then is the iudgment of all those who sleight and prize litle the priuiledges granted by God to such a life And on the contrary syde how happy Cosmophila is your Sister Caelia in choosing this her retired and votary life for her better auoiding of all the former threatned dangers Abbesse Reuerend Father Confessarius and you Cosmophila with both your good leaues I will make bold to relate one Fruite or benefit of a Religious life and hereto I am the more willing in that out of my owne experience and gouerment ouer others I find the Fruit by me here vnderstood to be most exactly practized by all those religious sisters who liue vnder my charge This benefit whereof I here speake is an Humble lowlines of mind in the Professours of a votary life And the greatnes of this vertue is of so large an extent as that S. Bernard houlds it to be a signe of predestination who in one of his Sermons turneth his speach to his owne Brethren and thus speaketh Dearely n beloued perseuer in the Course allready vndertaken that by Humility you may ascend to Sublimity This is the way and there is no other way but it He that goeth otherwise doth rather fall for Humility exalteth Humility leades to life Thus S. Bernard The truth whereof from experience appeareth seeing we may daily obserue that that Man or Woman who is most poore in spirit that is most humble is commonly most rich in the guifts of the spirit and according hereto if so I remember the words the Prophet Dauid thus speaketh Our o Lord is high and regardeth humble things Now for the further displaying of the great fruit of Humility we may call to mind that it preuenteth many dangers of the soule vnto which dangers high minded persons lye open Humility also ministreth many helpes to eternall Saluation for they that are in honour Elation of state are euer in great danger of a headlong falling whereas a good humble Soule reposeth it selfe most willingly in the lowest place and is thereby more remote from any spirituall slipping downe And by this we may gather how much we are obliged to Religion whereby keeping vs out of the trafficke and commerse of the eyes of men and from all worldly aduancements we rest in a holy and wholesome place of Refuge we being by this meanes made meere strangers to the World and the World to vs And touching the practise of this precious Vertue of Humility if I may speake it in all sobriety of iudgment it is most exactly and daily put in execution by the Sisters of this our poore Monastery For though I say it there are diuers Sisters here worthily for their parentage descended and yet they euen striue contend through a pious and religious Emulation which of them shall performe the most and lowest workes of Humility How often to my owne great edification haue I commanded such or such a Sister of no meane Descent to vndergoe this or that meane office in out house Yea so willingly hath ech of theÌ„ with a ready smiling consent performed what I appointed as that thogh I be their vnworthy Gouernesse yet I may bouldly pronounce that they are my Instructours in the practise of this Vertue And for the more certainty hereof I dare appeale to the iudgment of you Sister Caelia whose eyes are able to depose the daily truth of what I heere say but though I be their Superiour heerin I will not glory in our selues but according to the Apostles words I p will glory in our Lord Caelia I freely auerre that my owne sight since my first entrance in to this holy House hath obserued strange and vnexpected Examples of this kind And indeed to speake vnder both your licences I do find not only Humility but many other Vertues to be daily exercised among our Sisters to the great strengthning and encouraging of me in this my selected life So as I may iustly terme this Monastery and no doubt all other well gouerned Monasteries either of Men or Women a very Schoole of Vertue For besides the three Theologicall vertues to wit Fayth Hope and Charity as also besides the three essentiall vowes of a religious life I meane of Chastity Pouerty and Obedience finally besides Humility aboue spoken of what other vertue sorting to a Christian life is there not practised by the blessed Nunnes of this Monastery and this in a high degree The due Consideration of which point I grant hath increased my thirst in imbracing this most happy life and in loathing the world and all the fruitles pleasures thereof O deare Sister Cosmophila I would to God I were daily to endure no small paines of my body and this for no thort tyme that you had so fully seene in this place the practize of vertue as I haue done and that the sight thereof had made so deep an impression both in your Vnderstanding and Will as to my infinit comfort through the vnspeakable goodnes of his diuine Maiesty it hath done in mine Then Good sister I shold be assured that you would not so much depresse and vnderuâ—lew the state of a Religious life as in the beginning of this discourse you did Yea I would not be altogether in dispayre but that your selfe for the Eternall good and wellfare of your soule with a pious contempt of all those trifling allurements aboue mentioned by you as Mariage splendour in apparell attendance and the like might perhaps imbrace the same religious Course of life with me But Reuerend Father to turne my speach to you your Reuerence may proceede further if so you shall thinke good in vnfoulding the fruits and benefits of Religion My sister seemes by her words to take no small delight therein and as for my selfe to the greater nourishment of my spirituall life I doe euen feed vpon these your vertuous and religious discourses Confessarius I will not be sparing of my labour herein But because this Scene of myne in setting downe the benefits and commodities arysing by a Religious life hath beene somwhat long therefore I will passe ouer many fruits thereof As that a man doth discharge his debt in giuing himselfe wholy to God in Religious state That Gods peculiar care and protection is ouer those who liue in a Religious lyfe That the prayers of Religious persons are easely heard That among religious people there is mutuall communication of Good workes That in a Religious state the Commvndements of God bynding vnder the penalty of damnation are far more easely kept then in the state of the Layty That there is greater merit of one and the same good worke performed by a Religious person then the
and afflict them with imaginary dreames O how many worldlings enthralled either to Riches to Honours or Pleasures of the flesh find this to be true which now I speake and therefore these Vanities are called by the Prophet Ieremy h those Tyrants which will not affoard any rest neither night nor day To what hath been aboue said we may adioyne the seuerall miscryes which necessarily attend vpon these worldly pleasures I will insist only in one or two The first then may be that admitting these pleasures were in themselues to be much prized and desired yet obserue how their sweetnes is abated First by the Instability Vncertainty of enioying them for any long tyme and therefore how great a misery is it to a worldly man whose felicity wholy resteth in the fruition of these Vanities suddainly and vnexpectedly to be pulled from them And how an inexplicable a griefe was it to the Richman in the Gospell to heare that discomfortable message Stulte i hac nocte c. Foole this very night thou shalt dye and the things which thou hast prouided whose shall they be Another Attendant of the world is Discontentment which sowers and makes bitter all the pleasures thereof For cast your eye on euery seuerall temporall delight and obserue the sauce adioyned to it For example the pleasure of the flesh euen when it is lawfull and honest is as S. Paul affirmeth attended with tribulation k of the flesh this is for you Cosmophila if you intend hereafter to marry but if it be enioyed with sinne then infinitly more it is enuironed with seuerall anxietyeâ— of mynd in like manner the aduancement to Honours and Dignities stands subiect to all Vassallage and Seruitude that can be deuised aâ— also to the danger of being after cast downe into Disgrace and Contumely Briefly the possession of Riches lyeth open to feare of loosing them and vpon the suddaine to be pulled from them And the Truth of all this is so cleare and vndeniable as tht I could exemplify it not speaking of tymes past in diuers persons of these tymes and some of them of my neere and familiar acquaintance Now all this being most true I demand Of what iudgment or braynes is that Man or woman who for the enioying of such worldly fooleryes will forbeare the heaueÌ„ly Course of a Religious life And thus far of this subiect wherein I haue spread my selfe more largely by reason it seemes by your owne words Cosmophila that this Motiue of the World the pleasures thereof is one mayne impediment why your Father though otherwise a Vertuous good Catholike doth not giue that full approbation and allowance to a votary lyfe as could be wished Cosmophila Syr you haue spoken very fully and irrepliably and indeed euen till this present I did much prize the worldly allurements and felicities at a far higher rate then now after your discourse thereof is finished I doe So much blinded I grant was my poore womanish iudgment in not truly ballancing and weighing of these matters before this tyme But yet Good Syr though you haue partly touched vpon that point aboue I meane that the pleasures and delights of this world haue their counterpoyze of Discontents adioyning to them yet if it shall please you to treat more largly thereof your paines therein I hope will be worthily bestowed and the rather seeing there are many persons persuaded that the carelesse Christian enioyeth his pleasures in all full manner wholy exempt from all anxieties of the mynd and that the vertuous do liue in a continuall sadnes and Melancholy full of Griefe and voyde of pleasure Confessarius I am content so to do And first then you are to know that both the Vertuous and Wicked haue their continuall Crosses as I may â—arme them and Afflictions in this world â—his through diuine Prouidence yet these two different sorts of men haue them after a most different manner as hereafter I will shew First that the Vertuous haue their desolations and Afflictions sometymes is euident out of the words of our Sauiour himselfe thus saying l He that doth not beare his Crosse and come â—fter me cannot be my Disciple To whome accords the Apostle in these words m All who will liue goodly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution So â—rue is that saying of S. Chrysostome n Tribulation is an and â—ssoluble and inseparable bonâ— of a Christian lyfe All which is from the immediate hand of God for the good the Soule of his Seruants Now to descend to the Wicked or loose Christianâ—â—l say that their men haue also such discontents and 〈◊〉 as well may be tearmed their Crosses For though the Wicked suffer no iniuries from the Vertuous yet are they seuerall wayes afflicted For first besides what is aboue briefly said of this point we find daily that one worldly or sensuall man receaue the griefe and vexation from another worldly oâ— sensuall man Secondly such men suffer Tribulation euen from their owne proper Vices to the which they become worse then Gallyslaues as wholy enchayned and enthralled to performe whatsoeuer along continued habit of these Vices shall command and exact from them they not being able to make any resistance or repugnancy thereto Thirdly the wicked suffer tribulation euen from their owne bad Consciences So truly doth S. Austin say speaking of the Worms of Conscience as the Scripture o calleth it No tribulation p is greater then the Conscience of ones sinnes But now let vs ballance a litle the aduersities or desolations of pious and Religious persons with the Afflictions of the Wicked so obserue thereby whether of these sorts of affliction were rather to be vndergone and suffered And first the Afflictions of the Iust are but short and momentary during only the tyme of their banishment in this world And therefore the Scripture sayth of Iust and pious men dying q Blessed are the dead who shall dye in our Lord Euen so sayth the spirit that they shall rest from their labours And againe that God r shall then wype from their eyes all teares But to proceed further to other priuiledges accompaning the Tribulations of Religious and vertuous persons First Christ himselfe auerreth that ineffable Comfort and Ioy doth euer attend the Tribulations of the Iust saying to his Disciples and in them to all other vertuous soules s You shall weepe and lament but the world shall reioyce And you shal be made sorrowfull but your sorrow â—halbe turned into ioy The truth of which words the Apostle S. Paul tryed in himselfe thus saying in the throng of all his Aduersities t I am replenished with Consolation I do exceedingly abound in all Tribulation The third priuiledge of the Crosses of the â—ust is that they are most Fruitfull and profitable to the soules of the pious since Tribulation is a meanes appointed by God for the obtayning of the kingdome of Heauen For thus we â—ead our Sauiour to