Reason but Reason tells us That we must submit to faith That that man is not rational Who will not submit his reason To the Principle of his reason That man is without understanding Who would by his reason comprehend What is above his understanding Faith is not evident But reason shews evidently That we have the true Faith The Antiquity of our Religion The Establishment of our Religion The unavoidable continuance of our Religion The Miracles of our Religion The Extent of our Religion The Sanctity of our Religion The Majesty of our Religion The Doctors of our Religion The Witnesses and Martyrs of our Religion Do perswade all Understandings That there is no Religion in the World Or that ours is the true one If the Church deceives me 'T is God that deceives me If the Church leads me astray 'T is God that leads me astray I would not believe the Gospel If the Church did not bid me believe it I should not receive the sence of the Scripture Unless the Church did bid me receive it One believes nothing except he believes all For to be a Catholick one must believe Universally humbly firmly efficaciously O Truth my God! You have plac'd your Throne in the Sun Your Church is as bright as the Sun She enlightens all the World like the Sun She gives life to all the World like the Sun O I will live and dy a Child of your Church I am one of your Sheep I cannot live without a Shepherd I renounce all my own lights I submit my self to the lights of Faith My Religion would not be divine Unless it were above reason You would not be my God If you were not incomprehensible My heart could not adore you If my understanding could comprehend you My heart must submit to your Law And my Understanding to your faith Behold he that is incredulous his soul will not be upright in himself but the just man shall live in faith Hab. 2. Faith is the substance of things to be hoped an argument of things that appear not Heb. 11. Reducing every understanding into captivity to the obsequiousness of faith 2 Cor. 10. Unless ye believe ye will not understand Isa 7. according to the Septuagint We have a firmer Prophetical speech to which you do well to attend as it were to a light shining in the dark 1 Pet. 3. LVI MED Of the Conduct of Faith REason is the light of Man Faith is the light of a Christian To be a man one must be rational To be a Christian one must be a believer God is to be honoured by my Understanding As well as by my Heart I honour God with my Heart When I obey his Law I honour him with my Understanding When I submit unto Faith My Heart submits its self entirely When it does that which does not please it My Understanding submits it self perfectly When it believes what it understands not Faith consecrates the spirit of man It makes him Religious It submits him to the authority of God It sacrifices him to his glory It unites him to his wisdom It fills him with his truth It makes him upright like God It makes him certain and infallible like him Faith discovers to us The Mysteries of our Religion It conducts us to our End It conserves us in Unity It maintains us in Humility It sustains our Hopes It encourages our Charity It disposes us to Grace It makes us merit Glory Without Faith the Spirit is profane It is a Libertin and without Religion It wanders in its knowledge It loses it self in its Ratiocinations It rises not off from the Earth It merits nothing for Heaven It submits not it self to its Creatour It obeys not its Soveraign It will never see the first truth O how great a gift of God's is Faith O how blind is that man that hath not Faith O how rational it is to submit our Spirit to God My God! I believe what I understand not I do what pleases me not I adore you by the submission of my thoughts I love you by the submission of my desires For to obey your Law We must renounce our own proper will For to obey your faith We must renounce our own lights That man is not your Subject Who will do nothing but what pleases him That man is not your Disciple Who will not believe but what he understands We walk by faith and not by sight 1 Cor. 5. I will espouse thee to my self by faith and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Os 2. Abraham believed God and it was reputed to him to justice Rom. 4. He went forth not knowing whither he was to go Heb. 11. VVilt not thou be subject to God O my Soul Ps 61. LVII MED Of Hope and Confidence in God HOpe is a Divine Virtue Which leans upon her beloved She honours his goodness She renders homage to his grandure She acknowledges his Providence Of Men she makes us Gods Of Impotent she makes us Omnipotent Of poor she makes us rich We never ought to hope more Than when all things seem desperate We never ought to fear less Than when all things seem to be feared We never ought more to give our selves up Than when we think all is lost God gives his own subsistence To him that strips himself of his own God gives his Omnipotence To him that acknowledges his own weakness God gives all his Treasures To him who owns his Poverty Abundance seeks out Indigence The weak man leans upon the strong man The strong man takes delight in the weak one God sustains that human nature Which relies only on his Divinity Be you without support And God will support you Have no Human subsistence And you shall have a Divine one Trust not to your own lights And you shall have the Wisdom of God Trust not to your own strength And you shall have the power of God Trust not to your own virtues And you shall have the holiness of God Alas O my God! Who am I And who art thou Thou art my Being And I am a mere Nothing Thou art my strength And I am nothing but weakness Thou art my Holiness And I am nothing but malice O my God and my hope I leave my self to you I repose in you I rely on you If I go astray you shall be the cause of my stray If I fall you shall be the cause of my fall If I ruin my self you shall ruin me For I put all my trust in you You can neither ruin nor lead me astray I therefore will be afraid of nothing Provided that I leave my self to you To know God and not to know ones own misery Is that which begets Presumption To know our own misery without knowing God Is that which begets Despair JESUS is not only a God But he is a God-Mediatour JESUS is no more JESUS If you take his mercy from him He is no more a Saviour If he has no tenderness for a Sinner VVho is she that
A NEW FORM OF Meditations For every Day in the Year Reviewed Corrected and Enlarged Written Originally in FRENCH by F. JOHN CRASSET And put into ENGLISH at the Request of several Persons of Honour and Quality by a Well-wisher to Devotion LONDON Printed for William Grantham in Cock-Pit Alley near Drury-Lane MDCLXXXV The AUTHOR's Necessary Advertisements FOR The better Use of the ensuing MEDITATIONS THere are many People already advanced in Prayer who cannot away with long Meditations Som because they have not time enough to read them Others because they have not a Memory good enough to retain them Besides their Understanding seeing that ready made which it was to have wrought out and finding without difficulty what it was to have searched out by its discourse becoms slack and negligent and does ordinarily wander away in those vast Regions which are discovered to it Whereas having but a little matter to meditate upon it retains it without difficulty it relishes it with Pleasure because every Workman loves his own Handiwork which has cost him so much pains to make A Hunter who has been a long time in quest of his Game finds much joy when he has discovered it The discovery of a Truth makes a greater impression upon the Soul that finds it than a hundred that are proposed to her She acknowledges better the effect of the favour when being in a barren and waterless Desart she sees a Heavenly Manna fall down from Heaven for to feed her and Waters break forth in abundance out of the bosom of Rocks for the quenching of her Thirst The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a grain of Mustard-seed which is very small but when it is beaten and pounded it warms the Stomach We must not load our Mind with too much Matter no more than our Stomach with too much Meat otherwise it will not be able to disgest it For that reason St. Ignatius that great Man of Prayer in his Book of Exercises gave us very short Meditations And the more one advances the less matter he gives to the end that the Soul may put her Confidence in God and may beg Lights of him apply her own Powers expect his Succour and sensibly acknowledge what she has from her self for her Humiliation thereby and what she receives from God that she may thank him for it There is a great difference between a Lecture and a Meditation He who reads a good Book ought to understand what he reads without pain and without labour Truth ought to present it self to his Understanding without his being obliged to search after it But he who meditates must by his reasoning dig in the Evangelical Field that he may find the Treasure of Grace that lies hid therein 'T is true that all the World are not capable of busying themselves and framing Discourses And indeed that very Reason has obliged som very Learned Men of our Time to Publish long Meditations wherein Truths are propounded in all their force and in all their extent that those who have not such penetrating Wits might help themselves by their Reading and have nothing more to do in their Prayer but to have an affection for what they Read But those who have their Wit quick active curious earnest and solid require much Matter to busie themselves with and are like unto Fire which goes out when it has no more Fewel I confess that it is a hard matter to content all the World yet I dare be so bold as to promise my self that both the one and the other will be fitted with the Meditations which I present them Those who desire but a little Matter will find in one only Line employment enough for a long time Those who desire a great deal by passing from one line to another will rather want time than matter for their entertainment Learned Persons will without difficulty find out that most part of the Propositions of which these Meditations are made up are Sentences of the Holy Fathers translated word for word into our Language I was once in the mind to have quoted them in the Margent But having considered that such like Citations are only for Books of Doctrin and that R.F. Pontus has not made them in his Meditations I thought I might dispense with my self therein But instead of the Passages out of the Holy Fathers I have set down som out of the Scripture for the maintenance of the Truths which are in these Meditations and for to give them as I may say a little seasoning for the words of Men are flat and insipid without the salt of the Word of God nor do they make that impression in Hearts as the Sacred Text is wont to do whose Weight and Authority do persuade mens Minds more efficaciously than all human Ratiocinations Thus those who have a Mind to act by Faith may stop upon the Scripture Passages those who have a mind to discourse may take the matter of the Meditations There are Meditations upon almost all Virtues and upon all Vices as also upon all the Mysteries of our Lord and of our Lady And because the sense of these Truths is to be included in one or two lines it was necessary to make these Meditations in form of Sentences and little Verses for to give them a more pleasing Cadence without mingling any Rhimes which I broke off as much as I could possible I confess you will find som Repetitions therein But is there any Book of Meditations wherein there are none And is it possible to handle so many Matters so like without falling into the same thoughts Moreover I affirm That it is good to meditate the same things three or four times over For a Truth that doth not touch you at one time does often touch you at another as S. Ignatius takes notice And for that reason I voluntarily left some Repetitions therein which I might have changed As for the order of the Meditations it is conformable to that of the three States of a Spiritual Life to wit Of Beginners Proficients and Perfect that every one may without difficulty find Matters conformable to their Disposition 'T is the Method that F. Ponte makes use of which I thought fit to follow But for to content those who desire to have different Matter for all the year long I have made a Table which marks out to them for every Day the subject of their Meditation Now whereas it is not possible to furnish different Matters of this Nature for a whole year and because these Meditations are filled with so great a number of Truths that each one of them is sufficient to take up several days I was forced twice or thrice in the year to give the same subject to meditate on leaving it to every one's Devotion to change his Meditation when that which he meets with pleases him not I have for every day proposed the Subjects the most conformable to the Gospel of the Sunday Wherefore you would do well to Read it
great things How beautiful is God Since he hath created such beautiful things How good is God Since he hath created such good things What favours has God don to me From what danger has he preserved me From how many evils has he delivered me What great goods he promises me Who deserves my heart better than he Who offers me a greater price for to have it To whom shall I give it if not to him Who has given me his To whom shall I sell it if not to him Who has bought it at the price of his Blood Is a naughty heart worth the blood of a God Worth the life of a God Worth the heart of a God Worth the Kingdom of God I deserve not to live If I will live for any one but you I ought not to have a heart If I will love any thing else besides you O I have loved you too late Beauty always new always ancient O I have too soon offended you Bounty always amiable always adorable I acknowledge my darkness I abhor my ingratitudes I will always love you O God of goodness I will never offend you O God of majesty Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy forces Luk. 10. In this did appear the charity of God because God sent his only begotten son into the World that we may live by him 1 John 4. Let us therefore love God because he loved us first ibid. I will love thee O Lord my strength our Lord is my establishment and my refuge and my deliverer my God and my helper c. Ps 17. CLI MED How God loves men and how men ought to love God LEt us love God because he loves us Let us love him as he hath loved us The Love of God is ancient He hath lov'd us from all Eternity We were always in his thought in his heart His Love is as ancient as his Being He no sooner was but he loved us And as he always was So he always loved us And he will still love us During all Eternity The Love of God is pure and disinterested He loves us without standing in need of us Without expecting any thing from us Without any desert on our side Without any obligation on his He loves us that he may be loved And to make us happy through his love The Love of God is tender 'T is a Love of sweetness 'T is the sweetness of Love 'T is the Love of a Father And Mother and Nurse The Love of God is strong It triumphs over all difficulties It does good to the ungrateful To Rebels to his Enemies The Love of God is infinit He loves us with the love that he loves himself He has bestowed infinit benefits on us He has suffered infinit evils for us He has given his blood which is of an infinit price He communicates to us his grace Which is an infinit treasure He prepares his glory for us Which is an infinit good The Love of God is universal It embraces all men There is no body that he does not love That he does not visit To whom he has not appointed an Angel Whom he does not help Whom he has not redeemed Whom he is not willing to save O incomparable Lover Where shall I find a friend So faithful and so ancient as you O my Soul Canst thou not love him Who has loved thee so much Canst thou refuse thy heart to him Who has given thee his Compare one with the other Measure the greatness of the one and the other O my God! my Love Was there ever Ingratitude comparable to mine You love me from the time that you were And I offend you from the time that I had a Being You love me from all Eternity And I will not love you now O I will henceforth love you As you have loved me I will love you constantly purely strongly Eternally universally In all places in all times in all states And in the accomplishment of all your wills I have loved thee in perpetual charity Jer. 31. The Father himself loveth you John 6. He will have all men to be saved and to com to the knowledge of truth 1 Tim. 2. He loved them to the end John 13. Is the death of the wicked man my Will saith the Lord God and not rather that he should be converted from his ways and live Ezek. 18. CLII. MED Of the Incomprehensibility of God ALL times together Cannot measure the Being of God All places together cannot inclose him All understandings whatsoever Cannot comprehend him All hearts together Cannot love him sufficiently God is nothing of what I see He is nothing of what I touch He is nothing of what I hear He is nothing of what I know He is nothing of what I imagin He is an invisible spiritual And incomprehensible Being O my God! How rich am I When I have nothing but you How enlightned am I When I see nothing but you How knowing am I When I know nothing but you How contented am I When I relish nothing but you I see all things when I see nothing I tast all things when I tast nothing I hear all things when I hear nothing I possess all things when I possess nothing I am all things when I am nothing I honour the Power of God By the Sacrifice of my power I honour the Greatness of God By the Sacrifice of my glory I honour the Goodness of God By the Sacrifice of my desires I honour the Incomprehensibility of God By the Sacrifice of my thoughts Empty your Memory from its Images And God will fill it with his Essence Empty your Heart of its Affections And God will fill it with his Goods Empty your Understanding of your Conceits And God will fill it with his Lights Great in counsel and incomprehensible in thought Jer. 32. To whom have you compared me and made me like unto Isai 46. My Soul hath refused to be comforted I was made full of God and was delighted Ps 76. All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee Ps 34. Rase it rase it unto the foundation thereof Ps 136. CLIII MED Of Simplicity BE simple in mind Be simple in heart That Spirit is simple That has but one thought That heart is simple that has but one desire Without these two Simplicities You will never arrive to Unity God is a pure Act. There is nothing more simple than his Being He cannot be multiplyed He cannot endure Duplicity He has from all Eternity But one thought and one love He says all in one word And this word is nothing but Truth If you would unite your self to God You must imitate this Simplicity To what purpose are so many thoughts To what end so many discourses Are not you convinc'd of the truth Why should you seek after what you have found Do what you know Tast what you see God is one great Word A great matter for Prayer Cast
keepeth it Ps 126. My Prayer shall be turned into my bosom Ps 34. It it good for me to cleave to God to put my hope in our Lord God Ps 72. To thee have I lifted up my eyes who dwellest in heaven Ps 122. I am thy servant give me understanding Ps 118. If I should walk in the midst of the shadow of Death I will fear no evils because thou art with me Ps 22. The God of my heart and God my portion for ever Ps 72. I have made my bed in the dark Job 17. Let no man look upon me Job 7. Our Lord is not in a whirlwind 3 Kings 4. Behold God and my Saviour I will act confidently with him and will not fear Isai 12. But thou art in us O Lord c. Jer 14. Let all flesh be silent in the sight of God Zach. 2. I have laboured a little and have found much rest Eccl. 52. In all these things I sought rest and I shall abide in the inheritance of our Lord. Eccl. 24. He that loses his life shall find it Matth. 16 The Holy Ghost shall com down on thee Luk. 1. My Lord and my God John 20. I eace be to you fear not it is I. Luk. 25. I give you peace John 14. Behold the Bridegroom cometh Matth. 25. They who were ready entred with him ibid. Why do ye fear O ye of little faith he commands the wind and the sea Matth. 8. Remain in me and I in you John 15. Be like unto men expecting their Master when he shall return from the wedding Luk. 12. The Peace of God that surpasseth all understanding preserve your hearts and your understandings in Christ Jesus Phil. 4. We will com unto him and make our mansion with him John 14. The Disciple whom Jesus loved and who leaned on his brest at supper John 21. Ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God Col. 3. He is our peace Eph. 2. In him we live we move and we are Act. 17. Blessed are the dead that dy in our Lord. Apoc. 14. Words of Love taken out of the Book of the Following of Christ for Souls that aspire to Vnion HAppy is he whom Truth teaches 1 Book c. 3. All proceeds from one word and all speaks one word ibid. He to whom all is one thing ibid. O Truth my God make me one thing with thee ibid. I am often weary of reading ibid. Let all Doctors be silent ibid. The Kingdom of God is in you ibid. When you have JESUS you will be rich ibid. O JESUS splendour of glory c. ibid. This whole Chapter is divine and fit to comfort a Soul that is in Privation I will hear what my Lord shall say 3 Book c. 1. This is what the beloved says I am thy salvation thy peace and thy life 3 b. c. 1. Lord my God thou art all my good 3 b. c. 2. Thou O Lord alone art good ibid. O Lord my God c. ibid. Thou art my glory and the joy of my heart 3 b. c. 5. Thou wilt suffice to him that loves thee ibid. Thou art the true peace of heart 3 b. c. 15. My soul thou wilt always be at rest 3 b. c. 21. O when shall I see my Lord and my God c. ibid. Read all the 48 Chapter of the Third Book which is of an infinit sweetness and comfort Son as much as thou canst go out of thy self 3 b. c. 56. Lord what confidence can I have in this life 3 b. c. 59. I had rather be poor for thy sake ibid. Read all this Chapter which is the last of the Third Book and you will find much comfort Who will give me to find you alone O my Lord. 4 b. c. 13. O Lord my God ibid. Be in me and I in you ibid. Truly thou art my Peace-maker ibid. O truly thou art a hidden God ibid. O God how sweet is thy spirit ibid. O truly there is no Nation c. ibid. O JESUS splendour of eternal glory ibid. These words taken out of the Book of the following of Christ may sweetly and profitably employ a Soul in Prayer and after Communion FINIS