light and savour be withdrawn from them do not in any wise therefore depart from God these are the true internal ones Verily whoever after this manner now spoken of have denied themselves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obey me than himself it would not go so wel with me as it doth by his presence only But when his sensible presence is withdrawn from me I confess then some desire of it layes hold on me But when that happens to me my weakness surely is the cause of it Seeing Solomon saith that in all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
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
God's sake But neither is this the duty of a true Incluse for if she would more narrowly look into it she would surely finde how that secretly it doth fight against her purpose Every true Inlcuse ought to lead so pure so absolute a life so free and so abstracted from all creatures that her merits may be able to succour and help all universally that are inrolled under the Name of Christ But yet there are others which say they are of so weak and frail a nature that it is necessary for them that they should relieve themselves by discoursing with men and by that means succour their infirmity O such miserable Incluses how wholly are they deceived by the counsel of the malignant one Take it for certain Beloved whoever seeks any thing else in an Inclusory than for Gods sake willingly to suffer such a one doth unadvisedly betake her self thereto Now some may be found who enter into an Inclusory that in it they may be fed by Alms with peace and ease which Alms notwithstanding they would but very unwillingly beg as exiles in a despicable manner openly in the streets but as many as are after this manner do rashly take to themselves the name of Incluses alias pure Nuns and it would be much better for their souls that they should lie as Exiles in the high-way in such a plight as might move the minds of all passengers to pitty But when any Incluse enters into an Inclusory she ought to offer her self purely freely nakedly and voluntarily to Christ for to undergo the Crosse for all men bearing in mind those words which Christ spake upon the Crosse Mat. 27. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me That blessed and venerable Mary Magdalen was a true Incluse seeing she of her own accord renounced all the comfort of creatures Certainly God the Father Almighty sent his Son unto the Earth and would have him take upon him humane nature that in it he might suffer and yet notwithstanding we alwayes flie suffering But whatever we can do it is most certain if we will take the nearer way and sooner and more subtily penetrate all things that cannot otherwise be done than by following the most true Example of our Lord and Saviour by suffering at least in some measure And nevertheless which here I bring for our comfort Truly God the heavenly Father is not so hard and severe towards us as he hath been towards his only Son For verily if we with our whole strength offer our selves to God for to suffer so as that we become willing of our own accord and freely to undergo whatever pleaseth him we should bear neither in the time of affliction depart from him neither do fly from afflictions when they meet us When he shall take notice of this he will the more speedily when he shall see time take away from us all afflictions and will fill us with his divine and supernatural pleasant and sensible consolation which truly to whomsoever it happens namely that he experience in himself this festival and pleasant Solemnity such a one afterwards relishes no earthly festival He is not made joyful like common men at the solemnity of a Masse nor at the feast of Easter or of Penticost nor finally at any other feast This huge internal feast only namely whilst the Omnipotent God cometh unto him with his supernatural and present Grace in Jubilee and Triumph this inward feast I say doth fill him with abundant joy And that at what time of the year soever it be transacted in him at the same time all the aforesaid Solemnities and Festivals are together celebrated and fulfilled Wherefore dearly Beloved we ought willingly to bear whatever adversity shall happen unto us for whoever he be that doth by sufferings attain to this supernatural and pleasant Solemnity this man becomes thereby exceeding prudent essential and well composed and obtaineth so great a wisdom by the influence of the Holy Ghost that he doth abundantly understand what belongs to him to do and what to leave undone Then certainly all his in him are made fruitful yet he then hath nothing at all of himself but alwayes persevering in great humility supposeth himself an unprofitable servant and evermore keepeth himself in a certain filial and amorous fear neither feareth any thing else but lest he should not fully satisfie the beloved of his heart his most loving Father In this state that is when he attaineth thus far all his own private institutions and customs of his own will that is such as are taken up of himself fall off and his conversation becometh simply truly Christian and erect to heavenly things In the mean time he is nevertheless unknown to all men except one of the same life who hath experienced the same grace and solemnity God Almighty grant that we may learn by afflictions to endure and by sufferings merit to attain unto this supernatural joyful and happy solemnity the eternal Truth it self our Lord Jesus Christ bringing us to it who with the Father and Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth one God throughout all Ages of Ages Amen Three certain excellent Institutions VVHosoever thou art who at any time hast a desire to attain unto God and unto the most excellent state which in this life can be obtained it will concern thee studiously to observe these three things which I do add 1. The first is That in all things thou aim at God and the honour of God and not thy own but chiefly at his will not thy own 2 The second is That in all thy doings and turnings forth thou studiously observe thy self and take diligent notice of thy bottomless nothingness and attend with continual diligence what-ever thou be about what is doing in thee and lastly have an eye alwayes upon thy own ground 3. The third is That by no means thou intrude thy self into those things which are not committed to thee but let all things alone in their own state and order Let those things that are good be good But the evil judge thou not but rather being turned into thine ground there persevere diligently and sedulously hearkning to the voice of thy Father exhorting thee that thou abide in him constantly even to the end Whosoever shall observe these two things following shal attain to great matters 1. FIrst Let him be both inwardly and outwardly in Truth and from his very ground and bottom and not in words only little and abject Let him be I say in his whole understanding in his ground and in his own eyes without any dissimulation wholly little and nothing 2. But secondly Let him be endowed with the love of God not that sensual which we call Love but essential that is that he do inwardly in his ground purely intend God Wherefore every one ought for this cause to be naked and freed from all self animadversion understanding and sensuality because God Almighty is naked and free so thereby the Spirit may be fitted and