of the gifts of God and the favours wherewith the powerful hand of the Divinity had so liberally inriched him and degraded him of all honour and put him into a condition of meanness impotence and error This goodly spirit of man or rather this man all spirit is now nothing but flesh this beautiful Soul which breath'd for nothing but Heaven entertained it self so deliciously in the knowledge of infallible Truths and was inriched with contemplation of the greatness of God as with Divine Dew and heavenly Manna after so deplorable a fall obstinately links himself to the perishable goods of this World believes in lies seeks after vanities and can no more elevate himself to God so miserable and impotent hath sinne made him O unhappiness which cannot sufficiently be bewailed Man who by the happiness of his creation had eyes to contemplate onely his Creator and converting himself wholly to him had no heart but to love him no spirit but to adhere to him after so fatall a cast wholly turn'd away from God regards nothing but himself is wholly converted to the Creature lives as a Beast onely upon the Earth and like a Beast without judgement The Apostle goes further for describing the estate whereto the sinner is reduced he declares him uncapable of the knowledge of things which are of the Spirit of God The natural man saith he receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Hence I doubt least the wayes I intend to propose which are according to the Spirit of God appear too high or above the capacity of our spirits I confess they are so if we look upon man in the state of sin impotency and the corruption of his Nature But we shall find the contrary if we consider that the Sonne of God came into the World to relieve man after his fall to restore him those gifts with advantage which he lost to render him capable of God In brief he was made man to teach man the true way to love and serve God he gives the power having setled in his Church an inexhaustible Treasure of Graces whence all souls may draw strength in their weakness succour in their necessity and ability in the very impotency of their nature Here of Iesus man and God we are to learn the way to love and adore and to serve God from him we must have the grace to do it We must in and by Iesus operate above our strength above our being and natural power and nothing ought to seem difficult to us or impossible for him seeing he gives us his grace and spirit in abundance to accomplish it To believe this we must look back upon the designs of the Son of God in the Profusion of his gifts and graces and leasurely examine with the eye of Faith what he will operate in us by his grace and divine communications At the first view we shall see that Grace draws from us our impotency advances us above our nature gives us a new being a new life a life intire and wholly hid in God a life proper to the state of Christianity according to which all Christians ought to live The Son of God speaking to the Samaritan and in her to all the faithful makes a Discourse hereof worthy to be consider'd expressing an intention to establish his Church The houre shall come sayes he and now is wherein the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him The reason he adds God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth What more powerful and clear testimony of the will of God who tries and elects Souls that worship him in spirit and truth If he himself doth choose them and call them to this new life is it not necessary that in pursuit of this election he give them grace necessary to arrive at such an estate Let us consider this passage and ponder all the words of it 1. Iesus Christ shews us that our life must be holy and severed from the creature seeing that we must serve God in Truth without amusing our selves with the vanities and things of the Earth which are nothing but lying In truth that is to say conformable to the Greatness of God and to that principle whence the Soul takes power to serve God the grace spirit and dispositions of Jesus Christ the spirit of Truth We learn further that if perfection of this life is inward pure holy and absolutely divine seeing it is and subsists in the adoration of God who as he is a Spirit pure and holy will be served and adored in Spirit 2. Iesus Christ teaches that we must wait upon him for this Grace necessary to accomplish his Commands who requiring of us a life so pure and perfect obliges himself to give us necessary Graces to arrive unto it since that without him we can do nothing of that which he teaches In brief we see how much we are obliged to require this grace to search after it to submit our selves unto it and to endeavour to become worthy of it We must not in a matter so important as this of our salvation demurre in consideration of our impotency or experience of our own incapacity but raising our selves above our selves by the spirit of Faith we must hope in him who commands nothing impossible who giveth grace abundantly to accomplish what he demands These are the first dispositions of a Christian and which those souls that have any desire to live Christianly ought first of all to learn But it happens quite contrary the understanding of men is so corrupt that they desire not these internal solid vertues nor require them of God and which is worse many think it unnecessary to possess them and that such a life as we call interiour is for few persons as if Jesus Christ speaking to the Samaritan had spoken onely to Her and not to the whole Church Others perswade themselves that it is impossible to attain them as not believing the Apostle who saith I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me a manifest error wherein many lose themselves in not sufficiently considering what they daily see by common experience set before their eyes If weakest Women Virgins and Children have had strength sufficient notwithstanding their young and tender bodies to embrace tortures almost insupportable and have by Grace been strengthned to overcome those difficulties why should not we believe also that abandoning our selves to the power and conduct of Grace and becoming faithful to the designs of God we may have sufficient grace and capacity to acquire these vertues If by the help of grace they can attain strength of body to support the rigours of a penitent life wherefore by favour of the same grace may not we arrive to the possession of that true vertue wherein a
him and examine what it is that God demands of us for the benefit of this regeneration Baptism Being consecrated to God by Baptism after so divine a manner we are no more now our own but belong wholly to him nor ought we to make use of our selves but for him If any profane thing being offered to God consecrated by ceremonies or dedicated to celebration of the divine office is by this means abstracted from common use and its particular end to be wholly employed in sacred things much more a Christian consecrated to the holy Trinity by Baptisme solemnly dedicated to Gods service and referred to his glory ought to be withdrawn from himself and such profane customs as of himself he may commit in his life and actions to be referred in whatsoever he doth to the service and glory of God From these proposed Truths it followeth that the grace of Christianity communicated by Baptisme whereto we have right by this Sacrament doth advance man above all creatures and withdraw him from this world to associate with God and to become his Temple and Throne of rest that being separated from care and love of the creature he may cleave to God only The soul may be compared to the woman in the Apocalypse cloathed with the Sun and having the Moon under her feet to tell us that our soules being replenished with the true sunne of Righteousnesse ought to raise themselves above all Creatures and possessing God contemn all that is not God of God or for God The learned Origen sayes That we ought to esteem as beyond and above the world all that is consecrated to God meaning only those who by the Ceremonies and ancient Customs of the Church resign themselves to Gods service If this be true in bare Ceremonies how much more is he whom God himself consecrates in this Sacrament beyond the world and above all things This is the effect of the words of Iesus Christ when speaking of the spirit of Christianity which he had infused into his Apostles he says recommending them and with them all the Elect unto his Father The world hates you because you are not of the world I likewise am not of the world where we see evidently that according to the designs of Iesus Christ a Christian must be no longer of this world nor pretend further to the creature then the Son of God did when he became man and liv'd upon earth We learn further that by this consecration and the state whereunto we are advanc'd by Baptism God assumes a second interest in us besides that of creation and in complyance with this new right we ought to be more his and live onely for him For he hath right to make in us and of us all that he pleases for his glory and the accomplishment of his divine will I need give no other reason hereof then that of the Apostle Know yee not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God And ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Consider deliberately this Christian truth weigh all these words and ye shall see how much ye belong to God and ought to live for God Reject not this as a matter new or too high it much imports to your good If you cannot comprehend it at least admire it and since they are truths you ought to believe them by Faith you shall enter into an estimate of your estate and acknowledg it is so divine and eminent that you cannot comprehend it but can onely say that he that is all power will effect great things in you Now if you will endeavour to profit by these proposed verities First take heed you commit no sacriledge in serving any other but God since ye are consecrated for his glory be careful to refer your self unto him and to offer to him all your actions be they never so little for they all belong unto him and he knoweth how from the lowest meanest things to bring honour to himself Secondly seeing God hath separated you from the world consecrating you for his glory and that by Baptisme solemnly in the face of the Church you have renounced all its greatnesse and varieties Take heed you deceive not God or rather your selves adhering to the creature searching after and following the Vanities of the Time but see that in pursuit of this promise you have made to God you do disintangle your selfe all the days of your life as much as you can possible from these Creatures Thirdly take your affections off from them and if you will do well despise them all for God that your heart consecrated by an Vnction so holy may be only for God and love none but God The best foundation of Piety is to enter into a great esteem of God and what you are unto him so to contemn the world and all therein Fourthly Seeing you have no right to your selfe being marked with the character of Gods substance so Saint Cyprian calls the love of God and are wholly his let him make use of what is his go out of your self go out of your own Interest to God aim at nothing but the glory of God and therein place your principall care for there is nothing more important in the life of a Christian nothing more profitable or necessary then to leave wholly himself to God and to search diligently after God only This it is that God requires of you for this benefit whereunto you are obliged in the susception of Baptisme and by the state of Christianity The second Prerogative CHAP. III. Of the Filiall adoption of God whereto all Christians are called THe mystery of the Incarnation a work of Love and the Master-piece of God ought to be considered as the foundation of all the Mysteries of the Life of the Sonne of God From this they have their dignity and excellency from this they flow as from their source and principle this we ought to look upon and adore as the Cause of all our happinesse for in and by it we have all that we can-desire all the greatnesse all the priviledges and abundance of grace communicated to us in the state of Christianity flows from this ineffable Mystery as its spring It requires an eternity to consider so worthy an object to look into the excellencies and to contemplate the effects thereof Let us here make a pause to consider this grace the most advantageous of all we have received from the Son of God in this Mystery which gives us right and admission to all the rest the grace of Filiation which makes us children of God by adoption a grace given to men when the Son of God becoming man made men the sons of God By this benefit we are no longer the sons of Adam but of Iesus Christ who is God called by the Prophets The everlasting father By this grace
manner that we ought to observe in our actions springing from the son of God must by consequence be very like it So a Christian action should be that which is made in the spirit of God that Iesus Christ hath borne upon the Earth accomplished in the holy and perfect dispositions of the Son of God himself By this only Circumstance we may judge of the difference of our actions for all that we do without the spirit and without dispositions agreeable to an action worthy of God is to do nothing or very little such actions ordinarily proceed but from a naturrll inclination or which is worse from the instigation of our own Lusts and Love of our selves Let us farther consider this Truth which will seem hard or new to those who know not the excellency of Christianity who never regard the purposes of God who are ignorant of the mysteries of their salvation When the life and actions of a Christian are said to comprehend their perfection you must remember that the Sonne of God came into the world not onely to communicate to us his grace but to dwell in us and give us his spirit and life to give them to us not onely to justifie us and as we say to put us into the state of grace but to be in us to dwell there to be the beginning of a new life and new spirit in us and to give us dispositions proportionable to such an estate This the Apostle teaches when he sayes that the eternall Father hath put the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts and that the spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God whereby we see that being justified by the state and grace of filiation and divine adoption we live in the life and spirit of God which is made our life and spirit which is in us dwells in us governs us inlivens us and is the Principle of our Actions makes them pleasing to God supernatural and worthy of Paradise Thus the life of a Christian according to the determination of God is far above all lives a being above all beings I leave you to judge what the Actions of Christians ought to be proceeding from a principle so holy and divine You will find all the very reasonable and admire the bounty and wisdom of God in this Conduct of our souls if we will consider that the eternal word was made man that by debasing himself he might render to his Father an honour worthy of God he came upon the Earth to establish by the merit and by the spirit of his Crosse the Kingdom of God in our souls and to make us worthy to serve and honour God after a manner worthy of God For this cause he advances unto himself he consecrates our lives and actions by his Death and blood and that they may be referred worthily to the honour and glory of his Father he unites himself to us communicates to us his life his spirit and dispositions to make us capable to praise God according to his greatness which we could never do if we did not take of him and from him this power and disposition This he gives us when he dwells in us by the grace of filiation and divine adoption whereto we are advanced when we are made Christians Hence we see that Christian Actions ought to be holy perfect and divine that a Christian Life ought to be the very life of Jesus Christ living and working in him by his spirit His actions his inward dispositions must be a lively image and perfect expression of the actions and holy intention of Iesus Christ. But alas we think no more of these Truths Christians are become so blind that we may well complain and say with the ancient Philosopher That the life of man is spent either in doing evil or in doing nothing or in doing preposterously what he ought to do To undeceive our selves of these common abuses to enter farther into the knowledge of the state of the grace of Christianity and to see more evidently what we ought to be let us further remember that as Christians we are members of the Sonne of God he is our head a head that infuses life in us In this quality he hath right to live and act in us as our souls act and live in our bodies This consider'd we must say that as the essence and excellency of a Christian consisteth in his being a member of Iesus Christ so the perfection of Christian duties is that they are operated by Iesus Christ living and operating in us as his members I say not onely that we must imitate the Son of God and do all our actions in Grace that thereby they may be called Christian but also that they ought to be with the same intentions and spirit wherewith Iesus Christ did act on Earth which he communicated to his Church and to all his Our Actions ought not only to be good and reasonable but to be worthy of the Son of God our head whose members we are Therefore they must be animated by his life guided by his motions and regulated by his intentions seeing that to this end he giveth us his spirit and life to be our spirit and life and that he gives us freely abundant grace in him and by him to accomplish all our actions This is of great importance for which we shall one day render a strict account when God shall judge the uprightness of men by so extraordinary a favour Certainly he will examine and punish the ignorance the contempt and abuse of so many graces which he hath acquired for us by his travells and cross and offereth us with so much love and bounty This will appear yet more evident if we consider the common belief of all the faithfull who acknowledge that the life and actions of a perfect Christian ought to be actions of grace Let us therefore examine what the Essence and Dignity of this grace is for supposing that the life of a Christian is a life of grace we must necessarily grant that our actions by consequence ought to be conformable and correspondent to the sanctity and dignity of the grace which gives them life sanctifies them and advances them since they must be proportionable and semblable to the cause We know that the grace which sanctifies and gives life to our actions is a grace made for the Son of God that from him it flows into us that we are not replenished and enriched but from his bounty This granted our life and actions must be holy and perfect by the same sanctity and perfection which is in Iesus Christ which is lovingly communicated to and engrafted in our souls sanctifying enlivening and perfecting our life and actions When we say that this Grace comes from Iesus Christ we express in this alone the excellency and dignity of it For to know the dignity and eminency of the grace of Christianity it suffices not to say as we commonly do that it
is supernaturall because in it there is nothing singular For the grace given to Angels and to man before his fall was also supernatural We must say that the grace of Christianity is a grace made for the Sonne of God and consequently worthy of the greatness of the Sanctity and divinity of the incarnate word this makes it the raiser of an Order and gives it a being much different from the first and from the order meerly supernaturall This gives it a being and order as different from the grace of the Angels as they are from Iesus Christ as the sonne from the servant Now applying what we have said that Actions ought to be conformable to their Principle we conclude that the actions of a Christian being sanctified and enlivened by the grace and spirit of Iesus ought also to be wholly conformable to Iesus Christ their principle being more then humane more then angelicall conformable to the purity and sanctity of the grace of the Sonne of God worthy the Labours of his Crosse and death To this end St. Paul adviseth that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called words that deserve to be considered since that God will demand an account of us of his favours and benefits and will judge our actions and lives according to the dignity of our vocation according to the perfection and sanctity of his Grace in brief according to the life of Iesus Christ which alone ought to be the rule and Law of Christians Furthermore we must consider the rule of God over our Soules wherin we may admire the wayes and meanes whereby the divine bounty and infinite wisdome of God uses to give us graces necessary to accomplish our actions in that perfection and sanctity that he requires I intend not to speak of the secret and unknowne means of the graces inspirations motions and speedy succours wherewith God is pleased to illuminate our Spirits to enflame our wills and to direct all the motions and actions of our life But I desire only to insist upon the consideration of the Sacraments that the sonne of God hath left in his Church as channells by which he continually powers out this grace into us Baptisme consecrates us to the most holy Trinity makes us the children of God members of Iesus Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and holy Vessells which bear Iesus Christ who dwells in us And the Eucharist which is among the Sacraments as the Sun among the Stars gives God to us and with him all the greatness of heaven elevates us and unites us to God changes and makes us little gods What would ye more Why is God think you so profuse of his gifts of his graces of himself but to operate in you all that I have said to give you a life and actions conformable to the being whereto he hath elected you Let us weigh these truths at our leisure and study to attain to the perfection that God requires of us Let us take care that all our actions be holy and worthy of God and let us not be carryed away by the humour or rather by the infidelity of such as ignorantly despise these important truths and necessary exercises The third Prerogative CHAP. VI. Of the happy Commerce and Society that Iesus Christ will have with Christians by the Mystery of the Incarnation THe holy Trinity having consecrated the Christian by Baptisme adopted and received him as a son enters into a particular society with him and by divers Mysteries which the eternall Word hath operated upon earth God enters into a Communication with men lives and converses with them So Saint Paul speaking to new Christians Ye are no more strangers and forreigners but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Let us stay here to contemplate this benefit Adam being fallen from the happy estate of grace by his rebellion against God no sooner tasted the Apple of disobedience but he felt the punishment of his sin and was at the same time driven out of Paradise and banished the happy commerce and holy familiarity which he had with God This exile was the greatest rigour wherewith the divine Iustice could take vengeance on his sin This separation made his estate miserable and the condition of his children most unhappy We should in this malediction and just divorse for ever have continued if the Son of God had not come to re-establish all things to return us to God and to restore us with much advantage all other happiness that we lost by sin So that as the Apostle saith where sin abounded grace did much more abound for we enter into a familiarity and communion with God far more holy and divine then that of Adam by Iesus Christ we converse with God go to him are with him worthy the Spirit and Grace of Christianity Few value this truth men who only follow their own wayes nourished with earth onely to whom the delicates of heaven are unsavory can never relish this grace nor be sensible how much the presence of God is necessary Therein appears the corrupt estate of this Age all creatures resent the presence of their Creator Nature it self hath engraven in the bottom of our essence a desire of the presence of God The most barbarous Nations forced only by this instinct in the blindness of their false Religion sought esteemed and desired some visible mark of the presence of those they call their gods None but those of this Age have an indifference to these truths forget God mind onely their own actions in this world and are ignorant of the happiness of Heaven and despise it To awaken and draw us forth of this darkness consider that Faith teaches us that the happiness of the Saints consists in seeing themselves to be in the company of God and the greatest recompense God promises to our travels is to make us partakers of his glory to raise us to his greatness to enter into an eternall communion with us I will saith Christ to his Father that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am implying the society and communion of God with us and promising that eternity shall never separate him from him that serves him Now if the happiness of the blessed in their estate of glory consists in the presence and familiarity of God we cannot doubt but the happiness of the just upon earth consists in knowing how to preserve themselves in this desireable familiarity and presence of God The intent of the Son of God at his coming into the world and becoming an Inhabitant thereof was to sanctifie it by his presence and establish his power therein and dwell with us to the end of the world as he promised at his death This is it that he wrought by the mysterie of the Incarnation making himself man to live among men For this cause in the Sacrament of the Eucharist he becomes the food of man communicates to his abundant graces inriches
make this point hard to it self I cannot believe that a Christian will oppugne this Truth and lesse imagine that a soul it cannot arrive to the possession of a solid and Christian vertue if she walk not by the way and light of the truths proposed if she do not found her self upon this spirit For if we consider and believe that we are members of Iesus Christ true not imaginary members not of a man or Saint but of Iesus Son of the living God and that in this quality we are truly and immediately united to him if I say we consider our selves as such do we not at the same time see that we are united to God and that by such an union we must be animated by his spirit live by his life and be governed by his conduct This is the first condition whereunto we are raised by Christianity the first grace we receive in Baptisme What vertue and perfection can that soul have which lives not conformable to this estate what doth that soul learn which knowes not his truth To what end is the rest of our practise and this great fabrick of devotion which we propose to our selves if we lay not this first foundation which is so necessary that without it all the rest cannot subsist If we have God for us if we are united to him as members to the head yet if we are not resigned as we ought to his infinite wisdom and loving conduct why do we trouble our selves with all the rest To what end so much care so much prudence and humane providence To what end so many desires He is too covetous whom God sufficeth not What can a soul desire to whom its God and Creator is made all things And if it cannot find rest in this where can it find rest What can content him who is not content with God saith St. Prosper Certainly that soul is very blind and miserable which is not content with providence and the love of Iesus I demand all that you would have of humane prudence in all things we shall find but two many reasons to invite us but a soul brought up in the knowledge of the truths of Christianity and nourish'd in the esteem of God will say with a holy person of our time that the poor Doves are more pleasing to God then the Serpents Let us then raise our selves up to God trust in him adhere to his spirit and beg light of him to penetrate into these truths to bear the effects of them and grace to live faithfully in his wayes There remains one motive more to see the obligations we have to belong to God and to adhere to him if we will arrive at perfection The fourth Motive CHAP. IX That this Precept to love God doth oblige us to perfection and makes us to go out of our selves to be God's COntinuing the designes we have undertaken in this second Part to shew by divers Motives the Obligations all men have to be perfect and to adhere to God and live in subjection and submission to his conduct and grace It remains that we consider in this last Motive the essentiall and indispensable Obligations that we all have to the Precept of Love and consequently to perfection to which end we must consider the two estates in the Church of God the estate of the ordinary Christian and that of the more Religious not to examine them but to behold the abuse of the former too lightly believing that perfection and solid vertue is not for them and losing themselves in this Errour perswade themselves that a Christian as Christian is not at all obliged to interiour life and vertue but that it is a work of supererogation and an unnecessary labour to be busied in acquisition of Christian vertue and possession of inward perfection a manifest Errour the more damageable in that it derogates from the honour of God gives license to the world and blinding their souls looses them and makes them slothfull in the search of the right way to salvation To undeceive our selves then in a matter so important and to secure our salvation which otherwise would remain very doubtfull we must intentively observe the obligations of these two estates that by this knowledge we may know what we ought to be Saint Thomas Aquinas teacheth us that the soul that professeth Religion enters into a stable and permanent estate wherein she seeks after true and solid perfection devesting her self of all that may hinder her arrivall to this perfection By this solemn profession she renounces all things taking in this manner of life as saith Moses the Abbot the wayes instruments and means to attain certainly to this perfection so much commended and recommended by Iesus Christ. For this Reason she makes vowes to separate her self from her self and all other creatures to appropriate her self to God and if she take heed to all the circumstances which accompany this action or if lifting up her eyes to Heaven she considers the will of God towards her in her vocation she knows that by the estate of Religion she enters into a profession which must sever her from the world and whatsoever is in the world to unite her to her God and to place her if we may so say in the bosom of God to live upon earth the life that the Angels live in heaven to lead in a holy communion the life that God leads in his holiness that is to say the life of God in God For as God is busied wholly in the knowledge and love of himself so the soul which desireth to perfectionate her self is not busied in Religion but in a pure and continuall contemplation of God and in acts of love which she doth with great care and vigilancy For for the soul to be as God would have her and arrive to the eminent and divine estate whereto God hath called her must be accidentally and by grace that which God is substantially and by nature This is much in few words to extoll the Religious estate and makes us see how holy it is whereto they are called But we are to understand that what is said extends to all Christians for the estate of Christianity is an estate stable and permanent which calls and leads us to the participation of a divine life an estate permanent and indispensable for it is marked with the character of Baptisme which according to the Principles of our Faith can never be defaced an estate holy and of a particular sanctity which only appertains to Christianity since it is consecrated by the unction of the most holy Trinity confirmed by the grace of adoption and enriched with the fulness of the holy Ghost who is given us by confirmation and conserved by the sacraments an estate permanent seeing it is indispensable for no Christian can go out of or have a dispensation from the obligation he hath to his perfection a perfection not indifferent but Evangelicall and Christian which the Son of God mentions in the
must adhere thereto and having adhered to it we must act and do all things in pursuit of this adherence Let us propose an example in common things to facilitate the practice I look upon God I consider his infinite essence I see that in respect of his divine Majesty all creatures are as nothing Having taken and imprinted this thought in my spirit I believe and immediately adhere thereunto saying it is true Then making use of this truth which I believe I despise all that is not of God and that belongs not to God for the act of faith which I performed teacheth me that all the rest is nothing all creatures are nothing before God In like manner amidst my actions making use of the truth that I profess and believe sometimes I despise one thing sometimes another esteeming God onely but accounting all the rest as nothing Thus I act in the spirit of Truth and make use of Faith Let us give an example more common I would form in my self the presence of God by the principles of Faith Hereupon I will rouse up in my spirit the thought of that truth which teaches me God is present every where and thence infer that consequently he is in my heart with the same greatness and Majesty that he is in Heaven amidst the Cherubims and Saints for it is the same God Having conceived this truth I adhere to it and say it is true then making use of it I find my self in the presence of God who is in my heart I hold my self before him in great reverence I walk with recollection of spirit and a sweet application of my soul to God who is present Now I look on him with love next I adore him doing all these actions by the principle of truth This is to make use of Truth The thing is not hard we must onely apply our selves heartily hereunto For according to the measure that we advance and perfectionate our selves in this exercise shall our actions be perfect and performed in the spirit of truth This is a point of much importance I wish I could perswade all christians to it for it is the foundation of true piety and the cause root and source of all good actions CHAP. VII Of the effects that Faith produceth in our souls and of the esteem of God WHen the Apostle saith Faith is the substance of things hoped for he would compare faith to substance and say that as substance is the support of all Accidents so faith is the support and basis of all Vertues and Graces Faith is the first gift of heaven and the eldest of the graces of God she contains and substains all the vertues of Christianity according to the faith in us and the use we make thereof are we vertuous and advanced in Christian perfection As this is the first of Gods gifts so the first care of a Christian must be to compass so fruitfull and profitable a grace This is a talent whereof God will demand a most exact account when we shall appear before the tribunall of his divine justice God gives us not so great a grace but to profit thereby and make use of it It belongs to God alone to give faith to move our will to illuminate our understanding but it is in man to make use of it and to shew by his works the faith he hath received of God In fine what advantage is it to possess faith which is an infused habit and to let it sleep in us to possess truth and to keep it under restraint Faith we say is a supernaturall habit a light of grace we must therefore put it in action and make use of this light to walk forward in the wayes of grace and path of vertue This is the designe of God evident in the mysteries of Christianity the eternall Father sent and gave us his Son the uncreated and essentiall truth to speak to us conduct us in the spirit of truth the Son conversed among men to bear witness as he himself saith unto the truth the same Son of God ascending into heaven sent to us the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth to enlighten us and teach us the truth And why hath God so great a care that we should know the truth but because the knowledge of that might save us and make us free that is that the light of the truth which is the spirit of faith might draw us from vice and sin to lead and confirm us in the acquisition and possession of vertues Look upon a soul guided by the spirit of faith you shall see that immediately she detests ill and embraceth good it is the property of it to engender and form acts of vertue If the soul knows the greatness of God making use of the knowledge of this truth she will presently be carried to a great esteem of God From this esteem springs reverence reverence operates love love brings the soul to God the soul so united by love fears to displease him This fear which is an effect of love brings into the soul a vigilancy not to offend him she loveth but it is to please him in all things This vigilancy forms a purity in the soul this purity renders us worthy to possess God Thus faith summons al the vertues embraces them and binds them all together and as she is mother so is she also nurse of them In brief she is the foundation of the Christian life the nourishment of all good actions This is the meaning of Saint Paul who said The just shall live by faith the reason is plain Faith is a light of truth he then that walks in the light of faith walketh in the truth and to walk in truth is to hate sin which is a lyer This is to live in the practice and possession of true vertue and in the terms of the Scripture to live in Iesus who is the way the truth and the life It therefore greatly importeth souls which will live good Christians and obtain true vertue to establish themselves in the spirit and use of faith to demand it of God and to referre all their good exercises thereunto which is truly the foundation of all the rest the principle the entertainer and supporter of Christian perfection this exercise is very large Faith and truth have effects almost innumerable He who applies himself thereto shall taste the fruits more or less according to his care therein But if we would know the most important where we must begin I answer it is the esteem of God wherein the soul must entertain it self much and lay a good foundation to arrive at this esteem It is not necessary to enter into a high and extraordinary knowledge of God but to make use of the Principles of faith and a frequent loving and affectionate consideration of God we must never speake of God or of any thing that concerns him but in words worthy of the subject with a sense full of respect and reverence
conduct of God THe Creature by the condition of it's being subsisteth only in resigning it self to the conduct and will of God for as it belongs to God alone to give being to all things so is he alone the preserver and governour of them Whence as the creature bears God in its depth and its centre so it bears in the same depth a capacity all that he operates in and by it which capacity the Philosopher calls obedientiall power whereby all that is created is left to the power of its Creator and resigned to his conduct Man must be subject to this indispensable Law he cannot exempt himself from this subjection whereto he is bound by the necessity of being created a necessity so absolute in what estate soever he be in this world or the other in time or eternity that he must be subject to the power of his Creator whether in the rigour of his Iustice or in the sweetness of his Mercy and though his depraved nature cause him sometimes to separate himself from his God to live in the disorder of his own will contrary to the order of God yet he cannot absolutely withdraw himself from the order of his divine providence nor avoid the arm of God who comprehends all things disposes them and causes them to arrive to the end that he hath proposed them for this order and power is so generall that the malice of men cannot be exempted from it so much is the creature subject to the conduct of the Creator Necessity exacts it of us the Laws of love and acknowledgement oblige us thereto and that very strictly For God who hath a particular providence and an extraordinary care of man conducts him also and loving him excessively becomes his Father King and Prince his All that being all things to man man may the more willingly resigne himself to his loving conduct not by constraint or necessity but through a spirit of freedom by an esteem of his love by a holy and loving election These truths no man can be ignorant of yet we make no use of them for man despiseth the conduct of his God shuts his eyes to the light of grace neglects his most wholsome Laws his certain counsels his divine motions withdraws himself from the disposall and conduct of God to adhere wholly to himself to his own thoughts and inclinations to the suggestion of his own spirit to follow the false maximes of humane prudence the motions of his passions the alurement of self-love The perfect Christian must take heed that he do nothing inwardly or outwardly but according to the order and conduct of God Man in all his actions and motions must necessarily be either in the conduct of God or of himself if he adhere to one he is opposite to the other for those he conducts are in themselves absolutely contrary The conduct that man takes of himself is a turning from God a way that separates us from God and quite loseth us The reason of this is the state of man after his fall whose spirit is turned from God subject to the Law of sin bearing the seed of all faults and errors He is so engulfed in this state of misery that he cannot get out of it though he endeavour all he can if Iesus Christ draw him not out of it he cannot return to God if the Son of God do not lead him No man cometh unto the Father but by me Now man who follows his own conduct his own inclinations motions and will withdraws himself from the conduct of Iesus Christ and as his spirit is turned from his God by the law of sin so he withdraws himself from the conduct of Iesus Christ by his own will and actions How can he but turn from God and separate himself more and more from him and that so powerfully that so long as he remains in his humane condition he shall never be able to return to God nor do any thing that may lead him to God if he do not resigne himself to the conduct of Iesus Christ to be aided by his grace and mercy This is the meaning of the words of Saint Paul when he said The carnall mind is enmity with God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be and that to be carnall minded is death since he loses himself who governs himself by his own spirit and onely follows his own conduct All the divine Oracles cry out to us and experience teacheth us that the greatest evil that can happen to man is to be left of God and abandoned to humane prudence to his own motions naturall inclinations and will For a man so abandoned of God lives a dangerous life and must expect a miserable fall Wo saith God to them when I shall be separated from them wo indeed yea a threefold wo seeing that when God leaves a soul to its own counsels motions inclinations and will she is at the same instant made captive dragg'd and led in triumph to her passions and appetite for the passions will and inclinations of men are rebellious and hurried by the Law of sin Now from the time that man is abandoned and the conduct of Gods grace withdrawn from him he can be no other then rebellious falling into a thousand errors and will infallibly lose himself if God have not pity on him and call him home Therefore for God to abandon us thus to our own conduct and will is the greatest evill that can arrive to man the greatest punishment whereby God can revenge himself of the sins of men My people would not hear my voyce saith God being angry and Israel would not obey me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and let them follow their own imaginations And St. Paul assures us that Gods most rigorous punishment of the ingratitude of men hath been to leave them to their own desires and appetites God gave them up saith the holy Apostle to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts It imports him therefore who would be a good Christian and make his salvation sure to forsake his own conduct to annihilate his inclinations passions appetites to confound his own will to withdraw himself from the conduct of humane prudence and from his own reason to follow the conduct of grace which is above reason and illuminates and guides that he do nothing but according to the spirit law and will of God To be guided by the spirit of God we must separate our selves renounce the conduct of humane prudence and annihilate our own wills Our prudence and reason is faulty in every point for in as much as it comes from us it separates us from God as much as it can Humane nature and the will of man in the corruption of sin regards onely it self not God its supernaturall end the will inclines to self-love and cannot advance it self to a true love of God if it be not guided and aided by
consequently follows that the centre the repose of a Christian cannot be but in this estate of sufferings and in the same condition of suffering that Iesus Christ was here upon earth When we say that the centre and spirit of Christianity is no other then the cross annihilations and adversities we must conceive it in the highest and consider that the Son of God came into the World for the glory of his Father to satisfie his divine Iustice and for the sanctification of our souls These were his designes desires and thoughts Now the thoughts and intentions of the Son of God are eternall and permanent for they are divine and it is the property of the essence and of divine actions to be immutable and permanent Seeing then that the Son of God hath chosen the cross from all eternity lived upon earth in the spirit of sufferance he remains alwayes in the thoughts of the cross in the desires of humiliation and the rigour of death the zeal of the glory of his Father goes not from his heart but he preserves this spirit and offers himself to his Father to bear it eternally and to suffer the effects of it if it be his good pleasure This zeal ought not to be unfruitfull this offer is not to be refused and yet the estate of his greatness and the condition of his glory cannot permit it What remedy Love alwayes wise and inventive hath found out a means to satisfie the equity of his desires and divine affection and the Majesty of his glory for the eternall Father hath given his Son a mysticall body which is his Church he hath appointed him Head over all his Church which is his body all Christians are members of this body true members as the body is a true body though a mysticall body We are saith the Apostle members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Now to this body and these members the spirit and zeal of Iesus Christ communicates it self by the designe and speciall counsel of the blessed Trinity In pursuit of this divine counsel the Son of God pours into his Church and upon Christians the zeal of the glory of God the spirit of the cross and the love of justice he pours it out as he pleases distributing his gifts according to his holy will To some he communicates his spirit of sufferance and crosses to others that of death and to speak more generally he communicates his estates and spirit to whom he pleases and as he pleases So Saint Paul I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh Reflecting on this truth we shall cleerly see that the spirit of Christianity is no other then the spirit of Iesus which he communicates to his Church being the head and to Christians his members And as this spirit is no other then a desire of the glory of God love of the cross and zeal of justice it follows they who will be good Christians must necessarily bear this spirit and be in this estate of annihilation and the cross and embrace all adversities that they meet with yea embrace them couragiously as an order of God established upon them and as an estate which is singularly proper for them In this Disposition they shall find the centre and repose of their souls and in this subjection to the cross they shall obtain the peace that Iesus Christ hath acquired for us by his cross We may also say that to suffer Christianly is to bear all things with cheerfulness of spirit doing like the Apostles who departed rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Names sake and like the first Christians who took joyfully the spoyling of their goods defied torments and the cruelty of beasts like Saint Ignatius the burning of fire as Saint Lawrence the violence of torments as Saint Agnes and in the Churches first beginning their zeal to suffer was so great that it made the Apostle Saint Iames to say Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations This advice will seem hard for the rigours of the cross and pains of this life are too piercing but if we love all will be easie for where love is saith Saint Bernard there is nothing but sweetness and nothing is difficult to him that loves though thornes guard and encompass the Rose we gather it notwithstanding and enjoy its beauty and odour Iacob sayes he served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but a few dayes because he loved her so much that he was insensible of the travail He also that will suffer Christianly must love for he that cannot love cannot suffer and he that can neither suffer nor love is no Christian seeing that love is the spirit of Christianity and sufferance the spirit of love This principle considered no rigours that we find in humane life can appear difficult and misfortunes and pains are onely irk some to us for want of love Let us then but love and they will all be easie by love the sufferings of Christians are distinguished from those of others For it is common to all men to suffer it is the condition of their being and portion of their life and the more they think themselves secure the more they are surprised with misfortunes but it belongs onely to Christians to suffer with love The sinner is drawn by the neck like a slave to do the will of God the good man willingly followes him and findes no pain in any thing but on the contrary he finds comfort in travail and repose in displeasure In this sense the Apostle cryes out upon sight of the wounds and scarrs he endured for Iesus Christ Henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Iesus And elsewhere I will glory willingly in my infirmities that the power of Iesus Christ may dwell in me To suffer in this disposition is to suffer Christianly or else let us say that to suffer Christianly is to suffer with an esteem of sufferings There are divers reasons why we should take and well esteem them but the principall consisteth in that Iesus Christ hath chosen this manner of life as a way that honoureth more divinely the Majesty of God then any other estate and he hath chosen this way from all eternity and by consequence from all eternity he beares the thoughts and love of the Cross. He hath chosen the Cross saith St. Paul he hath embraced it from the first moment of his incarnation and by an excess of love he began to suffer as soon as he was born And that which is to be observed is that by the election of his divine wisdom which never fails he hath made choyce of confusion and contempt rather then greatness and contentment So saith the Apostle of him and we find it in his divine Mysteries And from hence comes the esteem that we ought to have thereof
true piety is obliged to imitate Jesus Christ. 481 CHAP. XIII The Practice of what hath been proposed in the imitation of Iesus Christ 489 CHAP. XIV Of Temptations and Oppositions happening in the way to perfection and the exercises of Piety 498 CHAP. XV. In what Disposition the Christian ought to be that he yield not to such temptations as occurr in the exercises of piety 507 CHAP. XVI Of Temptations and the advantages a Christian ought to make of them 512 CHAP. XVII Of Resignations in Temptation 519 CHAP. XVIII Divers Uses that may be made of Temptation 525 The End SPIRITUALL TREASURE The first Part. Of the Divine Prerogatives whereunto man is raised by the State and Grace of Christianity The first Prerogative CHAP. I. How by Baptisme Man is appropriated to God and consecrated by the blessed Trinity BE ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect These are holy words words of truth pronunced by the Holy of holies the God of Truth words that import the beginning and eminency of the estate which we are to attain words worthy to be engraved not upon the fronts of our house as a celebrious Sentence of the Ancients nor printed in our foreheads in great Characters like the Law of the Iews But in the centre of our souls and bottom of our spirits For in these divine words we behold as in a table brought from heaven what we are and what we ought to be We see that we are the image of God by creation and ought to be his resemblance by sanctification Our soul bearing the image of God is capable of God himself and hath an essence so noble and divine that nothing can satisfie nothing can fill her but an infinite essence Besides we learn that our soul being called to the resemblance of God nothing can ennoble her nothing can perfect her but the greatness and very perfections of the Divinity And to this it is that Jesus Christ invites us when he says Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect This only is the subject of this little Work I would to God that they who are transported with the wonders in Nature who can admire her greatness rare varieties and perfections who willingly confine themselves to the contemplation of the motions of the heavens of the extent of the earth of the depth of the sea of the admirable secret properties of every thing would turn back their sight into themselves to take notice what they are and what they ought to be to contemplate the singular perfection inclosed within their own souls the greatness whereto God will raise them and eminency of that state to which they are called If other Creatures are objects able to ravish our spirits and oblige them to contemplation and admiration with how much more reason ought we to employ our selves in the consideration of our own soul for which all things were created If vertue saith Plato be so beautifull as that her luster is able to transform our hearts and force us to love her what then is the soul of which vertue is but the ornament O soul saith one of the Fathers thou lovest the world yet thou thy self art of more value then all the world Thou admirest the Sun and yet art more beautifull then all the Stars Thou dost contemplate heaven yet art exalted above the firmament Thy God onely is above thee all creatures are under thy feet Let us begin to prepare our hearts to these thoughts let us call back our distracted spirits from so many objects let us withdraw our wandering eyes from so many curiosities and undeceive our hearts charmed by so many vanities that we may apply or selves to the acquisition of this knowledge for in being ignorant of these truths man is estranged from God and himself serves the creatures who were made to serve him makes his vanity an ornament and advances above himself that which ought to be under his feet and farther loosing himself in the curious pursuit of creatures or pernicious affection to the world he no more thinks of himself and which is worse seems no longer to know his God Hence spring all evils which overflow the earth all vices and disorders in the life of man Nor is it strange for how can a Christian serve his God if he esteem not his greatness and be ignorant of his divine adorable perfections and how shall he know them if he seldome or never consider them Beside how is it possible for a Christian to render unto God what he ought and to live as God requires if he take no time to reflect upon himself if he know not what he is whence he comes whither he goes how he lives In this it is he ought to employ his thoughts and time The highest employment of man says Heraclitus is to seek himself and we say the most necessary yet we are not with Democritus to put out our eyes and deprive our selves of the sight of all creatures thereby with more ease and attention to apply our selves to the study of this high philosophy the knowledge of God and our selves we need not go to such an extremity On the contrary let us preserve our eyes and attention to contemplate at leisure the image which I am going to describe unto you It is the pourtracture of a true Christian in which shall be drawn in lively colours the Christian vertues and represented the dispositions actions and piety wherein all Christians ought to live To speak after this manner is proportionable to this subject He that would make a man to see what he ought to be must draw his picture that he may see and contemplate himself therein The soul like the eye sees all things yet not it self unlesse by reflection To make her know her selfe a glasse must be set before her wherein are represented the true beauties of the state of grace the excellencies of Christianity her obligation to perfection her capacity to possesse God that considering all these she may see what she is and what she ought to be to her God Thus seeing her selfe she knows her self knowing her helf she esteems accordingly of her own being life and condition and by these degrees arriving to this esteem she faithfully endeavours to render God the honour love and service due to him careful to lead a life suitable to the condition and dignity whereto God hath called her To represent to the life so great perfection and to acknowlege what the soul is before God to whom she is called and may arrive by the assistance of a supernaturall power We must consider the essence and grace of the Mysteries wrought by the Son of God upon the Earth and what he hath accomplished in Heaven because they are the beginning and source of all Graces wherewith we are inriched they make us know what God requires of us what he will operate in us and by us These then we must propose Behold three which we
must make choice of including all the Excellencies of Christianity whatsoever is to be said of the rest is to be deduced from these The first estate wherein we are established by the grace of Christianity is that which we receive in Baptism where we are consecrated to the most holy Trinity The excellency of this estate consists herein that the most holy Trinity by this Sacrament of Reconciliation giving us at once a new being and a new birth it sanctifies and consecrates us by an Unction altogether extraordinary and divine and by this extraordinary consecration draws us from our selves separates us from the common Tempests of the world to dedicate and refer us wholly to his honour and glory to call us to a holy conversation which we ought to have with divine persons as the beloved Apostle saith That our fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ that by this society we may become worthy and capable of the effects of grace and divine communications to be with God and possessed of God That which makes this favour most admirable is that the most holy Trinity doth vouchsafe to apply it selfe to the accomplishment of this work in a very particular manner it sanctifies and consecrates us not after that ordinary way wherewith it acts and performs all other works common to the three Persons but in this work of grace and sacrament of life it consecrates us in a manner wholly singular and full of mysteries altogether great and full of love The Father sanctifies us giving us his Son the Son becomes incarnate suffers and riseth again for us the holy Ghost works in us Iustification infusing into us the abundance of those Graces the Son merited for us Thus the three Persons by distinct operations proper to every person effects in us this work of graces and love in this manner Thus the most holy Trinity applies it selfe wholly to us after an extraordinary manner and proper to this Sacrament to consecrate us to their glory and honour a consecration so high and mysterious that it contains all the Truths of Faith whence the Fathers call Baptisme the Sacrament of Faith This is the first dignity whereto the Christian soul is advanced but this is not all Let us go on and penetrate further into this mystery of Love and we shall see that this consecration O miracle of the infinite bounty of God! places us in God and is the cause of Gods being in us not after the manner that he is in all other things nor by any gift or created grace but after a wholly extraordinary way which gives him to us and causes him to dwell in us Here God doth disclose his heart to us the Father shews and gives us his Son the Sonne gives and applies himselfe to us in the Spirit and in the grace of his Mysteries and both together making one profusion and communication of their love send and give us the holy spirit Thus the three divine persons dwell in us consecrate us and fill us with their presence and abundance of graces That which is admirable in the excesse of this divine Love making this grace and estate singularly eminent is that there is not any other Creature not the Angels themselves are advanced to this Dignity it is reserved only for Christians who are consecrated to the most Holy Trinity after so holy and mysticall a manner It would require a large Discourse to teach us to comprehend such rare advantages but let us content our selves to consider first that all creatures are referred to God but a Christian not onely referred but consecrated as if you should say that he belongs more to God and is more holy then all other creatures O how beautifull is this truth worthy to make us lift up our hearts to God! Secondly we know that both Angels and men in the state of Innocency were replenished with the graces and gifts of God but the Christian in the state of Christianity is not onely filled with divine gifts and benefits but with the most holy Trinity it self which dwels in him and consecrates him after the manner we have declared Thirdly all creatures even Angels themselves behold God in some of his divine qualities as the Seraphins in his love the Cherubims in his knowledge the Thrones in his stability and so the rest but the Christian by a happy advantage beholds and relates to him in the extent of all his greatness not onely as Creator but as Father Saviour and Sanctifier not only as God considered in his Nature and divine Essence common to the three Persons but by a happy reflection he distinctly beholds the three divine Persons and refers himself to God as the Father as the Son and as the holy Ghost Thus by one speciall and singular Grace communicated to him in Baptisme he is consecrated to the most holy Trinity and made the Temple Throne and Residence of the ineffable immense and adorable Trinity What can be more said CHAP. II. How holy the life of a Christian ought to be consecrated to God by Baptisme WE cannot say too much upon this Subject which contains so many excellencies of the soul and such extraordinary favors of God and when we have said all we can we must acknowledge it is far short of the Subject We know that God works great matters in the souls of his Elect that his love mercies and divine liberality are as incomprehensible as ineffable which being so what can be added to the love that God expresses to the world in the mysterie of the Incarnation What more can be hoped If according to the mysteries of our Faith we believe God gave his Son to the world making him like unto us to make himself more capable of being mercifull unto us we cannot doubt but that the same God of love will shew himself bountifull in all things else since he hath made such an extraordinary communication of his love and of himself in thus giving us his Son it cannot seem strange if now after so divine a gift he bestow on us his graces to exalt us to so holy a being an estate which consecrates us to make us capable of possessing God Nothing is impossible to him that can do all things we ought onely to consider a perfect knowledge of the truth of Christianity and a disposition to receive all that God will give us It were to be wished that all Christians did follow the light of Faith as they are obliged that being guided and illuminated by this heavenly Pharos they might know the dignity and excellency of these mysteries that knowing them they might adhere to them that adhering to them they might become capable of that grace which they include and God will communicate to us that we may thereby profit as Christ wills who offers his gifts desiring we should receive and use them according to his intentions This counsell we ought to follow in all these mysteries Let us begin by
the words as all good all wise all mighty this manner is sufficient Therefore we must accustom our selves to make use of that which Faith proposes and after excite in our selves the thought of God and entertain our selves therein not by speculation but by obedience and affection which is that we call an affective thought of God as if we should say in our hearts yea my God thou art wholly wise and wholly good I will leave my self to thy conduct I will submit my self to thy divine will By these frequent thoughts of God the soul unites it self to God adheres to his truths and by little and little ascends to the knowledge of God This manner is not hard neither requires it any rule we must onely be vigilant often to apply our selves thereto when any thing gives occasion thereof To arrive to the knowledge of our selves it suffices not to consider our own impotency our feebleness and our imperfections we see them and know them but too much we make a custom of it and this truth will never lead us to humility but we must elevate our thoughts and make use of the knowledge of God thus The soul must present it self before God and having conceived as well as she can the infinite being and soveraign Majesty of the Divinity before which she is she regards him she adores him then she begins to compare her being with that of God she entertains her self in this thought and in this regard and presently acknowledging the exaltation of the divine essence above her own she accounts her self as if she were not by reason of the infinite distance she sees betwixt God and her and in this view she regards her self rather in a not being and a nothing then in a being The soul filling her self with this thought and possessed with this truth humbles her self in the knowledge of her nothing and abases her self as much as she can For having conceived the greatness of God throughout she sees that she is a meer nothing This truth annihilates all creatures yea the most perfect upon earth and the Saints in Heaven forc'd by this principle humble themselves and make themselves as nothing before the supreme and incomprehensible Majesty of God in respect of whom all creatures together are not so much as one grain of Sand. The soul in the sight of this truth must say in her self If all creatures are nothing before God what am I who am the least And if I am nothing before God can I make my self any thing If before the Creator I find not my self by reason I am so much plung'd into nothing would I to the prejudice of truth appear to be something before the Creature In the consideration of this truth the spirit is vanquished the soul knowes what she is and is constrained to humble her self We must passe farther and enter into the consideration of the totall and absolute dependance wherein the soul is in regard of God a dependance so great that she holds onely of God she subsisteth not nor moveth but in God with so much necessity that the beames subsist not by nor depend more on the Sun then the soul doth on her God O happy dependance which gives us God and binds us to God! In considering this truth the soul finds that she is nothing and that she hath nothing either in the order of the essence created or in the order of grace for all is in God and depend on God in such manner that if God should wholly withdraw himself she should leave to be that which she is and should find her self in her nothing So that if she have any thing she sees that it is in God not in her self in him saith St. Paul we live and move and have our being Reflecting hereupon she saith in her heart If all that I have belong not to me nor is of me but of God and belongs to God then am I nothing nor have any thing Wherefore do I flatter my self and believe my self to be something when in truth I am nothing why do I glorifie my self and please my self in that which belongs not to me wherefore should I attribute to my self the honour contentment and glory which belongs onely to my Lord No no I will keep in my meanness I will hide my self in the abysse of my nothing and if God be merciful unto me and out of his bounty give me something I will hold it of him I will onely keep it for him and I resolve from this time and to all eternity I will live in the dependance that I owe to the regard of my Lord and God Let us not stay here but advance forward to the light of truth and let us cast our eyes upon the need we have of God and we shall find what we are and that we are nothing nor have nothing as having received all of God and we possess nothing either temporall or spirituall in nature or in grace but onely that which God reserves and if he should be pleased to withdraw his gifts or cease to preserve them we should find our selves like Adam naked and poor and should return to our nothing Let us behold our selves then so naked and devested and let us pause upon this thought and upon this consideration and we shall be ashamed to look upon our selves and we shall be forced whether we will or not to humble our selves but with a humility full of love and confidence which shall make us lift up our eyes to Heaven to behold him on whom we so absolutely depend from whose hands we have received all and must yet every moment receive influence conduct grace and stability and that so necessarily that if we happen to separate our selves from him and if he but stop his assistance and his concourse leaving us to our selves we assuredly shall fall and in an instant lose all in what state soever we are of Sanctity and grace O most powerful Truth to humble us if considered a truth that humbles the most holy and just upon earth and which annihilates the Angels and Seraphims in Heaven a truth which makes the glorious spirits Angels and Saints who enjoy God to acknowledge that they have nothing but of the mercy of God and that they have no stability but in God an acknowledgement so strong that it were able to pluck them and unite them to him indissolubly if otherwise they were not ty'd to him by the state of glory This is the very state of a soul of Iesus who knowing the greatness of God and seeing himself his Creature penetrating those truths by a light springing from the personall union of the word a light worthy of the glory of the Sonne of God humbles it self but with a humility that shall be eternall a humility more profound then that of all the Saints and Angels a humility which alone is worthy to honour and adore the infinite Essence and the supreme Majesty of God So that
as in the Church he is fed with the body and drinks the blood of Iesus Christ. Among the true vertus which we must possess that which is as the gold and enamel of all the rest is purity a vertue altogether necessary yet either despised or little known If we would see the necessity thereof let us onely consider what is the end of a Christian and wherein consists the perfection of the state of Christianity The perfect Christian must live the life of grace which is the life of Iesus Christ he must carry God he must possess God If any man love me saith Christ he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come into him and make our abode with him which we must not onely understand of justifying and inherent grace a gift created and given of God but of the reall true habitation and presence of God in our souls The soul of the just saith the Wise man is the Throne of God and the Apostle sayes often that our souls and bodies are Temples of God Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost Reflecting on this so manifest a truth we must say that to receive and possess God in our soul we must have the purity of God and in a word without flattering our selves with vain hopes and disguizing or covering the truth let us consider a little seriously what the place ought to be where the Majesty of a God will dwell for ever what ought his dwelling to be of whom David saith Thou dwelst in the sanctuary and in the holy of holies What ought the heart of a man to be where God hath made himself a seat which he hath chosen and consecrated to be the throne of his love We must believe God will require in us a purity worthy of God seeing he who is purity it self will dwell eternally in us This purity that God demands and whereof he is worthy is so divine that our strength cannot arrive unto it he must give it he must assist our importance there is nothing but the fire of his love the lightning of his light the force of his grace and the power of his spirit that can purge expiate and consume all in us that is contrary to this purity In brief it belongs to God alone to place us in the purity that he requires of us This shews how much those souls are deceived who think to possess God and be well with him yet are more remote from him then heaven is from earth We need not but to behold and judge by the effects what its cause is Now as this purity is altogether necessary to possess God so it is our part to desire and to demand it of him and our principall care must be to purify our heart to make it to bear God we must offer it to him that we may bring to our selves the effect of this saying of God to his Spouse and to all others My son give me thy heart we must give and resigne it to him alone it is his desire it is our duty and our happiness if he will vouchsafe to accept it it will be his when he pleaseth to make it such as he requires it This is not all we must co-operate herein and labour with care and vigilancy that we may employ our selves herein with courage and labour with profit let us therefore see wherein this purity consists The purity of the heart may be understood two wayes one that we must purifie our heart from all sorts of sins and voluntary imperfections God enters not into a malicious soul nor inhabits in a body enslav'd to sin we mean not only gross sins but ordinary failings even all faults be they never so little For God being purity it self cannot inhabit in a heart if he find not or put not therein this purity and being infinitely good he infinitly hates evil whatsoever it be and though the least faults drive not God out of our souls yet they make a division and unsettle the soul from God they make great spoil in the heart they undermine it they brand it they indispose it and being so it is disagreeable to God and becomes the object of his Iustice. The soul that knowes how to esteem of God and bears any impression of his purity will think more then I say and never consent to the least imperfection all is insupportable to her that she knows to be disacceptable to God she hath no consideration of estate honour her own good or of men where she sees there is any thing capable to offend the eyes and heart of her God all her care is to detest and extirpate not onely the least faults but to quit renounce and separate her self from whatsoever she knowes to be displeasing to God It is the chief advice of St. Augustine Before any work saith he be sure to purify the heart and take from it all that you observe displeasing to God When he would have us take from our hearts all that is displeasing to God he discovers a great secret he would have us go out of our selves and take out of us all that is of Adam he would have us annihilate our inclinations because whatsoever is of Adam is impure and opposite to Iesus Christ and ever contrary to him whence we conclude that he who would possess Iesus must do all he can possible to dispossess himself of and to drive away Adam this spirit of Adam and his inclinations can no more subsist in the soul with the spirit of God then the Idol Dagon could stand before the Ark of the Covenant All that is in us and is not of God is impure and unworthy of God and all that is out of God can produce no good nor any thing worthy of God these are great truths such as might transport our spirits yet let us not be astonish'd at this Proposition as too high and impossible and we shall see that therein is nothing too much but rather far less then so worthy a subject merits if we consider how pure that soul must be that would please God be in God and possess God and what purity it must have to be one with God for thereon the life of a Christian happily terminates O great God how many deceive themselves O God of adorable purity how few are fit to possess Thee By the light of these truths we may discover the abuse and deceits in christian devotion Some think that they hold God by the hand already and believe themselves well advanced in perfection in that they communicate in that they fast and pray every day and a thousand such like things wherein they exercise themselves they have the taste and sense of devotion they speak well of God and if you will believe them they say they are ravished in God But consider them well you shall find they live wholly according to their own inclinations they mind onely their own