condemning its very dictamens and defires Perswade thy self that that is false which God holds not for true which the Angels disapprove which the Doctours impugne Philosophers refute reason disallows nor squares with Conscience All these find this self love this crafty fox ful of wiles guilty of forgery We are ful of deceyt because ful of self love and so much the more perniciously ful by how much it is not onely a domestique cheat but so linkd to us yea so engrafted in us that it never leaves us nor gives us the least respit from errour Hence not onely custome but even prescription in cozenage hath so hardend us that what is done viciously we maintain many times as done very prudently yea and according to gospel and seek to sanctify by the doctrine of Christ what is clearly repugnant to reason The mist of ignorance which man walks in renders him sufficiently miserable he needs not be missed with forgery yet ignorance is but a petty and inconsiderable misery its darknes being easily dispeld as soon as the light of instruction shines but the night of errour is so wilfully and pertinaciously blind that it is incapable of being illuminated with any precepts O it were hartily to be wishd we were onely ignorant and not seduced also This folly and imposture of worldlings raignes in a manner among all sorts and conditions of them Let them account themselves never so wise let them be the prime Doctours and professours of Vniversities they are idiots and ill-maximd and unworthy of such titles unles they be good and vertuous Pick out any one of these such as all the world holds for an Oracle of knowledg if thou shouldst but once see this man voyd his curious cupbords and cabinets of jewells and vessels of gold and throw away pearles and pretious stones to fill them up with dirt and dung couldst thou perswade thy self that this were a wise man who so prizeth the latter and misprizeth the former And how then shall he be accounted wise who not once but allwayes is stuffing his hart with aspirements to honours with desires of riches and pleasures and contemns the love of God the treasures of divine grace the merits of Christ yea God himself All which incomparably more surpass worldly honours treasures pleasures then gold doth dirt as much to wit as God the Creatour surmounts his creature What imports it if thou sayest that this proceeds not from his ignorance in undervaluing things but that this man knew well enough the difference betwixt spiritual things and temporal a thing which no body can doubt of though his proceedings be contrary what I say wil this avail for nether wil he be excused from madnes who should say that he knowes wel enough the value of gold above other things and how base dirt is in comparison of it yet nevertheles keeps dirt courts it embraces it kisses it yea and refuseth no danger nor labour in search of it but if gold be tenderd him he throwes it away and daigns it not so much as a look Certainly this hidden madnes and visible darknes is far more to be admired and thou darst not call such a one a wise man or well in his wits least thou should be houted at by all having lost thine owne How much more will he expose himself to the censure both of laughter and madnes who professing that the spiritual treasures of grace are much to be preferd before all the goods of this world covets nevertheles the latter and rejects the former Could he be accounted a learned man or sound in judgment or a good Christian who should cast the B. Sacrament of Christs holy Body out of a golden Ciborium consecrated to its conservation and place there insteed of it a piece of clay And how deserves he the name of a wise man who expels the Divinity it self out of his soule where it took complacence to reside as in its tabernacle and sets up in its place not dung but more filthy vices and sordid desires as the idols of his licentious devotions Therfore we must conclude that there is no wisdome no truth to be found in a worldly life The dread fullest instruments of revenge which Christ shall make use of to punish the sensles in the day of judgment shall not be the conflict of confounded elements nor the fall of the stars nor the eclipse of the sun nor the conflagration of the world nor the frightful voice of the Archangel nor that shrilsounding trumpet of God nor the countenance of the angry judge but truth alone Truth I say which shall then be rendred illustrious to all though now as it is veyld with our naughty desires we contemne it But although truth be certainly found in a spiritual life yet not altogether refined from the dregs of forgery both by reason of tâ—e subtilty and soothings of self love for soothing and flattery every where corrupts and sophisticates truth as also the wiles and malice of the divel who labours by all meanes to destroy created truth since he cannot the increated Therfore Christ our Saviour recommends to us as the glory of Euangelical perfection that we adore God in spirit and truth The true God ought not to be worshipped with a false life The onely begotten Son of God is truth and he that will be the Son of God must love truth and possess himself of it Wherfore whosoever evading the precipices of the flesh treads now the plaine paths of spirit let him not hold himself altogether out of dangerunles he walk the roadway of truth And to the end thou mayst follow this more securely take these admonitions which will teach thee to adore God and serve him unfaignedly in uprightnes of hart and make thee understand what truth speaks least some deceit mislead thy spirit but rather doing truth in charity we may increase in Christ by all our proceedings The II. Chapter Of the Truth of the Spirit DO not think that thy life will be rendred any whit more unpleasant and tetrical by the fellowship of truth it is a mere aspersion to say that truth is bitter and unsavoury A false imputed nick name must not make us out of conceit with a thing in it self most delicious Do not frame this discourse If the very outward name of truth be so bitter what may we judge of its interiour rellish if anothers discourse concerning it be noysome what will our own study and practise of it be if it sound so harshly to our hart to our conscience to our whole life Make not I say such illations for it is not the fault of honey if it tast bitter to a tainted pallate One that is giddy thinks the earth runs round when it stands stock-still We judge of every one by our own misdemeanours and seek to patronise our humane frailties by ascribing the same to the Divinity Truth is innocent sweet and displeasing to none but the câ—â—nal and such as are displeasing to God
OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH Written in IV. Bookes by IOHN EVSEBIVS NIEREMBERG Native of Madrid S. I. And Translated into English by R. S. S. â— I H S In which is disclosed the pith marrow of a spiritual life of Christs imitation mystical Theology extracted out of the HH FF greatest masters of spirit Diadochus Dorotheus Clymachus Rusbrochius Suso Thaulerus a Kempis Gerson not a little both pious effectual is superadded Printed Anno M.DC.LXXIII The Translatour to the Reader Courteous Reader I Present thee here with a stranger whom I have put in an English vest and if thou deem him not worthy to be naturalizd at least I pray entertain him civilly When thou art throughly acquainted with him hast dived into a discovery of his perfections thou wilt find rich pearles shrowded under a course shel I am confident it wil never repent thee no more then me of his acquaintance One that knowes how to distinguish fruit from leaves pith from bark a solid substance from a superficial show one that delights in truths seeks rather his own spiritual advance then a frothy feeding of his fancy wil here find entertainment right for his purpose that is both substantial and delightful He wil teach thee how to serve God in spirit truth not by an empty sound or canting use of these two words as do our sectaries who when they have named them think all done but by a real practise of Christian vertues in the discharge of our incumbent duty to God our selves and our neighbour To speak without metaphor I offer thee a plain Translation of a Latin treatise a piece in high esteem with me and many and I require only thy perusal therof to make thee esteem it so too That which moved the Author to compile it moved me also to translate it yet with this difference that he sought only his own behoof I my own chiefly others He a Parent of many such issues having labourd long with his pen for the advance of his neighbour in the way of vertue judgd it but meet to a make some provision for himself as a store house of spiritual truths maximes which he might have ready at every turn both for his meditation and practise And I think he was much in the right since charity begins at home it availes very little to perfect others if we be stil truants our selves self-interest ought to be the first concern nor are we to let our family starve at home while our endeavours are labouring to feed others abroad This prudent ceconomy and sage care of his own good is the common case of us all who have a soul to save it being also our task to provide in the first place for its indemnity that being the grand affair of our whole life which if not done all is utterly undone And how can we provide better then by making use of his provisions where the common exigence is the same For by the dictamen of charity it seldom happens that one is so treacherous to himself as not to provide himself of the best if what was best for him cannot be but good for us what he communicates without envy let us make use off with much freedom little cost a harty welcome There is not so much applause in translating as writing but the common benefit no whit the less yea more because no man of judgment wil translate what he deems not more then ordinarily good taking but who can promise so much of his own conceptions amidst so many miscarriages abortions as daily happen This our age kingdome is a little unfortunate in this respect that our best wits are forcd so to employ their pens for the defence of Catholick religion against the common adversaries and their assaults as that they cannot fully attend to what is as necessary in its kind the writing of spiritual treatises for the preservation encrease of piety in the harts of the faithful The former indeed is necessary but is a misfortune it is so upon such a score or that among the children of the same Mother some should be found so rebelliously bent especially with such prejudice to the latter this being the nursery of devotion consequently promoter of vertue and piety Spiritual bookes are the ordinary tongue by which God speakes to our soules the conveyancers of his holy inspirations when he is pleased to knock at the dore of our hart for entrance yea the key which unlocks it How many by reading them receive both light in their understanding love in their wil not only to acknowledg but perform what conduces to a vertuous life How many have quit the filth of sin in which they wallowed by wonderful conversions how many more of better principles found therby effectual incentives to Christian perfection Certainly the benefits redounding thence are unspeakable great pitty it is that we are not better stored with such books for as our appetite cannot feed long upon the same meat without being cloyed though otherwise both wholsome savory no more can our understanding without a nauseousnes employ it self in matter of reading unles there be variety to season it I have heard even spiritual persons bemoan their own the common scarcity in this kind Besides the excellency of the treatise it self this was a motive to me to contribute my mite towards some smal redress of the aggrievance This premisd I must speak a word or two of the Title it carryes which is Of Adoration in Spirit and Truth the which he borrowes from the words of our B. Saviour to the Samaritan is the subject of the whole work In that conference Io. 4. the great master Of Spirit Truth told her the time would come when true adorers should not be confined to Ierusalem or the mountain in Samaria but were to adore God in spirit Truth for God being a spirit covets to be adord in spirit Now what it is to adore him in Spirit Truth he explaines through the whole treatise chiefly in the 4. first Chapters of the first Book where he explicates what he understands both by the one other so clearly that nothing needs to be superadded Only it wil not perchance be amiss to forewarn some les skilful Reader that he be not frighted into a prejudice of the Book by the title it seeming to sound somwhat of the Sectarist who hath nothing so frequent in is mouth as I said above as Spirit Truth nothing les in substance The words indeed are easily named and may serve for canting among the ignorant but if one go to the pith substance of spirit truth as the Authour uses them to a true denial of our selves more then a lipp-love of God here the sectary wil be found as void of spirit as truth in both a nut without a kernel When the reader sees the Authour
The same royal colour of purple recreates men and exasperates buls this purple truth of God this lustre of sanctity delights those that understand it what makes matter if it offend those that have neithet wit nor braines to conceave it yea this makes more for its commendation Nothing shewes the inestimable worth and comelines of truth more then that it seems worthles and deformed to the wicked Consider but the causes of this their aversion and thou shalt see that they render it much more amiable Of all crosses and afflictions truth seemes the most harsh and burdensome because particular afflictions impugne either one onely pleasure or at least but some few but truth fights them all together and proclames warr at once against all other kind of vices Therfore they hold it the saddest adversary they have and for the same reason think they can revenge themselves no wayes more upon their enemys nor sting them more picquantly then by speaking truth to their disadvantage the reason is because what harme soever one most dreads to himself his passion makes him wish the same to his enemy and because he dreads no kind of evil more then truth therfore he tels all he knowes to his adversarys prejudice and seeks thus to wound him as with so many poysonous darts But these causes of offence are arguments which ought to heighten our love and esteem of truth is not that worthy of all love which hath all vice in such hatred and detestation If thou hadst one potion which would cure thee of all diseases thou wouldst not contemne it for being bitter and distastfull nay thou wouldst prize nothing more highly so truth upon that same score is to be loved and adored although it be even nayld to a cross though voyd of beauty and unhandsome But it is comely of sight and pleasant of tast not deformed but deâ—forme not unwise but the wisdome of God the voyce of truth is sweet and its countenance amiable It hath God for its seasoning it cannot be unsavoury or disgustfull or tainting That which makes God happy must not be noysome neither can it make thee miserable What shall I say God is truth and can he be either more distastfull to thee then gal or not more lovely then light Go to then take the courage to look it in the face to affect it to put thy self under its tuition and patronage This is the main maxime of a spiritual life that as carnal people hate nothing more then truth so those that walk the paths of spirit have nothing in higher esteem or desire What is more dear or useful to an archer then his eyes and what ought to be more desirable to a reasonable man then truth which is the eye of his soule Archers and other creatures also made for the behoof of man if they want their eyes become altogether unserviceable so our whole life without truth proves but a fruitles busines No one of the senses is more delectable then the sight and truth surpasseth all the other facultys of the mind neither is it more pleasing a midst the smiles of prosperity then the frownes of adversity Let us therfore begâ—n with an upright conceit of truth to exclude falshood deeming nothing more delightful nothing more excellent then sincere truth of spirit Most men because they believe not this are apt to grant themselves now and then a little indulgence to nature and self love and the propensions of the flesh though but in petty matters mixing with a most subtle dissimulation and self cozenage forraign comforts that so they may mittigate the austerity which they conceive or fear accompagnies the spirit and not trusting sufficiently to it and God they reserve as yet some reliques of their flesh and will of which they are loath to dispoyle themselves that they may make their retreat thither in time of need not daring by a total self denyal to give themselves entirely to God and the spirit as if some corrosives did attend his intimate familiarity These people deceive themselves for this is not the spirit of truth This spirit is a most simple and transparent thing and therfore that will not be true and genuine which is so confounded and intoxicated The flesh and the spirit are two things so different that they cannot be combind into one simple The spirit of truth ought to be so refind and sincere that it is not enough to dread and abhor all the faigned soothings of the flesh all the pernicious dictamens of worldlings and the forciblest insinuations of self love but one must moreover dispoil ones self of himself and his own soul and renounce totally his own will and all created contentments yea even intellectual and otherwise lawful to seek God alone and in him possess all things The spirit is somewhat more sublime and refind then is the soul the understanding or nature Hear thy Iesus saying God is a spirit and those that adore him must do it in spirit and truth Wherfore that thou mayst adore God as thou oughtest and serve him perfectly in truth of spirit thou must reare thy self above all creatures and created affections and breath after and be enamourd upon the divine truth alone and as one ready to depart out of this world bid adieu to thy self and all creatures adhering by pure charity to our Lord becoming one spirit as S. Paul speaks with God who is truth it self Force thy self from thy self that is from thy vicious stock that thou mayst be engrafted in him sever thy self from thy self that thou mayst be united to thy Creatour loosen thy self from thy self that thou mayst be fastned to the cross of Iesus root thy self out of thy wicked self that thou mayst be implanted in all goodnes fly from thy own nature and thou shalt find a sanctuary in God loose thy self unfaignedly and thou shalt find thy self really The III. Chapter Of Purity of Spirit DO not in any thing o coheyre of Christ become like unto the beasts thou who mayst be one spirit with God thou must resemble them in nothing at all Thou oughtest to tread underfoot all the delights of flesh and nature not reserving any one from a total renunciation One alone is able to marr the rellish of truth one alone wil tarnish the lustre of the spirit Great things are oftentimes over powrd by little ones a smal quantity of vinegar spoyles a whole vessel of the strongest wine a little drop of ink infects and discolours a violl of the fairest water Why wilt thou blemish the candour of truth and noblenes of the spirit with a petty delight so triviall and momentary Why dost thou debase thy self so much below thy sublime condition why wilt thou leave the bosome of God and his sweet embracements to solace thy self with the silly dregs of creatures since thou ought not to descend from the cross of Christ for all the kingdoms of the world O miserly and base-minded man since thou hast already employed
to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any
ornament of speech since the word of God not unlike a sword the more naked it is the more deeply it pierceth much deeper then if it were sheathd in the richest phrases of humane eloquence and it is the sincerity of the speaker not the gorgeous attire of Rhetorique which makes it majestical I aymd sayth he at the self same in this Treatise which the zealous Bishop Salvianus mentions in his Epistle to Salonius We who love deeds better then words saith this holy Prelate seek rather after profit then applause neyther do we labour so much that the vayn pomp of the world be praysed in us as wholsome and substantial matter in our writings we covet not to set forth a fine dress but to give redress This was the reason sayth my Authour why I was not curious at all about the stile which I thought was not to be uniforme but attemperd to the nature of the subject it treated of for a pious and sincere matter is to be handled without all pompousnes and Oratorical figures and I preparing it for my self slender ornament would serve the turn Thus much he and all this I have inserted as pertinent to teach my Reader how little regardable these things are where spirit and truth sway the ballance the hart being not touched but the fancy onely tickled with such vanities What no judicious reader will condemne in him will not I hope be mislikd in the Translatour so far as wauing all matter of stile he attends to the englishing of the Authours sense yea words in as proper phrase and expression as he can he being a Translatour not a Paraphrast Which how farr he hath attaind must be left to the readers verdict and that be what it will he stands not much upon if the fruit he aymes at be produced in his soule following in such a fair view of truth as it expresseth her footsteps to a sincere Adoration in Spirit and Truth misled no more by the world and its impostures The Division of this Work In the I. Book are containd those things which concern the Purging of our soules In the II. what appertains to its illumination and the Imitation of Christ our Lord. In the III. what belongs to a most perfect practical performance of our actions In the IV. what helps to enflame us with a most ardent love of God and elevat our soules to the divin Vnion OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH THE I. BOOK THE FIRST CHAPTER The Deceitfulnes of a secular life THe proceedings of men in this life◠intercours are a continual piece of forgery as voyd of credit as ful of imposture Be not too zealous of death in a mistake of life for the H. Ghost hates dissimulation in matter of discipline An imposture is so much more pernicious by how much the affair in which it is used is of greater concern and consequence Men deem nothing dearer then life how then can they endure to be deluded in it how can they brook forgery in matters of Spirit and worship of God which are infinitly to be prizd above life it self An imposture concerning life is the worst of evils It is too dangerous and formidable to be seduced in a thing of all others the most important and pretious Men suffer not willingly their eyes to be cheated and how ill do they mannage their busines if they suffer their minds They fret and chafe if they be cozend in pretious stones and how much more ought they concerning themselves How careful and vigilant are those that traffique in gems least a counterfeyt be put into their hands insteed of a true one no man will buy a jewel unles the seller give both oath and suerty that it is not adulterous This is the madnes of men they are content to set a false rate upon their life though not upon a stone they love not to be deceived in their eye-sight but can disgest a greater fallacy in their mind in their life yea and in their heaven We take it very ill to be cheated by another though but in smal trifles and we willingly cheat our selves even in the price of our selves We love neither to hear nor tel a lye and yet we make both our selves and our life a continual lye O miserable who are both the deceived and deceivers of our selves and we bear this two fold misery which men so much abhor with patience and we tolerate this double infamy in a busines of such consequence whereas we should brook neither in a trivial one If thou judge it a heynous crime to deceive thy friend and holds it the greatest of wrongs to be deceived by thy friend what ground or pretense in the world canst thou have to cozen thy self or be cozend by thy self who shouldst be dearer and faithfuller to thy self then any friend whatsoever But we willingly entitle our losses through our own default which nevertheles are the heavyest and in a double kind with the fair name of patience and animate our selves to our own destruction by not only holding our selves unworthy of blame but worthy of Congratulation The covetous man would take it ill if one should cozen him in the fading goods of fortune he would deem it an intolerable injury if one should stuf his Coffers and bags with dirt or rubbage in lieu of gold or silver and why doe we not onely endure but even affect to be cozend by our selves in the goods of vertue and grace nor grieve that our life is soyld with the staines of vices and defects or that our vertue is hypocritical our charity but forged our mortification superficial our humility counterfeyt A main reason of this endammagement is because we doe not pursue or rather throughly persecute self love lurking in us and put not this domestique enemy to the sword It 's no charity to save the life of an enemy to the prejudice or endangering of our own by giuing ear to his pernicious counsels We harken to our appetits as to so many Oracles although they utter nothing but lyes He that lends his ear to soothing flatterers must needs give credit to many things that are false and he that attends to the fawning charmes of self love shall ever and anon be deceived Tell me o my soul if a court or Senate of wise and cōscientious men should all with joynt consent determine a cause and the malefactour alone pleading nevertheles guilty and convinced by witnesses one as foolishly fond as desperately wicked should stand out against the verdict of the whole Court as unjust and partial wouldst thou believe this one wretch rather then so many wise and upright Senatours Why then dost thou follow the toyes and fancies of self love and its brutish appetites how darest thou oppose its verdict alone to that of God of his Angels of the Doctours of the Church of ancient Philosophers of reason it self nay even of thy own conscience all these condemning for naughty what it approves for good yea
Nature many times effects that what is harsh to one is gustfull to another and will grace be less operative The longings of women make them couet ridiculous extravagancies coales clay mortar and to loth meats exquisitely seasond and that which happens so obviously to a womanish indisposition shal it be thought impossible to divine healthfulnes A corrupt and queasy stomack rules the appetite and shal a sound and masculine mind have less or no sway over the wil Be not then frighted o dejected creature with what thou hearest of a spiritual life for it is not at all troublesome or noysome although it necessarily imbrace al troublesome and noysome things Let not an empty name or conceyt terrify thee be but confident and accoast them and thou shalt frighten the very difficulties themselves Some relate of certain enchanted treasures which are in the custody of terrifying ghosts and sprits but if any one be so resolutely hardy as contemning those phantasmes to assaile them they are presently put to flight and vanish to nothing in such sort that they appear no more but permit the accoaster to enjoy those riches in all peace and security Nothing more is requisite to effect this but courage and resolution Be but valiant in purchasing these spiritual treasures and all those bugbeares of pretended difficulties wil suddainly disapear Set upon them undauntedly and thou shalt enjoy without any great plains-taking the hidden manna of a spiritual life Bees work hony shelterd under the homely roof of a rough-cast hive The IV Chapter How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue HE walks in falshood and forgery not in truth nor spirit who takes not faith for his path and guide Truth dwels very remote from sense This heavenly flower growes not in our gardens it is not nourished with flesh and blood it is not to be found amidst the dung of our muddy and material substances We are at al turnes cheated in corporal goods even those which we behold with our eyes and fingar with our hands A whole oare in the water seems broken a square tower to one that stands at a great distance seems round the very light of the sun which is al the faith our eyes are endowd with cozens them oftentimes by representing colours that are not existent and how then shal we avoid being misled in the affaires of our soul which we see not and in spiritual and divine things which are so much above our reach and capacity All the race of mankind was grown quite blind through the night of errour like one shut up in a dark dungeon without either window or chink to let in the least glimmering of light The learneder sort of Philosophers were of opinion we knew no more then what we knew was false or rather that we knew only this one truth that we knew nothing at all and they were so swoln and puffd up with vanity that none but heaven could give an allaying remedy One among them did think that the master of truth was to be some Son of a God Behold now o thou Son of the highest o thou eternal Truth behold o thou wisdome of thy father thou didst descend from heaven o light of the world to illuminate it to teach us truth and why do not men make more account of so great a benefit why doe they contemne this blessing of faith What imports it to believe truth if we our selves practise falshood saving truth is good works and the true word the deed of the word The word of God became flesh that the work of man might become truth because the Truth of God is become operative All is mere falshood and vanity which is not according to the doctrine of IESVS why doe we neglect the practise of this great blessing contenting our selves with a dead kind of faith We should reap great advantage from our faith if we knew how to use it and work as we ought according to its prescript greater then if we beheld those things it affirmes with our eyes All by faith believe true things but they ought also to believe truly which all seem not to do If thou believe o malepert soul what Christ taught work accordingly If it be true that it behooud IESVS to suffer and so to enter into his glory if it be true that God ordaines all for the good of the just why art thou afflicted at some trivial crosses and calamities Why dost thou account them losses which when they are patiently taken faith teacheth us to be the soules greatest enrichment If thou believe this to be true as in very truth it is thou oughtest rather to rejoyce and comfort thy self If thou shouldst behold some one of the H. Prophets with thy corporal eyes as David or S. Iohn Baptist if thou shouldst see one raised from death or an Angel from heaven who were to tell thee from Almighty God that his will is that thou beare this cross patiently because it will be for thy greater good and no little gain would it not suffice to make thee refrain from all impatience nay would it not replenish thee with such joy as siezd the Apostles when they went away rejoycing because they were made worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of IESVS And why dost thou not now do the same Thou oughtest not to esteem that miraculous message as infallible as a matter of faith for in that case one might lawfully somtimes entertain a doubt since the evil spirit might delude him or he himself be deluded in his senses Therfore if this truth as matter of faith be more certain then if an Angel had teveald it from heaven why ought it to be less perswasive Our manner of working followes the certitude of our knowledg and the judgment we frame of a thing and proportionable to this knowledg must needs be the excellency of our operation Wherfore whosoever desires to walk in truth let him square the actions and paths of his life according to the model of his faith believing not onely true things but after a true manner least he become ridiculous to the Angels and joynt-sectary with the Divels who are all solifidians their beliefe being barren of works What availes it to know the way to heaven if we doe not walk it The wicked spirits know it better then we and nevertheles because they stand stil and advance not they are divels Tel me who is in a better condition thou that wilt not doe good or the divels that cannot It is all one in most things not to have a will and to be impotent yea it is more damnable and reproachful to thee who wilt not when thou mayst The divels believe and tremble I wish thou when thou believest wert possessd with a just fear Why dost thou not tremble at the judgments of God considering their certainty and the uncertainty of thy own condition either to eternal punishment or joy what is the reason
Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
He prepares thee for his espousals while he disposeth of what is thine and dispoiles thee of all Why art thou afraid to become poor if thou canst carry a kingdom in thy hart The kingdom of God is within you O ridiculous cause of teares which takes away the causes of sin it is a high piece of impudence against God to grieve and lament at the loss of temporal things which we ought to have in hatred A woman though never so much a harlot hides the griefe and teares which she sheds for the losses and injuries of the adulterer she conceales also the joy she takes in his presence thou even to Gods face rejoycest in the prosperity of those things with which thou playest the naught thou art sorry for their loss and darest ask of him either that he take them not away or els restore them What woman surprizd in adultery durst beg of her husband that he would not interrupt that unlawful pleasure when she should rather beg pardon for the offence Her husband would deale mercifully with her if he only took away the adulterer and how shameles art thou who deemst it an injury what wife could be so impudent as to say to her husband bring me that Blackamore that I may enjoy his embracements for I like him better then thee thou darest be so frontless as to make God the pandar of thy disorderly concupiscence by begging temporal things of him When thou askest any thing of God besides God thy very prayer betrayes thy adulterous spirit for it is the selfsame as if thou shouldst say give me o Lord something wherwith to offend thee It is bad enough to play the fornicatour to his dishonour without begging of him the increase of that store by whose fruition thou undoes thy self and such is the preservation of riches honours gusts colours and corporeal beauties He that were pesterd with a loath some canker would not be offended with the Chirurgian for lancing the infected part but of his own accord would profer it to be cut of though with grief and horrour but if perchance waking out of his sleep he should find it done to his hand imperceptibly and without any concurrence of his own he would esteem it a miraculous cure and render thanks to God for it as such Thou art not depriud of thy joints and limbs but hurtful darts which poyson thy hart give God thanks that this privation is made unsensibly and without detriment to thy patience Thou who shouldst relinquish all do not grieve at the loss of some To make them a matter of merit thou shouldst give them to the poor if God take them why takest't thou it not patiently Gerson spoke piously when he said If thou o father redemand what 's lent Take I restore most freely what 's unspent VVilt thou by theeves by sword by fire it take All 's one to me I quit it for thy sake Perchance even so more grateful it wil be Then if in almes the poor had it from me If having nothing thou have all why art thou troubled and vext o amiable truth invert my perverse hart and work so in it that hence forth it may be noysome to me to have any thing besides thee disburden me of all earthly things first of all of my self who am the heavyest burden to my self I will not o Lord have my self that I may have thee If many Philosophers depriv'd themselves of all these goods for love of themselves because they held them base and great hindrances to their course of life what do I who for love of thee repine to be depriud but of some O feeble spirit why grievest thou to be circumcisd in a few superfluous things since indeed a few only are necessary What do I say a few Nothing but God is necessary to me I congratulate with my self God is my sufficiency who knowes no deficiency I knew not o sweet truth what a comfortable thing it was to have nothing yea to know more clearly then the sunshine that it is altogether impossible although I endeavoured it never so much to have any thing besides God which can be mine and not Gods alone But because all things are his and he mine all things are mine and then most mine when I have them least because they have me least and I have them better in God then if I had them in themselves If I were truly humble I should not grieve at the loss of temporal things He that is to esteem himself nothing how can he esteem other things some thing which are baser then himself When one dies all things die to him so he that deems himself nothing deems the whole world nothing All things are dead to one that is dead and all contemptible to one truly humble The XVI Chapter How profitable temptations are HOw canst thou expect to be crownd if thou dost not combat and how wilt thou combat if thou be not assaulted and tempted Without an enemy there is no combat and without a combat there is no victory Nay it were disgraceful and litle to our credit to be crownd without fighting to triumph without a victory and challenge or usurp an honour not due to us therfore do not take it ill that thou art vext with temptations for there is the store house of merit and occasion of humbling thy self God hath permitted many to fal into grievous sins that they might become humble he dealt more mercifully with thee permitting thee only to be tempted Resist valiantly in Gods quarrel although it be troublesome enough in the very conflict and assault of temptations to fight and make resistance yet the victory over it is more delectable then the pleasure of the sin to which it drawes thee Thou must not compare the sweetnes of the sin with the noysomenes of the temptation but with the joy that ariseth from the victory nor the combat with the pleasure but the fruit of the victory with the practise of the vice Try a litle what it is to overcome temptations who hast tryd so often what it is to be overcome by them When thou prevailest think that eer long thou art to fight again when thou fightest think that in that victory the enemy is to be totally routed and thou to enjoy an eternal peace Perchance in part it will so fall out for the divel put to confusion and flight wil not dare to assaile thee again and God wil give thee some truce as he knows it expedient for thy good He who permitted it for thy advantage knowes at what time it is best to free thee An artificer takes not gold out of the furnace til it be purgd sufficiently and if thou be not purifyd enough and improved he wil not free thee from that molestation In time of victory be mindful of the combat in time of the combat of victory Thou shalt be in perpetual joy if thou overcome in perpetual shame if overcome why dost thou misprize the secure
be damnd are not turnd into roses so to mitigate the miseries they are to suffer But on the contrary it is more to be wonderd that under the feet of those who are to be saved they are not changd into thornes and leaping from thence upon their heads do not punish them for their offences such unspeakable fruit shal they reap of their so short labour What is the reason since Christs redemption is most copious that it took away sin and would not also take away those annoinances which in this life arise from sin but because afflictions are beneficially salâ—tiferous How should we ever aspire to eternal life if this momentary were pleasant and caseful since we now love it though ful of miseries and conceive but remiss desires of the others beatitude That blessed and elevated man F. Baltazar Alvarez said very well that tribulations are so many wingd horses to carry us a main pace towards heaven How much the more we debar our senses of their delights by suffering sorrowing or sicknes so much the more are we forced to fly to God and seek true goods in heaven The tops of trees if the under branches be cut away reare themselves much higher and our mind by depressing and keeping sense under flourisheth and taketh better growth After the lapse of Adam God found out the rare invention of suffering a heavenly devise against sin An invention worthy of God was labour and affliction that we might be in our body as if we were bodiles and by that meanes our rellish might be the purer our mind being disaffected to sense and the pleasures of the flesh that by suffering it might be preservd from all contagion by its passions and desires It is a heavenly devise to supply the commodity and prerogative of death that we may not be taken with these fading sensible things Patience was extolld by the Philosophers because they esteemd suffering which it mitigates an evil but because suffering is extreme good therfore I say that patience is good it making us not shun but persist in what is good God is neither ignorant nor unwise far be such a blasphemy from us but the refinedst wisdome nevertheles he chose afflictions for his best-beloved Son he chose them for his Mother for the Apostles companions of his Son and others his friends That zealous and devout Father Christopher Rodriguez was wont to say that he would have no body to compassionate him in his sorrowes and sufferings but rather congratulate and jointly with him give thanks to God for as one friend shakes hands with another and pressingly wrings them in token of friendship til they ake again so God with his hand presseth his friends and wrings them which is an argument of signal love Punishments many times are greater tokens of benevolence then guifts and benefits because in that case the punishments themselves are the greatest favours and most beneficial Reprehension and chastizement is a more pregnant signe of charity then indulgence and cockering One benevolous to foraigners and aliens wil be found more easily then a reprover and rebuker but chastizement is only usd towards friends and domestiques Indulgence and liberality extend themselves even to enemies correction only to children and familiars wherfore the punishments of this life are surer pledges of love then the favours of fortune Tribulations are not alwaies the penalty of delinquency although no fault precede they are good and do thou beare them patiently whether they be inflicted immediately by God or by men and take them so much more joyfully by how much less thou seemst to have deservd them Even as we ought to rejoyce much more if God afflict us and not for our sins so ought we also to be more patient and joyful when we are persecuted slanderd and revild by men if we be conscious of our own innocency and that we suffer without desert What cross wouldst thou rather chuse and with whome to dye with the theives on theirs or with Christ on his The thieves crosses had their merits they were punnishd for their sins but the cross of Christ was a cross of innocency it was not erected for delinquency that were horrid blasphemy therfore thou must glory in no cross but that of our Lord Iesus Christ Our nature fel in its fal it lost its rectitude and uprightnes it must be repaird renewd and rectifyd by hard and heavy duties The hammer is hard and heavy but it moulds and fashions pieces of plate which it makes beautiful to the eye and rectifies what was crooked and amiss Tribulation carries a kind of divine autority a long with it in so much that the H. Ghost breaths more effectually many-times by it then by the Prophets and H. Scriptures We are sometimes refractory to the word of God and the good admonitions of H. Fathers and Doctours but tribulations I know not how make God when he speaks be so applauded that without any more ado we yeald obey He that desires to be heard speaking by knocking with his fist or making a noise with his hand â—bids silence and gaines his auditory so God striking with his makes us attentive to what he sayes Pharao resisted him speaking by his servant Moyses he became plyable and obedient when he afflicted him by any contemptible creature The people would not hearken to Ieremy til captivity at length made them relent No body is deaf nor obstinate to tribulation it is Gods eloquence and the chaire of the H. Ghost it is a sacred thing and as it were the Altar and throne of God although harsh and repugnant to flesh and blood O how awfull and terrible is that place but in very deed it is no other then the house of God and gate of heaven the sanctuary of vertues whether we fly from vice as into a sacred place of refuge Go to then o soul dear to Christ fly not affliction as if it were venimous it cannot hurt thee thy IESVS hath already tasted it it is neither evil nor untoothsome when God is there to season it how can the bitternes of a drop of gal be perceivd in an Ocean of hony whatsoever God sends or howsoever he dispose of me I shall never want this comfort that it is pleasing to him Let this be a solid comfort to thee and yet if thou suffer without comfort do not shun it Let it confound us that we love God les then dogs do their masters Although a dog be chid away although beaten although ston'd yet he cannot be kept of but comes more and more he followes him he fawnes upon him so must we serve and approach to God by how much the more we are beaten and afflicted for if these should cease our chief occasion of meriting would cease nor could we give a sufficient proof that we truly love him and not serve him as mere hirelings OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH THE II. BOOK THE FIRST CHAPTER Of diligence in Prayer I Am
in rarities keep any choise jewel or forraign noyelty making presently a cabinet for it that the least grain of dust may not tarnish it canst thou think that the gemm of the Divinity and the H. Ghost can be preserved with requisite decency without an exquisite carefulnes If thou didst carry the most H. Sacrament of the Eucharist in thy hands how sollicitous wouldst thou be not to let it fal and if thou carry God in thy hart why wilt thou be less attentive The hart is a most delicate member any little offence to it is extream prejudicial any trifling wound is mortal to the body and in like manner any negligence in the custody of our hart doth much prejudice the spirit The kingdom of God is within us why do we beg miseries abroad by our senses an unblemishd hart is the oracle of God he speaks within us how can we harken attentively if we be gazing and wandering abroad while thou conversest with one thou givest not eare to another that interrupts thee how canst thou hear God being distracted with so many affaires Why dost thou desire to gaze abroad upon any beautiful object to tickle thy eares with pleasing sounds to feed thy fancy with forraign newes since thou hast God within thee in whom all beauty is comprizd all pleasure resides as in in its center and a perpetual newnes is discoverable even to the B. Angels themselves though they be in a perpetual fruition even from the very infancy and nonage of the world they beheld him before the prevarication of Adam and stil he is new to their eyes Which of the blessed would relinquish the vision and conversation of God and separate from him to behold any curiosity upon earth or who that is placed but at the gates of heaven would for that end recede thence o how much also is he to be pittyed who in expectation of this earthly trumpery hinders his progress in spirit forsaking the portal of heaven which is a wel guarded hart leaves God alone and sometimes his own hart too expelling God from it in such sort that he can neither know him perspicuously nor hear him expeditly that thou mayst be able to contemplate thy self in a myrrour thou first of all wipest off the dust how canst thou hope to see God in thy hart if thou daube it over with the clay of terrene affections If one should tel thee that S. Paul the Apostle newly come from the third heaven were in the streets explaining and unfolding hidden mysteries thou wouldst leave all though never so pleasing and profitable wouldst run with much speed though far distant to hear see him Behold thou needst not go one step to hear God inculcating things salutiferous and teaching hidden secrets while he comes to thee and sejourns with thee why dost thou not leave these exteriour things so fruitlesly burdensome overcoming all itch of novelties and vain curiosities by which thy fervour doth so evaporate this ought to be so highly prizd that the servant of God F. Francis Villanova was wont to say that although it were told him that an Angel were come from heaven and stood in the market place disclosing wonderful and stupendious mysteries and that great concourse were made thither he would not stir one foot only to overcome curiosity And certainly it were much better not to see an Angel then to be overcome by it if that were the only motive of seing him What retainest thou now of all the vanities thou hast beheld besides some impediments perchance of contemplating God thy mind being burdend with vain fancies and images of things both false and frivolous The les thou seest the more thou lessenest thy desire and occasions of errour A hart shut up to the world is the open gate of truth which gate is shut by giving free scope to our exteriour senses they are these material things that shut it Wherfore thou must alwayes keep within at home and not go forth to externs but with leave from God and for obedience and his glory Then they wil cause no hindrance but forthwith as soon as ever thou hast done thy busines retire home again resaluting and speaking to God who is there expecting thee yea recolect thy self now and then privily in the very dispatch it self steal thy self from thy employments and put thy self in the presence of God Whatsoever thou art to enterprize weigh it wel before hand offer it up to God and as much as thou canst have perpetual recourse to him visit him in thy hart ask his advice and implore with humility his favorable assistance But the chief gate which man must set a guard upon is his mouth least its words prove the outlet of devotion O how often do many sel God at a lower rate then did Iudas since they sell him for one word Simon Magus was cashierd for covetting to buy the H. Ghost with mony others loose him not for mony but a little breath and ayre of their mouth O most holy spirit who utterst nothing but Oracles of truth how can I relinquish thee to attend to the forgeries of men or my self to speak vanities conduct me with my IESVS into the desert of my hart that there thou mayst instruct illuminate and streng then me to beare thy cross O God o Christ of my hart grant me grace to follow thee out of the world and worldly crowds that I may dye with thee out of the city Thou chargd with thy heavy cross didst walk out of Ierusalem to dye for me and accomplish my salvation in the solitude instructing me how I am to go out of this world and seek thee in my self and bear thy cross and be crucified to the world in the solitude of my hart I wish my life could be sayd to be like a warfare upon earth a souldier forsakes parents allyes friends country commodities and embraceth as it were a voluntary bannishment in a forraign land exposing himself both body and soul to most evident danger for a little base pelfe why will not a soul desirous of Christ in order to gain the chiefest good and lock it up in the cabinet of its hart with draw it self from the tumults of men and quit the miseries which attend their affaires so to evade more present dangers both of body and soul be replenished with heavenly consolations The VII Chapter How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works MEN toil many years with great constancy for the inconstant and fleeting goods of this world why then are we so variously sickle in the pursuit of a constant and eternal glory which never wil fade men though they cark and care toile and moile their whole life long cannot get temporal goods albeit they pursue them without respit how can we presume to gain eternity since we are as changeable as any weather cock what paines do robbers usurers and the lecherous undergo to compass their wicked designes though they
Of evill many become good we must not disdain them this is to love all for goodnes this is to love all in God when we love for that which cannot be loved without God as goodnes justice vertue and the like If thou didst love the goodnes of God thou wouldst love all in God and covet that all loved him and wouldst put to a helping hand and be sollicitous in this behalf Of a much different strain is the zeal of humane and divine love Humane goodnes is finite and narrow bounded not suffising for all nay not even for many but les wil fall to each ones share therfore men endeavour what they can that none els love what 's dear to them but because the goodnes of God is infinite and more then abundantly sufficient for all and our love of such a limited condition that it cannot correspond to so great goodnes therfore Gods desire is that each one love it and approve our love and cooperate towards it to the end they may discharg and satisfy for that goodnes which we are not able with any love of ours to equalize Thou lovest God imprudently unles thy desire be that all love him for thou must love him more then thy self thy desire is that all love thee though thou be so very bad why are thy wishes on Gods behalf more barren and bounded he being so extremely good O infinite goodnes of God who loved me so much the meanest and very outcast of sinners that being not content to love me thou wouldst moreover that all should love me and commanded it too why shal not I covet that all love thee and procure it to the utmost of my power yea thou hast obliged all by thy precept blood that they should love me no less then thou lovedst me and every one loves himself Give me grace that I also may observe these examples of love that I may love all Thou saidst this is my precept that you love one another as I loved you And again thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Thou o Lord lovedst me eer I loved thee thou o Lord lovedst me not for any commodity redounding to thee but to me thou lovedst me with an immense love for none hath greater charity then this that one give his soul for his friends thou didst love me with a perseverant love thou art he who when he loved his who were in the world he loved them to the end These are the conditions with which thou lovedst me and must be the rule conformably to which I must love others O my soul learn love from the love of Christ love them as thy own life whom Christ loved more then his and wil in then be loved and worshipd If Christ lay sick in bed thou wilt not deem it indecency that he be supposed languishing for our good who for our salvation took really upon him our languours or pinchd with hunger and some other poor body lay also sick in another bed and were pressed with the same want and thou shouldst demand of Christ whether of the two he would have thee to relieve first himself or that other party I believe he would piously answere that other for Christ himself would defraud his own mouth of meat to asswage a poor mans hunger Serve then and reverence Christ in such a one if thou canst not do it in fact do it at least by prayer and compassion not only in corporal necessities but much more in spiritual God prizeth so highly an almes bestowd on the body that he promiseth heaven for its reward nor assignes any other cause of acquitting them in the dreadful day of doom how much more wil he esteem an almes bestowd on the soul for which he daignd to dye o the infinit charity of God o most loving Saviour who gavest thy soul for sinners grant that I may love their soules as thou lovedst them I wil take a pattern from thy love to know how I am to love those whom thou lovedst and not from my own neyther wil I love my neighbour as I loved my self for then I shal love him but untowardly I knew not how to love my self how can I love others How could I love my self who loved my own wil who loved iniquity but I wil love my neighbour as I ought to love my self desiring thy wil may be accomplishd in him and he more plentifully enrichd with thy grace that all may serve thee most fervently and adore thee in spirit and truth THE IV. BOOK The I. Chapter How ungratefull we are to God HOW unhappy is our hart in thy benefits o happines of Saints since a slender courtesy afforded us by some poor miscreant yea even by a savage creature stirs us up to an act of benevolence and yet we are not struck through love into an amazement of the immense beneficence of thy benefical nature how comes this to pass that if a man had done it we should deem it a huge favour and for this very reason that God does it though he do incomparably more we sleight the benefit and seek not to shew our selves grateful doth water loose its nature because it is in its center the sea and not in some sorry vessel shal it forfeit the nature of a benefit because God is the authour of it whose nature is to be beneficial we should rather argue thus it is water because it is drawn out of the sea Can heat because it is in the fire be thought not to becalefactive and that only to be so which is in a forraign and violent subject the ardour of fire is more effectual and warmes more intensely then heat in wood so the blessings from God are more benefical then those from men because God sourceth them It is the nature of gâ—â—â—nes to be benefical as it is of fire to heat â—â—neficence in men is nothing so vigorous or taking because it is not so proper to their nature indigence only being connatural to them Water is purer in the fountain then in the stream and benefits derived from God are more refined then those from men who for the most part mar the nature of a benefit Why then shal blessings loose their prerogative and respect because they are imparted by God which though much meaner if they proceeded from any contemptible man unles we expressed our gratitude for them we could not have the face to appear before men but should blush with confusion so far as to be ashamed of ourselves and become infamous in our own conceit and yet because they are from God we hold our selves priviledgd to be ungrateful and dare without blushing appear before him and his Angels Why are guifts les valuable and of an inferiour rank because they come from God since in them alone are verified all the conditions of being truly beneficial and giving us relief in our greatest distress is a benefit more unhappy for flowing from the fountain of all happines Why do we
of the divine honour thou oughtst in all reason to be more immeasurably cruel against thy self then against any enemy or the whol camp of hel although in effect and in the exteriour maceration of thy body a discreet mean is to be held according to the direction of thy superiours and ghostly Father and the prescript of right reason to the end that in this also thou maist seek Gods greater glory for whose sake it is expedient not to be immoderate in chastizing thy self as for the same reason and our own salvation we are forced to pardon our other enemies and afford them a place in the list of our charity for that which God exacts chiefly of us and wherein we ought to take revenge of our selves is the death of our will not of our body And according to this I say it is most evident that thou hast more reason to be displeased with thy self then all thy enemies and ill-wishers whatsoever Suppose a man who had many capital foes who sought his life were delivered into a strong and safe castle there to be kept and defended by his intimate friend one assured to him by all the tyes of alliance and friendship who alone were both esteemd and should be most faithful to him and that there were no sanctuary elswhere for that man nor place of refuge and that it were in his power to let no enemy hurt him nor wrong the least haire of his head unles that friend did introduce him thither and deliver to him the keyes of the castle giving his consent by subscribing letters with his own hand If he who ought to be both faithful and friendly should prove so perfidious as to unlock â—he gate to all his persecutours and give â—hem entrance with intent to let them abuse him wrong him and exercise the utmost of their cruelty upon him and he himself moreover who were to shield him should be more raging and malicious then the rest should impede any benevolence that were intended him permitting nothing good nor conducing to his health to come to his hands which he intoxicated not first with poyson or some other noxious ingredient against whom then ought this miserable man to conceive a spleen against some one of his enemyes or that friend and allye who proves so treacherous whose malice alone is equivalent to all the rest it being certain that without him all their hatred would have availed nothing at all What an incredible brand of perfidiousnes cruelty in humanity would fall upon that man he would incur the detestation of all as being much more blame worthy then all O most beneficent truth thou hast committed my safety only to my own trust as who would be trustyest to my self but I prove most dangerous above all others divels men hell the world all of them are my sworn enemyes but they all remain disarmd if I my self do not arme them they all wil be innocent if I to my self be not nocent All the prejudice I can receive is within the reach of my own power neyther can any body really hurt me but by my permission unles my wil be such unles I betray my self I alone am the Architect of all the injuries which befal me from others though I impute them falsely to others I stop the influences of Gods beneficence I hinder the effects of his guifts I infect his graces and corrupt his vertues abusing both the one and the other how then shal I flatter my self who am so burdensome to my self how shal I cherish and sooth my self who am such a mortal enemy to my self All the hatred I can vent is not equivalent to my own injuriousnes How often have I cheated my self how many faults have I contracted I have defrauded my self of heaven I have neglected the blessings of Gods grace and not to number up all my spiritual losses which are without number what pensivenes of hart what affliction of mind what disasters in my goods what losses in my temporals how many bodily diseases contempts revilements derisions have I brought upon my self by the disordinatenes of my passions by my little circumspection and following the gust of my appetite If just occasion being given any one contristate me I am highly offended and why am I not so with my self since upon alloccasions I am injurious to my self If thou o lying man hadst but once catchd one in a lye thou wouldst never trust him afterwards and having so often belyed and cozend thy self thou yet trusts thy self and art not at all suspicious of thy proceedings But why do I recount my own injuries it is a sufficient motive to make me abhor and prosecute with a pious hatred whatsoever is mine for that all have proved as so many obstacles to retard my endeavours in loving God O most holy faithful truth I ought to loath and hate my self for being so wicked and disloyal to my self how much more for being wicked and perfidious to thee for my own sake it behoovd me to detest my self how much more o Lord for thine because I loved not my self orderly I should in reason have hated my self how much more because I loved thee not at all who alone should be loved in all I loved not thee because I knew not how to love my self yea I loved not my self because I loved not what in reality I was but some what else les considerable I loved not my soul which is my chief and noblest portion but only my body as if I were nothing but it which is absurdly false for I have also a soul for whose ransome the Son of God by way of exchange gave his To love a part of my self I loved not my whole self and what is more to be lamented I loved not that which to me is all in all God my Saviour If thou be carried with a zeal towards God o perfidious man thou canst not but be fraught with hatred towards thy self I permit that so far as thou hast prejudiced or wrongd thy self thou be indulgent to thy self there remaines yet sufficient cause of selfrevenge for not loving God and transgressing his commands Thou art not a litle moved when thou hearest the perversenes of Caiphas and the treachery of Iudas and the very naming them puts thee into chollar why then wilt thou be partial and soft-natured to thy self tel me o proud spirit if thou hast but one dram of true humility that is of truth dost thou not hold thy self the worst of all sinners nay this is nothing extraordinary since S. Paul framed no better conceit of himself Wherfore thou must deem thy self the perversest of creatures when thou hast done so thou proudly rankest thy self above thy degree Nevertheles I demand of thee if thou holdst thy self such then by consequence worse then Iudas or Caiphas or any other but if thou judgest so in very deed proceed consequently lest thou be taxed and derided by the Angels and either out of
which is perfect as also of Gods simplicity wherfore the Trinity of Persons is an authentical testimony of the divine Vnity What complacence doth a soul take in knowing this not as I have rudely explicated it or as it can be explicated for this is only felt by an inexplicable manner for as there are no natural species which can bring us to this knowledg so neyther are there words significantly expressive of what is manifested to some pious soules concerning the word eternal Therfore the soul of a creature is so over joyd when the mutual proportion and harmony of the increated Trinity and Vnity and the necessity of both to the accomplishment of the divine perfection is communicated to it that it is all in jubily and exultation transported besides it self and quite spent through amorous desires and the languishments of true charity thirsting earnestly to discover in the other life this stupendious goodnes of the Trinity Why longst thou o my soul to see any thing else besides this great spectacle of the world for whose sight alone the Seraphins and all the Hierarchies of Angels and Saints were created and introduced into heaven as so many spectatours Where is thy curiosity where thy desire of knowledg if thou covet not to be dissolved and contemplate that mystery and to dive into this hidden secret but thy longing must remit thee to the other life and not put thee upon inquiry in this how he is three and one Thou must not search the cause why he is so since thou art not able to give the cause of what he is Thou seekst in vain a cause in him who hath no cause God were not to be stiled great if he were not greater then our capacity Thou must not â—nquire after what manner he can be so who never could be before he was so Philosophers could never sufficiently penetrate into the nature of divers wormes and no body knowes himself throughly how then canst thou hope to make a ful discovery of the divine nature thy Author wherfore thou must captivate thy reason to the simplicity of faith in this supernatural mystery for that perspicuity which the divine indulgence daignes sometimes to insinuate belongs not to all but only to whom God calls out of the number of those who dwel with his Son in the mount Calvary and in a totall ejurement of themselves who denying self wil have taken up their cross followed IESVS to that mount and wil have them follow him thence to the mount Olivet glory those he priviled geth somtimes in such sort as to make them partakers of his majesty Where I am saith IESVS there also shal my servant be He that shal partake with Christ in suffering shal also partake of this extraordinary light and joy So when our Holy Patriarch Saint Ignatius had wasted exhausted himself with corporal pennances and austerities it was more copiously and clearly imparted to him then one is able to express So that mirrour of fervour F. Didacus Martinus did almost allwayes behold himself environed with a glorious light of the Trinity or some one of the three Persons Nevertheles it appertains to all to covet with most ardent desires the sight of this ancient and eternal novelty in the life to come It was reveald to that holy servant of God F. Iohn Fernandius that a certain religious man of our society was long detaind in purgatory because he had omitted to wish with ardency the sight of the most B. Trinity O my soul why art not thou more enamoured upon the sight of this theatre of the blessed to whose spectacle all minds are summond allrational creatures are invited What a joy wil it be to behold that which now by reason of the narrownes of our thoughts or ignorance through an excess of jubily and love we are not able to comprize how exultingly shall we rejoice while we contemplate these first fruits of the divine perfection that fore-tast and new expression of the divine goodnes where it communicates it self to the Son and that primitive bounty of God what a pledg and assurance wil a soul receive of the divine benignity towards it self when it beholds this profusenes of benevolence if God without deliberation gave all that he is wil he not by the advise and vote of his goodnes grant that we may at least see what he is if he permit us not to be what he is he wil permit us to admire what he is if not to possess him at least to enjoy him if not to live by the same life at least by such another and that eternal of which a soul hath a pawn when it beholds a generation excluding death How can we chuse but love God with all our mind and strength considâ—ring that purple morning of ardent charity which he displaid where the first and Virgin dew of his guifts is the furnace it self of charity love it self in the same substance so that the love is as great as God in the same guift of love he gives his own infinite essence for love it self is the first guift and all that infinite being which is in God What assurances of benevolence wil a soul take hence beholding such a happy and ominous essay of Gods future bounty and such a promising beginning of his goodnes insomuch that it takes huge complacence in being loved by that unparalleld love and doth what it can to love him reciprocally by imitating so great goodnes by giving it self to God by leaving it self nothing since the Father leaves himself no parcel of his substance which he communicates not to the Son and both of them to the H. Ghost In the excess â—â— this consideration and the consideration of this excess by means of a mysterious darknes there passeth an ineffable communication and intimate union betwixt God and a soul The soul passeth into God by grace love which though she remain in herself by nature yet not by affection and God passeth into the soul by indulgence and charity though he still remain in his majesty O immense goodnes of the Father immense wisdome of the Son immense sweetnes of the H. Ghost grant that I may reverence thee in thy Vnity adore thee in thy Trinity admire thee in thy goodnes imitate thee in thy love grant that I may humble my self to thy â—uperexcellency that I may enjoy thy Vision â—dhering to thee through all eternity becoming one spirit with thee and in this interstice â—n adorer of thy majesty In spirit and truth â—et me desire truth spirit to contemplate face to face the more then most true the more then most spiritual and superessential excellency of thy Trinity and Vnity To the honour of the ever B. Trinity the word Incarnate and his V. Mother S. Ioseph and all Saints FINIS A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in the I. Book 1. THe deceitfullnes of a secular life fol. 1. 2. Of the Truth of the Spirit fol. 8. 3. Of Purity
of Spirit fol. 13. 4. How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue fol. 19. 5. Of the hope of pardon and zeal of pennance 25. 6. The model of a sinner is set before our eyes 30. 7. The â—â— part of the Parable and how we must use Creatures fol. 38. 8. The affections of a true Penitent fol. 45. 9. Of the ardent desire of those that serve God 55. 10. Of contemning relinquishing the world 58. 11. How peace is to be obtaind fol. 62. 12. Of the excellency of one that is in the state of grace fol. 69. 13. How penances and corporal afflictions help us f. 85. 14. That too much love of our flesh hinders the Spirit fol. 90. 15. Of the loss of temporal things fol. 94. 16. How profitable temptations are fol. 98. 17. That we must fear God and hope in him 102. 18. That we cannot but suffer something and of the good of patience fol. 108. In the II. Book 1. OF diligence in Prayer fol. 114. 2. That we must not intermit our practise of Prayer fol. 122. 3. How efficacious the grace and favours of Christ are fol. 127. 4. How devoutly we ought to be affected towards the most B. Virgin Mary fol. 142. 5. That we must imitate Christ and of the sorrow and suffering of his most B. Hart. fol. 156. 6. How farr we are to follow Christ fol. 166. 7. That necessities and afflictions sent by God are to be born patiently fol. 176. 8. How purity of body helps the Spirit fol. 183. 9. That our practise of mortification must be continual fol. 187. 10. Of the sufficiency and good of poverty fol. 193. 11. That Patience is necessary in all occasions fol. 201. 12 VVhat a great good it is to be subject to another 206. 13. How great harm proceeds from daily and light defects fol. 213. 14. Of exactnes in smal things fol. 225. 15. That self-praise is to be avoyded fol. 231. 16. Of the basenes of man fol. 235. 17. VVhat things ought to humble man and that he can have nothing besides God alone fol. 243. 18. How much we owe to the grace of God Christ fol. 248. 19. That man must not only esteem himself nothing but also a great sinner fol. 256. 20. VVhat it is to stile ones self a nothing a great sinner fol. 262. 21. That Gods glory is alwayes to be sought fol. 266. In the III. Book 1. HOw careful we must be to do our actions wet fol. 275. 2. That we must shake of all negligence fol. 280. 3. How incommodious a thing sleep is fol. 287. 4. That we must rise fervorously to our morning prayer fol. 297. 5. That our daily fervour must be retaind fol. 304. 6. Of maintaining our fervour fol. 310. 7. How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works fol. 315. 8. How sollicitous we must be to increase grace 321. 9. How God is to be praised fol. 328. 10. How great a dignity it is to offer the Sacrifice of Christ. fol. 335. 11. That God is to be desired and received with longing in the Eucharist fol. 343. 12. That in time of refection we must not be more indulgent to our bodyes then necessity requires fol. 354. 13. That one must take account of his proceedingâ— by a frequent examen of himself fol. 364. 14. How we must be affected towards others fol. 371. In the IV. Book 1. HOw ungrateful we are to God fol. 377. 2. That Gods benefits are without number 382. 3. That Gods love in our redemption appears infinite fol. 388. 4. How deservedly God is to be loved and chiefly for himself fol 395. 5. That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God fol. 402. 6. How great benefit of glory we hope for 405. 7. Of suffering death fol. 415. 8. That man must give himself to God for his benefits fol. 422. 9. That God alone is to be loved fol. 425. 10. That self love must be rooted out fol. 429. 11. How we are to love our neighbour fol. 442. 12. That nothing is to be coveted but what God willeth fol. 445. 13. That we must give no care to our own wil. 448. 14. That we must continually be mindful of God 456. 15. That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved fol. 463. 16. Of the superessential light of the most blessed Trinity fol. 469. FINIS