of the crosse◠as that the bitter and the base he maketh honourable and delightfull and (o) A certayn truth nobly expressed he makes his seruants ready to cast the gorge when they are but 〈◊〉 take a tast of that for which worldlings are vpon the point to cut the throates of one another This fruitfull and firme loue do I desire that the thought of the sacred Passion of which thou art so enamoured should worke in thy hart (p) As S. Pau◠sayth he did he sayth he did it in his body by punishing its not only in his thought and in his tongue that thou mayst carry the mortification of our Lord in thy body And if there be none who fling stones at thee or imprison thee or scourge thee as they did our Lord and his Apostles who (q) Act. 5. went ioyfully suffering for his name yet seeke thou also meanes to suffer in what thou mayst And giue (r) No protestant will hold any such discourse God many thankes when he offereth thee any occasion to the end that vsing well that little our Lord may giue thee strength to suffer more and may send thee more And consider well that thou art not to esteeme little of these thinges in respect that S. Paul (ſ) 1. Tim. 4. sayd That the exercise of these corporall thinges is of little profit For although we should grant that (t) Where of many are yet in doubt he meaneth it of such thinges as we haue heere deliuered yet he will not haue vs esteem (u) How this place of Scripture is to be vnderstood little of them in themselus but only in comparison of greater matters For the obtayning whereof and for the satisfaction of the payne which is due in Purgatory yet further for the acquiring of more grace and glory and for the seruing of God both with the interiour and exteriour mā there is no doubt but that since we are debtours to him for all these other thinges are very fit to be vsed Whereof our soueraigne Maister of light did tell vs what we were to thinke when he sayd speaking of greater matters That is was necessary to do them and speaking of the lesser that is was fit not to emit them CHAP. LXXVII That the Mortification of our passions is the second fruit which we are to draw out of the meditation of the passion of Christ our Lord and how we are to vse this exercise that so we may gather admirable fruit thereby THAT which in the next place thou art to procure by the meditation of the sacred passion that so by litle litle thou mayst go ascending from the lower to the higher is the curing of the woundes of thy passions by the medicine of the passion of our Lord whome Isay (a) Isa 11. calles the flower of the rodde of Iesse For (b) Such as are medicinal by being bruised as flowers vse to be the meanes of giuing health so Christ Iesus being grinded vpon the Crosse applyed by our deuout consideration to our soares how dangerous soeuer they are they wil be cured thereby Of this S. Augustine (c) Thou needest not feare to take S. Augustins word in a more doubtfull matter then this is had experience and he sayd When I am assalted by any deformed thought I go instātly to the wounds of Christ when the diuell layeth any ambush for me I run into the bowells of the mercy of my Lord and so the diuel flyeth from me If the ardour of any dishonest conceit would put my body into disorder it is quenched by my remembrance of the woundes of my Lord the sonne of God In all my aduersityes I haue not found any remedy of so great force as the woundes of Christ wherein I sleep secure and discharge my care without feare The same did S. Bernard say and know by experience as all they do who finding themselues as it were assalted by their Passions as the stagge is by a kennell of dogges do go with a pious hart to drinke of those sacred fountaynes of our Sauiour painfull indeed to him but the causes of restauration and ioy to vs. And there they learne by experience how great a truth that is which (d) Num. 21. Moyses declared in figure by the commaundment of God when he raised the brasen serpent vpon a staffe to the end that being beheld by such as were stung by venemous serpents it might free them from death and restore them to health This serpent although by the shape it would seeme to carry poyson in it yet it had none indeed for it was a serpent of brasse And in the same manner Iesus Christ our Lord had true flesh like the flesh of sinne whereby it was subiect to paine but indeed it is farre from all sinne because it is the flesh of God and framed by the holy Ghost and kept by him and being placed on high vpon the (e) The infinite power of the Crosse of Christ our Lord. Crosse and being dead vpon it it deliuereth from death and giueth health to all such as being bitten by temptations haue recourse to him with Faith and Loue. And since thou hast so powerfull a remedy for thy recouery so neere at hand there remaineth no more but that (f) How necessary it is to be exact in making the Examen of our selus especially cōcerning our passions thou take a very particuler accoumpt to know what serpents they are which sting thy soule by dayly and leasurely examining what inclinations thou hast in the very bottome of thy hart what are the quickest passions that thou art subiect to what are the faults into which thou fallest sometymes and such obseruations as these whereby thou maiest be so perfect and cleare in the knowledge of thy frailtyes as that thou mayst haue them not only in thyne eyes but euen at thy very fingers ends Thou wilt not arriue in short tyme to this no nor yet in long vnles thou be assisted by light from heauen whereby thou mayst discerne the very roots of thy hart which is so deepe that not thy selfe but God alone can throughly sift it It (g) The most excellent meanes whereby we may come to know our selues exactly is to consider diligently the vertues of our Lord Iesus expressed in his sacred passion will helpe thee much towards this knowledge to consider the vertues which our Lord did exercise in his passion since he is to be the glasse of thy soule insteed of that other by which women that are married vse to dresse themselues for the pleasing of their husbands Behold (h) The vnspeakable vertues of our Lord. his meekenes his Charity his inuincible patience his profound silence and so thy faultes will grow playne to thee how hidden soeuer they may be Yea and thy vertues being compared with his will appeare to thee euidētly to be faults And thou wilt be ashamed both of the one
loaden vvith sinne by vvay of conuersation and compassion it is the lesse wonder if his words vvere like so many burning coales which might serue to seare those soules which are full of festred soares and to set such others as are sound on fire vvith the loue of Almighty God And in the same spirit he hath also written a large Booke of Sermons vpon the B. Sacrament and vpon some festiuityes of our B. Lady as also a Booke of Epistles to seuerall persons vpon seuerall occasions vvhich I would to God some Reader who hath knowledg of that language would take the paines or rather pleasure to translate For I am much deceaued if there be any vertue to be obtayned or any vice to be auoyded or any necessity to be remoued or any affliction to be asswaged wherein a man may not find some excellent addresse for his purpose in the reading of those works aforesaid which he was inspired to write by the loue for the loue of God This loue of God being in him so hoat did make him profoundly loue that which God loued so much the ardent desire which he had to (i) How hethirsted after the saluation of soules gaine such which were the soules of men for whom Christ dyed to God made him employ the credit which he found with some great Prelates and other great persons as the vvriter of his life relates in procuring them to found (k) Life of D. Aiâ—laâ—-part cap. 2. some Colledges for such as might instruct youth in learning and vertue and others vvhich might be as Seminaryes for the education intertaynment of vvorthy exemplar Priests And speaking often of this subiect he vvas vvont to say I (l) Out of the feare which then he had that it would not be satisfied before his death perceaue I shal dye with this desire But after when the Institute of the Fathers of the Soc ty of Iesus came to his knowledg he did greatly reioyce in his very soule perceauing how for that which he was not able to compasse but only for some short tyme with no small difficulty our Lord had prouided a (m) The high veneration wherein 〈◊〉 had B. F. Igâ—atius whom he compared to a mighty strong man and himself to a child who was not able to moue that great Stone which the other was able to take vp and weild at his pleasure and to lay it in the proper place By this Stone he uÌ„derstaÌ„ds the worke of wining soules Vide hist Soc. Iesu l. 14. fol. 464. man who should go through with it in a perfect manner and with a perpetuity of continuance and strength and these are the very vvordes of (n) Supra part 3. c. 2. the Life This Booke is framed and the considerations which the Authour hath fallen vpon are drawne from his contemplation of that (o) The ground or Argument of the Booke verse of the psalme which is prefixed by way of argument before the first chapter The (p) An addresse to the particuler discourses that he makes in this work particulers wherof he treates are many and the heades of them shall go in a page apart between this Preface the Book But the maine drift of the Authour is to make vs know (q) The chiefe drift of the Authour both God and our selues and that not by the lying glasse of fancy but by the cleare and sweete beame of Truth Our selues that we may see our misery and fly at full speed from the cause thereof which is our pride and other sins And God that we may tremble vnder that infinite Maiesty belieue that infallible Verity and hope for a part of that inexhausted Mercy and euen as it were furiously loue that incomprehensible Abysse of Charity and Beauty This charity of God the Authour doth gladly make appeare vpon all occasions and by great variety of most iust motiues but especially doth his soule euen regorge againe when he enters into speach of the (r) He excelleth himselfe whensoeuer he growes to speake of the Incarnation Life and Passion of Christ Iesus our Lord. Incarnation Life Passion of our Lord Iesus Which he pondereth so coÌ„templatiuely and yet so sensibly so profoundly and yet so plainly so strictly and yet so tenderly as is able to make euen brasse to blush and iron to burne and lead to melt for the greife and shame of the much that we haue sinned and for loue of him in respect of the infinite that he hath suffered for vs. That so in fine we may heerafter make the consideration of the sacred Passion of our Lord a great part of our busine in this life since it is by it that we must be happy in the next vnles we haue a mind to remayne in torment for all eternity And that we may at length both with our hart and tongue make this prayer to the diuine Maiesty to which our Author exhorts (s) A holy prayer which he makes in this Treatise following vs in his discourse vpon the Passion That the mercy of God may not permit vs to be so miserable as not to be content so much as to thinke or meditate vpon those vast affronts tormeÌ„ts which the Son of God being the King of glory and God himselfe was content not only to consider but to suffer Yea and so to suffer as that the infinite desire of loue wherewith he suffered them may euen put the things theÌ„selues as it were to silence how lowd soeuer they otherwise deserue to be crying out in the eares of our hart And this he did without all interest of his owne and only for our eternall good as the Author doth excelleÌ„tly declare that so insteed of enemyes and rebels most wicked slaues which naturally by our descent from Adam we were in the fight of God we might be translated into the condition of being made his seruants his friends his adopted sonnes vpon the price of his owne pretious life This is the nayle that he beats most vpon and I beseech our Lord that our harts may be euen riuetted to his diuine hart thereby In the meane tyme you the Reader must not spend your hope vpon the meeting heer with (t) Concerning the stile any curious or elaborate stile For though euen in this kind the Author be far inough froÌ„ fault yet composition was the thing which he might well disdaine to affect as knowing that the inualuable stone which he was exposing did deserue to be most highly esteemed though it were not artificially either cut or set Nor (u) Concerning the quality of the Authors conceptions yet are you heer so much as to think of encountring certain flourishing fading coÌ„ceits though I am much deceaued if the most fastidious mind wil not heere find matter whereupon to feed with great delight But the Authours ayme was at a fairer marke It is not the clapping of handes which he begs he (x) He shootes
particuler endeauours and remedies He therefore that shall find himselfe subiect to this necessity must in the first place treate his body with seuerity by lessening both food sleep and by giuing it a hard bed hayr-clothes other conuenient helps of this kind whereby it may be afflicted For (l) HarkeÌ„ to this holy Father though he were no Protestant S Hierome saith By fasting the plague of this body of ours is cured and S. Hilarion spake thus to his flesh and bloud I will tame thee and take order that thou shalt not kiâ—ke but that through hunger and payne thou maist haue more mind of mâ—ate then lust And S. Hierome counselleth Eustochium the Virgin That although she had bin brought vp in daynty fare yet she should be very carefull to vse abstinence in diet and not to abstayne from giuing the body further troubles assuring her that without taking of this course she would not be able to make good the possession of chastity Yf by occasion of such pennance the body should grow to weakenesse and the health to preiudice the same S. Hierome maketh answeare in another place That it were better the stomacke should suffer then the soule and to commaund the body then to be subiect to it and that the legges were better to treÌ„ble for weakenesse then that chastity should reele for lacke of strength It is true indeed that in another place he withall requires That the fasting be not so excessiue as to weaken the stomacke yet againe in another place he reprehendeth some whome he had knowne to haue runne hazard of loosing their wittes through the excesse of fasting absteyning In this it is impossible to giue a general rule that may square with all For (m) It is therfore necessary to haue often recourse to his ghostly Father some find help by one meanes another not some one may be hurt by it in his health and not another And one thing it is when the warre is so great as to place a man in daunger of loosing his Chastity for in that case it is fit to put the body to any inconuenience that the soule may so be able to remaine with life and another thing it is for a man to struggle with a moderate tentation whereby he feareth not so much danger nor for the conquest thereof is in necessity of taking so much paynes Now for the vsing of the most conuenient help in such occasions it will much depend vpon the discreet conduct of him that guides the person tempted who are both to pray with al humility to our Lord that heerin he will impart some light And since thâ— vessel n 1. Cor. â— of Election S Paul did not trust his flesh and bloud o S. Paul was no ProtestaÌ„t both because he thought it necessary to chastize beat his body and for that he made not himselfe sure of his saluation as these others doe but that he punished and made it subiect least preaching vertue to others himself might become vicious by falling into sinne how shall we conceaue that we can be chaste without chastizing our body since we haue both lesse vertue and greater causes of feare then he Very p Note hardly is humility held fast in the middest of honours temperance in the middest of abundance chastity in the middest of delicacies And if he should be worthy of derision who procuring to quench the fyre wherein his house were burning would cast in a supply of more dry wood much more worthily shall he be derided who on the one side desyreth chastity and on the other stuffes his skin with curious and choice meates and giues himselfe moreouer to idlenesse For these things doe not only not quench the fire which already is kindled but would suffice to kindle it euen where it were already quenched And since the Prophet q Ezech. 1â— Ezechiel is a witnesse to vs that the cause why that vnfortunate Citty of Sodome grew vp to the highest of that abominable sin was the r AboundaÌ„ce and Idlenes are the mother and the nurse of lust fullnesse aboundance of bread and the idlenesse wherein they spent their tyme who will now presume to liue in idlenesse or in delicacyes yea or euen to see them though but a far off For as much as these things which in them were able to produce that greater sinne with facility will be able to induce vs to commit the lesser Let such an one therefore as is a friend to Chastity loue Temperance and the ill treating of his body For if he would haue the one without the other it will not proue with him but rather he will be depriued of both For those thinges which God did ioyne man should not desire to separate neyther shall he be able though he would CHAP. VI. Of two causes that there are of sensuall tentations what meanes we must vse against them when they rise from the Malice of the Diuell VVE are much to marke that the remedy of which I haue spoken in afflicting the body is wont to help when the tentation springeth from the body as it vseth to do in young men who haue good health and haue vsed to regale themselues Then a According to the seuerall root motiue of the tentation so is the remedy to be applyed I say it is fit to reforme the body when the roote of the infirmity riseth thence But sometymes the tentation groweth by meanes of the Diuell and it may partly be perceaued by this that it fighteth with vs more by thoughts foule imaginations of the mind then by impure motions of the body Or if you find these later also in your body it is not because the tentation began there but hauing begun by thoughts it groweth at last to result into the exteriour Which exteriour of the body being sometymes extremely weake and little better then dead euill thoughts are yet now and then most liuely in it as it happened to S. Hierome according to his owne relation It is also another signe that such tentations are of the Diuell when they come vpon a suddayne and when a man giueth least occasion or hath cause to expect them least Nor b There is no sin at all if no occasion nor coÌ„sent be giuen nor pleasure taken in the suggestioÌ„ of carnall thoughts can he as it may happen obserue due reuerence in the very tymes of his Prayer no nor at the Altar nor in other holy places where yet euen a very wicked man would coÌ„sider where he were abstayn from thinking of such things Sometymes c Note these thoughts are such in quality and so many in number as that a man neuer knew nor heard nor imagined any such things as do then present themselues And by the force wherewith they come and by the very things themselues which interiourly are told him a man findes that they spring not from himselfe but that
the conuersation of men and the hart of a beast was giuen him and he past his tyme among the beastes Not that he lost the nature of a man but that euen to himselfe it seemed that he was not such This did he continue till God gaue him vnderstanding and humility whereby he knew confessed That honour dominion was of God and that he bestoweth it where he would Certainly (x) Note so it is that the man who attributes the buylding vp of chastity to the strength of his owne arme God doth driue him from amongst his seruants and being departed out of that company which was as it were of Angells he dwelleth now amongst beasts hauing so bestiall a hart in his body as if he had neuer loued God nor known what chastity meant as if there were no hell nor glory nor reason nor shame In (y) How highly true is this so much as themselues are amazed at what they do and they seeme not to haue the iudgment or discourse of men but to be wholy abaÌ„doned to this brutish vice like very beasts till the mercy of our Lord do looke with pitty vpon so great misery and make him whose case is such to know that for his pride he fell and by meanes of humility he is to recouer and rise And then doth he confesse that the kingdome of chastity by which he had dominion ouer his body is a blessing of God which by his grace he giues and which for the sinnes of man he taketh away This sinne of Pride is so hard to be discouered and consequently so much to be feared that sometymes a man hath it so conueyed into the most secret corners of his hart that euen himselfe vnderstands it not A witnesse of this may be S. Peter and many others who whilest they were taking pleasure and confiding in themselues did thinke that they were putting their trust in God who by his infinite wisedom seeth their infirmity and with his mercy accompanyed by his iustice doth cure and heale them by giuing (z) For Pride and Ingratitude many haue grown to lose their chastity them to vnderstand though to their cost that they were vnthankefull vnto him vnduely confident in themselues since now they see how miserably they are fallen Now although this fall cost them deare yet doth it not carry so great danger with it as doth the secret sinne of Pride wherein they were For not knowing therof they would haue sought after no remedy and so they would haue runne vpon their owne ruine but comming to find out that sinne by their fall and being humbled before the mercy of God they obtayne remedies from him against both inconueniences For this I say it is that S. Augustine told vs That (a) A golden sentence of the great S. Augustine God doth punish secret pride by open lust because the second sinne is manifest to him that committeth it and by meanes thereof he grows to a knowledge of the former which lay hidden And thou art to know that some people are only proud within themselues and others are so with contempt of their neighbours whom they conceaue to be defectiue in vertue and especially in that of chastily But (b) Note this thou O Lord how truly wilt thou behould this fault with angry eyes And how thankelesse were those thankes to thee which were giuen thee by that Pharisee who sayd I am not ill like other men I am not an adulterer nor a robber like that Publican This O Lord thou doest not leaue without punishment Thou doest punish it and that with great seuerity by letting him fall that stood on foot in punishment of his sinne and thou dost rayse the other vp who was fallen thereby as it were to make him a kind of amends for the wronge which the other had done him It is a sentence of thyne and thou obseruest it very well Do (c) Luc. 6. not condemne others and thou shalt not be condemned And with the (d) Matt. 5. same measure wherewith you measure to others with the same it shall be measured to you againe And he that exal teth himâ—elf shall be humbled And thou didst command it to be thus published in thy name to such as despise their neighbours Woc be to thee who despisest for thou shalt be despised O how many haue myne eyes seene punished according to this sentence who neuer had vnderstood how much God abhorreth this finne til they saw themselues fallen into the very same for which they condemned those others yea and into worse Of (e) Take heed of contemning others least thou grow the subiect of the contempt of others three thinges sayd an Ancient of former tymes I condemned others and into all three my selfe did fall Let him that is chast giue God thankes for the fauour he doth him and let him liue with feare and trembling least himselfe do fall and let him help to rayse such an one as is fallen already shewing (f) We may be seuere to our selues but we must haue compasio vpon others compassion towards him and not contempt Let him consider that they are both made of one piece and that as the other fell so he for as much as concernes himselfe doth fall For as S. Augustine sayth There is (g) He is blind who beleeues not this no sinne committed by one man which would not be also committed by another man if he were not assisted by him that is the maker of man Let him draw good out of euill humbling himselfe by occasion of the others fault Let him I say draw good out of euill and as for the good of his neighbour let him reioyce in that Let him not be as a venemous serpent which fetcheth euill out of all thinges pride out of ethers miseryes and enuy out of their felicityes Such (h) Note soules as these will not escape the punishment of God He will suffer them to fall vpon that into which those others fell and he will not giue them the felicity for which they did enuy others CHAP. XIII Of two other dangerous meanes which are wont to make way for the losse of Chastity in such as endeauour not to auoyd them AMONGST the miserable falls from chastity wherewith the world is made acquainted it is reason that we forget not that of the King Prophet Dauid Because that fall being so miserable the person that fel so highly qualifyed it leaues the hearer with great apprehension that there is no one who may not feare his owne infirmity The occasion of this fall as sayth S. Basil was a light kind of complacence which Dauid tooke in himself when once he was visited by the hand of God with much consolation and he presumed to expresse himselfe in this manner I sayd in my abundance that I shall neuer be moued But O how far otherwise did it fall out and how well did he afterward vnderstand that whereof before he was
doth know but he that feeleth it For as much as Isaias (d) Isa 4â— sayth That the peace of such persons is as a riuer as the very gulfes of the sea And S. Paul (e) Philip. 4. sayth That this peace of God doth exceed all vnderstanding And S. Peter saith That this ioy cannot be recounted A hidden manna it is which is giuen to him that manfully ouercometh himselfe and they only know it who receiue it And from whom now doth this so perfect vertue proceed and this rest of mind which is the earnest-penny and introduction to eternall felicity Certainely it is not by meanes of the Diuell For (f) Note although sometymes the Diuell as we haue sayd haue counselled some to doe some particuler good that by meanes of those counsells he might gaine credit to himself wherby the better to deceiue them afterward yet to make a man perfectly good and a fulfiller of the law of nature which cannot be denied to be good since God is the authour of nature it selfe is a worke which neither the Diuell doth not can effect who cannot giue that goodnes which himselfe hath not Nor yet is it the worke of man alone for as much as to haue vertue and much more to haue perfect vertue wherby God may perfectly be serued is the guift of the Father of lights from whome euery perfect guift descendes And (g) See therefore how vniustly the Catholike doctrine is charged by the Caluinists to be a doctrine of presumptioÌ„ the same man doth find by experience more then once that he is deliuered from sinne out of which he was not able to depart and that he is fauoured with certaine graces which it was not in his power to compasse Since therefore this perfect vertue commeth neither from the Diuell nor from the spirit of man it remayneth that we conclude it to be infused by God when (h) The perfection is only to be found in the holy Catholique Church he is inuoked serued as the Catholike Church doth teach And man findeth by experience that this vertue commeth to him by the meanes of Fayth in confirmation of the truth thereof for out of a lye such profit of light or knowledg could not come for the procuring of perfect Vertue and for the inuoking of God to fauour him in the pursuite thereof S. Paul vseth this proofe when he speaketh thus to the Galathians I desire only that you will tell me The holy Ghost which you receaued was it by meanes of the workes of the Law or els by means of fayth As if he should haue sayd Since I preaching Fayth to you and not the old law and you belieuing it and disposing of your selues thereunto by your will did receaue the holy Ghost why do you now returne to the old Law since you find by experience that without it and by meanes of Fayth and of pennance vpon the receauing of Baptisme you haue receaued the holy Ghost with the graces benefits therof And so to proue the thing which we haue in hand That perfect verene which is obteyned by the right vse of Fayth and by those other meanes which it teacheth vs doth giue testimony that it is true because towardes the obtaining of so good a thing it was a meanes and it taught vs also other meanes And so these persons who are so rich through the graces which come to them by Christ Iesus are so adherent to him so enriched by him that they haue no thought of looking for the Messias whom the Iewes expect nor of enioying that paradise which Mahomet doth entice men by For as they despise those bestiall delights of the flesh which Mahomet in his paradise doth promise and those other transitory benefits of the earth which the Iewes by their Messias do expect so they willingly take their leaue both of the one and the other howsoeuer they be intreated to the contrary And they remember how it was prophesied that in the tyme of the Messias They (i) Ezech. 14. 16. Ierem. 31. should know that our Lord was God by his breaking the chaynes of the yâ—â—kes of men and that God would giue men new hartes and that he would write his Law in the very howells of them that would receaue it Now because they make very great coniectures that they haue a part in these blessings it is a testimony to them that Christ is come By these and other effects which cannot be related and which they haue within themselues they are so full of ioy and peace and confidence in Iesus Christ as that if men should tell them of another Christ that were (k) Matt. 14. in the desert or in the secret closets of the house or that he were farre off or neere hand they would neuer bestow the seeking of him For since the true Christ is but one and that they find the conditions of being true in him in whom they do belieue with the same fayth wherby they accept the one they reiect the rest But (l) Note yet I say not this to the end thou shouldest thinke that Christians belieue by the only experimeÌ„tal motiues which they find within themselues for they only belieue through faith which is infused by God as heer after I will shew But this I haue only sayd that thou mayst know the many motiues that we haue to belieue since we are treating of this subiect And one of them is The experiments which perfect men do find in their soule which since they are thinges that passe vp and downe in their hart thou art not to looke for them in bookes or in the liues of others but in thy owne priuate conscience by striuing to attayne perfect vertue That so as I was saying in the beginning thou mayst haue witnesses both neere thee and well knowne by theo as remayning vvithin thee and that thou mayst fullfill what the Scripture sayth Drinke the water of thyne owne Cisterne and thou shalt see such meruailes vvrought within thy selfe as shall take from thee all appetite of seeking any vvithout thy selfe CHAP. XXXVIII That if the power and greatnes of the worke of Belieuing be well pondered we shall find great testimony to proue that it is much reason that the vnderstanding of man do serue God by imbracing of Fayth HE (a) A worthy a wise discourse that had light to know and a steedy hand to weigh the very worke of belieuing vvould be in no necessity of other witnesses towards the receauing thereof but euen therein vvould find beauty to make him loue it reason to imbrace it For who is he that will not conceaue it to be wholy fit that a creature should serue his Creatour with all his power vvithal his meanes And so also do all men know that although we owe him this seruice withall that we haue yet specially since God is a spirit the prime seruice that we are to do him is with our spirit