most assured proof that we love not God 'T is not so when we search after the things of the World Seek for Wisdom says the Wise-man as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasures Ah! would to God we could make such an exchange of Sentiments as tó give to the World those thoughts which we have for heavenly things and to render to heavenly things what we have for the World Is not this a crime which cannot be aggravated to refuse God the Ardour the Attention the fond affections we have for the Earth a crime which deprives us of God is not at all trivial A Sin that robs us of the Divine Consolations is not to be neglected 'T is for this crime we tast so few Delights in our Devotions because God will not let himself be found but by those that seek him and bestows not those Divine Consolations but upon such Souls as are a living thirst after them as the Hart is a thirst after the running Waters But supposing with these flattering consciences that the Distractions and Lithernesses of Devotion are Sins of Infirmity and by consequence less severely punisht what shall we say of a great number of them and of frequent Relapses will this be taken for nothing too If thou slightest thy sins because they are little ones fear them rather by reason they are in a great number saith St. Augustin If they should appear light in the Balance of the Sanctuary the very reckoning will destroy us since in a word we return to 'em every day Than grains of Sand nothing is more small but yet if we heap them together we may in time make up a Mountain We advance step after step towards Hell and of what importance is it what brings us thither whether a great Sin or many small ones we are still Damn'd ne'rtheless The Egyptians that were oftentimes troubled with Frogs and Flies would not be reduced till the uttermost extremity Wherefore let us not call those small Sins which find a place in Hell if they be not expiated by Repentance but let us rather say with a Doctor of the eleventh Century Peradventure thou wilt believe some of thy Sins very puny and small would to God that our severe Judge would or could judge them such But alas does not all Sins dishonour God thorough Disobedience how then can the Sinner call those small that offend so great a God O dry and sapless Tree unprofitable and worthy of eternal flames what wilt thou be able to answer at that day when thou shalt render an account in the twinkling of an eye when thou shall put every moment of thy life into the Ballance and when it shall be demanded of thee in what thou hast spent thy time then shall a process be made of all that can be found in thee not only of thy words but of thy very silence Thy least thoughts will be examined even thy life will be a part of thy crimes if thou hast not liv'd for thy God Oh! how many Sins will start then out of some Place where thou hadst never seen them before they will seize upon thee as by Ambuscado They will appear to thee more terrible and in a greater number The Works which thou didst believe not to be evil nay which thou considerest as good shall be look'd upon by all as ghastly and black Sins This difference saith St. Basil of great and little Sins is not to be found in the New Testament one only sentence is pronounced against all he that does sin is the Servant of Sin And if we give our selves the liberty to distinguish and discriminate Sins into Mortal and Venial or great or little it ought to be in this Sense that we call all Sins great whereby we are overcome and all Sins little which we are armed to that pass as to vanquish As among Sword-men the conquered is ever esteemed the more Feeble and the Conquerour the stouter How happy then is that man that strikes a terrour into himself and is delivered from this dangerous Prejudice that Indevotion is a light and a pardonable crime Meditation ALas this is an Illusion against which I have great need to defend my Heart What a bending and an inclination have I to flatter my self in my Sins and to believe them light Wretched Soul thou perceivest not thy Disease thou believest thy self in a good constitution of Health and it may be thou art going down to the Chambers of Death 'T is a dangerous Malady This to fancy I am in health and not to be so O my Heart open thine Eyes and see the Dangers whereinto thou dost continually cast me To day my Sins appear very small but one day they will appear to me very great Let me not wait and delay any longer to acknowledge the greatness and feel the weight of them so that from this present I may have 'em in detestation and may repent of them in Sack-cloath and Ashes At such a time my repentance wou'd be too late I should know the mischief but could find no more remedy I drink Sin as a Fish drinks Water I do not think it affrightful because I am so accustomed to its sight and I fancy my Sins small for that I compare them to the greatest and above all I count my Dulness and my Indevotion for nothing seeing I persuade my self that the name of God cannot be offended but by Impieties and Blasphemies Prayer THIS comes from thence O my God that I do not conceive thee so Great as really thou art and I do not conceive thee so great as thou art because I do not see thee I tremble at the presence of a Man set upon a Tribunal the Scepter in his hand the Crown on his head invironed with a Royal pomp I fear him because I see him those Objects that strike my Eyes astonish my Soul I know that thou sittest between the Cherubims that the Angels cover their face before thee unable to sustain the brightness of thy Majesty I know that torrents of fire roul about thy Throne to consume thy Enemies I know there is nothing of either Angelic or humane sight that can withstand the splendour of thy looks nor the Fire of thine Eyes but I believe all these wonders tho I see them not and therefore 't is they make the less impression upon my heart Sensible I am not but of present things My eyes are more toucht during the darkness of the Night with the weak light of a glittering Glow-worm than my Imaginationis moved with all the light of the Sun when it is absent and fills the other part of the World with heat and brightness Take therefore away O my God take away the Veil make me to view thy Majesty redouble the force of the eyes of my Soul fill my Imaginations with Idaeas of thy greatness and of thy Divine Glory that I may return more and more from persuading my self of the smallness of my fault when I present
your selves to this present wicked World As Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts Have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of Darkeness Make â—â—t the Temples of the Holy Ghost the members of an Harlot The Mind of the Prophets was not different from that of the Apostles for they speak after this manner Go to now I said â—f Mirth it is vanity and of Laughter it is madness It â—s better for a young man to go to the House of mourning â—han to go to the House of feasting for that is the end of all â—hen and the living will lay it to Heart It is good for a man 〈◊〉 bear the yoke in his youth I said in my Heart I will â—reve thee with Mirth therefore enjoy pleasure And behold his also is vanity Rejoyce O young man in the days of thy south but know that for all these things God will bring hee unto Judgment And now in good earnest are all these â—â—aughts of the Character of us Christians now a dayes â—â—ese Crosses these Thorns these rough Wayes these â—rait Gates this Yoke this renouncing the World and â—s Vanities do they signifie that we can follow our Lord â—esus Christ in the equipage of Sensuality sometimes â—mong Feasts sometimes Dancings sometimes at Coâ—edies and sometimes at Play Those soft and effemiâ—ate Lives that are spent at Carde and Dice in vain â—â—d lewd Conversations in the intrigues of fleshly love â—ave they any resemblance with the combates the â—rastlings the races from which the H. Spirit takes his â—mblems to paint out to us the Life of the Faithful â—ight the good fight of Faith and so run that ye may obtain the prize Keep under your Body and bring it into subjectionâ— So fight not as one that breaketh the Air. Heaven and Earth Life and Death are not more opposite to one another than the Effiminate life of us Christians to this pourtraict of the Life of the Faithful which the holy Ghost hath given us But above all let us remember that the Spirit 〈◊〉 Christianity and of Devotion loves nothing so much aâ— Mortification to which sensible Pleasures are mortal enemies Mortifie your members which are upon the Earth St. Paul bids us do they mortifie their Members that entertain and imploy them in Volptuousness in lying upon Beds of Down in pillaging Sea and Land to furnish them with delicate Meats in joyning Aâ—â— to Nature to compose delicious Liquors for them and in running after all that may enchant their Senses Some will say that by these Member whereof the Gospel commnads the Mortification 〈◊〉 ought to understand Vices Very well But doe 〈◊〉 we know that the Members of the Body are the origâ—ne of the members of that Old Man which makes Viceâ— we cannot kill Vice but by mortifying our members The flesh is that unhappy Field accursed by Gâ—â— which produces Thorns and Thistles the more yeâ— fatten this Earth the more will it produce of theâ— venemous Plants So that we are obliged to keep it 〈◊〉 a great Privation of those Pleasures that fomention cupisence to the end it may continue mighty barrâ— in respect of those unhappy Products The Spirit of Christianity and of Devotion is a Spirit of strength but pleasure is soft It softens the Soâ— and effeminates the courage and the Church requiâ—â— a vigorous Soul and an heart of a Temper which caâ—â— not be wounded by the most weighty blows nor tâ—â— most edged and hacking gleaves of the Churches Eâ—emies We are to march thorough an hundred and â—â—â—dred sharp Swords He that would follow the Truth of Jesus Christ ought to resolve to suffer Persecution since we have alwayes in our head the Devil and the World But can a soft and voluptuous Life be proper to dispose us to Martyrdom In going out of a perfumed Bed in rising from a Table almost weigh'd down with delicious meats with an head fill'd with the furnes of a debauch are we in a good state to mount Scaffolds to enter into Flames and without quaking look upon Racks and Tortures whether is it more reasonable to look for the Heroes of Jesus Christ capable of facing Death it self among our Christians that overwhelm and as it were fuddle themselves in pleasures or among those whose austere and retired Life has declared War to all the pleasures of the World But says one we are not called to Martyrdom and according to all appearances we shall never be It may be so but still it is of great importance we should alwayes have the necessary Disposition to suffer Martyrdom For God will judge us not only according to what we do but also according to what we would do Furthermore does any one believe that the Sword and Fire of the Persecutors of the Church are the most dangerous of all Temptations we imagine we have need of strength and courage only to vanquish or undergo such torments But alas Some who have come off victorious from their bloody Bartels have yet fallen into the snares of the Devil and some that have born the marks and brands of the Lord Jesus have become children of Hell by letting ' emselves be surpriz'd by the Devil of Pride Covetousness Uncleanness or Heresie Such an one who had torn a young Lion to pieces in his strength broken the bands of the Philistines and pil'd heaps of dead bodies with the jaw-bone of an Ass falls into the â—racelets of a Dalilah and is lead in herchains to an Idol Temple This truth the World is not ignorant of It was well said that the Delights of Capua did more than the sword of the Romans and that they found out the way to soften and break those hard Africans that march'd after Hannibal and made victory to march after them So the Tranquillity God bestows on us ought not to make us sleep in the Arms of Voluptuousness Prosperity is a strong Temptation and pleasure it self is a Monster which we cannot overcome without a vigorous Resistance Meditation I Am reading a maxime that makes me tremble God will judg us both according to what we do and according to what we would have done if we had bin exposed to those Temptations which may fall out in the Providence of God True it is there is scarce room for doubt in this maxime And it 's certain that my God would have the highest purity of Heart that no one is innocent in his sight because he has committed no evil but because he has not the inclination to commit it He sounds the depths of the Heart and searcheth the Reins and he will judg according to what he knows and not to what men see In my heart he sees crimes in their very buds And if these sins have not shot forth by reason of want of Earth if they have not come forth for want of Occasion and Opportunity I am therefore the more innocent But on the other side also who can undergoe the Terrour and Amazment that such a thought inspires
flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
not bridle and keep in â—hese Passions they will raise terrible Tempests in the â—ea and Devotion which is a peaceable Vertue will â—arce be heard Every Passion carries the Heart to it â—elf and Devotion being a Stranger and standing only by it self will never gain it There is most assuredly a very near Relation beâ—wixt Words and Actions they come from the same Source and the same Heart produces them wherefore I think we cannot better employ the Mouth than â—o sing the Praises of God nor the Mind than to conâ—emplate his Wonders nor the Soul than to lift it self up by Piety and the practise of good Works We have said that a Man is ill disposed in coming from a Ball or Comedy to fall to pious Ordinances On the quite contrary I say that in returning from the House of Mourning where he has comforted the Afflicted succour'd the Miserable sustained the Weak â—ed the Poor and defended the Oppress'd he finds himself in such a Gayety of Heart and such a Disposition to Prayer as is inconceivable He comes to God with the Lightness and Alacrity of a Servant who presents himself before his Master after having done his Duty to obtain the Reward for although he acknowledges he deserves nothing at God's hands yet he knows that God liberally recompenseth us for what we do only by the help of his Grace He approaches to the Altar with the Confidence of a Subject that appears before his Prince with Presents which he knows are capable of opening the way to his Heart for though our good Works be most imperfect Gifts that hold not what they have good in them but from God's Liberality nevertheless he is not ignorant that he accepts them as if they were of great Price Insomuch as I will not make any difficulty to say that the Ancients and Moderns who have distinguish'd the Active Life of a Christian from the Contemplative and have believed that this can be without that and even that the Contemplative Life was far more excellent than the other are assuredly in a great errour for by seperating the Active life which consists in doing good to our Neighbour and practising Charity to the afflicted and miserable from the contemplative life to which they believed they could give themselves up entirely they have certainly depriv'd Devotion of a very great help I have already confess'd there to be no need that the Imployments of Martha which have regard to the bodily Service of our Saviour and his Members should take away from us the time consecrated to Mary's works toreading Meditation and Prayer But we have time enough for all When Mary shall have been sufficiently heard then its fit she take the place of Martha Wherefore I would not counsel him that wou'd attain to perfect Devotion to renounce that part of the World which consists of the afflicted Members of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the School of Virtue and Piety and so far is it that this practise of works of Mercy can distract devout Souls that it is the readiest and surest way to arrive at Devotion The Ideas of the World I confess are incompatible with those wherewith a devout Soul ought to be fill'd A tragical event the â—ight of a triumph the hope of a fortune for one's self the grandeur of that of another a duel a warr all this I say hath no alliance with the sweet Images of God of his Love and Benefits Wherefore it 's good to shut and bar the Door against these first Representations if we would with success labour to establish others in their room but the Images of a man languishing upon the Bed of Sickness or another that suffers for God's sake agrees easily with the thought of our Lord Christ suffering for us A multitude of poor Creatures to whom thou openest thy Bowels will easily lead thee to the Consideration of those Liberalities thou receivest from God The aid thou shalt lend one to defend his Life another for the defence of his Honour and Reputation will oblige thee to think on the Benefits and Helps thou continually receivest from Heaven Thou shalt have no-manner of need to banish the thoughts that attend an Active life lodge those in their place which spring from Contemplation They will be united in the same heart and lend one another mutual Succour Meditation I HAVE been told sometimes that the Vertues are Sisters that walk hand in hand that they are so many Rings in an holy chain which is broken by the rupture of one of those Rings They can't be without one another and therefore O my Soul thou canst not be truly devout because thou art not truly Vertuous and thou hast not in thy heart the Practice of all good works Dost not thou see that the World is exactly â—am'd to furnish employ to thy Vertues and to soilicit thee to good and holy actions the heavens declare the Glory of God and the extent of the Firmament sheweth his Almighty Power that thou mayest joyn thy Voice to those praises which all Nature rings and thy gratitude may have scope to act upon The Air forms outragious Tempests makes the Thunder and Lightning to break forth so as the fear of God may spring up in thee and thou mayest tremble under his hands which make the Mountains to tremble Dost not thou see that God here below makes miserable wretches that they may be the Objects of thy Compassion poor ones that thou mayest be liberal afflicted that thou mayest comfort them weak for thee to uphold sick that thou mayest visit them Doth not be permit too even that there be sinners straying like lost Sheep that thou mayst bring them into the right way ignorant ones for thee to instruct imprudent that thou mayest be their Director some that fall that thou mayest help them up again and for thy self that thou look to thy steps and even wicked persons who perish that thou mayest be put into a wholesom terrour for thy self does not he suffer examples of Vanity to be that thou mayest slight and contemn the World sudden and unlookt for deaths that thou should'st watch and be ever upon thy Guard proud men that fall into ruine while thou retainest thy self in Humility the wicked who are punisht for thee to dread sin good men that are rewarded for thee to seek Vertue yet amidst so many lessons thou art deaf and immoveable Thou makest thy Vertue to consist in not doing evil that is to say in doing nothing as if any one should make life to confist in death and in being depriv'd of Motion Thou remembrest not that the barren fig-tree was cut up by the root that God will cast out the unprofitable servant and will banish out of his Paradice both him that hath lost his talent and him that had only buried it in the Earth Prayer COme then O my Divine Redeemer come and cultivate my heart that it be no more a rocky and barren ground Soften this Rock by the
of his Closet we may say he shuts the door to the World saying to himself Get ye gone ye worldly Thoughts retire ye Objects of Vanity and approach not near this place let me rejoyce in the quiet of this secure Sanctuary and suffer me to give my self wholly up to my God The pious Soul after this manner dies many times a day for Death does not more efface the Images of worldly things than Devotion when it takes a Christian out of the World This Soul may say at such a time The World is crucified unto me and I unto the World I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me We need not wonder if the World quits the place in this moment since I suppose that it before took up but very little Room in the Soul whereof I speak God comes to possess it wholly of which he had before the better for the devout Heart ventures to say The whole is in God and God is in every part In this state if by peradventure it casts its Eyes upon the World it looks down from on high and with an Eye of Contempt Alas What are these same Riches says the faithful Soul these Honours and Advantages which frequently terminate in eternal Death to compare with the Riches that God here bestows upon me But near to God himself whom I possess these earthly Goods will vanish and be lost but I will never lose him who holds me and whom I hold and Death which will disrobe the Living of their Pomp will invest me with new Glory The fourth Effect of Devotion is an Alacrity in running and advancing in the Practise of Piety A General flies to the Combat when he sees an assured Victory but the devout Person has other kind of wings which make him fly whither Devotion conducts him He knows not that 't is the drooping and weight of the Body that retains them who are call'd to Travel he has not the Sentiments of the Sluggard who rouls upon his Bed as a Gate upon its Hinges who fight Battles with his Boulster and wages Wars with Sleep and Idleness with a Design to be vanquished He is one of those Eagles of which some think our Saviour spoke Where the dead Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together He knows that he shall find his Jesus once dead but now alive either in the Church or in his Closet he flies thither with the Swiftness of an hungry Eagle nothing is capable of stopping him Friends Enemies Employs Occupations Prayers Menaces Fears and Dangers all useless for in posting he can surmount all Obstaeles in the way Another Effect of Devotion is a certain Elevation of Soul which I cannot term otherwise than a sort of Extasie whereby the Soul is as it were ravish'd from its self 'T is so knit to the Contemplation of Coelestial Objects that not only it has no more intelligence of earthly things but it has no Sense no Ears no Eyes it sees not it understands not St. Peter while he prayed saw the Heavens opened and a certain Vessel descending to the Earth as it had been a great sheet knit at the four Corners St. Paul in Prayer was ravished even to the third Heaven and the Devout even at this time of day have their Extasie They see with Stephen the Heavens opened they are lifted up to Heaven with St. Paul for they enter into a secret Commerce with God The Soul inwardly is so taken up that it sees nothing at all of what passes without and contributing its whole force to the Contemplation of God no Wonder it has no more for other Objects Blessed are they says St. Basil who are fill'd with and infolded in the Contemplation of this true Beauty since being bound to it by the Cords of Charity and of an heavenly and divine Love they forget their Parents Friends Houses they forget even the necessity of eating and drinking And now why should it not be so in the Offices of Piety when ev'ry day this happens to us in the Affairs of the World While we are strongly fixt to Reading to disintangle a crabbed and knotty matter while we answer an Adversary a thousand Objects pass before our eyes whereof we do not take notice The devout Soul is so shut into it self so well gathered up and compacted that no external thing is able to move it If it prays it is intirely in Heaven if it hears it is wholly tyed up to the Tongue of him that speaks if it reads its heart is always where the eyes terminate themselves if it meditates it is all over plunged in it's subject and if a Flock of Birds of vain and light Thoughts come to soil its Sacrifice as that of Abraham it scares them away incontinently This is that which I understand by the Extasie of Devotion otherwise if you take this term for effectual Ravishments which were the Priviledges of the Prophets and Saints of the first Order I must take an infinite deal of pains to believe that the Holinesses of the Roman Cloyster do oblige God as some would fain perswade us so ordinarily to communicate such extraordinary Graces Now a days we do not see those Devotions which lift up not only the Souls but make the Body to lose its Earth and raise it to the very Clouds Nevertheless if we would believe some who call themselves good Authors there is nothing more common The last Effect of Devotion that I shall mention is a certain Fire that warms the Heart One cannot well conceive it unless one had felt it and I cannot express it otherwise than in the words of holy men Did not our Heart burn within us while he talked with us and while he opened to us the Scriptures My Heart was hot within me while I was meditating the Fire burned then spake I with my Tongue We are told how the Faces of the Saints have been oftentimes seen to be bright and inflamed in the midst of their Devotions which could not proceed but from the glowing and fiery affection of the Heart which manifests it self accordingly in the Countenance This Fire we may call a Fermentation of the Spirits of Piety which not seldom make Impressions even in the eyes And hence it may be came the shining of St. Stephen's Face of which it is said that his Enemies saw it as if it had been the Face of an Angel his Zeal and his Devotion were evident in his Eyes and render'd 'em sparkling Now this Lightning is not without its Rain I mean that this Fire is ordinarily accompanied with Tears The Heart is heated blows up that Heat makes it grow bigger then it self grows tender and at last the Eyes melt into Tears St. Austin represents himself in one of these Illuminations or rather Inflamations of Heart After says he that a strong Meditation
me out of this calamitous Estate this deplorable nothing Disengage me from under this Burthen of Mortality and corruption so as I may walk lightly and chearfully or rather I may fly swifth even to thee Pardon all my Sins that they may not terrifie me and banish me from thy Throne Stop the course of my Iniquities that they may not hinder my Prayers from mounting up before thee Let me not still continue to render my self unworthy of thy Favours by the ill usage I make of thee nor to grieve thy holy Spirit by the uncleanness of my Life that only can inspire me with the Ardour I seek after That only can render my Soul devout and it 's presence only can warm my Affections But will it be pleas'd to bring it's light into a Soul so polluted and so dark as mine Prepare for thy self O my God a lodging within me worthy so great a Guest and Stranger that it may come and enliven me that I may live and love-thee that I may burn with the Fire of thy Love and with that of Devotion CHAP II. Touching the love of the World the second Source of Indevotion BEhold one of the great reasons why there are so few Devout in the World It is because all are in love with the World and this Love is one of the most efficacious Temptations wherewith the Devil serves himself to distract and call us elsewhere This love has pierced our very marrow and entrails and seeing 't is the master of our Heart can the love of God dwell there can darkness and light can Fire and Water Life and Death be comparable together In him that loveth the World the love of the Father does not dwell Where there is no love of God how can there be any of Devotion which is nothing else but love what is it that makes up the fire and the zeal of Devout People but Love What is it that makes the desires spring up of union with God in Devout Souls but Love what makes us find a Gusto in the possession the same Love What does indue good Souls with a readiness and alacrity to serve God Is it not Love that renders every thing easie to him that loves But as much as the love of God succours and helps Devotion so much does the love of the World cruelly cross it It extinguishes heat it stifles the desires it estranges from God it takes away the taste of heavenly things it purloins the heart from it self and carries it elsewhere Lot's Wife advances towards the Mountain but hath her heart in Sodom she turns her Eyes thither The superiour part of the Soul which is in love with Heaven makes some efforts to lift it self up to God but this same lower part wherein the Passions reign turns its eyes towards the World and wheedles the heart out of the Commerce whereinto it entred with its God Rachel in craving her fathers house carries along with her his antick Images In quitting the World to enter into our Closets we bring with us its Idols that is its Ideas and vain Images and from thence proceed our distractions and those unhappy thoughts that traverse us in the midst of our Devotion These are the Idols of Gold Silver the Devils of Ambition and Covetousness which an hundred times pass and repass in our mind in a quarter of an hour to distract us When we come to Prayer our head is filled with a thousand I deas of good and evil of Desires and Fears of Dangers and distrust of hopes and despair of Joys and Divertise ments and a thousand other vain Objects A Soul at this rate taken up and imploy'd can it give place to the Ideas of God's greatness of his Majesty Goodness Mercy and Love Faith Repentance Charity Zeal Hopes Acknowledgments and a thousand other Vertues which compose or at least help Devotion can they agree well with these Emotions that the commerce of the World communicates to us We scarce ever think of things but such as possess our hearts if we lov'd â—â—e Worldless t would not come so often into ourminds We are hurried away with it it is a Demon we know â—ot how to lay we cannot find a Sanctuary against its â—ersecutions the solitude and affrightful Objects of the â—esert cannot banish it An Antient tells us that â—mid his Macerations his mind sometimes transported him out of his Solitude into the company of young Women a dancing I say then we ought to imploy 〈◊〉 our strength to dry up this second source if we â—ould be Devout My little children love not the World or the things that are in the World We should Crucifie â—he Old-Man if we would present our selves to God a â—ving holy and acceptable Sacrifice which is our reasoâ—able Service So that one of the most profitable Meâ—itations by which we can prepare our selves for â—rayer is that of the Worlds vanity It is good to enâ—er into our selves to consider the brevity of humane â—â—fe the inconstancy of the Worlds Glory which flouishes in the morning and fades and withers in the eveâ—ing It is good to repeat frequently to our heart â—hat the Holy Spirit has said heretofore All flesh 〈◊〉 as Grass and all the Glory of man as the flower of â—rass the Grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth â—way As for man his days are as Grass as a flower of be field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and 〈◊〉 is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of couble he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down 〈◊〉 fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not His riches â—anish away and his Sins continue his honours abanâ—on him but his torments do not quit him Thus by â—rying with a loud voice Vanity of Vanities in an heart â—nfected by the bad Air of the World it may chase away those worldly thoughts and fright away those â—irds which come to spoil our Sacrifices and devoureth good seed of Piety which the Heavenly sower had 〈◊〉 into our hearts Meditation HOw miserable am I I can stouth cry Vanity of Vanities to my Heaâ—â— depraved and corrupted with the love 〈◊〉 the World and yet still it is never thâ— better I am sufficiently persuaded of aâ—â— that is told me I know mighty well thâ—â— the World is only made up of appearances I know it hath very much Gall anâ— Wormwood for a little Honey I knoâ— that Pleasures are Twists that snarl anâ— intangle the Soul and train it to Death But I am not yet acquainted how theâ— knowledges remain in my understanding and make no manner of Impression upoâ— my Will I believe I see and I do nothing I see a thousand and a thousand People which the World plunges into corruption and brings to Hell I see it is a great enâ— my of my Saviour and that the chief thinâ— which it compasses upon them that givâ— themselves
get rid of that we should gain all but if it continue the Master it 's in vain we strive to become devout And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein as may if possible ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion Certain it is Man was born for Pleasure since he was created to be happy and happiness consists in the Possession of Good and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love and pleasure arises from thence that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God that it hath no more sense of its pleasures Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us The Soul has kept this sentiment that it was born for Joy and Pleasure insomuch as being disunited from its God it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures and the stricter it is united to these the farther off it is from them The ligament of this union o' th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body so it disunites it from God so that sensual pleasures cause this Disunion and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she returns to her Principle and to the fruition of those pleasures that spring from her union with God Let worldly people take the pains to consult their own heart and that will tell them what we are about to say They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose themselves to Prayer to the love and Service of God is because they are posses'd by their passions and inchanted by the delusions of Sense That is to say they are absolutely turned toward sensual pleasures and wholly taken up in them The Soul is pinch'd and contracted the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its vanities so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire find no room therein Indeed a very difficult work this is we undertake to persuade that those who would become Devout ought to renounce worldly pleasures Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank we distinguish them into two orders There are those which are call'd excesses enormities and crimes but these the World abandons and has not the face to defend There are others styled innocent Pleasures Dancing Play good Chear great Meals Feasts Play-houses Shows vain Conversations the commerce of Gallantry and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours The Church distinguishes Pleasures as well as the World Both agree that there are Innocent ones But the Church puts the greatest part of those which the World upholds to be innocent into the number of criminal pleasures Voluptuosness is an Idol to which the World Sacrifices both young and old Men and Women Children and old Men great and small rich and poor all ages both Sexes all conditions have their Pleasures Insomuch much as if we go according to suffrages we should lose the Cause Especially Young men cannot indure one should takeaway the use of Pleasure they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and vitiate Mens minds represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman or Man laid upon a Bed of flowers environed with all the Objects which are bodily pleasures The Passions that are wholly carnal and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses are in boiling youth The Flesh all brisk active and vigorous having received no manner of Mortification Hectors and Domineers with insolence Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Crasis The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them So that reason destitute of this Succour is easily vanquish'd by the Passions We may say also that Reason in this age conspires with the Passions and serves only to push on young people into the greatestexcess and extravagences After their own fashion they reason they are persuaded that wisdom and prudence doe not become them they say that these properly belong to old men and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man To every thing under the Heaven there is a season If any one has more happy inclinations he is not so hardy as to follow them he is stricken with a criminal shame he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop He cast himself into the crowd and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream And even those who are reputed Wise in the World if they dare not authorize these Irregularities at least they excuse them They are young say they they will come to it at length we must allow somwehat to Age we are not born wise we were such as they are they may be one day what we are But alas we do not stay there we do not renounce Pleasures as we leave our youthful years behind us the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages We go as slow as possibly or to speak better we go on not at all Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure but we seldom view those that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time and foreslow themselves from being carried off the Stage They forget nothing that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness They would deceive Men and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care and have a part in all its Pleasures When old age is come and has lain its Characters open in their meen they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible You see these Women Idolatresses of the World to bury their head under an heap of Powder that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cousening Ceruse they shadow the wrinkles of their forehead with false hair and paints and in which they are most prudent they imbalm their Bodies and cover them with Perfumes to corrupt the ill odours that arise from the Carkasses In this equipage
they mingle themselves in all companies they would be ingaged in all sorts of Pleasures They are seen in Balls and Comedies trembling with weakness they cannot see to distinguish red from black nor four from two but play they will at Cards and Dice with Spectacles In sum after having been the Idols of the World they punnish it for the crimes they have made it commit they become its punishment and its curse These are the Spectres and Phantomes that follow it It flyes them and has 'em in horrour and detestation Are men more wise than Women Do not we see of the other old sinners that have their members worn and wasted by Debauchery but whose concupiscence within is as young and boyling as ever Their inclinations are always vitious but their members can no more obey as the Servants of their beastly pleasures While I look upon these men I represent to my self what Happiness after the burning of an house when the great fire is over we along time after see Sparkles and points of flames break out of an huge mass of Ashes so as by this we ghess the fire is still in and that it only wants Fuel and Matter We may say that these old men are now but a little heap of hot Embers and of the Relicks of the Conflagration but from amidst these Ashes we see the wild and sudden sparks of concupiscence jetting out one after another whereby 't is plain that the love of Voluptuousness is still alive within and the body wants only strength to act All men therefore hold clearly for Pleasure They are not contented to defend it by plurality of Voices they would maintain it by reasons God and Nature say they make nothing in vain The earth is covered with living creatures the Sea filled with Fishes the Air peopled with Birds and the Universe is full of Delights Is it possible say they that God has made so many things for our use to keep us from the use of them has the author of Nature made so many sensible Wonders to fill the Senses with illusions and to excite criminal passions has the finger of God writ upon every Creature Touch me not At this rate the condition of Man is now very forlorn and miserable when he was in Paradise he had but one Tree whose Access was not permitted him and lo all the good things of the World are become so many reserved and Mortal fruits which no one is suffered to touch without incurring his Death And does this shew God's wisdom and goodness to have placed me among so many objects of Temptation if I cannot yield without sinning Is not there a natural Bond and connexion betwixt Love and Beauty betwixt the desirable things and the Desires And why should God have made so many good and desirable things if he would keep me from the injoyment and desire of them Alas say they Are there not enow unavoidable things but we must seek such as can be avoided and since worldly goods If they be not the rewards of the Blessed yet are the comforts of the unhappy why will we not injoy those Pleasures which are the sweetning refreshments of our pains If you take joy away from the Soul do you not withall take Life away too do ye not bury it alive do you not make of mans life a sad and gloomy night in a word do not you render Man the most miserable of all Creatures they say Lastly that religion is not to serve not so horridly beset with Thorns as some would make one believe If we ascend even to the Source we find it say they more pure and more dissengaged from those rigors wherewith Superstition has invested it the Saints have had their Debauches they have thank'd God he has given them a Table cover'd with delicious meats a full bowl and overflowing Cup. They have said that Wine was intended to make glad the heart of man our Lord Jesus Christ the Author of the true Religion had his Feasts and was frequently at such he was at the marriage in Cana of Galilee and there he made excellent Wine to please the Guests Thus do they plead for voluptuousness and the unhappiness is that these maximes do not obtain only in the World they try to bring them into the Church They have put Guides and Directours that dress up a Religion of Flowers and cry Prepare the way make the Paths plain Enlarge the ways and make a great road that all the World may come into it These make our Devotions easy and they cry My Yoke is easy and my burthen light Love renders the Yoke of our Lord easy for it is altogether sweet and easy to him that loves but these ill Doctors render their yoke easy in dispensing with the love of God and permitting the Love of the World and the search after pleasing the Senses And this is the reason why both in the Church and in the World there are so few Devout because there are so many voluptuous persons Meditation ALas what a wretched Creature I am I do not the good I would but the evil I would not that do I. I understand well the strength of Reasons on Piety's side that call upon me to renounce the vain pleasures of the Earth The weakness I perceive in the reasonings of the advocates of Pleasure But those good reasons of Piety find the Gate lockt For that my Heart revolts against them and the bad reasons that maintain the use of sensuality enter easiely since they are allyed to the Corruption of my Heart My Flesh is loath to find the Reasons of Piety so strong it had rather those for voluptuousness were the better And on the other part my Mind is troubled while it sees the force of truth to perceive in it that resistance against being overcome I seriously bemoan this that in viewing the weakness of Reasons which draw me on Pleasure's side yet nevertheless I should suffer my self to be carryed away as if they were very strong for when all is done Piety and Reason may joyn their forces but it is Passion becomes victorious O my Soul thou idolatrizest sensuality thou mayest indeed change place but thy Gods thou ever carryest along with thee If thou renouncest some Pleasure thou dost not quit thy Idols thou dost nought but change for the Love of Pleasure finds the means to lose nothing when one object is taken away from it it straight casts its self upon another Judge â—hen of what nature can thy Devotions be seeing thou dividest 'em alwayes between â—his Idol and the true God Take one side O my Soul choose and take that good part which shall not be taken away from thee â—hou canst not serve two masters the World â—nd God It may be thou blessest thy self â—n that thou hast forsaken the Pleasures of Youth in that thou lovest not Play nor Balls nor Comedyes any more But thou dost not percieve that thy Corruption tyes â—hee to other Objects and thou
in an intire Privation of Carnal Pleasures fancies Death as a Messenger that brings him good news as a deliverer that is come to throw down the four Walls of his Prison down to the Ground and will leave a passage free on all sides to flye away to Heaven The Voluptuous they must be dragg'd to death they lay hold on every thing in the way to stop themselves they give place to necessity but they do it with an aukward and ill grace These therefore who multiply the pleasures of their Senses make themselves Chains the breaking whereof will cost them many a groan and many a tear But pious people who have renounc'd the pleasures of life cannot be in pain to forsake the present life since they have quitted that which life has most agreeable I should say here that the Pleasures of Sense are enemies to Devotion because they absolutely take away the taste of the Spiritual Pleasures which the faithful find in the commerce they have with God but that I have said it already and it is so evident both in Reason and Experience We know that those Slaves of sensual Pleasures look upon all that is said of the pleasures of Devotion as mere idle Stories Speak to them of the delights which the faithful Soul tasts when God speaks to it within its heart and during the silence of its passions of the sweetness it finds in meditating on the Love he hath for us and in contemplating on its Mysteries All this will appear to them as Dream and Vision Undoubtedly one is not sensible of the pleasures of the Mind but in proportion as he hath renounc'd those 〈◊〉 the Body And therefore we Christians are all so little touch'd with Spiritual pleasures with Prayer Meditation Contemplation because we are not of those who have perfectly renounced Sensual pleasures In this respect we must confess Rich and Great men are exposed to great Temptations their condition say they obliges them to draw after them a great equipage of Pleasures if it be so they are very unhappy And in prospect to this it may be our Saviour said How hard a thing is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Riches and Grandeur are continual Temptations to Voluptuousness and it 's very difficult for him that is always tempted not to yield sometimes But although Moderation and Temperance are praise-worthy when they are kept amid so many Enemies that conspire their ruin it is very rarely so and therefore Devotion is not so common among them who by their Rank fancy themselves obliged to live evermore in Pleasures In short if it be permitted us to draw proofs from Examples as without doubt it ought to be we may easily prove that the Spirit of Devotion and Christianity are enemies to Sensual Pleasures Whether are the Christians of our age that live with a freedom which austere morality calls Libertinage better entred in the spirit of Christianity than the Christians of former ages who led a most severe and rigorous life Many there have been who not finding a retreat secure enough in the World against the temptations of Voluptuousness have gone to seek it in Desarts where they found none but pure and innocent Objects some have worn Sack-cloth as John the Baptist and others residing in humane Society have prefer'd Fastings and mortification of the Body before Pleasures of the Sense Do ye believe that these people were wiser than us or are we wiser than them I know some will not hesitate on the matter but file these Austerities to the account of Fanaticism and Delusion of the Spirit of Errour But certainly this is a rash Judgment for which we appeal to the Tribunal of God to whom alone appertains the right of distinguishing Sincerity from Hypocrisie in such austere lives But would we have an example that is not subject to errour let us look up to our Lord Jesus Christ had his life any thing common with sensual pleasures You see him born in a Stable brought up in the house of a Carpenter you see him fast forty days in the Wilderness you see him live on the Alms of Women that followed him We hear him declaring that he had not whereon to lay his head We see him go on foot and without equipage from City to City And does this now relish of the Spirit of the World and a delicious Life Who can know better what is the spirit of Christianity than our Saviour himself and what are the effects of Devotion but he who was perfectly devoted to his Father after this let none tell me that our Lord was no enemy to Pleasures because he was present at Feasts and Nuptials It were to be wish'd that our Lord Jesus Christ were at all our Feasts We should not see Insolence and Debauchery to reign there Wisdom Temperance Sobriety and the highest moderation would march in his Train Meditation SEeing thou art compass'd about O my Soul with so great a cloud of witnesses run with patience the Race that is set before thee seeing so many so holy so excellent examples have gone before thee thou must follow and imitate them Wouldst thou follow an Elias in the Desart a Moses on the Mountain fasting forty days and not feed but on the bread of Ravens nor drink but of the water of a Torrent But these are particular Vocations that do not refer to thee Nevertheless if any one would imitate John Baptist wear Sack-cloth with him be clothed with Camels hair and eat locusts and wild-honey let 's not say because he is not come eating nor drinking he hath a Devil Have a care of making such rash judgments Those that come to exhort men to repentance must preach up mortification both in their actions and words and habit and food Thou hast great need O my heart both to mortifie thy self and to repent so as it would be very necessary that thy Body should carry Sack-cloath and Ashes But this example of John Baptist does not become a Law and if thy God hath not commanded it thee thou canst not be obliged thereby Behold then another example another model much more perfect which thou oughtest to follow and that is of thy Saviour the pattern by whose traces thou oughtest to guide thy steps Live as he did and thou wilt live well enough The Disciple should not hope to be greater than his Master He liv'd in the World but he was not of the World He eat and drank to give examples of Sobriety He convers'd with men to teach them to speak wisely and piously for he never open'd his mouth but for edification He is the model of all which thou oughtest to suffer to do to abstain from Suffer patiently with him the rebukes and the outrages of the World drink as he did with a spirit of Submission the cup of God's wrath when he shall present it thee do good works with him spend the day in doing good to the afflicted and the night in
creating Spirit and Creator of Spirits create in me a new Heart and renew a right Spirit within me that my Soul may be filled with thy Delights and I may taste all the sweetness of thy Love Thirsty I am after Pleasure open thy Fountain of eternal Pleasures and let thy Rivers fâ—â—w into my Soul Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy Love is better than Wine Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at noon For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the â—â—â—ks of thy companions Why should my Soul â—ander amidst the vain Pleasures of the World and why should it bring to thee so many false Goods for companions Let me retire under thy shadow embrace adore love thee only and taste no Pleasure but what is in thee Draw me therefore that I may run after thee draw near to me that I may be able to draw near to thee Prevent me by thy Grace by thy Mercy and by the bowels of thy Compassion stirred up for a prodigaland rambling Son who seeks but cannot find thee Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant Fruits O Holy Spirit thou South-wind the Father of Heat Author of Generation Source of Love and Charity blow upon the Powers of my Soul which are as a Desart make them an Eden a Garden of the Almighty make odoriferous Plants to grow there produce there Habits and Works of a sweet odour so as my heavenly Saviour the beloved of my Soul may come and taste the sweetness of those Fruits that he may delight in me and I in him and that we may eternally taste all those Pleasures the products of a mutual Love CHAP. VI. That young People have no Priviledge to use sensual Pleasures nor to dispence themselves from Devotion ONE Reflection is still behind which we are obliged to make before we leave this Important Subject we having done nothing yet in regard to young People They persuade ' emselves it may be that whatever hath bin say'd does not concern them it is almost impossible to deliver them from this Errour That Pleasure is peculiarly their share and that without Tyranny we cannot deny it them To them Indevotion is natural and they reckon it a particular Honour We should make fine work of it say they to 〈◊〉 Bigots at these years they fancy that Modesty Wisdom Sobriety and Temperance are not proper for them 't is the business of old Men say they we must not make our selves ridiculous by turning Cato's and Seneca's And indeed if any one of them has more happy Inclinations he is asham'd he dissembles 'em he follows the Crowd They tell him to every thing under the Heaven there is a time In considering old and young men we can never believe say they that Persons so different are destin'd to the same Actions The wrinkled forehead of old Age the paleness of it's Complexion hollow Eyes chap-fallen Mouth and Limbs all trembling have a correspondence with the Duties of Repentance and it 's fit that they pour forth Tears and give themselves up to Mortification But the good disposition and plumpness of Youth that flourish of Blood that displays it's self upon the Complexion lively and sparkling Eyes Seâ—ses eager and capable to be toucht by their Objects very manifestly shew that this age is born for pleasures and all manner of Joy Thus it is they flatter and hug themselves in their security Not only young People talk at this rate but most part of mankind agree with them in it I cannot deny but that the extravagancies and disorders of conduct in the life of an old man impress much greater marks of infamy than the debauches of the younger sort I must confess also that the disorders of old age discover a greater depth of Corruption It cannot cast it's faults upon the first boylings of the Blood which hath much filth and scum It cannot take the default of Experience for excuse and in short it breaks the barriers of a shame much greater than that which follows the crimes of Youth But nevertheless God will not judge men according to humane Rules and the Sentiments of the World there is no Age that has receiv'd a dispensation from obeying God All the violaters of his Law shall be punisht since his Commandments are given to all and if so be the difference of Age put a diversity in sins in respect of Punishment this would only in the upshot go upon the More and the Less But what will that result to seeing in a word even the less unhappy must have their share in Eternal fires and the Worm that never dyeth Why should young people be less obliged to Devotion Has God given them less On the contrary they as well as old men have received of God their Being and Reason but farther they have vigour of Body force of Wit Health Youth and the flower of Age. Assuredly these are particular Obligations to devote themselves to God All these advantages they have not receiv'd to consecrate them to the Devil of Lust and Voluptuousness Is any thing too good for God They design for him a tatter'd body ' putrified Lungs gloomy Eyes and dry Members In truth God will be mightily oblig'd to them they would give him the bottom Lees of their years and consecrate to him that Age which is the sink of Life and the Center of all Miseries that is to say they would give him what the World has cast off they act like covetous men who are only liberal when they are dying they give what they can retain no more Believe me all the very best we have is not goo good for our God Heretofore he would not have Victimes that had any fault that were ill or in no good case or that had lost any part of the Body Do we believe he will be pleas'd to accept the Sacrifices of a spent and wasted heart and a man who is only the shadow of what he was once â—exhort you that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice But young People that take up the resolution of being devout when they can be no longer sinners promise God their dead and as it were corrupted Bodies for in old age Bodies are like Phantoms and come near to the nature of Carkasses God has thought nothing too good for us he has given himself for us he who is the sovereign good has given us his Son he devoted him to death for us in the flower of his age and it is just that we be devoted to his service in all our Ages God is not satisfied with these promises of futurity I will give thee He would have us speak in the present tense I do give thee as he does himself in speaking to us I give you my Peace He is called He who is was and is to come So that
to him appertain all the differences of time the past present future but among these he loves the present time and he says I am what I am or he who is and not he who shall be He that would be like God and please him must speak as he does I am he that is righteous holy separate from sinners devoted to God consecrated to his Service Heretofore God required our first-sruits and the first born of our Herds and likewise of our Children Abraham rose betimes in the morning to go and sacrifice his Son and God commanded that an immortal Fire should burn in his Temple for the perpetual Sacrifice of Morning as well as Evening This signifies God would be served first and our Firsts are to be consecrated to him he wills not we should say to him Come and follow me if the World leaves any thing remaining thou shalt have it He loves not those People that say unto him Let us first do such a thing or go to such a place c. He answers them Let the dead bury their dead come ye and follow me For having put your hands to the Plough if ye look back ye are not fit for the Kingdom of God Few persons there are but confess That one time or other in ones Life it is necessary to think on God They only dispute about the time One says I will become a good Christian when I have finish'd my House another when I have made my Fortune and young People say when we are old and have tasted the pleasures of Life in a word All remit this great Affair to Futurity Since they confess that 't is of absolute necessity to give up themselves to God and that without this Hell and Death eternal are inevitable is it not the greatest Fury and Madness to deal thus and to remit an Affair of so great Importance to the time to come whereof we can in no wise be assured Young People you Idolaters of Pleasure make use of the Example of the rich man who said in the Evening to his Soul Eat drink and be merry thou hast laid up Goods for many years when that very Night that Soul to which he had given such bad Counsel was required of him Who has given you Assurances that you shall arrive to old Age Or have ye made a Treaty with God that in what Estate soever Death shall surprise you Heaven shall receive you If Death re'ncounters you cover'd with Vices coming from a Comedy at the Theatre or from a Debauch at the Tipling-house or any place more infamous Do ye believe ye are in a good Condition to say at the Gate of Heaven Lord Lord open unto us It will be answer'd Go I know you not ye Workers of Iniquity Ye will say without doubt We have sinned against Heaven and against thee we are not worthy to be called thy Sons but spare us and impute all our Sins to our Youth This will do nothing God cannot in favour of Youth disannul that irrevocable Edict Nothing impure can enter into my Holy City The Jewish Doctors who frequently happen to say very good things say Remember thy God and turn to him only one day before thy Death This is extraordinarily well said think therefore of thy God to day for to morrow perhaps thou shalt dye What do we do then when we dispose of the time to come and say To morrow we will set upon such a sort of Pleasure the day after we will act a Debauch we will live in this manner for fifty or sixty years and after that we will think of a Retreat to God Truly we imitate those ambitious and visionary Princes who upon the only hope of making Conquests divide before-hand the Provinces and dispose of the Governments which are none of their own To whom belongs the time to come Without doubt to God only who holds it as in Store-houses and lets it run as pleaseth him who stops its Source or prolongs its Current so that when we distribute the time to come we take upon us to bestow what is Gods and none of our own and which perhaps never will be and yet we destine and divide it before-hand to sundry uses And this is the utmost Folly even in the opinion of the World and noted by many Proverbs that are very well known Since therefore it is absolutely necessary to devote our selves to God is it not to be done when it is most easie And I maintain it 's easier to love God and be converted to him when we are young than in old Age. This seems to be a Paradox because in that Age the Blood boils the Flesh is vigorous and Sin sticks to the Entrails We have a peculiar and sovereign taste in all worldly Pleasures True indeed when once we have let the Reins loose to Concupiscence in our Youth it is well nigh impossible to stop its impetuous Passion and Fury It ought to dry up the Springs that it may put an end to these Disorders But if in good time we turn our Souls to God and to Devotion it is sure we shall improve therein incomparably much better than in old Age to what thing oever young Men are carried they are carried to it with Violence and Ardour 'T is the Temper of that Age if there be a good Conduct made of those first Fâ—â—es there will thence arise an excellent Zeal and an holy fervour of Devotion as we see in them who know how to make a right use and serve themselves of the Rapidness of Torrents and Rivers to turn Mills and Machines of great advantage to the Life of Mankind On the contrary Experience teaches us that Devotion relents and slackens with Age and old men are more put to it to chasen and heat their Hearts in pious Duties their Soul is hard'ned 't is not touch'd nor moved with so much ease because it is not so tender as it was the fire of Zeal seeming to be diminish'd by the diminution of natural heat Whence come the Difficulties we meet withal in the work of Conversion Certainly none of them there are but what augment and encrease with Age. This difficulty of thinking on God proceeds from Custom and Habit. Now Custom by Age becomes a Tyrant it comes from the Devil and when once it has establish'd its Tyranny by a long Possession 't is almost impossible to destroy it At first it comes alone by it self but in a little while it is call'd Legion and such a Devil as cannot be conjur'd out by a Get thee behind me Satan and cannot be chased away but by Prayer and Fasting Again our Faculties are us'd to it and the Soul loses its strength it is no longer capable of a Design and Enterprize so vigorous as to turn to God and break with Sin In short this Difficulty proceeds from that God leaves off calling upon and inviting and offering his Grace and his Patience is changed into a just Fury and Indignation when it
quell and take our Heart lower till we have brought it to its Duty we are to read meditate pray let it be never so much against the Grain Although the Devil comes to fill your Mind with evil thoughts says St. Basil you ought not therefore to abandon the use of Prayer you are to make new and greater Endeavours You must pray to God he would be pleas'd to break this thick Wall of vain thoughts which separates you from him you must beseech him that your Soul may be able soon to get to him without being retarded by meeting vain and evil Objects And if the Enemy should come even with a plentiful supply of Distractions yet you are not to give back nor lose any Courage nor renounce Victory in the midst of the Combate You must persevere till God perceiving your Constancy come to fill you with the light of his Spirit put the Enemy to flight purifie your Understanding and furnish your Reason with a divine Light whereby your Soul being put into the Possession of a Tranquillity exempt from Troubles may serve God with a perfect Joy This holy Person insinuates a Reason to us which we ought to remember in the design of Perseverance which is That the Devil never leaves off tempting us therefore we are not to leave off resisting him our resistance doth not make him give back so that we must not be foiled by his Temptations God who is the Spectator of our Warfare and the Rewarder of our Labours will with Pleasure see the faithful Soul in conflict with it's Infirmities and Distractions and when it is well nigh being subdued will come at length and lend it his helping hand Perseverance is a vertue of such great use that we owe to it the best works of Nature of Art and of Grace If God had left the World imperfect instead of a Miracle he had made a Prodigy There are particularly certain works to which the last-hand is so essential that if we do not conclude them what had been begun doth intirely perish If you leave a Picture after its first rough-drawing and design these beginnings will not cease subsisting upon the cloath but if you carry a wheel half way upon an hill and then leave it to it self for a moment why presently it will get to the Valley's bottom again and your labour will not only be imperfect but will come just to nothing Devotion is of this last sort of things if you leave it half done what you had done will soon perish 'T is Penelope's web what is done by day is undone by night If thy life be not a perpetual day and if thou dost not incessantly toil to advance thy Piety by Practice one night only form'd by the darkness of Indevotion and the absence of Gods Grace will ruine the work of many years and one minute of laziness will destroy that which Courage upheld a long time had produced Thy Devotion O Christian Soul is no more than a spark Nourish this sacred fire preciously blow it without remission gather combustible matter to it from all sides make thee a treasure of good things turn oft towards Jesus Christ thy Sun and thy Star and this small sparkle will become a great fire and this fire will cause a kindling and that kindling will cast up flames and those flames will lift thee to Heaven But if thou neglect this spark it will go quite out Sampson delivers himself up into the arms of Dalilah he sleeps in her breast his hair is shav'd which is the seat of his strength and when the awakes he goes according to custom to take away the gates of Gath and break the cords of the Philistines but he doth not find himself the same Sampson So the Christian that is weakned by a non-assiduity to Devotion sleeps in the arms of Pleasure his Soul is enervated he thinks to return to his old wont of having commere with God but the Devil attacks and overthrows him by a load of evil thoughts under which his Devotion lyes bound as by so many Chains If the Heavens should stop only for a day perhaps there would follow a general slaughter and subversion of Nature and much more without doubt the inferior things would receive a considerable damage When the superior part of our Soul stops its divine motions we cannot question but that a great disorder arises in the lower part for the passions which would ever be the masters do manage wisely these moments of Relaxation to prepare a Revolt So that our Piety and Devotion must have the constancy swiftness and order of the heavenly motions so as this little World may be always in a good Estate Nothing should hinder or interrupt the course of Devotion You see Daniel all the terrours of Death could not stop him in his divine race He must be cast into the den of Lions if he invokes God yet this hinders him not from falling down at his set hours towards Jerusalem the holy City Above all let us be far from the way of the World that runs to its own affairs as if they were the most pressing Let us give to God preserably what belongs to him and let us be at no farther trouble for the rest 'T is said of the Serpent that he secures his head when he is pursued and exposes his body if he can't save it The hours consecrated to Devotion are the head of our life and 't is an holy prudence not to expose them but to draw them out of Danger least the Devil and the World devour them In short persevering is far better than violent Devotion 't is much better to go a little pace but to be going always that to run impetuous yet interrupted races Some are devout only by fits for a day nothing more ardent more humble more mov'd but on the morrow so well dryed up in the torrent of their Tears that you can't see so much as the tracks of ' em The ardency of this fever is so extremely well quench'd as the least heat is not to be found A constant mediocrity is preferable before these Excesses of a small Duration Not that I think it not very necessary that Devotion have its Festivals and labour extraordinarily to rewaken it self on certain dayes and times These are the Extraordinaries of Piety to which we are to return as frequently as we can and mainly never to want it at times destin'd to pious Uses and Works as the participation of the blessed Sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood But beside these Extraordinaries I would have the Soul have it's ordinary course well regulated and if that cannot be done always with those great motions as it were to be wisht yet that it never fall in the least in the Respites and Intermissions Meditation HAve not I great reason to faint and despair of success in all my designs if I do but consider the greatness of the Undertakings the difficulties to be met withal therein and the
with relation to God there can be no other difference betwixt the most eloquent and him that is least so than between one Child and another God understandeth all Languages and all Stiles he requires no Order nor Elegance the most confused Thoughts that come in a Crowd from the Heart are often most pleasing to him he hears the Sighs of the Dumb he knows what we desire better than we can speak or oftentimes conceive for The Spirit of God as St. Paul says maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered After all there are none but know what they want and by consequence none but can pray for Prayer is nothing but a weaving of Desires for those things which we stand in need of for the present Life the Salvation of the Soul and the Life to come The Passions are eloquent and the Imagination is warmed by its sympathy with the Heart wherefore those Persons that excuse themselves upon the smallness of their Light when they are inflamed with Choler never want Words and certainly if their Heart be heated with the Fire of Devotion the Imagination will be very sensible of it and they cannot complain of want of Thoughts or Expressions Meditation THou hast never well comprised O my Soul how much honour thy God does thee in permitting thee to cast thy self at his Feet thou art not sensible of this Favour Thou believest that God does owe thee it for that thou wilt humble thy self before him Thou remembrest not how dear and scarce are the Audiences before the Kings of the earth which yet are in the presence of God but a Shadow a Nothing The King of Kings is pleased to lend his ear to thee to hear thee to succour thee his Throne is accessible at all times To approach thither there is no need either of Favour or Friends or Credit or painful Sollicitations or troublesome Attendings notwithstanding what is that Throne and how great its Magnificence and Glory Thereon God is seated environed with a Light whose lustre dazles the eyes of Seraphims all around millions of Angels and Arch-Angels falling upon their Faces on the right hand Rivers of Milk and Honey which his Children drink of on the left are Torrents of Fire to devour his Adversaries on the one side is Hell and Death and the dreadful Ministers of Divine Vengeance and on the other Heaven and Paradise with the glorious Rewards which God prepares for those whom he loves Thou dost not see this O my Soul and therefore thou art the less touch'd but thou oughtst to believe it though the Veil of thy Flesh rob thee of the fight Therefore represent to thy self the Magnificence of that Throne tremble admire and be fill'd with Gratitude for that being corrupted by the Commerce thou hast with a miserable Body abiding in an House of Clay and having thy Seat in the Dust thou canst nevertheless at all times with liberty present thy self before him who sits upon the Cherubims who flies upon the Wings of the Wind who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a Flame of Fire Thou hast the permission to pray but thou knowest not how to pray and that because thou knowest not to love One intimate Friend never wants things to discourse on to another when our Heart is perfectly opened to any one and we have received his Soul into our Breast we are never short Alas my Soul If thou lovedst thy God perfectly thou wouldst be never weary with entertaining him never would thy Imagination be congealed thy Tongue remain speechless or thou want Words thy Mouth would pour it self forth like a Torrent and thy Prayers would roul like a Flame but thou languishest in thy Prayers since thou dost not speak to God as thy nearest and best Friend the barrenness of thy Heart comes from the coldness of thy Love Prayer O Holy Spirit which art Love it self in the most adorable Trinity O Spirit of Prayer make Intercession for me with dumb interrupted Groans and such as cannot be exprest Teach me how I ought to pray I know almost what ought to be the Matter of my Prayers but I am ignorant how to give them their form I feel in my self a Chaos of confused Thoughts and Motions which I cannot unmixe or disentangle the Light is found blended with Darkness worldly with heavenly thoughts O holy spirit which at the world's beginning didst in the like Chaos draw Light out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion stretch forth thy wings upon the wavering waters of my thoughts and hatch them into well conceiv'd formed and digested Prayers Thou makest the dumb to speak and givest Eloquence to those that are slow of speech Touch my Tongue with a coal from thy Altar that my Lips may be purified my mouth opened and I may declare thy Praises Warm my heart and fill it with devout and pious thoughts that from the abundance of my heart my mouth may speak And thou O Lord Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant our great High-Priest receive my Prayers as Incense and carry them before that adorable Throne upon which thy Father sitteth make them to smoke before him make them a sweet smelling Odour of Atonement that these calves of my Lips may be acceptable to him and because my Offerings are imperfect cover them with thy perfect Righteousness obtain through thy Intecessions what my Prayers alone would never obtain CHAP. X. The fifth particular help to Devotion Fasting and Mortification NONE can deny that Fasting and Mortification are most necessary helps to Devotion unless they will deny the Scripture and the Maximes of the Fathers of the Church The Scripture seldom separates Prayer from Fasting it gives to both joyntly the force of driving away the most dangerous Demons This kind of Devil goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting The Flesh is an head-strong Horse which we cannot manage but by holding in the Bridle it 's a Lion which we must not feed so long till he is grown fat unless we would augment his Cruelty and cast our selves into the danger of being devoured by him The Body if we mark is the same Flesh whereof the Gospel complains so strongly and in so many places of which 't is said that it is an Enemy to God and its fruits are Debauchery Strife Sedition Murder Hatred Envying Ambition and Covetousness So that to hinder the product of these fruits 't is good to keep this plant in continual great dryness for if we besprinkle this root of bitterness with carnal Pleasures it will shoot up its sprouts on high and turn us out of the way of our Salvation As plants which are very tall and surmount their Neighbours leave them in a bad Estate in sucking all the fatness of the Earth from 'em so the Flesh grows not fat but at the Expence of the Soul which it deprives of Comfort and leaves it in a great bareness of Fruit. A great meal is a very bad preparative for the