I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
up Christ's actions for our offences selfe in this sort First cast an eye upon thy sinnes and perceiving that thou canst not hope to pacify Gods wrath nor satisfie his divine Iustice by thine owne endeavours addresse thy selfe to thy Saviours life passion and death and fix upon some one or other action or suffering of his as upon his fasting or his praying or the effusion of his precious bloud then reflect that he offered that his action or passion to his eternall Father for thy sins and to reconcile him to thee as if he said I do now O my heavenly Father fully satisfie thy divine justice for the sins of this thy servant N. Oh let it please thee to spare him and to receive him into the number of thy elect 8. Doe thou also make the same oblation of thy deare Saviour to the eternall Father and humbly beg for thy selfe and others that in vertue of this offering and for his owne glories sake he will in his mercy pardon both thine and their offences And thou maist piously and profitably make use of this manner of spirituall exercise in any action or passage of our Lord and Saviours life or passion EXPLICATION Another maner of perfect oblation TO the end thy oblation of thy Christ here on earth offered not only himself selfe may be acceptable to the divine Majesty Consider that whilst our Saviour so journed here upon earth he perpetually offered up to his eternall father not onely himself and all his merits but also all us mortalls together with himself But also al us to his Father Make therefore thy Oblation in vertue and union of his yea make the self-same oblation of Jesus Christ in which he also comprehended thee Make thou the same oblation and let this thy oblation be without the least touch of propriety or selfe-wil neither regarding earthly goods nor heavenly graces but purely and precisely looking upon the divine pleasure and providence to which thou art entirely to submit and sacrifice thy selfe as a perpetuall holocaust and forgetting all things created say unto thy Lord God Behold ô my good God ô my great Creatour a small lump of mire and earth mixed together in the hands of thy eternall providence do with me what best pleaseth thee in my life at my death and after my death in time and in eternity And thou mayst give a How to know the sincerity of thy oblation probable guesse concerning thy own oblation that it proceeds from a sincere and disinteressed heart if thou canst perfectly practise it in time of adversity bearing it with true patience and being then ready to execute Gods holy will in all thy desolations and distresses This is the right way o my dearly beloved to make a beneficiall truck and traffick of thy self for thy Saviour who will give thee himselfe in exchange if thou bequeathest and sacrificest thy selfe thus totally to his divine Majesty CHAP. XXXIV How to petition for divine grace HAving made this perfect oblation Text. First encourage thy selfe with confidence in his goodnesse of this most precious treasure which is no lesse than Christ himselfe with all his glorious merits to the Eternall Father thou mayst appeare with Confidence before the throne of his mercy to petition for the supply of thy necessities And that thou mayst doe it with the more decency First encourage thy selfe with confidence remembring his benefits bounty and liberality towards thee for nothing can more strengthen thy hope of obtaining new supplies than than the reflection upon Gods former favours in time of necessity And know that this confidence gives the whole efficacy to thy petition so that without it never expect to obtain from God any thing which thou demandest 2. Secondly Take speciall care that Secondly join humility with it this Confidence be coupled with humility distrusting totally thine owne merits and relying boldly upon Christs mercies Not that I advise thee to become fearfull and pusilanimous upon pretence of humillity so as not to beg large benefits from Gods bounty For though it behooves to know thine own basenesse and to consider how litle thou deservest yet thou must beware of distrusting the divine bounty or undervaluing his liberality No be not dejected for as thou deservest nothing so thou hast greater occasion to demand much since Gods gifts are not grounded upon thy deserts but upon Christs merits which are Thirdly presse thy petition with fervent desires of infinite worth and dignity 3. Thirdly Endeavour to presse thy petition with frequent and fervent desires that is that thou aâ—dently wish to obtain what thou askest for since thou petitionest a most pious father for a supply of thy necessities who not onely bids thee ask great things but is also angry if thou askest not and hath past his promise to perform thy petition why shouldst thou not have inflamed desires â—o obtain what thou demandest 4. And indeed we most commonly The want whereof hinders the effect of our demands faile in the effects of our demands because we want this fervour in our desires and make our petitions tepidly rather because faith and reason dictate unto us that such things are needfull for us than that we zelously covet to receive them The true cause of which tepidity is for that our affections being fastned to earthly things we prize them in our wills though we sleight them in our understandings and consequently though we know in our judgement that our minds are to be raised up to higher objects yet we doe not seriously seek to be separated from them whereas if we verily and vigorously humbly and heartily desired it our prayers would soon return us a happy effect 5. Lastly provide that thy petition Fourthly Let not thy petition want Charity want not First Affection of charity to thy neighbours for it should not suffice thee to pray fervently for thy self but to extend thy piety in petitioning the divine grace for all others Secondly Perseverance For our Perseverance loving Lord useth sometimes to prolong and to put off the fulfilling of our petition for our greater profit and the better encrease and enkindling of our holy desires as may be exemplified in the Cananean woman and Evangelicall widdow Thirdly Resignation of thy will Refignation For thou art to represent thy desires to thy deare Lord as if thou rather expectedst the fulfilling of his divine pleasure than of thy petition So Christ prayed in the garden not to have his owne will but his heavenly Fathers accomplished CHAP. XXXV Some short observations concerning meditation FIâ—st Before thou betakest thy self 1. 1. Read overnight the matter of thy meditation to thy nights rest read attentively and considerately that mystery of thy Saviours life or that argument which thou meanest to meditate upon the morning following and contracting it into two or three points or heads commit it to thy memory 2. When thou awakest from sleep 2. Reflect
of for your own satisfaction And look down with your other eye upon your bottomless nothing see there your own base indignity and brutish ingratitude your great impurity and gross impiety and be ashamed to desire any temporal esteem who so truly deserve eternal damnation 6. Other knots of the same To self-love appertain also all the passions of our inferiour nature love hatred c. snare are all those passions which have their residence in our inferiour nature love hatred joy grief hope and fear with their severall attendants these raise up broiles to disturb our inward tranquillity to discompose our Reason and interpose their earthy exhalations between our superiour will and the grace of God Peace of heart is the secure refuge To which we must oppose Peace of heart against all these peevish Passions do but cast your whole care upon your Creator and call away your inordinate affection from creatures and what then can punish or perplex you Remit and refer all accidents whether adverse or prosperous sweet or sowre good or bad to Gods high power and holy providence comfort your selves in his mercy content your selves in his all-sufficiency and quiet your selves in his love Ah! how poor how vain how vile how unregardable Read the 4. ch num 3. of the conflict are the best of worldly blessings how is it possible that things in themselves so contemptible can have the least entrance or admittance into a soul setled in Gods pure love and presence O let the children of this world who place their final felicity in such fading fooleries who have their souls buried in this earth and swallowed up in sensuality be solicitous to seek them glut and burst themselves in the enjoying of them and be dejected to be deprived of them but we O souls aspiring to perfection whose master is God whose aym is vertue whose reward is heaven what have we to do with these inferiour passions Away with these Mammons My heart is signed with the signet of Gods love my hatred is only bent against sin and my self my joy is in God my Saviour my grief is that I am not all his my fear is to offend him and my hope is to enjoy him 7. Lastly all adhering to our proper will and judgment appertains to this ambush of our enemy The adhering to our own wills and preferring of our own judgments are also points of self-love Read the 5. ch of the Conflict This draws us off by degrees from doing our duty diverts us from following divine motions and superiours commands daunts us from relying entirely on Gods providence and fulfilling perfectly his holy pleasure we dare not disobey this master nor will we venture to destroy this Idol of our hearts 't is death to be cross'd in our conceits or contradicted in our exercises which we have chosen according to our private fancy accustomed with self-complacency and keep with unpardonable propriety Perfect obedience breaks through Which must be cured by obedience submission and resignation this snare and a totall resignation to Gods good will pleasure is the secure refuge against this deceit How can a soul be disquieted to receive or refuse act or omit that which she truly conceives to proceed both in substance and circumstance from the divine providence and permission How can that person go astray who is perfectly obedient to God and his superiour gives up himself wholly to the guidance of Gods holy Spirit and the government of a discreet directour observes each beck of the divine call first examined and approved by them who are incharged with their souls and waits upon the divine will as the shadow on the body 8. Where you are to take notice Note a triple obediencâ— 1. Of vow of a triple obedience One is of vow another of conformity and a third of union The first concerns all religious people and imports an external exact and necessary performance of that which is commanded The Second concerns all spiritual 2. of Conformity souls and consists in their inward promptitude and readiness to execute Gods will manifested by faith and their ghostly guide purely for himself and precisely for his own sake without the least touch of proper interest or self-seeking The Third concerns all perfect 3. Of Vnion persons and consists in so entire a connexion of their wills to the will of their Lord God that they seem both one hence it is that they embrace all that happens to themselves or others good or bad life or death for time or eternity as immediatly proceeding from his divine goodness and as the very best that could happen Here the soul elevated above it self and all things into God and stedfastly fixed in divine contemplation patiently expects and obediently attends to what he speaks wills and acts within her remaining ever ready and really resigned to suffer outward pains or inward pressures to receive comforts or endure crosses as the supream providence best knows permits and pleases being fully content with all and faithfully constant in all The Second Ambush Immoderate affection to creatures 1. THis infects distracts disquiets and diverts our minds from their pure and perfect tendance to our Creator Ah! what have we whose inheritance is heaven to do This affection to creatures distracts us from our Creator with the poor and perishable commodities of this world yet our subtil enemy strives to make us serious in searching after them solicitous to keep them and impatient to part with them Against this we must provide true poverty of spirit which consists Again which must prâ—vide Poverty or spirit in a perfect denudation of our souls from all propriety of love to any corruptible creature whatsoever we must use them only and not rest in them we may enjoy them but take no joy in them if Superiours command them from us we must cheerfully part with them if any accident bereave us of them we must willingly let go our hold saying Our Lord gave them our Lord Read the 13. ch of the Conflict hath retaken them his name be ever praised his will always performed Farewel uncertain and unsatisfying profits wellcome sweet and secure poverty We must throw away couragiously all such cloggs as retard our soul's flight to perfection Away with superfluities Oh! that we could live with the only love of our naked and crucified Jesus That we could support our feeble Nature without the supplies of any creatures that so our souls disingaged from the depressing necessities of flesh and blood might soar aloft and sweetly repose in the bosom of divine love 2. Nor is the overmuch tenderness of affection to any person Affection to persons corrupts our judgements whomsoever under what pertext soever any other thing than a meer ambush of our enemy for it corrupts our purest actions and vitiates our most pious intentions it is the bane of Gods love the poyson of our hearts and the venome of
so worthy and so wonderfull that were all the power and prerogatives all the vertue wisdom and qualities of all creatures united in one individual nature it were not so much in respect of thy glory and greatness as the least drop of water is in comparison of the vast Ocean Wherefore I beg of thee O immense and inaccessible Godhead only so much to know conceive believe and understand of thy hidden majesty as may efficaciously move my will to thee and I content my self with so much light of thy divinity as may force me to love thee ardently effectually perseverantly O my Lord and my love Fill my heart with the sweet influence of thy heavenly grace that I may in some measure discover how good and gracious thou art to me and to all thy creatures O let me still remember thy mercy ever dread thy justice and continually admire and adore thy power and providence Ah! my noble Soul stampt with thy Creators lovely image endowed with the excellencies of understanding to know him of will to love him of Memory to rest in him why adherest thou not fast to him only in pure and perfect delight forgetting and forgoing all sensible and worldly objects 5. O that I were so ravished with thy love and liking my only amiable Lord God that through joy jubily and admiration I might feel no self at all no sense no change no inequality That no prosperity might puff me up no adversity deject me no accident separate me from thee ô my God of infinite love and liberality O that I could be ever joyful in thee ever gratefull to thee and ever mindfull of thy inhabiting presence within me Thou are alwayes nearer to my soul ô my good God than my soul is to my body alwayes conserving counselling disposing directing inciting and inspiring it to thy love and wilt thou not ô my sensless and sinful soul be alwayes cautious and circumspect how thou behavest thy self in thy Lords presence who is so tenderly carefull of thy safety O let his love be no longer neglected his sweet invitations no longer slighted O that thou wouldst henceforth walk before him as befits his chast and holy Spouse with all respect and reverence fear and fidelity courage and constancy preparing thy self diligently for his divine embraces 6. Grant I beseech thee ô mighty and mercifull Creator that my whole time and thoughts may be totally taken up in the contemplation of thy unmeasurable benefits and bounty towards me For I know Lord that I am truly nothing and yet thou carest for me ô my loving maker as if thou hadst no other creature in heaven or earth thou deliverest me from innumerable dangers adornest me with many gifts and graces givest me leave at all times to have free access to thy throne of mercy so that with one holy thought one humble sigh one devout desire I may draw neer to thee and enjoy thee and in thee all comfort and content O divine privilege To discover to thee my wants lay open my wounds and boldly declare my wishes as to my neerest dearest and trustiest friend and familiar and to be sure of supplies salves and succour in all my necessities O what goodness what grace what mercy is this O my soul How loving and liberall a Lord have we how loving in mercy how liberal in bounty Ah! our unthankfulness to requite our unworthiness to deserve his favors Up my heart be no longer ungratefull and unfaithfull to so great good and gracious a benefactour Yes ô blessed and bountiful giver I now say cordially and will ever stand to iâ— coâ—ragiously I will henceforth love thee ô my Lord my love my life my strength my support my home my harbor and my happiness I will remember thy sweet words to all sinners Why will you perish O children As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but that he would turn to me anâ— live I will behold thy sacred wounds suffered for me able to move a rock to love and compassion And though I am ashamed to think what I have been and how little I have done how much thou hast endured for me how long thou hast expected me how lovingly thou hast besought me and how poorly I have corresponded to thee Yet I know ô my Lord thou ceasest not to be God and good though I am weak and wicked Therefore I will take yet courage in thy service and confidently hope that thou who sought'st after me a lost sheep wilt mercifully receive me now I seek after thee my loving shepheard with a right intention real resolution and inflamed affection 7. Yes ô my Lord and my love heaven and earth shall sooner perishâ— than my confidence in thy sweet mercies and my Saviours merits If thou repell me I will run after thee If thou shut thy door against me I will never leave knocking and if thou kill'st me yet I will trust in thee I wholly cast my self upon thy holy will providence and protection I protest with heart and mouth that I now am and henceforth will be entirely thine that I have nothing seek nothing fear nothing desire nothing demand nothing want nothing will nothing but thee onely My Lord my Love and my All. And I firmly purpose to serve and love thee ô sacred and supream Majesty simply sincerely purely and perseverantly not for any fear of pains or punishment not for any self-interest of what this world can offer or the next afford not for the least hope of heaven or happinesse but I will thee seek thee and love thee for thy self only ô my all-sufficient Lord God who art the sole object sweet compleatment and solid contentment of my soul Pardon me protect me and provide for me For thou art my only hope and happiness FOR TVESDAY Of the Knowledge and diffidence in our selves The Second Exercise 1. WHat is man ô Omnipotent Creator what is this man that thou shouldst be mindfull of him He is nothing ô Lord and I am the least and worst of those nothings because I have least corresponded to thy grace and made worst use of thy gifts O give me ligâ—t reach forth thy hand to this blind creature crying after thee O thou true light of the world and life of my soul that now at length I may duly diligently cordially and abyssally dive into my own basenes weakness misery nothing that knowing what I truly am I may really loathe hate distrust despise and deny my self and all my own proceedings sincerely love thee only trust and hope in thee and rely wholly upon thy divine providence and protection I am not only content ô my Lord God but even willing and desirous that all thy creatures should take me and treat me according to my true condition and unworthynesse And I am resolved by thy grace to humble my self not only under thy mighty hand but also under all their feet as their servant and slave to be troden on abhorred avoided and detested by
confession into my mouth prayers into my lips remorse into my memory resolutions of amendment into my will T is Thou O gracious God who chiefly actest all this good in me by me and for me O my All do then all in me that thou desirest And particularly overwhelm I beseech thee my whole interiour with perfect contrition not coming from a slavish and servile fear but from a faithful and filial love Grant me a true and intire grief for having offended thee not because of thy promises or threats but because thou art in thy self good amiable adorable 3. Or if mercenary interest do yet more move thee O my sensual and sinful soul For how hainously dost thou take a small injury how deeply dost thou resent a little disgrace the loss of a dear friend of health of honour or the like temporall and perishable commodities O whence is it then that thou so little apprehendest thy loss of grace and thy eminent and imminent danger of eternall damnation Is it a small matter to be Gods enemy To lose the good will of all heaven To destroy Gods image To cut up life root and branch To side with the accursed devils thy Creators sworn enemies to hatch Treason enter Conspiracie with the damned Yea and to kill as much as in thee lyes him who by his own death gave thee life O brutall and unnatural ingratitude Surely the annihilating of heaven The reason is Because the least degree of a higher order surpasses the highest degree of the lower order earth Angels men and all Nature cannot be compar'd with this malicious evil and willfull destruction of thy grace O Lord in my soul O eternal God! what a monster have I then been in grace what a prodigie in nature who have so little car'd to commit such enormous sins But O my Lord I will even now change my life I here detest all sin I make firm purpose of amendment I have a ful confidence in thee my Creator a good wil to do satisfaction and a totall resignation to thy divine pleasure 4. I am the woful criminal O just judge of my soul and I will be also the accuser and witnes the advocate and executioner in this tribunal I summon you therefore O detestable pride O abominable envy O execrable avarice O beastly lubricity and all you accursed crew of sins how long will you reign on earth how long will you dispeople Gods inheritance who brought you in amongst Gods children T is the perverted Will of man O dread Soveraign which hath done all these mischiefs Rectify ô my Lord I beseech thee this my crooked Will and murder these horrible monsters in me and grant that I may henceforth rather expose my body to a thousand deaths than my soul to one deadly sin Thy Saints will rejoyce ô God at my amendment and thy Angels will make a Feast but thy own resentment of joy will be infinite because thy love is infinite which goes hand in hand with thy essence and comprehends all love in supream eminency I will therefore expect from thee O heavenly Father the exact remembrance from thee my Redeemer the perfect knowledge from thee ô holy Spirit a true repentance and from thee ô Sacred Trinity an intire absolution and plenary indulgence from all my iniquities The grief I feel for my past offences the hatred I have against each sin at this present and the resolution I make to avoid all iniquity for the future are not equivalent in me to their enormity and hainousness I therefore humbly crave ô holy Lord God! that thou wilt accept thine own hatred against sin for that which I should and would have and in stead of the sorrow I want I offer that of thy Son my sweet Redeemer with the Sacrifice of his immaculate life and innocent death And since I cannot be impeccable by nature O my Lord nor dare presume to ask to be so by grace give me leave to prostrate my self before thy infinite bounty and clemency and beg by the merits of Jesus Christ thy dear Son and by the desires of thy essential love the blessed holy Ghost that though I may not be impeccable yet I may never sin more and if I must somtimes sin through my frailty yet that I may never sin mortally This thou desirest O Lord this thou demandest this thou commandest O give me what thou commandest and command me what thou pleasest 5. O my good Lord Jesu who art Lord of my life and shouldst be the love of my soul had I not like an ungracious and ungratefull wretch given my heart and sold my affection to fond frail filthy and fading creatures and comforts which are so far from bringing me eyther quiet of mind peace of conscience purity of soul or perfection of spirit that they leave me nothing but trouble confusion and remorse with a world of disquiet and desperate thoughts violent passions and vitious inclinations I find no other refuge or remedy but to return to thee my Centre to convert my self to thee O my good Lord and Master to cast my self in all humility at thy sacred feet and heartily to beg thy mercy pardon and reconciliation O mercifull Father I truly acknowledge my prodigality and humbly confess my treachery and am sorry from my heart that ever I offended thee who deservest so much love and service from me Beseeching thee as a guilty prisoner to be pitifull to thy poor creature and mercifully to forgive me the manifold rebellions and grievous iniquities that I have committed against thy Divine Majesty and goodness and for the love of thee I freely forgive all them who have any way offended or contristated me sincerely acknowledging that I deserve no comfort from any creature but all contempt and confusion and not only to be troubled by all on earth temporally but even to be tormented by the Devils in hell eternally 6. O how ungratefull a child have I been to offend so often and so grievously so loving and liberal a Father so meek and mercifull a Redeemer and so â—weet and soveraign a Majesty who hath always shew'd himself so benigne and bountifull to me tolerating me in my sins and expecting me to his mercy wooing me to his love and calling me to his service by a thousand means all which I have either rejected or neglected and still nevertheless given me time and opportunity to do penance O my poor soul how blind and bewitched hast thou been to leave the bread of Angels and to feed on the husks of swine for vanities villanies shadows and nothings to abandon God and all goodness on whom depends all thy hope and happiness quiet and comfort for time and eternity O blindness O folly O frenzie Would God I had never sinned Oh that I might never sin more O my God what have I done Would I had suffered on the Cross pains of body and pangs of soul when I thus N. sinned Oh what can I say or do more
remember What I am after so many signall benefits on thy part and serious promises on mine I am ashamed to think What I deserve I am afraid to call to mind What I desire I am ignorant how to ask Lord for thy mercies sake for thy Mothers sake by thy Bowels of mercy and her Breasts of meekness by all that thou hast suffer'd for me and she for thee by all that is dear to thee in heaven and earth forget and forgive what I have been my past folly and wickedness Pity and protect what I am my present frailty and weakness Be satisfi'd for what I deserve supply what I desire and be mindfull of me in life and death How much ô my God do I wish to leave all and lose my self to find thee to humble my self to please thee and to hate my self to love thee But these hard and high matters I dare scarcely promise how then and when shall I practise them Yet without thee ô sacred humility there is no solid centre to rest in no true sweetness to take gust in therefore ô my God I come to thy School to learn this necessary lesson teach me touch me wound me and win me unto thee 3. Pure intention to please and praise God only to be all his ever his in what manner and measure he best liketh both in this prayer and all things whatsoever Behold therefore ô my Lord how out of pure Obedience to thy Will 3. Pure Intention and confidence in thy mercy I now approach to please and praise thee Not to receive great matters from thee for I am unworthy nor to conceive great matters of thee for I am uncapable but to leave all for thee to be humble of heart beyond all and to love thee more than all this is both conform to my condition and obligation I come to prayer O my only Lord and love not to have much but to give up all to be thine all thine ever thine in life and death for time and eternity as thou best pleasest I come O my centre and sweetness to seek thee and sigh after thee yet I am content neither to find thee nor feel thee but only to see thee by faith and to suffer for thee with fidelity I am satisfied and content that thou art so good great glorious rich and happy in thy self and I am confident that thou in thy good time wilt make me rich in thy mercy and happy in thy love for in this Pilgrimage I desire no other happiness than true humility nor greater riches than naked charity The second part is Consideration shewing these three things first to our selves and then to our God as his poor beggers 1. Our wounds both internal and external to wit our sins ingratitudes daily faylings strong passions c. Ah! my sick and sinfull soul how 2. Part. 1. Our wounds weak and wounded are we in every degree in all parts in each member of body and faculty of mind 1. All is out of order all is pride and self-love how impenitent are we in sorrowing how impatient in suffering how unconstant in persevering and yet how importune in sinning 2. My Vnderstanding is blind to good clear-sighted to evil My Will is perverse peevish cold sensuall My memory is weak full of idle images subject to distractions 3. My affections are vain my passions violent my inclinations vitious 4. My Faith is little my Hope less my Charity least of all 5. So forward to extroversion and dissolution so backward to introversiâ—â— and compunction so full of imperfections and immortifications 6. So little confidence in thy mercy so little patience in my misery and almost no performance of mâ— good purposes 7. So curious tâ— censure others so careless to keep mâ—self and curb my own senses Fâ—nally all is self-love self-will self-conceit self-seeking pride propriety partiality which are my dayly and dangerous diseases O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and all-bounty these are my wounds and impurities and if thou wilt thou canst both cure and cleanse me and if thou wilt not I will remain content as I am I am willing to continue weak so I be not wicked to be wearied and wounded so I be not utterly tired over-turned defeated and lose the victory Cut kill crucifie ô Lord only spare me for eternity 2. Our wants for we are not only needy but naked not only poor but beggers who neither know how to deserve an alms nor how to desire it O my poor soul What do we 2. Our wants want nay what do we not want 1. True light true liberty true love true life 2. A setled attention a simple intention a serious introversion a sincere conversion 3. Humility of heart conformity of will purity of soul indifferency of spirit 4. Wisdom to know Gods will strength to execute it patience to persever in it 5. Resolution to suffer for our Saviour devotion to sigh after him diligence to find him constancy to remain with him 6. Courage to endure all faith to forgo all hope to expect all charity to give all and Confidence to gain all Finally we want all we should have Yet our loving Lord is ready to bestow on us all that he hath O my God and all Thou art all that I want give me thy self and all my wants and wishes will be at an end Thou art all my safety and my only security all my refuge and my only centre Vntil I can return unto thee or wholly turn into thee let thy Cross be my Purgatory and thy will be my Paradise for other heaven upon earth I can never hope to find Vntill then I must be content to sweat and sigh under the burdeâ— of this mortal life to sit like Job upon a dunghil forlorn and forsaken by all full of soars and sorrows to remain a perpetuall and pitifull patient scarcely feeling patience in my self and finding no compassion in others 3. Our wishes and desires What can a wounded wretch wish but to be cared for and cured What can a naked begger desire but to be clothed and comforted with some few raggs and crumms What can a blind and cold person ask but light and love This O my soveraign and sweet 3. Our wishes Lord is the sum and substance of all my wishes and requests O that I could go out of my self and get into thee That I were dissolv'd from my loathed body to the end I might dilate my heart in thy love contemplate thy divine face in perfect liberty and please and praise thy Majesty eternally For in this prison of flesh and vale of tears I faint under the weight of my temptations I fall under the burden of my troubles and I continually fail in the prosecution of my pious purposes Oh! that thy will did so rule me and reign over me that it were a torment to decline never so little from it O that thy love did so freely and fully
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
prerogative is it to have one Will and spirit with God Is not this to be a Saint an Angel a little Christ or a little God Did not Christ say Those that do the 〈◊〉 of my Father are my Brethrâ—n sisters mother and kindred Oh who would not change Wills with God 2. All things come from God and for our good 2. What can befall me sin only excepted which is from my will but from thee my most sweet Lord loving Father Good and bad comfort confusion life and death are from thee And what can happen to me from thee but for my good If my Father be my Physician shall I not drink the chalice he tempers for me What better sacrifice can I offer up to thee than my will In all other oblations I give but a part of my self or somthing belonging to my self But in this I give the principall leaving no right to my self nay I am no more my self but thy servant and slave 3. Why were we 3. This is the end of our life and being placed in this world ô my soul but to perform the will of God Why entred we into the school of perfection but to learn to practise it purely and perfectly To what end are all our prayers communions exercises c. but to know Gods holy will and to follow it What profit have we reaped by following hither to our own will What will become of us if we continue in it What means is there to amend it for the future but humble obedience and absolute submission of our will in all and to all leaving all to God doing all for God and receiving all from God that he only may be all in all What can endamage me but my will what will past present or to come The past I detest my present is that Gods will be done for time to come I desire this my will may stand irrevocable for ever How often have I done the will of others for my own ends to please them or pleasure my self and shall I not do now as much to please my Lord God Yes Lord I will what thou wilt neither more nor less without exception without reservation withoâ—t delay 4. What fruits shall I reap by this 4. The profits of this exercise Conformity of my Will 1 Having no will I can neither sin erre nor be deluded 2. There is neither judgement nor hell for me 3. â— shall find peace and rest and remaâ— constant and content amidst aâ— chances and changes and so begâ— my Paradise of delights in this 〈◊〉 of tears 4. I shall be freed from all troublesome fears scruples dâ—quiets indiscretions and illusions both in prayer and in the practâ—ce of vertue All which are deriv'd from the disorder of my Will and for want of this true conformity and indifferency 5. This gives every thing I doe leave or suffer a double grace merit and crown O only sweet short and sure way who would not leave yea loath his own Will for so many profits and pleasures 5. What doe heaven and earth Angels and Saints but Gods Will 5. All Creatures doe the will of God What doe the souls in hell but suffer for having done their own Wil What did Christ Jesus and Blessed Mary upon earth The one said I came not to doe my own Will but his that sent me The other said Behold O Lord thy handmaid doe with me as thou wilt I say also with heart and mouth O my Lord I am entirely thine put me where thou wilt give me what thou wilt use me how thou wilt so thou wilt goe with me and give me leave to bear and embrace thee with the two arms of perfect conformity and lively Confidence 6. What made the Apostles 6. Examples of this Conformity Martyrs Virgins so constant and content amidst their torments and trials What made those Saints so couragiously to defy the devils flocking about them like so many Lions and Monsters If God S. Antony others have given you power and permission over us take us devoure us hurry us headlong into hell we will not contradict his Will but if not why doe you labour in vain What made Job so patient on his dunghill Abraham so resolute to sacrifise his son And finally what made Christ in his bloody sweat to cry out Not my will O Father Lu. 22. 42. but thine bee done All this was caus'd by the Will of God which they desired to follow and fulfill to the last gasp and drop of their blood O holy and happy souls When shall I imitate you O my sweet God that thou wouldst say of me as thou didst of that thy servant I have found a man David according to my heart who will doe whatsoever I will Or that I could say as heartily as he did My heart is ready O God to accept and execute thy holy Will in all things whatsoever O my Lord let all sâ—lf-will and self-love hereafter dye in me and let thy only Will and love remain and reign in my spirit For I am most sure till I faithfully follow this rule I shall never find reall peace or content The 29. Maxim That Vnquietness of mind is the bane of Devotion and curse of Contemplation FOr it is not a single and simple Disquiet is not a single evill temptation but a source whence many spring a monster with many heads and the greatest evill sin only excepted which seizes on the soul Let us therefore shun it with all possible speed and dilligence and refuse to give it the least entrance into our hearts upon what pretence soever If we perceive our selves inclin'd How to prevent it to be easily troubled let us duly practise these two points First carefully fore-arm and fortifie our interiours against all future contrarieties crosses and contingencies by devoutly performing our morning prayers and exerciâ—es of Recollection Secondly prudently put off company and occasions of extroversion bridle our tongues till the tempest be blown over hide our selves in a corner turn our souls to our Saviour read something of devotion and in matters of moment impart our minds to some vertuous friend c. If we will alwaies keep internall A rule to keep inward peace peace we must observe these three rules First We must doe nothing only to edify others without a further end of God's honour nor any thing which may justly displease distast dis-edify or contristate them Secondly wee must not be eager eurious or solicitous to please or satisfy our selves yea or to perform our duty 's to God-wards by doing all things in print perfectly and exactly Thirdly All our pleasure must be to please God yet wee must not please our selves in the pleasure wee find in serving and pleasing him For generally it suffiseth that wee are heartily willing and quietly carefull to serve our Creator please him in all things and displease neither him nor any one in any thing and so
strivest to undermine my Perseverance But take courage ô my soul thy time of enduring will soon end and thy ensuing joy will be without end Hearken not to thy sworn enemies enchantments sit not stand not sleep not but pray watch and walk whilst thou hast light and life that the darkness of eternal night and death overtake thee not And since thy Loving Lord is both able and willing to succour and support thee and to turn every thing to thy advantage â—ven thy imperfections frailties and failings For thou art warranted that so Rusbrochius sure as God is God so sure it is that he will permit nothing to befall us but for our greatest good and his own glory and that it is most gratefull unto him we so judge of him doubt not of his providence and protection not fear to permit him to deal with thee as he best pleaseth and to remain in a perfect indifferency to all his divine ordinances and dispositions saying Since it is thy will O Lord it is certain to be nâ—y good be it so I am as sure thou lovest me as that thou livest with me A way then all diffidence disloyalty inconstancy How many Saints have you perverted how many souls have you damned Without thee O holy Perseverance all is lost with thee all is seâ—ure Grace till the end Glory without end Welcome holy Confidence the main support of my life and the life of my Perseverance I am content O my Lord to be conducted by thee for time and eternity as thou best pleasest Lead me by land or water by desolation or devotion by darkness or day by sickness or health I will adhere to thee constantly If it be thy blessed will O Loving Lord that I creep as a snail towards Perfection I will neither be troubled nor dismayed I desire not to fly faster than thou enablest me I quiet my self with the grace thou givest me which I acknowledge to be not only beyond my deserts but better for me than my own desires Finally I here make a generall Resolution and a generous Resignation of my whole self into thy holy hands hoping that it will give worth and value to all my actions and sufferings O my Soveraign and sweet maker A form of generall Resolution my whole Will and desire according to my great obligation former profession and present protestation is to serve and love thee and to fulfill thy blessed Will in all things and to be wholly thine at all times and in all things whatsoever 'T is thy Honour I only aym at thy Glory I only intend and thy Will I only seek to accomplish To thee alone I render and wish all benediction and eternall praise and with cordiall Joy I say Amen to all that is possessed by thy most amiable and perfect goodness and joyning my humble desires and devotions with all those that love thee I implore that we may be all thine and that thou wilt be All in us all And now O my soul since thou hast in some sort happily begun a course of Prayer Recollection Abnegation and Humility according to Obedience and supported by Confidence For further helps to perseverance read the 22. 23. 24. ch of St. Teresa's life Written by her self And her book entitled The way to Perfection Let the Devill storm let Flesh and blood rebell let the World murmure Answer them all Quod scripsi scripsi my Vows and Promises must and shall stand I am content to sign it with my blood I will sooner dye than swerve from my well-setled Resolutions or cancell the free deed and gift of my self to my Saviours service Darkness Desolation Death and Devill shall never make me change Live my good Purposes to love my dear Lord unchangeably irrevocably eternally Cant. 2. 16. My beloved is mine and I am his 2 Tim. c. 4 v. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which our Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing James 1. 12. Blessed is the man that indureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which our Lord hath promised to them that love him Revelation 2. 10. Be thou faithfull untill death and I will give thee the crown of life FINIS Errata In the Conflict PAge 32. line 2. for from read form p. 45. l. 15. for weary r. wary p. 69. l. 25. for mediations r. meditations p. 143. l. 28. for his r. he p. 143. l. 29. for its r. his p. 161. l. 29. for ordinary r. ordinarily p. 201. l. 2. for pleasure r. please p. 277. l. 2. for many r. may In the Conquest PAge 3. l 29. for some r. son In the Exercises Page 103. l. 12. for â—at his r. eat aâ— his In the Maxims
affection towards it So that these too cheif powers of man's soul miserably deceived and misled walk continually as in a circle from this darknesse into others and fall from one great errour into others more grievous 5. Take heed therefore of fastning thy affection upon any thing And the same caveat is necessary also in holy things whatsoever before it be wel weighed and examined by the Vnderstanding and recommended to God in prayer that so thou maist truly discerne whether it be good or evill And to this I exhort thee not only in all indifferent things but even in them also which are good and holy for though they are evidently good in themselves yet they may prove otherwise to thee by reason of some circumstance of time place measure or obedience Whence it often happens that many have endangered themselves in their most laudable and holiest exercises 6. Thou must also warily retain The Understanding is to be also weaned from Curiosity thy Vnderstanding from Curiosity lest it draw that into the soul which may retard it in the intended purchase of victory For a curious enquiry after earthly things which are impertinent to thy spiritual purpose though it may bee sometimes permitted yet t is generally the poyson of the spirit Restrain therefore thy Vnderstanding to thy utmost and strive to make it simple and foolish And made simple and foolish to worldly things As for the changes and chances in the world whether they be great or small if they concern thee not consider them not And when thou needs must heare or behold them let thy Will alwayes contradict them Yea even in the knowledge of heavenly things be sober and humble and content thy self in the onely desire to know thy crucified Saviour and his blessed life and death Abandon all other things for so thou shalt yield to thy Lord a most gratefull service who puts them into the list of his best freinds that desire no more knowledge than what is sufficient to inflame their hearts in the love of his goodnesse and hatred of their own wickednesse for in the search of all other knowledg nothing but self-love and a certain pernicious pride lyes secretly lurking 7. If thou thus weanest thy Vnderstanding How highly this conduceth to perfection from these curiosities thou shalt happily escape many ambushes of thy enemies For the wicked spirit marking the unchangeable will and resolution of those travellers tending to spirituall perfection not to yield their consent to sin layes his crafty plots first against their Vnderstanding that so he may by little and little get the mastery And how cunningly the devill plots against i◠over it and the Will together To this end hee suggests to the learned and sharpwitted sublime and subtile conceits that they may think themselves already united to the divinity so forget themselves and give over the correction of their own consciences the resignation of their wills and study of their own nothing And thus they are insnared By suggesting pride to our understanding with pride and make to themselves a certain Idoll of their own wisdome in their Vnderstandings and are so highly puffed up and perplexed in these vain thoughts that they now perswade themselves not to stand in any need of others counsell or direction 8. O the danger that these souls Which is far more dangerous and more difficulty cured than that of the Will are in and how hardly are they cured by reason that the pride of the Vnderstanding is far more perillous than that of the Will For hee that is proud onely in Will omits not all obedience but submits his judgement sometimes to others which he preferres before his own and beleeves it to be better But he that is puffed up with the pride of his Vnderstanding and assuredly believes his own opinion to be better than that of others ah what hope is there of his cure How shall he be brought to submit to anothers judgement when as he thinkes himself the wiser man For when the Vnderstanding which is the souls eye and should both see and correct its secret pride is it self blind and blowne up with presumption when light it self is become darknesse and the very Rule crooked thou easily conceivest what followes and what the end of those things is like to bee which depend upon such principles Wherefore take timely care to prevent this pride before it pierce thee to the marrow yeeld not up the reins to thy understanding but subject it to counsell and submit thine owne sense to others judgements become a foole in thy own conceit for the love of thy Lord and by this means thou shalt bee wiser than Salomon CHAP. V. Of the Will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions IF thou desirest ô dearly beloved 1. A will to do well sufficeth not to become one spirit with thy Lord God 't is not enough to have a pious and prompt will to doe good works but even that good thou doest must by his divine help and motion be totally referred to Gods honour and to please him onely In But our actions must be performed only to please God this thou must look to have a strong conflict with thine own nature which in all her actions and omissions seeks her own commodity and complacence especially in things spirituall Hence it is that when any good thing is proposed to be performed as from Gods will and pleasure shee readily undertakes to perform it but yet not as a thing pleasing to God or proposed by him but rather because she considers the commodities and content which man reaps by doing the will of God 2. Wherfore to the end thou Which that thou maist attain to maist wrest thy selfe out of this dangerous snare of the Devil and pernicious stumbling block cast in the way of perfection and by degrees get a custome to doe or not to doe because God will have it so and with an intention to please him only who should be the entrance and end of all our actions listen diligently to these following advices 3. When a thing is presented unto Apply thy understanding to Gods will thee to bee performed which is agreeable to the divine Will first lift up thy Vnderstanding unto God before thou appliest thy Will to execute it thus thou shalt clearly discern that it is his divine pleasure thou shouldest perform it and that thou shouldst doe it solely for his Honour and good liking And that thy will is drawn and moved by the divine will to effect this work for this onely end and intention because God will have it so for the honour and glory of his own most sacred Majesty 4. So likewise when thou wouldst omit or refuse the things not willed And take heed of being deceived by God resolve not rashly upon this omission untill thou hast directed the eye of thy Vnderstanding to the divine will as is even
have Angels Saints and God himselfe for thy companions and comforters Finally reflect upon the conflict which thou hast undertaken and considering how much thou hast to doe thou wilt find litle leasure to spend in idle talk CHAP. XIV Of the order to be observed in fighting against our enemies IN thy spirituall combat against thy disordered affections and passions follow this method First enter into the cabinet of thy Mark which are thy greatest enemies heart and let thy inquisitive thoughts search and examine with exact diligence which be the affections that there beare the greatest sway and with what thoughts and motions thou art most frequently tempted and troubled Secondly And having found thy And single out the fiercest to fight with foes turne thy weapons against that single enemy which then actually molests thee most nearly endangers thee and is now ready to graple with thee oppresse thee and ruine thee Thirdly But in time of peace with But when they appeare not seek them thy passions when no enemy appears in field to provoke thee to battalle begin thou with them and make thy strongest onset upon those which have chiefly indomaged thee most frequently foiled thee and wrought thy greatest confusion before thy Lord God CHAP. XV. What course he must take who is conquered and grievously wounded by his enemies IF thou chance to fall into some vice either through frailty and weaknesse or through wickednesse and wilfull malice Turne thee with When thou art faln rise with all speed all speed to God and first reflect upon thine own basenesse heartily hate thy self Then recollecting thy spirits and converting thy self againe to thy Creatour confesse to him thy ingratitude and say with an inflamed heart O my Lord he hold I have done Pray with fervour like my selfe For what better could be expected from me than basenesse fallings and sinfulnesse I am sorry O my God with my whole heart and I confesse I should have done farre worse and fallen more grievously had not the hand of thy goodnesse kept me stayed me and upheld me for which I render thee most humble thanks And now O my loving Lord doe thou like thy selfe according to the treasures of thy mercies and let me not live out of thy grace nor ever offend againe thy most sacred Majesty 2. Having thus sincerely poured Be not over-solicitous or fearefull forth thy heart in the presence of God be not solicitous and thoughtfull whether he hath forgiven this thy sin or no for such a curiosity savours of pride endangers thee to fall into the snare of Satan renders thee unquiet and consumes time to little purpose Therefore cast thy selfe purely into the paternall bosome of thy mercifull Lord resume thy wonted exercises and take up thy weapons again as though thou hadst not fallen Yea shouldest thou chance to fall many times a day and receive many grievous wounds from thy enemies yet never despaire never grow faint-hearted or over-fearfull of thy selfe but still stand upon thy accustomed guards against all new assaults and doe the same things with no lesse confidence the second third fourth time and as often as thy need shall require as thou didst at the first 3. This kind of exercitation by so much the more displeaseth the Devill by how much he well knowes it is highly pleasing to God and for this reason he moves all his engines to make us tepid and slack in frequenting it Doe thou therefore use But be diligent and use violence to thine own Inclination violence to thy selfe and the more difficulty thou findest by so much more redouble thy diligence in doing it and esteeme it not a thing over-irksome to renew it divers times in one and the same fall And if after the first next and third relapse thou feelest a grievous trouble confusion and diffidence in thy self yet still endeavour by all meanes to recover the inward quiet of thy soul Recovering the quiet of thy soule and reconciliation to thy Soveraigne and then reconcile thy selfe to thy loving Lord For that disquietnesse of conscience remaining after the sinne committed is not any signe of thy sorrow for having offended thy Saviour but rather of fear for thy owne private dammages which thou hast thereby deserved 4. Now the way to recover this The way to get this quiet is to forget thy fault quiet of mind may be this Having truly turned thy selfe to thy God and humbly craved pardon for thy sinne thinke no more of it but forget it totally for the future and fix thy thoughts onely upon thy Lords infinite love by which he earnestly desines to unite thee to himselfe and make thee partaker of his eternall beatitude And when by this or the like considerations thou hast setled thy mind and stated thy heart in tranquillity turne thy thoughts againe to contemplate thy fall and doe as thou wert directed in the beginning of this Chapter And when thou goest to confession as thou shouldst frequently do recall all thy fallings and defects into thy memory discovering them faithfully and confessing them simply to thy Ghostly Father CHAP. XVI That we should keepe our Hearts ever quiet and joyfull in our Lord. EXPLICATION AS when wee have lost the quiet of our Heart we are to use all possible endeavours to recover it as is aforesaid So thou must know No accident can justly deprive us of quiet that no accident whatsoever can with any just reason deprive us of the same For 't is most true and thou hast beene often told it that wee must be angry with our selves for our sinnes yet our griefe must bee govern'd with discretion and accompained with tranquillity and our sorrow must produce acts and resolutions of amendment of our lives not of disquiet and anxiety in our selves As for other painfull and unpleasing accidents as the sicknesse death yea and eternall damnation of our deare friends or the scourges of Plague Famine Warre Saccagings Burnings and other evils falling upon our selves though as they are things contrary to our For thoug◠wee must needs abhor things contrary to nature Yet wee may love them as coming from Gods permissiō And so conforme our selves to his holy will nature we must needs reject them yet we may by the efficacious working of Gods Grace not onely desire them but even be delighted with them as being the just punishments of the wicked and exercises of vertue to the good for which ends out loving Lord permits them to befall us Thus conforming our selves to Gods holy Will wee may quietly and peaceably passe through the midst of all this lives bitternesses and contrarieties And take this for a truth that all Disquiet of mind is displeasing to our deare Lord because it is never without some imperfection and evermore proceeds from some perverse root of self-love 1. To obtaine therefore this quiet of Text. Thou art to appoint a sentinell Heart in thy Spirituall Conflict thou
If monstrous have recourse to Gods secret judgements from a perverse and obstinate heart turne thy thoughts to Gods secret severe judgements where thou wilt find some whose works seemd to speak them highly wicked to have afterwards shew'd evident signes of holinesse and died with opinion of sanctity and thou wilt also find others who were thought to have touch'd the top of perfection tumbled downe into the miserable precipice of eternall damnation It is And tremble at the proceedings of his Providence therefore thy part to tremble at these unperceiveable proceedings of divine providence and to remaine alwayes carefull and fearefull of thine owne condition not intermedling with that of others which is concealed from thy knowledge 5. Finally beleeve it for a certainty And know that all Charity proceeds from God's good spirit that all the good and charitable constructions thou puttest upon thy neighbours actions are the assured effects of the holy Ghost and that all contempt rash censures and bitternesse of mind against them are derived from thy owne malice and and all bitternesse from the Devill thine enemies suggestion wherefore raze out of thy soule with all speed and diligence such impressions as glance at thy brothers imperfections and shut not thine eyes to sleep before thou hast excluded all such thoughts out of thy heart Of the meanes to shield us against the attempts of our Enemies at the time of death 1. Though the whole course of our life is a continual warre yet the The way to be conquerours at our death most signall and important day of battaile is the day of our death and whosoever is conquered in that last and inevitable skirmish remaines hopelesse of the victory for all eternity wherefore that thou mayst be then ready to beare this fatall brunt with constancie fight now and fall upon thine enemies before hand Is to fall now upon our enemies before-hand couragiously for he that is a stout combatant duting his life is most like to be conquerour at the poynt of death as having by long practice gotten the true use of his weapon 2. Thou art also to make death familiar to thy thoughts by frequent and attentive conference and consideration for so thou wilt lesse feare it when it comes and be freeer to resist what will then so fiercely assault thee Worldlings heare not willingly this doctrine because it interrups them in the cariere of their pleasure which they follow with over-much passion and affection and consequently leave it not without great griefe and affliction But doe thou my dearly beloved make timely preparation for a matter of Therefore make timely preparation so high importance and to this end imagine thy selfe to be sometimes all alone helplesse and comfortlesse struggling hand to hand with death and there represent to thy soule these things following which as I conceive will then most afflict thee and consult with thy own heart how to remedy all things before it be to late that so thou maist readily make use thereof in thy latest and greatest And now study thy answers to the four challenges which thy enemies will then send thee necessity For that which can once onely be acted ought in all reason to be very exactly studied before-hand lest a fault be committed which can never be redressed Of four assaults which our enemies make against us at the time of Death And first Of their assault against Faith and of the meanes to defend our selves 3. Our subtill enemies make ordinary The First is against Faith their strongest opposition when we are in the weakest condition and therefore they raise four maine batteries against us from whence they let fly their empoysoned darts at us into our death-beds assaulting us with temptations against Faith with Despaire with Vain-glory and with Illusions 4. As for the First When the Devill sets upon thee with false arguments The remedy is to retreat from thy Understanding to thy Will to batter downe thy Faith make a speedy Retreat from thy Understanding to thy Will saying Avoid Satan thou Father of all falshood I will give thee no audience for it sufficcth and satisfies me to beleeve that which the Catholique Church proposeth unto me Take heed therefore of admitting any fancies concerning thy Faith though they appeare never so friendly but take them all as indeed they are for deceits of the Devill to ingage thee in a dispute with him But if thou art so sodainly intrapped that thou wantest time to retreat stand strongly upon thy firme ground and never yield either to the reasons he allegeth or to the authorities of Scripture he citeth assuring thy self that they are either â—ull of fallacies or corruptly quoted or ill applied or falsly interpreted â—hough they appeare never so clear and evident 5. And should the subtill Serpent fall upon interrogations to intrap And to give no answer to thy enemies questions thee in thy answers As What doth the Church beleeve vouchsafe him no reply but frame an inward act of lively and firme Faith or undauntedly tell him that the Church beleevs the Truth If he againe proposeth And What is this Truth Say it is even that thing which this Church beleeveth 6. But above all things keep thy heart and mind fix't and attentive But to fix thy thoughts upon Christ crucified upon the contemplation of Christ crucified where sweetly discoursing with thy Lord and love say O my God ô my Saviour ô my Creatour succour me speedily abandon me not in my necessity let me not swerve one tittle from the truth of thy Church and grant me I beseech thee this grace that as I now live in it so I may constantly dy in it to thy glory and my owne eternall comfort Of their Second assault of Despair and the Remedy against it 7. The Devills next Engine wherewith he strives to ruine and destroy The second assault is of Despaire us Is the fright he puts into us upon the thought of our â—normous offences whence he would cast us down headlong into the guâ—ph of despair In which cruel danger stand Where thou art to observe this certain Rule fast to this certain Rule That all reflexions upon thy sins proceed from Gods grace and tend to thy good if they be followed with effects of humility with true sorrow for having offended so good a God and with a firme confidence in his goodnesse But when this reflexion disquiets thy mind makes thee doubtfull and distrustfull peevish and pusillanimous then although thy sinnes appeare indeed sufficient to make thee think thy selfe justly and eternally damned and that there can be no reason for thee to hope after Salvation assure thy selfe they are clearly the effects proceeding from Satans suggestions And therefore And to have a perfect humble thy selfe so much the more and be more hopefull and hope and humble confidence in God confident in thy God whereby thou wilt confound and
INward or mentall prayer Is an 1. Mentall prayer includes aswayes elevation of the mind to God and it alwayes includes either to an actuall or virtuall petition of something 2. Virtuall petition is when the minde is lifted up to God to obtaine Either a virtuall Petition â— some thing some grace from him shewing him our necessities simply and briefly without any discourse or consideration of any other things As when I elevate my mind to God and confesse before him my weaknesse both to do well and to defend my selfe from doing evill This sort of prayer is properly tearmed Virtuall because when I thus briefly lay my minde open to God hee well knowes what is there wanting and how much I stand in neede of his helpe EXPLICATION ANd this virtually implies an humble supplication to his Divine Majesty that hee will vouchsafe to supply my necessities And by how much the more this confession of thine own want and weaknesse is reall and manifest and thy desire efficacious and thy confidence lively by so much also thy demand shall be of more force and value 3. There is also another kinde of inward virtuall Prayer which consists in a simple beholding or contemplation of God in our minds And this Prayer is When we silently desire and as it were put our Lord in remembrance of that grace wee formerly demanded 4. Learne O my beloved this way of Prayer and make it familiar unto thee by the frequent use of it For experience will give thee to understand that it is the best armour of proof against all enemies adversities and dangers Have it therefore always in readinesse that where and whensoever need requires thou mayst make use thereof 5. Actuall petition or actuall inward Prayer is when grace is asked Or an actuall asking by words expressed in the mind by words expressed in the mind In this or the like manner Give me O my Lord God this grace this benefit for the honour of thy most sacred name Or thus I steadfastly beleeve O my God that it is thy holy will I should begg of thee this grace which I stand in need of Do thou therefore O my God accomplish thine own pleasure in me 6. Thus also thou maist present before Gods Divine Majesty thine enemy which annoyes thee or thy sinnes which afflict thee joyning therewith thine owne weaknesse to resist them and say O Lord looke upon thine owne creature made by thy holy hands and redeemed by thy pretious blood behold also thine enemy and mine outragiously reaching at mee and striving to take mee from thee and teare mee in peeces O my God to thee I onely fly In thee onely I trust Consider my weaknesse and mine enemies strength who will infallibly subject mee to his tyranny if I am left destitute of thy powerfull protection CHAP. XXIII How wee may joyne Contemplation to this inward Prayer 1. IF sometimes thou art willing to settle thy selfe to mentall Prayer for a certaine space of time as an houre or more thou mayst joyn Take some points of Christs Death or Passion to this way of Prayer certaine Meditations upon the Life and Death of our Saviour Christ applying alwayes his Actions to that vertue thou then demandest and so meditating upon them both together 2. For example Patience is the vertue thou art now in quest of choose therefore for the subject of And apply his actions to the vertue thou demandest thy Meditation some mystery of Christs Crucifixion As how cruelly hee was despoiled of his garments which were barbarously rent from his Body carrying away part of his sacred Flesh which cleaved fast unto them With what ourcries and As for example to Patience curses they crowne and uncrowne him with Thornes iterating againe and againe that terrible torment How this most innocent Lamb was fastened with Nayles to the wood of the Crosse and lifted up into the Ayre with unspeakable griefe of his Wounds and new anguish of his whole Body And so of other the like points 3. And in these considerations first apply thy senses to feele see c. the paine which thy deare Saviour endured in these passages in all the Members of his sacred Humanity Then elevating thy heart to his holy Soule penetrate into his Pâ—tience and Meeknesse and see how pleasantly hee passeth over these so great and grievous afflictions and how ready hee is for his Fathers satisfaction and our salvation to suffer much more and farre greater torments After this behold him hanging Mark how meekly hee suffered and learne thereby to suffer patiently thy smaller adversities on his Crosse and compleating his sufferings by his Death stand thou close to him and contemplate him and thinke with what an ardent desire hee did all this for thee that thou by his example might'st learne to endure with patience thy smaller adversities for his honour And as hee turned himselfe to his Heavenly Father and prayed for thee so thou shouldst implore his Grace to beare and overcome this Crosse thou now groanest under and all other thy Of Resolution grievances with quiet of minde and constancy of resolution 4. And Lastly compell thy will to consent to these sufferings And And compell thy will to take up thy Crosse quietly speake to it to take up this Crosse quietly and cary it on constantly Then turne thee to God thy Heavenly Father and humbly beg of him the vertue of Patience and that he will be pleased to hear the perfect Prayer of his own dear Son powred out on the Crosse for thee CHAP. XXIV Of another certaine manner of Prayer by way of Meditation 1. THere is yet another manner of Praying and Meditating together As thus Having attentively and seriously considered upon thy To pray and meditate together Saviours bitter Passion sustained for thy sake and to save thy soule apply thine own senses as aforesaid and endeavour to feel as it were the like dolours in thy selfe and let thy thoughts pierce into the promptitude of mind wherewith Christ thy Saviour suffered all this 2. And having weighed his exceeding pains and his exact patience proceed to these two following considerations By considering Christ Merits the content his Heavenly Father took in his obedience First of the treasure of Christs Merits and Secondly of the high content and good liking which his heavenly Father took in his deare Sons perfect obedience Then 3. Having fill'd thy minde with these pious points of Meditation produce them and present them to And presenting them both to God thy Lord God and beg by vertue of these that grace which thou standest in greatest need of And thus thou mayst put up thy Petitions not only in meditating upon any mystery of Christs passion but also upon any internall or externall action of his CHAP. XXV Of a way of praying by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin 1. THere is yet besides these foregoing methods of Prayer and Meditation another way
by the means of the most glorious and ever-blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ Wâ—ich thou mayst thus easily practise First fix thy mind and meditation upon God the Eternall Father then upon Jesus Christ his deare Son and our sweet Saviour and lastly upon Mary the First fix thy minde and meditation upth ' eternall Father ever-blessed Virgin-Mother 2. In thy meditation of the Eternall Father take these two points for thy subject and offer them up to his Divine Majesty First the great liking and content hee had in himselfe from all eternity concerning this perfect creature the Virgin before she had a being Secondly the wonders hee wrought in her and the content he took in her when she was borne into the World 3. And as for the first of these considerations Soare aloft and Considering the content he had in himselfe concerning her from all eternity exalt thy thoughts beyond all time and above each thing created penetrating the very eternity of the Deity and then consider what celebrity of joy and delight the Divine Majesty had within himselfe concerning this sacred Virgin and her high perfections And there finding thy Lord amidst these joyes and delights lay hold of the opportunity and addresse thy Petition unto him with full hope and confidence that for this his great joys sake hee will impart bountifully some Grace Strength and Courage unto thee whereby thou mayst be enabled to encounter and conquer thine enemies especially this vice which now chiefly tempts and troubles thee 4. Hence proceede to the consideration of those admirable vertues great gifts and singular graces conferr'd upon this most glorious Virgin And the wonders he wrought in her when shee had a being and sometimes present the whole bulke of them to the view of the eternall Father other-times choose out some particular perfection to lay open before him imploring and intreating for his owne boundlesse goodnesse sake and in respect of these vertues and merits of this his dearly beloved Spouse that hee will graciously heare and mercifully grant what thou so greatly needest 5. Then turne thy thoughts towards the Sonne of God our Lord Secondly upon God the Son Jesus and represent before him the sacred wombe of his Virgin-Mother which enclosed and carried him for nine moneths space as also the singular reverence wherewith shee received him from her wombe into her bosome when he first appeared in the World assisting him and acknowledging him true man and adoring him as eternall God as her own poore child and as her powerfull Creatour Put him further in minde of her eyes of compassion towards his poverty of her sacred Armes which so often embraced him her Kisses wherewith shee cherish'd him her Milk wherewith shee nourish'd him her labours suffered for him all his life time and her dolours at his Death by which and the like relations from the deare Mother thou shalt use as it were a certaine violence to her beloved Son to grant thy Petition 6. Lastly come to the sacred Virgin Lastly come to the sacred Virgin her selfe lay open before her her owne privileges prerogatives and perfections how shee onely amongst all Virgins and Women was especially elected by the eternall Power Prudence and Goodnesse of God to be a Mother of Gâ—ace and of pitty to be an assistant and advocate of all mankinde and that next to her dearly beloved Sons humanity wee can apply our selves to none but her for better supplies of our necessities or truer solace in our sorrowes or greater hopes of happinesse Tell her also of that true and tryed saying that no one did ever faithfully call upon her who received not a mercifull answer and present assistance by her holy Prayer and Patronage Lastly put before her eyes all her Sons sorrowes and sufferings upon Earth and beg of her for his sweet sake for his onely honour and for his glory that thou mayst impetrate by her pious intercession the effect of this thy Petition which that thou mightst obtaine he patiently underwent his so bitter Death and Passion CHAP. XXVI How to pray and meditate by means of the holy Angels and Heavenly Citizens 1. ANother powerfull meanes to obtaine thy Petition is by the Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven which is also practised two manner of ways First apply thy thoughts First addresse thy selfe to the eternall Father to the Eternall Father and present before him the Love Honour and Praise wherewith his Heavenly Court worshâ—ps and exalts him and withall lay open all the miseries labours and molestations which his Saints suffered and by his grace surmounted here upon Earth 2. The other way is by applying thy selfe to these glorious spirits as Next unto the glorious Angels and Saints themselves to them who not onely remember us amidst their joys but earnestly desire our perfection beg therefore their faithfull assistance in thy fight against vices and sometimes implore their ayd and assistance at the houre of thy Death against thy dreadfull enemies 3. Other times reflect upon those excellent gifts and graces wherewith their Lord God indued them exciting in thy soule a lively feeling of love and joy that they possesse these high perfections as much yea more than if they were thine owne since such was the good will and pleasure of the Divine Majesty 4. And that thou mayst more Dividing them into Quires according to the days of the weeke easily and orderly performe and practise this pious exercise divide the Quires of this blessed company according to the week-days in some such manner as followeth Upon Sunday meditate upon the nine Quires of Angels Upon Monday of the holy Apostles Upon Tuesday of the glorious Martyrs Upon Wednesday of the blessed Bishops Upon Thursday of the holy Doctors Upon Friday of the holy Confessours Upon Saturday of the sacred Virgins 5. But let no day passe without But every day praying to the B. Virgin To thy particular Patron some speciall devotion to the most glorious Virgin Mary to thy Proper-Angel and to that particular Saint and Patron to whom thou owest singular duty and Veneration EXPLICATION AMongst which I perswade thee to place S. Joseph the deare Spouse of the sacred Virgin who as experience and contemplative persons testify will assist thee by And to S. Joseph his holy Prayers in all thy temporall and spirituall necessities and particularly advance and direct thy Soul in its spirituall Exercises of Prayer and Contemplation And surely if our loving Lord so highly esteemes his other Saints because they yielded him his due honour and obedience upon earth how much more doth hee value this most humble and happy Saint and how prevalent are his prayers like to be with that Divine Sonne who honoured served and obey'd him upon Earth as his Father CHAP. XXVII How to meditate upon the holy Crosse and Christ our Saviour hanging thereon to excite and move our affections 1. I Have before shewed thee O my
future And for an acknowledgment of thy extraordinary obligation for thy Saviours sufferings undergone for thy sake with a resolution of amendment thou wilt resolve to serve him love him and suffer for him hereafter The third profit is that thou wilt fall out with thy perverse inclinations The third a persecution of our passions The fourth an imitation of Christs vertues and passions and persecute them to death be they never so little The fourth is that thou wilt force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to imitate the virtues of thy deare Saviour who endured all this not onely to save thee and satisfy for thy Sinnes but also to give thee an example to follow his sacred steps Another way to meditate on the Passion And now my beloved I will here declare unto thee another method of meditating upon Christs passion which thou maist make use of as thy devotion and occasion shall suggest unto thee If thou desirest for example to obtain patience in imitation of thy Redeemer consider these points following First What the afflicted soule of thy Saviour doth towards his heavenly Father By considering Secondly What the Father doth towards this soule of his Sonne Thirdly What this soule doth towards it selfe and its sacred body Fourthly What doth thy Saviour towards thee Fifthly What shouldst thou doe towards thy Saviour First therefore Consider how the soule of Jesus Christ being totally First how Christs soule carries it selfe towards his heavenly Father intentive upon God Is amazed to behold this infinite and incomprehensible Majesty in respect whereof all things created are as a pure nothing submitted though immutable in his glory to the sufferance of such unworthy usages upon earth for man from whom he never received any thing but disloyalty and injuries And how it afterwards adores thanks and offers up it self intirely to the disposition of the divinity Secondly how the Father towards him Secondly Consider how God willeth and exciteth the soule of thy Saviour to suffer for thy sake all those blowes buffets scourges spittles blasphemies thorns and death upon the Crosse giving him to know how well it pleaseth him to see him thus replenished with all sorts of affronts and afflictions Thirdly passing on to the soule of thy Saviour Christ Consider how with his understanding which is all Thirdly how the soule towards it selfe and its sacred body light knowing how highly his passion pleased God and with his will which is al fire loving the divine Majesty beyond measure which thus invited him to suffer for thee he disposeth himself readily joyfully contentedly to obey his sacred will and pleasure And who can dive into the depths of those desires which this pure and loving soule of thy Saviour had to suffer for thy sake It found it selfe as it were in a Labyrinth of troubles casting about to encounter new wayes of sufferings and therefore freely gave up it selfe and it 's innocent body as a prey to the pleasure and cruelty of the most lewd and worst sort of villains Fourthly Consider in the next Fourthly how thy Saviour carryes himselfe towards thee place thy sweet Saviour amidst his bitter torments fixing his eyes full of teares and tendernesse upon thee and conceive thou hearest him thus expostulating with thee Behold my Child whither thy immoderate desires and unmortified affections have brought me because thou wouldest not use a little violence to thy selfe See and consider how much and how willingly I suffer for thy love and to give thee a pattern of perfect patience I beg of thee ô my deare child and I conjure thee by all these my sufferings and sorrows that thou wilt willingly embrace and cheerfully carry this Crosse and any other which I shall think fit to lay upon thy shoulders and that thou abandon thy selfe intirely into such hands as I shall permit to persecute thee in body or fame how vile contemptible and cruel soever they be O didst thou but conceive the greatnesse of the comfort I should receive in this thy patience and courage But thou mayst read it in these my wounds wherein my love to thee is written in bloudy characters and which I willingly receive as so many precious pearles to enrich thy poore soule with all sorts of vertues and perfections because I love it above all things created And if I thy Lord and Creatour am reduc'd to this extremity for thy love why ô my deare Spouse wilt thou not consent to endure a little to satisfie my hearts desire to supple my wounds and to mitigate these my pains caused by thy impatience which more afflicts my soule than these grievous torments doe my body Fiftly Consider well who he is Fiftly how thou shouldst carry thy selfe towards thy Saviour that speakes thus unto thee and thou wilt find that he is the King of glory Iesus Christ true God and true Man Mark also the greatnesse of his grief the variety of his torments and the manner and indignity of his disgraces too bad for the worst of men or most infamous malefactor in the world Yet thou seest thy Saviour amidst all these affronts and afflictions not onely unmoveable mild and patient but even joyfull and content as if hee now kept his marriage-banquet And as a little water rather strengthens than extinguishes a full kindled fire so by the increase of his torments which were small in respect of his excessive love his content and desire of suffering farre greater was more and more enkindled and augmented Consider further that he endured all this by no externall violence nor for any self-interest but as he told thee for thy love and that thou mightst imitate him and exercise thy selfe in the vertue of patience And then penetrating into that which he desires thou shouldest doe and into the content thou shouldest afford him by this thy practice of patience produce acts of a passionate will to beare not onely this Crosse patiently and joyfully but any greater that so thou maist imitate him more perfectly and content him more abundantly And imprinting in thy mind a lively image of these his sufferings and of his constancy therein be ashamed to thinke thy patience so much as a shadow of his or that thy affections are really any at all being compared with his and tremble that the least thought of not enduring for the love of thy Lord should remaine in thy heart Thy Crucified Jesus my beloved is the best book thou canst read in Christ crucified is the best book to read in and the liveliest image thou canst look upon to draw the perfect pourtrait of all vertue For it being the book of life it not onely informs thy understanding by words but also inflames thy will by example The world is full of books yet all of them together cannot so speedily and perfectly teach the true means of obtaining all vertues as doth the right contemplation of Christ upon his Crosse But they And to learne all
profession obliging us to sincerity though we most willingly acknowledg your temporal and spiritual greatnesses heartily congratulate your high perfections and joyfully consider you mounting up amain the divine ladder of heavenly love contemplation Yet we cannot but look upon your souls as immured stil in walls of clay we can only judge you to be faithfull pilgrims not full possessors to be valiant champions not yet crowned conquerors and therfore we conceive that we may much better complie w th our dutie to God and our obligation to you by endeavoring to further you in your spiritual progress than to follow you w th Euge's and acclamations as if you were already arriv'd at the desired end of your journey For this reason we declare that the primarie motive inducing us to present you with this small spiritual donative is the ardent zeal and desire we have of your own happie advancement in solid devotion divine charitie And in pursuance of this design we First discover brieflie unto you the most common dangerous snares of your sworn enemies and shew you the safe way to shun them Secondly we deliver spiritual arms into your hands wherewith to defend your selves defeat your foes by reducing the precepts into practice furnishing you with such affective acts elevations as may readily serve you for restauratives against fainting in these your indefatigable combats Thirdly we raise you up a ladder of perfection from the top whereof which is perfect indifferencie resignation and obedience to Gods Divine will and pleasure you may comfortablie cast down an eie and counteach step you have taken in your wearisom journey towards your heavenlie Jerusalem Fourthly from this mountain top of perfection we shew you the divers degrees of sacred and seraphical love which wil lead your elevated souls to perfect union with their beloved Bridegroom and settle them in the sweet embraces and bosom of the divinity And lastly we have made a collection of the chiefest and choicest Maxim's of mystical Theologie to which you may have continual recourse by which you may solve all your doubts and in which you may secure your consciences upon all emergent occasions and difficulties arising in this your blessed enterprise tendance to eternal felicitie These are the choice flowers which we have gathered in the several gardens of sacred writers and bound up in this posie for your present use comfort and incouragement The other end we aim at in this our dedication is to give you posteritie a publick and perpetual testimonie of our grateful hearts for your many signal favors and temporal benefits wherewith you have more obliged us and our neerest friends than we can either tell how to repay in any other coin or express in any particular tearms And therefore we desire you to receive this our thankfull acknowledgement and real protestatition proceeding from both our united mindes and mouthes as an absolute assurance of our truly devoted service to your selves and all the worthy branches of your most honoured family THE FIRST TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or A plain discovery of the Ambuscado's and wily Stratagems of our Enemies in this our daily War-fare Enabling the Christian Warrier to foresee and avoid them Psal 56. 7. They prepared a snare for my feet but Psal 123. 7. The snare is broken and we are delivered AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the devout Champions tending to perfection YOu have beheld * In this precedent Treatise of our learned and devout authour Fa. John Castaniza O Dear Champions of heaven a famous Duel fought between the Sense and the Soul the Elesh and the Spirit the Animal and the Spiritual man you have been Spectators of this Grand-plea and present at this renowned trial where before the supream Tribunal of Truth and Reason the Animal man was convened and arraigned at the Bar had Peâ—rus Damianus Serm. 30. his own thoughts words and works for his casting convincing and condemning Jury heaven and earth irrefragable witnesses against him his own guilty Conscience a constant accuser of him the said Truth and Reason the impartiall Judges pronouncing sentence upon him and his own soul the happy executioner of their just verdict Which lifting up the sword of holy zeal and indignation gave such home-blows of Contrition for the past and Resolution of amendment for the future to his heart that blood of tears and joy seem'd to stream from the wounds and the whole man first made a true Martyr of Pennance is now become a faithful witness of Gods infinit mercies You have seen I say a notable siege lay'd to this rebellious City mans sensuality which for it's ditches of defence had depths of impiety for walls and rampiers obstinacy and insolency for towers and bulwarks mountaines of pride and presumption for arms and weapons reluctancy to goodness and resistance of Gods inspirations for artillery tumults for dwelling-houses dens of hypocrisie for palaces labyrinths of dissimulation for temple proper-will for Idol self-love for Captain blindness for Souldiers exorbitant passions for counsel folly and for constancy perverse opinions Yet Babylon is fall'n this treacherous town is taken sensuality is subdued So great is the force of Grace and so happy the success of Truth and Reason And which is most worthy of joyful admiration perfect liberty is gained by this captivity high advancement by this down-fall holy greatnesse by this annihilation and by this death a happy life O blessed Conquest But lest this now stifled fire of rebellion should again burst forth into new flames of sedition and so your recidivations prove more dangerous than your first diseases For Alas such is mans inconstancie that he now seems in a Who so stands let him look that he falls not 1. Cor. 10. 12. firm station who soon falls and fades away into nothing such is the nature of his quarrel that it hath no other point of quiet in this life than the last full period of his death such are his watchfull enemies that they Mans life is a warfare upon earth Job 7. 1. are ever waiting for advantages and such is his known weaknesse that it perpetually wooes and eggs him on to wickednesse how highly doth it import you O pious Souldiers to stand constantly and continually to your spirituall arms to keep an uninterrupted guard upon all the gates of your inward and outward senses and appetites To this end we have here presented you out of our Authour Castanizae with a brief draught of your enemies chiefest postures shew'd you from what grounds they take their usuall advantages against you and discovered where they lay their Foreseen darts do least hurt Greg. hom 35. in Evang perilous ambushes to intrap you that being thus duly forewarn'd of your eminent danger you may be fitly and fully arm'd for your necessary defence preparedly attend their approaches undantedly receive their charges couragiously repell their violence and finally return loaden with glorious Trophees of
and the rule of discretion will permit elevated to your Lord and love cry continually for his grace knock And sigh after it perseverantly incessantly at the gate of his mercy sigh after him perseverantly seek to perform his will diligently and follow his pleasure purely and perfectly give that day for lost wherein you have not made some progress in the way of perfection and finally rouse up your selves and prick forward your sluggish dulness in devotion with some brief and burning aspirations which you are to have alwayes ready in your heart and mouth As Excâ—ting our sluggishness by frequent aspirations O my Lord ô my God the life of my soul and the only love of my heart when shall I love thee as I desire and thou demandest O my Jesu when shall I die perfectly to the world my self and all things that I may live purely and intirely in thy only charity O when shall I be nothing to any creature and every creature nothing to me but only in thee and for thee alone O that I could go out of my self and get into thee That I could thrust my caitif heart out of this breast to establish thine ô my sweet Saviour in it's place O let thy true love transform me totally into thee Let me not live any longer but in thee Let me not love any creature but by in and for thee my Creatour O incomprehensible bounty Either take my soul out of this world or take the love of this world out of my soul Either bereave me of my life or bestow on me thy love c. In all which raptures and affections the holy Spirit is the best directour whose inward impulse and dictamen you are diligently to follow still according to discretion and obedience with a perpetuall longing and loving sighing and seeking to advance your soul to divine Union 2. Finally I conclude with this hearty and heavenly counsell of S. Anthony to his disciples against this dangerous coldness in devotion An excellenâ— document of S. Anthony My brethren Let this be my generall and particular precept unto you the first and last lesson I teach you Never to lose your first fervour and good purposes nor to grow slack in your observances but to go alwayes forward and renew daily your devout exercises as if you daily were new beginners in the way of perfection This he often repeated and inculcated and being on his death-bed that his last words might remain more lively imprinted in their mindes he bequeathed unto them as his final and never to be forgotten testament this piercing and pithy document able to win wound and melt a flint into fervour and compunction O my loving children I go the way of my forefathers our Lord calls and invites me and my soul thirsts after him and heaven But you ô my bowels what will you do I have often admonish'd you and do at this last gasp leave it you for my will and testament Take heed you grow not tepide and go backward and so on a sodain lose the pains and profit of so many years past Think still you are to begin anew as though what you had already suffer'd for Christ were nothing Let your good will and desires get every day new strength and vigour forget what is past and run to what is before you live and labour with such fervour and purity as if it were your first work that ever pleased God or the last service you should ever render him in this mortal life O devout souls Our dayes pass away swiftly death is alwayes at our heels eternity approches wherein our God whom we have serv'd and lov'd will wipe the tears off our eyes the sweat off our brows the blood off our wounds crown us with glory peace security immortality Let us not lose heart in his service nor hope in his goodness He expects and invites us Angels and Saints offer their helping hands The question is of eternal life eternall light eternal liberty and eternall love THE SECOND TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST or The use and Practice of those necessary weapons which are prescribed in the Treatise of the Spiritual Conflict Here Methodically managed and drawn into seven Exercises Affective Acts or Aspirations according to the dayes of the Week Psal 118. v. 34. Give me understanding and I will search thy Law and I will keep it with my whole heart AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions aspiring to Perfection THat you may make the right use O devout souls of these ensuing Exercises you are first to be premonished That Aspirations or jaculatorie prayers are short and fervent acts elevations desires and requests of the Soul to God And they are of divers sorts and may be performed either in the heart only or by the heart and mouth jointly First they may be practised by way of petition begging love vertue perfection devotion c. As O Lord give me light to know thy Will grace to embrace it and force to follow it Help me to overcome my self and my sworn enemies Assist me to disgest difficulties and disgraces for thy love Pitty a poor sinner Pardon a proud beggar Receive a prodigall Child Redeem a perishing soul confirm my frailty confound my Pride comfort my Dull Dark and desolate Spirit And the like short amorous and pithy petitions Secondly they may be expressed by way of wishing and sighing after God goodness piety perfection c. As O Lord vvhen shall I knovv thee and my self When shall I truly love thee and perfectly hate my self When shal I live in thee and be dead to my self Or thus Oh that I vvere truly vertuous truly religious truly mortified Oh that I vvere all thine O my poor soul take courage hovv shall vve abound vvith delights vvhen vve shall see our Master and Maker in his heavenly Kingdom Thirdly they may be performed by way of expostulating and complaining sometimes to God other-times to our own souls and then to all creatures As Hovv long Lord vvilt thou forget me for ever Why hidest thou thy face Why art thou sad my soul O heavens are you shut against me c Fourthly by shorter expressions as by Expressing the whole affection in few words thus Good God! Svveet Jesu Hovv long O fire burn O one O all c. These must differently be made use of according to the various disposition of the souls dryness or devotion In all which you are not to binde your selves to any set form or sorts of words but only use such as holy and fervent love shall suggest unto you And this manner of prayer by fervent Aspirations frequent acts of love and enflamed elevations of the soul is according to the divine doctrine of S. Denys the easiest shortest sweetest and perfectest means of uniting the soul to her last end which is God and consequently of corresponding to our creation and calling This saith he is that admirable holy and hidden Unitive vvisdom which
and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions disgest injuries the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence The end thou aymest at is perfection the reward of thy conqucst is eternall love eternal life eternall happiness Behold ô my Lord my strength and my salvation I am fully resolv'd to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveagling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disordered passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. I know Lord that it is bootless to study perfection without the practice of mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather ô my Lord the dispersed forces of my soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my understanding will memory imagination and all my inward and outward sences from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform ô my Lord all the naturall corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spirituall infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy divine will and pleasure 4. To this end O bless my weak endeavours al-mighty and al-merciful Lord God I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensuall and subject to sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward senses the windows by which death steals into my soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divine fire cooled and quenched not only by sin but also by the distracting images of outward objects I will keep a speciall and strict watch over my tongue on which depends my spirituall life or death and cheerish thee ô beloved silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferior This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct themselves according to Gods Spirit nature with all it 's evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope Anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the laws of reason and thy divine inspirations ô my Lord and my God Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous and my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the citadell from whence sin assails me and Satan fetcheth his forces to fight against me Grant good Lord that I may Therefore every one must strive to know his own natural inclinations and then imploy all his forces and apply all his prayers and spiritual exercises to quel them never yeild to this wicked Eve persuading Adam my Superior will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawfull pleasures O that I could tame these cruel beasts my naturall passions how soon should I be master of all morall vertues O that I could so till this vineyard so delve this garden so purge it from all ill weeds of affections and prune all superfluous surgeons and shoots of passions that the seed of thy grace ô heavenly husbandman might only there take root increase and fructifie 5. I will also mortifie my Superiour and rationall part with all the curious and fruitless speculations of my Understanding all conceits of self-wisdom naturall prudence proper judgement and good liking of my own proceedings All vain and foolish reflexions of my Memory And all petty desires and affections of my Will which relate not to thee the only object and Lord of my love I am resolved ô my Lord to nip off each budding passion as soon as it peeps up in my soul to trouble it in its true repose and to hinder its liberty and tendance to thy love I will by thy gracious assistance proceed faithfully and sincerely in the hatred denial and mortification of my self and in the prosecution of thy divine love And in order to this only end and aym I make in thy presence and from the very bottom of my heart and soul these particular acts following I renounce ô my Lord for the pure love of thee all affection to worldly things Give them unto me ô gracious God or take them from me as best liketh thy divine Majesty I resign up all my interest in any thing though never so near and dear unto me Behold ô my Lord and lover I uncloath my soul from all affections whatsoever to creatures and desire nothing but thy self-alone O happy nakedness O rich poverty of Spirit O pure obedience to the divine will in all things Be you my hearts delight my whole pleasure and patrinony 6. I renounce all self-seeking Ah! my corrupt nature I abhor thee Adieu all private-interest profit praise and preferment I will henceforth performe all my actions and exercises O my Lord God for thy only pure perfect love I will seek to please and praise thee with an inward ardent and amorous affection for thy self only and not for thy gifts or graces I renounce all sensuality whether it be in meat drink sleep apparel curiosity of my five senses or any thing else whatsoever O my Lord I will make no other use of any thy creatures than I am absolutly compell'd to by necessity of nature I look for no solace but from thee alone My only comfort and content I renounce all
perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness whereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Grant me also good Iesu by the merits of these thy wounds the vertue of perfect obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing self-judgement in submitting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiours injunctions but even to the commands of all thy creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholly mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Iesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me do so transforming my will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whole self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance of thee my crucified Lord. Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Iesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whole course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. From thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy al-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet fountain issuing from thy powerful right Paulm my manifold sins of malice and injustice with all my faults of hypocrisie and ingratitude falshood and infidelity rancor and revenge Renew O Lord God a right spirit within my bowels Let exact justice be the square of all my actions truth the touchstone of my words and sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratiâ—ude and obedience with my whole heart soul and strength next to my Superiors equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judge or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish enemies Lord Iesu give me grace to imitate thy vertues to be gratefull for thy gifts and to make use of thy goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divine Majesty 5. And in the Sacred wound of thy left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Neglâ—gence tepidity sluggishness cowardise and pusillanimity all my covetous desires all impurity and all intemperance Purge me O my powerfull Lord purifie me O my merciful Savior Give strength comfort and courage to my feeble and frail nature that I may pass undauntedly through all difficulties and dangers to come to thee my Iesu to lay hold on thee and to repose in thee the only Centre of my desires Grant me O my Lord chastity of body and cleaness of heart temperance in my appetites and sobriety in my senses gravity in my deportment and moderation in all my proceedings that nothing may dislike thee in my soul nor dissolve the sacred knot wherwith thou hast fasten'd me unto thee Give me also O Iesu my Lord perfect poverty of spirit O permit not my soul intended to enjoy thee the only solid and satiating riches to be intangled with the least affection to the poor and perishable trifles of this world Behold I cast my self uncloathed from all creatures into thy naked embraces O crucified Saviour I desire to clip nothing in my folded arms but a breast burning with desires to please thee my Creatour and a heart melting away in thy love I make choice of thy bare Cross O Christ for my best inheritance I stretch out my opened folds to meet thy holy and heavenly huggings O let me never more be unclasped from thy blessed bosom Be thou O my great-little-naked-Iesu my rest during the short time of my life and my refuge at the dreadful hour of my death 6. And now O mercifull Saviour I humbly convert my eyes and contemplation to thy sacred Head crowned with thorns and thy divine Face all besmeared with gore and spittle for my sake Here I implore strength O Jesu for the weaknesses of my head and pardon for the wickednesses of my five wits and senses O my Lord I desire to bury in these thy innumerous wounds the enormous number of my iniquities and I beseech thee for these thy sufferings sake to adorn my weak capacity with so much solid wisdom as may fitly suit with my condition O let me never think speak or act any thing which is not seasoned with the salt of discretion Let me seriously weigh each circumstance and patiently wait thy leave and leasure before I leap into any work Inlighten me to see clearly thy will and pleasure and impower me exactly to fulfil and follow it Open the eyes of my Understanding to behold my own baseness and wickedness and give me thy gracious assistance to reform it Help me to form a right judgement of the real vileness and vanity of all transitory things and indue my heart with courage to contemn them Inebriate my affection ô amiable Iesu with the sweetness of thy love and let all worldly solaces savour of bitterness to my soul Let me be deaf blind and dumb to all things which are not thy self ô my crucified Saviour Let me prudently discern and piously perform each parcel of my duty in it's due circumstance of time place order measure and manner Let that holy and innocent simplicity which is the vertue of thy Saints shine in all my actions Let me not be curious to know much but careful to practise much and cordial to love thee much O
my only Lord and love Cleanse my Will from all self-seeking Keep my Memory from all superfluities Close up my Senses fâ—om all vanities that my happy soul separated from all sensible images may quietly tend to thee only sweetly repose in thee and continually enjoy thy blessed presence O let thy pure and perfect love dear Lord Iesu be the faithfull scout-watch over all my proceedings that no forreign affection no sinister intention no self-liking or self-seeking may steal into my heart and defraud or disturb it's happy enjoyment of thee and holy unity with thy divine Spirit Grant O my Lord that I may prudently turn all good events and all bad accidents to my spirituall profit by reflecting wherefore they befall me of what they warn me and how far they concern me Let me learn thereby gratitude to thy goodness fervour in prayer contempt of my self humility of spirit care of my actions resignation to thy will amendment of my life or what else thy holy Spirit shall please to intimate by these fatherly visitations O sacred Head of my crucified Saviour be thou my certain succor during my lives conflict and my sure place of retreat in my last agony with death 7. And lastly I reverently approch to thy dear Heart ô amiable Lord Iesu opened with a cruell launce in the sight of thy blessed Mother and thy beloved Disciple for the love of my soul O my Iesu I here implore thy pardon for all my perverse affections and irregular appetites Give me thy leave ô my loving Lord to creep into this sweet hole of the rock this sacred cleft of the wall this unlock'd closet of heavenly treasures this saving Ark of the new Testament and shut thou O Iesu the door from without that free from the deluges of all wickedness and dangers of the world flesh and devil I may sit solitarily silently and sweetly hearkning to thy divine whispers in my elevated soul Purge all my impurities ô my dear Saviour in the pretious blood streaming from thy patent side and replenish my heart with thy perfect love Oh! drown me wound me burn me and consume me in thy divine flames of affection that I may love thee strongly purely perfectly perseverantly O grant me to leave all things with alacrity for thee my beloved Iesu though never so great to lothe all things joyfully for thy love though never so good to do all things contentedly for thy honour though never so hard to suffer all things patiently for thy sake though never to painfull and to persever constantly in my pious practices for the sole satisfaction of thy holy will and accomplishment of thy blessed pleasure O let me be incessantly calling and knocking at this sacred gate of mercy Let me be still sighing and seeking after thee my Iesus my Saviour my Lord and my love Let me be alwayes thinking ever talking and perpetually tending to unite my heart to thine to conform it unto thine to transform it into thine that I may be all thine and thou all mine for time and eternity Grant also dear Iesu that I may truly love all others in thee and for thee O inflame my charity quicken my faith rectifie my intentions strengthen my confidence in thee destroy all complacence in my self establish me in all these my good purposes and let me be as often minded of my now-promised duty and incouraged to proceed forwards in the path of perfection as I shall eye the sacred image of thy crucified humanity Elevate my desirous soul unto thy self ô Iesu my Lord above all chances changes and creatures Oh! let it be so totally attentive to thy presence so intirely taken up in thy contemplation and so wholly absorpt in thy love that no outward objects may touch or trouble it no inferiour cares or cogitations may intangle it nothing may impede the free intercourse of thy heavenly friendship nothing may stop the sweet influence of thy divine graces or any way interrupt it 's happy quiet and holy tranquillity O dear and opened Heart of my dying Lord Jesus be thou my sweet comfort during this lives pilgrimage and my sure Sanctuary in it's last period FOR SVNDAY Of perfect Union with God The Seventh Exercise 1. O Infinite immense and unmeasurable abyss of all bounty O ever-flowing fountain of mercy O undraynable Sea of love O my Lord my Soveraign my Saviour and my Sanctifier Behold I return into thee the sweet source of my beginning I run into thee the gracious preserver of my being and I desire to rest in thee the only hope of my souls happiness Be thou henceforth O my Creatour the sole subject of my thoughts and the only object of my love Be thou ô God of my heart heart of my life life of my soul and soul of my love my part and my inheritance for ever I choose thee only I offer up my self wholly I consecrate my self heartily and dedicate my self eternally to thy love honour and service Ah good God! where dwellest thou which is the pleasant plaee of thy abode ô King of glory and comforter of my soul I seek nothing but thy lovely presence I desire nothing but the presence of thy love My soul sighs to see thee my heart covets to have thee my love longs to enjoy thee and I can expect no perfect content untill I am totally united unto thee If I now beg a glimpse of thy divine face O my glorious Lord then a drop of thy heavenly grace and afterwards a dram of thy dear affection Yet in all this it is thy self O sweet God which I demand thy whole self is the only satiating object of my boundless desires and unlimited affections 2. I desire to love thee ô only amiable Lord God by all means and beyond all measure until I am totally transformed into thee by love O do thou freely and fully possess my spirit guide it govern it inlighten it inflame it elevate it inform it and transport it how and when thou pleasest Oh! Let all adulterate love be quite banished all multiplicity vanish away and all impurity and self-seeking swallowed up Let thy love be my light my liberty my life Lord I desire but two things in this world To love see tast and enjoy thee my best beloved and to be humbled despised rejected and esteemed a reprobate for thy love O sweet life O loving Jesu what a heaven what a happiness is it to love thee O how lovely how loving and yet how little loved is my God O source of all goodness and centre of all good souls What is the greatest love of mother friend life or any thing else Art not thou my God all this to me and all in all Ah my soul what didst thou ever best love And didst thou love thy Lord God as much I blush O my dear Lord I sigh and am ashamed to answer I will henceforth do any thing suffer any thing and leave all things for thy love I will not live but
languish not breathe but burn by reason of extasie and excess of love 3. O fire O flames Burn consume annihilate Alas Beauty of Angels how late and how little do I love thee O come into my soul behold a poor lodging yet such as it is it is all thine I conceal nothing I reserve nothing heart soul spirit all is thine own compose all dispose of all depose all unruly passions impose what penance thou pleasest I accept it o my Lord only repose peaceably in my soul and let no foul or false affection interpose it self or disturb this blessed union O that I could please and praise thee purely perfectly perpetually Oh that I could love thee faithfully freely and fully in all and above all things ô my all and only love I acknowledge my self bound ô Lord in thy chains of charity I am burned in thy fire I am wounded and won to thy love But what shall I say What can I give All I have is not worthy of thee and yet is thine already Ask my sweet Lord and have choose and take make me such as thou desirest and then take me to thy desire Give thy self ô great God to my soul and then take my soul with thy self in it My life liberty love and all is thine own My last will is already made in which I bequeath all to thee Thine own death and passion all thy mercies and merits all the praises and perfections of thy dear Mother and the blessed Saints and Angels and all the goods glories and splendors of all thy creatures All that I am have and can both spirituals and temporals kindred friends riches health honors estates offices devotion all is at thy disposition I am resolute ô my Lord I am resigned and indifferent to have them increased or diminished to use them to thy glory or to lose them altogether 4. I give thee back ô merciful Maker my whole being either to be what thou wilt or to be nothing at all to love thee or not to live at all I offer to thee ô pious Redeemer my sins to pardon my works to perfect my will to purifie I offer thee my wounds to cure my soul to cleanse and my spirit to comfort I offer to thee O holy Spirit my intentions to rectifie my inclinations to sanctifie my affections to deifie Finally I offer all for one I give all to one and all I desire is to be all one with thee my all and only Lord and love Thou hast given me O my bountiful Creator the whole world in free-hold for one penny of Rent saying Child give me thy heart O Lord Let this penny never want the superscription of thy grace and let me never want thy grace to pay this rent O my Lord all that I have is but two small mites I cast them into thy hands and had I more I would give more Dispose of them both dear Lord of my body and soul as best pleaseth thee that thy will may be perfectly performed and thy name purely sanctified in both O sweet God of my heart Let me embrace thee in the two arms of profound humility and perfect charity O let my heart faint and melt away in the fire of thy divine love let me lose my self to find thee be out of my self to live in thee and be empty of my self to be full of thee O fun of Justice dissolve with a beam of thy brightness the frost of my heart and resolve it into tears of affection 5. O beautiful and best-beloved of my soul I am weary of this wretched world and I breathe thirst and sigh after thee the sweet fountain of life-giving and soul-saving waters O thou true rest and refresher of my faint and feeble heart out of whom there is neither comfort nor content Let me shroud my self under the shadow of thy wings untill iniquity and infirmity have an end Come Lord Jesu Speak thy sweet words of love to my languishing soul for thy servant hears thee Give me courage alacrity fervour and fidelity in thy service the few remaining moments of my wretched and wearisome pilgrimage O rest long expected and much sighed after where shal I seek thee and when shall I find thee where sleepest thou O dear Spouse at midday in the heat of love Where is thy secret cabinet of Contemplation which thou hidest from the wisdom of worldling and revealest to little ones and humble of heart O shew me the bed of divine Union wherein thou reposest with the simple solitary and mortified soul O let my poor heart have the honour and happiness to rest in thee to remain with thee and to be united to thee O God of love wound my soul with thy sweet wounds of love which nothing can cure but death wean it from the worlds vanity and wed it to thy increated verity that treading all creatures under me I may be rapt into thee my Creator above my-self and there like the happy Dove in the secure Ark repose my weary and faint lims in the bosom of thee my Soveraign Lord and lover 6. O divine wisdom Lead me into the solitude speak unto my heart teach me thy holy will in all occurrences My deep sighs and secret desires are not hid from thee Thou knowest nothing can fully cure comfort and content me but thy self the one and only necessary thing O take my self and all and give me that one thing in whom are all things O sweet waters of divine Love which flow from the blessed bosom of the divinity and from the open side of my Saviours humanity Run into my bowels and like pure oyl penetrate and possess every parcel of my spirit Irrigate and inebriate it overflow and absorp it that it may be transformed and conformed to the divine Spirit so that all my actions cogitations and affections may be spiritual divine and Deiform O let my ravish'd soul full of life and fire break forth into these flames of joy and jubilation I have found him whom my soul loves I have him and I will hold him This is he which by reading I sought by meditation I found by prayer I desired and by contemplation I enjoy O how the earth stinks how loathsom are all creatures to me O tast O sweetness O true and solid pleasure O how great is the difference between this spiritual and all fleshly delights O the multitude of thy sweetnesses which thou hast laid up O Lord for them that fear and love thee O lights O delights O extasies of spirit Wound me O sweet God burn me consume me crucifie me Let me cry out with that Lover Retain O Lord the floods of thy grace or inlarge my heart for I can hold no longer I thirst Lord give me this water O when how long how much 7. O my soul how good is it for us to be here O sweet and secure home and harbour Let us remain and rejoyce here for ever I will keep thee O my dearly beloved and
I will kiss thee I will conjure thee to remain with me I wil rather lose my self than leave thy presence My beloved is mine his honour is mine his heart is mine his heaven is mine And I am his behold the key the keeper the soul the body the lord the whole ô my God is thine Behold my liberty my life my love all is thine ô my Jesu and thine alone Repose therefore as a sweet posie between my breasts sleep like a bridegroom in my heart and reign like a King in the most intim closet of my soul Come Lord Jesu come quickly take full possession of thy own Come and please thy self love thy self and serve thy self in me as thou desirest and deservest to be pleased loved served Let thy love O King of love be the life of my soul and the lease of my life that when I cease to love I may cease to live In thy love O Jesu I end this act of love though my desire actually to love thee be endless Oh! let me live and dy in thy love and for thy love that by love I may for ever reign and remain with thee in thy Kingdom of love Amen THE THIRD TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Ascent of the pious soul by Steps and Degrees of Vertues to the happy Mountain of Perfection Psal 83. v. 8. They shall go from vertu into vertu The God of Gods shall be seen in Syon AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions tending to Perfection THis Spirituall ladder O dear Souls will shew you how much you have profited in pure solid devotion how far you have proceeded in the way of the Spirit how forward you are in seeking God forsaking your selves what progress you have made in your journey towards heaven Contemplate therefore your selves often in this impartial mirrour bewail your backwardness shake off your sloathfulness increase your fervour and encourage your diligence to climb this sacred Mountain of Perfection and to pass on cheerfully from vertu to vertu Psal 83. 8. till you happily come to the beatifying sight of your Lord God in Sion The Seven Degrees of Perfection 1. VPon the first Step stand they who are Faithfull Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgements and Careful to avoid mortall sin These are Beginners who have little inward light stand upon slippery ground and though they may be saved yet so as by fire 2. On the second Step stand Proficients who strive to avoid venial sins and conquer their sensuality but are slow in tending to Perfection and subject to be self-conceited 3. On the third Step stand they who casting off sloath tame themselves with austerities but their intentions are not pure nor they well grounded in self-denial 4. On the fourth Degree stand they who have gotten into their interiour but yet seek for solaces and are discouraged with adversities 5. On the fifth Step stand they who are fully resigned and perfectly obedient but fail for want of experience and courage 6. On the sixth Step stand they who have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and constancy but desire comforts to enable their perseverance Here also stand they who are indifferent to comforts or desolations but yet they rest in Gods favours with some propriety Here furthermore stand they who are satisfied with God only but are not absolutely as willing to leave divine favours as to have them 7. On the seventh and highest Degree of Perfection stand the elevated and contemplative souls Gods faithfull friends and favourites who are perfectly indifferent resign'd and obedient in all things to his divine will and pleasure The first and lowest Degree of Perfection THe first Step and groundwork of all vertue and perfection is To be well setled in the Vpon the first step of this ladder stand Beginners who are Faithful Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgments Careful to avoid mortal sin Catholick faith Fearfull of Gods severe judgements and Careful to avoid all mortal sin This is the Church porch and entrance into Gods holy Temple but they who stand here remain cold in charity carelesse and undiligent in their lesser duties remiss in spiritual exercises negligent in thinking of their obligation by which they stand ingaged to tend towards perfection and finally they greedily gape after all conveniencies of their corrupted nature and give up themselves to glut and solace their depraved sensuality These Beginners have very little But they have little inward light or no inward light they know not what is the meaning of mortification what it is to get into their interiour or what Introversion signifies but they seemingly satisfie and secure themselves in that they have a will to avoid the known and capitall sins whereby they hope to escape hell and avoid Gods heavy judgements Surely such souls stand upon very unsafe and slippery ground and Stand upon slippery ground their salvation is in a doubtfull and dangerous condition for they are so blinded and bewitched with self-love and sensuality that they cannot well distinguish perfectly discern nor rightly judge what sins are of mortall danger and what not so that conversing dayly amidst such multitudes of perils and shaking hands with the world the flesh and the devil with so much freedom so little care and precaution what do they else but dance as it were upon the very brink of hell from whence if they once tread awry they infallibly tumble headlong into that bottomless dungeon of eternall perdition Yet in case they should indeed And though they may be saved foot it so warily all their life time that death takes them not tripping nor fall'n into mortall offence a thing most rare and not to be presumed on by any one who carries himself so carelesly they shall surely be saved but so as by fire They must expect a most sharp and severe Yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. punishment a long and piercing purgatory by reason of their unmortifi'd affections to venial sins their giving scope to their unbridled senses their neglect of Gods love their coldness in charity and their tepidity in tendance to perfection And as for their good works they are not likely to be there much available since their groundwork was servil fear their end self-love and their whole drift and intention altogether sinister and deficient from that purity and perfection wherewith they should have been performed The Second Degree of Perfection THey stand on this second Step who hearkning to Gods holy inspirations following his internall On the 2. step stand Proficients Who are careful to shun venial sins and conquer sensuality attractions and obeying the sweet invitations of his Spirit keep themselves disingaged from all vain affections to the world yield not to the enticements of flesh and blood resist the suggested temptations of the devil and carefully avoid all occasions of offending their Lord and maker so much as venially To help on this pious design they put
possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy all if I could embrace crosses as crowns and swallow down all contemprs and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all foâ— One to be left by that One who iâ— my All and so remain quiet iâ— my own nothing How long shall I he wallowing in flesh and blood how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me aâ—l dross of self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee â—ternally Lord let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble sorrow for our sins ingratitâ—des disloyalties tepiditie c. O my God! how little did I love 3. Part. 1. Contrition thee when I so carelesly offended thy Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediately O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy sacred will and commandements Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future fallings How great ô Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferr'd thy benefits bestow'd and thy love powr'd out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my sins that my heart might break with sorrow Hide not ô Lord thy face from me shut not up thy mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolv'd upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thâ— mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our wanâ—â— wishes desolations and distresses â—â— the divine will and pleasure I am indifferent O my dear Lord 2. Resignation to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou â— my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledge my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all light all liberty all love all comfort all content yea even all vertu peace and perfection so long as it shall please thee O father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and confidence the first that our God is what he is the next that he will heal our wounds supply our wants satisfie our wishes and turn all to our good I am glad ô my glorious Lord 3. Complacence and Confidence God that thou art so worthy of all love though I of all others am not worthy to love thee I am as joyful for what thou art o great God as if all thou hast were all mine and I will love thee in all I am and have as being all thine Thy Cross is my comfort thy Will my well fare and thy love my life so that if I can but suffer for thee do thy will and follow thy love I shall do all that is necessary I am indeed dry dark and desolate but since it is thy will I am sure it is my good and therefore sufficient for me and satisfactory to thee I hope thou wilt one day compleat thy own heavenly design in my soul healing my wounds supplying my wants fulfilling my desires and filling my yet empty heart with thy sweet presence and perfect love In the mean space I will say and sing Live Jâ—sus Live my Lord my love my life my all whose name bâ— blessed by all whose will be accomplishâ—d in all whose honour be advanced above all An advertisement touching the precedent Exercise 1. We must perform it dayly diligently discreetly and with great confidence and courage 2. Yet without propriety that it may neither hinder the operation of the Holy Ghost within nor works of due obligation and obedience without 3. If in the practise of this introversion we find dryness and feel little devotion we may somtimes fitly resume in lieu of the second part or consideration our wonted exercises whereto our minds are more addicted ending the same with the Conclusion here prescribed being ever duly disposed to follow the holy Spirits invitation to higher matters If we faithfully observe these things we shall infallibly receive comfort and speedily perceive our own unspeakable profit and progress by the practise of this pious exercise as being indeed the end of all other externall devotions and the short sure simple and Râ—gia via leading to a spirituall devout and divine life The third Maxim That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable FOr the end and drift of all discoursive Prayer is to move inflame and enkindle our affections in the love of God and vertue and therefore all discourses must be left by little and little as our souls can more and more live in Faith and simplifie themselves from materiall objects images and conceptions and only tend to God by a sweet and secret motion of the will an amourous correspondency to the Divine operations and inward impulses of his holy Spirit treading down and transcending all things under God by discreetly forgetting and unknowing them The fourth Maxim That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God PRayer in generall according to As is more amply declared in our Introduction to the Spiritual Pilgrimage the known division is either Vocall or Mental Mentall Prayer is An Elevation of our spirits into God For as our Creatour is elevated above all creatures so our souls cannot see talk and treat with him purely and perfectly but by leaving them all and lifting up themselves above them all This Elevation is by means of Meditation Contemplation Thanksgiving and Petition Which
the morning and the other in the evening to his particular honour 4. That we must frame an act of pure Intention at our entrance into Recollection as thus I intend ô my God to employ each moment of the short time I shall remain in thy presence in adoring thy Majesty admiring thy goodness begging thy pardon for my offences thy mercy for the souls in Purgatory thy succour for the Churches necessities thy assistance in such an extremity thy strength against such an inclination thy grace for the getting such a vertue I am here on my knees ô Lord to perform these homages and present these petitions This Intention will virtually endure the whole time of prayer and make our seeming idleness and stâ—lâ—ess active and meritorious 5. That we must briefly examine our Consciences and produce acts of Contrition self-confusion humility and resolutions of amendment Saying from the very bottom of our hearts in this or the like manner O my Lord my God my 〈◊〉 thou deservest all praise honour and service because thou art good gracious and glorious I will henceforth rather lose all than leave thee ô my God without whom all is nothing and since thou art so good in thy self and so good to me I will by thy grace never more offend thee I will confess my sins amend my life perform my penance walk carefully humbly obediently resignedly in thy presence to all which I am principally moved by the infinite greatness beauty and bounty of thine own divine being and perfection In the particular examen of our consciences which must never be omitted in the beginning of our Recollection we must mark to what vice we are most inclin'd and wherin we are most frail and then trample Read the Spir. Confl c. 7. n. 1. 4. that down violently and resolutely for this Captain-imperfection being conquered the rest will soon yield and submit And in the next examen we must impartially search and censure our selves and see whether our falls in that kind are still as frequent as they were formerly and so set upon our enemy again with fresh fervour vigour courage and constancy till we have gotten the compleat victory 6. That we must also make an Act of perfect Resignation before we fall upon this Exercise Leaving our selves intirely in Gods hands He is our father let him dispose of his children and all that concerns them as he best pleaseth saying O my Lord my father my lover do with my life my health my temporals my spirituals my body my soul all all as thou wilt I come not hither to receive my own content but to learn how to conform me to thy will in all things and to remain in that very state neither more nor less nor otherwise which best pleaseth thy divine Majesty 7. That we must bring with us some theam subject or groundwork of our Prayer and Recollection As some mystery of our Saviours life death Passion mans last ends some vice to be conquered some vertue to be attained some divine perfection to be admired or some jaculatory sentence to be so long stayed on and chewed till our souls feel themselves inclined to quit all discoursing and acting and to remain quiet in an exercise of pure Faith and perfect Resignation as followeth 8. That we must look on God by Faith and leave off all discourseâ— When lively conceiving by Faith that our Lord is in us and in all things we humbly beg him to teach us the holy lesson of divine love and so keeping our selves in his presence bidding good night to all creatures objects and images whatsoever as at this time nothing concerning us we only and immediately eye the beloved object of our souls and rest quietly contentedly silently and sweetly absorpt into the Diviniâ—y 9. That we must carry God with us from our Prayer Let us not leave our dear Lord in the Oratory when we rise from Recollection but bear him along with us continually in our hearts talking still with him and of him eating and drinking in his company sleeping with him in our arms negotiating walking recreating doing all things with him in him for him and ever praying and praysing him whom we have with us and within us in the closet of our souls 10. That we must put on Christ and imitate his example in all our actions Our Saviour Christ is our Master let his life therefore be our modell and his practises the patterns which we always study to express and imitate Let us comport our selves in eating drinking sleeping speaking praying and doing all things as we conceive Christ did or would do upon the like occasions if he were now living upon earth in his humanity Let us study to have this Rule of three alwayes at our fingers ends 1. To think as Jesus did 2. To speak as Jesus did 3. To do as Jesus did So striving to become as it were a Jesus Christ by imitation Thus briefly we have the whole manner and method of this transcendent Prayer and divine exercise of Recollection to wit 1. To get into our retreat 2. and there placing our selves on our knees 3. Twice every day 4. to frame an act of pure Intention 5. To examin our consciences and produce acts of Contrition 6. and Resignation Then to 7. think on the subject of our prayer 8. Leave off all discourses and look on God by faith 9 Carry God with us from prayer and 10 lastly put on Christ by imitation Which is the short and secure way to divine union and Deiformity being faithfully performed discreetly practised and carefully accompanied with profound humility perfect obedience and an absolute submission to our spiritual director as shall be more fully deduced in the subsequent Maxims The sixth Maxim That for this pure perfect and Transcendent prayer no certain Rules can be prescribed THe ground of all Prayer even purest is as hath been said some mystery some devout sentence some vertu or some jaculatory dart c. untill our affection be moved Now if by continuall Introvâ—rsion and peculiar grace our Wils are drawn incontinently by the simple view of our beloved Lord it is needless to use this ordinary means When our affections are thus enkindled they break forth into flames of love and aspirations Then the heat increasing our Prayer grows more inward our sighs deeper our love greater our hearts more ardent in their desires of Union which is active Contemplation Wherewith our souls being overcome and drowned in tâ—eir lovers presence leave him to speak move act all things with us and within us and so we sleep in passive Contemplation freed from all objects of creatures and sweetly united by pure love to our Creator The degrees therefore of Prayer in generall are these 1. Devout reading or mix'd Prayer The degrees of Prayer in generall 2. Vocall Prayer 3. Meditation or consideration 4. When the affection is excited Vocall aspirations 5. The heat and light encreasing mix'd partly Vocall partly Mentall
affections 6. Then more still abstract and simple Prayer 7. After which come's Active Contemplation 8. And lastly Passive In which estate we may and must leave all Rules and help our selves by experience and the â—â—ght â—f Earth but especially by following and humbly obeying the internall motion and attraction of the holy Spirit of God upon whom chiefly depends the perfection of this great work For further explication whereof The seventh Maxim That the Contemplative must be very observant of the divine visits lights and calls WE must take heed of tying our selves to any set forms of words points or methods of Mental prayer after we have made We must ty our selves to no set methods some progress in this practice of Recollection for this were directly to impede the free operation of Gods holy Spirit within us When therefore we shall perceive our souls drawn from discourses to this higher exercise we must humbly and readily relinquish our former hold and give scope and leave to the divine invitation busying our selves no longer in our former fears and customs but making use of such inward or outward expressions as fervent love will suggest and furnish us withall conforming our selves perfectly to God's will and cooperating with his grace yet so as not to run before it which is the other extream equally hindring the divine Spirit 's intention Wherfore a quiet indifferent and industrious attention and correspondency still willingly giving way to Obedience for fear of delusion is the very best disposition to receive these heavenly visitations We must not then be troubled But willingly quit our old customs if we break our old customs to embrace Gods will he is the end of all our exercises and the end being obtained the means must cease O how many are called by God who refuse and resist him by tying their Spirits to this or that practice and so bar him from elevating their souls to himself as he pleaseth They are loath to leave God in their usuall Devotions for God in Contemplation If they begin not their prayers thus and thus end them they think they have done nothing and remain wholly unsatisfied Thus they become proprietarians in their Wils and slaves to their exercises and because they cast not themselves absolutely into the two arms of Gods will and love they make small progresse in the way of solid perfection The eighth Maxim That the only way to get true peace of mind is to be totally Resigned to God REsignation is a putting away of What Resignation iâ— our own Will and a placing of Gods Will in its stead it is as it were a certain transfusion of our Wills into his and an uncloathing our selves of all desires but only that God's holy Will be fully accomplish'd in heaven and earth Without this Resignation we There is no true quiet without it shall never find quiet in God nor our-selves and the way to attain to it is to receive all that happens as from Gods holy hands and to be content to bear it as long and in what manner and measure he pleaseth Let us not be troubled under a false pretence of zeal at this place that company c. For it is not that but our selves who stand in our own light First then let us seek God purely in all 2. See him present in all 3. Take from him all 4. Return to him all Let us be indifferent in all praise God in all bee quiet and content in all in sickness and health in light and darkness in peace and trouble in life and death To be expell'd out of Paradise with Adam to lye full of sores and sorrows with Job on a dunghil to be forsaken by all with Christ on the crosse to bee poor needy naked nothing being ever ready to say cordially cheerfully and with an humble and habituall indifferency Yes O Father yes I will It pleaseth thee it shall pleaâ—e me well good best of all So be it my good Lord for time and eternity in this and in all things A soul thus resigned can never be troubled with any cross or calamity for she eys Gods Will and embraces his Providence in all occurrences nothing toucheth her but only thâ—t his divine pleasure is not perfectly performed in her self and in all creatures If in her prayers she be seiz'd with How to be resigned in desolations drynesse dulnesse desolation shee gratefully confesseth that state to be best for the perfecting of her spirit She neither complains of nor considers her inproficiency in her pious exercises for she comes not to prayer for gusts or graces but to doe Gods will to receive what he pleaseth to suffer what â—e permitteth And because this Resignation is the Key of her true progress she makes frequent and fervent acts thereof in this or the like manner Take my Will totally to thee O Acts of Resignation my God! govern it absolutely and submit it perfectly to thine own and because I cannot deliver it up O my dear Lord as thou desirest take it from me by violence cut off all impediments break all my fetters for me bring me forcibly and bend me absolutely to a blessed conformity with thy Will and pleasure Let my whole employment in this life be the practice of this point Let me neither think of pain nor look upon recompense but resignedly behold thee because thou art in thy self so good so great so glorious so amiable so admirable I give up my Will O divine Artist to bee plung'd purified polished hammer'd filed and fired in the fornace of thy love O doe with it and with me as thou best knowest and pleasest 'T is for this I now come to prayer and for this only that I may be taught this happy lesson of denying mine own and doing thy Will Or thus briefly Lord I put my Will and alâ— that concerns me inwardly out wardly temporally eternally intâ— thy holy hands dispose of all aâ— thou pleasest and direct me in aâ— to doe thy divine Will Having made this act and oblation let us reflect seriously upon what we have said and done and that in giving away our Will wee have put the best pawn wee have into Gods hands and out of our own power let us then beware of so infamous and ignoble an action as to re-take the gift so solemnly delivered or to doe again our own wil in any thing whatsoever The ninth Maxim That a Contemplative soul must lay a solid groundwork to serve her in time of Desolation FOr no soul can in this life be alwaies elevated to the Divinity and therefore will sometimes need a stay to rest upon till she can take breath and repair her forces in order to her higher soarings in Contemplation This resting place This groâ—ndwork may be Christs humanity may most fitly be the Humanity of Christ which is the very way and dore to the Divinity upon which when she returns to her self after she hath been absorpt
into the divine light shee may confidently rely and repose And without this prop the higher shee ascends the lower will be her fall back again The tenth Maxim That in this high Exercise of Recollection the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity must perfect and possess the three powers of our souls Vnderstanding Memory and Will IT is in the first place to be observ'd as an undoubted truth that a foul cannot in this life bee united to God immediatly by her understanding memory will imagination or any other sense power or faculty whatsoever but only by the means of Faith in her Understanding by Hope in her Memory and by Love in her Will. These three vertues must therefore Read F. Cisnerius ch 65. be introduced by our cooperation with the divine grace into the said three powers of our souls in the purest and perfectest manner that is possible if we will arrive at the height of divine Union 1. Faith must so possess our Understanding as to deprive it for that present of all other knowledge than that of God only 2. Hope must blot out of our memory all images and thoughts of possessing any thing but God only 3. Charity must uncloath our Wills of all affections joys contents satisfactions in any thing that is not God only For Faith tels us of things which cannot be understood by naturall light and reason Hope looks upon such things as we have not hold not possesse not and Charity retires our love from all creatures to employ it all on our Creator The three powers therfore of our soul must bee perfected by these three vertues our Understandings must bee informed with this pure Faith our Memories uncloath'd of all possession by this pure Hope and our Wils fill'd with divine affections by this pure Charity Thus refusing denying and emptying our whole souls of all that is not this perfect Faith hope and charity In this divine practice is found an absolute assurance against all the subtle snares of the devill and self-love for a soul which is thus entirely denuded and stripp'd of all active knowledge possâ—ssion and love of things created must needs remain in God in a certain tranquillity passivenesse cessation sleep annihilation absorption so that there can nothing be found out of God for Satan sin or sensuality to attempt against But to facilitate the intelligence and practice of this high matter upon which foundation stands the whole edifice of this holy Recollection and divine Union let us particularly deduce and exemplify how the Understanding is to bee placed in pure faith the Memory in pure hope and the Will in purâ— charity The eleventh Maxim That our Vnderstandings muâ— be setled in pure Faith THe practice of this point is thuâ— F. Cisnerius ch 28. Having conceived some mysterâ— of our Saviours Passion or the like for the subject of our prayer we ruminate a while upon it not â— much to admire our Lord Jesus aâ— imitate him and we desire to know his vertues that wee may practiâ—e them in our own particular by hiâ— perfect example Then we make an Act of Faith An act of Faith saying I firmly beleeve that this my suffering Saviour is not only a man but also my Soveraign Lord God I beleeve that he being Almighty submitted himself to Pilat being the creator became a creature being immortal became mortal and that in as much as he iâ— God he is with me within me without me about me above me beneath me and so in all creatures which have a being Afterwards we speak further to our Saviour O my dearest Lord and lover Teach me now my lesson that in requitall of what thou hast done for me I may keep thee company in thy sufferings And then we quit all discourses thinking we have no understanding at all left and looking on our sweet Saviour only by Faith which hath this property says S. Thomas to S. Tho. of Aquin. elevate the soul to God and free it from all creatures For so long as there are discourses in our Understanding images in our Memory joys or tenderness in our Will these powers have not pure God but sensible things for their object because God being above all sensibility must bee found without all creatures and consequently if we can be totally abstracted from all things created we shall infallibly lay hold on our Creator 'T is therefore impossible say's St. Denys the divine S. Denys to be truly united to God unlesse we leave all materiall operations both in sense and in spirit that is unlesse wee lay aside all senses all discourses all imaginations and all waies of humane wisdome Till wee can doe this let us not think to become perfect Contemplatives The twelfth Maxim That our Memories must bee setled in pure Hope WHich is done by forgetting all things created heaven earth our selves all being wholly taken up with God and absorpt in the Divinity So that by a simple remembrance that we are with God without looking back to reiterate the same reflexion we repose and slumber sweetly in him staying upon no image whatsoever even of our Saviour himself for as he in as much as concerns his humanity call'd Joh. 14. 6. himself the way so he thereby insinuated that we were not to remain in the way but to march on to our ways end which is his Divinity No mervail then if we find in The doctrine of mystâ—call Divines explicated the prescripts of mysticall Divines this doctrine That to arrive at the height of Contemplation we must leave off all sort of Meditation though it be on the life and death of our Lord and Saviour because in all Meditation there is ever something that is sensible to which nature applying it self hinders our souls from soaring up to the fineness and quintessence of Contemplation which is and can be only a pure spirituall and insensible thing 'T is true that the consideration of the life and death of our loving Saviour is a most powerfull means to mount up to this contemplation of his Divinity but let us not make that the end which is but the means and way to it The thirteenth Maxim That our Wills must be setled in pure Charity THis is done by withdrawing it from all sort of Joy proceeding from any natural supernatural or moral good Joy is a certain content which our wils take in somthing we prize How all Joy is to be quitted and this Joy is either Active when we may leave it or Passive when it is not in our power to quit it Now to take Joy and content in naturall goods as health wealth friends c. Or wit sagacity discretion c. Is a plain vanity To joy in moral goods as in the exercise of vertue c. Is to imitate the Pagan Philosophers who lov'd vertue for vertu's sake and made that their end which is only our way to it Supernaturall goods are either the gratuite gifts of God
c. 26. is to know that we can fully know nothing of him This is to know by ignorance and it is signified by Elias covering his eyes with his cloak when God passed before him because all our knowledge is disproportionate to God and therefore we must shut our eyes totally if we will contemplate him perfectly O holy ignorance What Pesant Read Cisnerius c. 28 is so simple what Soul indued with ordinary capacity is so sensless as not to conceive and comprehend the easie art of this excellent manner of Prayer for having been admitted to Faith and adorned with the gifts of the holy Ghost in baptisme she hath all that is required to make her capable of this Contemplation We deny not but that she stands in need of Gods special assistance to elevate her to this height for this Maxim is always presupposed That God concurs to humane acts as the first cause and to supernaturall acts as the authour of grace As for passive or infus'd Contemplation as it is altogether supernaturall so it is totally Gods work and this we possess when we See S. Aug. l. 19. c. 2. de civit Dei The 9. advice To take and make use of what is most to ouâ— spiritual purpose cannot at all meditate and yet persever in this holy amorous and negotiative idleness 9. If what is here set down for the practice of this Prayer seemes intricate or tedious to any one let such a soul make choice of that she conceives expedient for her comfort and leave the rest for it is not intended that she should be tied to this or that way but only that she should be convinc'd and confirm'd in this truth That to behold God with a simâ—le understanding which is the same thing with active Contemplation is more pleasing to him and profitable to her self than to seek after him by the sublimest diâ—courses Retire therefore ô contemplative souls from all sensible and intelligible objects and recollect abstract annihilate and lose your selves in God for there even in the most refined conceptions your enemy may find ground to pitch his nets but here you are in sanctuary and safety where he can never reach or touch you Here and here only in this silence from all discourses in An exhortation to Contemplation this solitude from all creatures in this idleness from all action in this retrait into the Divine Bosom in this resignation and conformity to Gods will you may taste his sweetness in it's proper source here and here only are full and overflowing measures of delight Created pleasures scarcely reach the soul before they are consumed in the senses and therefore can never quench our inward thirst after God 'T is he alone is capable to content and quiet us who is our first beginning and our final end And who so dives into this truth will make higher account of one crum of this contemplation than of all earthly crowns and kingdoms The nineteenth Maxim That corporal austerities must be alwayes subject to obedience AUsterities are somtimes necessary somtimes obligatory and somtimes dangerous 1. By necessary austerities are Austeritieâ— are either 1. Necessary meant the restraint of our senses tongues conversation self-will and in this sort of mortification there is no danger of excess 2. Those austerities which are 2. Obligatory commanded must be preferred before them which are voluntary 3. Corporal austerities are most dangerous 3. or dangerous least profitable when performed by order of our own Will without entire submission to Superiours direction for these are more worthy of reprehension than praise But the chief austerity of life consists in the continuall application of our selves to interiour recollection The chief austerity is continual Recollection introversion and contemplation For here we perpetually chain up our thoughts yoke all our senses reform our appetites correct the disorders of our passions regulate our actions shackle our Wills and admit nothing into our souls which may retard or trouble their totall tendance to their Lord and lover So that in the opinion of all spirituall men this is the most rigorous mortification and most meritorious way of doing penance For what is this continual prayer but an absolute bondage of the whole inward and outward man since we may not tast touch will do any thing we have a mind too And though this blessed slavery may bring us in time to a heavenly tranquillity of life yet the due and dayly practice of this denial and death of the Will doth so extenuate our truly mortified bodies that they rather need somtimes to be cherished than to be any further punished The twentieth Maxim That Contemplatives must alwayes have the seven verities which concern the â—ivine nature whereupon all Contemplation is grounded either habitually or formally in their memories 1. THat God is an eternal being 1 God is an Eternal he hath ever been and ever will be and 't is impossible for him to be otherwise 2. That God is an interminable 2. Interminable being he so fills and penetrates all things and all places that his being borns them and not they him who is an infinite fullness 3. That God is a simple being 3. Simple he is all in all creatures all without them and all in each part of them because having in himself no parts by reason of hâ—s infinit simplicity he must necessarily be with all his perfection wheresoever he is 4. That God is an unchangeable 4. Vnchangeable being he can neither change in respect of place because he iâ— every where nor in respect of time for he is eternal nor in what concerns himself by reason he is an infinite perfection and therefore there is in him nothing superfluous to reject nor defective to repair 5. That God is an independeâ—â— 5. Independent being All things depend on him live in him are conserved by him and all being is ordained to the glory of his bounty whence they had their beginning 6. That God is an all-sufficiâ—nt 6. Al-sufficient being he remedies all that is amiss supplies all that is wanting communicates all that is good satisfies all desires without the least diminution of his own infinite perfections 7. That God is an incomprehensible 7. Incomprehensible being being no created understanding can comprehend what God is All our knowledge is too silly and short to reach his heights yet our spirits are dilated by the light of Faith and though our Creator may not be comprehended by the creature yet he may be known by whom he pleaseth when he pleaseth and as much as he pleaseth These verities and other infinite perfections of God give light to our dark and weak understandings in order to the knowledge of his Sovereign Essence The 21. Maxim That Jaculatory Prayers are the nearest dispositions to Contemplation IF a soul finds great difficulty to This is the doctrine of S. Bonaven circa finem myst Theol. unwind her self from
and conversation enter into his secret cabinet eat at his table repose on his breast be his minion become all one with him O honour most admirable O holyness most amiable O happiness most Angelical O life O love The 27. Maxim That Confidence in Gods goodness is the main support of our Spiritual Edifice WE must be confident that our Loving Lord will First pardon our sins Secondly strengthen us in all necessities Thirdly bring us finally to eternall happiness And to strengthen this Confidence we must deeply ingrave these two Maxims 2. Maxims in our souls and then we shall easily be content to leave our selves in the arms of his paternall providence and lose our selves in the abyss of his piety First That what ever befalls us comes immediately Rusbrochius Read the Conflict c. 10. n. 3. 4 either from his will or his permission Secondly That he will turn all even our frailties and failings to our spirituall good We may further weigh what wonderfull cause Motives to put our Confidence in God First in heaven we have 1. Viscera misericordiae 2. Vulnera misericordiae of confidence and comfort we have First In heaven where we have 1. Bowels of mercy in God the Father we cry dayly to him as his Son taught us Our Father which art in heaven Will not a good father forgive the fault and forget the folly of his returning and â—epenting childe 2. Wounds of mercy in God the Son the least of which was sufficient to redeem a thousand worlds whereby we being reconcil'd and made his friends will he deny us any thing that is necessary Is not each drop of his dear blood a motive of loving confidence and able to melt us into a filiall dependency on him 3. Promises 3. Promissâ— misericordiae of mercy in God the Holy Ghost who hath assured us of his continued comforts till the worlds consummation 4. Words of mercy 4. Verba misericordiae when he said O why will you perish you of the house of Israel As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but that he turn to me and live What hard heart would not be touch'd with tenderness and say reciprocally As I live ô my Lord God I detest all sin and convert my self totally to thee that I may live with thee and love thee eternally O holy Conversion O happy contract 5. Brests of mercy in the 5. Vbera misericordiae Mother of Jesus O Jesu be to us a Jesus O Mother of Jesus be to us a Mother of mercies Let the care of thy honour be ever in our hearts and the care of our welfare always in thine 6. Castles of mercy in the Angels who are before and behind 6. Castra misericordiae us to watch over and protect us 7. Oracles of mercy the prayers and suffrages of all the Saints pitying 7. Oracula misericordiae our misery and purchasing pardon for us If we put all this together we shall find all heaven for us What matter then if hell be against us O thou of little faith whereof canst thou be doubtfull or fearfull c. Secondly On Earth in the Church Secondly On Earth militant what is not for us Sacraments Scriptures Examples Prayers If we go not to heaven where is the fault What could God do that he hath not done and what could we have more than we have for our consolation and salvation Who can choose but take courage comfort and confidence Thirdly Look upon Christ Jesus Thirdly In Christ 1. Why came he into this world 2. How did he carry himself in it towards sinners both in his life and death 3. Why was he called Jesus and tearmed a friend of Publicans and sinners 4. Why did he â—â—y That he came to call sinners and not the Just and to do mercy and not justice 5. What access and comfort gave he to all sinners 6. What was his last will and testament c 7. What his last words Father forgive c. Fourthly Ponder Gods Perfectious Fourthly Look on Gods perfections 1. He is our maker we the work of his hands Doth not each Artist love his own handy-work Hath not every one a naturall proneness to protect improve profit and perfect his own Even so our loving Lord takes care of us he hides and harbors us as the Hen her Chickens under her wings he defends us as the apple of his eye If a mother can forget the fruit of her womb yet will I never forget you say's our Lord because I have graven you in my hands and heart 2. He is All-mighty All-wisdom All-goodness Put these together I have a Father and Maker that loves me exceedingly he knows my necessities and what is best for me he is rich enough to provide for me Will he let me perish will he reject me Then reason thus further with your-self In whom shall I confide if not in God In my self or others We are all inconstant all ignorant of what is best all impotent and want means to help O how much better is it to trust in God than men Fiftly Reflect upon your own Fiftly our own experience Experience 1. Whom did God ever deceive in his promises 2. Who ever called heartily on him and was refused 3. Hath he not hitherto merveilously protected and preserved you and disposed all for your good Why then should you doubt or distrust his providence for the time to come No Lord Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Heaven and earth may perish but no tittle of my hope in thee my Dear and only Saviour This shall be my Anchor and stay If he kill me I will trust in him I will rest Secure in his Divine providence and endeavour to get an habituall and stable trust in his paternall protection without any care or fear as doth a child in his fathers bâ—som This is the ready way to become unmoveable and immutable quiet and content Is he God Is he good Is he my God my Father my Jesus Jesus crucified Is his goodness infinit Doth he want power wisdom or Will to pardon protect and perfect me I must surely have little faith less hope and no love If I will not take thy words O Lord thy works thy wounds thy life and thy love for secure pledges of thy care towards me and sufficient motives to place my whole confidence in thee The 28. Maxim That the measure of our progress in Perfectionâ— is the Conformity of our Wiâ—â— with the divine will 1. FOr our perfection consists in love and the greatest signe of love is to have one and the same Will with the beloved So that look how much we have of our own Will so much less have we of Gods will and love and consequently are so much the further from the Union of our spirit with him 1. In this exercise of conformity consists all perfection O what holiness and happiness what privilege and
neighbours The practice of this spirituall uncloathing of our souls Behold ô my Lord and love I generally and totally renounce all things but thee casting my self into the arms of thy most holy disposition and protection O my soul return sweetly to thy seat of rest repose quietly and confidently in the bosom of Divine bounty Remain here without diverting or distracting thy self to other objects Rely securely upon his mercy and providence cutting off incontinently all superfluous cares and solicitudes and protesting thou desirest nothing but the advancing of his honour accomplishing of his will his love and himself Take courage my naked soul for if thou art uncloathed somtimes and deprived of thy Lovers embraces feelings of his comforts and pleasures of his presence it is only that himself alone may purely possess thee O my Lord and lover Look upon this soul which I have endeavoured to strip entirely from all sensuall affection therefore I have not only abandoned but hated Father Mother brethren sisters lands living liberty yea and my own life that I might become thy disciple And were it yet to do again I would cast off Mother and run over Father to come to thee my loving Jesus Confirm O Lord my courage Live O rich nakedness Live my beloved to me and I to him Let me see no one but only Jesus Let alone his other gifts though never so excellent and holy I am indifferent to leave them or keep them in the manner and measure he pleaseth 't is naked Jesus I only seek and sigh after Uncloath me then my Lord 1. Of all sin great and small 2. Of all affection to it even the least venial 3. Of all curiosity 4. Of all sensuality 5. Of all inordinate passion 6. Of all vanity 7. Of all self-love and self-will Let me be reduc'd to nothing Put off my self and put on me thy self crucified Deprive me of all that distasteth thee that thou mayest say of me This is my beloved son in Mat. 12. 18 whom I please my self This is my disciple whom I Jesus love This is my rest for ever Here I will dwell because I have made choice of it In this heart is my harbor there you shall infallibly find me The 34. Maxim That Zeal and eagerness must be temper'd with Moderation and discretion WE must moderate our natural vivacity activity and agility of spirit by shunning all precipitation and indiscreet forwardness and fervour Soft and sure Let us look before we leap Let us take our eyes in our hands For that which is well done is twice done and a thing warily begun is well nigh half brought about Let us lend our hands and not give our hearts to any work Let us endeavor to perform all our actions with a free and disinteressed mind without which all is drudgery and slavery Let us not be over eager Perfection consists not in multiplicity of action but in simplicity of intention not in variety of exercises and devotions but in peace of mind and purity of heart not in saying or doing much but in suffering and loving much c. Let us sometimes check our importunate spirit as Jesus did Martha Martha Martha thou art Luc. 10. 41 troubled about many things when as there is but one thing only necessary which is A real cordiall and totall Abnegation of thy self in all things Let not indiscreet zeal serve for a cloak to cover our passionate hearts and inward hatred of others True Zeal is ful of compassion free from indignation and perfect charity either will not see what is amiss in others or seek out the best interpretation of it excusing the fault and pittying the party The 35. Maxim That we must never rely upon our own naturall judgement experience and knowledge THis hath deceived many and cast them headlong into confusion despair hence so many Apostasies rebellions dissensions divisions and scandals in Religion O how pleasant beautifull and edifying a thing is it to see persons of great perfection glorious endowments venerable for age honourable for learning renowned in dignity c. to be truly humble supple simple soft like Wax capable of any impression and condescending to others reason and command Blessed are the meek humble and obedient spirits for God will not permit them to goe astray or be deceived The 36. Maxim That we must seek no comfort in any creature FOr the practice of this We must The practice cheerfully forsake all and be content to be forsaken by all resting only in God by prayer patience and confidence Adieu friends familiars Confessours counsellours books exercises Angels Welcome solitude crosses eclipses shames wounds want◠darknesses desolations deaths Yes O Father because thou so pleasest Is the creature in which I delight more loving lovely or beautifull than God my Creator Hath it been more bountifull or beneficiall tome Can it more justly require or more liberally requite my love Can it make me holy or happy quiet or content Shall I leave light for darkness life for death substance for shadows All for nothing Answer impartially and resolve effectually The higher practice of this The higher practice Maxim in order to Contemplation is To estimate things according to Read the Spir. Con. ch 4. n. 3. their reall value And then Alas what comfort can a devout soul which hath tasted the sweets of her beloved in Contemplation find in the best of creatures How far are they from affoording her any solid and substantiall satisfaction in her spirituall sorrows sadness or desolation Therefore shew wisely and carefully keeps her self to holy Recollection resigns her self absolutely to the divine pleasure continues stedfastly in the presence of her Creator seeks to treat with him one to one and leaves worldlings to follow their appetites as the horse and mule which are void of under standing Oh! how much more happiness is it to suffer in the sweet company of God than to enjoy all such false and phantasticall pleasures as all creatures can confer in the company of men My soul refuseth this comfort I remember my God and in him I am only delighted And indeed they who faithfully The true Contemplatives are never sad or solicitous and fervently addict themselves to spirituall Recollection are neither sad nor solicitous but only in shew For what can they want who are with God In him they find gardens to walk in fountains to bath in pallaces to dwell in dainties to feed on and all pleasures to delight in with such infinit advantages that they ravish'dly cry out My God and All These contemplatives need not your compassion O worldlings They are not so drownd in melancholy so plung'd in sorrow so little enjoying themselves as you esteem and censure No your own poor souls are seriously to be pitied which are so wide of wisdom and so wedded to sensuality as to relinquish true life and liberty sincere comfort and content for the shadows smokes of the world For this is
wherein we judge amiss and whereupon wee ground our particular fears for that is the easiest way to remove them 8. Let us weigh the vertue of the Physick The vertue of the Physick which must cure us which must cure our Disease to wit First the infinit goodness of God and Christs merits And what Soul can fear having so gracious a God and so great a Ransome 2. The Credit and Compassion of the Blessed Virgin and the Prayers and Patronage of Saints and Angels who being secure for themselves are solicitous for us 3. The testimony and sweet promises of holy Scriptures For how often hath God told us I am prone to pitty I am ready to receive sinners I will help them who doe their endeavours If therefore he denys not his mercy to them that seek it and they seek it who doe what lys in them let us bee confident he will not deny us his mercy He also frequently calls on us Turn to me and I will turn to you Now he cannot but say truth aad fulfill his promise and doth not that soul convert her self to God who doth her best to get his grace and be reconciled unto him Who then can choose but be of good Comfort if he be of good Will By this Doctrine and these prescribed Remedâ—es it appears that the only way to overcome Scruples is 1. To obey our Spirituall Director 2. To doe our best endeavour But here arise two difficulties in this easy lesson The first is If our Directoâ—â— The first difficulty knowledge be small his experience lesse and his conscience not very good how dare we trust our souls upon his Warrant Gerson answers Thou wiâ—e Gerson's answer Judger I say thou errest and aâ—â— deceived for thou hast not committed thy self and thy soul to a man because of his discretion and learning but to God himself and for his love thou obeyest man because he is by him ordained thy Prelat and Superior Therefore our obedience wil be oftentimes so much more pleasing to God and profitable to our souls by how much more infirm and unworthy he is whom we refuse not to obey for Gods sake The other difficulty is If wee The second difficulty cannot satisfy our selves that wee doe our best Endeavours nor know that we have performed our duty S. Thomas answers We must St. Thomas answer first remove that which hinders grace to wit Sin 2. We must convert our hearts from creatures to our Creator In a word we must detest Sin and choose God and follow his ordinary means appointed in his Church for our direction and this is the Summary of our duty The 22. Doubt If we fear we detest not Sin sufficiently because we feel not so great sorrow for the offence of God as we doe sometimes for a temporall losse LEt us assure our selves First We can never have so much sorrow for our Sins as Gods justice in rigour requires 2. God doth not exact it of us because it is not in our power 3. True sorrow consists not in feeling but in Reason and Freewill 4. It is better to have sorrow sometimes only in desire than feeling 5. It is not necessary this corporall or sensible grief be so great for spirituall as for temporall loss but it sufficeth to use humane and morall diligence with firm purpose of a voiding Sin 6. It ls dangerous to make such comparisons and reflexions for weak and fearfull Consciences as If such a thing should happen what should I doe Should I rather chuse death than such a Sin and the like I say there is no obligation to make such acts The 23. Doubt If we cannot ground our selves in a firm Hope of mercy for that we are so frail and inconstant We sin daily and amend not our lives We receive Gods blessings and repay ill for good Wee promise protest and vow fidelity and practise nothing lesse TEll me afflicted Souls Should you see Christ dye daily for your daily sins would you despair of mercy Even so efficacious is his former death If you fall hourely rise again couragiously and purpose to stand more constantly and fear nothing but draw Humility out of your Frailty saying Whereof am I proud now Where are my strong Resolutions Why doe I judge others Who is so feeble sickle frail as I am O Lord this is the Worm that is so proud Then cast â—ll into Christs sacred wounds and leaving all there go on with as much quiet and Confidence as if you had not sinned The 24. Doubt If we go not on w th alacrity because we know not that our Sins are forgiven that our Confessions are good and that we are in state of Grace WE must take notice that in seeking these assurances we may oftentimes directly lose them 1. In seeking them too eagerly and unquietly 2. In being self-lovers and unwilling to be troubled 3. In being ignorant of what we are bound to know for it seems we conceive those works nothing worth which are performed without gust content satisfaction to our selves and quiet The way then is briefly this 1. To seek true peace 2. In God 3. From his mercy not our own industry 4. To be resigned to want peace if he please 5. To omit nothing we would or should do by reason of the trouble we feel The 25. Doubt Though we cannot in this life assure our selves infallibly to be in good estate yet if we could comfort our selves with most probable tokens of grace whereby we might feel the pulses of our hearts and somewhat ease our anguish SAint Thomas and S. Bernard assigne 4. Signs of a good conscience out of S. Tho. and Bernard these four signes of a good conscience 1. To feel a ready Willingness in our hearts to hear Gods word and to learn the means to love and serve him 2. To feel a Forwardness to do good Works 3. To feel a hearty Sorrow for the offence of God 4. To feel a firm Purpose to avoid all Sin Gerson adds a fifth Who so can A â— out of Gerson To pronounce these three verities pronounce heartily and sincerely these three Verities though he had committed all sins and should be prevented with sodain death let him secure himself he is in state of Grace The first Verity O Lord If in Oh! that we would often recite these three truths especially when we feel our consciences burthened What infinite profit and comfort would redound to our souls this or that I have sinned against thy goodness it truly displeases and grieves me and I am ready to do penance for it because I have offended thee who art worthy of all honor and have transgressed thy Law and Will which is most holy just and reasonable The second Verity O Lord I have a good purpose and desire by thy grace to take heed I fall not into sin again and to avoid to my power the occasions thereof and to mortify my passions and bad