Virgin though he were to beare onely the name and title of parent He made choyse of two Virgins Abel and Isaac for figures of his innocency and obedience The first fruits that were purchased by the blood of the lamb were Virgins and so they follow him whithersoever he goes whatsoever they do or say imitating Christ and his modesty which was so rare that nothing was ever objected against him in that behalf And when the Iewes invented many lyes against IESVS and heaped many aspersions upon him without any shew of probability yet they never taxed him for impurity though they knew him to have held conferences with woemen by reason of his rare modesty and the shamefast composure of his countenance which alone cleard all suspicion and calumny of les exact chastity A meane is chiefly to be observed in the sight for as S. Orontius admonisheth Love like those teares which wrongs do from us wrest Breeds in the eye but passeth to the breast From the eyes to the hart is an easy and obvious passage That venerable Servant of God B. Alphonsus Rodriguez never be held the face of a woman for the space of 47. yeares nor any thing else that was recreative to wit the modesty of Christs eyes in a certain apparition to him made such an impression in his hart all his life long that their very memory was sufficient to compose his and by this meanes he preserved his hart in great purity and joyd only interiourly in God Do thou also shun exteriour effusion if thou desirest internal and external purity The IX Chapter That our practise of mortification must be continual LEt no occasion slip of doing good shunning evil he that borrowes an ass of another is not willing to keep him idle One might doubt whether it were more conducible to tolerate evil or do good but for me I am throughly perswaded that next after God nothing is more regardable then that by which one is made acceptable both to God and his Saints That indeed is the best of all when one joyning these two together does good by treating himself ill Let not o afflicted spirit the difficulties of vertue and importunity of thy passions contristate thee rather rejoyce in the occasion of merit Assaile and overcome that merit is not so highly prized which is acquird by living peaceably as patiently amidst the assaults of our perverse inclinations in the solidity of our service in the violence and sufferance of our selves and the cross of Christ Take it not ill that thou art enriched by God with more numerous and fruitful instruments of merit then the Angels he gave thee a body that thou mightest have so many organs of merit to wit so many crosses as it hath senses and powers of the soul he priviledgd thee above the Angels with that charge of thy body and creditted to thee the carrying of that muddy lump of earth into heaven One only care was committed to the Angels to preserve their spirit which was a single one sincere and intire but a double burden was imposed upon the soul of man though of a feebler nature both to raise it self and its troublesome flesh to an equality with the Angels heavenly glory It seemd somewhat unjust that the Angels who were in a ready equippage expedite free from all clog or carriage and man who was retarded and loaden with the luggage of his body charged over above with a thousand crosses should be called to the same journy of heaven the soul especially being more imperfect and infirme then an Angel but Gods assisting grace can easily recompense the grievances which arise from the society of the flesh in order to merit that it may equalize or surmount the dignity of Angels If thou didst but know how to make use of thy massines to thy advantage it would rear thee much higher dancers to make themselves nimbler assume some weight by holding stones in their hands thy body will help thee if thou do but force it This is no easy task but a busines of great contention and the gain thou reapest from thy endeavour must animate thee against all occurrent difficulties How many engins and how much force is requird to rear a great stone into a toâ—er and thou canst not raise thy massy lump of earth above the stars without violence and the engin of the Holy Cross In this state of mortality after the accomplishment of our redemption by the Son of God Saints are no les eminent then they would have been in the state of innocency wherfore they become equally holy in this shortnes of life as they would have been in the space of many ages had men stil remaind immortal The multitude of afflictions together with the grace of IESVS recompenseth the multitude of yeares The redemption of Christ was more copious then the damage we sustaind by our prevarication and yet for all that he would not free us from the necessities and incumbrances of our flesh nor wholly extinguish the rebellion of our appetites least he might deprive his elect of a very compendious way of meritting that by this meanes he might present them to his heavenly Father in a shorter time loaden with equal or greater merits then could otherwise have been acquired in many ages He who vanquishd the world by the cross will have thee to vanquish thy self by the same The copious grace of Christ triumphs most in a thwart and reluctant nature and it helps it self by that very reluctancy to increase its merits The stronger the enemy is the more glorious is the triumph therfore it must not be burdensome to thee to he burdensome to thy self but enjoy this thy violence and patience upon all occasions of meritting in overcoming in sacrificing in crucifying thy self in all things Let not the grace of Christ be idle and ineffectual in thee Combat and the cross is necessary to make thee good whether thou wilt or no. Some great commanders after they had landed their men burnt or destroid their shipping that all hopes of returne being quite cut of their souldiers might fight more resolutely in the same manner God hath tied an enemy to us Why do we hope to avoid all combat the necessity of combatting must necessitate us to victory and merit Christ redeemd us by his cross and by it we must be saved dying continually that we may live and vanquish by our patience The way of salvation is rightly tearmd the way of perdition destroy and seal up thy senses with the signet of Christs cross and they shal be in security blindfold thy self or rather put out thy eyes and thy sight wil be much better become deaf and thou shalt hear with facility become mute and thou shalt speak wel heep thy self fasting and thou shalt rellish wel be without hands and employment and thou shalt labour wel be odious to thy self and thou shalt love wel be dead to the world and thou shalt live wel be fearful
to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any
a double degree of beatitude Purity is so beseemingly requisite in order to this Sacrament that the divine providence hath ordaind that even as it precedes the sacrifice of Christ it be propitiatory for our sins it having vertu to remit the very pain due to their fault Christ himself whom we receive is pleasd first of all to cleanse us as he did the feet of his Disciples cer he would give himself to us or deliver himself for us He shewd by that washing that not any kind of purity was sufficient but that a special one was necessary for he would not only have the hands of his Disciples clean which sufficeth for ordinary banquets but their feet also which signifyes a very extraordinary diligence God declard hereby that we are to come to the Eucharist not only with clean hands that is works devoyd of all fault but also with clean feet that is to say without so much as any print or sign of fault viz the paine due to tepid actions or sins remitted being quite abolished and in this sort grace proper to this sacrifice is powerful to cancel the penalty due to sin How shal I come worthily o Lord to receive thee what a treasure of sanctity was bestowd upon S. Iohn Baptist that his mouth might figuratively entertain not thee but thy name saying behold the lamb of God and he express the shadow of one of thy Sacraments but what purity ought to invest me who am to approach that venerable Sacrament and receive thee truly and really into my mouth o I wish I could entertain thee with as much reverence as the most B. Virgin Mother did in her sacred womb in that stupendious hour of thy Incarnation or as she embraced thy most H. Body in her bosome when it was taken down from the cross and thy heavenly Father received thy spirit at thy expiring when it was recommended into his hands What thou dividedst o Lord in thy death betwixt thy Father and Mother all that do I here adore in this Sacrament after thy resurrection for thy soul remaynes not separate from thy Body Thou affordest me that body which thou bequeathedst to thy Mother together with thy spirit which thou recommendedst to thy Father O that any one could have applyed his mouth to that of the expiring IESVS and gatherd thence his sacred breath worthy to be gatherd by the hands of God that it might animate and steer my body o that any one could with the effusion of his own blood wash the disfigured Corps of IESVS and make himself the viol of Christs blood shed for my sake to cleanse my soul so ill-favourd and ugly o that any one would hold his mouth to receive and tast the water blood which flowed from the side of Christ that not so much as one drop of it might fall to wast but thou o Lord desirous and desirable complyest with my wishes in this dreadful mystery How great joy did the Angels conceive in thy Ascension when thou entredst triumphant into heaven what longing desires preceded thy return thither o the desired of all the Hierarchyes of heavenly spirits with what jubily of hart ought I to exulâ— when thou entrest into my breast I alone upon many scores owe thee all the reverence which all the Angels exhibited when they entertaind thee returning from this world and passible life for thou frequently enterst into me that thou mayst delight me alone thou who once only enterd into heaven to cause joy to all the Angels Thou frequently dost for me alone what thou didst but once for all the quyres of blessed spirits If this favour were imparted to one alone of all the multitudes of men that once only through all eternity Christ should enter after this most amiable manner into his sole breast what a stupendious benefit would it be deemd whosoever should hear of it ravishd into extasy with this excess of bounty would scarse believe it he that received him absorpt in admiration would stand like one besides himself without voyce without motion yea without life through amazement fear joy and love unles he were miraculously sustaind by reason of such unheard-off benevolence why then do not I worthily reverence and admire a greater benefit conferd not once but often not on me alone but all wherein I acknowledg the favour done me much hightned O that I or any one could entertain thee o amiable IESVS becoming my guest as thy Father entertaind thee entring into heaven after a world of torments and death for the sanctity of all the Angels their devotion their joy pomp and celebrity fell far short I wil not say of thy majesty but even of that humility wherwith thou daignest to shut thy self up in the narrow cottage of my hart grant me grace by so rare an example to humble my self below nothing I that cannot humble my self sufficiently in respect of thy humility how can I do it in respect of thy majesty and glory o how happy is that soul that shal humble it self before this Sacrament what honour will accrew to it how wil the Angels reverence and honour such a one that it may receive its Lord with honour S. Teresa oftner then once beheld the Brothers of our Society when they went to communicate in our Church accompanyd with Angels and these holding a most rich and beautiful canopy over their heads that like royal and consecrated soules they might more honorably entertain their soveraign but when others approachd that heavenly Table she beheld no such obsequiousnes in these B Spirits and the reason was want of humility in their devotions Let us then procure with all humility devotion fervour and charity to receive that supersubstantial daily bread Let us so receive it daily as if we were never more to receive it though we come very frequently let us come so as if it were to be but once in our whole life Let our daily communion be so performd as it ought to be the first day of our life and last at our death The XII Chapter That in time of refection we must not be more indulgent to our body then necessity requires THE Angels expect thee at their supper glut not thy self like a beast with corruptible food He that is invited as a guest to anothers table eats nothing at home thou art invited a guest to heaven do not at least glut thy self upon earth If one that is cloyd with earthly food cannot be a competent guest at an earthly banquet how can he be at a heavenly one fulnes hinders the relish of material meats how much more then of divine the fasting Lazarus who could not so much as feed upon crums is now a constant guest at the heavenly supper but that glutton who cramd himself with exquisit daintyes is shut forth Men at a banquet abstain from several dishes reserving their appetite for some choyse one intending to make their repast upon that o Lord if I shal be satiated at the
lives and most remote from a soul endowed with reason how much more from a spirit which breaths God A dog will hear his masters call so will not an oak or fig tree the husbandmans nor he that over feeds himself the voyce of God He to keep Adam to his duty enacted the first law of fasting the only one of that most happy state so to recommend more earnestly to us the vertue of abstinence as if it alone were sufficient to preserve innocency and other vertuous endowments putting man in a fit disposition to hear and adhere to God Our Lord would commit the tuition of his beloved child Adam and his Benjamin of creatures to no nurse but fasting into whose faithfull hands he entrusted him that it might be the foster-Father of man and his instructer to obedience But this precept being violated Adam forth with fled from the voice of God caring so little to adhere to him that he would not only not seek nor approach him but sought to avoid God who sought him He renders himself wholly unfit for all who is not abstemious he will resist Gods holy inspirations and withdraw himself from his familiarity being weand as much from the divine breasts as he yealds to these sensual appetites What commerce betwixt God and ones belly how can God affect him who affects only his gut as his God How canst thou endure o divine truth to dwel in him who is such an arrand idolater it was anciently held a high strain of folly for men to kneel by way of worship to those things that were the handy-work of men and how fond a thing is it for thee an intemperate man to set thy hart upon that which thou destroiest and wil destroy thee towitt meat and its rellish How intendest thou to feast with God to lead a celestial kind of life to fly with him upon the wings of the winds to immortality if thou takest complacence in the life of those things which stick to the earth and are rooted and half-buried in it The life of self-pamperers is extremely mortal for such is the life of plants which are in part overwhelmed with earth Those that feed their belly increase their mortality by fatning what is mortal in them becoming more mortal by hindering eternal life by defiling their mind and so contracting their soul as to render it only corporeal Adam by breaking his fast became forthwith mortal thou becomest every day more mortal by stuffing thy self with dead things and feeding greedily on slaughterd creatures and seasond for this end that they may be entombed in thee but so much more happy shalt thou be by how much thou partakest of immortality and thou shalt partake so much the more of it if thou inure thy self to a spare dyet and to feed on unsavory meats All our life in this world is bitter full of labour and afflictions wherfore it is impertinent to go about to repayr maintain it with sweet things Eat only that thou mayst live let thy meat be such as is the rest of thy life Thou livest not to eat but to dye and thou eatest that thou mayst not dye quickly Death assailes him sooner that feeds too plentifully and delicately Food must be the medicine of life not its poyson and destruction Let thy own hunger and the gall and vinegar of Christ be all thy sauce and seasoning who for that end drunk it upon the cross because whosoever combats against sin must not seek after savory meats and the adjoyning of hyssop with a spunge signifyes the vertue of cleansing that we might have a model how to purge our soules By frugality and untoothsome meat the divine character which is engraven in us becomes more resplendent and the holy purity of our mind is refind that it may be united to God made more capable of divine impressions for if fasting drive out the stubbornest dive is from anothers body much more forcibly wil it attract God so facil and benign into our own If such be the vertue of fasting that by it thou canst purify others much more wil it sanctify thy self He breaths somewhat divine who breaths abstinence and hunger the body it self is in a certain manner elevated by the force of a disengagd spirit Iron is ponderous but it becomes light by the spirit and vertue of the loadstone and if thou also fasten and hang thy self upon God he wil sublimate thy body by the vigour of thy spirit rendring it intellectual and incorporeal The composition also of thy body is rarefyed by abstinence in such sort that divine irradiations penetrate more easily into the soul and she more dextrously steers the other squard more fitly to it by a proportionable demolishment as being disbarked of that fat rind that environd it for a great weight is no wayes weildy or commodiously mannageable Lastly abstinence containes so great a good that there is nothing to which it is not extreme beneficial Other vertues adorne the soul but abstinence is salutiferous both to body and soul Both Saints Philosophers by embracing it protracted their life to a faire old age We men designd to be immortal had contented our selves in that most happy state of innocency to feed only upon hearbs the fruits of the earth now temperance also restores to man that golden age Spare diet conduceth to the health of the body it is a natural restaurative an universal medecine fit to be applyed to al kinds of diseases The skilfullest Physitians prescribe it for the first recipe in all maladies for oppletion is the metropolis or head-city of diseases and deaths chief sergeant All the untimely deaths of yong people are in a manner caused by excess in diet But if frugality be effectual against all the indispositions of the body it wil also give redress to those of the soul Hunger makes the proud to stoop the covetous to disburse the lazy slouthful it forceth to work it renders the luxurious chast the angry man calmely patient If then frugality even when it is forced makes head against all vices if when it is no vertue it can engender vertues what remaines when it is a true and sincere one but that must needs associate God to a soul and make him its constant sejourner God took complacence in conversing with Moyses and Elias when they were both in a long fast But after the same manner that it expels puts the divels to flight saturity bereaves us of God Vnles thou resolve to banish this vice and establish in thy soul the vertue of temperance thou maist wel dispaire of the rest It wil be the same as if one being desirous to beat away a troublesome dog should in steed of a stone throw at him a crust of bread A domestique enemy must first be vanquishd ere we can fal abord with a foraign The XIII Chapter That one must take account of his proceedings by a frequent examen of himself MEN do seldome cast a
he would be touched with a sense of compassion and how much more if he did see his own child in such a calamity o most mercyful Father how can that venial fault be tearmed little which it is unseemly for thee to compassionate though thou seest thy own children by grace whome thou affectest so tenderly so scorched and tortured in that piaculary fornace and yet for them it was thou gavest thy life pretious blood Neither paternal bowels replenished with pitty nor infinite wisdome was wanting in thee thou art not an ignorant God who can be deceived in the estimate of a fault nor a cruel one who takes content in punishing but against thy wil wherfore if thou tormentest him so rigorously whome thou lovest so tenderly it must needs be a vast evil towards which mercy it self is so unmerciful Let us imagin a man void of all knowledg of hel or purgatory and beholding only by revelation the state of some one soul pittifully afflicted by those flames for a venial sin but wholly ignorant what might occasion such a punishment what I beseech thee would he guess to cause it any smal or petty trifle or rather some huge exorbitancy which so benigne a God resolved to chastize with so much rigour Again shal that be tearmed little which he in this life punisheth with the greatest of all punishments death If God cannot err in inflicting penalties since he inflicts so dreadful ones how great must that needs be for which he inflicts them behold for one venial sin he punished his own servants Moyses and Aaron with death for one venial sin also as is probably thought Oza and lots wife were suddainly struck with the like disaster For one venial sin the Abbot Moyses was deliverd over to the divel and for a space possessed by him and in very deed it were a les evil to have a thousand legions of divels in ones body and be vext by them then to have the least venial sin in his soul and take complacence in it The divel laboured tooth and nail for 40 yeares together to make a certain servant of God commit but one venial trespass Is the divel such a fool that he would wait and lie in ambush so long to surprize him for a matter of smal moment why shal not we be watchful at least one day to avoid so great mischief o most pure truth purify my impure spirit from such an evil and illuminate me that I may not esteem it light because I regard it but lightly since the divels themselves take it so to hart but let me esteem that great which is done against a God so great nor let me repute that contemptible and sleight which I a contemptible sleight and inconstant creature commit by sinning upon all occasions and constantly but therfore let me hold it great because I who am vile and contemptible dare do it against a God the best and greatest How great must that needs be which rather then we must but once commit deliberately it is better to embrace a thousand deaths it is better that heaven and earth returned to their first nothing and all mankind were sentencd to damnation If choise were given to the Virgin Mother while she stands at the foot of the cross bewailing the torments and death of her beloved Son whether she would have him released from these paines and disgraces and behold him presently seated at the right hand of his Father and the salvation of a thousand worlds accomplished at that instant or consent to one sole venial sin she would chuse not to do this latter and would also perswade me to do so too nay rather then this she would chuse to see her Son and the Son of God once more naild to the cross yet without any default at all and if it were needful and lawful would strike in the nailes with her own pious hand and sacrifice him with greater charity then Abraham did his Tel me I pray would it be a slender courtesy and comfort to the Virgin her Iesus if some one man were found who would put himself upon the mount Calvary in the room of Christ and be crucified and suffer in his steed perswade thy self for all this that they would rather desire a greater comfort at thy hands which is to eschew all venial sin Consider now whether that would be little which should preponderate such a piece of service nor do thou deny this solace to thy suffering Christ and his compassionate Mother Let us then cancel and abolish this opinion that that evil can be light or little which the Virgin Christ God his Father deem so great and punish so exemplarly That is not little which hinders things orderd to a great and sublime end which lessens the love of God in this life and delaies his vision in the other It is no smal rub which puts as it were a stop and let to the most speedy and powerful mercy of God and his desires Would it be accounted a smal violence that should suspend a millstone falling from heaven in the aire while it were poasting to the earth its center it is therfore no smal sin which suspends the divine munificence and the ardent desires of an enamoured soul that they cannot reach their center God and the promisd holy land of beatitude but detaines it in the flames of purgatory That is not a little displeasing to God which hinders him from giving out of hand what he hath such a mind to give and we so willingly would receive That is not little which stops the current of Gods great favours and even in this life obstructs the outlets of his profuse liberality Let us tremble at such an evil and to the very utmost of our power use all possible diligence to avoid it not enduring to brook the shame and disgrace which the name of a fault imports How can that soul take complacence in the name of a servant or a child or a spouse which is not carefull to please God and comply in all things with his sacred will how naughty a servant would he be thought that would do nothing as he ought unles his master threatning death stood over him with a drawn sword and can upon no other tearms neither by faire meanes nor foul be brought to his duty how untoward a child who is allwaies crossing his parent and seeks to please him no further then meerly to keep himself from being disinherited for the rest is wholly wrechles in accomplishing his wil and desire and is lead in all with a spirit of contradiction how disloial a spouse who should only so far forth shew her self faithfull and loving to her fellow spouse as not to provoke him to take her life in other things perpetually crossing and vexing him and were she never so often corrected shewd no signes at all of amendment what argument of love would it be in a child or spouse to say I really love my parent or fellow spouse
in rarities keep any choise jewel or forraign noyelty making presently a cabinet for it that the least grain of dust may not tarnish it canst thou think that the gemm of the Divinity and the H. Ghost can be preserved with requisite decency without an exquisite carefulnes If thou didst carry the most H. Sacrament of the Eucharist in thy hands how sollicitous wouldst thou be not to let it fal and if thou carry God in thy hart why wilt thou be less attentive The hart is a most delicate member any little offence to it is extream prejudicial any trifling wound is mortal to the body and in like manner any negligence in the custody of our hart doth much prejudice the spirit The kingdom of God is within us why do we beg miseries abroad by our senses an unblemishd hart is the oracle of God he speaks within us how can we harken attentively if we be gazing and wandering abroad while thou conversest with one thou givest not eare to another that interrupts thee how canst thou hear God being distracted with so many affaires Why dost thou desire to gaze abroad upon any beautiful object to tickle thy eares with pleasing sounds to feed thy fancy with forraign newes since thou hast God within thee in whom all beauty is comprizd all pleasure resides as in in its center and a perpetual newnes is discoverable even to the B. Angels themselves though they be in a perpetual fruition even from the very infancy and nonage of the world they beheld him before the prevarication of Adam and stil he is new to their eyes Which of the blessed would relinquish the vision and conversation of God and separate from him to behold any curiosity upon earth or who that is placed but at the gates of heaven would for that end recede thence o how much also is he to be pittyed who in expectation of this earthly trumpery hinders his progress in spirit forsaking the portal of heaven which is a wel guarded hart leaves God alone and sometimes his own hart too expelling God from it in such sort that he can neither know him perspicuously nor hear him expeditly that thou mayst be able to contemplate thy self in a myrrour thou first of all wipest off the dust how canst thou hope to see God in thy hart if thou daube it over with the clay of terrene affections If one should tel thee that S. Paul the Apostle newly come from the third heaven were in the streets explaining and unfolding hidden mysteries thou wouldst leave all though never so pleasing and profitable wouldst run with much speed though far distant to hear see him Behold thou needst not go one step to hear God inculcating things salutiferous and teaching hidden secrets while he comes to thee and sejourns with thee why dost thou not leave these exteriour things so fruitlesly burdensome overcoming all itch of novelties and vain curiosities by which thy fervour doth so evaporate this ought to be so highly prizd that the servant of God F. Francis Villanova was wont to say that although it were told him that an Angel were come from heaven and stood in the market place disclosing wonderful and stupendious mysteries and that great concourse were made thither he would not stir one foot only to overcome curiosity And certainly it were much better not to see an Angel then to be overcome by it if that were the only motive of seing him What retainest thou now of all the vanities thou hast beheld besides some impediments perchance of contemplating God thy mind being burdend with vain fancies and images of things both false and frivolous The les thou seest the more thou lessenest thy desire and occasions of errour A hart shut up to the world is the open gate of truth which gate is shut by giving free scope to our exteriour senses they are these material things that shut it Wherfore thou must alwayes keep within at home and not go forth to externs but with leave from God and for obedience and his glory Then they wil cause no hindrance but forthwith as soon as ever thou hast done thy busines retire home again resaluting and speaking to God who is there expecting thee yea recolect thy self now and then privily in the very dispatch it self steal thy self from thy employments and put thy self in the presence of God Whatsoever thou art to enterprize weigh it wel before hand offer it up to God and as much as thou canst have perpetual recourse to him visit him in thy hart ask his advice and implore with humility his favorable assistance But the chief gate which man must set a guard upon is his mouth least its words prove the outlet of devotion O how often do many sel God at a lower rate then did Iudas since they sell him for one word Simon Magus was cashierd for covetting to buy the H. Ghost with mony others loose him not for mony but a little breath and ayre of their mouth O most holy spirit who utterst nothing but Oracles of truth how can I relinquish thee to attend to the forgeries of men or my self to speak vanities conduct me with my IESVS into the desert of my hart that there thou mayst instruct illuminate and streng then me to beare thy cross O God o Christ of my hart grant me grace to follow thee out of the world and worldly crowds that I may dye with thee out of the city Thou chargd with thy heavy cross didst walk out of Ierusalem to dye for me and accomplish my salvation in the solitude instructing me how I am to go out of this world and seek thee in my self and bear thy cross and be crucified to the world in the solitude of my hart I wish my life could be sayd to be like a warfare upon earth a souldier forsakes parents allyes friends country commodities and embraceth as it were a voluntary bannishment in a forraign land exposing himself both body and soul to most evident danger for a little base pelfe why will not a soul desirous of Christ in order to gain the chiefest good and lock it up in the cabinet of its hart with draw it self from the tumults of men and quit the miseries which attend their affaires so to evade more present dangers both of body and soul be replenished with heavenly consolations The VII Chapter How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works MEN toil many years with great constancy for the inconstant and fleeting goods of this world why then are we so variously sickle in the pursuit of a constant and eternal glory which never wil fade men though they cark and care toile and moile their whole life long cannot get temporal goods albeit they pursue them without respit how can we presume to gain eternity since we are as changeable as any weather cock what paines do robbers usurers and the lecherous undergo to compass their wicked designes though they
not to make thee the subiect of my action but not so much as the obiect of my memory O most loving God how could I behave my self worse towards my capital enemy then I do towards thee not so much as daigning thee a look when thou meetest me and meetest me so often though thou be stil ingratiating thy self by new favours and services O how continually o God art thou present in me and yet I so little present to thee and take so little notice of thee thy essence penetrates each part of me much more intirely then the sun beames penetrate each part and parcel of a transparent christal more perfectly then our soul is diffused through our body The presential assistance of thy wisdome provides for me and playes it self the purveyer that nothing may be wanting and if I do any good that it may impart a reward thou committest not this to the intercourse of thy Angels only and their relation but thou thy self becomest my overseer Thy power carryes me in thy bosome as a nurse or motherdoth her dearest child and because these duties of being in me of seing me of preserving me in my being are necessarily annexd to thy divinity thou wouldst have me engaged to thee o good IESV for a voluntary presence and there being but one way wherein thou couldst necessarily be absent thou didst invent a meanes even in that to be also present in thy most holy body that thou mightest be present with me both corporally and spiritually O ungrateful soul why wilt thou not be thankful to so loving a Lord and if thou canst not bodily be present with this divine Sacrament be not forgetful at least in spirit and thought of so benefical a soveraign who hath made thee his tabernacle and place of residence Carry o soul respect to thy self and the Altar of thy mind where God dwels by grace which thou perchance now partakest of and woe be to thee if thou dost not the divinity being there communicated We reverence inanimate things and deservedly which are imbrued in the blood of Christ but why do we not the same to a part of our soul spirit where the H. Ghost diffuseth himself we dare do no unseemly action before an Altar where the sacred body of Christ our Lord is kept nor darest thou do les before thy self because thy mind as thou maist wel hope is by grace the Altar and throne of God he residing in it with greater pleasure then in a Pix of gold How dost thou compose and recollect thy self when thou art to receive the Body of Christ habituate thy self allwayes in such a modesty such a decency since God is thy guest lodging not in thy body only but within thy soul If the Body of Christ being thy guest thou compose thy self with such decency thou must stil retain the same since the spirit of God becomes resident in thy spirit since the Father and the Son come to thee and take up in thee their dwelling place Whether in publick or private comport thy self allwayes after the same manner God beholds thee God is nigh thee God is with thee God is within thee If Christ should come visibly to thee when thou art all alone in thy chamber wouldst thou in his presence put thy self in any les seemly posture or rather stand in a reverend submissive composd manner trembling at the aspect of such an awful majesty Behold the divinity is allwayes present with thee and we owe it no les dutyes of respect The divinity is present not after one manner but many by filling and surrounding thee with his boundles essence as the ocean doth a spunge by carrying thee in the eye of his all seeing providence by sustaining thee by his power by cherishing imbracing and adopting thee for his child by his heavenly grace O soul why sendest thou thy desires in so long a pilgrimage since God is so nigh at hand why dost thou aspire to other joyes he being present thou hast a speedy redress for all thy miseries why art thou contristated a refuge sanctuary against all thy calamities is close by what needst thou fear let all thy affection spend it self in embracing and kissing this thy most loving parent in whose bosome thou art nurturd and brooded up Consider thy self more neerly allyed to God then to thy brother then to thy Father then to thy mother for the kindred and allyance betwixt thee and God is greater then betwixt a child and his parent Let him then be allwayes present to thee who is present after so many wayes As a mirrour becomes the image of that which is present to it so a holy soul in some manner will become divine if it have the divinity present with it This presence of God is the vital action of grace a holy soul is so long in an actual and waking exercise of life as it loves God and is mindful of him whether it be employd in the contemplation of his perfections or seek actively to advance his greater glory For as God is not only present to us by his essence knowledg but also by his power and activity so the best method of framing the presence of God is to consider him playing the good Operarius and directing his actions to our behoof Who wil not become active on Gods behalf since he works all in all for ours but yet though a soul surcease from this she shal not therfore dye by sin but wil be like one that is a sleep not dead but yet scarse alive as not enjoying the use of life so a soul that is in oblivion of her God though she be not voyd of life yet she is in so sound a sleep that she reaps no benefit of her spiritual vitalityes O how long-lifd wil one be that is stil mindful of God! o how many ages wil he complete which even those that otherwise are held spiritual do ordinarily forfeyt this presence of God is also the sense of grace for without it the soul lyes like one in a palsey The palsey is a disease not a death but it deprives ones limbs of all sense and vital motion life and grace are then to smal purpose when the memory of God is benumd and obstupifyed whether it be in action or contemplation One palm tree becomes fruitful merely at the presence of another and the soul at the presence of God is loaden with all variety of fruit Without the presence of the sun all is buryed in obscurity nothing doth partake of beauty by the presence of God a soul is illustrated and is made most comely to the eye The elements cannot brook to be absent from their center and no les is a soul carried to her center of repose God As a stone if it be detaynd in the ayre keeps alwayes a propension to the earth and if it be left to it self tends thither without any more adoe so a soul enamoured upon God even when it is detaind from its