Heart of mine is made I think of Marble and Ice How is' t possible it should continue insensible amidst so many Objects which are capable to move it How can it be ungrateful when it is invironed with so many Favours from Heaven How is it possible it should not tremble before him whose Presence makes the Angels to tremble Why does not my Soul that is changed and destitute of all Good run with ardour to a Source so pure and so refreshing One Tear I cannot draw from my Eyes nor one Sigh from my Heart Every day I present my self before my God with dry Eyes with an humble Body but with a proud Soul and frequently with so great an Air of Negligence that the Tone of my Voice the Posture of my Members and generally all that is seen and heard in me speaks my Indevotion When have I insulted over my own Heart how often have I said to my self thou wicked Soul why dost thou not quake and shiver within me why dost thou not fear him whom none can fear enough and why dost thou not love him infinitely who has infinitely loved thee If thou lov'dst and fear'dst this God as thou oughtest this God soveraignly adorable whom the Angels love and fear thou cou'dst not be cold in his Service nor adore him in so languishing a manner Prayer ALas my God! thou seest how I groan under the burthen of my Corruption anâ— of my Indevotion Help me then to rid my self of 'em so that those motions of Piety and Zeaâ— which thou lovest so much may henceforth be as frequent in my Soul as they have been rareby till this preseâ—â— that the movements of my Devotion may not resemble those Sparks which flye up from a great company of Embers and then grow cold and are extinguished but be of those pure slames which burn perpetually even in the midst of Water and resist the Stormâ— and Tempests of Temptation Corruption and bad Examples And that being far from suffering my self to be carried away by the Torrent of Corruption and Indevotion which obtains even in the Sanctuary I may cause my Righteousness to shine like a Candle in the midst of Darkness CHAP. V. That Indevotion is a far greater crime than it is commonly thought TOuching the indevotion of the Profane I do no speak but of those that would be called thâ—t children of God I speak of all those neglects and coldnesses of all those distractions and vain and carnal thoughts which traverse the excercises of Piety The principal reason of the commonness of this crime is the opinion which people have that it is a very small fault There is nothing which they do not say and imagine to flatter themselves in this Vice One says 't is the nature of the Soul to be active and boyling we cannot fix it upon one only object it takes fire and evaporates even when we believe we can holdit It is say they a Malady of the Soul of which it self is not culpable Ah! certainly if it were an evil intirely unvoluntary it would very well deserve we should deplore the misery of the Soul 'T is a sign of a strange Irregularity and a proof that Sin is caused within by great disorders If you see a man in the midst of a discourse of good sense wander all on a sudden and speak a thousand impertinences and extravagant things will not you say he has a Desultory wit and an ill-biass'd Spirit Is it not a proof of a great Disorder in the heart to perceive ones self in the midst of ones devout thoughts to evaporate to go and take a leap from ones self and the Subject to fall into a thousand Chimerical imaginations But further I say there is as much of a crime as of misery in this Evil. It 's sufficient to know that Sin is the cause of this disorder to be assured there is sin in it The Product of a criminal cause cannot be Innocent and I fancy that the inferiour part of the Soul being corrupted by Sin is like to marrish and fenny places from whence Vapours are continually elevated to Heaven which oftentimes obscures the Sun Our passions 't is true do raise up the Clouds of vain and evil thoughts that rob our hearts of the Suns sight but what of this does it not follow that this is not a great evil do not all crimes come from this Source and are they therefore the less to be condemned We imagine that the mind of man cannot be fixt which is false and a thousand Experiments can shew us the contrary Were you to appear before a great Prince to defend your Life you would think so eagerly and earnestly upon the business that no other thing would be allowed admittance into the thoughts in speaking to him you wou'd not suffer the least Distraction The Niggard that counts his Treasures does not hear when any one comes to knock at the Door of his Cabinet A man that is upon an important Affair and gives up his mind to it never finds these wandrings of Imagination It 's true then that it is possible to hinder this Levity of mind whereof we complain as of an incurable evil Thus in the vice of Indevotion there 's a sort of Pride of being unwilling to humble our selves worthily before God in whose presence all Nature trembles I would fain know whether a King would take it well that in doing him Reverence one should turn his back upon him or that one should do him Homage with an air of disdain and this is what we do to God We give him not the very Moity of our heart To slight and despise him whom the Angels adore can it be call'd a Peccadillo The Lord reigneth let the Earth be moved are very rare words in our mouth And seeing that God does not immediately avenge himself on the great contemners of his Majesty without fear we take up an habit of defying him Unquestionably if there were nothing else in Indevotion besides the crime of Disobedience 't would be enough to render us worthy of all the most severe punishments We know mighty well that God commands us Ardour and Zeal and we cannot be ignorant how he calls us to take the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence We hear it said every day that he casts up the Luke-warm out of his mouth We read every where that the way of the Faithful ought to be in a swift Course and not a slow walk And in short we know very well that he would have us be eaten up with the Zeal of his House Maugre all these Commands and Orders still cold we are and languishing Who then shall be obey'd if God be not He who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire he who hath so many means to revenge himself upon Rebels and to reward the Obedient he lastly whose commands are ever just and ever holy Let no one tell me then that this is a light fault since 't is a
flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
neglects the other Life as if it were never to come I believe O my God but help thou my unbeleif Make me to see the Truth and Excellency of Eternal Life that I may flight the present Life that I may make me such Friends as may receive me into everlasting Habitations that I may acquire such Riches as I may carry along with me and that I may make choice of that good Part which shall not be taken away from me CHAP. VI. The Custom of letting the mind ramble 〈◊〉 different Objects A sixth Source of Indevotion I Believe that this is also another Source of 〈◊〉 Indevotion and especially of our Distraction During Prayer we know not how to fire oâ—â— Heart our mind wanders and our attention iâ— lost Whence proceeds this but from a pernicious custom we have of giving a soaring vaunt to our Imagination It is in man what Quick-Silver is in Mertals It rouls it runs glibly up and down A little fire makes it evaporate and as it were to vanish into Smoak it becomes so subtle We suffer it to 〈◊〉 what ever it pleases When 't is upon the Wing sometimes it flyes from East to West from South to North from Heaven to Earth and as if the limits of the Universe were too narrow for it it over-passes them and loses its self in the innumerable Whirle-pooâ— of Des-Cartes And no more can it contain it self within the bounds of Time it flyes to Eternity and asks what it is It would know what was when there was Nothing If it keeps its self within this World amidst this great space it curvets over all Beings it swims over all Matter and the compounds of it differently modified and yet penetrates none of them And as if the prodigioâ— Mass of Creatures did not furnish Imployment enough to its Actions it labours in the production or rather creation of Beings of its own forming It imagine Chimeras Phantomes it makes Mountains of Gold Worlds in the Moon Centaurs and Hippogryphicks And these motions for the most part are of such quick â—ispatch that in a quarter of an hours rambling we find â—ur selves so far off that the greatest Parted man in â—â—e World could never ghess by our last thought what was the first And after this shall we ask from whence â—ome those aberrations of our heart in the duties and exercises of Piety can we expect that a Soul accustomed to wander can fix and arrest it self all at once It is an Horse that has not as yet received the Bitt it does nothing night or day but kick and skip up and down in the Meadows When one would put the Saddle upon the back or the Rein in the mouth it flyes out and struggles it throws down him that gets up and returns from whence it came When we would gather our selves together it dissipates its self like a Flame it abandons us it breaks the Rein of Piety and before that we espy the first ways it took we find it plunged in the diversity of its vain thoughts St. Augustine â—acknowledges that this is the cause of our Distractions When our mind is fill'd with these Phantasins savs he and that incessantly it carries along with it an infinite number of vain thoughts thence it comes to pass that our Prayers are oftentimes troubled and interrupted thereby and that when being in thy presence O God we indeavour to make thee hear the voice of our heart An action of such importance is frequently traversed by frivolous Imaginations which come from I know not whence to break into the crowd in our minds If we did well comprize the nature of Evil we might easily conceive the Remedy Evils ought to be cured by their contraries So that let us learn to give bounds to our imagination and not permit it to go so far that we may have the less trouble to bring it back again That is to say For the disposing our heart to Devotion we ought to accustom our mind to think a little of things and of good things 't is a Mercury that must fix it self in being applied to Silver or Gold 't is a lively faculty whereto we must give the Bridle and the Rein. 〈◊〉 let us not imagine that the secret to cure this Malaâ—â— of the Soul consists in retaining our mind in a privatâ—â—â— of all thought this is not profitable to Nature nor useâ—â—â— to Grace The imagination of man is too active 't is iâ—possible to hold it from doing nothing 't is to bring 〈◊〉 Death upon it to leave it without imployment sincâ— it lives no longer than it acts God hath not given 〈◊〉 such noble faculties to bury them in an inglorious aâ—â— shameful Idleness In short a mind that is habituatâ—â— to think on nothing would nevertheless find it as muâ—â— trouble to fix it self upon the works of Piety as oâ—â— would to withdraw it from its ramblings and course that it formerly used From all which I conclude that the imployment of letter'd and knowing men are perhaps the most destructive to Devotion as any that are in the World The Eye is scarce ever weary with seeing nor the Eaâ— with hearing and we are so far from counting this among Defects that we reckon it a great Vertue Undeâ— favour to those Great Names of Sciences of fine knowledges of curious Researches of Sublime Speculations of miraculous Discoveries there is established in the World a method to mince the Soul and almost infinitely to subdivide it without Remedy would to God experience did not give us proofs of the Truth But it 's very certain and very well known that Atheists are not to be found in the croud of the common People The Epicures the Protagoras's and Diagoras's were knowing men of great Wit The thing is past into a Proverb And they say that they who by reason of the Art whereof they make profession are obliged to study Nature and the second Causes very much do â—ix themselves so strongly thereto that they forget to ascend to the first Cause These men so well read in Antiquity and that make so great a noise in the Common-wealth of Learning for their knowledge make none at â—ll in the Church for their great Devotion The study only of heavenly things can inspire an habit of Piety we also see enow great Divines continue bad Christians because they refer not their Labours to God nor to his Glory all their industry is for themselves and they are the end of all their own watchings I would never â—herefore advise him that has a mind to be very devout â—o imbrace so many things nor to fill his head with conjectures and his memory with these May-bees whereof those rare Sciences so called are composed besides that this Acquisition brings in a habit of self-conceited Pride and surly Scorn a great enemy to the Spirit of Devotion and it puts the Virtuosos up with Pyrrhonism and Doubt which from Philosophy passes into Divinity And whereas some find nothing
my self before thee with little reverence PART II. Of the Sources of Indevotion CHAP. I. Of Impurity of Life The first Source of Indevotion SInce Indevotion is so great an evil let us try to find out its sources that we may cut up this evil by the very Roots Now one of the principal ones is Impurity of Life nothing disconcerting an heart so as an evil Estate of Conscience nothing more extinguishing the fire of Piety than the loathsom and muddy waters of Sin Fire does not easily take in things soak'd in water Devotion cannot easily be brought to fit Souls penetrated with Vice one flame puts out another and the fire of Covetuousness choaks that of Zeal as the flame of Gunpowder extinguishes that of a Candle Devotion is a certain alacrity of heart that disposes us to draw neaâ— to God with confidence but how should we have this Disposition when we are guilty of the Vice in going to present God with such offerings as we our selves know ought to be abominable to him for we know that God does not care for a sullied and unclean Sacrifice Go says he I hate I despise your solemn feasts your meat-offerings and sat beasts I receive them as the price of Whoredom as the bloud of a Swine and as a Dogs head Alas the most spotless man is not enough so to present himself before God with Assurance and the Prophet could say Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts 'T is impossible therefore that he who has not the Wedding-Garment on whose Vestment is stained with the spots of the Flesh must needs be put into a vast consternation in thinking of him before whom the Stars and the Angels are unclean And how can this Fear or to speak better this Horour agree with Devotion which is all love and all assurance Let us go with confidence says the Apostle St. Paul to all devout Souls to the Throne of Grace that we may find mercy in the time of need To bring to God a criminal Conscience is to bring to him a witness against our selves to make our own process 't is to deliver us up into the hands of his severe Justice We need not therefore be startled if the wicked be Indevout and fly the presence of God And since Impurity of life wou'd do nothing else than take away the Hopes of being heard This would be enough to hinder and stifle all Devotion All the Vertues are interessed and he that would take away hope takes their very life away How then can a wicked creature that knows God will not hear him pray devoutly When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make your prayers I will not hear your hands are full of Blood It is for this reason that St. Paul would have us lift up pure hands without wrath and murmuring And David says If I had Iniquity in me the Lord would not have heard me 'T is for this cause he professes elsewhere that he washes his hands in Innocency before he goes to Gods Altar And why should God have any regard to the Prayers of those that have none for his Commandments upon these Principles the wicked man says to himself why should I present my self before God Have not my Iniquities barr'd up against me the Gates of Heaven and why should I go to ask of him that is resolved to refuse me Unprofitable Devotions wou'd these be and submissions that wou'd only serve to hasten my Punishment I cannot have the impudence to desire any thing without promising to my self somewhat but I am resolved to bridle nothing within me and to continue in this way of living 'T is better therefore that every one holds where he is Devotion is of a great extent it takes up the whole heart it cannot dwell in a Soul divided betwixt Avarice Ambition Violence Pleasure and the love of the World Wherefore if you sometime see those worldly Persons who refuse nothing to their heart to have their Days of Devotion well regulated and even sometimes to shed more Tears and fetch up more sighs than the Faithful you may without hesitating conclude that these are Hypocrites and pretended Zealots who would pay God with Phisiognomy and Posture and cheat the World with fine Appearances Perhaps some there are who believe they are not such badly devout People when they attone for a Months Debauch with a day of fasting But they deceive themselves for true Devotion is not unequal nor full of Sallies It does not resemble those Summer-Torrents which roul with a head-long impetuosity and do not continue but for a day So that holiness of Life is a preliminary of absolute Necessity to obtain Devotion This Vertue is one of the most excellent Graces that we receive from Heaven one of the most precious Gifts of the holy Spirit but 't is a Pearl which is not to be cast before Swine 'T is an Ennamel only to be layed upon Silver or Gold 'T is in one word a Favour communicated only to priviledged Souls that is to say to the pure and clean in heart But as we shall have occasion to touch again upon this subject in another Rencounter we will not drain it dry here Meditation WHo can express the Evils and the Disorders that Sin has caused in my Soul Who can recount all the Mischiefs wherein the Impurity of my heart ingages me Over and above all other Evils it brings me this too it renders me incapable of Devotion Sin has put a separation between my God and my self and therefore I am dead for God is my life and the Soul of my Soul I am blind for God is my Light Separated from him I am poor for he is my Treasure and makes up all my Riches I am naked for he alone gives me Rayment Sick I am for my health and strength comes from that Sun of Righteousness who carries healing in his wings Sin has rob'd me of him and has ecclipsed him as to me and I continue languishing away being far from the Principle of my Life In this faintness I know not how to produce those vigorous movements of Devotion that elevate the Soul and carry it towards Paradice Sin is a thick foggy heavy Wet that sticks to my Wings it is a Weight which oppresses me arrests all my Soarings and renders all my efforts useless I feel a Laâ— in my Members which Wars and oppoâ—ses it self to the Law of my Mind and makes me the slave of Sin Insomuch aâ— I do not the Good that I would yet I do the Ill that I would not Prayer O Divine Sun of my Soul break out and Dissipate these Clouds Thou great Deliverer break these Irons open this Prison and free me from this Bondage and Captivity Thou art most pure let me not be unclean Almighty let me not be miserable All Life let me not be dead Draw