exercises and the top of all perfection in this life and the happinesse of the next And therefore our Saviour told his beloved and loving penitent that the share she had chosen should never bee taken from her Upon these grounds Albert recommendeth the continuall meditation of Christs passion to be alwayes joyned with the other exercise of depuring our imaginations and hearts from the images and affections of all created objects whatsoever Making thereby a ladder of his humanity to climbe up to his divinity which if we should look upon it without that veyle between us and it would strike us blind As when a medicinal simple is too strong for our stomack to bear singly in its own substance physitians use to allay and weaken it with some gentle liquor that is agreeable to our taste and then drinking what delighteth us with pleasure we swallow health But Madam I perceive I engage my selfe before I am aware in a talk I am not able to go through with Nor is it needfull for this little treatise of as great value as it is of little bulk requireth neither commentary nor apologie My sending it to your Ladyship is an action of duty and of affection The first in giving you an account of the expence of my time in this place where I have bin now a just week and intitling you to all I shall ever do or bring to passe in any kind whatsoever during my whole life And the other in communicating to you what hath afforded me so much contentment and may prove so solidly beneficial to me if it please God to give me grace to make right use of it I beseech your Ladyship pray him so to do and to be pleased to give me your blessing Calis the 6th of October the feast of the glorious Patriarke of the Carthusians who most admirably practised and instituted what this treatise recommendeth in the year 1649. Your Ladyships most humble most obedient and most dutiful Sonne K. D. To my Lady Winter the wife of Sr. John Winter late of Liddne in the County of Glocester MADAM THe worthy Author giving me the view of this Translation in Paris at my comming from thence I begged a coppie which he was pleased to bestow and as he performed the work for his private use and recreation and after dedicated it to his vertuous Mother the Lady Digby So I who have no other share then the conveying it to be printed for the publique good do offer up my little industrie therein to your La Yet not for this only but that indeed I willingly take occasion to tell the world how much my Lady Winter is esteemed and valued by her faithfull Friend and Kinsman and most humble servant W Gr A TREATISE OF Adhering to God CHAP. I. Of the utmost and highest perfection that it is possiblefor a man to arrive unto in this life I Have been casting with my selfe how I might frame for my owne use a compleat perfect draught as far forth as our nature is capable of in this lifes banishment and peregrination of what is the highest and noblest action for a man to employ himselfe about And surely this is none other then a ready vigorous constant and immediate adhesion unto God Almighty by a totall abstraction as much as is possible from all creatures whatsoever For the end of Christian perfection is Love and Charity by which a Soule cleaveth to her Creatour And unto this adhesion of Charity every man in particular is undispensably obliged under paine of loosing Heaven so far forth as concerneth the obeying Gods commands and the conforming himselfe to his Divine will which obedience shutteth out whatsoever is repugnant to the essence and habit of Charity and consequently all mortall sinnes But religious persons have a further obligation then this by having bound themselves to Evangelicall perfection and to such duties as though they be but of counsill and superogation yet by them the way is made more ready and more secure to bring the observers of them to their journeys end which is the possession and fruition of God And the observance of these shutteth out not only what is destructive to Charity but also all other obstacles that may in any wise hinder or loose the fervour and activity of Charity or that may retard or slacken the soules union with God Almighty which is in a great measure performed by an intire and efficacious abrenunciation of all creatures whatsoever even of our owne selves Now seeing that God is a spirit and that he ought to be adored in Spirit and in truth Joh. 4. that is to say by knowledge and love by understanding and affection voide of all mixture with any corporeal species or materiall imaginations hence it is that we are thus taught in the Gospel when thou shalt pray enter into thy chamber that is into the inner roome of thy heart and shutting the doore Mat. 6. to wit of thy senses there with a pure heart a good conscience and a firme faith pray to thy father in spirit and in truth in secret All which is done when a man laying aside all other affaires and thoughts withdraweth himselfe wholy into himself then shutting out and forgetting all created objects whatsoever the superiour part of his soule onely powreth out before Jesus Christ her desires to her Lord God in deepe silence and with confident security and in so doing dilateth diffuseth drowneth inflameth and resolveth herself into him through the violence of love with the whole weight of her heart and with the utmost straining of all her faculties and powers CHAP. II. How one may cleave and intend wholy to Christ despising all other things BUt he who desireth and is resolved to apply himselfe to such a state must lay downe for an absolutely necessary ground that he must shut his eyes and all his senses to all manner of outward implications and affaires that may cause any trouble and must cast from him all cares sollicitudes as being altogether unconcerned in any creature whatsoever or rather looking upon them as hurtfull and pernicious to him And then he must retire his whole life into himselfe and there have no other object to entertaine his thoughts withall but Jesus Christ wounded and crucified And that with a continuall attention and with all earnestnesse and straining himself to his utmost power he must make it his onely businesse to passe by him into him that is to say by his Manhood into his Godhead by the wounds of his humanity into his glory and Divinity and there readily and securely commit himselfe and all that concerneth him to his unwearied and al-seeing providence according to St Peters expression when he saith casting all your care and solicitude upon him 1 Pet. 5. who ruleth and disposeth all things And to St Paul when he biddeth us bee solicitous for nothing Phil. 4. And to that direction of the Psalme which adviseth us to settle all our thoughts upon the Lord
us otherwhiles begetting in our minds needlesse sollicitousnesse superfluous cares and indiscreet anxieties otherwhiles disordering us with unquietnesse within our selves or with dissolute conversation without us or with unreasonable curiosity of what concerneth us not sometimes with begetting in us an itch to read Books of unprofitable Subtilties or to discourse of what belongeth not to us or to inquire after newes occurrences of the world otherwhiles by assaulting us with adversities and contradictions with an innumerable company of stratagems that he imployeth against us whereof though many may seeme to be but of small moment and not to be accounted as sins yet in very truth they are exceeding great hinderances of this holy and sublime exercise And therfore be they concerning great affaires or concerning but small ones nay though they may seem to be advantageous to us or even necessary to be attended neverthelesse they ought to be wholly cut off and cast away and our sences ought to be divorced from them And accordingly whatsoever we happen to heare or to see or whatsoever in any sort chanceth to passe before us we must have a singular care that we transmit it not from our outward senses to our fantasy and there frame an image or representation of it and entertaine our thoughts with it Which if we be diligent in and do keep such images from residing in our memory and from recurring to our thoughts they will be of no impediment unto us nor cause us any distraction whiles we are praying meditating singing Psalmes or about any other spirituall exercise nor will ever after returne to molest us againe Therefore upon any occasion of what important affairs soever that may occurre unto you let your security fortresse be to keep it out from admittance into your thoughts and from making any impression upon your mind and to cast it and your selfe readily and confidently and entirely with peace and silence and calmnesse into the arms of Gods all knowing and all governing providence and then he will fight for you and will certainly deliver you from all the evills that might arrive unto you from that coast and will shine in your soule by Divine consolations Whereas if you should thinke to overcome the difficulties that will arise against you by your owne industry and vigilancy and by taking them to taske and wrestling against them in your owne thoughts all that you will gaine by wearying your self out with continuall sollicitude and with having your restlesse imaginations day and night fixed upon what you would prevent or compasse will be to discover plainly in the conclusion that all humane wisdome is meer folly and that the result of such toylesome enslaving of the soule to vaine and unreasonable occupations is but losse of time abasing of our mind and even a fretting out of the spirits that give life to our body without effecting what we have so earnestly and passionately laboured for When therefore any accident happeneth to you of what kind soever it commeth make account it is sent you by a tender Father that is continually watchfull over you and accordingly receive it with an even and unmoved mind and let it not afford you matter either for discourse with others or for thoughtfullnesse within you But uncloath your imagination from all ideas and images of corporeall objects according to the duty of your condition and profession that so you may cleave fast with a pure soule to him you have bequeathed your selfe and that no created thing whatsoever may intervene betweene you and him and that through the sacred wounds of his humanity you may be securely and steadily wafted over to the incomprehensible light of his divinity CHAP. V. Of the purity of heart which above all things is to be aymed at IF therefore you desire to walke in the straight and direct way that will bring you readily and safely to your journeys end both of grace in this life and of glory in the next you must with a constant and never interrupted attention employ all the diligence and industry you are able to purchase a perpetuall cleanenesse of heart and purity of mind and untroublednesse of senses You must recollect as it were into one burning point all the inclinations and affections of your Soule and cast it upon God and fixe it irremoveably upon him Which to doe efficaciously you must withdraw your selfe from the conversation of your friends and indeed of all mankind as much as is possible for you and from all businesse of what kind soever that may in any sort divert or retard this designe of yours laying hold of all conveniences that may beget a quietnesse and tranquillity in your soule and may advance your contemplation betaking your selfe for that purpose to the silence and solitude of some close retreate where you may lye secure at anchor free from the Rocks and dangers of this fading life against which so many doe suffer unhappy shipwrack and be sheltered from the noisefull stormes of the deceitfull world But while you are in this haven you must not grow remisse as though now all dangers were past and your worke were at an end but you must see your selfe with a continuall vigilancy to keepe your outward senses strongly shut and to watch narrowly your owne hart so as no enemy may breake in upon it and cause in it any disquiet or taint the purity of it with the drossie images of sensible and terrene objects This purity of heart is the top of all spirituall exercises and is the end for which he that aspireth at Evangelicall perfection forsaketh the world and is the compensation that in this life he can have of all his labours And therefore you must strive with all earnestnesse to free your heart and to sequester your senses and affections from all objects whatsoever that may hinder the liberty of your spirit or that may have any power to draw or inveigle or bind you to them And you must summe up all the affections of your soule and recollect all the dispersions of your heart and fixe them inseparably upon that true and supreame good which being but one and in it selfe most simple containeth all good in it And by such close adhesion to God and dereliction of all created objects and rejecting of all terrene and fraile affections you must endeavour to transforme your heart through Jesus Christ into a kind of divine nature and when once you come to thrive so happily in this high imployment of unclothing and purifying your imagination from all species and images residing in it and of refining and exalting your heart to such a simplicity that it can rest no where but in God and that you now begin to suck into the bowels of your soule pure streames from the fountaine of his divine providence and that you relish them savourly and that you unite your selfe to him by conforming your self in every thing to his divine will then this alone this single exercise is
A TREATISE OF Adhering to God Written by Albert the Great Bishop of Ratisbon Put into English by Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. ALSO A Conference with a Lady about Choyce of RELIGION LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the New-Exchange 1654. To the Lady DIGBY MADAM WHen lately I was commanded out of England I was so streightened in time that I was not able to carry any thing with me besides what I had about me And the difficulties that my servants met with in following mee and in bringing my carriages after me made me remain here sometimes in want of my ordinary attendants and of such necessaries as I had dayly need of I was not so sensible of any as of the deprivation of my bookes which in all fortunes I had ever sound my best companions and in whose conversation I as well profited as pleased my self And therefore in all my journies even the longest and most cumbersome I have ever used to have a convenient store of them with mee I was now reduced to have none other by me but a short discourse of Albert the great concerning the perfection of a spiritual life which at my setting forth from London I had put into my pocket invited thereto by the dignity of the subject the excellency of the author and the smallnesse of the bulk of it I read it over with much delight And judged it so profitable a work that I desired to impress the contents of it as deep as I could in my memory and indeed to convert the whole treatise into the very substance of my soul as hoping it may one day serve mee for a rule to govern my poor devotions by as far as my feeble eyes may be able to see by the light of so dazeling a sunne This occasioned me to employ my self in rendring in my own tongue the expressions which this author had made in Latin For I believe scarce any study doth so vigorously digest an other mans notions into the nourishment of ones own minde as doth the translating or the paraphrasing of them And when I had done it I deemed it one of the most profitable tasks of so short an one that ever I had busied myself about Neither could I be content to engrosse unto my selfe alone so noble a feast I desired that my best friend should share with me in it whose partaking with me in any good I must ever account the crowning and compleating of it to me And therefore I presently resolved to send your La a coppy of this discourse which I confesse is much empayred and enfeebled by its change of habit For to expresse the authors sense with full weight requireth alike knowledge as he had of the matter he wrighteth of And this is not to be acquired by humane industry or dint of wit but is an effect of the unction of the holy Ghost that is never wanting where it findeth due preparations and dispositions on the creatures part And in this Mystical Divinity differeth from all other sciences that the right understanding of it dependeth of the precedent faithfull practising it Like as in divine truths he that would see the light which shineth in them must first beleive them To converse familiarly with the kingdome of God that is within us requireth a total abstraction from the hindring objects that are without us And the various course in the world that I have runne my selfe out of breath in hath afforded me little means for solid recollection Therefore it cannot be expected that I should otherwise comprehend this holy Bishops notions and expresse them in my language then as men use to frame apprehensions upon hear-say of countreies they were never in and afterwards deliver them to others They who have bin there will soon perceive great mistakes in the others discourses and descriptions And so will your Ladyship whom long constant practise hath rendred so profoundly knowing in this sublime Science in this translation or rather short Paraphrase of mine I have been fain to make it such because I could not satisfie my selfe of rendring compleatly the authors sense by a verbal translation of his words The composition of Authors are either forged in their fantasy or are productions of their understanding or are expressions of their affective part All these I conceive do claim a different course to be taken in rendring them in another tongue Those of the first kinde do exact a strict verbal translation For they springing from notions that have their residence in the fancy and being barely of that low orbe plain words that have their lively pictures also there do represent them adequately And consequently in an other tongue words of the same signification do render them fully But in compositions of deep judgement in which the manners of expression do insinuate further meanings then the meer words barely considered do seem to imploy one must use a far different method to render them with their due weight and force in an other language One must first comprehend the fullnesse of their sense and settle in ones own thoughts the same and then deliver those thoughts as compleatly and significantly as one can in ones own words and manner of expression For want of doing which wee see the best writers lose exceedingly of their strength and energy when they are translated by such as confine themselves grammatically to their authors words This maketh Tacitus so lame and so bare in many translations Aristotle so obscure and unpleasant Avicenna so barbarous Virgil so ungracefull and S. Augustin himselfe appear oftentimes but flat and dry Much more this happeneth in affective expression Wee see how the same words that are extreamly moving when they are spoken in passion by a lover prove flat and cold when an other person barely relateth them And such an effect as the manner of gesture and earnestnesse worketh in speaking the like doth the manner of couching the sense and the phrase in writing The Arcadia of Sr Philip Sidney of whom I may say as St Augustin did of Homer that he is passing sweet and delightful even in his vanities though it be very faithfully translated into other languages in regard of grammatical construction yet it appeareth with little grace amongst forraigners who cannot believe how strangely that book useth to raise affections and passions in such as read it in the original English If this be so in the expressions of such affections as have but creatures for their objects how must it fare with those which being fixed upon the Creator do require a profound abstraction of the understanding an admirable purity of heart in the readers that they may have a right taste of them He that will render efficaciously the expressions of a soul burning with affections must be endued with a spirit of a like temper He knoweth that such a one is not sollicitous about his words and that therefore he ought not to be scrupulous in weighing them The understanding cannot look
And by thus doing he is in a manner transformed into God so that he can neither think nor understand nor love nor remember any thing but God and of God and if he chanceth at any time to see either himselfe or any creature he seeth them not as they are in themselves but onely as they are in God Nor doth any share of his love rest in them but all of it passeth through them to God and resteth in him And this knowledge of truth alwaies rendreth a soul truely humble and maketh it severe to it selfe without ever judging others whereas worldly wisedome swelleth a soule with pride vanity and empty winde Take this then for the foundation of all spirituall doctrine that if you desire to arrive to the true knowledge service familiarity and full possession of God Almighty you must necessarily devest your heart of all sensible love not onely of all persons whatsoever but of all creatures whatsoever that so you may with a pure and entire heart and with all the powers of your soule apply your selfe freely without all doublenesse care and solicitude to your Creatour casting your selfe in all occasions with a full confidence upon his single providence CHAP. VII In what manner ones heart is to be recollected within ones selfe IT is very truely said in the book of the Spirit and the Soule Cap. 21. that to ascend up to God is to enter into ones selfe For without all doubt he who turning his operations inwards pierceth through himselfe and goeth beyond himselfe is really and truely raised up to God Wee must therefore have a care to recollect our heart from the dispersions and distractions of this world and to recall it to those joyes it will find within it selfe that so it may in time be enabled to keepe it selfe steady in the light of divine contemplation For the life and rest of our heart consisteth in fixing it by earnest desires upon the love of God and in tasting the sweetnesse of those consolations which with a liberall hand hee giveth to those who love him And the reason is obvious why we are so frequently frustrated of the experimentall enjoying of this happines and are not able to tast and savour it in the full sweetnesse of it For whiles our soule effuseth it selfe upon exterior objects and is choaked with the sollicitude of transitory things shee entreth not into her selfe by the setting before her eyes those solid considerations which her memory ought alwaies to be stored withall whilst she is pestered and overclouded with the images of creatures she returneth not into her selfe by the superiour part of her understanding into which no such object can have admittance and whiles shee is intangl'd with concupiscences she is hindred from reverting into her self by vehement desires of that interior sweetnesse and spirituall joy which belongeth onely to a purified and enflamed soule so lying groaning among these present materiall and fading objects she is not able to turne her selfe inwards and discerne the image of God that is formed there It is therefore absolutely necessary for him who aymeth at this noble and high pitch that with profound humility and yet withall with entire confidence he raise himselfe above himselfe and above the whole machine of creared beings by the abnegation of them all saying thus to himselfe he whom my heart hath chosen from among all things whom it seeketh above all things and whom it loveth and desireth beyond all things is not to be knowne by my senses nor comprised by my imagination but is above all that is Sensible above all that is Intelligble he is not perceptible to any faculty of mine but yet he is such as I may desire and love him with all the powers and faculties of my soule he is not representable by any shape yet I may thirst after him with the most enflamed affections that can be raised within mee nor can he be prised or valued neere his worth by all I can say or thinke of him and yet my heart if it be cleane from all drossie affections can seise upon him and unite it selfe to him by excesses of love For he is beautifull and delightfull infinitely beyond all things in the world is of infinite goodnesse perfection And then after such like discourses and considerations his soule entereth yet deeper into it selfe and raiseth it selfe yet higher above it selfe and looseth it selfe as I may say in the divine mist of incomprehensible light And this manner of ascending even to the aenigmaticall beholding of the most holy Trinity in Jesus Christ is by so much the more enflamed and vehement by how much those operations which carry the soule upwards are more interiour and is by so much the more profitable raiseth one so much higher as the love one soareth with is more vigorous and fervent For in spirituall operations the measure of their height and excellency is their interiournesse and recollectednesse from all outward dissipation Therefore you must not give over or sit you down to rest till you have gotten some tast as it were an earnest-penny of that fulnesse which will hereafter swell you up and till you have obtained some first fruits of that heavenly sweetnesse which will hereafter please beyond all measure the spirituall palate of your soule nor must you slacken your pace in running after that divine odour you begin to have the wind of till you come to see the God of Gods in Sion For you must settle this as a fundamentall rule in the progression of the soule and in the adhesion and union to God within you that you must never retire nor repose till you have obtained what you ayme at Consider those who travell up a mountaine and apply to your case what happeneth unto them If a soule engulfe her selfe by concupiscence among those things that slide along beneath her she presently loseth her way in a labyrinth of infinite distractions and of oblique and crooked waies and is as it were divided from her selfe and is torne into as many peeces as there are severall objects that she is glewed unto by her desires And from hence proceedeth the instability of mens actions without any fixednesse upon the resolutions they had once taken their toylsome running without arriving to the end of the course and their perpetuall labour without any rest But if a soule doe raise her selfe by divine affections and love from what is beneath her and would entangle her in a multitude of distractions and forsaking all creatures without her do recollect her selfe within her selfe unto that one immutable all-sufficient good whereof she will find the image within her selfe and doe learne to dwell and converse alwaies with it and doe cleave inseparably to it by enflamed desires and affections such a one will encrease daily in strength and perfection proportionably to the knowledge and desire that lifteth her up to that one supreame immutable good Till she herselfe become at the last
to the bottome of such expressions nor relish the sweetnesse that is in them He must abound with affections in himselfe that would savour the language of affections spoken by an other Hearts of this temper are like the strings of different lutes tuned alike which move in both though but one be touched Now Alberts language in this treatise being much of this strain I cannot be so partial to myself as to hope that my English arriveth near expressing the fulness of his sense I may uppon this occasion say as St Thomas did when he was desired to comment Salomons mystical Song as St Bernard before him had don and with much more reason and justice If I had St Bernards spirit I would make such a comment as St Bernard did He onely that hath the spirit wherewith this illuminated Bishop wrote can fully comprehend and render his sense in this divine and mystical treatise Therefore I must necessarily have fallen very short in my translation since it is not to be expected that I should mak it speak but at that rate as my selfe did first understand it Besides this improportion on my side the Authors manner of delivering himselfe hath made my talke much more difficult It is evident that he little regarded in what words or stile he expressed himselfe He was so full of the matter that he neglected the forme and dresse he put it in And writing it in the nature of a summary remembrance for his own use and some other pious and intelligent persons of his own order his particular friends sor hee was a Dominican Fryar before hee was made a Bishop hee conceived it sufficient for him to give but hints or notes of what he aymed at which would presently bring before them the whole sequel of considerations that were comprised under such heads and that he had often discoursed largely unto them And the nature of such a writing admitting frequent soddain transitions to new matter or that may seem new to one that seeth not the connection of it with what was said before it is very hard to worke such a piece into an even contexture with one entire and continued thread The course I took to wade as well as I could through these difficulties was to endeavour out of what hee had said to raise my own thoughts to be as like unto his as my weaknesse could attain unto And then I applied my selfe to expresse those thoughts as significantly as I could in my own manner of speech upon the model he hath left in the mean time departing as little as I could from his words where I might follow them and connecting the broken transitions as I conceived they were connected in his minde though they appear not so at the first sight in the words that he hath uttered his conceptions by Yet notwithstanding his being thus short throughout he often repeateth the same thing but still with some addition and further explication of the matter to inculcate it the deeper as is recorded of St Jo. the Evangelist who in his latter time whensoever he was desired to preach did still but repeat the same few words by which he invited his auditors to the love that charity ordaineth This sheweth how the substance and perfection of a spiritual life consisteth in a very narrow room And therefore St Denis the Areopagit who is so diffuse in his treatises is most succinct in his mystical divinity as having for its subject but that only one thing which in the Gospel our Saviour telleth us is necessary The end of all spiritual exercise is but to love God with the whole activity of ones soul And the expeditest way to bring one thereunto is to banish all other affections and inclinations from the heart and all other thoughts from ones minde The impressions which creatures make in one are like boisterous windes that wrinkling the face of a water and peradventure raising mudde in it do deface and keep out those images which would shine in it if it were calme and smooth He that can wisely keep his soul from adhering to any thing without him shall finde his creator shine gloriously within him It is the eminence of superior things to send alwaies emanations from them for the bettering of inferior ones if they exclude them not So we see the sun sends his beams into every corner of the hemisphere if nothing shut them out Open the windowes and draw the curtains and the chamber that before was darke will then immediately grow lightsome The shutters and screenes which keep out the divine sun from illuminating and warming our souls are the images of creatures that reside in them And therefore this Authors main endeavour consisteth in advising and pressing a totall denudation from all such Hence proceedeth this frequent iteration and inculcating of this document Yet he doth no so absolutely exclude all corporall shapes out of the imagination but that he adviseth and exhorteth all men to exercise themselves in the continual meditation of our Saviours passion Man being composed of two natures spiritual and corporall and the corporall part having in this life gotten the start of the other it is impossible for us to tie up our senses from all commerce with materiall objects and very hard for us to keep some of them from making smart impressions in our fantasie which is as it were the window that letteth in outward lights to the soul For the most part they are false and deceitfull ones And the onely means to be secure from such is to fill that store-house with safe materials and than were it but through want of room it will not admit of others Of all these the perfectest and indeed the most agreeable to our nature and consequently the most powerfull to move us is the history of Christs life and passion We see that even tragedies and Romances of peradventure feigned subjects or at least that concerne not us doe strangly affect the hearers and do raise strong passions and affections in them with a desire to imitate what they represent well done and a compassion for the misfortunes and calamities that arrive undeservedly to worthy and well natured persons How efficacious then must the consideration of Christs passion and sufferings be to beget like and farre stronger sentiments in any man that shall insiste upon them The dignity of the person the extremity of his base and cruel usage his great deservings even from them that so treated him his undergoing all this meerly for our sakes and particularly for every one of us and the infailable certainty that the records of all these passages are undoubtedly true would move a heart of stone that should entertain it self leisurely with these thoughts And such compassion and tendernesse for his sufferings to redeem and deliver us from misery will beget love and passion in us to his person And hee being God as well as man our affections that thus begun divinity which is the period of all spirituall
activity untill it have run through all things that lye between them and have seised upon him and have submersed it selfe in him For love hath an unitive and transformative power that changeth the lover into what hee loveth and againe the beloved into the lover so that each of them is in the other as intrinsecally as possibly can be Which how it is will the more plainely appeare if we consider severally the commerce that is between them in the two severall powers of the soule the understanding the will of him that loveth First in regard of the understanding and apprehensive faculties the beloved is in the lover by his continuall forming the image of the beloved in his thoughts where hee converseth intimately with him in a most sweet and delightfull manner and againe the lover is in the beloved not contenting himselfe with a superficiall knowledge of what belongeth to him but using his utmost indeavours to dive into the inmost secrets of him and to reach the bottom Secondly in regard of the will and of the affective desiring faculties the beloved is said to be in the lover by residing in his heart through an affectuous compleasance and joyous delectation in him and the lover is in the beloved by having the same desires which he hath by willing the same things which hee willeth by disliking the same things which he disliketh by rejoycing and grieveing for the same and by having an exact conformity with him in all things as though hee were not a distinct person from him but even he himselfe For love draweth the lover out of himselfe and planteth him in the beloved and setleth him most intimately there whereupon it is said in the Canticles Cant. 8. that love is as strong as death which carrieth the soule out of the body And it may well be said that the soule is more where it loveth then where it liveth For she is in the beloved according to her owne nature and as she hath an existence belonging to her selfe that is by her will understanding whereas her giving life to a body is an action of much lower degree and onely as she is the forme and part of a whole in which consideration she hath no prerogative above the formes of bruit beasts We may therefore conclude that to draw us from outward and sensible objects into our selves and from thence to carry us to our saviour Jesus Christ and in him to unite us to his divinity there is no other way no other meanes then the love of him and the ardent desire of his sweetnesse that through his humanity we may feele and perceive and tast the presence of his divinity So great is the power of love that it is able to raise the soule from the earth to the highest heaven Nor is it possible for any person to arrive to Beatitude but by the wings of love and desire Love is the life of the soule her wedding garment and her perfection In which is comprised the Law and the Prophets and the whole doctrine of our Saviour And therefore the Apostle saith to the Romans that love is the fulnesse of the law Rom. 3. and to Timothy that charity is the end of all that is comanded 1. Tim. 1. CHAP. XIII Of the quality and utility of prayer and how ones heart is to be recollected within it selfe BUt sithence we are not able of our selves either to love or to doe any other good worke nor can of our owne stocke offer any thing to God from whom alone floweth all that is good that is not already his the only thing which remaineth for us to doe is that according to the instructions which he hath vouchsafed to give us by his owne divine mouth and blessed example we have recourse to him by prayer in all our occurrences and that we prostrate our selves before him like poore needy beggers like wretched miserable bondslaves like feeble desolate children and so with deep groanes lay open our hearts before him representing our distressed condition with all ingenuity sincerity with feare and shame yet mingled with confidence and love and beseeching him with the utmost vehemence and fervour of our soule to protect and assist us in our imminent dangers and in the close admitting and abandoning ourselves entirely and securely into his hands without reserving any thing at all to our selves but acknowledging whatsoever we have or are to be absolutely his And then that will be fulfilled in us which the holy abbot Isack speaking of his manner of prayer saith in the following words Cassian Collect. 10. Chap. 6. Then we shall be one in God and our Lord and only he will be all in all to us when that perfect love of his with which he loved us first shall likewise on our side have passed and bee converted into the affection of our heart Which will be when all our love all our desire all our study all our endeavour all that we shall think imagine speak and hope will be God alone and that a like unity as is between the father and the sonne and againe betweene the sonne and the father shall be transfused into our soule and mind that as he loveth us with a sincere pure and indissolvable charity so we may be joyned also to him by a perpetuall and inseparable dilection whereby thus linked unto him all that we shall desire and hope for that we shall understand that we shall speake of and that we shall direct our prayers unto may be God only This therefore ought to be the intention the ayme and the end of a spirituall man that he may come to possesse herein his corruptible body an image of the next lifes beatitude and that he may begin in this world to receive a kind of earnest penny and tast some drops of that beatitude conversation and glory which we shall have in heaven This I say is the end of all perfection that our soule being purified from all carnall drosse it may dayly be refined and sublimed up to spirituall objects untill our conversation and all the motions and affections of our heart do become one continued prayer And when our soule free from all earthly alloy Cass Col. 9. cap. 5. shall thus breath and pant after God onely on whom alone the intention of a spirituall man ought to be fixed and so such an one the least separation from him will seem a present and cruel death and shall be in a manner sent beforehand to him by injoying so high a calme from all carnall passions which might inveigle and draw it to their objects that it may firmly and indissolubly adhere to that one supreame good then the direction of the Apostle will be fulfilled who biddeth us pray without intermission 1. Thes 5. and in another place lifting up pure hands every where without anger and contention 1. Tim. 2. For where the operation of the mind is absorbed if so I may say with such purity and
is transformed from a terrene and grosse nature to a spirituall and Angelicall shape then whatsoever she shall receive into her selfe whatsoever she shall employ her self about and whatsoever she shall doe will be a most pure and a most sincere prayer To conclude if you shall continue without interruption that course I have traced from the beginning of this discourse it will be as easie and ready for you in your introversion and recollection to contemplate and to injoy God as in nature it is to live CHAP. XIIII That in all judgments we ought to resort to the witnesse of our conscience IT is of no small availe for attaining spirituall perfection and the purity and tranquillity of the soule in God that upon whatsoever shall be spoken thought or done concerning us we presently recurre in silence to the inward secret of our heart and mind and there sequestred from all other objects and wholly recollected within our selves we call our selves to a strict account for discovery of the bare truth of what we make our inquiry about And there we shall find that it will be no advantage for us but rather much prejudice to be praised and honoured from without if in the mean time our heart within us reproacheth us of faultinesse and guilt And as it profiteth one nothing to be praised by men whiles his owne conscience accuseth him so on the other side he is never the worse for being contemned reproached and persecuted whiles in the tribunall of his owne heart he findeth himselfe innocent and irreprehensible Or rather upon such occasions he hath reason to rejoyce in our Lord with patience silence and tranquillity For no adversity can hurt him in whom iniquity raigneth not And since it is a certain truth that as no evill remaineth unpunished so no good passeth without reward let us beware of expecting or receiving ours like hypocrits from men but referr that wholly and soly to God to give it us not in this life but in Eternity that lasteth for ever It is then evident that no action we can doe can be nobler or better then alwaies in all our tribulations and accidents whatsoever to resort into the secret of our owne soule and there invocate our Lord Jesus Christ our helper in our temptations and tribulations and humble our selves through acknowledgment of our owne sinfulnesse and praise God our Father that correcteth and comforteth when he judgeth fit And let us be sure to receive all things either concerning our selves or others prosperous or adverse with equanimity and with a ready and confident resignation of our selves into the hand of his infallible and Fatherly providence And by doeing thus we shall obtaine the remission of our sinns the delivering us from all bitternesse the contemning of sweetnesse and security upon us the infusion of grace and mercy into us the setling and strengthening us in the familiarity of God our sucking abundant consolations from him and our firme adhesion and union with him Let us therefore beware of imitating those who through hypocrisie and after a Pharisaicall manner do strive to appear better and otherwise then they are and do labour to give men a better conceit of themselves then in their owne hearts they know they deserve and do hunt after outward humane prayse and glory whiles their soules within are full of impotent passions and desires and grievous sinns Certainly whosoever shall seek after such vanities which is the extremity of folly and madnesse the reall good we have formerly mentioned will fly from him and reproach and shame will in the end betide him Keep therefore continually before thine eyes the bad that is in thee and thy unaptnesse to all good Know thy self aright that thou mayest be humbled And considering thy great sinns and the excessive evills that are in thee repine not at being esteemed the most unworthy vile and abject creature in the world but repute thy selfe among other men like drosse mingled with gold like darnel growing among wheat like chaffe mingled with corn like a wolfe among sheep and like satan among the children of God and shunn all honour or preference from others fly with all might and maine from the infection of this pestilence from the poyson of praise and from the vanity of ostentation least according to the royall Prophet the sinner be praised in the desires of his owne soule Ps 9. For according to the other They who speake thee blessed doe deceive thee and doe destroy the way of thy stepps Isay 3. And our Saviour threateneth us with woe when men shall blesse us and speake well of us CHAP. XV. How the contempt of ones selfe may be caused in a man and how profitable that is IT is most certaine that the better a man is acquainted with his owne unworthynesse and basenesse and the deeper conceit he frameth thereof the further and the clearer he looketh into the Majesty of God and the meaner a man appeareth in his owne eyes through the valew he putteth upon God upon truth and upon justice the more worthy and pretious he is in the eyes of God Let us therefore continually busy our thoughts upon those considerations that may beget in us a contempt of our selves and a beliefe that we are unworthy of receiving any good turne Let us mortifie and displease our selves and seeke to please God onely And let us be content to be reputed as we are most unworthy and vile wretches When any tribulations afflictions or injuries do come upon us let us not be moved at them nor entertaine any unquiet thoughts or indignation or animosity against those that bring them upon us but with meeknesse and gentlenesse of spirit let us conclude within our selves that we deserve all the injuries scornes and mischiefs with abandonments that can arrive unto us For certainly he who is truly penitent and whose heart is full of compunctions abhorreth being honoured and loved by men and is content to be hated despised and trodden upon to the very last that so he may attaine to true humility and to a sincere firme adhesion unto God alone with a pure heart Which adhesion to God onely and loving of him onely together with the hating of our selves and thinking worse of ones selfe then of all creatures else and the deeming himselfe despisable and desiring to be despised and scorned by all men else requireth no outward labour or strength of body but rather the solitude and retirement of the body whilst the heart laboureth by affections and the mind is quiet from all worldly affaires to the end that setting your heart upon the right object and banishing the distracting multiplicity of creatures out of our mind and ritiring our senses from all conversation with mean intertainments our soule may then raise it selfe up to a familiarity with heavenly and divine things whiles our body is sequestred by solitude from earthly ones By doeing thus we shall change our selves after a sort into God To attaine unto the
perfection of this State we must be alwaies upon our guard to passe no judgement or censure upon our neighbour much lesse to contemne or despise him And we must hartily desire to be accounted by all men as the drosse of the earth and the reproach of human nature and to be abhorred by them like dirt and noysomenesse rather then to abound with any delights whatsoever or to be honoured or advanced by men or to enjoy any corporeall satisfaction or transitory conveniency And we must wish for no more of the advantages or continuance of this life then meerly what is necessary for us to bewaile and lament without intermission our transgressions and sinns and to grow up dayly in the disestimation contempt hatred and annihilation of our selves in our owne eyes that so we may become more pleasing in Gods And lastly we must have no regard or sollicitude for any thing in the world besides God alone but settle all our love and affections upon him and cleave inseparably to him and have no object in our hearts but our lord and saviour Jesus Christ by whose power all things subsist and by whose providence all things are governed The consolations of this life are the most dangerous enemies that can be encountered with to hinder one in such a happy course Remember then that this is not a place for you to receive delights or contentments in but to weep and lament in from the bottome of your heart If then your soule be so dry that you cannot weep the very consideration of that will afford you abundant matter of teares But if you doe weep you will have reason to increase your lamentation by considering that through your grievous offences and sinns you have drawn upon your own head this dolefull cause of sorrow which whiles it lyeth so heavy upon you what madnesse were it in you to let your thoughts range astray after any other affaìre that you are not concerned in The delinquent at the barre that standeth there pleading for his life and feareth the sentence of condemnation from a severe judge little regardeth what is done abroad in the market place or how the sheriffe marshalleth and disposeth his guards for the security of the prisoners So he that hath considered rightly the condition that his soule is in and upon that consideration entertaineth such a deep sorrow as belongeth to him will have no relish of any of the delights of this world nor will his heart afford any roome for anger vain-glory indignation or any other passion whatsoever to harbour in it And if at any time you chance to cast your eyes upon the contented and cheerfull state of other happy persons that swimme in the delights of pure love which banisheth all sorrow do not presently flatter your selfe that it belongeth also to you who are composed of like parts as they to have a mansion among them For as there are prisons and dungeons for malefactors whiles the well disposed citizens live at ease in their owne houses so there are different exercises and formes of living for those whose past sinns oblige them to penance and mourning for those that have preserved themselves with greater purity and innocence Otherwise these latter would have no advantage of the former and injustice would have more freedome then innocence We may then conclude that we must abandon all creatures wee must despise them all and wee must repudiate and fly from all the delights of this world that so with entire faith wee may lay a solid foundation of repentance and mourning And if once we attaine to love Jesus Christ in truth and to sigh after him from the bottome of our hearts and to beare him continually there to conform all our actions to the example hee hath given us and to have a real griefe for our sinns and to have a lively apprehension of the next world to have the consideration of the last judgement and of the eternall torments of hell all waies before our eyes and to be continually apprehensive and sollicitous of the state we shall be in when we leave this world we shall then most assuredly be delivered from all affections to created things and be concerned with nothing that is of a fleeting and transitory nature and we shall arrive to such an impassibillity as not onely to be contented with pressures and encroachments upon us and with injuries done us but even to be afflicted and so think that day lost wherein we receive not some scorne or malediction or ill intreatment for Gods sake The perfection of which impassibillity consisteth in being free from all vices and passions and in having a pure and cleane heart and in having our soule adorned and replenished with vertues Which to attaine unto it will much availe us to beleive our selves already out of the world and since we are sure that one day we must necessarily dye let us make account we are already dead But because through the frailty of our nature and the cunning and malice of our enemy who endeavoreth to slide into our best actions and so corrupt them these inferiour and abstracted exercises may be lyable to miscarriage as all humane actions are let this bee the touchstone to try all our thoughts words and deeds by whether they be according to God or no namely whether we become more humble more disaffected with the world more recollected within our selves and more attentive and strong in the pursuite of God For if we should find it otherwise with us we might with reason suspect that what we did were not according to God nor pleasing to him nor profitable to our selves CHAP. XVI How the Providence of God extendeth it felfe to all things NOw to the end that according to what we have have hitherto discoursed we may without any disturbance readily securely and calmely be raised up to God Almighty and bee immediately joyned and united to him and cleave inseparably to him with a perfect quietnesse evennesse and untroublednesse of mind aswell in adversity as in prosperity in death as in life wee must resigne our selves entirely and commit all things confidently to his never erring and never shaken providence In doing which we can have no difficulty or reluctance when we call to minde how it is he and onely he who giveth unto all creatures their being what they are who endoweth them with their individuall vertues powers and faculties who enableth them to work and performe all the operations that their nature can reach unto and who doth so wonderfully order and range their infinite variety with exact proportion of number weight and measure that like a musick of so many parts they compose the admirable harmony and beauty of the created world If you consider the plants of nature you will finde them seated between two understanding agents the one giving them their essentiall being the other working in them such modifications and changes as may bee introduced into them by art This
whereby to give them yet further a supernaturall assurance and infallibility which they may with an humble confidence in his unlimited goodness expect and claim at his divine hand when they are reduced to that state as is convenient for the reception of such a supernaturall gift 14. Our fourteenth conclusion therefore shall be that God hath given to his Church thus composed the holy Ghost to confirm it in the true faith and to preserve it from error and to Illuminate the understanding of it in right discerning the true sense of those Mysteries of faith that are cōmitted to the custody of it and to worke supernaturall effects of devotion and sanctifie in that Church And this I prove thus Considering that the doctrine of Christ is practical and aymeth at the working of an effect which is the reduction of mankind to beatitude and that mankinde comprehendeth not onely those that lived in that age when he preached but also all others that ever were since or shall be till the end of the world It is apparent that to accomplish that end it was necessary Christ should so effectually imprint his doctrine in their hearts whom he delivered it unto as it might upon all occasions and at all times infallibly expresse it selfe in action and in the delivery of it over from hand to hand should in vertue and strength of the first operation produce ever after like effects in all others Now to have this compleatly performed it was to bee done both by exteriour and by interiour means proportionable to the senses without and to the soule within The outward means were the miracles that hee wrought of which himselfe saith If I had not wrought those workes that no man else ever did they were not guilty of sinne but now they have no excuse or to this purpose and he promised the Apostles they should do greater then those And that miracles are the proper instruments to plant a new doctrine and faith withall the Apostle witnesseth when he saith that miracles are wrought for the unfaithfull not for the faithful and God himselfe told Moses that hee would once do some prodigy in his favour that the people might for ever after beleive what he said to them But it is manifest by the fall of the Apostles themselves that onely this exteriour means of miracles is not sufficient to engraft supernatural faith deep enough in mens hearts when as they upon Christs Passion not onely for fear through human frailty denied their master but had even the very conceit and belief of his doctrine exiled out of their hearts and understanding notwithstanding all the miracles they had seen him work in almost four years time they continually conversed with him which appeareth plainly by the discourse of the Disciples going to Emaus when they said we hoped c. and expressed their sadnesse for the contrary successe to their expectation and by saint Thomas his saying that he would not believe his resurrection unless he saw him and put his fingers into his wounds c. And by the rest of the Apostles that were so long before they would believe his resurrection as having given over the thought of his divinity and after his death considered him but as a pure man like other men Therefore it was necessary that some inward light should bee given them so clear and so strong and so powerfull as the senses should not be able to prevail against it but that it should overflowingly possesse and fill all their understandings and their souls and make them break out in exteriour actions correspondent to the spirit that steered them within And the reason is evident for while on the one side the senses discerne apparantly miracles wrought in confirmation of a doctrine and on the other side the same senses doe stifly contradict the very possibility of the doctrine which those miracles testify the soul within having no assistance beyond the natural powers shee hath belonging originally unto her is in great debate and anxiety which way to give her assent and though reason doe prevail to give it to the party of the present miracles yet it is with great timidity But if it happen that the course of those miracles be stopped then the particular seeming impossibilities of the proposed faith remaining alwaies alike lively in their apprehension and the miracles wrought to confirme it residing but in the memory and the representations of them wearing out daily more and more and the present senses and fantasy growing proportionably stronger and stronger and withall objecting continually new doubts about the reality of those miracles it cannot be expected otherwise but that the assent of the soul should range it selfe on the side of the impossibilities appearing to the present senses and renounce the doctrine formerly confirmed by miracles unlesse some inward and supernaturall light be given her to disperse all the mists that the senses raise against the truth of the doctrine Now the infusion of this light and fervour we call the giving of the holy Ghost which Christ himselfe foreknowing how necessary it was promised them assuring them that he would procure his father to send them the holy Ghost the spirit of truth that should for ever remain among them and within them and suggest unto their memory and instruct them in the right understanding of the faith he had preached unto them And this was prophesied long before of the state of the law of grace by Hieremy whose authority S. Paul bringeth to prove that the law of the Gospel was to be written by the holy Ghost in mens hearts and in their mindes and accordingly he calleth the faithful of the Corinthians The faith of Christ not written with inke but with the spirit of God nor graven in stony tables but in the fleshy ones of their hearts And in performance of this prophesy of Christs promise the history telleth us that on the tenth day after the ascension of Christ when all his disciples who were then all his Church and were to preach and deliver it to all the world were assembled together the holy Ghost was given them and that in so full a measure as they not onely were confirmed so perfectly in their faith as they never after admitted the least vacillation therein but they immediately casting away all other desires and thoughts were inflamed with admirable love of God and broke out into his prayses and into a vehement ardor of teaching and converting others and when by reason of that zeal of theirs any thing happened to them contrary to flesh and blood humane nature as persecutions ignominies corporall punishments and even death it selfe they not only shunned it as before but greedily rann to meet and imbrace it and joyed and gloryed in it all which were effects of the holy Ghost residing in them and filling their minds and governing their soules Where upon by the way we may note that in what Church soever we find not a state of
an excellent judgement and strong naturall witt to be able to wield and make good use of these weapons without which they would but advance him the faster to ruine and pernicious error With which excellencyes how few are there in the world fairely adorned Fourthly it is evident that the Roman Catholicke Church onely hath had a constant and uninterrupted succession of Pastors and Doctors and tradition of doctrine from age to age which we have established as the onely meanes to derive downe the true faith from Christ Whereas it is apparent all others have had late beginnings from unworthy causes And yet even in this little while have not beene able to mantaine themselves for one age throughout or scarce for any considerable part of an age in one tenor of doctrine or forme of Ecclesiasticall government Lastly we may consider how the effect of the holy Ghost his inhabiting in the Church in regard of manners making the hearts of men his living temples shineth eminently in the Catholick Church and is not so much as to be suspected in any other whatsoever For where this holy spirit raigneth it giveth a burning love of God as we have touched before and a vehement desire of approaching unto him as near as may be Now the soule of man moveth towards God not by corporeall stepps and progressions but by intellectuall actions the highest of which are mentall prayer and contemplation in which exercises a man shall advance the more by how much he is the more sequestred from the thought and care of any worldly affaires and hath his passions quieted within him and is abstracted from communication with materiall objects and is untyed from human interests and according to the counsailes of Christ in the Gospell hath cast off all sollicitude of the future and remitteth himselfe wholly to the providence of God living in the world as though he were not in it wholly intent to contemplation when the inferiour part of Charity calleth him not downe to comply with the necessity of his Neighbours This forme of life we see continually practised in the Catholick Church by multitudes of persons of both sexes that through extreame desire of approaching as neare unto God as this life will permitt doe banish themselves from all their friends kindred and what else in the world was naturally dearest unto them and either retire into extreame solitudes or shut themselves up for ever within the narrow limits of a straight Monastery and little cell where having renounced all the interest and propriety in the goods of this world and using no more of them then is necessary for the sustenance of their exhausted bodyes which they mortifie with great abstinences watchings and other austerities that they may bring them into subjection and roote out as much as may be the very fewell of concupiscence and passions and having of their owne accord barred themselves of all propriety of disposing of themselves in any action and renounced even the freedome of their will and thus in summe having taken an eternall farewell of all the joyes and delights that this world can afford and that carnall men would bee so loth to forgoe for any little while yet by the internall joyes that they find in their prayer and contemplation unto which all these actions of retrenchment from superfluities or outward solaces doe serve as a ladder to ascend unto the top of it they live so happily and cherefully and with such tranquillity of mind and upon occasions say so much of the overflowings of their blysse as it is aparent they enjoy there the hundred fold that Christ promised in this life Nor can it be objected that men usually betake themselves to this course of Religious life upon being distempered by melancholy or for the ill successe and traverses they have had in affaires of the world or out of simplicity and weaknesse of understanding since it is evident that this angelicall forme of living hath ever heene practised by persons of the best composed and cheerfullest dispositions and by multitudes of such is and hath beene imbraced and that in the world overflowed with all the blessings it could afford them and were of strongest parts of understanding and judgement and were most eminent in learning So that it is apparent they had no other motive thereunto but purely the love of God and fervour of devotion which being an effect of the holy Ghost residing in their hearts to his inspirations and admirable wayes of working in those his temples of flesh and blood these extraordinary effects are to be imputed Whereas on the other side no such examples or supernaturall forme of life are to be mett withall in any other Church whatsoever Rather they disclaime from them and like men of this world which is the expression that Christ useth in the Gospell to designe those that are not of his Church not being able to discerne things of the spirit but being blinded with the lustre of them too great for their weake eyes they neglect and disdaine them and imagine that all Christian perfection consisteth in an ordinary humane morall life which is the uttermost period that any among them seek to attaine unto And therefore we may hence conclude that they have no interior worker among them more sublime then their owne humane discourses and judgements and that supernaturall sanctity an effect of the holy Ghost is confined onely to the Catholick Church Besides wee may observe by daily experience how those persons that addict themselves to such an extraordinary way of life doe absolutely prove the very best or the worst of mankind the one excelling in admirable piety fervour of devotion abstraction and sanctity of life and some of them soaring up to a pitch even above nature the other abounding in all sorts of impiety wickednesse and dissolution of manners till at length their hearts become even hardened against correction and all sence of spirituall things whereas it ordinarily happeneth that the most flagitious men among those who live in a vulgar worldly estate of life doe upon occasions frequently receive notable impressions from divine objects to the amendment and change of their dissolute course And this being a constant certaine effect noted at all times and in all places it must be attributed to a constant and powerfull cause which can be no other then the neere approaching of those persons to the originall fountaine of sanctity goodnesse which being like a consuming fire worketh vehement effects in them according to the disposition they are in and to the nearenesse that they have unto that fire so that as the sunbeames which are the authors of life and foecundity to all plants and vegetables shining upon a tree that hath taken solide rootes in the earth maketh it budd flourish and beare fruit and on the other side if it be weakely rooted their heate and operation upon that tree maketh it the sooner to wither and die And as the fire sendeth an influence
of heate into a pot of water that is symply applyed unto it but if that pot be set in a vessell of Snow or Ice and so be held over the fire it driveth into the center the cold of the Snow formerly diffused without and in a very short space turneth that water into Ice which else might have stayed there long enough without congealing in like manner they who being rooted in Charity approach to that divine Sunne doe flourish and bring forth excellent and oftentimes supernaturall fruites of devotion fervour and sanctitie but those who have depraved affections so invironing the roots of their hearts as that the soyle of Charity cannot introduce her nourishing sappe into them and whose soules are compassed in with the Ice of sensuality and carnall cogitations if they come within the beames of this holy Sunne or within the heate of this sanctifying fire they doe but wither away the sooner and their hearts grow dayly more and more to be Ice till at length like that of Pharaoh amidst the wondrous workes of the lord happy to others they become miseerable and stony And againe we see that those who having addicted themselves wholly to such a course of seraphicall life and that being alwaies vehemently intent to the love and contemplation of the prime verity and that having no other object for their actions or thoughts doe thereby as we may reasonably conceive approach nearest to God allmighty and draw immediately from him who is the fountaine of light and truth strongest emanations and cleerest influences to illustrate their understanding and inflame their affections those persons I say have ever beene most earnest in the maintenance of those points of the Roman doctrine which are most repugnant to sense as in particular of that of the reall presence of Christs body in the blessed Sacrament unto which all other sacraments and acts of faith and devotion are reduced and adore them with greatest reverence and are inflamed with ferventest devotion unto them And therefore we may conclude that this confidence religiousnesse and fervour proceedeth from hence that these men and such among them as cannot be suspected for simplicity ignorance or sinister ends are thus confirmed in this faith and are thus set on fire with this devotion more vigorously and vehemently then ordinary secular men by the immediate working and inspiration of the holy Ghost from whose streames it is likely they drinke purer and clearer waters and nearer the well head then other men of a more worldly and vulgar conversation And it were not agreeable to the goodnesse of God to permitt those persons that most affectionatly seeke him and who for his sake out of pure devotion and desire of contemplating truth doe abridge themselves of all other worldly contentments to have their understanding worse blinded with false doctrine then other men that seeke him more coldly and care lesse for him and to have their wills more depraved then theirs with erroneous and false devotion as of necessity it would follow theirs were if the doctrine that the Catholicke Church professeth were not true and the holy Ghost resided not in it to worke those effects Now on the contrary part let us make a short inquiry whether it be probable that the late pretended reformers have beene illuminated by God in an extraordinary manner to discover truth which they say hath for many ages lyen hidd Surely if any such thing were they would have expressed in their manner of life by some extraordinary sanctity and excellent actions and supernaturall wisdome that extraordinary communication which they would perswade us they had with the divinity For as by a radiant beame of light shining in at the chinke of a window we know assuredly the Sunne beateth upon it although we see not his body so likewise there should have broken out from them some admirable and excellent effect whereby we might rest confident that the divine Sunn illuminated their understanding inflamed their Wil. Moyses when he came downe from the mountaine where he so long conversed with God expressed even by the luster glittering from his face that it was not an ordinary or naturall light which had shined unto him the Apostles when they were replenished with the holy Ghost received immediately the gift of tongues and a cleere intelligence of all the Scriptures whereby they made cleere unto the auditors the obscurest passages of them and continually wrought miracles And all those that ever since them have introduced the Gospell into any Countrey where formerly it was not received have still had their commission authorised by the same seales and shall our late particular Reformers be credited in their pretended vocation and in their new doctrine that shaketh the very foundations of the faith that hath beene by the whole Christian world for so many ages believed and delivered over from hand to hand when as nothing appeareth in them supernaturall and proceeding from a divine cause This Madame is as much as I shall trouble your Ladyship withall upon this occasion which indeede is much more then at the first I intended or could have suspected my pen would have stolne from me The substance of all which may be summed up and reduced to this following short question namely whether in the election of the faith whereby you hope to be saved you will be guided by the unanimous consent of the wisest the learned'st and the piousest men of the whole world that have beene instructed in what they believe by men of the like quality living in the age before them and so from age to age untill the Apostles and Christ and that in this manner have derived from the fountaine both a perfect and full knowledge of all that ought to be believed and likewise a right understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures as farr as concerneth faith the true sence of which so farr is also delivered over by the same tradition Or whether you will assent unto the new and wrested interpretations of places of Scripture made by late men that rely meerely upon their single judgement and witt too slight a barke to sayle in through so immense an Ocean and whose chiefe leaders for human respects and sinister ends not to say worse of them made a desperate defection from the other maine body since which time no two of them have agreed in doctrine and among whom it is impossible your Ladyships great judgement and strong understanding should find any solid stay to rely securely upon and to quiet all those rationall doubts that your perceiving witt suggesteth unto you And here Madame I shall make an end having sincerely and as succinctly and plainely as I can delivered you the chiefe considerations that in this affaire turned the scale of the ballance with me which in good faith I have done with all the simplicity and ingenuity that I can expresse my sense with being not at all warmed with any passion or partiality nor raised out of my even pitch