it Where is our ambition our desire if it do not display and power it self forth upon this harvest of joyes and magazine of true riches I should take it for no smal dignity to be a sharer of Christs ignominy what then wil it be to partake of his glory if the ignominy of IESVS be glory the glory it self of God what wil that be if he so magnifyd the contumely of the cross as to exalt it upon the diadems of Emperors if he did so honour his torments what wil he do to his faithfull friends if he impart greater honour to the bones of Saints here among us then all the Monarchs of the world enjoy how much â—il he impart to their soules while they are reâ—â—dent with himself wilt thou make a rude â—ssay of the greatnes of glory how much it â—xceeds our labours Calculate how much â—he celestial globe exceeds in magnitude the â—errestrial this latter being but a point in regard of the first heaven and the first heaven another point or rather nothing in regard of the highest in whose circumference to one fingers breadth of earth so vast is the disproportion thousand thousands of miles are corresponding in that heaven The self-same God is author both of grace and nature and in point of bounty he would have his guifts in heaven much exceed our labours on earth Let the expectation of this so great a good be to thee alwaies a satiating repast Whatsoever thou seest good on earth contemn it as perswading thy self that thou shalt enjoy others in heaven excessively greater What evil soever annoyes thee fear it not as hoping to be out of its reach for all eternity Whatsoever is violently plunderd from thee grieve not as believing that all is depositated for thee to be made good out of the treasures of heaven Whatsoever thou dost contemn or relinquish for the love of God deem it not lost or cast away as supposing that it is not onely to be layd up but also restord with a hundred fold seek not to shun transitory labour thou who hopest for a permanent good Thou whose desire should animate thee to suffer in conformity with Christ upon the Mount Calvary without all hope of quitting cross be sure not to quit patience that thou mayst be conforme to God in glory with an assurd confidence of arriving to so great joy If we believe all this to be true why put we not hand to work but stand like people in a dream How is it possible to have terrene things in any esteem if we make heavenly things a part of our belief Perchance we believe not so rightly as we ought Wilt thou know how thy mouth belyes thy hart when thou affirmest that heavenly things are only great if thy fortunes amounted to the value of a thousand pounds wouldst thou not willingly give them all if thou wert perswaded that by so doing thou couldst enhance them to a hundred thousand but how doth it appear that we hold heavenly goods more valuable since we are loath even being put in mind of the advantage to give what men both joyfully and of their own accord give for the base trumpery of the earth a hireling toyles all day long for a poor salary a souldier exposeth himself to a thousand deaths for anothers kingdome and we for the glory of God and our own purchase of the Empyre of heaven cannot watch somtimes one hour pray with Christ as it behooveth Let us despise base petty trifles that we may receive immense rewards It is not so estimable in it self to receive litle as to expect great matters O lover and zealot of God be sure to thirst breath after so great a good but regard not so much thy own repose and commodity as that thou shalt there securely love God without fear of interruption and the greater thy glory is the more shalt thou love him I am bound to thank thee o God of truth for joyning the reward of our labours with the love of thee and the desire of my wil which is nothing els but thy love The VII Chapter Of suffering death HOW much o Lord doth thy beneficence transcend mans hope and expectation since those very things which he accounts the greatest of evils and natures penalty prove to thy faithfull an unparalleld benefit He esteems it the worst of evils to dye and it is a great good without which we shal never arrive to the fruition of all good Thou dost very fondly o man in declining death which is indeclinable and not declining tepidity and faultines which may be declind For death hath no evil it which life gave not the sin of Adam caused in death but was not so powerful as to make it evil this dammage only proceeds from thy sin Avoid sin culpable negligence death wil be a thing desirable Men fear little and regard les the death of the soul which only is evil and may be avoided but the death of the body which is not evil and cannot be avoided they seek to shun though it be rather to be desird then that we adhere to this wicked world O the madnes of men who abuse play as it were bopeep with that precept of Christ about loving our enemyes while they care for none but the world who hates us is our professd enemy why do we affect this fleeting life which flyes us and do not affect that permanent life which expects us Why are we so sollicitous for our temporal life which we cannot retain and neglect eternal which we may obtain we may have life everlasting if we wil we shal loose this transitory whether we wil or no and notwithstanding all this men wil not do profitably for eternal what they do unprofitably for this temporal they covet not the first and they dread the death of this second as one would do a mischief Death moreover is a rare invention of Gods mercy for it easeth us of all the molestations of this life and takes away an eternity of miseries What a pittiful thing would it be if we were for all eternity subject to the necessities of rising daily and going to bed of eating of cold and heat of toyl and sicknes of seeking our sustenance of carking caring of suffering affronts or spending our whole life in a sordid and laborious drudgery what a misery would it be if one were to be a â—orter another a husband man a third a smith a fourth a servant and this for tearm â—ithout all end or respit many that were â—otoriously wicked sought death and made away with themselves merely to avoid these inconveniencies at least let us not dread it that it may be a passage to future felicity and for both these respects let us patiently accept it When God beheld us involved by the sin of Adam in such a labyrinth of woes he in his most indulgent clemency invented for our good the devise of dying that our calamities might not
all o wretched spirit be confounded be confounded it will not cost thee so deare to eschew sin it will be enough to shake of slothfullnes Many make but a slender advance because they perswade themselves that such an endeavour towards perfection is not requisite to salvation O ungrateful and pusillanimous creature why dost thou frame such a miserable conceit of thy beatitude or settle such dangerous principles concerning thy eternal weal and have so narrow ignoble thoughts of Gods glory which is immense I beseech thee if thy salvation depended not only upon the keeping the commandments but also the counsels and on it did hang the salvation of all men Angels and the most sacred Virgin and Christs reprievement from the cross wouldst thou not use all possible endeavour to compass it certainly thou wouldst consider then that something of main consequence to witt the glory of God and his good will pleasure which is of higher concernment then the salvation and happines of the whole world considerd by it self then the life of Christs humanity exacts perfection at thy hands If then it be so very important have a care to be exquisite in each minute action and this according to the manner of Gods proceeding whose workmanship is most admirable in little things as an emmet a gnat a bee and the cunning he shewed in the composure of the heavens and stars surpasseth not them in point of art Commence each action with a resolution to performe it Christs grace assisting thee more perfectly then ever hitherto to the benefit of the Church militant to the glory of the Church triumphant to the greater honour of God as if he expected no other benefit from the creation of the world from the redemption of man from the goodly furniture of heaven where he is to be glorified by all the blessed besides this action of thine no otherwise then if thy salvation the weal of the universe and glory of the divinity depended upon each thy least work as if thou wert not to iterate it again nor hence forth to do any other but forth with to give up the ghost Be not sparing then of a little labour with loss of such a commodity God desires that thou shouldst performe this work most exactly and if thou considerest this his desire thou wilt shew thy self extremely perverse if thou compliest not with it or darest reflect upon any annoyance of thy own Sufferance is of it self desirable only to imitate Christ our Saviour without the juncture of any other good neither will it be less acceptable towards the avoiding some fault and accomplishing all most absolutely to Gods greater glory Mans emploiment is doing good for this end hadst thou thy beeing to do good but remember that man is born to labour because without it no good work can be durable or of continuance Do not frustrate thy self of thy end but endeavour by the assistance of Gods grace to imitate the brave attempts of nature which strives alwaies what it can to yeald thee her fruits most complete that thou mayst serve God in the compleatest manner thou canst Be allwaies mindful that thy services are in all respects extreme slender nor carry any proportion at all with that glory which is promisd thee nor with the paines of hell which thou hast deserved by thy sins nor the labours which thy redeemer did undergo for thy sake nor the divine benefits which he hath heapt upon thee nor the immense goodnes of that God to whom thy services stand consecrated The II. Chapter That we must shake off all negligence BE ashamed o lukewarm spirit to sit still upon the race when time and place requires thy running Behold how puddles standing pooles do putrify and iron that lies useles becomes rusty go to the way of spirit is like the eagarnes of racers one must not lag and how much les stand still how will one have leasure to sit when he hath time neither to be weary nor so much as to fall All indeed run but one only wins the prize run so as to reach the goale If God had created all men at the same instant endowed with the use of reason and equal in the enrichments of grace and shewd to them all on the one side the treasures of heavens glory and on the other the hideous torments of hell and let them know by revelation that one onely of all that number were to be saved to wit he who served God with most fervour and diligence who surpassed the rest in sanctity and charity and that all others were to be sentenced to damnation which of all these contemplating the horrour terrour of that infernal pit would not bend all his forces to excel his competitors in sanctity and so escape those dreadful punishments and obtain happines becoming that one who were to be saved with how much zeale of serving God would each ones hart be replenished Every one striving to exceed others none would be found who would not employ his whole endeavour to the end he might out do the rest There would be no place then for loyterers tepidity would not dare to shew her head But with how much more powerful incentives oughtest thou to be inflamd to serve God with greater fervency then any saint hath hetherto ever been who trod the paths of this mortal life The glory of God and compliance with his holy wil ought in reason to be beyond all comparison a stronger motive and more pressing endearment to the service of God then that incumbency of thy salvation O eternal truth why should my profit move me more then thy wil why should self love be more urgent then love of thee it is a benefit incomparably greater that many are entitled to heaven and for this my obligations to thee are much hightned why then art thou now o infirme spirit so tepid and sloathful be mindful of the labours which Christ embraced for thy sake put before thy eyes so many youths who forestall thy victory and tender Virgins who lead the way behold the fervour of the ancient Fathers the pennance humility charity and torments of Martyrs why art thou so lazy since thou hast so many precedents Yea although thou aymedst more at thy own commodity then the glory of God yet it behooud thee not to slacken the raines so much to tepidity Thou needst not fear least thy advantage be les then if thy fervour were eminent above all others and thou that one who were to be saved nay it impots thee now to be more fervourous and more intensely bent upon Gods glory No services now are frustrated of their salary and the better they are the greater glory wilt thou purchase This would not be so in case one onely man were to be saved since one might undergo great labours and reap no profit at all neyther would a greater reward be corresponding to greater services which as then would run hazard of being null and ineffectuall though they
all the cagernes of our hart and spirit but prefer a momentary pleasure before the grand affaire of eternity What is it that we are so ambitious off unles we be very greedy of glory what hunt we so earnestly after one moment sufficeth for the purchase of eternity If the largest extent of the earth be but a point in respect of heaven which is limitable what will the narrow bounded life of man be in regard of an unlimited eternity and is it possible that time can be spard from the pursuit and attainment of glory if having exposd a full exchequer of gold God should say to some needy beggar thou art yet to live a thousand yeares and shalt have nothing to sustain thy want for so long a respit of time but what thou canst carry out of this treasury in the space of an hour would he thinkst thou play the trewant in that short interim or spend that remnant in play or sleep why do we not bestir our selves an eternity expects us nor can we lay up provision for it but in the short interstice of this life why do we interrupt so laudable a commerce and sit still with our hands in our pockets a thousand yeares carry les proportion to an eternity then a moment to a thousand yeares what then wil ten or twenty yeares the utmost tearm of thy life be in regard of an endles duration why ceasest thou from doing good life flyes from thee death runs towards thee eternity stands still and thou nevertheles art slow in coffering up eternal riches What a tedious journey under took the queen of Saba for no other end but to enjoy the sight of Salomon her intention aymed not at any long stay but to return presently to her country many come from remote lands to behold a man whom fame hath cryed up for some rare talents of wit or art with how much more reason ought we be content to employ before hand prolix endeavours to be able but once to contemplate God in the height of his majesty if permission were given to all of making our journey to heaven on foot and nothing else were prerequired but only a pilgrimage of a thousand yeares no body I believe would decline the enterprize Thy journey thither is much more compendious thou needst not lift thy foot over thy threshold nor out of thy bed and why dare we not aspire with all our might to compass a good which is so nigh us the sole lustre of gold or flashings of a gem are able to make men brook the roughnes and danger of the seas and the clarity of God strikes us no more then if we were insensible neyther do we prize an invaluable good at so much as the value of a little labour But what do I insist upon eternity although glory were not eternal but momentary yet it is a good so boundlesly great that an eternity of suffering should not be deemd too much to purchase it but for a moment we beholding God intuitively in that instant O how exquisite must that needs be which God hath provided for his friends if he prepared and gave himself to be crucifyed even for his very enemyes how exquisite must that needs be which cost God so dear for which he was at so great expense at no les then his life auctority passion and omnipotency If Gods manufactures as the heavens the motions of the stars the nature of beasts orderd onely for the use of man be to us such an object of admiration what will that be which he exhibits to the ostentation of his majesty if we admire the artifice of an eye though in a loathsome creature or carriage-beast what wil that be which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the hart of man if he hath made the fabrick of this world which is but the cottage of miserable Adam a bridewel of sinners acave of brute beasts of such an admirable structure that heathens at its contemplation were rapt into extasy what shal we think of his own royal Pallace as much as a nasty stable falls short of the court of some great Monarch which is adornd with guilded roofs paved with pretious stones hung with most rich tapistry yea as much as the magnificence of the heavens exceeds the horrour of a stinking prison so much far more must thou imagin the dwelling place of the blessed to surpass the beauty of this universe which respectively will be found but an object of loathsomenes All the comelines of this world falls so far short of the seat of the blessed that all this artifice which the Philosophers admired with so much astonishment is in respect of it but an eye sore and blemish of deformity If heaven and nature which God provided as it were by the by and with as much ease as one can speak be so ravishing what wil that be which he hath from all eternity on set purpose prepared for those that make him their love In the guifts of nature God carried himself master-like he made them all with a commanding word but in his glory he resembles an industrious servant passing to and fro seeking as it were to give content If the beauty of this visible world where he was not so sollicitous to please be so winning and enamouring how much more pleasing wil he be in that where he made it his task study to please The whole machin of the world was no more chargable to him then the expense of one voyce he made it with a word but glory made him as it were set his wits on work and as obsequious as a servant yea most patiently to brook disgraces torments and death it self If thou shouldst bestow a hundred yeares in speculating the greatnes of glory shouldst frame some high conceit of its worth thou mightst wel deem all to be nothing and thy conceptions to fall so far short of comprehending it that thou canst not so much as conjecture thy self to have come nigh it But in that imperfect idea which thou hast conceived rayse thy self to the gates of heaven beholding it open take as clear and exact a view of it as thou canst that being done cast thy eyes upon the earth and what is remarkable in its rarities compare then the goods of both together and see whether earthly things wil abide the test Wonder then at so many unfortunate endeavours of men in purchasing a little worldly pelf or rather nothing and their trewantly sluggishnes in seeking after the true good Contemplate thence from the top of the stars the frustrated labours of mortals and their certain hazards in obtaining an uncertain good and do thou hear thy soveraign inviting thee in such like words come enter into possession of my kingdom heavenly treasures This is a most certain guift seald with no les a promise then that of divine faith and recommended to us by the diligence and death of Christ heaven having so voted
be perpetual combining in the same thing a penalty and a benefit justice mercy Therfore because death is so great a good so proper and secure an effect of his goodnes he would not have it lyable to mans free wil or the hatred of an enemy For although it be in any ones power to bereave thee of life no body not even the uncon troulable violence of kings can bereave thee of death This is the property of things of the best quality to be out of the reach of humane power not to be obnoxious to anothers pleasure If one were entangled in any one danger or incumbrance it would be no smal content to find a meanes how to evade it why do we then grieve or dread death which is the gate wherby we may rid our selves of the hazards and incumbrances of this life Many for a meer puntillio of worldly glory have sought and covetted it at least for the glory of heaven let us not fear it O immortal God who wast born not to live for thou wast life eternal as now thou art but to dye a most mortal and bitter death for me why should I that am mortal be unwilling to dye to live a vital eternal and most pleasant life with thee and for accomplishment of thy wil since the desire of a christian is to be with Christ I know not why he should not desire death since but by it he cannot come to that fruition What misery can death bring or what happines can it bereave him of who is not besotted upon the world but hath placed all his felicity in heaven but besides this ocean of content which flowes from the sight and fruition of our beloved it hath moreover this advantage that it puts us out of further danger of offending God Death then is not evil which takes away all evil But if it be evil and an enemy to mankind why do not men treat it like an evil and as one would treat an enemy I wish we would proceed in this manner with it and deal no otherwise then with a foe forecasting that we carry nothing about us which he may make booty of or give him cause of triumphing over us Souldiers are wont to secure their provisions and baggage or els quite spoil them that they may not be serviceable to their enemyes We must leave no plunder for death but if there be any thing subject to its rapine it must eyther be wholly abandoned or sent before us with a safe convoy to heaven where all will be throughly secured We must keep no spoiles about us in which it may glory but the luggage of our flesh and we must extenuate it by fasting labour and other pennances that he sieze it not entire If death be evil and adverse to us let us resist it and object a buckler by relinquishing things and all affection to them that its wounds may bite the les upon us if death be evil let us make it good by doing good Why should we dread death more then our selves since it cannot be worse then we are evil yea it is we that make it bad because we do not become good Let us do this now when we have time and may do what we shal wish at its hour we had don and cannot A little respit only remaines for labour and in comparison of eternity not so much as an instant Behold now so many years of our life are past and those which remain are no longer But death is not evil in it self but rather good and we should be very good if we did imitate it and practised what it puts in ure by dispoyling our selves of all things so that if nothing were grateful and delectable in this world it would be pleasing and savory to our pallat He only needs fear death who loves other things and not Christ He is not a faithful servant who refuseth to appear in the presence of his master If I did love thee o Lord I should not have such a horrour of death for it would be contentiue to me to behold thee face to face and cast my self into thy embracements rejoicing that thy wil were accomplishd in me otherwise I play but the hypocrite when I daily beg that thy wil may be done in earth as it is in heaven Thy pleasure was to dye not that we might be immortal in this mortality but that we might dye wel by leading a better life Grant me grace that as thy wil is to be fulfilld in my death though against my wil so I may wil and death fulfil it in a good death by a better and more perfect life I give thee thanks o most benign Lord for this benefit of death as thy wisdome hath disposed it I give thee thanks that I am to dye and that I know not when or where or how I am to dye The certainty of death is good and comfortable to me it being a secure passage to bring me to thy sight and rid me of the miseries of this life and make me despise its deceitful and counterfeyt goods What man if he have but any one grain of wit although he were sure never to experience any adversity but were to be successful in all the contingencies of this life would not contemn it and all its goods since he must needs see that he is to quit them all in death which is wholly unavoydable In which moment all past joyes all present goods now to be relinquishd are no more then if they never had enjoyd a being nay they are les conducible for their very relinquishment wil prove a torture That only which man neyther loves nor possesseth wil not afflict him in that hour of affliction The uncertainty also of the manner place and time of dying is acceptable to me that I may more certainly serve thee o God in all requisite manner time and place as thy worth and dignity doth require This is a divine disposal which breeds in us a certain sollicitude of a better life by reason of the uncertain condition of a contingent death I am throughly perswaded o Lord that I know not whether I am worthy of love or hatred and how it wil fare with me after this life neither do I covet to know because it is expedient for me to be ignorant of it according to the ordainment of thy wisdome But I will not therfore more dread death then desire thee and confide in thy mercies I accept most willingly its great uncertainty this being most certain that it is enough for me that thou art most merciful and a cordial lover of me and both canst and wilt save me if I but humbly trust in thee What imports it that I know not how and when and where I am to dye if I be assurd that thou dyedst for me and dyedst the death of the cross and at noon day and betwixt two thieves upon Mount Calvary to clear all doubt of thy love towards me that I may
to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any
Nature many times effects that what is harsh to one is gustfull to another and will grace be less operative The longings of women make them couet ridiculous extravagancies coales clay mortar and to loth meats exquisitely seasond and that which happens so obviously to a womanish indisposition shal it be thought impossible to divine healthfulnes A corrupt and queasy stomack rules the appetite and shal a sound and masculine mind have less or no sway over the wil Be not then frighted o dejected creature with what thou hearest of a spiritual life for it is not at all troublesome or noysome although it necessarily imbrace al troublesome and noysome things Let not an empty name or conceyt terrify thee be but confident and accoast them and thou shalt frighten the very difficulties themselves Some relate of certain enchanted treasures which are in the custody of terrifying ghosts and sprits but if any one be so resolutely hardy as contemning those phantasmes to assaile them they are presently put to flight and vanish to nothing in such sort that they appear no more but permit the accoaster to enjoy those riches in all peace and security Nothing more is requisite to effect this but courage and resolution Be but valiant in purchasing these spiritual treasures and all those bugbeares of pretended difficulties wil suddainly disapear Set upon them undauntedly and thou shalt enjoy without any great plains-taking the hidden manna of a spiritual life Bees work hony shelterd under the homely roof of a rough-cast hive The IV Chapter How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue HE walks in falshood and forgery not in truth nor spirit who takes not faith for his path and guide Truth dwels very remote from sense This heavenly flower growes not in our gardens it is not nourished with flesh and blood it is not to be found amidst the dung of our muddy and material substances We are at al turnes cheated in corporal goods even those which we behold with our eyes and fingar with our hands A whole oare in the water seems broken a square tower to one that stands at a great distance seems round the very light of the sun which is al the faith our eyes are endowd with cozens them oftentimes by representing colours that are not existent and how then shal we avoid being misled in the affaires of our soul which we see not and in spiritual and divine things which are so much above our reach and capacity All the race of mankind was grown quite blind through the night of errour like one shut up in a dark dungeon without either window or chink to let in the least glimmering of light The learneder sort of Philosophers were of opinion we knew no more then what we knew was false or rather that we knew only this one truth that we knew nothing at all and they were so swoln and puffd up with vanity that none but heaven could give an allaying remedy One among them did think that the master of truth was to be some Son of a God Behold now o thou Son of the highest o thou eternal Truth behold o thou wisdome of thy father thou didst descend from heaven o light of the world to illuminate it to teach us truth and why do not men make more account of so great a benefit why doe they contemne this blessing of faith What imports it to believe truth if we our selves practise falshood saving truth is good works and the true word the deed of the word The word of God became flesh that the work of man might become truth because the Truth of God is become operative All is mere falshood and vanity which is not according to the doctrine of IESVS why doe we neglect the practise of this great blessing contenting our selves with a dead kind of faith We should reap great advantage from our faith if we knew how to use it and work as we ought according to its prescript greater then if we beheld those things it affirmes with our eyes All by faith believe true things but they ought also to believe truly which all seem not to do If thou believe o malepert soul what Christ taught work accordingly If it be true that it behooud IESVS to suffer and so to enter into his glory if it be true that God ordaines all for the good of the just why art thou afflicted at some trivial crosses and calamities Why dost thou account them losses which when they are patiently taken faith teacheth us to be the soules greatest enrichment If thou believe this to be true as in very truth it is thou oughtest rather to rejoyce and comfort thy self If thou shouldst behold some one of the H. Prophets with thy corporal eyes as David or S. Iohn Baptist if thou shouldst see one raised from death or an Angel from heaven who were to tell thee from Almighty God that his will is that thou beare this cross patiently because it will be for thy greater good and no little gain would it not suffice to make thee refrain from all impatience nay would it not replenish thee with such joy as siezd the Apostles when they went away rejoycing because they were made worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of IESVS And why dost thou not now do the same Thou oughtest not to esteem that miraculous message as infallible as a matter of faith for in that case one might lawfully somtimes entertain a doubt since the evil spirit might delude him or he himself be deluded in his senses Therfore if this truth as matter of faith be more certain then if an Angel had teveald it from heaven why ought it to be less perswasive Our manner of working followes the certitude of our knowledg and the judgment we frame of a thing and proportionable to this knowledg must needs be the excellency of our operation Wherfore whosoever desires to walk in truth let him square the actions and paths of his life according to the model of his faith believing not onely true things but after a true manner least he become ridiculous to the Angels and joynt-sectary with the Divels who are all solifidians their beliefe being barren of works What availes it to know the way to heaven if we doe not walk it The wicked spirits know it better then we and nevertheles because they stand stil and advance not they are divels Tel me who is in a better condition thou that wilt not doe good or the divels that cannot It is all one in most things not to have a will and to be impotent yea it is more damnable and reproachful to thee who wilt not when thou mayst The divels believe and tremble I wish thou when thou believest wert possessd with a just fear Why dost thou not tremble at the judgments of God considering their certainty and the uncertainty of thy own condition either to eternal punishment or joy what is the reason
me toile in thy iniquities neither have I any other foe so hateful to me as sin thou nevertheles art the occasion that I who make the sun to rise and send showers at due seasons watering the fruits of the earth ripening the apples on the trees furnishing the pastures with grass for the cattles sustenance thou I say art the occasion that I serve thy gluttonous appetite and in the mines which I engenderd in the bowels of the earth become a drudge to thy avarice O villany to make God the servant of villanies the captive of iniquity the caterer of wickednes the steward of malignity Thy vices also made a scorne of me as one that were blinded no man would dare play the thiefe in presence of a severe judge nor do boyes any unseemly act before their master but put out his eyes and they 'l dare any thing they 'l use ridiculous gestures and flout him without controule or danger so thou also though thou knewst me to be present didst commit all kind of wickednes because thou wouldst make me blind Thy sins my foes did that which blinding thee made thee judg the same of me in such a coÌ„dition thou deliveredst me into my enemyes hands that I could not kill them but I must dye my self nor could I indeed justly Samson like better kill sin then by my own death The VII Chapter The second part of the Parable and how we must use creatures YEa and that thy ridiculous proceeding o my soul is to be deplored with inconsolable teares when contemning the true beauty of thy spouse thou adorest its imperfect shadowes in the mean images of creatures If a great Emperour should appoint a day and place for his inauguration by the due homage of his Pears and the people being assembled for that end he should come forth in robes of state carrying his crown scepter chain of gold and other venerable ensigns of majesty and seating himself in a conspicuous throne in the midst of the market place expected each moment the rites and ceremonies of Consecration if in this expectancy they should all forsake him and turne themselves to his statue ill-polishd half defacd and carrying scarse so much as a resemblance of his features and should all adore and do homage to it leaving the good Emperour all alone no body regarding him nor shewing him any respect at all what a cold entertainment would this be how would he blush and remain confounded But what if they should not onely desert him but his statue also and do their obeysance to the print of his foot and that in no better element then clay frustrating all his expectation and sleighting his majesty Thou dost this o my soul while thou lovest and adorest the mangled and mishapd goodnes of creatures which is but a trace or imperfect print of the divine contemning that original goodnes so majestique so compleat so beautiful O men why leave we God alone in his majesty and turn our backs unseemingly to him whome we were created to adore preferring a piece of clay before him what an indignity was it that Barrabas should be preferrd before Christ and Christ sentencd to the cross and how great a one will it be for dirt to be preferrd before the Divinity and be adord as God Why art thou thus cheated o my soul know that all created goodnes what soever is only a rude and duskish image of God Why does a blurrd and slubberd draught please thee when thou mayst delight thy eyes with the polishd lively original Place before a weary traveller a living a carvd horse will he chuse the carvd one since he must be forcd to carry it and not it him to come more commodiously to his journeys end why dost thou burden thy self with created goods to walk more easefully the journey of this life they are only resemblances of the living good he onely shal walk without wearines who hath God for companion of his journy Set a real and painted dish of meat before one that is hungry will he covet to feed on the painted and why then desirest thou shadowes images and seeks not after a real good Man is more absurd then a dog who if he light on a piece of bread he takes it and leaves it not to bite at a shadow but thou leaving God embracest his shadow Why desirest thou a part rather then the whole if one that is thirsty see two pitchers the one whole the other broken wil he leave the whole one and content himself with the eare of the broken or some other fragment to take up water to quench his thirst creatures are onely partial images of the divine goodnes whose perfections are divided among created natures why wilt thou choose a part rather then the whole and a part of that whol which availes not but in the whole neither do creatures conduce singly a part nor all together but only in God broken pitchers nor any fragment of them in particular nor all together are useful to take up water and the thirst of our appetite can onely be satiated with the integrity of the divine goodnes Learn the true use of creatures they are not to work upon the will but to help the memory Thou forgetting God amuzes and busies thy will but does not satiate it and because it is not satiated thou mayst easily know thou art deluded Albeit thou love all the goods of this world yea and enjoy them all yet stil thy desire will be as empty and hungry as ever Painted bread doth not fil one but is onely a figure of that which fils so created goods do not satiate the appetite but are resemblances of that which satiates to wit God All the goods of this world stand proportiond to our will as a painted fire to a cold hand one may take it and apply it but shal find neither warmth nor refreshment A picture of burning coales pleaseth the eye but contents not the touch of him that is cold and created things affect the mâ—nd but doe not satisfy the affection God gave his people monitory memorials of his law which they were to sow in the skirts of their garments to hangat their wrests write in the posts and gates of their houses least forgetting the true God of Israel they might fal to adore false ones No less provident was he in the great house of this world which he built for man he engravâ— every where in it monitories of himself in the posts in the gates in the pavements of the earth by such variety of natures in the rooff and arches of the heavens by so many refulgent lights All the good that is among creatures are so many commandatories to make thee love God and adore no other why then Pharisy like contemning this admonition dost thou dilate them and magnify these borders possessing more or covetting more or deeming any thing great besides him Thou crosses and thwarts the designes of God adoring that
sweat from his body as the press doth wine frō the bunch of grapes If any one should have sufferd all the torments of Martyrs all the diseases and anguish of all men even from the first day of Adams transgression til such time as Christ comes to judgment all this would not be equivalent to his paine which also upon this score that it was spiritual was bitterer in its kind then any corporal affliction whatsoever The fulnes of the Divinity resided in Christ and the clear vision of God did illustrate him which nevertheles obstructed not some effects but it was miraculously so orderd least by it a tyde of joy should over flow his whole body and the inferiour portion of his soul that place might be left for sorrow as it fel out in his sacred Passion But in the hart of IESVS grieving for our offences it did not only give way to extreme sadnes but did extremely augment it by reason of his perfect knowledg of God offended for how much more perfect this knowledg was it causd a sorrow so much greater and CHRIST alone had a more perfect intuitive knowledg of God then all the Cherubins Seraphins then all the other Angels and Saints in heaven Christs love also towards God offended was corresponding to the vision of the divine Majesty wherfore his sorrow exceeds the comprehension either of word or thought for he let no opportunity slip of suffering as much as he could and was beseeming him to suffer yea prodigious miracles were wrought in his most holy soul that sorrow might have its ful effect Why then are we so sollicitous to compass joyes and rack ourwits so much in the search of new pleasures if IESVS sufferd all this in his hart which none ought to think upon without teares and each good Christian ought to make it the theam of his thought How darest thou o my hart slacken the raines to joy consider the cause why thy IESVS sufferd it was for thy offences that he might work thy salvation Because I trespassd therfore he loves me so tenderly and confers blessings upon me Why doth not this lover of me and benefactour to his enemies heap coales of fire upon my head make me blush at my own proceedings why doth he not heap coales of fire upon my hart that I may burn with love of him and a desire of his imitation I wil place the sad hart of IESVS upon my obdurate hart that he may find me at length according to his hart a frend and desirous of suffering Compassionate o my hart with the suffering IESVS and comfort him in his sufferings How wilt thou obtain mercy by the sufferings of Christ if thou hast not compassion over Christ suffering be not unmindful of such a courtesy from thy suerty S. Iames Guisay not to be unmindful of it besides his daily meditation and other devotions to it carried it alwaies about him written in a little Book in token that it was engraven in his hart and faild no day to read it over This memory of his Saviours cross was so acceptable to Almighty God that he vouchsafed him after his entrance into the Society a true conformity with it that is to be crucified for his sake and by his sufferings to adumbrate the death of his B. Son and Christ was not backward in recompensing the devotion of the Saint for upon the place where he and many other Saints were crucified miraculous lights were seen every friday in the ayre approving and attesting the comformablenes of their suffering with that of Christ The memory of his Passion is grateful to him and that we might have a perpetual memorial of it before our eyes he instituted the admirable Sacrament of his most holy Body But if thou be midful of Christ suffering why art thou not unsufferable to thy self and hartily angry at thy own proceedings The king of Moab sorely straitned by the siege of the Israelites being quite out of hope of all relief took his eldest Son who was to succeed him in his throne and offerd him in holocaust upon the wals and it causd such a commotion indignation in the Israelits camp that forth with they raisd their siege and departed Behold the holocaust of the first and only begotten Son of God upon the altar of the cross why art thou not replenishd with disdain against thy self quitting all self will and pleasure we use to compassionate even externs yea even brute beasts why do we not so to our God to our Father to our brother o our shameles obstinacy who insteed of commiserating him crucify IESVS again by new offences remember that God is thy Father not thy foe that he suffers for thee his foe not for the beasts of the field or their salvation for thee not for himself the bitterst of all punishments wounded in all his members not only afflicted with some smal ach of his head or stomack because he did thee and the world a good turne not because he put cities into combustion publickly on a day of solemnity and in a mountain betwixt two thieves as their captain and ringleader not in a by-corner and secretly the object of all mens hatred disgrace and scorne in so much that the mercy of men was wanting to him alone who is mercy it self Nevertheles he suffers willingly and lovingly not forcedly not frettingly not complainingly because it was for thee of his own people not of barbarians and Scythians for the space of 33. yeares not for an hour or two Compassionate then with IESVS and make not all he has done fruitles forbear to offend him begin to imitate him and that his Passion may truly benefit thee make it the model of thy imitation The VI. Chapter How far we are to follow Christ GOD doth not tempt us though he hath made our salvation ful of difficulty Nothing is more acceptable to him he having done and sufferd so much then that we imitate him The words of a man placed in autority are held for lawes and must be fulfild why are the deeds of God less observable he that sets the humble and most sorrowful hart of Christ as a signet upon his own let him set it also upon his arme that he may imitate what he commiserates Love is not soft and effeminate but strong and masculin and the cross of Christ will crucify Gods zealot by compassion and emulation The imitation of Christ is harsh and unsavory some have it in as much hatred as hell it self but for all that we cannot emulate better graces Fear no cosenage when he perswades thee to take the cross for thy delights disgrace for thy honour poverty for riches he is the prime and undoubted truth The eternal wisdome and divine intellect hath so orderd hath judgd it expedient Be not diffident he is the supreme goodnes and highest power by these nevertheles he redeemd thee and by the same thou must complete thy salvation that work is begun accomplished
Virgin though he were to beare onely the name and title of parent He made choyse of two Virgins Abel and Isaac for figures of his innocency and obedience The first fruits that were purchased by the blood of the lamb were Virgins and so they follow him whithersoever he goes whatsoever they do or say imitating Christ and his modesty which was so rare that nothing was ever objected against him in that behalf And when the Iewes invented many lyes against IESVS and heaped many aspersions upon him without any shew of probability yet they never taxed him for impurity though they knew him to have held conferences with woemen by reason of his rare modesty and the shamefast composure of his countenance which alone cleard all suspicion and calumny of les exact chastity A meane is chiefly to be observed in the sight for as S. Orontius admonisheth Love like those teares which wrongs do from us wrest Breeds in the eye but passeth to the breast From the eyes to the hart is an easy and obvious passage That venerable Servant of God B. Alphonsus Rodriguez never be held the face of a woman for the space of 47. yeares nor any thing else that was recreative to wit the modesty of Christs eyes in a certain apparition to him made such an impression in his hart all his life long that their very memory was sufficient to compose his and by this meanes he preserved his hart in great purity and joyd only interiourly in God Do thou also shun exteriour effusion if thou desirest internal and external purity The IX Chapter That our practise of mortification must be continual LEt no occasion slip of doing good shunning evil he that borrowes an ass of another is not willing to keep him idle One might doubt whether it were more conducible to tolerate evil or do good but for me I am throughly perswaded that next after God nothing is more regardable then that by which one is made acceptable both to God and his Saints That indeed is the best of all when one joyning these two together does good by treating himself ill Let not o afflicted spirit the difficulties of vertue and importunity of thy passions contristate thee rather rejoyce in the occasion of merit Assaile and overcome that merit is not so highly prized which is acquird by living peaceably as patiently amidst the assaults of our perverse inclinations in the solidity of our service in the violence and sufferance of our selves and the cross of Christ Take it not ill that thou art enriched by God with more numerous and fruitful instruments of merit then the Angels he gave thee a body that thou mightest have so many organs of merit to wit so many crosses as it hath senses and powers of the soul he priviledgd thee above the Angels with that charge of thy body and creditted to thee the carrying of that muddy lump of earth into heaven One only care was committed to the Angels to preserve their spirit which was a single one sincere and intire but a double burden was imposed upon the soul of man though of a feebler nature both to raise it self and its troublesome flesh to an equality with the Angels heavenly glory It seemd somewhat unjust that the Angels who were in a ready equippage expedite free from all clog or carriage and man who was retarded and loaden with the luggage of his body charged over above with a thousand crosses should be called to the same journy of heaven the soul especially being more imperfect and infirme then an Angel but Gods assisting grace can easily recompense the grievances which arise from the society of the flesh in order to merit that it may equalize or surmount the dignity of Angels If thou didst but know how to make use of thy massines to thy advantage it would rear thee much higher dancers to make themselves nimbler assume some weight by holding stones in their hands thy body will help thee if thou do but force it This is no easy task but a busines of great contention and the gain thou reapest from thy endeavour must animate thee against all occurrent difficulties How many engins and how much force is requird to rear a great stone into a toâ—er and thou canst not raise thy massy lump of earth above the stars without violence and the engin of the Holy Cross In this state of mortality after the accomplishment of our redemption by the Son of God Saints are no les eminent then they would have been in the state of innocency wherfore they become equally holy in this shortnes of life as they would have been in the space of many ages had men stil remaind immortal The multitude of afflictions together with the grace of IESVS recompenseth the multitude of yeares The redemption of Christ was more copious then the damage we sustaind by our prevarication and yet for all that he would not free us from the necessities and incumbrances of our flesh nor wholly extinguish the rebellion of our appetites least he might deprive his elect of a very compendious way of meritting that by this meanes he might present them to his heavenly Father in a shorter time loaden with equal or greater merits then could otherwise have been acquired in many ages He who vanquishd the world by the cross will have thee to vanquish thy self by the same The copious grace of Christ triumphs most in a thwart and reluctant nature and it helps it self by that very reluctancy to increase its merits The stronger the enemy is the more glorious is the triumph therfore it must not be burdensome to thee to he burdensome to thy self but enjoy this thy violence and patience upon all occasions of meritting in overcoming in sacrificing in crucifying thy self in all things Let not the grace of Christ be idle and ineffectual in thee Combat and the cross is necessary to make thee good whether thou wilt or no. Some great commanders after they had landed their men burnt or destroid their shipping that all hopes of returne being quite cut of their souldiers might fight more resolutely in the same manner God hath tied an enemy to us Why do we hope to avoid all combat the necessity of combatting must necessitate us to victory and merit Christ redeemd us by his cross and by it we must be saved dying continually that we may live and vanquish by our patience The way of salvation is rightly tearmd the way of perdition destroy and seal up thy senses with the signet of Christs cross and they shal be in security blindfold thy self or rather put out thy eyes and thy sight wil be much better become deaf and thou shalt hear with facility become mute and thou shalt speak wel heep thy self fasting and thou shalt rellish wel be without hands and employment and thou shalt labour wel be odious to thy self and thou shalt love wel be dead to the world and thou shalt live wel be fearful
and thou shalt be secure be contemptible to thy self and thou shalt be honored be laborious and thou shalt enjoy repose sustain all evil and so thou shalt possess all the good which is containd in the cross O truth o most loving IESVS if I love thee how can I hate that cross which thou lovedst so ardently how can I shun that cross which none but divels shun who hate thee it is the divels task to fly from the cross it is Christs to die upon it let a Christian consider whether of these two he ought to imitate let him be sure to imbrace self-victory and self denyal and not divide himself for a trifling pleasure or the disturbance of a petty incommodity from Christ depriving himself of so much merit and satisfaction Do not go about to excuse thy self from that which is altogether inexcusable although thou be one of the elect thou must suffer either in this life or in purgatory where patience is extremely barren If one must needs suffer judge whether it wil be more commodious to do it in this life where with light afflictions thou redeemest excessive torments and sins and moreover gainest glory by increasing thy merits or in purgatory where by vast sufferings thou makest but slender satisfaction meritest nothing at all besides in purgatory there is no merit small satisfaction huge punishment but in this life the punishment is extreme easy the satisfaction great and merit most ample What marchant would buy wares at such a time when they are both worst and dearest and not rather when he may have them in a manner for nothing But above all love to suffer for love of Christ Is there any one that having once imbraced him would relinquish him for that cup of water which David powred upon the ground tell me o thou lover and zealer of Iesus if thou wert naild on the other side of Christs cross back to back with thy beloved crucified together with him for the glory of God on mount Calvary and if some should make promise of belief in him to acknowledg him for the Son of God if he would descend he for all that would not desert thee nor descend again some other should offer thee as one would do a child a morsel of meat or an apple as Eve did Adam upon condition thou wouldst desert the company of thy beloved IESVS wouldst thou really desert and abandon him o our arrand shame and confusion how often do we for a toyish pleasure or the fulfilling of our perverse will relinquish the cross and leave Christ to suffer all alone without the comfort of our company Go to o my soul redeemd by Christ upon the cross take up thy cross and follow thy IESVS and deny thy self learn self deny al by what it is to deny another he that is alienated from another whether he be kinsman or friend if he see him beaten or in want or imprisond he comes not at him he succours him not nor condoles with his distressed condition and so must thou proceed with thy own body and stand affected towards it as if an alien or enemy groand under such a calamity It s not enough to take up thy cross but tâ—ou must also deny thy self by dying upon the cross on which thou must be crucified by dying with thy IESVS In no desire of thy hart nor propension of sense must thou seek thy own content even as he that is nayld to a cross hath not power to move any member as he listeth nor do what his list suggesteth One that were crucified would have small regard to things present nor be sollicitous for the future he would not labour to hoard up riches nor bespeak pastimes but would fix his eie only upon the other life and though as yet living reckon himself among the dead in such a condition must he be that is crucified with Christ he must also number himself among the dead not only defunct to the pleasures and vices of this life but even to life it self The X. Chapter Of the sufficiency and good of Poverty HE that hath God what needs he seek any thing else or how can he but be ashamd to have or covet any thing beâ—â—des one that had costly furniture or a rich cupboard of plate would be far from keeping an earthen dish among it chusing rather to break it in a thousand pieces then it should be a blemish to the rest and an eie sore to them that behold these rarities and make them laugh at the owners rusticity O infinite majesty and unparalleld beauty how dare I be so bold as to hang any terrene thing at thy girdle and possess it together with thee all the harts of men who ever have been are or shal be all the wils of the Seraphins or other celestial Spirits suffice not to employ or exhaust his immensity and why then do I a silly imp employ my hart which is but one a narrow one upon other things and not rather disengage it from all to give it entirely to him if I have any thing besides him I neither possess it fully nor him if I have nothing but him I do not only possess him but all things also together with him Who can be found so little a friend to his own advantage that if he could gain a thousand crownes for a hundred would not willingly employ his mony can any one think God les valuable then a thousand crownes why then are not men content to exchange for him I wil not say a hundred crownes but even toyes and trifles which cleaving to our hart extinguish devotion and sometimes either expel him thence or like a brazen wall obstruct his entrance O the inestimable value of poverty which breaks down these barriers of our hart that God may enter into man and unlocks the gates of heaven that man may enter into it and God If one should make this profer to a Gentil void of faith who stood ravishd with the visible beauty of the stars and magnitude of the heavens what wouldst thou give to contemplate these faire creatures for a dayes space nigh at hand and even touch with thy fingars the matter they are made of would he not give all he were worth at least out of curiosity to be among them for a little time or at leastwise that a piece of a star might be shewd him upon earth and how much more ought we to give and do that we may be carried up to heaven not to behold them for one day but possess them for all eternity and raign there like so many princes And how much more estimable is it that thou hast God descending to thee upon the earth residing in thee then if one should once shew thee a fragment of the sun if this be so what reason can we yeald of so great madnes in contemning spiritual things and doating upon temporal but because our faith is so faint and languid which if
but little regard notwithstanding what affront I put upon him besides death or a deadly wound I will uncontroulably do what I think good nor ever labour to humour him further then may serve to save my life and secure my inheritance Who could have patience with one that should speak thus do accordingly Iust thus proceeds he who contemnes venial sins and serves God meerly to avoid the death of his soul or forfeiture of heaven by a mortal Is there think you any master of a family to be found who would give house room to such a servant or Son or spouse this is the prodigious patience of God who tolerates us even while we abuse his toleration Let us then not misprize these faults as little which although they were so yet are they many and God is great and but one Grains of sand are smal yet they may be so multiplied that they wil overwhelme one sooner then a great stone One locust is an inconsiderable creature yet what greater destruction to the fields then their multitude great citties are delugd by smal drops of raine If we had so many little wounds or pricks in our body so many pushes or blisters in our face so many rends or holes in our garment as we commit venial sins we should be halfe dead loathsome to the eye and almost quite naked and why do we suffer those miseries in our soul but because we are less ressentive of its harmes then what concerns our body and apparrel O how dare we appear before God so replenished with confusion but why do I insist upon the number one sole fault is to be dreaded because one cannot think any thing little who thinks God to be infinite nor will he account it smal whose love is great what love resides in him who makes no reckning of displeasing God he that displeaseth him in a little really displeaseth him he that displeaseth him transgresseth the lawes of an ardent love The XIV Chapter Of exactnes in small things GOd is immensly great in his service thou must esteem nothing little he were not great enough unles he exceeded all littlenes If thou lovest him true friendship is tried in the least duties Art shewes it self in little things the perfection of vertue is no les polite and therfore it stands not altogether upon ample subjects Nature is most admirable in the least things it is most tender over the minutest creatures Grace is no whit more dul nor ought to be more backward Those things which seem more minute are to be more nighly regarded Since God is so great nothing is little which eyther pleaseth or displeaseth him In good evil there is no minutenes Whatsoever is good for that very respect is great whatsoever is bad upon that very score is not little An infinite goodnes exacts by claime all our forces he that owes all doth an injury if he deny any thing Vse not these manners of speech what makes matter for this this imports but little this is of no moment at all Yea this which thou deemst nothing is a busines of great concern because what thou thinkest much or of great moment is nothing in comparison of Gods greatnes and thy obligation O immense truth how can any thing be thought little or great if the measure of my obligation diligence be thy immensity where there is no little nor great but an excess of all meane How can I say this is little if whatsoever I do for thee is nothing It is not little which is held the least since perfection consists in the least Little things are not to be sleighted because greater are contemned If thou let a spark of fire fal into a pile of dry sticks which thou keepst under thy roof a great flame will be raisd which will consume the whole edifice Our corrupt nature is as apt to take the infection of malice as a little dry flax to take flame If thou sleightest smal things by little and little thou wilt be perverted Regard not the littlenes which appeares at first but by the beginning measure the end Seeds are allwaies extreme little and yet there is more vertue and efficacy in them then in any part of the whole plant The parting of two high waies insensibly protracted into length ends at last in a great interval of distance and may proceed to an infinitude though at first les then a step would have concluded the difference If thou once swarve from thy good purposes and remit that vigour of mind thou wilt by degrees find thy self very remote from thy former fervour Great things take their beginning from little wherfore a little is not the least if it be but the beginning The beginning of every thing is its chief and principal part yea it is not calld a part but the half of the whole Our H. Father S. Ignatius did with reason hold that it was more dangerous to contemne little things then greater the dammage of these latter is more patent and may forthwith be remedied but the prejudice we sustain by the former is not perceived but by length of time when being inveterated by custome it is scarse capable of redress The very nature and enormity of sin makes us abhor detest great ones but little defects because they seem little for this very reason are contemned and this being so our mind is not bent against them Our concupiscence is sharpend and set on edge by little things as thinking that it may wander in them without any great danger when it is not so venturous in great ones it being curbed and kept in by the apprehension of a patent ensuing harm but when our desire is once enkindled a little traind up how wil it then lash forth what wil it not encounter and for this reason we must sometimes proceed with more warines and sollicitude against smal defects then great Custome which gaines prescription upon vices breeds from little things not from great because they are less frequent nor shal we find it an easier task to resist custome then nature One shal sooner have an action in law against a publick invader and forcible seizure of our goods then one that hath had them by long prescription Those things which seem light take from us all remorse and shame of committing them that towards God being once cast of what good can be expected from us past shame past grace Be ashamd to refrain from great things and yeald to little for it is disgraceful and a sign of a coward to be foild by a dwarf or weak enemy That little is not to be sleighted in which great worth may be comprized A pearl is not contemned by reason of its littlenes nay for this respect it is valued the more as containing great worth in a little body why dost thou sleight that little wherin perchance thou maist do God a piece of better service then in greater Obsequiousnes and diligence in small things gaines greater
in rarities keep any choise jewel or forraign noyelty making presently a cabinet for it that the least grain of dust may not tarnish it canst thou think that the gemm of the Divinity and the H. Ghost can be preserved with requisite decency without an exquisite carefulnes If thou didst carry the most H. Sacrament of the Eucharist in thy hands how sollicitous wouldst thou be not to let it fal and if thou carry God in thy hart why wilt thou be less attentive The hart is a most delicate member any little offence to it is extream prejudicial any trifling wound is mortal to the body and in like manner any negligence in the custody of our hart doth much prejudice the spirit The kingdom of God is within us why do we beg miseries abroad by our senses an unblemishd hart is the oracle of God he speaks within us how can we harken attentively if we be gazing and wandering abroad while thou conversest with one thou givest not eare to another that interrupts thee how canst thou hear God being distracted with so many affaires Why dost thou desire to gaze abroad upon any beautiful object to tickle thy eares with pleasing sounds to feed thy fancy with forraign newes since thou hast God within thee in whom all beauty is comprizd all pleasure resides as in in its center and a perpetual newnes is discoverable even to the B. Angels themselves though they be in a perpetual fruition even from the very infancy and nonage of the world they beheld him before the prevarication of Adam and stil he is new to their eyes Which of the blessed would relinquish the vision and conversation of God and separate from him to behold any curiosity upon earth or who that is placed but at the gates of heaven would for that end recede thence o how much also is he to be pittyed who in expectation of this earthly trumpery hinders his progress in spirit forsaking the portal of heaven which is a wel guarded hart leaves God alone and sometimes his own hart too expelling God from it in such sort that he can neither know him perspicuously nor hear him expeditly that thou mayst be able to contemplate thy self in a myrrour thou first of all wipest off the dust how canst thou hope to see God in thy hart if thou daube it over with the clay of terrene affections If one should tel thee that S. Paul the Apostle newly come from the third heaven were in the streets explaining and unfolding hidden mysteries thou wouldst leave all though never so pleasing and profitable wouldst run with much speed though far distant to hear see him Behold thou needst not go one step to hear God inculcating things salutiferous and teaching hidden secrets while he comes to thee and sejourns with thee why dost thou not leave these exteriour things so fruitlesly burdensome overcoming all itch of novelties and vain curiosities by which thy fervour doth so evaporate this ought to be so highly prizd that the servant of God F. Francis Villanova was wont to say that although it were told him that an Angel were come from heaven and stood in the market place disclosing wonderful and stupendious mysteries and that great concourse were made thither he would not stir one foot only to overcome curiosity And certainly it were much better not to see an Angel then to be overcome by it if that were the only motive of seing him What retainest thou now of all the vanities thou hast beheld besides some impediments perchance of contemplating God thy mind being burdend with vain fancies and images of things both false and frivolous The les thou seest the more thou lessenest thy desire and occasions of errour A hart shut up to the world is the open gate of truth which gate is shut by giving free scope to our exteriour senses they are these material things that shut it Wherfore thou must alwayes keep within at home and not go forth to externs but with leave from God and for obedience and his glory Then they wil cause no hindrance but forthwith as soon as ever thou hast done thy busines retire home again resaluting and speaking to God who is there expecting thee yea recolect thy self now and then privily in the very dispatch it self steal thy self from thy employments and put thy self in the presence of God Whatsoever thou art to enterprize weigh it wel before hand offer it up to God and as much as thou canst have perpetual recourse to him visit him in thy hart ask his advice and implore with humility his favorable assistance But the chief gate which man must set a guard upon is his mouth least its words prove the outlet of devotion O how often do many sel God at a lower rate then did Iudas since they sell him for one word Simon Magus was cashierd for covetting to buy the H. Ghost with mony others loose him not for mony but a little breath and ayre of their mouth O most holy spirit who utterst nothing but Oracles of truth how can I relinquish thee to attend to the forgeries of men or my self to speak vanities conduct me with my IESVS into the desert of my hart that there thou mayst instruct illuminate and streng then me to beare thy cross O God o Christ of my hart grant me grace to follow thee out of the world and worldly crowds that I may dye with thee out of the city Thou chargd with thy heavy cross didst walk out of Ierusalem to dye for me and accomplish my salvation in the solitude instructing me how I am to go out of this world and seek thee in my self and bear thy cross and be crucified to the world in the solitude of my hart I wish my life could be sayd to be like a warfare upon earth a souldier forsakes parents allyes friends country commodities and embraceth as it were a voluntary bannishment in a forraign land exposing himself both body and soul to most evident danger for a little base pelfe why will not a soul desirous of Christ in order to gain the chiefest good and lock it up in the cabinet of its hart with draw it self from the tumults of men and quit the miseries which attend their affaires so to evade more present dangers both of body and soul be replenished with heavenly consolations The VII Chapter How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works MEN toil many years with great constancy for the inconstant and fleeting goods of this world why then are we so variously sickle in the pursuit of a constant and eternal glory which never wil fade men though they cark and care toile and moile their whole life long cannot get temporal goods albeit they pursue them without respit how can we presume to gain eternity since we are as changeable as any weather cock what paines do robbers usurers and the lecherous undergo to compass their wicked designes though they
amidst the curses of so many infidels as if one should hear a nightingal warble amidst a confused quire of chattering sparrowes Thou demandest o Lord that thy voyce may sound in my eares how can I deny my voice to God speaking to me and giving his word O immense Father who gavest me thy Son thy word to be a revilement to all for my sake all my words are due to thee that thou mayst be praised in all by me By thy word thou gavest all things their being it is but equitable that by words at least we acknowledg and be grateful for what thy word did If I were a labouring beast I would carry a burden if a fat beast I would go to the shambles if an oxe I would stoop to the yoak I would comply with the duty of all these but because I am a rational creature I wil do what 's proper to me that is prayse God this is mans duty this is the task of a reasonable soul the song that it must sing and I wil invite all creatures on all occasions to joyn in quire with me My task is not a task of burden and labour but of tongue and song of that which lessens and easeth labour Husband men and artificers are wont to sing so to mitigate the irksomnes of their work why am I negligent in a thing so easy and delightfull If I were a nightingal I would take pleasure in singing and do my duty I am a man why shall not I take pleasure in magnifying God complying in this with my nature I will practise my self here in the school of humane miseries in this exercise of the B. Angels which must be my task through all eternity and now as it were by way of trial I am to shew how I will act my part in that scene of glory I will intrude my self into the quires of Angels that the jarring discords of my song may be drownd in the melodiousnes of their harmony If Angels have been seen to consort with men while they religiously sing in the quire I will consort my self with the quires of Angels and imagin my self present there while I sing divine prayses or among the Disciples and Christ when having supped they recited a hymn of thanks giving O most sweet IESV who will be able to imitate the affection with which thou saydst or sungst that hymn it was equivalent to that though it shewed not it self exteriourly which thou shortly after didst exhibite in thy bloody sweat when thou stoodst in need of an Angel to comfort thee eyther by praysing thee or compassionating thy case Grant o Lord that I may laudably performe the office of an Angel by praysing thee laudably Grant o Lord that in memory of thy passion I may at all times compassionate and comfort thee But thou much more covetest this smal solace of thy affliction to see me attentive humble fervently zealous in discharging thy prayses chiefly in the divine Office that I do it not with precipitation but at a fit and seasonable hour We must be allwayes praysing and magnifying thy holy name at al times what is the reason that no convenient time is allotted to that which requires all time all things have their season onely prayer and praysing thee which should have most are wont to find none at all Because the divine Office is recited in private that must not be a pretence to perform it more remisly or negligently but thou must endeavour by a devout observance to supply the fruit which redounds from prayer in common or publick in such sort that thy very reverence may attractively invite thither the Angels as did that devout servant of God Iohn Fernandius a Father of our Society who by a special favour from heaven said divine Office with an Angel do thou at least imagine one to be present and recite with thee that thou mayst learn reverence of him and how thou art to discharge that obligation both worthily and profitably O soul how useles art thou to God whilst neyther his prayse nor glory possesseth thy hart nor mouth he denyes himself to be the work of God who neglects to prayse God to whom each creature is barren that yealds not this harvest of prayse Divine prayse glory is the fruit of man God can or rather daignes to reap this increase and advantage his benefit from his creatures O immense goodnes to be magnifyd by all If thy creature owe thee prayse because he is the work of thy hands how much will he owe thee because thou praysedst him first thou createdst all things o Lord as wel as praysedst them by approving them as good and giving them thy blessing why shal not I bless thee and announce and see how good thou art how great a dignity is it o man that God should covet thy approbation and prayse thou must prayse him with as much seriousnes as if all his reputation depended upon thy prayse and approbation Procure to be good and just for prayse from the unjust is held by wise men disprayse and they account it the same to be praysd by the lecherous and for lechery One had good reason to say that our credit was les beholding to a slack and faint prayser then to a bitter detractor may it not happen now and then that a blind ignorant blasphemous heathen may les obstruct the exaltation of Christ and glory of God then some religious man who performes his dutyes of devotion with drouzines immodesty distraction irreverence A frigid commendation is esteemd among men no better then a plain reproach and perchance such an irreverend manner of praysing God may somtimes be held next to blasphemy The first inventer of prayse was God and the first doctrine he taught me was to prayse him the first benefit he bestowd upon creatures in their infancy was prayse and commendation of their goodnes O the dignity of prayse which God alone was worthy to invent he would have other inventions to be ascribed to man but he himself would own that of prayse Thou didst not only create us but also indoctrinate and instruct us in our duty which is to prâ—yse thy works and thee in them A tender â—arted parent doth not content himself to have be gotten his child but he moreover provides carefully for his education Thou o Lord didst prayse thy creatures as soon as thou hadst made them because they cannot retaliate prayse to thee â—â— being dumb they imposed this burden upon me for the services they do me to prayse thee in lieu of them they demand no other salary of me for their obsequiousnes then that I with my tongue supply for their infancy My prayse is the prayse of the elements and heavens as when one is thankful to a benefactour in an infants behalf the acknowledgment is attributed to the Infant Thou o Lord requirest my prayse as a reward of thy works let me not be so unjust as to defraud thee of so
repose by reason of occurrent duties eyther of life or state of life even in that kind of violence it breaths with tacit but connatural aspirations after God and these employments being ended and she left to her self she hastens to her center recollecting her self in her closest retreats with God that to her utmost she may become like the Angels who see allwayes the face of their Father and covet to see it more and more which desire ought to be as connatural and recreative to our harts as is the ayre in which they breath The XV. Chapter That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved VVHAT am I who am but an abyss of malice in comparison of thee O ocean of goodnes that thou shouldst love me like loves its like why then dost thou who art the best love me who am the worst things more amiable are loved by others thou being most amiable covetest to beloved by me the vilest and loath somest of creatures O love of the world what am I in comparison of thee who deserve to be the hatred and horrour of the world what 's the reason that thou commandst me to love thee why was it needful to lay an injunction upon this what necessity to intreat and sollicit it by so many wayes o sollicitation o most sweet voyce child give me thy hart o petition iterated and reiterated to deaf â—areâ—â— thou makest an exhibition of thy self in each of thy creatures that thou maist be seen at all turnes through the cazements of nature melting away in this most amiable demand in thy search after me Thou accostest me in each creature that thou maist beg it by them all dividing out thy love in so many wayes to gain mine What window soever I open thou as a suiter occurrest to my eyes standing behind the wall looking through the windowes looking forth through the grates If I see if I hear if I smel if I tast lo thy lovely face presents it self thy sweet voyce the odour of my God a honey comb with its honey is forthwith at hand every where suit is made for love If fower or five grave men should avouch any thing or invite others to an enterprize each one would doe and believe what they said why give not I eare to so many creatures while they all invite me to the love of my God since he hath so many vouchers of his comelines why am I so backward in belief if men allurd with the beauty of things thought them endowed with a deity how much art thou the soveraign and aggregate of all beauties more beautiful then them for thou being the source and author of it al I thou allottest to each one the pittance it hath All creatures represent thy love and beauty with silent cryes and invisible colours but what voyce or pourtraiture wil bring us to thy knowledg creatures are not able to paint thee forth All the perfections they contain seem nothing else but so many blemishes Who art thou then or where o my beautifully faire who though thou be every where present with me yet I find thee no where and though thou comprizest all yet thou art none of that all Creatures object themselves to my view as if they carried a resemblance of thee but I look upon them as a riddle Thou art not that o Lord which they delineate thee to be who though they tel not a plain lye yet they chalk thee so forth that thou art not truly what they represent In this manner I sought whom my soul loveth I sought him but found him not I wil rise and make a turn about the citty through the lanes of nature the streets of the heavens I enquired of the formes of creatures of the consorts of musique of the fragrancy of parfumes the tasts of inebriating rellishes the embracements of lovers and they all said we are not thy beloved he shines in such sort that no place is capable of his splendour he sends forth a sound but such a one as no wind doth carry a long he yealds a sent but so as that no ayre disperseth it he gives such a rellish that no hunger can bite upon it he is so inherent that no satiety can cause a separation I enquired of the earth and it made answer I am not he if the heavens of beavens do not contain him why art thou so inquisitive of me I enquird of the sea and it trembling said I am not his abyss much exceeds mine and it is no wayes to be waded through I enquird of heaven and it said I am not thy God he mounts much above my sphere If none of all you creatures be he tel me where I may receive some â—ydings of him the watchful intelligences and guardian spirits of this world made reply he made us seek him above us When I had passed a litle beyond them I found the beloved of my soul whom I could not find among creatures In this respect only I behold and find thee o light placed in the midst of lights that I am able neyther to behold nor find thee for how can I comprehend what is incomprehensible fly fly my beloved in this respect I wil comprehend thee because thou fliest me I know so much the more of thee the more I know thee not to be knowable and I approach nigher to thy knowledg the more thou recedest from my comprehension I sought in my bed and the retirednes of my solitude night by night the beloved of my soul The splendour of things beautiful in respect of thee is a night the seemlines of the heavens is a night the very beauty of the sun its refulgency and any other I wil not say created but falsly imaginable comelines is a night If each star were more resplendent then the sun and the sun himself did by as many degrees exceed these stars as there are sands of the sea and motes illustrated by the sun he would be an eye sore in respect of thee nor would be more conspicuous then the stars now are in presence of the sun But to what purpose do I bring these deformed beauties of visible things these rustick forms even of the sun morish lights Let us draw into resemblance these spiritual and candid ones whose lovelines is such that an Angel appearing to the devout Father Iohn Fernandez of our society the sight so affected him that he fainted through excess of joy was not able to support himself affirming that all the beauties of this world were but blemishes and deformities in regard of this Imagin then that the comelines of that Angel were as much greater then it is as there are â—â—omes in the aire and that each Angel were endowed with such comelines there being millions of millions of them or in a manner a number numberles sum up all this comelines of them all into one it would be ill-favourd and ugly in comparison of the beauty of God and I say not
would seem a mote but a mere nothing O my hart why art thou not extasied with such amiablenes and set on fire with such an abyss of light o my hart thy hardnes and heavines is greater then one of iron if this immense loadstone of love do not elevate and attract it But art thou perchance o Lord that clarity and seemlines which I conceit in regard of which so great light of the sun or an Angel multiplied to such an infinity seems no more then darknes no but thou art infinitly seemlier nor after so great light do I see thee though thou be most refulgent I only know that that refulgency is not thee because compared to thee it is darknes but what a one thou art is wholly unknown to me thy light dazlingly blinding me and the brighter it shines it leaves me in greater darknes But I never behold thee more clearly then in this mist nor do I find true day that is the ancient of dayes but in this night at noon day clear to me by reason of its obscurity and mid night O eternal love take now my hartand all my love But why do I say take it if thou hast forcibly siezd it why commandst thou me to give thee my hart if thou hast already robd me of it not in one hair or one eye of thine but in my blindnes and the hair-braindnes of my extravagancies Thou hast robd me because so great thou art that I cannot discerne thee thou hast robd me because though I so contemptibly dwarfish have offended thee thou so majestically great covettest to be loved by me But thou o Lord who hast wounded my hart with thy goodnes must out of the same power into it the oyl of thy mercy that it may be a healing salue to the wounds of my sins O hidden God if thou even in this ignorance of thee be pleasing to me above all I know what wilt thou be when I shal know thee intuitively and face to face in thy clear sun shine Sieze and dispoil me of my hart take all my wil never restore it to me again permit not a knife to be in the hands of a mad-man but reserve to thy self mannagement of it for what remains for me in heaven or what do I covet besides thee on earth I rejoice that my hart faileth me because thou hast taken it from me Let my hart be alwaies upon thee because my treasure is placed in thee O truly God of my hart because now thou art Lord of it but because thou art mine though my hart hath faild me yet a better then mine wil not thou wilt supply its room thou o God art my hart thou art that part which hath faild me To witt thou shalt be my hart eternally therfore supply for the functions of my hart Thou canst actuate my wil for me provide what thou knowest expedient in my behalf it shal only be my task and emploiment to love thee Thou shalt love me insteed of my self that all my love may be wholly bestowed on thee in such wife that self love may no way impede me O happy loss of my hart if God supply in lieu of it The last Chapter Of the superessential light of the most B. Trinity O Most clear shining light of the divine Vnity if thou be so great that thou dazlest the eyes even of the strongest understandings by thy dim shadow appearing in creatures and renderst them more purblind then the sun beames do the owl what an abyss of light wil invest thee in thy Trinity a shadow wherof is not afforded by creatures but it was to be reveald by IESVS if thou be here so refulgent to our eyes how wil these splendours of sanctity which never break forth shine within thee if the shadow of thy unity be so illustrious how radiant wil the light of thy Trinity be which cannot be shadowed O most lightsome darknes when some clarity of such a mystery is communicated to a soul that light is an abscurity because a soul sees not it self but is lost as in a maze Like as one that walk in darknes knowes not where he is so the mind surprizd in that light is ignorant what becomes of it self and having regaind it self in that brightnes which must needs be so it being in God there it looseth it self because it finds God which happens when being sequestred from the traffique of inferiour objects and becoming conforme to Christ crucifyd by a constant mortification and crucifixion of its wil it fixeth an undazled eye and humble mind upon the stupendious secret of the Trinity there it rellisheth life in its original purity as in its fountain there it admires the nature of a most simple simplicity in all points consonant with a Trinity When we know any thing worth our admiration we are touchd with a pleasing desire of beholding it What more admirable and consequently more pleasing then to know that most simple unity into which the Trinity of Persons combines it self as also that Trinity which a most simple simplicity doth not destroy Vnity doth shine distinctly in the Trinity the Trinity for as much as it relates to what 's within is conspicuous in Vnity The Father is the source of the Son the Son issues from the Father according to the distinction of a Person and remaines in him according to the unity of Essence from the Father the Son proceeds the H. Ghost and his substance remaines both in Father and Son where a Trinity hinders not Vnity nor Vnity impedes Trinity yea where Trinity furthers Vnity and Vnity favours Trinity Therfore God is more one because he is also three What more pleasing then to see those things mutually conspiring which seem repugnant to one another There would not be in God the greatest simplicity imaginable unles there were the greatest efficacy there would not be the greatest efficacy unles there were a Trinity of Persons there would not be a Trinity of Persons unles there were an Vnity of Essence The divine simplicity is so far from obstructing a Trinity that both Trinity contributes to unity and a most united Vnity requires a Trinity Therfore the more simple God is in his nature the more is he triplifyd in Persons and as no greater simplicity is conceptible then that of the Divine nature so there can be no truer distinction then that of the Persons in that Vnity The more things partake of simplicity and purity the more efficacious they are according to the tenet of Philosophers Because fire shares more eminently of these two qualities it is the most active amongst the elements and upon this score the heavens more then sublunary natures and spirits then bodies Vertue the more it is united and condensd the more forcible it is in its operations and the more simple a thing is the more it hath of the forme which is both its act and activity now in an infinite simplicity which is a most pure act and