ours as that he will not serue so benigne a Lord with all diligence who is he that coÌ„sidering whence our Lord hath drawen him will not resolue to be daily further and further of from hell and from the impiety of sinne He seemes not to haue bene sorrie for his offence who procures not with diligence to be farre from the like He doth not sufficiently thanke our Lord for this guift who hath layde aside the memory thereof with whome it decayes with time not stirring himself vp to giue new thankes and to presente new seruices knowing more and more thereof euery day as a person who hath receiued encrease of light This is so great a fauour that Dauid calles it the Benedictions of sweetenesse And it is great reason that we should grow strong with that new grace Psal 20. which our Lord gaue vs and not content ourselues still with being little ones I sayd that at least we must be carefull in the continuance and conseruation of this guift because according to good reason we should be encreasers thereof daily more and more And from hence it growes that when I see that the light of your soule is sett vpon by so many windes and when I consider your weakenesse in the midst of so many and so great and so subtile enemyes I finde my selfe to be all trembling ouer you as any mother would be ouer her sonne who aduentures not to reioyce for the good she sees him enioy through the feare she hath that he may chance to loose it Tell me good Sir how is it with you are you still on foote in the presence of your God doe you liue in the presence of true life is God lodged in your hart is there an vnion of loue betweene God and your soule Or is there not perhaps some litle drynesse or disagreement growen betweene you which your much care of this world and your little care to please your Lord may haue caused I feare to heare the answeare which you may chance to giue and yet I cannot content my selfe to be without hearing it If you giue me good newes my soule will reioyce in our Lord and I will giue him thankes for hauing conserued what he hath gayned But if you tell me otherwise I must be extremely sorry and yet still howsoeuer I must needes know it For I will not remaine without greife if you be subiect to any spirituall losse or inconuenience I hope to haue a parte of your Crowne and I submitt my selfe to beare a parte of your payne If there be any thing of this kinde take heede you suffer not the wound to fester and make no intricate knotts vpon the swathing-bands of your sinnes Make haste to breake that quickly which is ill tyed vp for you can haue no leaue to diuide your self from him who fixed himself to that Crossë for you with so cruell nayles Say alowde to all things Departe from me for neither am I yours neither ought I be so much as mine owne Lett the thing be what it will let the person be who it will and let the interest be as great as it can be no other can haue Title or iustice to carry you away but onely Iesus Christ who created you and tooke you for his sonne and after you had beene a prodigall admitted of you againe and honoured you and gaue you a new garment and a sweete embracement of peace and keepes a state of great repose prepared for you in heauen if you will keepe his commaundements That man namely your selfe belongs to this Lord of ours Though euery man in this world should putt in his clayme for you there is none who hath so dearely bought you as he to whome you also belong by another title For what is it for God to dye for vs but to repurchase that at an extreame rate which was already his by the benefitt of Creation and to draâ—v vs out of hell and againe to admitt vs to his freindshipp what is this but to multiplie diuerse Titles to the same thing and those so very great that euery one of them hath reason enough to carry the whole man after it O treason of the sonnes of Adam what is that which you doe when somewhat else preuailes in your hart against Iesus Christ how are you able to say No to him whome you are so bound to serue though it were with the losse of your liues Shall any small title which any thing may make towards you be able to carry you away and so blinde you as to make you forgett so many and so great benedictions as our Lord layes vp in heauen for you Let the world departe euen now from our harts since it is so soone to departe from our eyes And when we shall see anything therein which flourishes let vs bury it vnder ground and treade vpon it there in the sepulcher For by the coÌ„sideration thereof we shall obtaine a true relation of it and such a one as will deliuer vs from it and free vs from the care of all that which heere is sought with such a pestilent kind of desire What better weights or measure can you desire that so you may not be deceiued nor be drawen to take one thing for another then to carry it instantly to the Passion and death of Iesus Christ our Lord who then condemned that which the world esteemed and to carry it also to the hower of our owne death which conducts vs all naked solitary and defeated and to be trod vpon by the seete of our seruants And you in particular may doe well to remember this point since besides the feare which we all ought to haue of that passage your self haue another particular reason for it because you haue a more particular knowledge of death for lately you wanted not as a man may say a fingar's breadth of passing through it to eternity Take heede take heede that you be not deceaued by those false apparances and by those painted maskes for they are no better then maskes which enueagle deceaue our soules And if you like these shadowes so well raise vp your hart to heauen where the Truthes of these things are whereof heere there is but some litle resemblance And so you will neither conceiue any enuie against him whome you finde to prosper in warldly things neither yet will you haue any great appetite to possesse that which in fine you must be forced to leaue Do not entangle your selfe with this earth since God hath giuen you some good hopes and pledges that he meanes to carry you to heauen And those are his most sacred death the knowledge and loue of the Crucifix the receauing of the holy Sacraments whereby in the holy Church there is giuen a pardon of our sinnes and the adoption of the Sonnes of God and consequently of heyres Let him seeke for shadowes who hath no hope to lay holde on things of substance Let him respect a short tyme who hath
self-loue tell vs that wee desire it but for the seruice of Almighty God And for my part I beleiue that there is noe peace to be had in this world but by patience Nor doe I thinke that it is true patience when a man is content to beare with his neighbours if withall he be not content to beare with himself Not to the end that he must fayle to punish and to mend his faultes but that his hart may not be deiected and he vnreasonably afflicted and that whatsoeuer happen hee may bee able to keepe himself content both within and without but soe that yet withall as I was saying he still doe his diligences to mend himself Which yet if he should not wholy doe it is better that he bee sorry for it and that instantly he rise vp with new alacrity which vses to encrease and double our strength then that whilest conceiues himself to lament his faultes for the loue of God he should indeed displease the same God by seruing him with a sowre kind of hart and with fallen wings and such other braunches as vse to rise from this roote Let the Conclusion be that which S. Paul deliuers Let vs frequent prayer in all things giuing thanks to God Thess 5. and soe wee shall be sure to doe well Our Lord Iesus bee with you and with vs all Amen A Letter to a Cauallier his freind wherein he teacheth how the afflictions which God sendes to his seruants are to put good men in hope and wicked men in feare THankes be giuen to Christ our lord for hauing made you a partaker of paine and trouble for it is the most certaine title to heauen which can be had vpon earth since it doth enable vs to be like our lord who descended from heauen to giue vs light that we might loue him and strength by his example and grace by his merites Let not the dispensation of the workes of God seeme cruelty in your sight for as the rewarde which he giues is not light soe neither must the meanes be light whereby it is to be obtained Nor is there any thing further of from being a matter of toyes or iest then that which our lord hath prepared for such as loue him Now to the end that this may be knowen and rightly vnderstood it is fitt that they who are to enioy it may be soe treated as he was that soe the world may be vnbeguiled if it still conceiue that by liuing in iest they are to enioy that great reward in earnest Our lord giues aduise to his seruants and he threatens such as will needes be strangers to him For to the former sorte of men he saith that they must thinke highly of his rewarde since he will not giue it but vpon high tearmes And as for these other he askes them how they thinke to escape the rigour of his handes they who are his enemies since euen his children be strictly treated who are yet elected for soe great a good If we cast our eyes towardes this beame of rigour and iustice which are the afflictions whereof we now speak we shall finde that they conteyne greate occasions both of hope and feare And on the one side the mercy of God is much glorified thereby and his iustice on the other Let trouble expect to finde repose and let him feare affliction hereafter who doth not feele it now For since in any man how iust soeuer he be there are many thinges which may deserue punishment though not in hell and this punishment is to be personally indured if it be not purged with soe great an excesse of loue as that the contrition may stand for the punishment as it did in S. Mary Magdalen and some others it is plaine that eyther heere or in purgatory they must passe through fire And though they who finde not in themselues soe great loue of God as to cause this greife which may stand for a satisfaction may thinke perhaps that they receiue hard measure in beeing saued by fire whilst others shall be saued without it yet indeed they are much deceiued in their account For the great loue of God euen heere on earth when men see that God is offended doth cause greater greife then that to which you are subiect And that truth is seene by this then when one loues God greatly he would be glad of the paine you suffer soe that he might be free from that which he feeles for the offences which are committed against God And at this wee must not wonder since there are persons who euen to free you from the paine wherein you are would indure themselues And this also may serue for a proofe that the loue which one beares to another puts him to more trouble then the paine it selfe would doe which the other feeles that if your selfe loue another very much you would not be ridd of your owne paine if it were vpon condition that the other must indure it for yow which proues as I was saying that it would trouble you more in the personne of that other then in your owne Now if the loue of a creature can reach soe farre how much more will the loue of the creatour be able to doe it being infused by the most holy spirit of our lord which farre exceedes all other force And thus it growes to be a most certaine truth that eyther in this fashion or in that there is noe meanes to escape from suffering before we ariue to enioying And tell him who would complaine of this law ather complaine that he is a man that he was not made an angell and lett him complaine against iustice and reason which doe absolutely require that vertue must be obtained with labour and the reward must correspond with the vertue But who o lord who shall euer presume to cōplaine of thee as if thou didst treat them with rigour◠since instantly thou stoppest their mouthes with shewing that thou so loued the world as to giue thy onely begotten sonne to the end that in the strength of these afflictions and sorrowes and death which they charged vpon him the world might escape the torments of hell and might triumph in heauen Who I say o lord will presume to complaine when he shall see thy best beloued freindes to be soe seuerely handeled and obserue that in thy court it is hard to say which of these two haue the pre-eminence eyther afflictions or fauours and that it was said by thy commaundement to one of thy fauourites Because thou wert accepted by God it was necessary that temptation should try thee Doe not permitt your heart to sinke vnder your crosses but remember that heretofore you haue desired to doe and suffer somewhat for the loue of God God is not deafe to the desires of our hartes He hath giuen that which he knew to be best for you and if you thinke it heauy confide that he who sendes it will giue you shoulders wherewith to beare it That
CERTAIN SELECTED SPIRITVALL EPISTLES Written by that most Reuerend holy man Doctor I. de Auila a most renowned Preacher of Spaine Most profitable for all sortes of People whoe seeke their saluation Benedictus Deus qui talia dona dedit hominibus Blessed bee Almighty God who hath giuen such guifts to men At Roüen by the widdow of Nicolas Courant Permissu Superiorum 1631. THE PREFACE IT is an excellent saying which we finde in that diuine booke intituled THE FOLLOWING OF CHRIST The felicitie which is to be obtayned in this life consists not in the being able to preuent or auoid miseries and crosses which daily occurre but in the patient and humble acceptation and sufferance thereof For indeede there is no such thing as thâ— not being encountred and crossed some in one kinde and some in another some by desolations of minde some by infirmities of bodie some by want of temporall meanes some by vnkindenesse of freinds some by detraction against fame some by suites in law and some by persecution for Religion For these things lye as so manie snares whereby to intrappe our patience in this great Hospitall of the world and some men are subject to more of them and some to fewer but there is no man who at one time or other is not subiect to some The businesse therefore must be to supporte both such as Almighty God shall either send for the punishmeÌ„t of our other sinnes or for the greater purification and perfection of our owne soules or for the aduancemeÌ„t of his owne glory otherwise and such others also as for the greater punishment of wicked men he shall permitt them to inflict vpon vs and to supporte them so through the fauour of God as not onely thereby not to forfeite heauen in the next life but to enable vs in the midst of all our miseries to obtaine a kinde of heauen euen in this For I account it to be a kinde of heauen in the crowde of trouble not to be ouerweighed with the burthen but to accept be content with the good will of God and to aspire towards an imitation of the Passion of Christ our Lord to know and feele in our very harts the substantiall sauorie truth of that diuine saying of S. Iean Chrisostome It is a more glorious thing for a man to suffer for Christ then to raigne with him But now as this doctrine is diuine so the lesson whereby we are to learne it is hard and therefore we shall doe well to vse the best meanes we can to take it out And for my parte I must confesse that I haue neuer mett in anie Authour with so manie so weightie so easie and practicable considerations and inducements towards not onely the patient but euen the ioyfull sufferance of all those crosses and afflictions which can finde the way to vs in this world as are deliuered by FATHER AVILA in his Epistles whereof I haue selected the chiefe and choice and made them speake with our tongue to the end that we may be the better taught to beare those burthens of affliction which may otherwise proue too hard and heauie for our soft shoulders of flesh and bloud And I am confidently perswaded that besides the entertainement which the reader will finde therein otherwise for his delight and gust it will be impossible for him to haue had or haue a crosse of anie kinde for which he shall not heere finde store of remedies and comforts brought to his hand So that he will owe a diligent and deuout reading to this Collection if not for the Author 's or Translator's sake yet at least for his owne A LETTER OF THE Authour to a deere freind of his He shewes how great blindenes it is to loose eternall blisse for temporall delights THE peace of our Lord Iesus Christ be euer with you I receiued a letter of yours some daies past written in Seuill whereof though I were very gladd yet should I haue reioyced much more to be there to enioy your conuersation which I haue soe long desired I beseech Christ that wee may see one another in heauen where all our desires will be at an end possessing him who is the true fulfilling of them all Sir I would extreamely desire that the smoâ—ke of theis temporall things did not blinde our harts and hinder vs from the sight of such as are eternall What an ill exchange doth hee make who Looses that which may be interiourly possessed and which indeede is the true fruite for that which is exteriour and which is noe better then the shell or crust Woe be to that man who hath more care of his goodes then of his conscience and who puts the soule in hazard to secure the life of his body Not soe Gen. 39. ô you men not soe but rather as Ioseph did whoe to secure his chastity left his vper garmeÌ„t in the hands of her whoe would haue robbed him of that treasure It is the sentence of Christ our Lord Matth. 5. that if our right eye be an occasion to vs of sinne wee must pluck it out and cast it from vs. The right eye is the loue which we carry towards goods or honour or life or freinds which if by the inordinate aboundance thereof it be an occasion to vs of sinne wee are to estraunge our selues from it and to cutt it of least otherwise we be estraunged from God Wee must loue nothing soe well as that wee may not treade it vnder foote if it hinder vs from being well with God There is noe such thing as holding freindship with that soueraigne king but onely such a man as will confesse that heauen is had very cheape though it should chance to cost him his life They who will thinke to comply both with their owne proper affections and with the loue also of our Lord are mightily deceiued For theis men loue not God but soe as they alsoe loue many other things whereas God will be loued aboue them all O errour of the sonnes of men and who hath thus deceiued them and whoe shall be able to vnbeguile them who hath pluckt out their eyes to leade them blinde-fould in a ringe like another Sampson Iudges 16. liuing according to the suggestion of vice and in the displeasure of our Lord Who shall be able to make them vnderstand that they are straungely deceiued in seeking riches in the first place and vertue in a second Yea and if it soe fall out that both of them cannot be kept men are content to be without vertue soe that they may not be without money And thus put they light into the place of darkenes and darkenes into that of light O that our Lord would open the eyes of theis men and how bitterly would they weepe seeing how badd exchaungers they had beene Is not perhaps the freindship of God which is obteyned by the exercise of vertue of more valew then all the rest of things which can be wished Are
constrayned him since there was noe remedy but that he would become man that he must needes be borne in soe hard and soe bitter a tyme of the yeare and in a country where he was a straunger and insteede of a house that it must needes be in a stable and all this in soe great pouertie and basenes that he well deserues compassion at our hand Certainely noe other thing but Loue could haue brought him as it were all bound from heauen to the most pure wombe of our Blessed Lady and from that wombe it brought him to that hard manger and from thence to many other afflictions and soe at last to the Crosse where louing vs with much truth of loue he procured that we might truely loue him as himselfe had said before If I be exalted from the earth I will draw all things vp to my selfe Iohn 3 â—um 21. Exalting from the earth signifies to dye vpon the Crosse as he did And then drew he all things to himselfe by meanes of that mighty loue which he kindled in the hart of man For looking towards this true louer some haue beene content to forgett their countries and to liue in continuall pilgrimage others to forsake their estates and to liue in pouerty others haue offered themselues to seuerall afflictions yea and to death it selfe desiring rather to suffer for Christ our Lord then to be delighted any way but in him And let his mercie be praised for euer for that amongst them whoe through the noble loue of the Crucifix haue forgotten all their fortunes and themselues withall your selfe is growne to be one not of your selfe but by him whoe workes his owne glorie in you And therefore he will not leaue you in the weake hands of your selfe alone since he not you begin the worke You therefore my good lady may well reioyce you may reioyce in God since you are well protected vnder a mantle which is both soe soft and soe stronge Stronge to defende you from your enemies and from your selfe whoe are the greatest enemie you haue and soft or sweete to comfort you in your aflictions and to feele them as if they were his owne and to giue you part of his hart which is soe greately wounded with loue for you How could our Lord haue expected drawne or guarded or susteyned you if he had not loued you with great truth of loue How is it possible that your sinnes would not haue prouoked him to wrath if there had not beene as much loue in him as serued to make him shut his eyes towards them and to open them towards the doeing you fauour But you will say How come I to be soe happie as that the eternall king should loue mee and for that reason should endure mee and doe mee soe much good insteede of ill I will answeare you when you shall first haue tolde mee why the fire burnes and why the sunne shines and why the water refreshes and why euery thing is endewed with his owne nature And if you say the fire burnes because it is fire soe doe I alsoe tell you that because God is God therefore doth hee loue vs freely and shewes mercy to such as deserue it not Our pride hath nothing noe it hath nothing whereof to glory but the shame and dishonour must be ours and the honour his The good wee may enioye but the glorie must be his Luke 2 For soe the angells sunge when the blessed Infant was borne Glory be to God in the heauens and peace to men of good will Lett vs giue the glory to the Lord of vs all for the mercies which we haue receiued at his hand Glory be to him because he hath deliuered vs with soe much power from the hands of them to whome we had deliuered our selues with soe miserable a resolution Glory be to him whoe drew vs to grace wee being out of his grace and who sustaines vs and crownes vs with mercy and with many mercies and whoe giues vs to vnderstand that hee will finish that in vs which hee hath begunne For he is wont to haue the charge and care of any busines to whome the honour must result and he whoe reapes the honour must be content to take the care And now since this Blessed Lord of ours will be glorified in vs and will take the honour of our victorie to himselfe he will alsoe take the care of our combatt and hee will enable vs to passe through it to him and will tye vs to himselfe with soe stronge a knott of loue that neither life nor death shall diuide vs. He will enable vs to looke vpon himselfe with open eyes and to shutt them towards all other things and he will imprint himselfe soe fast vpon our harts that for the loue and memory of him wee shall forgett not onely all other things but our very selues alsoe This will he doe whoe is soe pittious soe powerfull and his name is holy and hee it is whoe loues vs more then we can either say or thinke For his workes exceede all created vnderstanding To him be glorye for the eternitie of all eternities Amen As for that which you aske mee concerning my health it goes ill with mee since I am vnworthy of sicknes For if I were not very vnworthy our Lord would not haue taken my paine from mee soe soone as he hath taken it And as for the rest of your letter I answeare that a great fire by how much the more it is shutt vp and concealed soe much the hotter it burnes Christ our Lord make you his true and faithfull disciple that soe you may in some sort correspond to that vnspeakeable and diuine loue of his as I cordially desire of him for you A letter to a reuerend and religious person encouraging him towards the perfect loue of God and representing to him some meanes for the obteyning thereof REuerend father Pax Christi Since our Lord Iesus Christ is not pleased that at this tyme I should be where I might enioy the communication of your selfe and of those my Maisters the Collegialls as I had wished lett his name be blessed for all and in the meane tyme I must endure it with patience Wherein yet mee thinks I shall not be performing a small penance for it is a hard thing for vs to endure to be diuided from the persons whome wee loue And in very truth I did neuer soe much desire to be assisted by you in some things as now For I conceiue that it might haue proued greatly to the seruice of our Lord. But yet since by one that loues all things are well taken I will speake a little to you in absence till our Lord ordaine that wee may be present Sir I much desire that we may seeke God who is our totall Good and that not after any ordinary manner but like some one whoe seekes a great treasure which is much esteemed and for loue whereof he sells all that hee is
O my deere God and when shall we maintaine our soules in perfect faith and puritie towards thee and be sincerely loyall to Iesus Christ our Lord who is the spouse thereof giuing him our loue all intyre and wholly free from mingling itselfe with the basenes of creatures When shall we be able to vnderstand this truth that he who is to owne our soules is Christ our Lord and that he created vs for himselfe and that he onely is fitt for vs Is it not enough that we haue tryed so often by experience how ill the world is wont to serue vs and that our soule could neuer finde any true repose or peace but onely when coming to knowe her owne misery and poorenes it went to God and was imbraced by him Is not one of those short fitts of tyme more worth then their whole life who sacrifice themselues to vanitie and to the confusion of this ignorant world wherein they liue Or shall it not now at length bee tyme to saye to all things created I know you not that soe I may prouide a cleane and ready place for the reception of him who created you all of nothing I am extreamely glad that we haue to doe with a Holy ghost which is soe very holy as that he would not come euen to the disciples them selues of our Lord till euen his owne pretious body were taken out of their sight That so we may know the condition of this holy spirit to be such as that we must prouide a temple for it where noe other thing may dwell or els it will not enter there And I am highly glad that you by the grace of this spirit will haue prepared your selfe and that you will haue receiued him and that you and he are well content with one another Reioyce you with this Holy ghost for he is Ioy it felfe And remember Eph. 4 that the Apostle S. Paule requires vs not to contristate the holy spirit of God whereby wee are marked out for the day of redeÌ„ption which is of the iudgment of the latter day He contristates this Spirit whoe with a dull and deiected hart goes faintly and negligently about his seruice whoe doth things which displease this most soueraigne guest who as himselfe is fire soe will he haue his seruant full of feruour and requires that he goe about his worke with great life And that he euer be casting on the wood of good workes and blowing it with holy thoughts that soe this celestiall fire may not be quenched in vs since our very life consists in keeping it aliue And soe if we maintaine this fire in vs it will maintaine vs in him though yet still it be true that he first giues vs that which afterward we giue to him So that in this respect your ladyship will haue beene fedd at a good table this weeke since you will haue celebrated the Feast of the holy ghost not according to flesh and blood as they doe whoe vse to content themselues â—vith the talke and tumult of great Festiuities but you will haue celebrated it in Spirit according to the aduice of our Lord Iohn 4. who requires to be Spiritually adored Lett vs now consider how it stands with you concerning the sent odour of the Festiuitie of the Body of our Lord which is now neere at hand For it will be an extreame shame for a Christian hart not to hunger and aspire toward this holy bread Matth. 2. before the Festiuitie it selfe arriue since the three kings those wise men of the Ghospell had a sent of it so farre of yea and the Prophetts and Patriarcks had the like a longe tyme before his Incarnation What more happy newes can there be then to see Christ our Lord passe amongst vs in our streetes and through our hands communicating and conuersing with men And to haue him sett before our eyes to finde him whome neither the whole earth nor all the heauens can comprehend shut within the narrow â—urtaine of the accidents of bread and after all â—his to make his entrance into our vnworthy woefull brests Take heede you heare not this newes with deafe eares but awake your hart and require it to be very attentiue to soe great a fauour and worke of God and that it instantly cast vp whatsoeuer other meate it may haue swallowed that soe being full of hunger it may grow all full of this celestiall bread where vpon the Angells feede And bid it be sure to watch now that soe it may not then fall a sleepe And since it is the worke of the holy Ghost you must begg grace whereby you may be able to finde the effect of that Feast of the body of our Lord which was conceiued by the same holy Ghost And soe when that Feast of his most holy body shall be come the Holy Ghost will alsoe come with it because the Holy Ghost descended into the world through the meritts of Christ our Lord. And when his Body shall be giuen vs we shall receiue the holy Ghost together with it according to the rate of that good disposition which we shall haue Soe that one Festiuity must helpe and be a preparation for another and must giue vs hunger to feede vpon the fruite of the other For it is not heere as it happens in the banquets of this world which are made by flesh and bloud Where they whoe haue fedd full at noone haue noe minde at all to their meate at night But the soule goes feeding with afresh appetite from one Festiuitie to another and soe that is accomplished Leuit. 26. which God promised The threashing of your corne shall last till you goe to vintage and till the new time of seede and you shall eate your bread in aboundance The goodnes of God be blessed which soe liberally prouides for vs and that not in any meane fashion but by giuing his very selfe to vs. The sonne is giuen to vs and the Holy Ghost for his sake and these two persons giuing themselues the father cannot choose but be alsoe giuen In fine the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are ours Wee already begin euen heere that mutuall contract which we are to perfect in heauen Let vs giue him humbly thankes for his mercies Lett vs prepare our selues for the receauing of new fauours and with harts exalted aboue the earth let vs celebrate the Festiuities of heauen to the end that we may passe from these temporall Ioyes to those eternall wherein I humbly beseech our Lord that you may one day see your selfe Amen A letter of the Authour to a virgin lady who asked of him what Charitie was He answeares to her demaunde and shewes her the Loue and Charitie which she is to haue to God and her neighbours heere on earth by that loue and charitie whith the saints haue in heauen DEVOVT spouse of Christ our Lord you aske me in your letter what Charitie is to the end that you may
guide you whole life thereby For the saying of the Apostle S. Paule is true 1. Cor 13. and whatsoeuer wee doe without Charitie is nothing worth though wee should deliuer our bodyes into the fire Your demaunde is very great and I could wish that the same Apostle S. Paule whose sentence moued you to aske me the question might enable me also to make the answeare For I know not what greater thing then this you could haue asked mee since the sublime parte of all our christian religion consists in it 1. Cor. 13. And as the same Apostle saith He who liues according to it is a fulfiller of the whole law Soe that you o deuout spouse of Christ our Lord must beseech the holy ghost whose proper attribute is Loue that he will teach and write that thing in your hart whereof you aske as he taught it vpon the day of Pentecost Act. 2. when hee infused it into the harts of his Apostles For know that this is the true teacher of this language and soe as there is none but he For alas what can my tongue which is made of earth expresse of that which is onely vsed with perfection in heauen This is a celestiall language and they whoe speake it perfectly are the blessed spiritts which attend to nothing els but truly to loue our Lord God with all their strength and all that which his pleasure is that they shall loue How shall I be able to speake to you of that Loue which is subiect to noe interest and is accompanyed with noe selfe-loue and lookes towards noe other marke and aymes at noe other scope but onely God How I say shall I speake of it whome my father Adam hath left all wrapped vp in mine owne interest and who apply my selfe to seeke my selfe in all things See how much For euen in those things which concerne the seruice of God wee doe soe hang towards our selues that many tymes wee performe them for our owne interest or end And though the workes themselues be holy yet the loue wherewith wee doe them is impure And the difference doth onely consist in this that when wee seeke our selues by euill workes our Loue runnes through a conduit of clay when we seeke our selues by good workes it runnes indeede through a cōduit of gould but in fine it runnes towards our selues Iohn 6 I beseech our true doctour Iesus Christ our Lord who euer sought the honour of his Father and whose loue abased him to this world not for the accomplishing of his owne will but his who sent him that he will vnty my tongue to the end that I may tell you some part of that which you demaunde For certainly if your good desire did not oblige me to lett you know what I haue read my poorenes would oblige mee to hould my peace And now to the end that you might better vnderstand what Charitie is and how you may euer goe imployed therein I could wish you knew some parte of that Loue which the Blessed spiritts haue in heauen to the end that you may know thereby wherein true Charitie doth consist For how much neerer we shall come to that loue so much the more perfect will our loue be you must know that the loue which is in heauen doth transforme the Saints into the same will with that of our lord God For one of the effects of loue as S. Dionisius saith is to make the seuerall wills of such as loue to be but one I meane that they should haue the same will and the same not will which the other hath And now since the will and loue which our lord hath is but onely of his owne glory and of his essence which is supremely perfect and glorious from hence it followes that the loue of the Saints is a Loue and will wherewith they loue and desire with all their strength that our lord God may in himselfe be still as good as glorious and as worthy of honour as hee is And for as much as they see all that to be already in him which they can desire there followes there vpon Gal. 5. the fruite of the holy ghost which is an vnspeakeable ioy to see him whome they loue soe much to be soe full of treasures and felicitie in himselfe as they desire If you will haue a touch or at least some little sent of this diuine ioye doe but consider how great that ioy is which a good Sonne receiues in seeing his father whome he loues much full of honour beloued by all rich powerfull hoble and very much esteemed by the king Certainely there be sonnes soe gratefull and well disposed to their parents as to esteeme that nothing can be compared to the ioy of seeing their fathers soe esteemed which reaches indeede soe farre as that to whatsoeuer necessitie or affliction themselues may be subiect it serues not to depriue them of that great ioy because they aspire to noe other end but onely the honor of their parents Now if this ioy be soe great what doe you conceiue that the ioy of the Saints may be when being transformed by loue into that true lord of theirs the vniuersall creatour of all things they shall see him soe full of goodnes soe holy and soe rich in beauty and that he is a Lord and creatour soe infinitely powerfull as that by one onely act of his will all that which is created hath his beauty and his being and noe one leafe of any tree can so much as wagg but by his will Infallibly this is such a ioy as noe eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor can such an vnspeakeable knowledge as this euer enter into the hart of any man but such a one as enioyes and possesses it You see heere the loue which the Saints haue in heauen speaking according to the poorenes of our vnderstanding And from this aboundant swelling Riuer which delights the Citty of God doth flow that loue which the soules in heauen beare to their neighbours For as all the desire and ioy of the Saints consisteth in their seeing God who is their true loue full of honour and glory from hence they grow to loue with a most feruent loue and to desire with an excesse of appetite that all the Saints may be as full of glory and beauty as they alsoe are And they ioy in this to a strange proportion because he is honoured and glorified in them whose honour and glory they onely seeke And in reguard that this is the cause why they loue the Saints from hence it growes that they ioy more and doe more desire the glory and beauty of the greatest Saints then of their very selues because they see that our Blessed Lord is more glorified in those others then in them And by this tyme you may perceiue how fart this holy cōpany is from selfe-loue from enuy which springs from that roote But you will tell me perhapps that it followes from hence that they
glorify our most blessed Lord. And in this manner if you will you may encline your hart to the commaundments with respect to the retribution as the Prophet Dauid said Psal 118. But perhaps you will aske Who is he that can haue his soule awake to goe euer cheerfull and in delight reioycing still in her God since many tymes shee is soe tepid and soe sad that by noe meanes she is capable of any ioye what remedy may then be thought of that we may not faile of this perfect and supreme loue For this it was that I told you that you were to carry with you a desire whereby you must wish that our Lord might still be what he is in himselfe because Charâ—tie consists in this desire Which desire a soule may haue though it be neuer so tepid dry and sad as a man may desire that his father may liue happily though himselfe feele noe ioy And herein I onely take for graunted that we must suppose man to haue the grace of God which our Lord will neuer deny to one who striues to walke by this way I meane that although your selfe be sadd you must desire that our Lord may be what he is And as for the delight and ioy in our Lord which vses to follow heerevpon this indeede is a fruite of the holy Ghost Gal. 5. which growes from this charitie when our Lord is pleased to communicate himselfe more familiarly to a soule When his Maiestie bestowes this fauour let vs blesse him for it and when he doth not lett vs yet perseuer in that other exercice of euer blessing and adoring him who is so worthy of infinite glory and praise For it is a very great errour into which they fall who thinke that when there is noe sensible ioy that act of the will is worth nothing whereas Charitie doth yet consist in that act And for as much as the deuill knowes this well he is euer procuring to giue vs great tepidity and drynes that soe we thinking that we loose our tyme may giue ouer this holy exercise You must therefore perseuer in it and grow deafe to those temptations of the deuill For if you perseuer not you will not arriue to enioye that crowne and heauen which such as are proficient in this holy loue grow to obtaine euen heere on earth You must consider and looke with a hundred thowsand eyes that the end and scope of your loue bee to glorifie our Lord in whatsoeuer you doe For soe great was the wrench which our nature tooke by the sinne of our â—â—st father in wholly procuring our owne â—â—terest and good that if you stand not well â—wake in the watch-tower you will finde â—any tymes that you doe but seeke your â—â—lfe euen in this very deuotion hich preâ—ends wholly to cast out selfe-loue And you â—hall take your selfe in the manner with reâ—oycing that you loue our Lord after this sort â—ecause you shall acquire great rewards in â—eauen thereby and because your soule â—eceiues much consolation and for other â—easons of proper interest which though â—hey be not ill yet are they acts of Charity which is imperfect You see heere in short the Loue of God which you are to carry in your soule a Copie of that Originall which the Blessed Spiritts haue in heauen It now remaines that I declare to you the loue of your neighbour which growes out of this other profound Loue. The loue my good sister which you must carry to your neighbour must bee by desiring and louing all that good which you see in him because thereby our Lord God is glorified and adored And the more that is the greater must your ioy be as on the other side any offence or sinne which you shall discouer in your neighbour must be abhorred by your soule because he is offended whose honour and glory you desire And soe as I tould you that the loue of God consisted in our applause and will that our Lord should be the very thing which he is and that the ioye which is taken thereby is a particular guift of our Lord soe also doth the loue of your neighbour consist in the application of your will to desire the good of your neighbour which is to reioyce in his true good and to feele much griefe for the sinne which he committs This is a very particular fauour of our Lord which he bestowes vpon whome he will So that if you haue obserued the matter well you will haue seene that the marke at which both the loue of God and of our neighbour shootes is that God may be glorified and adored And heereby you will also perceiue how short he falls of true loue who greiues to see his neighbour growne vp apace in deuotion and vertue considering that himselfe is not so growne vp For though it be true that the true louer of our Lord will not faile to carry a knife about him which peirces him through at the very hart because he serues not our Lord so well as hee ought and might yet followes it not from hence that by seeing another seruant of God thriue faster in spirit then himselfe he must therefore be sorry for it or dismayed by it But rather the ease and comfort which is to serue you for a remedy against that much greife which your soule receiues because your selfe doe not serue our Lord soe well as you should must be to consider that though you through your weakenes doe not â—hat to which you are obliged yet there are others who comply with that very thing which you desire which is greatly to glorifie â—nd serue our Lord. But as for that other kinde of dismay to which some are subiect I conceiue that it growes but from selfe-loue for it is certaine that if the end why a true louer of our Lord desires much to serue him be that his God may be honoured and glorified who is glorified as well by the sanctity which is in the soule of another as if it were in his owne it followes that he is to haue much ioy to see that others goe increasing in the seruice of our lord though it be true on the other side that he may be in paine because he serues him not soe well You see heere my good sister what that is to which you must attend in this paradise of the millitant Church where our Lord placed you when he called you to his loue and to his grace if you will also goe on to enioye the fruite which is gathered from his hand in the triumphant Church of his glory In which I beseech our Lord that wee all may glorify him and praise him and enioye him for all eternitie Amen A letter of the Authour to a certaine poore man who was called Iohn of God He was of Granada and begged almes for the poore He animates him to the loue and seruice of poore people but yet soe as that he must not forgett his owne particular deuotions I Haue receiued
them by any meanes Be not faint in labouring for the loue of our lord since true loue knowes not what it is to be remisse as you are to be compassionate pious to wards your beloued soe are you to be seuere and nothing delicate towards your selfe Your ladyship shall doe well to call to minde what heroicall acts the loue of Christ our lord hath wrought in this world in those harts where it hath dwelt It hath made them endure prisons torments dishonours and that with much ioy whilest the great worth of the beloued hath beene placed before the eyes of the louer And since it hath wrought soe great effects in others let it not be soe weake in your ladyshipp as that it cannot enable you to passe through a little affliction for the pleasing of soe high a Lord by whome you shall be soe much the better accepted as you shall come to him with more affliction Yet soe as that our Lord is not desirous of our paine but onely of our loue but yet it is still true withall that the truth of loue is hardly knowne but in somewhat which puts vs to paine Eccl. 6. For the freind who stands fast in tyme of tribulation he is the true freind indeede And though God doe well know what wee are without making any particular experiment yet he loues to trye vs that wee may know it too that soe wee may haue comfort in finding our selues faithfull to him in point of loue and soe may liue in hope that wee shall goe to enioye our beloued for Patience breedes Hope Rom. as S. Paule saith So that this must be your method till you haue perfect health that when you are free from your vomitts paines you may exercice your minde in spirituall things and at those tymes you must alsoe beseech our Lord to giue you light to know when it is the flattery of flesh and blood and when it is Iust necessitie which hinders you For he who vses the knowledge well which he hath shall obtaine light for that which he knowes not But as for others with what face can they aske new light since it may be answeared them thus why desirest thou to know further what my will and pleasure is since in that which thou knowest already thou complyest not And when you are in any ease though it bee not much let your mind alsoe bee in some exercise of spirituall things though it be not much nor with much attention but onely recording your desires and presenting your selfe before our Lord. And by this and withall by not letting your hart sincke for euen the very life of the soule consists in that your ladyship shall passe on vntill that God prouide otherwise The woman of Samaria asked where she was to pray Iohn 4. and our Lord answeared her that it was euery where to be done and that in spiritt And soe is the christian to doe who in all his workes is to pray to our Lord not in the mountaine or in the temple alone but in eating drinking and sleeping in health and in sicknes referring all to God and ioying in all things because he receiues them from that holy hand Your ladyship is to haue great care that you straighten not the goodnes of God since he is immense Doe not thinke that you are to seeke him and to finde him but onely in such an expresse place or determinate worke He is euery where and you are with him and if you seeke him euery where Sap. 7. you shall euery where be sure to finde him I reioyced saith the wise man in all things because this wisedome went before mee And soe doth hee alsoe reioyce whoe in all things behoulds God performing that which he commaunds and euer keeping the hart in attention towards him and from the contrary flowes sadnes and disgust and deiection of minde which is a thing to be auoyded Eccl. 30. with much diligence For as it is written There is no profitt in such sadnes Nay it brings much hurt both to our body to our soule and to our neighbour Whereas ioy and comfort giue strength and perseuerance makes our spirituall enemies grow sadd it cherishes the spirit of God which dwells in such as are his seruants For his spiritt in cheerefull Besides this your ladyship shall doe well to receiue the Body of our Lord now and then And since the lodging which he takes vp is in the hart you are not to be in paine for that your body is noe better And though there may be some impediment why wee cannot labour yet there can be none why wee may not loue So much the more must wee loue our Lord because hee is both omnipotent and very desirous to giue strength to that hart which seekes to loue him for this tends to the accomplishment of that very thing which he likes best of all others both in heauen and earth and that is Loue. Wherewith I desire that your ladyship may soe abound on earth that you may deserue to be lodged neerè our Lord in heauen Amen A Letter of the Author to a Lady whome he had greately in charge and who feared her selfe to be troublesome to him He takes all feare from her and animates her to perseuer in the way of vertue which she had begun and adnises her to the seruice of her neighbours as a good meanes whereby she might obtaine the guift of Contemplation IF you knew how great ioy I haue felt in my soule by your letters I beleeue you would write often to mee how carefull soeuer the deuill might be to discourage you And if you knew how great fauour you doe mee in letting me see that you are c̄ofident of my truth to you and if withall you would be pleased to make tryall of mee I beleeue you would cast away a great number of those imaginations which the deuill brings to you about the making you thinke that you are troublesome to mee I for my part haue not taken vpon me so in iest that charge of you which our lord hath put into my hands as that any difficulty could make me weary of it how great soeuer it might bee and how much lesse can I bee weary when the thing it selfe is not painefull to mee but delightfull I beseech you for the loue of our lord that you will aske him whether I loue you or noe For I hope for soe much fauour at his hands as that he will tell you I doe forasmuch as he is a freind of truth and hee knowes that the thing indeede is soe Doe you not already vnderstád that this is but a tricke of the deuill vnderstád that this is but a tricke of the deuill whereby he would pull downe weake persons Doe you not know how much hurt this conceite doth to some of your neighbours when they beleiue it you know well enough how to chide them who will not conceiue that they are beloued by their freinds
fine your lord O blessed tyme wherein is represented to vs the coming of God in flesh to dwell amongst vs Luke 1. to illuminate our darkenes and to addresse our feete in the way of peace and to adopt vs for his brethren and to designe vs for the enioying of the same inheritāce with himselfe It is not without cause that you desire his coming and that you prepare your hart for his habitation For this lord was desired long before he came Agge and the Prophet called him The desire of all Nations Psal 9. and indeede hee giues himselfe to none but such as desire him God heares the desire of the poore for his eares are laid close to the sighing of our harts and he cares for nothing els in vs but that To such a hart hee comes and cannot deny himselfe as it is said in the Canticles Cant. 4 Thou hast wounded my hart O thou my sister and my spouse thou hast wounded my hart by the cast of one of thyne eyes and by a haire of thy head Is it possible for any thing to be more tender then that which is wounded by the sight of a single eye Is it possible for any thing to be more weake then that which is tyed fast by one single haire where now are they who say that God is hard to be obteyned that he is rigourous to be delt with and insupportable to be endured Wee must quarrell with our selues since because wee will be looking many seuerall wayes we place not our sight vpon God nor will wee shutt that eye of ours which behouldes creatures that so with all our thought wee may cōsider God alone Hee who shootes in a Crosse bowe shutts one of his eyes that hee may see better with the other how to hitt the white we the while will not shutt vp all that sight of ours which hinders vs from being able to hunte wound our lord with loue Let him recollect and make sure his loue and lett him lodge it in God whosoeuer hath a minde to obtaine God For as God is loue soe is he onely to be hunted and taken with loue and he will haue nothing to doe with them who loue him not And if they say that they know him already as they ought 2. Iohn 4. S. Iohn will tell them that they say not true But our lord who is wounded with an eye is tyed with a haire For that which loue takes the recollected and reflected thought conserues that it may not be lost And to the end that men might be put into confidence that they should be able to arriue to almighty God and that hee hath noe minde to slipp away he makes himselfe one of them and layes himselfe in the armes of a virgin swathed vp hand and foot without power to fly from that man who is disposed to seeke him O celestiall bread which descendest out of the bosome of thy Father and art laid in the publique places of this world inuiting as many as will that they may come to enioye thee and feede vpon thee And whoe is hee whoe can endure to withhould him selfe from goeing to thee and from receiuing thee since thou giuest thy selfe vpon noe harder cōdition then onely that wee be content to hunger after thee For doest thou peraduenture aske more of vs then onely that a soule may sigh for thee and confessing her sinnes may receiue and loue thee Great is the misery of those men who when bread comes to seeke them in their owne howses they choose rather to dye of hunger then to stoope to take it vp O sloath what a deale of mischeife thou doest O blindenes what a deale of benediction doest thou loose O sleepines what a deale of aduantage doest thou steale away since considering the promise that whosoeuer seekes shall finde Mat. 7 21 Mark 11. Luc. 11 Iohn 14. 16 and he who askes shall obtaine and to him who knockes it shall be opened it is cleare that if wee proue not well the fault is ours But what shall things passe still after this manner Though God himselfe is come to cure vs shall wee still continue sicke He being at the gate of our hart crying out and saying Open to mee O thou my freind and my spouse shall we being all wrapt vp in vanities Cant. 4. suffer him to stand calling there and not soe much as open him the gate O my soule come hither and tell mee for I aske thee on the part of God what in fine is that thing which detaines thee from goeing all with all thy forces after God What doest thou loue if thou doe not loue this Spouse of thine Or rather why doest thou not loue him much who did soe mightily loue thee He had noe busines on earth but to attend to the loue of thee and to seeke thy profitt with his owne losse And what hast thou to doe in this world but to exercise thy selfe all in loue of this king of heauen Doest thou not see how all that which heere thou seest must haue an end as also all that which thou hearest which thou touchest which thou tastest and wherewith thou doest converse Doest thou not see that all this is but cobwebs which cannot cloath thee and keepe thee warme Where art thou if thou haue not thy being in Iesus Christ our lord what art thou thinking what account art thou making what doest thou seeke out of that onely one complete God Let vs rowse vp our selues at last breake of this badd sleepe Let vs awake for it is broad day since Iesus Christ our lord who is the light is come Let vs doe the wookes of light since there was tyme wherein wee did the workes of darknes O that the memory of that tyme wherein wee know not God might sèrue vs now for sharp spurrs to make vs runne greedily after him O that we could runne O that wee could fly O that wee might burne and be transformed into him What must a creature doe when he sees his creator made man and all for loue of him alone who euer heard of such a loue as this that one louing another should by loue be converted into that other It is true that God loued vs when hee made vs after his Image but a farre greater worke it was to make himselfe after our image He abases himselfe to vs that hee may exalt vs to him He makes himselfe man that hee may make vs Gods He descēdes from heauen that he may carry vs thither in his cōpany and in fine he dyed that he might giue vs life And now shall it be possible that in the midst of these things I should lye sleeping and without any sense of gratitude for soe great loue O lord illuminate myne eyes that they may not sleepe in such a death as this And thou who hast done vs this great fauour Ps 12. giue vs alsoe a right feeling of it For otherwise the
lord had made in their harts whoe loued him and fills vpp that empty place which was made therein by his departure And now if he were able to comfort and free men from that sorrow which was caused by the absence of Christ our lord himselfe more easily will hee be able to comfort vs in case of the absence of creatures if we be in any paine thereby This is hee who is soe full of care of his orphanes who ouershadowes them with strength from on high and who covers and keepes them warme vnder the mantle of his protection and makes them know that they haue of in heauen whome they may with confidence but without presumption call Father hee repaires that which is ruined he illuminates that which is darke he heates that which is colde he straightens that which is crooked be refreshes that which is ouer wearyed and he is dayly giuing vs new strength which makes vs fly vp toward the mountaine of God Madam it will be reason that such an excellent present as this should put vs into great appetite and that wee sell all the affections of our hart for the purchase of this Iewell which onely is able to make vs happy The newes of it passes before our doores and the noyse sounds in our eares of how he comes downe to men and is glad of a habitation in their hartes Let vs not suffer him to passe by but let vs constraine him to visitt and comfort vs that we may serue him yet more And considering in whose name wee may desire him to stay with vs he will not neede to be much entreated for the Father sends him through Iesus Christ his sonne our Lord. Christ our Lord is he who obtayned the holy ghost for vs. For otherwises what had that most high spirit to doe with coming downe to vs whoe are but soe much flesh which is impure and weake and enclined to all kinde of ill This spiritt exceedes vs incomparably more then the heauens exceede the earth if it were not for that he who is of heauen being engendred by the Father did abase himselfe soe farre as to become man the signification of which word is to be earthly And so God being humaned and tempored with our weakenes did labour and sweate and vpon the cost of his life did obtaine for vs that this spiritt which created the heauens should abase it selfe soe farre as to dwell in those potts of clay Let vs giue thankes to Iesus Christ our Lord and lett vs gather the fruite of his labours And since the holy ghost comes downe willingly to dwell with vs in contemplation of the meritts of Christ our lord let vs not be soe vngratefull for either of these two great fauours as thereby to loose them both The most high will abase himselfe to these meane persons that he may bee their Father and their guide and how then can wee be such woefull sotts as to say Noe to him Let vs goe forth to receiue him with loue whoe comes with loue and lett vs doe it with great desire for where he is desired he is well content to stay Lett vs be like him whoe said say 26 My soule hath desired thee by night and in spiritt and with the very bowells of my sowle I watch towards thee in the morning By night he desires to enioy thy holy Spiritt who findes himselfe to be afflicted and places not his confidence in his owne arme but sends out sighes to this spirit as to the comforter of the sorrowfull and the easer of all such as are in paine And in the morning hee will bee content to watch whoe makes it not one of his last cares how it may be fitt for him to furnish vp that inward howse but the cheefe of them all is to consider how he may be able to obtaine this fauour of our Lord. And being thus desired and inuoked infallibly he will come for soe did Christ our lord himselfe who was called the Desired of all the nations Aggae 2. and he loues all such as desire to possesse him Let vs call vpon this holy Spirit with the speach both of our tongues and of our soules but we must be sure that the howse be not ill furnished and soe without prouision that after hee shall be inuited and satt downe at table we may haue nothing for him to eate Let vs mortify our flesh for that is the foode whereon hee feedes and which he likes soe well For as for the flesh which liues he flyes from it as farre as he can and it stinckes worse to him then a dead dog would to vs. Let vs mortifye our owne opinion and iudgment that soe we may be ruled by his for two heades will neuer gouerne a house well if that which knowes least be not swayed by that which knowes most And let vs renounce all our selfe conceipts for these are the Capitall enemyes of this heauenly spirit which teaches vs to say Matth. 26. Not my will but thy will be done Let vs be diligent to cleanse our conscience by penance and confession from all impurity and euery graine of dust how little soeuer it may bee For this guest is most pure and cleane and it is not fitt to lodge him in such a howse as may disgust him Let vs keepe peace both at home and abroad for euen vnquiet and wrangling folkes are wont to dissemble their little brawles for the honour of some principall guest Hauing lodged him in our howse let vs giue him good attendance since he hath made it a pallace For he is a mighty king and it is against all reason that hauing him with vs at home we should be gadding abroad to see vanities Let vs then shutt vp the doores and cast our selues prostrate at his feete and let vs tell him with truth that there is nothing which shall draw vs from him and that we haue giuen this answeare to all the world that it must leaue vs and him alone together And soe lett vs enioye him for he is able to make vs happy and so as that nothing can depriue vs thereof If you carry the busines thus you shall be comforted in all that wherein yet you haue discomfort and you shall drinke of the Riuer of the delights of God till euen you be inebriated thereby And I shall alsoe be comforted when I shall see you in the hands of him whoe knowes soe well how to keepe you and instruct you and eternally to saue you It is he whome I beseech to be your succour A letter of the Authour to a certaine Preist Hee shewes how he may prepare himselfe and what considerations are most profitable when he goes to celebrate at the Altar REuerend Father I beseech our Lord that the delay which I haue vsed in making my answeare may be recompēced with being true and profitable to you for your demaunde is of great importance and soe would the answeare alsoe bee if it were such
what confusion doth he grow to haue How straightly will he hould himselfe to be obliged for such a benefit what caution will he vse that he may keepe him selfe wholly for him whoe hath done him soe much honour as to put himselfe into his hands and to come to them by them wordes of Consecration Sir these things are noe bare wordes nor noe dead considerations but they be arrowes shutt stiffly out from the strong bowe of Almighty God which wound and wholly chaunge the hart and which make it desire that at the end of Masse it may at lardge consider that worde of our Lord Scitis quid fecerim vobis John 13. Doe you know what I haue done to you Deare lord that a man could conceiue quid fecerit nobis Dominus What our Lord had done for vs in that houre That a man might tast him with the palate of his soule O that a man had true weights where with he might weigh out this great benefitt How happy should he be euen in this world and how after the end of Masse would he loath euen the sight of creatures and would esteeme it to be a torment that he must treate with them And his ioy and life would consist in pondering Quid fecerit ei dominus what our lord had done for him till the next day that he should retourne to say Masse And if our Lord doe at any tyme giue you this light you will know what sorrow and shame you ought to carry in your hart when you approach to the Altar without the same For he whoe neuer enioyed it doth not know what a misery it is to want it You may add to this Consideration of the person whoe comes to the Altar the reason why he comes and you will there see a resemblance of the loue of the Incarnation of our Lord and of his holy Natiuity and of his life and death renewing that which passed heeretofore vpon his sacred person And if you shall enter into the most inward corner of the hart of our Lord and if hee vouchsafe to teach you that the cause of his coming is a violent and impatient kinde of loue which permitts not him whoe loues to be absent from the party beloued your soule will euen faint vnder such a consideration as that A man is indeede moued much by pondering after this manner Heere I haue Almighty God But yet when hee considers that he comes meerely out of the great loue which he beares like one betrothed who cannot liue a day without seeing and conuersing with his Spouse the man I say who feeles this would be glad to haue a thowsand harts wherewith to correspond with such loue and to say with S. Augustine O Lord what am I to thee that thou shouldest commaund mee to loue thee what am I to thee that thou shouldest soe much desire to make mee a visitt and to giue mee an embracement and that being in heauen with them who know soe well how to loue and serue thee thou yet vouchsafest to descend to this creature who knowes very ill how to serue thee but very will how to offend thee Is it possible that thou canst not content thy selfe O lord to be without mee Is it possible that thy loue of mee should draw thee downe Blessed maist thou bee for euer who being what thou art hast yet placed thy loue vpon such a creatures as my selfe And is it possible that thou shouldest come hither in thy royall person and that thou shouldest put thy seife into my hands as if thou wouldest say I dyed for thee once already and I come to thee now is lett thee know that I repent not my selfe thereof but if it were needefull I would dye for thee yet a second tyme. What launce could remaine in the rest after such a deare expression of loue as this Who O lord will euer be able to hide himselfe from the heate of thy hart which warmes ours with thy presence the sparkes fly out to all them who are neere it as out of some mighty furnace And as such a lord as this my good Father doth the God of the heauens come to our hands and we being such wretches as wee are doe yet conuerse with him and receiue him Let vs now conclude this good subiect which is soe sitt to be felt and put in execution And let vs beseech this lord of ours who hath already done vs one fauour that now he will doe vs another forasmuch as his blessings vnlesse we valew them and thanke him and serue him for them will not be of profitt to vs. Or rather as S. Bernard saith The vngratefull man by how much the better hee is by soe much hee is the worse Let vs consider well how wee liue throughout the whole day least els our lord punish vs in that tyme when we are at the Altar And throughout the whole day let vs carry this thought in our harts I haue receiued our Lord. At his table I sitt and to morrow I shall be with him againe By this meaneâ— wee shall be able to avoyd all ill and wee shall take hart towards the practise of all good For that which is done from the Altar our lord is wont to rewarde at the Altar To conclude I say you must remember how our lord complained of Simon the Pharisee for that Luc. 7 entring into his house hee gaue him noe water for his feete nor any kisse to his cheeke To the end we may know that he desires that in the howse where he enters we should giue him teares layd at his feete for our sinnes and loue which makes vs salute him with the kisse of peace I beseech our lord to bestow this peace on you both with your selfe and with your neighbours and soe as that it may spring from perfect loue which I desire may torment you heere for the offences which your selfe and others committ against our Lord. And in heauen I desire that he should make you enioye it esteeming the good of God for your owne and more then your owne because you loue him more then your selfe For his loue I begg of you that if in this letter there be either litle or much which needes amendement it may not want your helpe and if there be any thing good in it giue the thankes for that to our Lord and remember mee when you shall be at the Altar A letter of the Authour to some deare freindes of his who were afflicted by a persecution which was raysed against them he animates them much to a loue of the Crosse and the imitation of Christ our Lord whereof hee speakes with great tendernes BLessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Cor 1. the father of mercyes and the God of all consolation whoe comfortes vs in all our tribulation in such sort as that wee alsoe are enabled to comfort them who are in any kinde of affliction And this we doe in vertue
to vs. Be sure therefore that you serue this lord with all the force you haue And if hitherto you haue done soe giue him thankes for it and if you haue failed thereof see you retourne to him with shame and firme purpose of amendment Comfort your self also with the holy Sacraments of the Church they beeing the remedies which he hath left And put your selfe into a new way and now at last learne to trip noe more vpon that at which you stumbled most before Soe that you may be of their number of whome S. Paul saith that all thinges cooperate to â—e good of them who loue God For howsoeuer they may fall Rom. 8. they are not bruysed to death because our lord conueyes his hand vnder them to receiue them In the middest of these thinges I beseech you call my miseries to mind that you may obtaine mercy for me of our lord And deliuer my salutations to all those persons in your house who serue our lord I beseech him to be your aeternall loue Amen A Letter of the Author to a freind of his whome God had called to lead a spirituall life by meanes of his preaching TO those many obligations into which you put me by your letters I answeare late and ill And though I be confounded therewith yet I hope Christ our lord hath giuen you some little crumme of Charity Now the first condition thereof is by the testimony of him who had store of it 2 Cor 1. and who knew it well Quia patiens est That it is patient I beseech that immense fountaine of Charity to encrease it in you till you be enabled thereby euen to lay downe your life for your enemyes as Christ our lord layd downe his for vs. You complayne of drynesse in deuotion though yet I conceiue you speake it not by way of complaynt but onely as relating to one who loues you the disposition wherein you finde your soule And I say that so longe as this drynes reaches not to weaken your desire or vertue it is noe such thing as ought to putt you to much payne For that which is questioned thereby is but the losse of a certaine sweetenes in the things of God though yet this is wont to be a spurre to make such men quitt themselues and to fly faster on towards our Lord who knowe how to make right vse thereof And because I desire all good to you whether it be in much or little I wish that you were endewed with a Loue of God which were both strong and wise and sweete also since a loue with all these qualities is due to him to whome wee owe our loue But yet if he impart that loue alone which is strong and wise it will be because he intends to doe vs other secret fauours by meanes which are vnknowen to vs and to vnty vs from our selues and to exercise our vertue whereof there will bee great neede for a man whoe treates with him who is infinitly wise and doth extreamely like that noe man should be so in his owne eyes Your care must therefore bee to follow on according to that strength which our Lord giues yow for his grace will not faile And yow must giue him thankes both for that which yow vnderstand and for that also which you vnderstand not and in this doth your safety consist And as you grow elder and to haue more experience of the very little which any man is able to doe towardes the contriuing of things how small soeuer they may bee you will be confirmed more and more in the good custome which you beginne to take to hould your peace And you will perceiue that a busines will then be well dispatched when wee speake at lardge with God and but a little with men This ignorancy of ours is an vnspeakeable kinde of thing and soe is our setting our selues out and our ignorant kinde of zeale to doe good And wee haue much and much a doe to beleiue it till wee haue bought this knowledge vpon the price of many errours which wee shall haue committed For wee inherit from our first parents a certaine fly and secrett desire of a kinde of diuinity Cen. 3. which cannot be sought without theft This makes vs imitate our first fathers therein and to denie that things may be done how and when wee list with certaine other deepe and most secret rootes of pride which are neuer to bee discouered without light from heauen and this cannot be obtayned without much Prayer As for the particular of those soules which you desire to reduce I tell you as I did before that you must cordially recommend the busines to our Lord and hope well that you shall haue good successe And be you not troubled or afflicted since you know that you haue a father in heauen who calls you towards him and he will be your guide in the way Spend your tyme at the present the best you can and as for the future doe not vexe your selfe but make account that nothing but your owne negligence cann take God from you Fight therefore against this negligence if you ouercome it you will finde by experience that the Exchaunge or Burse is a very Celâ— to you and that busines is but as a Riuer which may serue to wash you cleane The way wherein God hath placed you requires that more diligence bee vsed then that which your letter sayth you vse concerning the constancy of your deuotions And if I were with you I could tell you of straunge things which haue happened to men who had beene slacke in performing their good exercises Whereby you might perceiue that our Lord esteemes it not as any small infirmity for a man to be a Lunaticke sometymes doeing his duty and sometymes not A cleare signe it is of a soule in subiection to selfewill to doe a thing when the humour serues and afterward vpon mere humour to lett it alone And forasmuch as such men want the abnegation of themselues they are in fault both when they cease from doeing any thing and soe are they alsoe when they doe it because they liue butt in themselues And the punishment which our Lord inflictes vpon these men is that hee is not liberall of himselfe to them when they desire it because they are not liberall of themselues to him when he requires it Wee must therefore be sure to aske pardon for the little constancy which wee haue vsed in the seruice of our Lord and to reforme our selues with an entire resignation into his hands concerning the successe of our endeauours whether they be more or lesse Take courage once to loose your selfe for the loue of our Lord obeyng that which he commaunds and neuer looke vpon what is to follow vpon it For whether it be drynes or deuotion it cannot faile to be a fauour since it is sure to be the pleasure of our Lord. And by how much the more you shall be able to liue towards the
from his hand and this signe is that you haue suffered tribulation You must not be a little gladd of this since our Lord loues you Nor yet must you be slacke since you are in the middest of many dangers but carry your eye towards him who hath called you with so great loue You must alsoe haue a stronge harte For he called you not with intention to giue you ouer in the middest of your iourney but to guide you vnder the protection of his owne wings till he may haue conducted you to heauen where you shall see his face Let not the faith of Christ our Lord nor the loue you owe him sleepe in you for he neuer sleepes when there is question of doeing you any good These are tokens which he vses to send to whome he loues to try if they alsoe loue him in their afflictions and if they confide in him in their dangers That Spouse is not worthy of thaÌ„kes who loues her fellow spouse but onely when he is present with her not doth it cost him much to confide in him when she findes her selfe regaled by him But the matter is that when he absents himselfe from her yea and when he seemes to haue forgotten her she must loue him soe much the better as he is further absent from her and confide in him soe much the more as she hath fewer exteriour signes of his fauour It is enough for you my good sister to haue knowne already by experience how louing our Lord hath beene to you by his hauing drawne you to the knowledge of himself And be you not crauing new testimonies of his Loue but making your selfe sure enough thereof and be not troubled though he correct you and though it seeme as if he estraunged himselfe from you and forgott you but rather say thus Hee hath a minde to trye me and not to oppresse mee You must loue our Lord though he correct you you must coÌ„fide in him though you feele noe comfort from him Seeke him though he hide himselfe suffer him not to rest till you haue waked him and till he confesse that you are faithfull in his absence And thus you shall finde him returne to you with soe much aduantage as that when you enioye his presence againe you will esteeme your former afflictions well imployed Procure greate courage wherewith to suffer for after the rate of your sorrows shall your comforts be Bee not a louer of your selse but be a louer of God loose yourselfe and soe you shall be sure to finde your selfe And if once you would but trust God home and if once you would offer your selfe to him with true loue there could nothing happen which would fright you All bitter frosen afflictions proceede but from distrust in God And for this our Lord said Let not your harts be troubled and doe not feare You beleiue in God beleiue alsoe in mee Soe that faith and loue is the cause of peace Iohn 14 and quietnes to the hart There is noe one thinge which is soe necessary for you towards the making you able to arriue at the end of that dayes worke wherein God hath placed you as to confide in him with loue Our lord hath many proofes to make of you and many tribulations shall growe where you looke least for them but if you stand armed with faith and loue you shall ouercome them all Doe but remember how the children of Israell Num. 1 when they were issued out of the land of Egypt by the meanes of soe many miracles and were passing through soe many afflictions before they arriued at that land which our lord had promised them said thus The people which possesse this land is greater and stronger then wee they haue mightie Citties whose walis doe euen threaten the skye we cannot ouercome such a stout nation as this to what end doe wee put our selues vpon this iourney And though some amongst them whoe had faith did encourage the rest by saying that since God was of their side they should easily be able to ouercome as they had done till then yet feare preuailed soe farre as that they offended our lord thereby and through their little considence they lost the land and God destroyed them in the desert without suffering them to enioye that for which they had laboured and which himselfe had promised Let vs take warning my good sister by the danger of others and lett vs know that our lord hath gust Psal 147. in such as feare him and hope in his mercie and is offended with such as doe not soe It is he whoe drewe you out of the captiuity of Egypt when he inspired your hart with a desire of being his and hee leades you still through this desert which is soe impleasant where sometymes you want the bread of doctrine for lacke of such as might breake it to you other tymes you want company which may speake of spirituall things that soe your way might be made to seeme the shorter At other tymes you want the trees of other recreation which might giue you shade and in steede of these coÌ„modities you haue a thousand discomforts Now temptations rise against you from within and then from without now from strangers and then from domesticks But yet attend you onely to your busines for he who did that for you which was more can neuer faile to doe that for you which is lesse He who made you a freind of an enemy will better keepe you now when you are his freind He who did not abandon you when you fled from him will much lesse fly now from you when you follow him Who is he that can say with any truth that God did not helpe him if he were desired See you haue noe feare o you seruant of Christ in any thing which may happen to you but confide in him who Loued you soe well as to dye for you It is true that you haue but one who protects you but that one is of much more power then all they whoe contradict you Doe not thinke of how great the giants and how stronge the Citties are which you must encounter for it is not you who must fight Numb 14. But hold you your peace and our lord will fight for you Doe not fly from the warre nor abandon your selfe as one who were ouercome and soe you shall see the fauour of our Lord â—â—wards you For in this warre he onely looses the battaille Exod. 14. who quitts the feild It is true that you are weake but in that weakenes of yours God will shew his strength It is true that you know not much but God himselfe will be your guide By your miseries God will make his mercies appeare Whoe are you that you should be able to passe through such difficulties but yet say with Daâ—id Pâ—â— 17. In the strength of my God I will leape ouer a wall Who are you that you should be able to fight but yet say with him
againe Though thousands should rise against me yâ—t my hart shall not feare Beleiue my good sister Ps 26. that how much the harder this businesse is for you soe much the easyer is it for Almighty God And therefore you must haue great distrust in respect of your owne weakenes but great confidence withall in God's strength Infallibly he will crowne you if you continue in his loue and if you confide that by his grace you shall obtaine that Crowne Forget not this promise of Christ our lord him whoe confesses mee before men Man 10. that man will I confesse before my father who is in heauen but him who denyes mee before men that man will I alsoe deny before my father whoe is in heauen Can you thinke that one is to esteeme that for affliction which he endures for the confession of Christ our lord since it is to haue soe high a reward as that with soe much honour he shall be avowed by him at the day of iudgment before his father Happy is that sufferaÌ„ce happy that dishonour and pouerty to which soe high an honour doth succeede What kinde of ioye will it be for you O my goost sister to heare these wordes from the mouth of Christ our lord himselfe and that in presence of the whole world Matth 25. Come you blessed of my father and possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you What will it bee when the angells shall thus singe to her who hath beene a faithfull seruant of that celestiall king Come O spouse of Christ receiue thâ— crowne which our Lord hath prepared for thee and that not for one day but for all eternitie What will the spouses of Christ our Lord conceiue when hauing passed through the sea of this life and their enemies who disturbed vs remayning drowned therein they shall singe thus with great ioye for hauing runne through this dangerous world without being ouerwhelmed by the vices thereof Psal 123. The suare is broken and we are deliuered our helpe is in the name of our lord What a day will that be when that true Mary the virgin of virgins shall goe before with her Timbrell which is her sacred body praysing God both in body and soule and singing thus Psa 31. Come magnisye our Lord wish mee and lett vs exalt his name in mutuall sacietie with one another Happy are you if you be found faithfull to the Spouse whoe chose you Happy are you if you haue the courage to cast away that which is present vnder the most certaine promise of Christ our Lord for that which is future Be confident my good sister in taking his word for you are not the first to whome he hath passed it and fulfilled it neither shall you be she with whome that word shall want effect He gaue his word to S. Katherine S. Agnes S. Barbara and S. Lucy and to innumerable other Lady virgins and tell me now how completely he hath performed it They had the courage to despise the poore present world and you see that now they raigne with God They liued heere in trouble and they are nowe in the eternitie of repose Through how many combatts did they passe and they now enioye the euerlasting crownes of their conquests They fled from spouses of the earth and they brought the king of heauen to be in loue with them If they had followed the trace of this world their delight had bene already passed and their memories would haue bene forgotten But they loued that which was eternall and therefore their felicitie shall not dye and their memory shall not decay They were written in the booke of God and therefore neither water nor winde nor fyre nor tyme can make them waste For that booke is incorruptible and soe in the name which is written in it You must therefore procure to haue a stronge heart towards God who is your saluation and doe not thinke that he sells heauen deere to you for you haue not yet shed your bloud for him as those others shed theirs Our lord treates you like a weake creature and you should be ashamed to haue giuen him such cause If you had had more faith and confidence in him and more loue to suffer for him he would haue procured you more afflictions to the end that you might haue purchased richer Crownes Doe not content your selfe with suffering little considering how great your rewards all bee and how much Christ our Lord suffered for you He gaue his life for you and he was deepely tormented and despised How then come you thus to complaine of the touch of a flye doe but loue and you will desire to suffer Let your loue be doubled and you will suffer sorrowes which are doubled The loue of our lord makes such as possesse it more greedy of suffering then the loue of ones selfe of reposing It makes that any burden weighes light for loue is stronger then death He who loues not groanes vnder the burden like some lasy beast but he who loues runnes and flyes and it suffers him not to feele the weight euen of his owne body nor of whatsoeuer els they can lay vpon it It is not my good sister that the afflictions which wee suffer are greater but that our loue is little The weight of a pound is noe great weight but yet lay it vpon some little childe and he will say O how heauy it weighes Whereas if a man tooke it vp he would scarce feele it And soe take you it for a signe that if you loue little your afflictions will weigh heauy vpon you but if you loue much you will scarce allowe them to be afflictions For you will be soe inebriated with loue that nothing can be able to distract you from the taste thereof You will finde a good sauour in the very suffering it selfe and you will draw water Num. 20. out of the rocke and hony out of the stony hills Doe but loue and you shall not be subiect to afflictions but you shall be Superiour to them as their Lady and you shall praise him who deliuers you from them If they threaten you with death you will bid it welcome that soe you may enioy true life If with banishment you will say That you esteeme your selfe banished wheresoeuer you are till you may arriue to see the face of God And that it imports you little whether you goe to heauen from this or that part of the earth And that if you haue God in your company wheresoeuer you are you shall be happy and if not your owne country will giue you misery enough If you see your selfe contemned say Christ our Lord is my honour and he honours mee let the world despise mee soe hee value mee Doe not afflict your selfe about the necessitie which you may sustaine of present things for of your felfe you must despise them through the desire which you haue to â—liue in conformitie with Christ our Lord whoe made himselfe a
I beare to my creatures I couer it for whome nothing is so good as not to know any thing which concernes themselues but to remitt themselues wholy to me In that ignorance doth their knowledge consist in that suspence their strength and in that subiection their dominion And it ought to suffise a soule that it lyes in no other hands but mine which are also hers since for her they were nayled vpon the Crosse Yea they are more hers then mine since they laboured more for the purchase of her good then of mine owne And to the ende that I may draw her out of all self conceipt and make her follow my direction it is I who conduct her into this darkenesse that so she may know nothing of herself But yet still if she putt her confidence in me and departe not from my seruice I will deliuer her and I will glorifye her and all this will I performe to her Be faithfull to death Psal 90. and I will giue thee the Crowne of life This sayth our Lord to all faithfull soules and this he sayth to yours which I pray God to keepe Amen A Letter to a Lady who was a Religious woman and in great affliction He shewes how troubles are the proofe of Faith and Loue in the seruants of God and how confident they ought to be of his Diuine Maiesly in the middest of their troubles AS soone as I receiued your letter I offered thanks to our lord for hauing giuen you a signe that your vocation came from his hand and this signe is that you haue suffered tribulation You must not be a little glad of this since our Lord loues you Nor yet must you be slack since you are in the midst of many dangers butt carry your eye towardes him whoe hath called you with soe great loue You must alsoe haue a strong hart For he called you not with intention to giue you ouer in the midst of your iourney but to guide you vnder the protection of his owne wings till he may haue conducted you to heauen where you shall see his face Let not the Faith of Christ our Lord nor the loue you owe him sleepe in you for he neuer sleepes when there is question of doeing you anie good These are tokens which he vses to sende to whome he loues to trye if they also loue him in their afflictions and if they confide in him in their dangers That spouse is not worthy of thankes who loues her fellow-spouse but onely when he is present with her nor doth it cost her much to confide in him when she findes herselfe regaled by him But the matter is that when he absentes himself from her yea and when he seemes to haue forgotten her she must loue him so much the better as he is further absent from her and confide in him so much the more as she hath fewer exteriour signes of his fauour It is enough for you my good sister to haue knowen alreadie by experience how louing our lord hath beene to you by his hauing drawen you to the knowledge of himself And be you not crauing new testimonies of his loue but make yourself sure enough thereof and be not troubled although he correct you and though it seeme as if he estranged himself from you and forgott you but rather say thus He hath a minde to trye me and not to oppresse me You must loue our lord though he correct you you must confide in him though you feele no comfort from him Seeke him though he hide himself suffer him not to rest till you haue waked him and till he confesse that you are faithfull in his absence and thus you shall finde him to returne to you with so much aduantage as that when you enioy his presence againe you will esteeme your former afflictions well employed Procure great courage wherewith to suffer for after the rate of your sorrowes shall your comforts be Be not a louer of yourself but be a louer of God loose yourself and soe you shall bee sure to finde yourself And if once yow would bud trust God home and if once you would offer yourselfe to him with true loue there could nothing happen which would fright you All bitter frozen afflictions proceede but from distrust in God And for this our lord sayde Let not your harts bee troubled and doe not â—eare You beleiue in God beleiue also in me So that Faith and loue is the cause of peace and quietnesse to the hart There is no one thing which is so necessarie for you towards the making you able to arriue at the ende of that dayes worke wherein God hath placed you as to confide in him with loue Our lord hath manie proofes to make of you and manie tribulations shall growe where you looke least for them but if you stand armed with Faith and loue you shall ouercome them all Num 13. Doe but remember how the children of Israel when they were issued out of the land of Egypt by meanes of so manie miracles and were passing through so manie afflictions before they arriued at that land which our lord had promised them sayd thus The people which possesse this land is greater and stronger then we they haue mightie Citties whose walles doe euen threaten the skye we cannot ouercome such a stoute nation as this to what ende doe we putt ourselues vpon this iournie And though some amongst them who had Faith did encourage the rest by saing that since God was on their side they should easily be able to euercome as they had done till then yet feare preuailed so farre as that they offended our lord thereby and through their litle confidence they lost the land and God destroyed them in the desert without suffering them to enioy that for which they had laboured and which himself had promised Let vs take warning Psal 147. my good Sister by the danger of others and let vs knowe that our Lord hath gust in such as feare him and hope in his mercie and is offended with such as doe not so It is he who drew you out of the captiuitie of Egypt when hee inspired your hart with a desire of being his and he leades you still through this desert which is so vnpleasant where sometimes you want the bread of doctrine for lacke of such as might breake it to you At other times you want companie which may speake of spirituall things that so your way might bee made to seeme the shorter At other times you doe want the trees of other recreation which might giue you shade and thus in steede of these commodities you haue a thousand discomforts Now temptations rise against you from within and then from without now from strangers and then from domestiques Butt yett attende you onely to your businesse For he who did that for you which was more can neuer fayle to do that for you which is lesse He who made you a friend of an enemie will better
keepe you now when you are his friend He who did not abandon you when you fled from him will much lesse flye now from you when you follow him Who is he that can say with anie truth that God did not helpe him if he were desired See you haue no feare O you seruant of Christ in any thing which may happen to you but confide in him who loued you so well as to dye for you It is true that you haue but one who protects you but that one is of much more power then all they who contradict you Do not thinke of how great the gyants and how strong the citties are which you must encounter Nu. 14. for it is not you who must fight But holde you your peace and our lord will fight for you Do not fly from the warre nor abandon yourself as one who were ouercome and so you shall see the fauour of our lord towards you For in this warre he onely looses the battaile who quitts the field It is true that you are weake but in that weakenesse of yours God will shew his strength It is true that you know not much but God himself will be your guide By your miseries God will make your mercies appeare Whoe are you that you should be able to passe through such difficulties But yet say with Dauid Psa 1◠In the strength of my God I will leape ouer a wall Who are you that should be able to fight but yet say with him againe Psa 26 Though thousands should rise against me yet my hart shall not feare Beleiue my good sister that how much the harder this businesse is for you so much the easier it is for Almightie God And therefore you must haue great distrust in respect of your owne weakenesse but great confidence withall in God's strength Infallibly hee will crowne yow if yow continue in his loue and if you doe confide that by his grace you shall obtaine that crowne Forgett not this promise of Christ our lord Mat. 10 him who confesses me before men that man will I confesse before my Father who is in heauen but him who denyes me before men that men will I also denye before my Father who is in heauen Can you thinke that one is to esteeme that for affliction which he endures for the confession of Christ our lord since it is to haue so high a rewarde as that with so much honour he shall be crowned by him at the day of iudgement before his father Happie is that sufferance happie that dishonour and pouertie to which so high an honour doth succeede What kinde of ioy will it be for you O my good sister to heare these wordes from the mouth of Christ our lord himself and that in presence of the whole world Mat. 15. Come you blessed of my Father and possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you What will it be when the Angells shall thus sing to her who hath beene a faithfull seruant of that Celestiall king Come o Sponse of Christ receiue that crowne which our lord hath prepared for thee and that not for one day but for all eternitie What will the spouses of Christ our lord conceaue when hauing passed through the sea of this life and their enemies who disturbed vs remayning drowned therein they shall sing thus with great ioy for hauing runne through this dangerous world without being ouerwhelmed with the vices thereof Ps 12◠The snare is broken and we are deliuered our helpe is in the name of our lord What a day will that be when that true Marie the virgin of virgins shall goe before with her Timbrell which is her sacred bodie praysing God both in bodie and soule and singing thus Come magnifye our lord with me and lett vs exalte his name in mutuall society with one another Happie are you if you be found faithfull to the spouse who chose you Happie are you if you haue the courage to cast away that which is present vnder the most certaine promise of Christ our lord for that which is future Be confident my good sister in taking his word for you are not the first to whome hee hath passed it and fulfilled it neither shall you be she with whome that word shall want effecte He gaue his word to saynt Catherine saynt Agnes saynt Barbara and saynt Lucie and to inmumerable other ladie virginis and tell me now how completely he hath performed it They had the courage to despise the poore present world and you see that now they raigne with God They liued heere in trouble and they are now in an eternitie of repose Through how manie combats did they passe and they now enioy the euerlasting crownes of their conquests They fled from spouses of the earth and they brought the king of heauen to bee in loue with them If they had followed the trace of this world their delight had beene alreadie past and their memories would haue beene forgotten But they loued that which was eternall and therefore their felicitie shall not dye and their memorie shall not decay They were written in the booke of God and therefore neither water nor winde nor fire nor time can make them waste For that booke is incorruptible and so is the name which is written in it You must therefore procure to haue a strong hart towards God whoe is your saluation and doe not thinke that hee selles heauen deare to you for you haue not yet shed your bloud for him as those others shed theirs Our lord treates you like a weake creature and you should bee a shamed to haue giuen him such cause If you had had more faith and confidence in him and more loue to suffer for him he would haue procured you more afflictions to the ende that you might haue purchased richer Crownes Do not content yourself with suffering litle considering how great your rewarde shall be and how much Christ our Lord suffered for you He gaue his life for you and he was deepely tormented and despised How then come you thus to complaine of the touch of a flye doe but loue and you will desire to suffer Let your loue be doubled and you will suffer sorrowes which are doubled The loue of our Lord makes such as possesse it more greedie of suffering then the loue of ones selfe of reposing It makes that anie burden weighes light for loue is stronger then death He who loues not groanes vnder the burden like some lazie beast but he who loues runnes and flyes and it suffers him not to feele the weight euen of his owne bodie nor of whatsoeuer else they can lay vpon it It is not my good Sister that the afflictiōs which we suffer are great but that our loue is litle The weight of a pound is no great weight but yet lay it vpon some litle childe and he will say O how heauie it weighes whereas if a man tooke it vp he would scarce feele it And so
What a sottish thing is it therefore for a man to thinke that hee whoe affects those things which his owne will suggests is able to runne that carriere wherein the seruants of God must runne and whoe because he contents himselfe thinkes that God will also be contented with it and who liuing after his owne fashion will yet conceiue that he may liue soe with God Away away lett vs awake at last for the loue of God lett vs awake before hell-fire awake vs. And lett vs knowe that the kingdome of God is a hidden treasure and that he who findes it must bestowe all that he hath vpon the purchase thereof esteeming himselfe more happy and rich in this alone then in all things els A man who hath a minde to gaine this kingdome is not bound to become bankrupt or to be a beggar but that which he needes is that for the loue of this kingdome hee cutt of all occasion of inordinate loue which he may carry to riches and to honour and to a delicate and delightfull life and in fine to his owne proper will Christ our lord will haue vs all naked that soe we may runne on apace to him who dyed naked for vs. That man is naked who houlds his life and his honour laid vnder and in subiection to the will of Christ our Lord doeing what Christ will and not that which is suggested by pleasure or honour and who makes as light account of these things as if he had them not and is ready to cast them all into a light fire rather then to goe against the freindship of our Lord God by committing soe much as one sinne And though perhaps a man may attend to the improuement of his estate it must not be for the loue which he carryes to it but because God commaunds it If he liue it must not be because he loues life as making that the end of his care but he must keepe it for the seruice of God and sooner throwe it away then offend him If he be to aparell himselfe he must not take counsaile with vanity how he may be esteemed for his cloathes but with the word of our Lord which commaunds that we vse them not with superfluity but for the supply of iust necessity And soe this kinde of man doth not hould himselfe to be his owne but as one who belongs wholly to God He cares not for what himselfe desires but for that which God commaunds He layes all things and himselfe withall to be trodden vpon vnder foot for soe he may hould God aboue his head God commaunds and hee obeyes God directs and hee submitts and as the shadow followes the body soe hee followes the will of God Theis are true sonnes of Obedience to whome it is promised that they shall sitt at the table of God And that as the true sonne suffered by Obedience and entred soe into his kingdome soe the adopted sonnes must alsoe enter in by the same meanes There is noe coulour of reason why a man for hauing obeyed the orders of the great Turke should goe to aske a reward of the Christian Emperour and yet if hee should it would be easy to make him this answeare Let him pay you whome you haue serued And soe will God answeare them whoe liued heere in obedience to their owne appetites when they shall aske him that reward of glory Great thankes doe we owe to Christ our Lord for hauing warned vs of this soe longe before that soe if we will thinke thereon we may not finde our selues deceiued by him who soe deerely loued vs. His aduertissement is this Not euery one whoe saith to mee Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heauen but he shall enter in who doth the will of my Father who is in heauen What neede haue wee of any more since the word of Christ our Lord can neuer faile And who is that man who will not awake with this For the question is not now concerning any earthly kingdome but the kingdome of heauen since noe man enters thither but he who shall haue done the will of God Let this therefore be our study let this be our discourse let vs counsaile men to this and let vs in fine obserue vigilantly if we doe any thing which carryes not true conformitie with the will of our Lord. And because our owne watchfulnes will not suffice lett vs call vpon our Lord that hee may assist vs. Let vs acknowledge our owne misery and let vs cordyally implore his mercie Our lord who must helpe vs is noe such person as that he can deny himself to such as seeke him with their harts And if we did indeede knock call vpon him infallibly he would anfweare open to vs. And he knocks indeede who knocks both by prayer by the practise of vertue And he shall be heard when he calls who was content to hearken to his neighbour when he was called vpon by him and whoe assisted him in his necessities and who pardoned his errours and who neither did ill to him nor refused patiently to suffer ill from him This is the generation of them who seeke our Lord Psal 13. and they shall finde him Let vs therefore goe and runne this carriere For happy are those labours which are endured for the obteyning of this Crowne And they shall soone passe away but their reward is to last for euer Let vs lay vp our treasure there It will be highly enough for vs to possesse God and let vs not loose our tyme for it was not giuen vs to be lost But let vs liue to the end that we may euer liue and soe wee shall passe on from contumely to glory from pouerty to plenty from banishment to our owne country which we shall possesse through the eternities of all eternities Amen A letter to a certaine person wherein is treated of the Loue of God towards man and of that which hee is wont to doe towards the releife of our miserie THE Infant Iesus whoe was borne for our good make you partaker of the blessings which he brings since he tooke those miseries vpon him to which we were subject I beseech him to giue you that liuely fire of his loue wherein you may burne vp with a quick flame since to kindle this loue in vs he came into the world soe poore and soe frosen with cold How much more cold this Infant suffers soe much more warme doth he cloath our harts towards the loue of him And by how much the more we loue him soe much the more doe we desire to suffer for him For loue flyes from taking ease as from a thing which is very contrary to the intention and end thereof For whilest others are seeking for libertie and delight he whoe loues abhors this and desires to be eternally a slaue and to be euer labouring for whome he loues I pray you tell me who constrayned Almightie God to become man noe other thing but onely Loue Who
will be subiect to some disgust because themselues are not soe growne in sanctity as others are since thereby the glory of God would alsoe haue encreased in them This doth not follow considering that first effect of loue which is the vnion of two wills in one for they are transformed into the will of God and would haue nothing done but that which their lord will and they see that this will is the cause why one hath more glory then another and from hence they grow to be highly content with that which he assignes to them as alsoe because the diuersity of the degrees of glory in the blessed doth more beautify the whole Citty of God then if they were all of one rancke as the musick of a vyall is much the sweeter because it hath diuers strings and distinct soundes then if they were all but any one And since it is soe that because there are different degrees of glory and diuers mansions in the triumphant Church 1. Cor 13. it is of greater beauty then if they all possessed but one Iohn 14. and the same degree of glory by this they see that our Lord is more honoured in them then if they were all equall and consequently they are not troubled for their owne being lesse in glory then those others are For they in their colours and others in other colours of a deeper dye doe all concurre to manifest the infinite goodnes and beauty of him who made them Heere you see Apoc. 22 that riuer which S. Iohn discouered in the Apocalyps to issue out of the throne of God Apoc. 19. and of the lambe whereof all the blessed spirits in heauen drinke And being inebriated by this loue they sing an euerlasting Alleluia admiring and glorifying our lord God And you will haue discerned a little of that enamell wherewith those pretious stones are accompanied wherevpon that temple of the celestiall mountaine is founded And now after the resemblance of this temple Apoc. 11. which you haue seene in that mountaine you must build a dwelling place in your soule for our lord Exod. 25. iust as they said to Moyses that he should prouide to make the Tabernacle after that forme which he had seene in the mountaine You must my good sister if you meane to goe through the way of this life in perfect charitie and loue of our lord procure to carry about you a continuall desire or at least the most continuall that you can whereby you may euer wish and like that our lord God in whose presence you are still to walke may be in himselfe as good as holy and as full of glory as indeede hee is And soe with great ioy and complacence in all the attributes of almightie God you are to goe reioycing and your soule is to seast it selfe inseeing that your lord your true love possesses himselfe whoe is infinitely good powerfull from whome all creatures receiue their being and their beauty who in himselfe is soe full of glory and goodnes that all creatures haue neede of him he none of them This must be the whole scope at which your loue must ayme S. Tho. 1. And heerein S. Thomas saith that perfect charitie doth consist As for the loue which new deuotes call Charitie which is when they are kindled in deuotiō in louing our lord tēderly though this be a holy thing yet is it not of soe high condition as that other most holy loue which transformes soules into the beloued To this loue the holy scripture inuites vs in many places saying Ps 96. Phil. 4 Reioyce you iust persons in our lord And S. Paule saith Reioyce in our lord And conceiuing that this aduise was worthy to be giuen more then once he repeates it saying yet againe I tell you that you must reioyce The Prophet Dauid expressed the same when he said Ps 36 delight you in our lord and he will giue you whatsoeuer you shall aske This is that ioye wherewith the most holy virgin reioyced when she said My spirit reioyces in God my Sauiour Luk. 1. And with this ioye did Christ our lord reioyce when S. Luke said that Iesus reioyced in the holy Ghost Luk. 10. And the royall Prophet saith that his hart Ps 83. euen his flesh reioyced in the liuing God This happēs whē the soule with the will for there the hart signifies the will are actually louing desiring that our lord may in himselfe bee what he is And from the great redundāce which proceedes sometymes from this ioye of the soule the very flesh it selfe is kindled in the loue of our lord And because this loue is soe excellent celestiall a thing therefore doth the Church which is directed by the holy ghost inuite vs in the begining of Mattins with a perswasion to loue our Lord saying thus Come lett vs reioyce in our Lord and sing canticles of praise to God our saluation If you will finde the excellency of this loue put it in practise you shall see that the soule doth not satisfy it selfe but in praysing God For when it sees all that to be accomplished in God which it can wish it breakes instantly out into thanks-giuing to him for hauing perfected the desire it hath to praise him which is the same effect which flowes from the loue they haue in heauen as the Prophet Dauid saith Blessed are they O Lord Psal 8. whoe dwell in thy howse for they shall praise thee for euer and for euer S. Augustine was inflamed with this loue when speaking to our Lord he said If thou O Lord wert Augustine and I God I would make thee God and my selfe Augustine I thinke there is noe neede to bring testimonies which may proue the excellencie of this Loue for euen plaine reason tells vs that this is the loue which drawes a man out of him selfe and transformes him vnto God who is his beloued And out of this loue it must follow that all your workes and deuotions and prayers must be made by you to the honour and glory of this God who deserues to be adored and serued for his owne pure goodnes by as many creatures as he hath made without carrying any respect at all to the hope which might be had of a reward from him For though it be good and holy to serue our Lord euen for retribution Psal 118. yet is not this an act of soe perfect charity as that which seekes noe kinde of interest but onely the honour and glory of our Lord God If at any time you place before your soule the reward which they will giue it for the good it doth to the end that it may be animated towards good workes let not this be your last end but the will which you haue to serue our Lord. For the more glory you haue the more honour and glory shall our Lord God receiue Soe that the last ayme of all must be to
who being sent about busines would needes stay to passe his tyme and play with other boyes or els loyter for seeing of some vaine show and neither did that which he was commaunded nor soe much as remembred where about he went till returning home at night without any answeare coÌ„cerning his busines he is receiued with reprehensions and stripes by him who sent him Let vs awake whilest wee haue tyme and lett vs haue an eye to that which imports vs most and which is to last for euer And lett vs leaue vanity to vaine persons for both it and they shall perish Let vs raise our eyes to wards him who gaue vs the life and being which wee haue and afterwards gaue his owne life to the end that we might not loose ours And with great labour he taught vs the way whereby we were to walke and by a death which was full of torments and reproaches did he encourage and strengthen vs towards the purchase of vertue and he obteyned grace for vs whereby we might be able to serue and please almightie God Lett vs search into the most hidden corners of our harts and lett vs cure that in it which is wounded Lett vs vntye the fetters of our sinnes Let vs procure to redresse our selues in that which giues vs most cause of feare And let vs appease the clamorous remorse of our Conscience with doing that which God commaunds by the Dictamen thereof that soe all things being once well ordered and agreed we may like true and watchfull seruants expect the coming of our Lord and that we may be found with tapers lighted in our hands and with our loynes girt and that we may heare that sweete word Reioyce thou good and faithfull seruant Luk. 12 Matth. 25. whoe hast benâ— faithfull in lesser things I will place thee ouer greater Enter thou into the ioy of thy Lord That is the daye for which good christians hope and in coÌ„templation whereof they who liue heere in paine doe in tyme passe through it with much patience And this expectation of that crowne giues them hart to endure the combatts of this world and of the flesh Making election of abasement heere for that eternall aduancement and of this short lamentation For that delight which shall haue noe end of loosing their will heere that they may haue it euerlastingly vnited to the will of God in heauen Where they shall haue nothing which may disgust them but all that shall be done which may content them For they shall possesse almightie God as their most rich treasure in whome is conteyned all Good If our Lord haue yet begunne to visit that soule of yours you will vnderstand what I say and you will profitt by it If not which God forbidd it will be but the hearing of a story which is instantly forgotten I desire that Christ our Lord may be the Loue of you and of my lady your wife whose desire to see mee I pray God reward But thinke no more of your coming this way till first God shall haue soe disposed that I may goe thither to you the rather because I alsoe desire that it may be soe A letter to an afflicted lady whose sicknes hindered certaine deuotions which shee had beene wont to vse He teaches her how to finde peace and true repose which is noe where but in God And of the great care wherewith she was to prouide that the forbearance which she vsed of her exercises of spirit in her sicknes might not proceede from tepiditie THE best comfort in those afflictions which come vpon vs against our will is not to haue committed any fault which might occasion their coming For a conscience which stands right will easily beare any weight which you can lay vpon it but to a conscience which is impure any little burden is intollerable If men knew as well how to seeke the meanes of true repose as they know how to desire the thing they should enioye it and not remaine with the sole desire thereof It is the expresse lawe of God that they who haue desires of any other thing then him shall be subiect to torment whether the thing be obteyned or not obteyned For supposing the thing be had which they desired yet can they not compleately enioye it through the remorse which their conscience brings and if it can not be had they are racked by the delay of the thing desired The pure desire of God is very contrary to this Psal 104. For if Dauid say Lett the hart reioyce which goes but euen in search of God what kinde of thing will it be to finde him out If the hunger of seeking giue them ioye what will the being satisfied at that table doe He therefore who desires to finde peace and true repose must resolue to forgoe his owne appetytes must boldly and faithfully lodge himself in the will of our Lord and soe he shall neither be tumbled vp and downe in the darke nor be afflicted otherwise by the arriuall of strange euents But who will now procure that the sonnes of men may attend to that which God exacts at their hands How longe will you be heauy harted and loue vanity Psal 4. and seeke after lyes who shall vnbeguile such men and free them from their blindenes as goe seeking peace and finde warre yea and by the same way wherein they seeke it they loose it Let the whole world vnderstand once for all that as there is noe more then one God soe is there noe more then one true repose And as without the true God there is noe God soe out of his repose there is noe repose Certainely the mountaines were lyers and soe was the multitudes of the valleys and onely in our Lord God there is true saluation This say they whoe after they are well wearied vpon the experience of their owne vaine desires arriue to know at length both what God is and what hee is to them who seeke him Madam we haue not in our house a bitt of bread which wee may giue our freind to eate who is coming from abroad vnlesse we goe borrow it of our neighbour who is God made man and one who withall is soe neere vs as that he is our head and both our father and our brother He who will lift his eyes vp to him and depend vpon his hand he who will be a begger at his gate he who will be in desire of him and growe euen fainte through hunger after him shall be refreshed by the aboundance of him which doth as farre exceede the satisfaction which creatures giue as God him selfe exceedes them But out of God lett noe man presume to haue any hunger For as S. Augustine saith where soeuer flesh and blould shall expect to finle a suâ—â—nes amongst the creatures it will finde it selfe deceiued Soe that a man may vnderstand by experience what difference there is betweene the Creatour and the creatures and soe being vntyed from them since in
them he found not what he sought he may goe at last with an intyre hart to him who alone is able to impart more to the soule then it is able to receiue Your ladyship must not therefore be carryed away by that great errour which yet is imbraced by many great ones of this world who are mightily affected to their owne will and who abound with particular appetites and who thinke belike that they are to abound as much more then others in desire of things as they are heere of more eminent ranke state but for my part I see not what they gather from hence but greater torments For after the rate of the desire is the paine And as S. Bernard saith Let our proper will cease and there will noe more be any hell And soe wee may say let this proper will cease and there will not be in the world either any sinne or any sorrow For that which comes to vs is not in it selfe the thing which giues vs paine but the coming of it when we would not haue it come And therefore doth God require our harts of vs that soe hee may free them from many miseries and may giue vs in exchaunge his owne which is peaceable reposed and Ioyfull in tribulation And a grosse foole is hee who had rather liue in his owne straitnes then in the latitude of Almightie God and who had rather dye in himselfe then liue in life And if at any tyme or in any thing we haue committed this sinne and haue enlarged the raynes to our owne desires let vs humble our selues before the father of mercies acknowledging our sinnes and hoping for pardon at his hands and taking that paine which grew vpon vs by the inordinatenes of our appetite towards the discounting and discharging of our fault For by this meanes God is wont to take away our sinnes like one who should take the boughes or branches of a tree and setting them first on fire should apply them afterwards to the tree it selfe and soe burne it vpp by the rootes Much better it is for a sinner that hee should grow into â—aine by occasion of his sinne then into peace and rest For as S. Augustine faith there is not a more wofull thing then the temporall felicitie of a sinner And as for vs let vs learne heereafter to giue all our desires to God And as a stone falls downeward and as fire flyes vpward and as euery thing in sine makes towards his proper place soe let our harts fly at full speede towards the center thereof which is God Who would not be amased to behould a great rocky Mountaine hanging loose in the ayre without falling downe to his proper place and who will not wonder to see a hart which was created to repose and rest in God detaine it selfe in the ayre and lesse then ayre Therefore whether it be that wee cannot take true rest in any other then in God or because this Lord of ours deserues of himselfe all our loue since he is the loadestone to which all spiritts looke let vs not fall heereafter into such a folly as that whereof I spake lett vs not spott our honour let vs not committ such a treason against such a lord as that heereafter any other desire may enter into our harts but of him or for the loue of him And soe will the sadd cloudes of these vnprositable hart-breaking melancholies and these both vaine hopes vaine feares fly from these harts of ours in their place a new morning will rise which will giue vs Ioy. For to see the light of heaué is the cause of Ioy but the blinde man cannot discerne it Tob 5. For this did Tobias say what ioy cann I have in this life since I cannot see the light of heauen It is a great truth that noe man who is not indeede vnbeguiled concerning this world can haue any true ioy of hart for though he thinkes hee sees yet indeede it is but a sight of earth and not a light of heauen But after this other sight a man growes cured at the very roote It will be fitt that your ladyshipp doe not thinke to make the like exercises of minde in the way of spiritt as before now that you are subiect to an vnlike disposition of body And many haue ignorantly afflicted them selues for not hauing beene able to weigh what their strength and state would permitt It is cleere that with this condition of body wherein you are you must not thinke of keeping the same method which you held before nor doth our lord aske any such things at your hands since his will is very wise and tempered alsoe with great mercie and demands nothing of vs but that for which hee giues vs meanes And not onely hee will not reape where he doth not sowe but euen when hee sowes he is content to reape lesse then hee hath sowed Your ladyship must not be discóforted for that which you are not able to performe for you might as well put your selfe to paine because you haue noe wings where with to flye Doe not place the ioye of your hart vpon hauing consolation or vpon making Prayer but vpon the accomplishment of the will of our Lord. And since his pleasure is that the tyme which before you spent in praying shall now be spent in vomiting let it be soe in the name of God and lett his contentement be ours and lett vs more esteeme that he be pleased then we would to possesse heauen and earth And if we be troubled with any scruple that such or such a punishement came to vs for our hauing committed such or such a sinne and that God chastises vs now for the thing which wee inordinately desired before in that case what haue we more to doe then to cast our selues at his feete desiring both correction and pardon And our lord will either giue them both or els the pardon without the correction but neuer the correction without the pardon if the fault be not our owne We must therefore take any tribulation as an earnest penny or introduction to peace and prouided that there may be peace betweene God vs let any thing come which he will send One onely thing wee haue to feare in this case which is least wee should slubber ouer our negligences vnder this occasion and pretence of I can doe noe more Wee must heere looke vpon our selues with many eyes for this EVE which liues within vs is soe desirous to be cherished and regaled and to be walking vp and downe the garden and to be eating of the forbidden fruite that she wants not a thousand inuentiòs to make reason beleeue that she demaunds not any thing of superfluity but of meare necessitie and she is in a mightie chafe if they beleiue her not Madam there is neede heere of two things The one that when wee clerely see that wee are able in such cases to performe our spirituall exercises wee must not omitt
and how to take the part of such as are absent But now why take you not that counsaile for your selfe which you giue to others why will you needes tire me out with your incredulitie as others doe For the loue of him who was crucified for vs let not things passe in this manner but be confident that our lord loues you and imparts true loue to mee for the doeing of all that which is necessary for you that this must last till you shall haue gayned the crowne to which our lord hath called you which is not to be any little one nor doe I finde in my selfe any little ioy that I am helping you to gaine the same You must alsoe forbeare both to say and thinke that the state wherein you are is a state of condemnation For that is a meere temptation of the deuill who desires nothing more then that you may leaue your manner of life that soe he may carry you away with him And if it seeme to you that you haue not that recollection which you ought for my part I am glad that you desire it and sigh for it But yet you must not doe it soe as withall to conceiue that you are not pleasing to God in doeing what you doe Many tymes men serue God more whilst they haue noe recollectió soe that yet withall they procure it then with hauing it For sometymes yea and many tymes the pleasure of God is that to the end wee may vse Charitie to his children we shall forsake the sweetenes of attending to himselfe alone And the Patriarch Iacob was enamoured of Rachell Gen. 29 who was faire he serued seauen yeares that they might giue her to him for his wife and at the end thereof they gaue him Lia the sister of Rachell against his liking And when he complayned thereof they tould him that it was not the fashion of that country to bestow their youngest daughters first as he desired But they wished him to marry this other at that tyme and that if indeede he loued the yonger as much as he said he should labour seauen years more for that and then they would alsoe giue her to him and this hee did and soe he obteyned her Hee who hath a minde to giue himselfe as it were in marriage to the beautifull life of recollection and deuout prayer desires that which is very good But he must bestow himselfe in marriage to the life of action and labour And first hee must employ himselfe vpon the good of his neighbours and afterwards by perseuerance he shall obtaine the other when our Lord shall finde it fitt for him But in the meane tyme hee is contented with vs if we will sigh for this and if we will attend to that Neither is he in the right who is gladd of busines and imployments neither yet is that other in the right whoe when he is in the middest thereof goes still complayning But he alone complyes with that which God commands whoe bestowes his hands and workes vpon the seruice of his neighbours and his desires vpon the seruice of our Lord with more desires vpon the seruice of our Lord with more recollection Yet still I say not soe farrâ— as that this desire must make him complaine or be disgusted But he must haue patience in his busines and in his desire and loue he must haue quietnes his hands in one of them and his eyes vpon the other He obeys in the one and he sues for the other And as I haue said else where God serues himselfe of some in the first life of labour rather then in the second life of repose because wee vse to disguise that desire which indeede we haue to be at liberty and to follow our owne will not to be put to endure the impertinences and vexations of others vnder the colour of giuing our selues to Contemplation Our Lord therefore who knowes soe much better then our selues what is good for vs and sees that the desires of our hart some tymes are such as I haue said hath care to conduct our life according to that which he iudges to import vs most And soe his seruants must yeilde obedience to him and accept of that with thankesgiuing which he imparts And if any man confesse that the employment which he hath is good but that hee for his part is weake and that he serues not God therein soe well as he ought or as he would I acknowledge that he saith true and I desire that he will belecue and say soe still For woe be to that soule which presumes to thinke that he may contest with God any other way then by begging mercie Know you your selfe for wicked and God will wrapp you vp warme in the mantie of his goodnes and mercic And euery day he will growe in doeing you greater fauours And conceiue that such as you are euen now our lord vouchsafes to like and loue you but see that you must continue in the warre without turning your backe to his seruice and then youst must esteeme that both hee and I are contented with you And since both your father who is in heauen and your spirituall father who is on earth are contented with you you must alsoe be contented with your selfe Not soe as that you may giue ouer to proceede and profitt in the seruice of our lord but that you may not be discouraged or dismayed in the manner of life which now you hould And d ee you alsoe confidently beleeue that our Lord is serued by your aboade where you are and this I declare to you in his name and that he will comfort you much and vouchsafe to doe you very great fauours And remember this word well Be faithfull to God and turne not your backe towards him Beleeue not the counsaile of the deuill nor yet of flesh and bloud Be bould to trust and to offer your selfe to dye for God rather then to forbeare what you haue begunne For you shall quickly see how well God deales with them who stand fast in fighting for his honour The holy ghost be your conseruer and comforter Amen A Letter to a deuout freind of his wherein he shewes how weake man is without God and how full of strength when he is placed in the hidden part of his face and what this face is THE peace of our Lord be euer with you Soe great is our weakenes and soe crafty and strong are they who wage warre against vs that it is noe maruaile if some tymes we be ouercome but it is rather strange if we ouercome at any tyme. Or rather in very deede wee neuer ouercome but Christ our lord ouercomes in vs Apoc. 5. who is the strong lyon of luda and whoe if he should leaue vs we were instantly to be swaâ—â—â—wed vp Psal 17. as Daâ—id saith But he forsakes vs not because he loues vs and especially such as place men hope in him as the same Dauid saith Ibidem
word of God from his mouth they had chaunged their life to the better and had begun to walke in the way of God and soe gaue much ioy to S. Paule For besides that he reioyced in their good he alsoe hoped to receiue a reward at the last day for hauing beene that instrument by meanes whereof God had gayned those soules and therefore did he call them his crowne Because as a crowne doth beautify and honour the head of such as put it on so they whoe are saued by meanes of any man's preaching will be a meanes of honouring and ioying that man as some beautifull crowne of rich stones might doe Now this being soe I confesse you owe me not many thanks for my wishing well to your soule because the good thereof is mine in regard that God hath done me the fauour to bestow you vpon me for my spirituall childe and will impart you to me as one of the pretious stones of that crowne which one day he will vouchsafe mee if I continue faithfull in that vocatiō by which he hath called mee And now because you are a stone which he will sett in a crowne it is the pleasure of our Lord to worke and polish you very well For it is noe way fitt to put such stones in a crowne as are either rough or of noe worth but such as these will be throwne into hell since they receiued not their being wrought and enamelled by the spiritt of our lord But those liuing stones whereof the celestiall Ierusalem is built are wrought heere with soe many blowes that 〈◊〉 seemes as if our lord would breake them and that againe he giues them new blowes without compassion euen before the paine of the former be gone But yet he hath noe intention to breake them but to polish them nor to destroy them but to beautify them to make them such as that by how much the more they seemed to be ill handled heere soe much the more brightly they may shine at the latter day in the high presence of almighty God Then will that appeare to be mercy which heere seemed cruelty And God will see those pretious stones which he hath wrought euery one in his proper place that so full of blisse that the meanest of them is to be incōparably more esteemed then kingdomes and empires and whatsoeuer other earthly things which can be conceiued O happy stroakes which are to end in such a high repose O happy labour which shall be paid by the imbracements of God himselfe Wound vs heere O Lord as much as thou wilt soe that thou cherish vs there Heere make vs weepe that there thou maist wipe away our teares Discomfort vs heere in all things soe that we may enioy thee whoe art all things and be rigorous to vs heere soe that there thou haue mercy for vs in store In this world we are as banished men and crowded vp into a corner and we are as it were vpon an Easter eue Heauen is our countrey and our liberty our festiuity And therefore howsoeuer things happen we will make a shift to passe it heere to the end that when the glory of God shall appeare we alsoe may appeare in glory that we may celebrate that ioyfull Easter with soe many Cittizens of heauen who first celebrated the vigill vpō earth Madam you must giue thankes to our lord for hee treates you as he hath treated and as he meanes to treate his best freinds And as for that onely begotten sonne of his who is the principall stone of all stones doe but see what blowes they gaue him For they wrought bett vpon him from head to feete these very blowes did alsoe worke vpon that other second stone of heauen which is the most Blessed virgin our Bl. Lady And soe according to the place which euery one is to haue there he must be wrought and polished heere Now if this be necessary euen for iust persons what shall become of vs sinners but onely that we must bowe downe the head and say O Lord thou punishest mee little in comparison of the much punishment which I deserue All that which I can suffer is little though I alone should suffer all the afflictions of the whole world For to him who deserues hell what temporall paine can seeme great Lett vs know that God is full of pittie towards vs euen then when he seemes most rigorous without doubt he is full of pitty since whomesoeuer he punishes heere he will not punish but comfort there For it is written That God doth not punish a man for the same thing Nahum 1. twice All that which we endure we deserue but yet God is soe very full of pitty that for the stripes which he sends vs he pardons our sinnes and he accounts it soe as a peece of seruice from vs as that he giues vs a crowne for the sufferance And since the afflictions of this world preuent Purgatorie and entitle vs to heauen who will not loue them when they come yea and beg more of God then yet he had and euen be sorry when he hath them not He who knowes Christ and his kingdome hath noe compassion of himselfe in this world because he knowes himselfe to be more fitt for God the more afflictions he endures for his sake And soe did that enamoured Ignatius say Fire Crosse fury of beasts cutting quartering breaking and destroying of euery parte of my whole body and the scourges of the deuill himselfe Let all these things come vpon mee and lett me onely enioy Christ our lord There is nothing in this world which can doe me good not soe much as euen a kingdome It is more happines for me to dye for Christ our Lord then to exercise dominion ouer the earth from one end thereof to the other This saith that Saint as one who knew well and did much loue our lord Iesus Christ and who saw that all was well employed which could be disbursed for the gayning of him In this manner I desire that you would encourage your selfe to suffer the Purgatorie of your sinnes yea and though you should not haue committed sinne you should yet apply your selfe to endure affliction for the pure loue of Iesus whoe endured soe great things for you without hauing giuen the least shaddow of cause in himselfe And I would haue you say to him that howsoeuer you are bound to suffer what he will send yet out of a free hart you would gladly suffer for the pure loue of him though you were not bound to it And thus according to the intention of your hart our Lord will accept it at your hands as an Embleme which you carry for his loue In the loues of this world men vse to make other Emblemes but in the loue of God the Embleme is sufferance in affliction And he who is not of a strong hart to suffer much lett him neuer stand telling mee that he loues much For in this world there is
God is a great Lord and he will be serued with much diligence and hee inflicted noe lesse punishment vpon the sloathfull seruant then to cast him bound hand and foote into exteriour darkenes which signifies a being excluded from all the blessings of God and of his howse And since to the end that wee may be fauorits with an earthly king and to acquire the possession of a little earth there is a necessity of taking care of watching of troubles yea and sometymes euen of shedding bloud lett not them grow faint in the combatt since God whose cause it is will be their captaine in the strength of whose arme they shall infallibly goe victorious out of the feild The enemy whome they are to ouercome and the Cittie which they are to subdue is their owne proper will Let them place that will before themselues and against that lett them leuell all their shott and to that let them say Thou art the enemy of God since thou desirest that which is contrary to him and therefore thou art my enemy For I wholly belong to God I am the freâ—nd of his freinds and the enemy of his enemyes I will haue noe peace with thee that soe I may haue noe warre with God Lett God raigne in my hart and not myne owne disordered will I will gouerne my selfe according to that which hee commands and not according to that I list I will beg of my God that hee will be pleased to shew mee his holy will and that shall be my lawe though myne owne will would faine haue it otherwise Let it paine mee or let it please mee I am resolued to â—â—e my selfe fast to God since besides that I owe to him otherwise he was fastned to the Crosse for mee Nay I am vndone if I goe not to him since all that which comes not to him heere with loue shall be deuided from him in the next life by his hate Let it cost me my bloud Nâ—â—b 25. soe that I may not loose my God but that I may heare this word from his blessed mouth Reioyce thou good and faithfull seruant enter thou into the ioye of thy Lord. In fine all that which passes is very short and all this is temporall and the rest eternall all this is light and that is full of waight And therefore let vs say from the hart with Dauid Ps 26. One thing haue I desired of our Lord and that will I seeke that I may dwell in the howse of our Lord for euer And lett this be our conclusion that heauen did neuer cost deare Our Lord graunt it to you and to vs all euen by his owne deâ—re bloud Amen A Letter to a great Lord wherein he treates of the knowledge of God and of a man's selfe and how he was to proceede towards his vassalls THE peace of our Lord Iesus Christ be euer remayning with your lordship The holy S. Augustine desired two things of our Lord saying Graunt to mee O Lord that I may know thee that I may know my selfe These two are things which we must all desire and noe man is to be found without them vnlesse withall he desire to be found without saluation The Temple of Salomon consisted of two partes Both of them were holy but yet one of them was more holy then the other That parte which was lesse holy was the way to the other which was more holy The first is the knowledge of a man's selfe which certainely is a holy thing it is the way to that Sancta Sanctorum which is the knowledge of God where our Lord makes answeare to our demaunds and remedies our necessities and where we finde the fountaine of life For this saith our Lord is true life that wee know thee and whome thou hast sent Iesus Christ But now this soe high thing namely the knowledge of God is not to be obtained without that other which seemes soe lowe namely the knowledge of ones selfe It is most certaine that noe man euer saw God vnlesse first he saw himselfe Nor is it safety for any man to fly high vnlesse he haue the counterpoyse of knowing himselfe which makes vs thinke basely of our selues Amongst all the other fauours of our Blessed Sauiour there is noe doubt but that his disciples would be standing to looke at him with exceeding great gust whilst he was ascending vp to heauen vpon Ascension day since there was noe remedy but that they must needes forgoe his conuersation that conuersation which can carry noe disgust with it And they found great comfort in looking vpon the way by which he passed and towards the place to which he went But what did our lord commaund them Not certainely that they should be still casting vp their eyes to heauen though that seemed to be an excellent thing But he said thus to them You men of Galilee why doe you stand looking vp to heauen Giuing vs thereby to vnderstand that although it be a very sauoury thing to looke towards God yet it concernes vs alsoe to study our selues First for the reuerence which wee owe to God vpon whome we cannot looke but with great confusion considering how vnworthy we are thereof And secondly because when a man forgetts himselfe he is instantly apt to become wanton not seeing his owne faultes and frailty he growes to loose all holy feare and he prooues light and giddy like a ship which being without ballist looses the ankar when any tempest rises and the end thereof is to be carried hither thither till at last it be brought to suffer wrack I neuer saw any soule remaine in safety but by the knowledge of it selfe Noe building can be sure without deepe foundation and that tyme is well imployed which is spent vpon the reproofe of a man 's owne soule It is full of profitt towards the amendment of our faults if we will examine them What kinde of thing is a man who examines not and knowes not himselfe but a howse without a window but the sonne of some widdow ill brought vp who for want of correction is growne wicked but a measure without all measure and rule and which therefore is a false measure And finally what is he but a man whoe is indeede noe man For he who considers not himselfe doth neither gouerne himselfe like a man nor doth he vnderstand or possesse himselfe but why lest he is able to tell many storyes of other things he can giue noe account of himselfe at all These are they who hauing forgotten themselues take such paines to vnderstand the liues of others and hauing shut vp their eyes to their owne defects haue yet more then a hundred eyes open which stand in continuall watch ouer the errour of other folkes These are they who obserue and aggrauate the errours of their neighbours and neglect their owne For in regard those errours of others are beheld by them more continually more close at hand they seeme greater to them then
Ps 41. therefore will I remēber thee the land of Iordan Hermō the little hill Hee who behoulds himselfe and there discouers soe many abhominations is troubled at himselfe and he hath reason And not finding one houre exactly well spent in his whole life but seeing his sinnes to be many great his good deedes to be so few weake what should he doe but be troubled when he findes himselfe soe vnable to make a good accounte before soe strict a Iudge Only he must remēber Christ our lord cōsidering what he wrought in the land of Iordan vpon that little hill and bewayling his sinnes and receiuing the holy Sacraments hee must liue in obedience to the commaundemēts of God and of his Church and soe as a sonne he may hope for the inheritance of heauen He must alsoe call to minde that which was wrought by our lord in those hills of Hermon which are many in the little hill alsoe Which whether it be that of Horeb where God gaue the lawe or whether it be some other hill doth not soe much import vs who are Christians whose vnderstanding Iesus Christ hath opened towards the conceiuing of the scriptures and he vnderstands them who vnderstands Christ our Lord in them who is shutt vp therein as a graine of corne may be in an eare or as wine is in the grape And therefore the end of our law is Christ our Lord for all the lawe rests in him Cor. 10 The hills of Hermon both they which are within the land of promise and without it as also the little hill doe all signify but one hill which may iustly be said to be a little one and to be of Herman And this is Mount Caluary where our redemption was wrought by the shedding of the blood of the sonne of God Now to the end that wee may knowe how well this name may be applyed to Mount Caluary it is to be vnderstood that Hermon signifies malediction And how can Mount Caluary be better expressed then by the name of malediction since it was the place to which they carryed malefactours to be executed whome the scripture calls accursed because they were to be soe punished And because Christ our Lord saw that we were to be accursed and adiudged to euerlasting malediction hee was pleased through the immensenes of his Charitie to take our maledictions vpon himselfe I meane the punishment of our sinnes that soe his benediction might descend on vs. S. Paule expresses thus much after this manner Gal. 3. Christ was made malediction that so his benediction might be communicated to the Gentiles He was blessed and we were cursed But now the case is altered and we chaunge persons with one another He tooke the place of the accursed in being tormented vpon the Crosse which was dew to vs and wee are admitted to the freindship of God and to be his sonnes and the inheritours of the kingdome of heauen with a thowsand other benedictions which came from our Blessed lord Iesus Christ in whome they remaine for euer O wonderfull exchaunge that life should dye to the end that death may liue Benediction is accursed that soe malediction may be blessed The sound man is wounded that soe the wounded man may be cured The sonne is treated as a slaue that soe the slaue may be adopted for a sonne They most cruelly handle him who deserues all pitty and all the fauour and Regalo falls vpon that person who deserued hell In fine what shall we say They apprehend the innocent and they release the guilty The iust man payes for sinnes Innocency is cōdemned and the wicked man is iustified What did Christ our lord choose for himselfe Our afflictions and our miseries to be his recreations delights What shall wee say to such a charity as this but that we are to praise and blesse this lord day and night who hath wrought our redemption and saluation by a way which put him to soe much cost This is indeede that hill of Hermon that little hill and this soe truly as that he was esteemed by the relation of the Prophett Esay Esay 53. for the meanest amongst men And for this reason our Lord himselfe saith Ps 21 I am a worme and noe man but the dishonour of men and the abasement of the people O thou honour of men and angels and how canst thou be the dishonour of men Thou who art the aduancement of thy people and who art the glory both of heauen and earth what could make thee grow to be the abasement of thy people but onely thine owne great Charitie For thou to honour vs didst endure soe great dishonour that as wee are wont to say of some very base vnworthy man that he dishonours his whole stocke soe did they alsoe say of thee that thou dishonouredst the whole race of mankinde Bee thou Blessed without end For all the honour which all the race of mankinde possesses comes from thee and through thee Thou gauest it by the coniunction of thy selfe to them making thy selfe man and dying for men and exalting them to an equallity with Angells and euen with Seraphins if themselues will and ordeyning that the sonnes of sinnefull Adam they may become the sonnes of God and the heyres of thy Father and coheyres with thee as being thy bretheren and yet thou O Lord art called the dishonour and abasement of the people Thou didst abase thy selfe O Lord to exalt vs thou didst abase thy selfe belowe all men that thou mightest rayse vs about the Angells What shall wee render to thee O Lord for soe great fauours but onely that we must tenderly and profoundly knowe that if wee haue any thing if wee be fitt for any thing and if we be any way acceptable to almighty God it is wholly by thee And wee must yeild thee all thankes and praise for that thou being what thou art wouldest yet vouchsafe to offer thy selfe to sufferance of soe great afflictions for such wretched things as wee are Thou diminishedst thy selfe in that little hill that thou mightest exalt vs to that great hill Thou dyedst on Mount Caluary to the end that wee might liue in the mountaine of heauen And by the malediction which fell vpon thee there thou diddest purchasse and thou wilt impart to vs that happy benediction of thine Come you blessed of my father possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you They cursed thee O Lord and thou blessedst vs. Thy death giues vs life and thy affliction ease Since thou wert content to be iudged it is reason that thou alsoe be our Iudge Lett vs therefore reioyce since hee who loues vs soe much is to be our Iudge and wee will goe confidently to iudgment since the Iudge is of our owne flesh and bloud If wee know not what wee may doe for the pleasing of Almighty God lett vs looke vp to Christ our Lord and he will teach vs meekenes from that Crosse Who being
as I haue said You aske me what preparation is best and what consideration is most profitable when you goe to celebrate the mistery of the body and blond of our lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ because you feare that the thing which of it selfe is soe helpfull may yet proue hurtfull to you for want of due preparation You know already that there are different complexions of mens bodyes and soe is there variety of inclinations in their mindes yea and soe alsoe are the guifts which God imparts to men very different Some he leades by one meanes and others by another and therefore there can be noe such common rule giuen as may square well with the generallity of all men concerning the consideration which may be most profitable for the aforesaid action But this is certaine that that consideration will be best for any man which God imparts and whereby a man findes himselfe to be moued most And he whoe hath any knowledge such as a man may haue in things like these whereof there is noe certaine faith nor cleere euidence that his Preparation or consideration growes from the impulse of God hath noe reason to chaunge it for any other till our lord chaunge it And this is to be tryed by giuing account thereof to some person who hath experience in these things together with prudence and soe to take the resolution But now there are others whoe finde not themselues particularly moued to vse this or that Consideration And yet it is alsoe necessary for these men to impart the notice of their inward disposition soe to trye whether they haue neede to be carryed by the motiue of Loue or feare they being either sadd or cheerefull and the remedy is to be applyed according to the necessities wherein they are And because I incline to thinke according to the relation which I haue receiued concerning you that the state wherein you are is of a person proficient in vertue and that it is fitter for you to exercise your selfe vpon he considerations which may prouoke you to the feruour of loue with reuerence then vpon others I say that to this purpose I know of none better then that which may giue vs liuely to vnderstād that our lord with whome we goe to treate is God and man and what the cause is why he comes to the altar Certainely Sir it is a blow of great force towards the awaking of any man to consider and say this to himselfe in good earnest I am now goeing to consecrate Almighty God to hould him in my hands to haue audience of him and to receiue him into my bosome Let vs ponder this well and if it sincke into vs by the grace and spiritt of our lord it will be sufficient and superabundant for the making that result towards vs whereof we haue soe much neede that soe according to our frailty we may performe that office as we ought Who is hee that can choose but be inflamed in loue by thinking I goe to receiue an infinite Good who will not tremble with an amorous kinde of reuerence at his presence before whome the powers of heauen tremble and who will not resolue neuer to offend him more but still to praise him and doe him seruice Who will not be confounded and euen mourne with greife for hauing offended that Lord whome hee hath present there who will not confide vpon such a pawne whoe will not take hart to goe through this desert by the way of pennance with such Prouision And finally this consideration when the hand of our Lord helpes it on doth wholly chaunge a man and taking him from himselfe doth euen swallow him vp some tymes by reuerence some tymes by loue and at other tymes by other most powerfull affects of the minde which are produced by the considerations of his Presence Which affects though they doe not necessarily flow from these Considerations yet are they a most ready helpe therevnto if the man as we vse to say will not be a stone Soe that you shall doe well to exercise your selfe in this thought Make account that you heare that voice Ecce sponsus venit Matth 2§ Deus vester venit Behold your spouse is coming your God is co ming And shutt your selfe vp in your hart and then open it to receiue that which vses to streame from such a lightning And desire you of the same Lord that for that very goodnes of his by which he hath vouchsafed to put him selfe into your hands for that same goodnes I say he will giue you a true feeling thereof that soe you may esteeme reueare and loue him as you ought Importune him that he permitt you not to be in the presence of such a Maiesty without feare reuerence and loue Accustome your selfe to thinke as you ought of the presence of our Lord although you should then entertaine noe other consideration but that Consider them whoe stand in presence of kings who though they say nothing yet see the modesty the reuerence the loue wherewith they stand if they stand as they ought But it is better to consider how those great ones assist in the Court of heauen in presence of that infinite greatenes all trembling at the reflection of their owne littlenes and burning in the fyre of loue like persons whoe are as it were consumed in such a furnace Make account that you enter amongst those Graundes whoe are soe richly adorned and soe well behaued and soe diligent in doeing seruice to their Lord. And then being placed in such society as that and in the presence of soe great a king thinke of it as you ought though as I was saying you haue not at that tyme any other consideration then that My meaning is that it is one thing for a man to haue what to say to the king and it is another to know which may be done with scilence how to stand in his presence and there to carry himself as he ought And this is that vnion of the soule with our lord which a man shall doe well to procure during the tyme of Masse and to hang wholly vpon him iust soe as when he is in his Cell vnited with our lord in the most secret retired corner of his hart And this in such sort as that the wordes which he reades may not be of any distraction to this vnion for he shall reape more fruite by it then by them though yet it be true that he is to haue regard alsoe to the wordes but he is to accustome him selfe whilest he hath his hart vnited and present with God to carry that attention withall to what he doth and saith as is conuenient Deere lord and what doth the soule of that man feele when hee carryes him in his hands who made election of our B. Lady enriched her with celestiall graces that she might be made fitt to liue and conuerse with God made man And when he compares her hands and armes and eyes with his owne
of that consolation wherewith God comfortes vs For as the tribulations of Christ abounde in vs so through Christ see our consolation is alsoe aboundant These are the wordes of the Apostle Saint Paule 2 Cor. 11 Three tymes he was scourged with roddes fiue tymes with whipps and once he was stoned in such sort as that he was left for dead and persecuted by all the generations of man kinde and tormented withall sorts of afflictions and troubles and this not in any small number of tymes but as himselfe saith elswhere wee are euer euen drawne to death for the loue of Iesus Christ that soe his life may be made manifest in vs. And in all these tribulations he doeth not onely not murmure nor complaine of God as weake persons are wont to doe nor doeth he afflict himselfe otherwise as is vsed by them whoe loue their honour and their case nor doeth he importune God to remoue them from him like such as know not the valew thereof and therefore desire not such company as that nor doeth he esteeme them as some sleight and little fauours as they doe whoe loue not to suffer much but leauing all ignorance and weakenes farre behinde him he prayses our lord in them and giues thankes for them as for an extraordinary blessing Esteeming himselfe happy to suffer somewhat for the honour of him whoe suffered soe great dishonours that soe he might draw vs out of that true dishonour wherein wee were being slaues to the basenes of sinne and he beautified and honoured vs with his spiritt and with the adoption of the sonnes of God and he gaue vs an earnest and a pledge that we should enioye the kingdome of heauen by him O my brethren whoe are soe very much beloued by mee God will open your eyes that you may consider how great fauour he doth vs by that which the world thinks to be disfauour and how much wee are honoured in being dishonoured for seeking the honor of God and how high honour is reserued to vs for that abasement wherein now we are and how sweete delightfull and deare armes our Lord extends towards vs to receiue such as are wounded in the warre for his sake whereby those very woundes doe incomparably outstrip euen make sweete all that gall which the afflictions of this life can giue And if we haue any true vnderstanding we shall conceiue a vehement desire of these imbracements For whoe will not desire that which is wholly amiable and desireable but onely such a one as knowes not what true happines is But know you for certaine that if those festiuities of heauen please you and if you desire to see and enioye the same there is noe way to it more secure then that of suffering This is that path whereby Christ our Lord and all his seruants are gone before vs Matth 7. and which he calls streight and saith thas it leades men to lise And he left vs this instruction to the end that if wee should haue a minde to be where he is wee might walke by that way where he went For it is against all reason that the sonne of God hauing gone by the way of dishonour the sonnes of men should goe by the way of honour since the Disciple is not greater then his Maister noâ— the slaue then his Lord. And God forbidd that our soule should repose and rest in any other thing or should desire any other life in this world but onely to suffer vnder the Crosse of Christ our lord Though yet I know not if I haue said well in calling that affliction which is suffered vnder that Crosse For to my seeming it is as the delight of a soft bed full of roses O thou Iesus of Nazareth by which word it is signified that thou art all full of flowers how sweete is that odour of thee which awakes in vs those insatiable desires of eternity and makes vs forgett the afflictions which we suffer heere whilest we consider for whome they are endured and with what reward they shall be paid And whoe is hee that can loue thee at all and yet doeth not loue thee crucified in that Crosse thou diddest seeke mee thou diddest cure mee thou diddest deliuer mee thou diddest free mee thou diddest loue mee giuing thy life and bloud for mee by the hands of base and cruell wretches And therefore in the Crosse will I seeke thee and vpon that I finde thee and finding thee thou helpest mee and thou deliuerest mee from my selfe who am the creature which contradicts thy loue wherein myne owne saluation doth consist But now being free from the loue of my felf which is thine enemy I answeare thee though not with equallity yet with a kinde of poore resemblance of that excessiue loue which thou carryedst to mee vpon thy Crosse I louing thee and suffering for thee as thou by louing mee dyedst of loue for mee But woe is mee and what shame couers my face and what sorrow seizes vpon my hart whoe hauing beene soe much beloued by thee which thy soe great torments doe well declare I yet loue thee soe little as may be seene by the little which I endure for thee I easily confesse that all men deserue not soe great happines as to be marked out for thine with the marke of the Crosse but yet consider what a sadd thing it is for mee to desire and not to obtaine to aske and not to receiue How much more when I begg not delight and ease but affliction and paine for loue of thee Tell mee since thou will haue mee to be both thy Herald and the Auntient whoe am to carry the flying colours of thy ghospell why thou doest not apparell mee from head to foote with thine owne liuery O how ill doth the name of being thy seruant belong to mee whoe finde my selfe naked of that garment wherewith thou diddest soe cordially and soe continually and soe aboundantly goe apparelled Tell vs O beloved Iesus euen by that sweete Crosse of thine was there peraduenture any one day when thou diddest put off that robe of sufferance to cloath thy selfe with repose and ease Or was there any one day wherein thou diddest put off that rough coate which soe wrought into the very rootes of thy hart as to make thee say My soule is heauy Marth 26. euen to the death O noe thou wert farr from resting because thou wert farre from leauing to lone and this loue made thee alwayes suffer And when they stript thee of thy cloathes they cutt out vpon the Crosse as if it had beene vpon some table another garment for thee and that so long a one as to reach from thy very head to thy feete and there was noe part of thee which was not dyed with thy most pretious crymson bloud The head Crow ned with thornes the face loaden with buffetts the hands peirced with two nayles and the feete with one a bitter one to thee but deare to vs and all the rest of
must be warned There is noe sanctity assured but in the holy feare of God wherein Eccl. 2. I would haue you euen grow old as the holy Scripture saith Soe to giue vs to vnderstand that wee must not onely feare God when first we come to his seruice but euen to the very end This feare is noe sadd or irksome kinde of thing but full of sauour and gust and it takes away all leuity and effusion of hart and it makes a man not venterous to approue his owne actiōs as good though perhapps in themselues they be well done But he leaues the iudgment both of himselfe and of all the world to Almighty God As S. Paule said I iudge not my selfe but he whoe iudges mee is our Lord. This is hee whome you must feare if you will perseuer in doeing well and if you will not haue your building fall but stand safe till it may rise and reach to the most high God But now this must be done by loue which I beseech our lord Iesus Christ to giue you Amen Pray for mee very cordially as already I beleiue you doe For I hope in God that hee will heare you and that he will giue mee to you for your seruice as in former tymes A Letter to a Lady who was growen a widow He comforts her in the death of her husband and animates her to carry her afflictions with patience I Haue deferred to write to you out of a beleefe that my letter would be of little power towards the mitigating of that great sorrow to which they said you were growen subiect And I thought I should take a better course to be vttering my selfe to our Lord who is the Lord of all comfort and to be recommending you to him then to be speaking to you by my letters But yet because they haue beene demaunded with soe great instance which serues to assure mee how much they are desired and because our lord hath power enough to doe what he lists by the meanes euen of dead letters I would not faile to doe as I was commaunded and that to which I was obliged beseeching our lord that by meanes thereof he will be pleased to breede that comfort in your hart which I desire Our Lord hath soe disposed as to haue you try what tast these afflictions haue which are gathered in this vale of teares and they not of the gentler but ruder sort Let his name be blessed his iudgments adored and his will obeyed since that which the creature owes to his Creatour is all reuerence and subiection not onely in those things which are delightfull but in those others alsoe which are most painefull Now to make try all of this obedience God is wont to teach vs in that which lyes next our harts To the end that wee may vnderstand that for soe great a lord we must be content both to doe and suffer great things Abraham carryed excessiue loue to his sonne Isaack Cenisis 22. and God was pleased to try him in that A great loue it was which Iob carryed to his seauen sonnes and yet God tooke them all away in one day And after this manner is he wont to proceede with such as he loues For by this meanes both they are made capable of testifying their loue to him and by the same hee takes occasion to doe them great fauours I know well that flesh and blood haue noe vnderstanding of this language and that they onely imploy themselues vpon feeling the greife and losse which they sustaine without caring for other things But if God be in vs we must restraine our sence and make it obedient to reason and to the will of our Lord. And though it trouble vs much yet must we not let this flesh of ours ouercome but remembring the anguish of our Lord which made him sweate dropps of bloud and say Father not my will Luc. 22. but thy will be done we are to say the same if we meane to be knowne for his disciples since he will know none for his vassalls on earth nor for his companion in heauen but the man who carryes the crosse vpon his backe Matth 10. and whoe will follow him as the sheepe his sheapheard though it should cost him his life Tell mee of what wee can iustly complaine in our afflictions since by them our sinnes grow to be discharged and our selues made to ressemble the sonne of God For what a bould irreuerēce should it be that slaues would not passe by that lawe by which their Lord did passe and that adopted sonnes should not be content to endure that which the naturall sonne endured who was more beloued by God the Father then his first begotten sonne and whoe was more loaden with variety of paines then hee Esay 53. Hee was the man of greife and be who knew by experience what belonged to affliction And if you be able to count the dropps of the sea you may alsoe perhaps count his sorrowes Will it then seeme reason to you that the sonne of God being soe in anguish and all wounded with greife euen to the death wee should passe all our liues without drinking once of vinager and gall Matth. 26. What is become of that shame which wee ought to haue if heere wee should lett him suffer alone and yet pretend to raigne with him in heauen Let all creatures be at last vnbeguiled and know that if the king of heauen did enter into his kingdome by tribulations we also must enter in by the same way There is noe other way but Iesus Christ and hee crucified whoesoeuer seekes any other will not finde it and whosoeuer walkes by any other will loose himselfe and hee will see that though it may be a kind of vnsauoury thing to suffer in this life it is worse to suffer in the next O blindenes of the sonnes of Adam whoe take noe care of the future soe that the present may passe to their contentement Not valewing that which brings in true profitt but that which giues vs gust Not looking towards reason but passion And therefore doe they lament when they ought to thinke themselues happy and they reioyce when they haue more cause to mourne What is all this present prosperity but a smoake which by little and little will be dispersed in such sort as that wee shall see nothing of it And what are all the yeares of our life but a short sleepe out of which when wee awake wee finde our selues but to haue beene abused And vpon any little trouble which arriues we are drawne to forgett our former pleasures yea and it giues vs a kinde of paine to haue enioyed them If then wee finde soe great in constancy in this why doe wee not seeke that other And since wee see every day that this is slipping out of our hands why doe wee not seeke that which lasts indeede and will make our felicity eternall If hitherto wee haue beene in blindenes let vs now
at length open our eyes And if prosperitie did once tell vs that there was somewhat heere which might content vs let now the gall of tribulation be applyed to our eyes and giue vs light to see that in this world wee are truly miserable and that we are not in our owne Country but in a very painefull banishment and soe raysing first our hartes to heauen let our conuersation be alsoe there This is the end why our Lord hath punished you that you may make more and more account of him the more you see your selfe in want otherwise doe not conceiue that God takes pleasure in your paine but because he is mercifull he hath a tender feeling of your teares Onely he will put this touch of wormewood into your cupp that soe hauing discharged your hart of all humaine comfort you may haue your leaning place vpon him alone God hath taken one comfort from you but it is to giue you another for soe he is wont to doe He hath made you a widow but it is that he may make himselfe your Father since Father of the forsaken Psal 67. is his name Many afflictions will not faile to offer themselues to you in this widowhood and in many things you will finde the want of him who was wont to remedy you in them And in many of your freinds you shall finde little helpe and little fidelity and lesse gratitude but in all these things God will haue you make recourse to him and conferre with him about the troubles you shall be in and that as with a true Father you ease your hart with him And if with that hart you call vpon him and trust your selfe in his hands infallibly you shall meete with a sure refuge in all your difficulties and a perfect guide in all your wayes And in any tymes without your knowing by whose meanes or how it comes to passe you shall finde your busines done to your hand much better then you could haue imagined and you shall then vnderstand by experience how great a freind God is to the afflicted and how truely he dwells with them and makes himselfe a solicitour of their causes And if at any tyme he doe not giue you that which you desire it will be to giue you that which shall be fitt For so doth this celestiall phisitian proceede with them who goe to him for their recovery and whoe haue a greater desire to be cured then that their taste be pleased Depart not you from his hands and cure though it should put you to much paine Desire him not to doe what you will but what he will Let your weapons be your prayers and your teares and they not lost teares for that which our Lord hath taken from you but liuing teares for that our Lord may be pleased to pardon him and to saue you For what doth that superfluous paine serue which they tell mee you giue your selfe but onely for the adding of sinne to paine But now you know that as wee haue no liberty to laugh idely or vainely soe neither haue we any to weepe superfluously But both in the one and in the other we must be obedient to the holy will of our Lord. Why doe you complaine why I say doe you complaine Either you are a sinner and then you are to be clensed by this affliction or els you are a iust person and then you must bee tryed that you may be crowned whether it be the one or the other you must giue thanks to our lord with your whole hart and resolue to loue the end and reason of this correction though the thing it selfe be vnpleasing This we are taught by holy Scripture Hester 5. which relates how Hester kissed the end of Assuerus rod. Let not your tyme passe away in glutting your eyes with teares but for the loue of our Lord apply your selfe to send your hart vp to him and to prepare your selfe for that passage whereby you see others march before It is enough Lady it is enough that you haue already made soe large a feast to flesh and blood Dry your eyes at last and let not that tyme passe in bewayling death which was graunted you for the gayning of life Call to minde that our Lord droue them out of the howse who lamented the death of a yong maide and he said that she was not dead but that she slept For indeede amongst Christiās to dye is but to fall a sleepe till that day come when we shall awake againe to take our bodyes and so to raigne with Christ our Lord both in body and soule And confider that hee for whome you weepe is not dead but sleepes and that in a sleepe of peace since he both liued end dyed a good Christian Why should it trouble you soe much that our lord would draw the man whome you loued out of this place which is soe miserable and would carry him into the way of saluation And if he haue left some troubles to you take them vp with a good will soe that he may goe on to his repose And if his absence afflict you much yet be comforted with this that shortly you shall see him againe since our dayes in this life are soe very fewe and one of vs hath soe little aduantage ouer the other in dying a little sooner or later You shall doe alsoe well to conceiue that our Lord tooke him away because hee was well prepared and that he hath lest you heere to the end that you may well prepare your selfe And since you serued our Lord with alacrity in the state of matrimony serue him now in the state of widowhood and in the trouble of that state with patience That soe if then you gayned thirty fold you may now gaine sixty And soe you shall leade a life if not of gust yet at the least of great profitt towards the purging of your sinnes towards the imitation of the Crucifixe and towards a most certaine purchase of his eternall kingdome But for the obteyning of all this you must demaund grace of our Lord with prayers with teares with vsing to read deuout bookes and with receiuing the celestiall bread of the most Blessed Sacrament And soe lift vpp your deiected hart and walke roundly on For before you can gett to heauen you will haue a longe way to make And if you be to enter there this will not be the last affliction which you shall haue For the Iewell which you expect is of soe inestimable a valew it being God himselfe that how much soeuer it cost it can neuer be deere And since you are one day to possesse it you are now to reioyce in the hope thereof And complaine not of your afflictions but say soe great is the good for which I hope that I feele not the misery which I haue Let Iesus Christ our Lord accomplish all this in you as I desire and begg of him Amen A letter of the Authour to a virgin whoe was disposing
her selfe to leaue the world and to consecrate herselfe to God he animates her in that purpose and shewes the great blessings which shee would finde both in life and death by the espousalls which shee meant to make with Christ our Lord. DEuout seruant of Iesus Christ The contentment which my soule tooke in vnderstanding of the new purpose you were growen to haue of taking the king of heauen for your spouse yow who might soe well haue matched your selfe heere on earth was so very great that I know not with what words to expresse it And though when it was tould mee it were new to mee as not hauing vnderstood thereof before yet neither was it wholly new for already I had in a manner eyed you out for that lord who created you and I had begged of him as a particular fauour that he would bestow you vpon mee for himselfe Blessed be his holy name for euer who hath now done it soe very completely as I knew not soe much as how to wish But that ioy which your soule founde before in seeing it self soe disintriqued from all the basenes of this earth and finding it selfe already to haue receiued that pledge and pawne of loue from that heauenly king what was it els but a cleare signe that this mutation which you haue made proceeded not from any incōstancy of your humour but from the worke of God who hath conveighed his hand into your hart and therein hath produced that desire of heauen which now you haue And he also gaue you that great ioy as a testimony and earnest penny of those many and great and pure ioyes which if you proue faithfull to him he resolues to giue you in heauen the least whereof is incōparably more to be esteemed then a husband of this world and children and estate and whatsoeuer els the whole earth can giue O if you had but tryed how sweete God is to that soule which turnes her backe to the world to place her eyes vpon her Creatour O if you did but know what that sweetnes is of the celestiall spouse towards the comforting of those soules who cast all transitory delight away and like chast turtles refuse to take comfort vpon earth but send vp sighes for loue of their Lord who is in heauen who are like the doue which returnes home to the hand of the owner as cleane as shee went forth without touching any dead body soe much as with her feete What is there soe flourishing in this world which is any better then a dead and stincking carkasse And for what then doth it serue vs to ioyne our selues to that which will infect vs and which may leaue vs thirtie thousand tymes more disgusted with the bitternes which followes then with the pleasure which it yeilded for the present You must render Christ our Lord many thankes whoe hath giuen you light whereby you know how to distinguish betweene that the pretious and the base betweene eternall and-temporall betweene an immortall God and a mortall man And for hauing giuen you grace to make soe happy an election as whereby God is accepted and man despised and in that for the loue of that heauenly bedd of state the care of any earthly bedd is throwne aside◠how rich soeuer it might haue beene Be therefore faithfull to him whoe takes you for his spouse and who will be sure to be so faithfull to you as to make you finde by experience that hee is not in iest when he calls himselfe the pure Spouse of pure Virgins for you shall finde the assembly of all blisse in him Nor can it proue like the marriages which are made betweene flesh and bloud wherein vsually the little contentment which is had at first is followed by the bitternes of repētance But this worke of ours giues not onely contentment at the first but the more you conuerse with this Lord the better you shall know him and the better you know him the more you will loue him For he is not like men who when they are more frequented let vs easily see that they haue more faults and he who was a good husband vpon the marriage day within a yeare proues such as that there is noe liuing with him But in Christ our Lord you shall see nothing which may disgust you and as little in that Blessed mother of his who is the mother in lawe to all the spouses of her sonne O blessed houre wherein that good purpose was sowed in your hart and much more blessed will that other bee when you shall finde your selfe so visited by your spouse as to make you say O my Lord and when could I deserue these fauours of thee that I should finde this hidden treasure for the purchase whereof to pay the price of a thowsand liues were to buy it very cheape O how happy and prosperous is this marriage to be and of how excessiue ioy both to heauen and earth God the Father is pleased to see that there be soules on earth whoe loue his onely begotten sonne soe well as that for his loue they leaue the loues of flesh and blood not onely those which are forbidden by his lawe but euen those of marriage which are lawfull For it is a signe of greater loue when for his sake we forbeare that which we might lawfully vse The sonne is he to whome the soule is espoused and for this hee dyed that he might haue some soules which would loue him at least with spirituall purity and others whoe might doe it not onely spiritually but euen with the body alsoe vntouched The holy Ghost is most pure and farre estraunged from flesh and when he findes a soule which resolutely despises carnall delights there doth he lodge his eyes and fills them with spirituall comforts and will neuer permitt that the soule be empty which shall refuse to feede vpon carnall foode Our Blessed Lady is the mother of the spouse and they are very like one another for shee alsoe is all amiable benigne a beginner a protectour and an aduocate of virgins and shee highly reioyces that there is virginity vpon earth for that is the flower which she planted There want not pages to giue attendance at this marriage for the Angells are seruants to the king of heauen and ready for all that which the spouse shall neede Neither yet is there want of children which the world is wont to desire soe much and they come without throwes of trauaile and without paine in bringing vp and without that greife which growes when either they liue not well or dye too soone The children of this marriage are good workes which be rightly called a man's or woman's fruite What comfort will he feele when for the loue of Christ our Lord he conceiues a good purpose to giue an almes or some such other thing and when afterward he shall put it in execution what pleasure will he take by the birth thereof These children giue both ease and honour to their
mother This Spouse hath noe neede of a dowry for the children which shee brings will bring it and that soe richly as wherewith she may gaine and purchase heauen it selfe And they make their mother liue in soe perfect ease that I giue you my word that when you compose your selfe to sleepe at night you shall finde your selfe in greater peace and rest then if you were Mystres of the whole earth and whatsoeuer can be desired therein And tell me now what can be thought of in this world which may arriue or euen approach to the least of these aduantages For if there be any little paltry pleasure heere euery hower of such pleasure carryes with it the counterpoyse of more then a hundred howers of greife and paine And if heere there be any pleasure without paine it will at last haue an end and either the spouse will dye before her fellow spouse or els he before her and soe all proues paine And besides the death of children it is a greife to a mother to part from them euen vpon other occasions in such sort as that they enioy not one another But reioyce you O virgin in Christ our Lord. For your spouse shall neuer dye And when you dye you will be hemmed in by your children which are those good workes that you haue wrought and they will not put you to paine by your leauing them for they goe with you into the other world and they accompany you euen to the very throne of God and they will plentifully repay all the labour and charge which you haue beene at with them and the mother shall be made happy for the loue of the children More ouer death makes noe diuorce in this case but rather puts the spouse and her fellow spouse together And he shall deliuer vs for he is the Lord of life and death And noe deuill shall presume to steale her away whome God hath taken vnder the protection of his fauour and hath honoured with the name of his spouse Then will the Angells come and serue and present her before Almighty God singing prayses to him and powring forth benedictioÌ„s vpon her and saying to her after this manner Come O spouse of Christ receiue that crowne which is prepared for thee by our Lord. The virgin mother will not then absent herselfe being accompanyed with a world of other virgins who haue done in this world that which you are doeing now and are farre from repenting themselues thereof In fine you shall goe out of this world in company of your Peeres where our Lord hath already prepared that celestiall bedd of state for yow that you may eternally be full and rich and royally prouided for in the house and presence of our Lord God contemplating that infinite beauty of his from one moment to another one hower whereof is so high a reward that by way of recompence it farre exceedes the proportion of what you suffer yea and all those afflictions which all the men of the whole world did euer suffer in tyme past or can euer suffer in tyme to come There shall you possesse all good and there shall you haue obtayned all that for which you were created and you shall bee soe very full of God as that it cannot be expressed nor soe much as thought For there shall you finde the whole bosome of your soule euen to regorge with ioy like one whoe were ingulfed into a whole sea of vnspeakeable sweetenes whereby he were enuironed on all sides Then shall you see and exclayme and enioy and possesse the Lord of all things and say whome I haue loued I haue obteyned and whome I haue sought I haue found and hee for whome I left the world is growen my pay and my reward and him will I praise and loue through the eternitie of all eternityes Amen A Letter written to a deuout person wherein is treated of Humility and Pride and of the perfection of the loue of God GOD giue you Sir a good Lent and that soe you may exteriourly take ashes in the begining of this holy tyme that the vertue of holy humility which is signifyed thereby may euer haue a resting place in your soule For to whome our Lord giues true knowledge and greife for what he was at that tyme when he went estraunged from God him hath he deliuered from the daungerous blindenes of pride and him doth he make capable of all those spirituall blessings which it may concerne him to haue The holy Scripture saith The begining of all mischeife is pride and he whoe is possessed by it shall be possessed by all manner of maledictions that is of vices For as kings are not wont to goe alone soe is Pride accompanyed with many sinnes And soe alsoe on the other side humility is neuer alone since according to Saint Iames. God giues his grace to such as are humble which Grace is the Mother of all vertue The proud man seekes after honour and afflicts himselfe when he is contemned but the person who is humble is out of countenance when hee is well treated and is glad when he is despised because he findes that Iustice is done thereby which Iustice he loueâ— as a person whoe is truly Iust The proud man is euer in want of somewhat because how much soeuer he haue either of his owne or by the guift of others he still conceiues himselfe to be worthy of more but the huÌ„ble man is alwayes in aboundance yea and in superfluity for he acknowledges himselfe to be vnworthy euen of the very earth whereof he treades yea and he esteemes hell it selfe to be a punishment which comes short of his sinnes The proud man cannot endure nor liue with any body noe nor euen with himselfe in peace But the humble man can liue with all the world for he abases himselfe to all he endures all esteeming them for his betters in his very hart To the proud man it seemes an vnsupportable thing to obey the will of others whether it be of God or man but the man whoe is humble submitts and diminishes himselfe and soe is enabled to goe in by the straite gate of doeing the will of others whether it be of the Creatour or of the creatures Great are the blessings which comes to vs in these ashes of humility and men must take heede that they be not found without it vnlesse they meane to be without God For S. Augustine saith How high art thou O Lord and yet â—he â—umble of hart are the house wherein thou choosest to aweâ— And the holy Scripture saith Vpon whome will I looke or vpon whome shall my spiriâ—â— rest but vpon the person who feares and trembles at the voice of my wordes This humility which makes a man thinke basely of himselfe is farre from being abase thing nor is it a fruite which growes on earth but in heauen it is and God impartes it to such as digg deepely in their owne dunge raking vp and ruminating vpon their faultes and
he should haue done And this is to walke according to truth giuing that to God which is his That is to say all manner of good without the least mixture of any ill And by this consideration being rooted well in the bowels of a man's hart as a truth which were deliuered by the very mouth of God a man rises from leaning vpon himselfe as from some broken reede and he euer goes leaning vpon him who vphoulds all things He behoulds himselfe and hee sees nothing but that which is to be lamented and he behoulds God in whose goodnes he confides without any feare to be forsaken And for asmuch as God is soe faithfull as that he neuer leaues them whoe goe to him and for that he hath soe great care of them as that infinitely sooner there will be want of water in the Sea and of light in the sunne then of mercy in him therefore doe they runne and fly because God carryes them and they falle not because be sustaines them and they wander not because he directs them and they shall not be condemned because our Lord giues his kingdome to such as become like little children Bee therefore sure my freind that thou vnderstand thy selfe right since our Lord doth soe much expect it of thee And of all that which passes in thee lay the glory aside for God and take the shame and dishonour to thy selfe And place thy hope of being able to proceede as thou hast begun in that Lord who put thee in the way with noe meaning I assure thee to leaue thee in the middest thereof but to carry thee on to enioy the society of his spouses in heauen There doeth he intend to doe thee extraordinary honour and therefore procure not thou to be honoured heere For being taken by the sēt of such an excellēt feast as that it is vtterly against all reason that thou shouldst glutt thy selfe with the basenes of any thing which this world affoardes For there is nothing vpon earth which can sauour well in his mouth who hath tasted though but a litle of that celestiall foode Turne thy backe to all things which thou art soone to leaue place not thy hart on that which is soe instantly to passe away It is very litle which heere thou art able to endure for God yea though thou alone shouldest endure all that which can be endured heere For considering hell which thou hast deserued and heauen with which he meanes thou shalt be rewarded since he hath placed thee in the way thither and againe waighing that which heere he hath endured for thee it is not to be accounted of noe nor so much as to be greately considered which thou either doest or mayest endure for him Esteeme thou God for soe pretious a thing that whatsoeuer he growes to cost thee thou maiest still beleeue it to bee very little yea though he cost thee thy life yet doest thou buy him very cheape In the next world thou shalt see that thou wert not deceiued in the exchaunge which thou hast made but finding them to be treated like madd fooles and miserable persons who lodged their harts and besotted themselues vpon this present world and forgot the promises which God made concerning the future thou wilt giue praises to our Lord in that thou being once deceiued he vouchsafed to vndeceiue thee and whilest thou wert casting thine eyes downe to earth he was pleased to raise them vp to heauen and thou being a slaue to vanity hee made thee a sonne of his owne and when thou wert liuing without any hope of diuine promises he grew to place thee in that way wherein thou maiest hope that he will helpe thee now to liue well and afterwards to dye well And that when this exile is ended he will conduct thee to the land of the liuing which is the cleere fruition of the face of God Where thou shall enioy soe great happines that it belongs to God alone to know it perfectly as to him alone it belongs both to be able and to be willing to giue it And this will our Lord doe not for thy sake but for his owne because hee is good and his mercy endures for euer To whome for all and of all and in all be glory and praise for all eternities of eternities Amen A Letter of the Authour to a person whome he exhortes to bee gratefull and carefull to preserue the guift of the Grace of God It seemes he was in some feare that the partie was returning to sinne I Remember you often and the loue I beare you makes me neuer thinke of you without some feare and trembling at my hart considering the many dāgers wherein your soule may be for which our Lord hath done so much that if he were still in case to be weary without doubt he would now be very weary But he was weary once for all when he tooke our mortall flesh vpon him and from those wearynesses of his doth result that care which now without any wearinesse at all he takes of such as he is drawing to himselfe O Sir how much reason haue you to be gratefull for the good which you haue receiued and carefull at the least to keepe it and fearefull least it should slippe out of your hāds And I sayd Carefull at the least to keepe it because he who can make coniecture that he hath receiued the guift of Iustification must employ himselfe like a diligent negociatour that with fiue talents he may gayne other fiue Improuing that good which God beganne in his soule and getting euery day a new parte in heauen since the gate is open for our getting more and more in euery minute of our life It is most certaine that if we should tell a man that there were a very long way in the steppes whereof there were great felicity to be obtayned yea and that for the making of one single pace they would giue him the worth of a whole kingdome and that though a man should goe all his life time in that way they would neuer depriue him of his rewarde but that still it should holde on after the rate of the first pace which he had made I doe not thinke that in the whole world there is any one worldly man who in this case would not be so great a walker as that he would hardly be euer perswaded to sitt still Now if couetousnesse of visible things be able to worke so great effects what will it be fitt that the loue of that which is inuisible and eternall should worke in our soules but a vigilant care to be still walking on in the way of God with resolutions as liuely and more then they were which we entertayned the first day when we entred into his seruice Who is he that can be so absurdly inconsiderate as not to holde himselfe a deepe debter to Almighty God for the many guifts which he hath receiued from him in recompence as I may say of so many sinnes of
may be sure that thinges goe wel with you that I may haue strēgth to beare that pēnāce which you shall impose vpon me for my negligece Negligence I meane in writing to you but not in remembring you For in this our Lord hath not permitted that I should be forgetfull For soe great was the loue which I carryed towards you vpon seeing that you were growne to be the true seruant of God and you entred soe deepely into my hart when I considered those mercyes which our Lord had vouchsafed to you that it neuer parted more from thence though it haue failed to strengthen and comfort you in this way as it should haue done Pardon me my good Sister for the loue of Iesus Christ and bee not cruel against yourfelfe but be as cruell against me as you shall thinke fit Be sure to loue our Lord for he deserues not to be ill vsed for the negligence of his seruant And if you should haue forgotten your duety to him you know his condition already well enough and that he hath promised to receiue the soule which will retourne and that if you will forgiue me he wil pardon you And he will shew you such mercyes as he shewed before and wil enable you to sing those Canticles to him which you sung in your first beginning and birth to Christ our Lord. Doe not now giue cause of ioy to those infernal spirits since there was a time wherein you wounded them with sorrow Doe not greiue your good Angel since he hath giuen God much praise for you and hath reioyced at your vocation Doe not reuerse that solemne Festiuity which was celebrated in the kingdome of heauen vpon the day of your cōuersion And if through my sinnes any of these things should haue happened yet still you must not be dismayed For our Lord will stretch forth his armes and will receiue you since he stretched them out for you vpon the Crosse And it is vsual with him to loue that person more who hauing runn away out of the warr doth yet returne to fight with greater courage then that other who though he neuer forsook the feild yet was neuer but slack in doeing him seruice This is a kind of warr wherein the losse of the victory consists not in the not receiuing any woundes but in flying out of the battaille rendring himselfe to the enemye in the quality of a man who is ouercome Take courage and begin yet once againe for you shall find Christ our Lord close at hand to help you And seing your humility and how much you are ashamed of yourselfe he will not put you to confusion Nor when he shall perceiue that you are lying prostrate at his feete will he cast you off or kick you out of his sight And if you call vpon those intercessours of yours who are in heauen they will not make themselues deafe to the cryes which you send vp from hence As for me because I haue made the fault whereby you haue incurred the inconuenience if there be any I wil alsoe performe the pennance as I said before And I wil beseech our Lord to restore and raise that vp which my negligence made fit for ruine Let all your thoughts beate vpon his hauing begunn the worke and not vpon my hauing neglected it And then he will put things in good order because he is the true louer of soules and pretends not to see mens sinnes that soe they may retract them by sorrow I beseech him euen by what himself is that he wil keep you in close protection vnder his wings and make you gratious in his sight and that he wil punish me in whatsoeuer sort he shal thinke fit And I beg of you by him that you wil write to me though I confesse myselfe to be vnworthy of your answeare A letter of the Authour to a woman who was afflicted with grieuous and dangerous temptations He encourages her to suffer and shewes that the fraite of afflictions is great when they are well borne BEE comforted Esaye 40. bee comforted O you my people sayth the lord your God speake to the hart of Ierusalem and call her hither for her punishment is ended and her sinne is pardoned Confide my good sister for these words are spoaken to you and they commaunde you to be comforted through his fauour who will defende you though your owne infirmities and those infernall powers striue to plucke you downe But if they be carefull to persecute you more carefull is Christ our lord to ouershadow you and to defende you and to fetch you of from this combatt adorned with new Crownes which are incomparably more to be esteemed and reioyced in then your tribulation deserues to be lamented What is the matter what is that which afflicts you what is that which frights you your God is the curer of these wounds be not troubled there at For at the instant that he closes them he will shine to you as a sunne seauen times more bright then before you were subiect to this affliction your spirituall prosperities will incomparably excell those which are past since that which you suffer now doth so farre exceede in bitternesse that which formerly you suffered For these flowds of anguish vse to serue but for a preface to an aboundance of spirituall delight as the tribulations of Iob were messengers to him Iob 24. of a doubling of his estate and comfort which God bestowed vpon him God afflicted him first and then he comforted him he tryed him and then he crowned him he hid himself from him a litle but afterwards he shewed himselfe more deare and sweeter then he had seemed before to be offended This is the stile which our lord holdes with his seruants He mortifies them so farre that he seemes as if he would place them in the verie torments of hell but then instantly againe he drawes them out and putts them into perfect ease and so as that the whale is neither able to retaine him nor yet so much as to touch him with anie offence whome she had swallowed Our aduersaries the deuills Ionas 2 are full of pride and they threaten to devoure vs but let vs say to them in their teeth Come and spare not for you shall be ouercome Take what councell you list it shall come to nothing for God is on our side Let it not my good sister passe once so much as in your thought to be afrayd of these infernall wolues For hee who conquered them once vpon the Crosse hath conquered them in you and will do so againe and will despoyle them to their great shame And how soeuer it may seeme to you that the encounter is fierce and the enemie so strong as to fright you be not yet dismayde E saye 19. For it is our lord who sayth Shall perhaps the prize be taken out of the hand of the strong man And shall that which was seised by the mightie be resumed Most certainly the
the loue of him And if God will vouchsafe to open our eyes that so Psal 118. with Dauid wee may consider the wonderfull things of his lawe wee shal finde that not onely there is daunger hanging ouer vs through this self leue in those things which are playnely and grossely visible and exteriour but more and much more euen in those other things wherein many thinke that true sanctity doth consist And if you aske mee what those things are I say that they are noe other then vertues the peace of soule the kingdome of heauen yea and euen our lord himself And thus you may see how great our daunger is since there is daunger euen in that which is security and how great the mischeif is of proper and inordinate loue since the stinge thereof thrustes it self into such holy things Not that it is able to make them ill for that it cannot doe but in regard that by causing vs to desire good things as our owne last end and for loue of our selues wee make our selues ill since wee inuert that order which the loue of God prescribes which is to loue that which is good and our selues withall for the seruice of God and for his loue and all this in the same manner and with the same measure which is best pleasing to his Diuine Maiesty The loue of God doth not consist whatsoeuer we will needes be saying in the desire of much vertue noe nor euen of God himself if it be inordinately done and with excesse of affliction as wee are wont to desire other things For if I be moued for the loue of God to desire any thing my maine desire to haue that thing must bee to haue it if God will and how and when and to what proportion he will and not to bee greedy of it for my owne good but to the end that the will of God may bee accomplished though his pleasure were that my soule should remayne without vertue and that I should neuer enter into heauen I say though his pleasure should be so for indeede it is not But at the least our will must soe be lodged in the will of God as that it may bee prepared to will any thing which God would haue vs will without any manner of exception For if our owne self-loue bee aliue in vs that mischeif is so much the wors and more inward by how much the better the thing is which wee desire For in these things as seeming to bee very safe a man is wont to extend his appetite as farre as he lists And whilest wee say that wee desire the loue of God wee are full of self-loue which makes vs desire him for the loue of our selues without any rule or measure whereas it ought to bee iust the contrary I remember some Doctours tell mee that Lucifer was the first whoe committed this sinne and how the thing which he desired was good namely felicity but that he desired it not how nor when nor in whome nor for whome it was fitt that he should haue desired it but with an vnbridled appetite which aymed at his owne priuate good as any couetous wretch might desire much pelfe or any ambitious man much honour Certainely if the ends and rootes of our desiring one and the same thing be different the thing it self which is materialy desired falles out after a sorte not to be the same But rather as I sayd before the better the thing it self is the more daungerous is the inordinate desire thereof For there is nothing worse then for a man to desire any thing as his owne last end for the loue of himself This last end is that soueraigne God of Goods which is God whoe ought to bee the ayme and end of all our desires And now if any should say by not vnderstanding well what I affirme that I seeme to teach that wee must not be feruent in desiring to become more and more vertuous but that wee must as well leaue all to God which belong to the soule as that which concernes the body my answere is That as in these exteriour things wee must bee diligent but not afflict our selues with excesse of care and anguish but must putt our selues wholy into the hands of God and take with patience whatsoeuer comes so in those things which importe the soule wee must be sure to be more diligent but yet with condition that if notwithstanding our diligence wee cannot haue all wee would wee must not suffer our selues to growe impatient For that would be a worse fault then the former which gaue vs soe much trouble But wee must conforme our selues wholy to the will of God to whome humility and patience in the midst of our frailties is more pleasing then a proud deuotion and complacence in the strength which wee conceane our selues to haue And if wee cannot obtayne at the hands of God that wee may liue without faults yet lett vs render him most humble thankes for hauing giuen vs the knowledge of them For was perhaps any other thing the perdition of that proud Pharisee but the cōtentment Luc. 18. which he tooke in his owne good workes And did any thing saue the Publicane but the knowledge which hee had of his ill deedes and the displeasur which he conceiued against himself for them desiring mercy of our Lord It is not the case of euery one to conserue humility in the middest of great vertues but there be very few whoe are not disgusted with their owne faultes And therefore though the former of these two wayes be higher yet the later is safer All which is dispensed by our God who is of soueraigne wisedome and who guides vs by seuerall wayes to the same end which is himself And though wee be neuer so couetous mee thinks this ought to stay our stomach with a sufficiency of comfort that wee may hope to goe to heauen whether it be whith the height and perfection of vertue as some goe or by the knowledge of what we want and doeing pennance for the same as many others doe But notwithstanding all this wee must not forbeare to imitate the best wee see since our Lord hath giuen vs a desire thereof and since an account is to be demaunded of vs if wee doe it not Wee must therefore desire to be better soe that yet withall wee loose not our inward peace though wee obtayne not all wee desire For otherwise I doe not thinke that euer there was a man in the world leauing him onely aside whome euery body knowes who desired not to be better then he was but yet this did not take theire peace from them because they desired nothing out of any particular appetite which neuer confesses that it hath enough but onely for the loue of God with whoe 's distribution and portion they would be well content though he gaue them lesse esteeming that to bee true loue which contents it self with what he giues more then to desire to haue much though
will see that by the former of them you were bound to lodge your loue vpon our lord after a very particular manner because the contract of marriage obliges either partie to loue the other And on the second day our lord shewed the loue which he bore to you and he gaue you strength to pay according to your weakenes the loue which you owe to him For what haue you out of your owne stocke but obligations and what meanes haue you to pay any thing towards the coming out of debt you being a poore ingaged creature who indeed deserued to be euer kept in prison in miserie and in chaynes Psal 106. as Dauid saith But the rich Iesus Christ hath giuen you the plenty of his grace whereby you may know and loue him and may ouercome your contraries and plucke downe that strong Golias which is the Deuill who biddes battaille against all such 1 king 17. as resolue to serue Christ our Lord. It is not reason I say it is notreason that you should forgett what you owe nor how God hath enabled you to pay And for that which God hath giuen you you are much the more bound to serue him For to be a religious woman is the coÌ„dition of many but to receiue soe particular lights and fauours from heauen wherewith to serue our lord is the case of few Abraham bestowed guifts euen vpon those children which hee had by lesse principall wiues but he left his inheritance and estate to the lawfull sonne of that wife of his who was most beloued that wee may vnderstand thereby the difference of the guifts of God which hee imparteth in this life to seuerall persons Our lord be thanked for that your lines and lottes are fallen into the best ground forasmuchas grace was giuen yow whereby to make you chaunge your state of life and to despise the world with your whole heart and to despise also your selfe and to obey the superiour of your Monastery as your mother and to loue all your sisters and Almighty God more then the very apples of your eyes This is that caelestiall fauour which was done you that you might be rich and well supplied with all thinges necessary in Christ our Lord crucified and from thence comes this soe hopefull and happy change which you haue made in the manner of your life and that inuisible beauty wherewith your soule is endewed And what now remaines but that you be like one who hath acquired great worldly riches and who instantly entertaines seruants to â—eepe it And soe you must be carefull to keepe that which our lord hath giuen you least els your soule turne beggar after it hath beene soe rich which is a kind of life of more affliction and greife then theirs whoe neuer knew what belonged to riches Remember what your spouse saith and conceiue that he saith it to you as indeed he doth Now thou art whole soe thou sinne noe more least a worse thing happen to thee Liue with a holy doubt and care how you may keepe that safe which our lord hath giuen you and how yet withall you may gaine fine other talents to the fiue you haue and whether or noe you haue oyle in your lampe and that such as may bee able to last many yeares And till the very houre of your death let this worde sound in your eares Behold your spouse comes Matt. 25. goe forth to meete him For if you liue with this care you will still be well employed and you will not haue leasure to cast your eyes vpon any thing of this life For this alone suffices to giue vs enough to thinke vpon yea and to grow weake withall The holy scripture saith that this alone is enough to breake our sleepes And if you haue not this care I shal be full of sorrow for it For by the want thereof vanity and curiosity doe streight enter in and as many tales of the liues of others as they make who take noe heede to their owne And soe by little and little a soule growes to be seauen times worse then it was before I expect not to receiue such fruites and soe full of bitternesse at your charitable handes but rather the fruites of benediction and sweetnes like a tree which is planted neare the streames of water which with the leaues and with the fruite giues that man a gladd heart who tooke care thereof But yet if by humane frailty you be fallen into any negligence as it happens sometimes see that instantly you wake and breake of that sleepe least it proue inâ—â—tall to you And beg pardon of our lord who is full of mercy and benignity For though he be angry with the defectes of such as haue already knowne him and will punish them yet he driues not away his children and he giues them correction not with fury but with the rod of a Father Goe you therefore instantly to him though you know you haue offended him for perhaps hee may haue shewed you his anger to the end that yow should remoue it from him by your humility and purpose of amendment He will instantly forgiue you and sometimes he impartes particular fauours euen as if it were in recompence of our carelessenes Take heed you grow not stiff and fixed in tepidity for this is a disease very hardly cured And yet on the other side you must not be dismayed if you be not alwayes in soe great feruour as were fit For you are but a woman and noe Angell you are but weake and not indewed with much strength The greatest courtesy you can doe your greatest enemy is to remaine fallen in the way as some cripple might be in a slough of mire with the bones as it were of your soule broken through distrust as if now you had noe more to doe with the busines of getting vp to heauen Our lord's pleasure is that you should thinke highly of his goodnes and that he driues them not away who knowing their owne weaknes goe and seeke for strength and remedy at his hands And indeed our pride is soe very great that for the cure thereof he lettes vs fall many times to the committing of these very things which had formerly beene very farre from vs that soe being fallen we may rise againe And then knowing by experience what kinde of thinges we are we grow to thanke our lord for that which he is to vs and from that time forward we despise our selues we begin to liue with greater doubt and care and feare least we happen to loose that a second time which had beene lost by vs once before Thus doth our most wise phisitian and most louing father draw our cure out of our very woundes themselues and life out of our death and he shewes his goodnes by our wickednes And though we fight sometimes against him with the weapons of sinne which giues him prouocation yet his goodnes steps out like a conquerour and impartes a thousand millions of benefits
contenting of him and to be dead towards the seeking of your owne contentment soe much the more happy shall you be Spend not time at all in thinking whether it were best to accept or els to refuse that busines whereof they wrott to you that without doubt it would be done For this is the signe of a hart not deliuered vp to recollection and which easily is induced to loose the present tyme with care of the future Forget it and beseech our Lord that it may not proue a temptation to you since he knowes your weaknes And liue without perplexity or affliction of minde solemnizing such a Feast to our Lord as that your hart beeing asked what care it hath it may answeare you none at all but onely that I may be soe happy as to giue this little tyme to our Lord. All that swarues from this is not sound whatsoeuer coÌ„plexion it may carry And heere it comes fittly in to weigh what it is to bee changing from one thing to another All those are effects of a heart which is but slack and not imployed about that whereunto it was called which is a continuall intercourse with our Lord who lookes vpon it in euery moment of tyme and desires it to looke as often towardes him and to open it self to him because indeede it is his owne and to deny it self to all that which is not God O base abhominable man in whose hart God desires to repose and to giue it rest and yet the man goes labouring heere and there and God tells him the while that to the end he may finde rest he must enter into himselfe and must dye there to himself and that so he shall finde his true safety life and that a certaine Sunne shall then rise to him which will discharge all those former clouds and sorrowes he shall come to vnderstand certaine things whereof he knowes nothing yet Humility and diligence are needfull heere for the keeping of our harts shutt vp And our Lord dyed for this that wee might haue strength to dye to our selues for his sake to keepe our harts recollected Christ our Lord be your light But take you heede of being desirous to knowe things concerning Mentall Prayer more by speculation then by practise For our lord is the teacher of Infants absâ—ondit se sua a prudentibus he hides both himselfe and his secrets from all such as are but worldly wise A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallier whome hee sought to carry on to the state of Religion THese great fishes are hard to be taken and a man had neede make many turnes with them vp and downe the riuer till they be weary that soe through the little strength they haue left the hooke may quiettly fetch them vp And therefore wee must not meruaile if our lord giue you soe many knockes contradicting that which you had formerly in your thought and desire And the cause of all I conceiue without doubt to be your owne proper will and iudgment which be hard thinges to subdue and still are ready to rebell Wee haue need that our lord should tire them out with a multitude of blowes and should kill them to the end that they may noe longer liue in you but that we may continue in the faith of our lord and in obedience to his holy will I would haue you vnderstand what this curbe meanes and these tokens of reproofe which our lord shewes you For as he is praysed who is an intelligent seruant and growes acceptable to our lord thereby so is he discommended whoe vnderstandes not I say not onely the wordes but the corrections also of our lord You must conceiue that there is nothing which importes you soe much as to be vntyed from your owne opinion and conceit and that Omnis sapientia tua deuorata sit vt sic clames ad Deum de necessitatibus tuis liberet te That all your wisedome is at a non plus and that soe crieing out to God he may deliuer you out of your necessityes For what Idolatry is more preiudiciall then that a man should relye vpon his owne opinion And what mariage is soe monstrous as for a man to be married to his owne will such fearfull and abominable monsters rise from hence as that they precipitate him who breeds them into the very bottomles pit of hell If you beleiue not me doe but take order that a man may not follow his owne opinion and not loue his owne will and then I will vndertake that there shal be noe hell for him You must therefore offer your selfe as a piece of clay into the handes of that soueraigne Potter and say that to him Isay 64. which is writen Fictor noster es nos vero lutum Thou art our framer and we are not better then a piece of clay Resolue that to be the best which is contrary to your owne will For so ill affected is our will that for the onely reason why a thing is much desired a man may safely apprehend and doubt that it is not good For that which pleaseth it is ill what confidence can he then repose therein Haue great care to consider of the way wherein God guides you for you shall be called to an account thereof And when you haue learned this science you shal be wise in the sight of God You must be enamoured of nothing vnder heauen how pretious soeuer it may seeme but onely with seeking the good pleasure of God And if it should soe happen that we should obtaine noe part of that which we particularly sought yet that very thing it self is all the riches both of this world and of heauen for God is pleased thereby and the contentmeÌ„t of God is God himself and he who loues it loues God and he who professes it professes God Concerning those coÌ„plaintes which you are making against your self I well beleiue that you haue reason since you are a man and not yet in heauen And you doe well to reproue your selfe for by this meanes the reproofe which our lord makes of sinners may be remoued from you which reproofe of his would be farre greater theÌ„ we know how to imagine For who can reach to vnderstand eyther the riches of the goodnes of God or our faultes and miseries I beseech our Lord giue vs light from heauen where with to see these two Abysses which are soe different that soe the sight of our wickednesse dismay vs not but that we may be coÌ„forted by meditating vpon the goodnes of our lord For otherwise the stoutest gallant vpon earth might say well enough Cor meum derelâ—quit me My hart hath failed me Psa 38. to see soe many debts incurred by himselfe both past and present besides the danger of such as are to come I know not what we should doe with this miserable thing which is called Our selues nor why we will take Our selues for our owne or stand charged with doeing what
our selues in praysing thee since all the powers of the heauens confesse and prayse thee for God Trine and One the infinit king wise powerfull good and beautifull the pardoner of them who are conuerted towards thee the vphoulder of them who approach to thee the glorifier of them who serue thee that God of whose perfectioÌ„ there is noe end For thou surpassest all tongues and all vnderstandings and thou art onely knowne in perfection by thy selfe To thee be glory through the eternities of all eternities Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallier who went to study at Salamanca where they made him Rector of the Vniuersity Hee shewes that in the busines of seruing our Lord faynt desires are not sufficient but there must bee deeds Hee also shewes the hurts which multiplicity of busines brings to such as are but beginning to serue God I Pray God that both your goeing to that Vniuersitie your aboad there and your retourne from thence may be happy to you you knowe already that in this affaire of seruing Christ our Lord it is not enough to haue certaine faint desires but they must be accompanied with solide workes and sometimes with sweat euen as it were of bloud And I much feare least the difficulty of the way should fright you and least you might grow to loose the sweete of the kirnell because the skinne and shell is bitter The gate is straite whereby wee must enter into the way of God but after wee are entered Prou 4. wee finde that to be true by experience which is written Ducam 〈…〉 â—emitas aequitatis quas cum ingressus sueris non arctabuntur gressus tui I will leade thee by the wayes of equity into which when thou shalt bee entred thy paces shall not bee straitned And then a man findes that the yoke of Christ is not heauy to him since he reaches now his haÌ„d to theÌ„ who haue suffered temptations for his sake and he comforts them who are in teares and cures them who haue broken harts A happy affliction is that though noe other comfort did succeede it which is endured by vs because wee hould the standart of Christ our Lord vpright resoluing rather to endure the sharpe blowes of temptation then to enioy an ill peace and to haue warre with God You must humble your selfe much before our Lord and lament your owne misery in the sight of his mercy For there is not meanes whereby any good may come to vs but onely by the fauour of heauen And there is noe way to obtayne this fauour but onely the profounde knowledge of our misery crying out from the very bottome of our harts to that lord who dwells on high and driues not such persons from him as are ouerwrought with the burden of their miseries and who euen swelt in the lake as the Prophet Ieremy saith with a weighty stone vpon their backs I like well that you resolue to make acquaintance with those Fathers For that good opinion which they of your Citty doe now conceiue of them that haue I conceiued long agoe Onely you are to looke that the good example which you see in others may not be vnprofitable to you And I beseech our Lord that he will be pleased to lett mee passe a little that away though it be but to giue contentment to you The excuse which you make for hauing accepted the Rectorship of the Vniuersitie is iust since you were aduised to it by persons soe well qualifyed and soe many as that they did euen oblige you to it But I beseech you Sir be not negligent now that you are putt to sea since it was not without cause that you feared euen soe much as to imbarke yourself For my parte I am full of thought least our aduersary haue traced out this course soe to hinder your proceeding in the way to God which you were taking For many imployments though euen about good things should not be committed to young beginners because they vse to trouble such persons as haue not yet sett all those things in order which concerne themselues And soe our Aduersary hath done much hurt to many by this meanes and brought them to the passe of some poore little swallow which goes forth to fly before she is well in strength and then hauing not power to prosecute her flight vp aloft nor yet to retourne to her nest from which she went shee falls downe into the hands of boyes and they play with her a while and then kill her This busines is soe much the more subtile perplexed as it comes cloaked with good zeale And new beginners must be watchfull in this case little lesse then they would be when there were question of theire coÌ„mitting a sinne For if there be any true zeale in them it is fitt that first they be zealous of their owne good And zeale of others which wants zeale of a man's self hath beene the fearfull ruine of many soules I desire that you will conceiue a very great feare care in those things which may seeme good to you For in such cases as those doth that deuill who is called Meridâ—an deceiue them at high noone Psal 90. whome he was not able to deceiue in expresse darknes And doe not precipitate your self vpon the making of great reformations nor conceiue that you are there for that purpose but rather feare least it be for the punishment of your owne sinnes And if your hart offer to giue you that you shall doe great matters in this Office beleiue it not but rather lay it prostrate before our Lord with feare beseeching him to keepe it still that he permitt you not to loose the little which he hath giuen you of the knowledge of himself And if yet indeede you must execute any thing let it not be till first you haue recommended it earnestly to our lord and let it not be of that nature through the difficulty thereof as that you must probably thinke it is like to cost your minde much vnquietnes and in the end that the profitt will be vncertaine Some other man may doe those things or els your self at some other time But now looke you into your owne soule consider your wayes well and direct your feete rightly in them And because you haue little oyle in your lampe Matth. 23. answeare them thus who shall desire oyle of you Ne forte non sufficiat nobis vobis I can spare you none for perhaps there is not enough for vs both And with this religious feare euen in those things which are good and with calling vpon our Lord from your hart and with plying your study hard you may perhaps goe through this dangerous passages without harme I beseech Christ by the meritt of his bloud to graunt you this fauour Amen A Letter of the Authour to a lady wherein he tells her that of all those things which a body might choose for the seruice of God the suffering
loues you with most perfect loue Let not your faith grow weake in these necessities and dangers nor your loue by the feeling of these afflictiōs when the fire is great the winde doth not onely not quench it but inflame it And soe when a soule loues God but in iest any little blast of aire puts it out as it would doe a candle But true loue growes vp in affliction for it applies more strength wherewith to endure the more weight it sees coming towardes it And because that loue is of God it conquers affliction and noe water could serue to quench that fire which comes downe from heauen Our lord called you that you might loue him and this loue is noe such thing as must giue you reason to regale your selfe But you must abhorre your selfe for the loue of Christ our lord and denye your selfe to confesse him and be cruell to your selfe that you may be sweet and acceptable to his diuine Maiesty If you loue and desire to enioy your selfe you must resolue to loose your selfe If you desire to see the face of God you must passe towardes him through the pikes If you care to lodge him in your hart cast your selfe away with all other creatures vpon him Our lord will haue you all alone and all afflicted not for any ill will he beares you but because since his owne naturall sonne was soe afflicted he likes not to see his adopted sonnes apparrelled with any other liuery then that There is nothing soe beautifull in his sight as to see the image of his onely begotten sonne in vs. And as there is nothing vpon which a soule can soe gladly looke as vpon our lord Iesus being tormented for loue of vs vpon the Crosse and the more afflicted and deformed we see him there the more beautifull he seemes to vs soe the more wee suffer for God the more beautifull wee shall seeme to him Nor is it much that a soule which desires to seeme handsome in the sight of God should adorne it selfe with such curious cleansing waters as may enamour his diuine Maiesty by his seeing her since the women of the world doe many thinges which put them to no small trouble and charge soe that they may content the sonnes of men Madam we must cast our skinnes before we shall be pleasing to Almighty God Gould is purified by fire and the terrestriall part being consumed it comes resplendent from the Crucible Let vs be ashamed of being soe weake in a busines which is soe great as to import the pleasing of Almighty God and if we vnderstood this poynt well indeed we should get heart euen to shed our blood for him that soe we might appeare fairer in his sight As a certaine holy Eremite considering this very thing and seeing a woman of the world goe soe gallant and soe well adorned he began to weepe and say Pardon me O lord pardon me I beseech thee for the curious dressing which this woman bestowes vpon her selfe in this one day to please the eyes of the world ouerstrips all the paines which I haue taken many yeares for the pleasing of thine Soe that my good lady this entreprise of loue is noe matter of wordes but of sorrow of bitter torments of the dishonour of the world of being abandoned by the creatures thereof sometimes euen of the seeming absence from the protection of the Creatour And notwithstanding all this a man must cary a good countenance and not be subiect to complaintes or deiection of heart but he must resemble that Martyr whose bowels they drew out of his body and whose flesh they tore from his bones with iron combes and yet there sounded noe word out of his mouth but the name of Iesus nor was there any thing in his hart but Blessed be God togeather with a purpose to endure yet more if God should dispose himselfe to send it To suffer for Christ our lord is great glory and God impartes not that but to such a one as whome he loues much A great mercy it is to giue a guilty person fillips and to release those scourges which were his dew and if that wherein we stand obliged to the iustice of God may be satisfied by what we can suffer heere in the name of God let vs fall to worke and let vs pay whatsoeuer his diuine Maiesty will impose soe that being gone from hence we may instantly by behold the face of God Let vs labour in this banishment of ours for instantly vpon the end thereof we shall be landed in our owne country S. Augustine saith that he wrongs a Martyr who prayes for him when he is dead for Martyrdome makes a soule fly streyght vp to heauen Let vs therefore labour to be Martyrs by our patience in affliction for though our persecution be not soe greiuous as theirs was for the time yet it lastes longer And we should indeed desire that this life might not be too recreatiue but a meere Martyrdome For such was the life of our Lord and such doth hee desire that ours should be There haue beene many martyrs for the faith of Christ our Lord but in fine many are gone to heauen who were not soe But we all must be the Martyrs of loue if we meane to goe thither This loue must torment vs and put vs to paine both because our selues offend God as also because others doe it This loue must depriue vs of the comforts of this life and must load our shoulders with a Crosse This loue must make vs first imbrace affliction and then passe ouer it in the flame which was kindled by our loue of God This makes vs endure dishonours without feeling them as wine doth a drunkard This loue is in this like all other loue that whosoeuer possesses it seekes not himself but his beloued who in our case is God alone and his holy will But this loue which now is soe cruell how full of compassion will it be afterwardes to him who hath bowed downe the head to receiue Martyrdome at the hand thereof A man cannot easily feele the force of loue wherewith it torments heere nor that wherewith it comforts afterwarde Let vs beleiue it since God hath said it and let vs walke on in the faith which we haue in his words for we haue yet a long way to make Choose which you had rather haue eyther long afflictions or els very great ones for noe man can scape suffering much eyther in one fashion or another Be not sorry for this for if God giue you much affliction it is because your many sinnes deserue it and soe you are to make your payment heere and I beseech our Lord that you may doe soe For if I should dye before you want to Purgatory perhaps you might want a freind whoe would carry soe much compassion to your soule as my felf and would take soe much care to free it and if you dye first I shall haue paine enough in thinking of you Excuse mee
for it is not fitt that eyther you or I should haue an eye to our owne ease but that although wee should know that after this life wee must suffer paine yet heere we must also take courage to suffer afflictions for loue loue is content with nothing but loue Christ our lord suffered for our loue Christ our lord carried the Crosse and lett vs help him to cary it on Christ our lord is dishonoured and I renounce honour Christ our lord suffered torments and therefore they shall be welcome to me He was subiect to many necessityes and I submitte my selfe to the same For me he made himselfe a stranger and I desire not to be the owner of any single thing wherein my heart may rest He dyed for me and lett my life be a continuall death for the loue of him Gal. 2. Let me liue yet now not me but let Christ our lord liue in me and that Christ who was crucified exhausted abandoned by all the world and receiued alone by Almighty God This Christ I loue vpon the Crosse will I seeke him and from thence haue I noe desire to finde him Let him dispose of me how he will for my part I will suffer affliction for him Let him choose whether he will giue me any reward or noe for the very suffering it selfe is an abundant reward And if he would graunt me a great suite I would desire noe other then to haue afflictions for thereby I may know that I loue him and that he alsoe loues me since he layes me vpon the Crosse where himselfe lay For though I haue noe ayme at mine owne profitt yet I know full well that if I continue vpon the Crosse he will cary me to his Crowne To him be glory through the eternity of all eternityes Amen A Letter of the Authour to one who formerly had beene a disciple of his and then being of the Society of Iesus was growen to be at the poynt of death He congratulates his departure hence and his goeing to enioy the fruites of his labour in his Order and he giues him great hope of the eternall kingdome by meanes of the bloud of Christ our Lord. THE grace of the holy Ghost be euer with you Though heere they say that you are vpon the point of passing into the land of the liuing soe as a man may thinke that whilest I am writing this you may already be enioying the deare imbracements of our allswcete Iesus yet I thought it not amisse to venture this letter towards you congratulating with you your promotion to that Prebēd in the Church of the celestiall Ierusalem where without all ceasing God is praised and seene face to face Goe in a good houre most deare father goe I say in a good houre both to see all Good and to possesse it for all eternity Goe in a good houre to the bosome of the celestiall father where he entertaines those lambes of his with glory which heere he fed with his grace and corrected with his discipline Now my good Father shall you see the fauour which God did you in calling you to a Religious life and in giuing you grace in the strēgth whereof you dispising the world might follow him by the way of the Crosse For now in recompence thereof he will giue you heauen for your Religious Order and glory for that Crosse which you haue borne for his sake Blessed be our lord Iesus Christ who hath goodnes enough to induce him to giue such glory to such wormes of the earth raising vp the poore man out of the dust that he may sitt amongst the Princes of his people Happy is the houre of our corporall death since thereby wee are exalted intitled to take our seate amōgst those princes who liue eternally in the high presence of God O day which is the end of labours and the end also of sinnes and in which wee ascend to serue our Lord in good earnest and not as wee are wont to doe heere below where wee are all discomforted through the imperfections of those seruices which we performe to God For heere a man goes halting faynting with hunger through his desire to please that diuine Maiesty to serue him with all the soule But in heauē this desire is perfected that in so cōpleat a manner that all the whole man is imployed in the seruice praise of God without being subiect to the least impedimēt which may interpose it self Blessed be God who hath soe soone beene pleased to gather you vp into his granary least mallice might els haue chaunged your mind and to shew you the riches of his bounty Sap. 4. who for soe few yeares of seruice imparts an eternity of reward Sir this is God this I say is God this is the fruit of his passion this is the valew of his grace this is our happy encounter to haue fallen into the hands of such a Lord to know him to loue him though it be with many imperfections But he washes them away by his bloud making vs partakers of his Sacramēts And the paternall loue which he beares vs both makes him easily encline to pardon our faults to be very copious in rewarding our seruices And he cōducts vs through the middest of the red sea Psal 102. to the land of promise diuiding vs from our sinnes as farre of as the East is from the West and drowning them in his bloud Soe that although wee may see them still yet wee shall see them dead they will serue but to giue vs matter reason to praise our Lord Exod. 14. who hath cast both the horse and horseman into the sea Goe Sir with the benediction of our lord God to enioy the riches of your deer Father which he gayned for you with the launce in his hād by shedding his owne bloud who neuer fay les to succour all such as place theire hope loue in him It is true that wee shall misse you that wee shall thinke our selues to be all alone when we are heere without you but since God hath desined you to this great happynes let vs who loue you hould it for our owne And wee who in our owne right shall lament will yet reioyce with you in yours like the brothers of Rehecca who is goeing to be espoused with Isaak which signifies i◠And therefore wee say to you you are our brother and wee desire that you may encrease to thousands of thousands Gen. 24. and that your seede may possesse the gates of your enemyes I doe not pretend to tell you how you must prepare your self for this Feast for there you haue them who can doe it and who will helpe you to passe on out of the hands of men into the hands of God And let our lord who came into the world for you and who ascended vp to the Crosse for you Ps 22. be he who succours you in such sorte that though you
walke in the middest of the shadow of death you may yet feare noe ill See you call vpon him for though you should bee in the whales belly yet he harkenes to his seruants euen when they are there Call vpon his Blessed Mother Ionas 3. who is also ours Call vpon the Saints who are our Fathers and our brethren for with such helpes as those you cannot feare to loose the celestiall kingdome And if our lord will haue you passe through Purgaâ—ory let his name be blessed still for soe that you may haue hope to see him you shall gladly endure any thing which may be imposed I beseech Christ our Lord who dyed for you to accompany you at your death and receiue you into his owne armes when you departe out of this life Say you to him as hee sayd to his Father In manus â—uas Pater commendo spiritum meum Luc. 23. And I confide in his mercy that you shall be receiued by him as a sonne and treated as the heire of God and coheyre with Christ our Lord. A Letter of the Authour to a Religious woeman who was neere her death He encourages her and shewes how she is to carry her self at that time DEuout seruant of Christ our Lord you sent mee word that you were in the last dayes of your life and that this was the time wherein you desired mee to remember you Soe I doe And though the newes you giue mee is not pleasing to flesh and bloud yet when I looke vpon you with christian eyes it is to recreate my soule And soe is it also to recreate yours as our Lord saith in the Ghospell when those things beginne to shew themselues Luc. 21. looke about you and lift vp your heades for your redemption is neere at hand For though Christ haue freed you by his goodnes the merit of his bloud from mortall sinnes yet still you are in daunger of committing euen then and you actually committ venial sinnes and you are still in the captiuity of your body which is soe subiect to miserie as that it makes euen a S. Paul and others who are like him sigh and groane and say as him self relates it Rom. 8. that they liued in expectation of the redemption of tâ—eir body But there you shall neither sinne mortally not venially For by meanes of the bloud of that lambe which was shed for vs hell where they euer sinne shall haue nothing to doe with you but onely Purgatory where though they suffer yet they sinne not And from thence you shall goe forth to see your Spouâ—e to enioy that blisse which he wonne for you with the nailes in his hands and with his feete fastened to the Crosse And forasmuch as it is a stranger thing to see God nailed vpon a Crosse then to see you placed in heauen I confide in his goodnes that since he had mercy enough to make him doe the more he will not want it for that which is the lesse Thither will he carry you thither I say will he carry you to remaine with himself For the espousalls which heere were celebrated betweene you when you soleÌ„nely made Profession that you would liue and dye in the state of Religion was one day to be concluded by that being together both of him the spouse and of her his fellow spouse in heauen There shall you see your self in soe great liberty and aboundance that you will esteeme your inclosure afflictions heere for well employed And there will they giue you a body which though in substance it shall be the very same which heere you haue yet shall it be very different in health and life and other things And you will incomparably more reioyce in it there then you haue suffered in it heere All entire all entire in bodye and soule are yow to bee blessed there and soe beautified as is fitt for the honour of him who tooke you for his spouse Iesus Christ the lord both of this the other world Be not therefore dismayed when you are to dye by thinking of what your owne sinnes deserue Christ our lord can doe all things and he loues you will not forsake you And since he hath preserued you in this time of your nauigation amongst all the tempests of this life be sure that he will not suffer you to perish now that you are goeing to disinbarke Putt your self wholly into his haÌ„d offering your self entirely to him both in life death and to whatsoeuer he will And beg pardon of him by his bloud for all that wherein you haue offended him and being confessed communicated cast your self headlong at his feete and desire of him one drop of his bloud whereby you may be washed and haue great confidence that you shall bee soe Be as reserued to yourselfe as free from all conuersation as the state of your sicknesse will permit For our Lord before he was to dy left his disciples that he might pray in solitude to his father giuing vs so to vnderstaÌ„d that in this traunce we must reseÌ„ble him And let your discourse be with Christ our lord with his Bl Mother And to the end that your infirmity diuert you not from them it will be well that you behould an image of the Crucifix of his Mother staÌ„ding by him Giue thaÌ„kes to our lord with your whole hart for the fauour he hath done you whether they be generall or particular and cast your self into the wounds of Christ oul Lord which is that Sanctuary out of which his Iustice must not drawe such malefactours as are repentant And repose you there and conceiue strong hope that by meanes of his bloud and death you shall goe and enioy that life in heauen which neuer is to haue an end Our Lord IESVS be euer with you Amen A Letter of the Authour to a woeman who did greatly feele the absence and disfauour of our Lord. He animates her to confide in our Lord and he assigned diuerse causes why God afflictes his seruants and of the fruit which his Diuine Maiesty reapes from thence DOe not conceiue that to be anger in our Lord which indeede proceedes from true loue For as he who beares ill will to another doth flatter sometimes and fawne vpon him so true loue sometimes corrects and chides And the holy scripture saith That the woundes which are giuen by him who loues are better then the false kisses of him who hates And therefore we doe him an extreame wrong who reproues or punishes vs out of the bowells of his loue if we thinke or say that he persecutes vs as if he loues vs not Doe not forgett that the Mediatour betweene God the Father and vs is Iesus Christ our lord by whome we are beloued and tyed with so strong a bond of loue that nothing is able to vndoe it if man himself do not cutt the knott by the guilt of mortall sinne Haue you so soone forgotten that the bloud of
into so great affliction and feare as the newes of what thou art ought to giue them comfort If thou O lord wert well knowne there is no soule which would not loue thee and confide in thee vnlesse it were strangely wicked For this it is that thou sayst It is I therefore doe not feare I am he who kill and giue life I cast men downe as low as hell and I draw them back againe that is I afflict a man till he thinkes he dyes and then againe I refresh I recreate and I giue him life I cast men into certaine discomforts which seeme hell to them but when they are there I forgett them not but I fetch them from thence and they are but therefore mortified that they may be quickened I sende them not thither to remayne there but that their entry into that shadow of hell may be a meanes to make them escape the substance of that true hell after death and that they may fly vp to heauen I am he who can deliuer you from all affliction for I am of infinite power And I am he who will deliuer you for I am of infinite goodnesse and I am he who know how to do it for I am of infinite wisedome I am your Aduocate for I embraced your cause as mine owne I am your surety for I haue made myself subiect to all your debts I am your Lord who haue purchased you with mine owne bloud and with no meaning to forgett you but to doe you honour if you will serue me because you were bought at so high a price I am he who haue so profoundly loued you that for the loue of you I haue beene contented to be transformed into you and to become passible and mortall I who in mine owne nature was very farre from being subiect to such miserie I am he who deliuered myself ouer to innumerable torments of bodie and farre greater torments of minde that you might take hart to endure some for loue of me and to confide that you shall in fine be freed from them since I am he who vndertake it I am your Father as I am God and your elder-brother as I am man I am your Christ your redemption and what feare can you then haue of your debts if by penance and Confession you demaunde a generall release of them I am your reconciliation and of whose wrath can you then be afraide I am that true-loues-knott of friendshipp and how then can you thinke that you are fallen out with God I am your defender and what opposites can you apprehende I am your freind and how then doe you feare that you can want anie thing which I haue vnlesse you will needes departe from me My bodie and my bloud is yours and why then doe you feare hunger nay my verie hart is yours and why then doe you feare to be forgotten yea and my diuinitie is yours and what doubt can you then haue of miserie For accessories vnto that Principall my Angells are yours to defende you My Saints are yours to pray for you My biessed mother is yours to be the carefull and indulgent mother of you all The earth is yours that you may serue me vpon it The heauen is yours for you shall enioy it and me in it The deuills and hell is also yours for you shall treade it and them vnder foote like slaues who are chayned vp in that prison This life is yours because with it you gett another which shall neuer ende Your honest entertainements and delights are yours For you direct them to my glorie Your paynes are yours for you endure them for my loue and for your owne true good Your temptations are yours because they are occasion of your meritt and of an euerlasting Crowne in heauen Your death is yours because it is to be the immediate steppe to your eternall life And all these things you possesse in me and by my meanes For neither did I gaine them for myself alone neither will I enioy them alone for when I putt myself into your companie by taking your flesh vpon me I did it to make you partakers of all the meritt which I should acquire by my labours my fasting eating sweating weeping and by the enduring of all my torments and death if the fault be not your owne Now you cannot account yourself poore who possesse so great riches if you doe not wittingly throw them away by your wicked life Be not dismayed for I will not forsake you It is true that you are no better then some thinne glasses but I will holde you fast in my hand Your weakenesse setts of my strength the more From your sinnes and miseries I draw the manifestation of my goodnesse and mercie There is nothing which shall be able to hurt you if you will loue me and confide in me Thinke not of me according to your owne opinion and the iudgments which are made by flesh and bloud but thinke of me by a strong faith with loue nor by the apparance of exteriour signes but by that hart of mine which was opened for you vpon the Crosse that you might dismisse all doubt whether you are beloued by me or no forasmuch as concernes my parte since you see such workes of loue without and a hart which was so wounded by that launce within Iohn 18. and yet more wounded by my loue How shall I denye myself to them who seeke me to do me honour since I went out to that way where those others sought me to offende me I offered myself to ropes and chaines which afflicted me and shall I refuse myself to the hart and armes of Christians where I desire to repose I yeilded myself to those scourges and to that hard pillar and shall I denye myself to that soule which will be subiect to me I turned not away my face from him who strooke me and shall I turne it away from him who will holde himself happy that he may beholde and adore me What litle confidence is this that seing me to be voluntarily torne in pieces by the hād of dogs for the loue of my children yet those children should be doubtfull whether I loue them or no though they be confessed to loue me Consider o yee sonnes of men and tell me whome I euer despised if he desired to be well with me whome haue I abandoned if he called on me from whome haue I fled if he sought me Matt. 9. I conuersed and I fedde with sinners yea I called and I iustified them who were forlorne Matt. 11. and euen fowle in sinne Nay I am importunate to winne their harts who loue me not I make myself a beggar to all the world and what cause is there then to suspect me of forgettfullnesse towards my children when there is so great diligence vsed both to loue me and to make expression of that loue And though I may cōceale it sometimes yet do I not leaue to loue but euen for the very loue
take you it for a signe that if you loue little your afflictions will weigh heauy vpon you but if you loue much you will scarce allowe them to be afflictions For you will be so inebriated with loue that nothing can be able to distract you from the taste thereof You will finde a good sauour in the very suffering it self and you will draw water out of the rocke and hony out of the stonie hilles Num. 20. Doe but loue and you shall not be subiect to afflictioÌ„s but you shall be superiour to them as their lady you shall prayse him who deliuers you froÌ„ them If they threaten you with death you will bid it wellcome that so you may enioy true life If with bannishment you will say That you esteeme yourself bannished wheresoeuer you are till you may arriue to see the face of God And that it imports you litle whether you goe to heauen from this or that parte of the earth And that if you haue God in your companie wheresoeuer you are you shall be happie and if not your owne country will giue you miserie enough If you see yourself contemned say Christ our Lord is my honour and he honours me let the world despâ—se me so hee value me Doe not afflict yourself about the necessity which you may sustaine of present things for of yourself you must despise them through the desire which you haue to liue in conformity with Christ our Lord who made himself a poore man for you What is there in the world which ough to fright you if the loue of Christ our Lord haue wounded you you will treade the deuill vnder foote you will despise his threates and you will passe with courage through all your enemies Put your trust in him who loues his louers There is nothing which you will not be able to doe in him Goe and buy whatsoeuer you want of him though he aske you all this world for it see that you be not found without the loue of him though it should cost you your life He is a hidden treasure but he who findes him selles all to buy him For in him alone he findes himself more rich then with the multitude of all other things And now if it concerne euery one of vs to loue him how much more doth it importe that she doe it whome he hath chosen for his spouse It becomes the seruant to feare his Maâ—ster and the sonne to honour his father but the Spouse to Loue her fellow spouse See you loue our Lord and take no rest till he haue graunted you this guift Loue him with reuerence for that is the kinde of loue which he likes Esteeme not him the lesse because he communicates himself to you but wonder how so great an altitude as his can stoope to such a profound basenesse as yours It is the propertie of ill-natured and ill-mannerd seruaÌ„ts to value their Maisters at a lesse rate for vouchsafing to descende and become familiar with them then if they had liued with them like Lords But they who liue in true light esteeme that Lord so much the more as he doth the more vouchsafe to diminish himself The true loue of Christ our Lord carries this badge with it in token that it is indeede of him That as it apprehendes and highly esteemes the goodnesse of God so it also apprehendes and profoundly disesteemes the wickednesse of man Therefore loue adore and serue our Lord with Ioy but yet reioyce with trembling Not a trembling as of a slaue in the midst of torments but as of a true and tenderharted childe who highly feares to giue any disgust to her father how litle soeuer it may bee Of yourself you can doe none of these things but if you humble your hart in the acknowledgement of your owne miseries if you present yourselfe often in prayer before Christ our Lord if you lodge him in your breast by the Communion if you heare him speake to you in your spirituall reading and in fine if you will but giue him leaue to helpe you you are to haue confidence that by litle litle he will be healing your soule notwithstanding all the harsh encounters which may occurre Doe not starte out of his hands though the cure putt you to payne for in fine he will worke the cure at the fittest time And for the afflictions which he sendes you and the delights whereof he depriues you he will giue you his owne most plentiefull delight which shall inebriate you as if it were with some swelling riuer and you shall be in full ioy for all eternitie without the want of anie good and without the feare of loosing what you haue You shall there finde yourself to be highly well content and payde and more felicity shall be imparted to you then yourself could tell how to desire Which felicity is not a creature but the Creatour himself of all things that true God who liues and raignes for the eternity of all eternities Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Lady He shewes how Christ our Lord being placed vpon the Crosse is that glasse wherein wee may see all the sports of our soules and wherein wee may alsoe finde the cure of all our miseries And that it is an enterprise of great honour to bee carrying a part of his Crosse IF in the night of the Natiuity of our Lord they carried you to Mount Caluary and haue giuen you compassion to the Crucifix and teares wherewith to wash his feete it may well be beleiued that now when you are in Lenit and neere the time wherein the holy passion of our Lord is represented he will keepe you as such a fixed Inhabitant of that hill as to suffer you to depart noe more from thence This is such a thing as that you may safely say with Saint Peeter it is good for vs to bee heere and it shall be a better suite to our Lord Mat. 17 then his was For he desired to remaine on that hill where repose and delight were to be found but in this other there is affliction and therefore this carryes a testimony with it of greater loue For not in resting but in labouring and suffering is the loue of our Lord employed and shewed Doe you Lady remaine in those woundes of our Lord since for the cure of your woundes he accepted his And though you be not to endure the like for his sake yet let them serue you at least to make you thanke him and to lament him and to haue compassion on him since your sinnes are they which placed him in soe extreame distresse Continue there and passe not on with such haste as you would doe by some ill-prouided country inne They whoe passed on by their owne way shooke their heads and blasphemed our Lord. But fixe you yourselfe close by the Crosse like that virgin-mother and like that beloued disciple and those other holy woemen For they who runn ouer this soe great benefit in
such haste doe neither vnderstand it nor thankfully acknowledge it and there remayne noe more with them but the meere sound thereof Iohn 19 And some that is such as are Infidells blaspheme him for it because they stay not to looke at leasure vpon this mighty wonder of loue But the Christian who hath taken vp his lodging heere sayth and that from his very hart This is my rest for euer and for euer will I dwell heere because I haue chosen it And if the spouse shall not remaine with at least her hart nailed to that Crosse to which the body of her fellow spouse was nailed how will shee possibly bee able to escape the name of vngratefull and vnkinde There shall you finde remedye against the poyson of those false prayses which men giue you And you will profoundly bee ashamed to perceiue yourself honoured proclaimed for good wheÌ„ you see him who indeede is good holy to be proclaimed for wicked false There shall you see how little reason you haue to think that what you doe is vnworthy of estimation in any kinde forasmuch as concernes your part thereof since it is soe weake lame when it is coÌ„pared with that which Christ our Lord wrought vpon the Crosse yea euen with that which yourself as you are ought to doe Looke into this glasse and you will easily be able to discerne the spots which are in the face of your soule For when you haue beene the most meeke of all if you compare that meeknes with his your meekenes will be noe better then meere wrath and your obedience compared with his will be very disorderly and your humility very proud Yet the blind world will needes beleiue that there are noe other sinnes but those which it conceiues to be such Whereas the eyes of God are of another kinde and he measures vs by another rule whereby many times he findes that to bee faulty which seemed in the eyes of men to bee excelleÌ„tly and coÌ„pleatly done When therefore they shall deliuer out any of these poisoned smooth-lying prayses say you instaÌ„tly in your hart as S. Paule did â— Cor. 4. he who iudges me is our Lord. And make haste to call to minde how our Lord was proclaimed for a wicked person And beseech him not to permitt that you be published for one who is good be sure you hould your toÌ„gue for our lord will obserue how the world goes Nay procure you be carefull that when you are despised you may be very glad thereof and perhaps our lord doth not now permit any body to giue you ill words because he findes that you haue not strength wherewith to beare them He who desires any part of the Crosse of our lord must receiue it as he would doe some pretious Reliquâ— with great reuerence giuing of thankes And he must valew it more then he would all the treasures of the world And because there are soe few who esteeme of those Reliques of the Crosse as they ought therefore our Lord oftentimes doth not impart them whose-pleasure is that they be honoured and beloued and borne with ioy And for this reason it is that he leaues vs still in our infancy without putting vs to the taskes of men But how much more then are we to blame if we be drawne downe to impatience or superfluity of sorrow for any of those thinges which he sendes Soe that if you shall carry a great loue to the Crucifix he will giue you a part of his Crosse But then see that you embrace it as an enterprise of great honour according to what he sayth to the spouse Place mee as a seale vpon thy hart and vpon thine arme for loue is strong as death Cam. 8. And as for that paine wherein you are because you may not receiue the Body of our Lord in the blessed Sacrament soe often as you would be not troubled thereat For I haue already tould you that our Lord is resolued that it shall cost you some what And it is but reason that it doe soe since our soules cost him soe much Doe you thinke perhaps that by our Lords onely saying Let all soules â—ee mine they instaÌ„tly render themselues into his hands Doe you thinke that the loue which you carry to our Lord the dominion which he exercises ouer you cost him but toyes I can assure you it is not soe But he shed his bloud as any slaue might doe vpon condition that your soules might be his and he yours Iust soe must that soule doe which hath a minde to obtaine him that is it must sweate first it must weepe it must importune him it must endure ill wordes yea and alsoe euill deedes at the hands of others yea and it must seeme little to haue endured this but once And if it be not put to endure them at least it shall haue gained much in hauing disposed it selfe to suffer somewhat for him thus it proues noe fruitlesse thing to seeke God Negotiate your businesse with him for if he say Yea there is none who can hinder it and if any body offer to doe it it will not proue with him but yet if it chaunce to proue you may conclude thereby that you haue not negotiated well with our Lord. What shall I say to you Cry out louder to him Follow my counsaile and whensoeuer he giues you a great desire to communicate procure then to be iust as if you were communicating indeed And beseech our Lord since he is omnipotent that he will giue you that when you communicate spiritually which he would haue giuen if you had communicated Sacramentally For soe you shall bee pleasing to his goodnes and he will not suffer you to goe empty from him if you come well prepared and it were not the worse if it might be two or three dayes before Yett now you must not thinke that you may therefore faile to confesse your sinnes afterward to your Ghostly Father But till you haue meanes to declare them to him I aduise that you ralate them to our Lord. And aboue all things keepe your hart in peace and conserue yourself in the way of obedience and humility towards your Superiours and Prelates For this is the way of our Lord and you must take heede you leaue it not Take courage to passe on in your other deuotions For though when you are in them you thinke you make noe profitt by them I say you doe and afterwards you shall taste the fruite thereof And our Lord will find a time to looke back with pittye vpon such as shall haue made much way after him And one day of those when our Lord vouchsafes to looke back vpon vs is worth more then three of those others wherein we laboured to goe after him The crowne is prepared for you in heauen God will be your defendour and will not forget you Perseuer you in obedience till you see our Lord of all Lord in Syon
And it is a thing which I desire much at his hands who writes to me For I finde soe many who are impatient with meâ— vpon this occasion that I had rather â—hey wrote not at all then that they should be offended with mee soe soone And soe much of this What shall I now say to you or what shall I beg of you since you are soe much my good Lord but that forasmuch as you are a Cauallier of honour you resolue to fight and that you be not called by a wronge name a thing from which a christian ought most to fly for such a one must loue sincerity and be that very thing which he appeares to be I know well that the vigilancy of our mortall enemy the deuill is soe great that for the drawing vs to be of his party and for feare least we should gaine that which he hath lost hee will often make you feele â—ob 7. That the life of man heere on earth is a continuall warfare and now and then will make you groane vnder the affliction of his extreme importunity and cry out to our Lord from whome succour comes Dâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 patior Esay 38. responde pro me O Lord I suffer violence doâ— thou answeare for wee And now since you haue one already who makes you remember that you liue in warre I will put you in minde in what sort you are to wage it that soe you may ouercome For wee cannot expect as a fruiâ—e of this warre but either great felicity or great misery since the triumph of this victory is to be God possessed for all eternity and the losse by being vanquished is the losse and that for euer of almighty God O that a man were able to thunder out soe strong a voice as that it might reach to the eares of all mankinde and might astonish them with the feare of hell encourage châ—â—â— with the hope of heauen O you Sonnâ—◠〈◊〉 Adam how long will you be soe blinde as 〈◊〉 to see this how long will you be soe deafe as not to heare this how long will you be soe insensible as that this truth will not be able to penetrate to the very lowest and moâ—t inward part of your harts Tell mee why haue you rendred your selues soe basely vnder the feeâ—e of your enemies and why doe you runne after them with your hands tyed vp without either feare or shame Doe you not know that bee whoe suffers himselfe to be ouercome by sinne Iohn 〈◊〉 vs taken prisoner by the deuill Doe you not knowe that the wages which sinne giueth is death both of body soule in hell and that for all eternity why doe you wish your selfe soe ill as to goe hunting after Your owne mischeife giuing stabs as it were to your owne soules by being soe mightily inraged for euery little offence which may be offered you And why haue you not a feeling of the losse of God of his freindshipp since you haue soe quicke a sence when there is question of a little riches or honour which whether it be kept or lost it makes you in very deede neither more nor lesse what will you answeare in the day of visitation and anguish which is coming towards you when these shadowes being past and this sinoake being vanished you shall be summoned to leaue that flesh which you loued soe much and to forgoe this present world which you soe esteemed and you shall be presented before that rigorous Iudge whome you will finde soe much the more seuere against you as he hath founde you lesse obedient to him What would you haue him doe would you haue him know you for his Caualliers you who haue gone fighting in his enemyes campe on their side And whilest hee mainteyned you with his blessings and euen with that very life whereby you liue you would needes obey the lawes of his mortall enemy when the while you detested his what would you haue God doe would you haue him pay you for the seruice which you haue not done Into what reasonable minde can it sincke that I should serue one man demaund my pay of another with what colour can I who haue offended a man aske him a reward when I haue doâ—â—â— as of a faithfull seruant Let vs not be deceiued O men in this Noe man shall reape Gal. 1 2. Cor. but according to that which he hath sowen He who soweth in flesh shall reape corruption and he who will reape life must sow in spiritt for grapes grow not out of thernes nor figgs out of thistles I had forgott my selfe for I was speaking to dead men as if they were aliue What doth it profitt to sound a trumpett to him whoe is in the profundity of deafenes what doth it profitt mee to say Heare this to men with whome it enters not euen by the very first gates of their hart What shall we doe O Lord for now I seâ— that the threat which was made by the Prophet Esay is fulfilled Hearing you shall beare and 〈◊〉 vnderstand and seeing you shall see Esay and yet not see For neither words nor scourges nor sweeâ—â—e vsage cann suffice to waken those miserable creatures out of their deadly sleepe till their end arriue when they must heare the senteÌ„ce which sends them to Hell and then must feele eternall torments without any remedy thereof A great misery is this hee is happy whome our Lord hath deliuered from it giuing him notice of his wicked wayes and a will to walke afterward in such as are good Remember you therefore that day wherein God called you and know that then God opened your eares and eyes to the end that you might both see and heare â—â—verely and as truly as if he had cured some peâ—son who had beene blinde and dumbe And remembring it giue great â—hankes for the same since a guift was then giuen you if you disposed your selfe well to receiue it which is more worth then all things els since freindshipp with our Lord was giuen you to which noe other thing may be compared And lett the signe of your true gratitude be a faithfull care of perseuering to keepe your eyes and cares open towards Almighty God For hee would be much more blame-worthy who should fall when his eyes were open and might see that hee were falling then another whoe had noe eyes in his head It is one thing for a soule to doe absurd things another thing for a man who is of iudgment And soe the fall of one whome our lord hath raysed and placed vpon his feete and giuen him light wherewith to see is more displeasing to his diuine Maiesty then they which he tooke before they knew or loued God I beseech you therefore admonish those new Caualliers of the king of heauen that they vndertake not this busines in iest since both the punishment of negligence and the reward of due care which is taken in it is noe matter which indeede endureth iest
to the feeling of flesh bloud but according to faith which ouercomes and fooles all such discourse This Madam is the wisedome of the Crosse which makes the soule with shurt eyes submitt it selfe to the holy will of God And by thus not iudging but confiding in him it growes wise beyond the wisedome of the whole world For let him who desires to know and please God not rayse his eyes but let him abase them with humility and not sifte his iudgments and that man shall arriue to true knowledge and shall finde that our lord of power is entirely sweete towardes his seruants and doth then endue them with the greatest blessings when to the eyes of flesh and bloud hee may seeme most to haue forsaken them It is now long agoe since your ladyship hath sung this song My beloued to mee Cant. 2. and I to him But it is now that you should especially singe it for these delicate warbling notes are best vsed in these tunes of trouble Your beloued lookes vpon you and takes care of you looke you also vpon him and confide in such a taker of care He is your Father though he scourge you be you his daughter in receiuing his correction with obedience and giuing of thanks And if you be in much payne whilst you feele the scourge let it be tempered by considering the hand from whence it comes your beloued he is and he loues you more then he is beloued by you He corrects you with loue doe you also receiue it with loue that so you may answere our lord in the same tune wherein he speakes He hath a minde to purify you by fire do not fly of from the Crusyble whatsoeuer payne it may put you to For it is better to become pure from the vncleanes of earth which is ones owne will and withall to bee broken in pieces then to be whole otherwise Sing you thus to our lord Ps 16. Thou hast tryed my hart and thou hast visited mee by night thou hast examined mee with fire and thou hast not found wickednes in mee For thus doth God purify his elect and he who is not proued and purifyed thus is noe Sonne and shall be noe heire of his And for as much as it is now soe long a time since your ladyship hath soe fayre euidence that you are borne to inheritt procure you to pay with readines that rent charge which is layd vpon your land This inheritance is very rich and glorious but the heires thereof must suffer much tribulation in this world They are to be vntyed and taken of from the Crosse heere when they goe vp to raigne there and men must not think of goeing from one pleasure to another The bulls which are of a generous kind goe all darted and wounded out of the Place but such as are base and cowardly retourne home in whole skinnes Iust soe is the good Christian who is to be pierced on all sides And when tyrants and executioners are wanting they shall haue enough to suffer in they re owne houses by they re children they re husbands and they re freyndes who will by certayne sweete and and smooth wayes torment them worse then those others It is most certaine that to see one suffer whome wee loue is a very knife at our harts and loue is our executioner and the more loue there is soe much is the executioner more cruell Butt yett lett vs not turne away our face from him For this loue was the executioner of Iesus Christ our lord which putt him to more payne then all those visible executioners and this was the executioner of his blessed Mother alsoe and of as many elect as God hath had I would haue your ladyship prepare your head to be cutt of and your harte to be tormented by this executioner and you must procure to fight stoutely in the presence of God and of all his coelestiall court since such an excellente Crowne of glory is prepared for you Our lord who sends you this tribulation knowes the time which is most fitt for comforte and hee will prouide it for you when it shall be best In the meane time I beseech him to giue your lady ship patience and to remayne with you for euer Amen A Letter of the Authour to a Religious woman who was his ghostly childe Of the mercy which God shewes to such as he calles to Religion and of the exercices and obligation of a Religious woman SERVANT OF IESVS CHRIST I Haue beene thinking sometimes whither our lord might not ere this haue taken you out of this life to giue you the fruition of himselfe For to be aliue and to remaine soe long without letting me know how your soule doth seemes to me a kind of incredible thing Though yet it be true that our lord some times giues a soule soe great feeling of himselfe that it remembers nothing els because it is wholy employed vpon him who is all thinges I beseech his goodnes that this may haue beene the cause of your silence For then I shall not onely not complayne but greatly reioyce For what other thing can I soe well desire for your soule which in our lord I loue as to see it all employed in louing and in being beloued by him This is the end of all the paines which he hath taken with your soule and of all the fauours which he hath bestowed vpon it Tell me O spouse of Christ our lord how you doe Doe you loue him much and doe you hould him fast in your bosome is you heart euen wounded with the care you haue to keepe him content and to seeke his holy will though it be in contradiction of your owne For though the loue of our lord be the ioy and solace of our soules yet on the other side it suffers them not to repose but like a continuall spurre is solliciting and vrging them on that soe euery day they may please him whome they loue more and more For this reason this loue is compared to fire which neuer is at rest but the liuely flame thereof is euer working and striuing vpward This loue will haue nothing to doe with slackenes nor knowes it how to take any rest but in our lord And this is the loue of a Loyal sponse which it is reason that you be in performance since you are soe in profession since you haue an inward vocation to put that in practise to which you were called Doe not forgett the day on which you offerred your selfe to your spouse by the hand of your Prelatt Nor that other day when your spouse conueyed his hand into your heart making you vnderstand both your selfe and him He said in your soule let light be made and then all darkenes and sorrow fled away and now like one who sees the light of heauen you liue in ioy because you know which way you may goe without danger of falling For if you be carefull to keepe those dayes in mind you