and they are not it Le ts make reflection of all that euer we haue heard of honours riches pleasures and all of them are not it Let vs by helpe of imagination put all togeither that we haue either seene or heard and euen adde to them millions of millions more and yet we are not arriued at it Noe for S. Paule assures vs that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath it entred into the mynde of man vvhat God hath prepared for those that loue him AFFECTION and RESOL. O my most bountifull Lord and Master Hath thy goodnesse made me capable of a Kingdome which thy wisdome hath not inabled me at present to comprehend O too too happie we could we truly vnderstand our owne happinesse But ô more then most vnhappie we if we permitt sinne to robbe vs of it or that we otherwise make it a way for a messe of potage or the bitter Mandragores of mixt moments of painefull pleasures for such inconsiderable toyes I meane as are daylie obiects to meanest eyes and fill euery eare Nay euen for the greatest thinges our hartes can conceiue since in a smale tyme they vanish away like dreames and leaue nothinge in our hands Alas were it not a strange miserie and madnesse to make away such inconceiuable permanēt possessions for such knowne transitorie toyes THE II. POINTE. What heauen is Consider againe what this Kingdome or possession prepared for vs may be and we finde it is a state of life perfectly accomplished with the whole collection of all good thinges Not a passage but a state a permanencie without change without end without irkesommesse Perfectly accomplished not by halues and peecemeales With the vvhole collection of all good thinges Not with a few as here below and those good and ill paines and pleasures mixt togeither but with the whole collection of all good thinges so that what euer we desire shall be present and all that we desire not shall be absent eternally AFFECTION and RESOL. We haue Gods word for it my soule and it cannot fayle vs that he will shew vs all good that is all that is aduantagious gaynefull and rich in steede of the transitorie riches of this world all that is beseeming honorable and illustrious in lieu of the vaine and vadinge honours here belowe all that conteynes in it selfe any cause of ioy and iubilie and and all that is deare and delightfull to witt that ineffable vnmeasurable eternall waight of glorie according to S. Paule in place of those short light deluding and euen painefull pleasures as Salomon and S. Augustine experienced them for which poore man looses himselfe Thus my soule doth faith assure vs let not then follie perswade vs the contrarie THE II. MEDITATION FOR THE 6. DAY Of Heauen againe THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider the kingdome prepared for vs is Beatitude come ô you blessed and Beatitude is noe other thinge then to know what is best and to inioy the same And wheras none but God himselfe is our summum bonum or optimum our cheife good or our best it followes that God himselfe the father sonne and holy Ghost is our Beatitude or the Kingdome prepared for vs accordinge to that I my selfe vvill be thy exceeding greate revvarde Him we shall see face to face and in that sight our vnderstanding meets with all truth him we shall see and in seeing him our will meetes with all good Hence the vnderstanding hauing noe more to seeke and the will noe more to loue they fall as it were into a blessed necessitie of truly seeing what they loue and louing what they see for all eternitie AFFECTION and RESOL. Forgett not then ô man thy dignitie By Gods mercy and the merits of Christ thou art made the sonne of God coheire with Christ to share in his heauenly inheritance to possesse the same Kingdome with him that is to knowe the prime truth and loue the cheife good for euer and euer Let not then the fables fictions and vaine lyes of the world take vp thyne vnderstandinge made to knowe so great and diuine a Truth nor the vaine loue of creatures ingage thy will made to loue so souueraigne à Good But crye incessantly here belowe with holy S. Augustine Let me knovv thee ô Lord and knovv my selfe and let me loue thee as much as I desire and as much as I ought Thus my soule may we in some measure while we liue amidst our miseries begin before hand to possesse our Beatitude which consists in knovving louing and inioying our chiefe Good which is God himselfe THE II. POINTE. Hovv Heauen is to be purchased Consider out of the Gospell that the Kingdome of heauen suffers violence and the violent beare it avvay Yes but we must learne of S. Ambrose how we are to make this violence We are to assault it not with swords with clubbe or stone but with myldnesse with good workes with chastitie These are the armes which our faith makes vse of in that onsett But yet to make a right vse therof we must first of all make force against our owne flesh and bloud that so gayning dominion ouer our selues we may imploye all our abilities to force Heauen as it were out of the stronge hands of the Almightie We are not to hope saith S. Gregorie to come to great honours but by great labours and paines We must mortifie our members and all the mutinous people of our hartes our vnrulie passions and badd inclinations So did all the saintes of God scale and winne his Kingdome So did that greate Doctour of the Gentiles beare it away I chastise my body and bringe it into seruitude So did the sainte of saintes enter into his owne Kingdome He suffered and so entred into his owne Kingdome AFFECTION and RESOL. Let vs not hope my soule that we who are but younger and adoptiue children should find any other safe way to heauen then that which the naturall sonne of God and all his saintes were to passe That is through tribulations contumelies and contempts If vve suffer vvith him vve shall raigne vvith him Noe noe the pure wheate reserued for the heauenly granaries must be winnowed the gold found worthy to haue course in that celestiall Kingdome must passe through the hotest fires Sweete S. Augustine putts it at the lowest rate that euer it can be expected and yet according to him it will cost vs noe lesse then all we are The Kingdome of heauen saith that excellent Sainte is vvorth as much as thou art giue thy selfe and thou shalt haue it Doe not stand barganing my soule and grudging at the price The naturall sonne of God purchaced it at noe lesse a rate for himselfe and thee THE FIRST MEDITAT FOR THE 7. DAY A serious reflection to be made as vvell of Gods gracious gifts beflovved vpon vs as minaces pronounced against vs. THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider by way of a serious reflection of all the former Meditarions that since God hath bene so gracious to
did so touch him at the hart that he forceably cryed out The vnlearned men of the world doe teare heauen out of our hands and we with our great knowledge without braynes or courrage are still content to wallow in flesh and bloud AFFECTION And why doe not we my soule obseruing in our selues the same errours make vse of the same remedies why doe we not fly the occasions of euill and speedily lay hold vpon the occasions of good compagnie and good counsell If in the one we meete with a moment of false delight experience assures vs it is payd with houres and dayes and yeares of discomfort and remorse of conscience wheras in that other we might euen here below haue some participation of heauen and be left with our thoughts full of a solide and permanent delight MEDITATION V. WHAT BEFELL HIM soone after his perfect conuersion to God To vvitt a change vvrought by the hand of the highest I. POINT COnsider a soudaine and strange change of the hand of the highest which happens to all who absolutly conuert themselues to God It became sweete to me saith he to be depriued of the sweetnes of wordly toyes What formerly I feared to loose I now departed from with ioy For thou didst cast them from me thou ô Lord who art my true and prime sweetnes Thou threwest them out I say and in lieu of them didst thy selfe enter who art sweeter then all delightes though not to fleshe and bloode more sublime and high then all honour but not to those who are high in their owne conceipt AFFECTION Take courrage then ô my soule take courrage God is not Augustins God alone but ours also the bowells of his fatherly mercy lyes open euen to vs too His loue is not lessened his arme is not shortened Le ts but in good earnest conuert our selues vnto him and his goodnes cannot auert himselfe from vs. Be conuerted to me and I vvill be conuerted to you saith our Lord. Let 's but absolutely dispossesse our selues of the world and worldly toyes and he will infalliby inhabite our harts possesse them of heauenly ioyes and make vs experience a deare and delightfull change II. POINT Consider secondly that he was restored to the libertie which by the slauerie of sinne he had lost Now saith he was my mynd freed from the biting cares both of honor and riches as also from procuring to welter in carnall sins and prouoking the heate of lust AFFECTION and RESOL. Oh what a change is this from that wherin he formerly found himselfe ingaged when he said now all the arguments which I was wonte to bring were solued and their remayned onely a speachles trembling and it his soule feared euen as death it selfe to be restrayned from the course and fluxe it had longe taken towards sinne wherby it was dayly pining away and growing neerer to destruction And againe I turned and winded my selfe in my chayne till such tyme as that litle which helde me might be broken but still it helde me I was saying I would doe it and euen almost did it yet indeed I did it not but remayned breathing neere the place where I should haue bene We often my soule find the same wrastling with flesh and blood but le ts be faithfull to Gods inspirations and we shall also be restored to the same libertie III. POINT Consider thirdly that as he is more and more remoued from the troubles and cares of the world he approcheth neerer and neerer to the deare delights of heauen and inioying the true libertie of the sons of God I conuersed saith he in a familiar and tender manner with thee who art my beautie my riches my saluation my Lord and my God AFF. and RESOL. Marke ô my soule the delightfull degrees of this heauenly change We are first touched and excited by grace being fallen we are carried on by delight being risen accompayned by delight we are lead to libertie which affords vs wings of holy desire to flye vp and repose in the bosome of our dearely beloued and shelter and solace our selues betwixt those sacred breastes of consolation to which I will cling and nothing shall be able to separate me THE VI. MEDITATION Hovv absolutely he betooke himselfe to a good life I. POINT COnsider that no sooner was he restored to this blessed libertie and had he receaued the Sacraments at Saint Ambrose his hands but he began to lay the fundation of a holy life by bidding a most absolute Adieu from the verie botom of his hart as saith Possidius to all worldly pretentions nether now desireing a wife nor sons of his body nor riches nor worldly honors but made a firme purpose to giue himselfe wholy to Gods seruice fasting prayer and good workes meditating day and night in the law of our Lord. saith Possidius AFFECTIONS and RESOL. O my soule lets vs take the same resolution and humbly confidently and perseuerantly make vse of the same meanes and we shall not fayle happily to be restored to Gods fauour He who made vs without vs will not saue vs without our consent and cooperation we must worke then not we alone but Gods grace with vs. II. POINT Consider that this resolution being taken in generall he found no better way to sett vpon it in particular then by selling what he had and giuing it to the poore to follow Christe take his owne word for it I saith he Epis 89. Who write these things did vehemently loue that perfection wherof our Lord spoke when he said to the rich young man in the Gospell Goe c. and I imbraced it not by myne owne strength but by the assistance of his grace AFFECTION and RESOL. Behold ô my soule how thy holy Patron springs on in the wayes of Gods counsells Their is now no more cold cras crases to morow and to morow heard but fourth with he setts vpon it No more halfe wills wherof the one serues to destroye the other but he resolutely and vehemenly loues it No more irresolution as fearing into what hands he might putt himselfe or that he might loose by the bargaine but he sells and giues all that he hath If we find our selues thus affected how good reason haue we to reioyce in our Lord but if contrarily we be delaying cold irresolute in what we haue vndertaken how good reason haue we to spurre our selues on by his example I will therfore c. III. POINT Consider that he did not build woode haye or stubble that is terreane preferments or respects of flesh and blood vpon these holy fundations but euen gold siluer and pretious stones saith Possidius that is the most choyce christian vertues to witt a feruent loue of God intimated by gold the loue of the neighbour signified by siluer and all the rest of the vertues imported by pretious stones AFF. and RESOL. This is the paterne which our holy Patron left vs let 's examine how well we take it out Is it thus indeed ô my
now a hart as a Heauen or Paradice since thou art made a Mansion for the God of glorie Doe not doe not my hart gadd abrode and by a degenerous conuersation forgett with whose presence thou art honored thou hast by loue gott Deus tuus omnia Contemne for his loue all other thinges saying Dilectus meus mihi ego illi III. POINT Consider whether a greater commendations could be putt vpon Charitie then by saying God is Charitie A short prayse and yet a great prayse Short in speech great in vnderstanding Yes it is quickly said God is charitie but good God whether are our thoughtes carried by that word God is Charitie By possessing Charitie then wee possesse God but God is all good things therfore by possessing Charitie we possesse all that good is in Heauen and in Earth AFFECTION and RESOL. O short and great commendation indeed sith so great as nothing can be added Since greater or better then God nothing can be imagined by men or Angells Nor is it a humane persuasion we haue for it but an assurance of faith that God is Charitie and vvho remaynes in Charitie remaynes in God and God in him O my soule what an honor and comfort is this amidst all the calumnies and afflictions of the world that by loue thou art able to become Gods Mansion and he thyne And if thy beloued be thyne and thou his what can be wanting to a well borne hart THE XVIII MEDITAT A continuation of the excellences of Charitie I. POINT COnsider that Charitie alone is not vexed at anothers felicitie because she knowes no emulation She alone is not transported with her owne felicitie because she swells not with pride She onely is not stung with a bad conscience because she wrongs no body Amidst contumelies she is secure amongst hatreds friendly amongst braules pleasant amidst deceipts innocent lamenting at iniquities and resuming hart vpon the discouerie of Truth AFFECTION and RESOLVT Who is then so happie as one inioying Charitie What hath the world which can giue so solide and sure a content Yea what hath it that is not brimme full of discontent Wheras the charitable man meets with no vexation no emulation no swelling but contrarily ioy peace patience vnder the shelter of a good conscience are that happie mans share O diuine Charitie how thou fillest the harts which thou dost possesse with delight sweetnes and tranquilitie Ah! they seeme euen to enter into the ioy of their Lord. II. POINT Consider that it is Charitie which makes all the good Angells and all Gods seruants compagnions in the bonde of sanctitie and it ioynes vs and them together amongst our selues and subiects vs to him AFFECTION and RESOLV See how it leagues heauen and earth together and putts vs in mynd what title we haue to it makes Angells and men fellow seruants and euen in a manner equall in honor and chaynes them together in linkes of holy loue which is true sanctitie ô wishfull and deare bonds See what a sweete order it establisheth betwixt man and man making each one loue and honor and deferre to an other without forgetting their due subiection to God to whom incomparably aboue all loue honor and glorie is due III. POINT Consider vvhat a huge great good Charitie is vvhich vvithout our labour makes vvhat is good in others our ovvne Hence it was that the Psalmist holily glories that he is made partaker of all that loue God and keepe his commandements AFFEDTION and RESOLV Ah my soule if thou hast but charitie all 's thyne owne There is no good worke done in heauē or in earth but thou hast a share of it Heauen and earth makes but one great Christiā comon wealth wherof Charitie is the Queene and lodgeth in thy hart What euer prayers fastings austerities almes-deeds sufferances are exercised within the compase of the Catholike Church are partly thyne while thou art rooted in Charitie THE XIX MEDITAT OF SOME MOTIVES of the loue of God I. POINT COnsider that S. Augustins first motiue of the loue of God was that he first loued him The loue wherby God loues vs cannot be comprehended nor changed for he loued vs not onely since the tyme we were reconciled to him by the blood of his son but he euen loued vs before the world was made that we together with his onely begotten son might be his sons before we were yet any thing at all AFFECT and RESOLVT While I yet was not and so was nothing my infinitly good God had thoughts of goodnes for me to rayse me out of that abisse of nothing and make me that something which now I am being made he fell in loue with his owne worke meerely out of the abundance of his owne goodnes without any neede he had of it at all and made vs sons sons and heirs of the heauenly Kingdome we had no title too Ah my soule if we will not begin to loue at least being thus graciously preuented let vs not sticke to pay loue for loue The hart is too hard which though it will not freely giue will not a◠least render what it owes II. POINT Consider that his second motiue was the excessiue greatnes of Gods loue to vs such as we were which went so farre that he spared not his owne onely son but deliuered him to death and the death of the Crosse for all of vs vs who where wicked sinners Remember how much he loued that we may not despaire whom or what kind of creatures he loued that we waxe not proude A son for a seruant an that a most wicked one deliuered vp to death and that à most ignominious one AFFECTION and RESOLV O God I cannot looke vpon that great price that infinitly great price the pretious blood of a son spent for the redemption of a seruant but of a son who was a first begotten an onely begotten and an onely beloued one one to thyne owne hart in whom thou wert intirely pleased one in a word in euery thing equall to thy selfe I cannot I say looke vpon it but with much loue and considence Nor can I reflect vpon the seruant the poore miserable and sinfull seruant vpon which it was spent but with much confusion O God what is man that thou shouldst so putt thy hart vpon him but ô man what is God to thee And yet thy hart departs so easily from him III. POINT Consider that his third motiue was not tha◠he loued vs first and most bu◠euē prepared no other reward for our loue then himselfe What then saith he shal◠our worshipe of God haue noe reward Ah yes but noe other then the verie God himselfe whom we worshipe Seeke nothing of him without him he himselfe wil◠suffice thee AFFECTION and RESOL. Ah! that hart is conuinced to be intolerably greedie and vnsatiable whom God sufficeth not At least Augustin◠noble hart finds all plentie meere want to him which is not his verie God And therfore he petitions for
it nor can he deceiue vs that he vvho exaltes himselfe shall be humbled and be that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Nay my soule since the same Truth comes to teach vs this lesson in his sacred passion let vs not proue so much contrarie to his blessed designe and our owne aduantage as not to endeuour to learne it with the whole strife of our hartes Howbeit sith he is as well the teacher as giuer of it let vs often say with S. Augustine thou commandest humilitie ô Lord giue vvhat thou commandest and commande vvhat thou vvilt THE II. MEDITATION FOR THE 2. DAY THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider that hence it was that the diuine wisdome or Word of God which was in the begining with God nay was God and therfor could thinke it noe stealth to be coequall coeternall consubstantiall with God the Father exinanited or powred himselfe out and became flesh Et Verbum caro factum est taking vpon him the shape of a seruant Earth is at a losse vpon this abismall humiliation litle kowing as faith S. Augustine what to say to it or what conceipt to make of it Nay the heauenly powers stand amaysed to sea the kinge of Angells become lesse then the Angells yee iust like to one of vs in all thinges saue sinne nay one of vs indeede flesh of our flesh bones of our bones poore man Vnlesse we should yet say further lesse then man Nouissimus virorum the least and last of men a vvorme and not a man with the royall Prophete AFFECTION RESOLVT Ah my poore soule if the gracious inuitations and mylde lessons of Wisdome cannot preuayle to plucke downe our proude harte let at least the abismall example of our humanised God the eternall Word made flesh put before our eyes dissipate and cure that pernicious tumour It is thy verie God that lyes humbled at thy feete my soule it is diuinitie it selfe which lyes as it were infirme before thee that so thy swelling being worne downe thou mightst deiect thy selfe and caste thy selfe prostrate vpon that great God Deus Deorum now for thy example become the last and least of men THE II. POINTE. Consider that if this heauenly designe and resolution be truly admirable farre farre aboue the reach of men and Angells and the execution of it ineffably gracious and euen rauishinge as speaking more sweetnesse and heauēly delightes to humane hartes then they are any way capable to comprehende so that they doe not so much intice as inforce the said hartes to humilitie if there be any sense of man left in man so the admirable circumstances which accompaignie it doe powerfully preach the same lessons to the eyes of the world If then it hath pleased him to build himselfe a cottage of the same claye wherof he made vs he will also haue all the rest suted to it This most humble Loue metamorsised-kinge will haue an humble mother Queene a poore handmayde of our Lord An humble putatiue father Ioseph a carpenter An humble Pallace a poore Rocke or caue An humble chaire of state a manger Humble attendants an oxe and an Asse vvith a fevve sillie shephardes and after that all his life longe poore rude simple fishermen AFFECTION and RESOL. What my soule will be euer able to decrye pride if this doe not And what will be able to imprinte humilitie deepe in the verie bottomes of our hartes if this proue not effectuall His poore abiect and despicable condition in the verie first steppe he made into this world began to publish it His lowlie obscure and hidden life all the tyme of his infancie declared it in his riper yeares he continually preached it the course of his whole life confirmed it and at his death he signed it with his pretious bloude humbling himselfe to death and the death of the crosse the most infamous of all deathes O my soule let vs then being forced by all these pressing and euen oppressing arguments either humble our selues to the ground in all occasions of humiliation or at least confesse to our confusion that we are the most vnworthy and vnsutable seruants to a diuine Master who was in all thinges so incomparably humble THE I. MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD DAY Of the Benefit of a religious vocation THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider that it seemed not enough to that Kinge of glorie First to haue made you a reasonable creature after his owne likenesse and all the other creatures for your vse 2. to haue regenerated you to a new and better life by the holy Sacrament of Baptisme 3. to haue giuen you the knowledge of the Catholike faith hauing culled you out of multitudes that daylie perish but his gracious beneuolence went yet further on with you and by this holie vocation to Religion called you to be his peculiar friend and seruant and Fauourite to haue a more neere and deare conuersation with him and to make it your businesse in earth to singe his prayses and mercyes as the Blessed shall doe for euer and euer in Heauen AFFECTION and RESOL. O the infinite goodnesse of my deare Lord who goes still on in my behalfe heaping benefit vpon benefit and fauours vpon fauours yea fauours of singular preference tender loue and greatest assurance towards the attayning of Beatitude that can be mette with vpon this perilous sea Fauours not granted to all nay scarce to a few among multitudes who daylie suffer shipwracke while thy free grace deare God not my merits hath guided my doubtfull nauigation to a safe harbour Where witnesse S. Bernard who experienced the same one liues more purely falls more rarely riseth more quicklie walkes more cautiously receiues grace more frequently reposeth more securely dyes more confidently and is rewarded more abundantly THE II. POINTE. That this vocation leads to a certaine state Consider that Gods goodnesse by meanes of this holie vocation lendes you not to a certaine indifferencie of seruing him or not seruing him at your owne pleasure and election but he bringes you therby to a setled and permanent state wherin your body is tyed to stabilitie in a certaine place and all your actions are marked out and limited by Rule and constitutions and all these confirmed by the three essential vowes of Religion Pouertie chastitie and obedience according to S. Augustins Rule Which vowes are noe other things then sacred and solemne promises freely deliberatly and with out constrainte made to God in the face of the holy Church of thinges which are better as S. Thomas of Aquine teacheth AFFECTION and RESOL. This my soule was Gods singular goodnesse to vs to winne our hartes by our owne free choyce to renounce that dangerous libertie which might happly haue proued our ruine to imbrace the true libertie of the children of God which is neuer so free or euen truly free indeede but vnder the seruitude of that most pious Kinge of glorie according to that of S. Augustine Libertie is neuer greater then vnder a pious Kinge whom to serue is indeede
and is a fruite which is onely found in the bosome of the Catholike Church None but a virgine mother brings out virgines Obedience directs all secures all confirmes all and makes a fitt tabernacle for God in the harte of man by banishing thence selfe iudgement and selfe will But heauenly charitie as a glorious mother farr outstrips them all giues them all their begining increase and perfection For why indeede my soule did we first enterprise this holy worke but because we loue What could be able to robbe vs of all we haue but loue What did wowe vs to virginall chastitie but the loue of a virgine spouse What could moue men to depriue them selues of beloued libertie and to liue at the dispose of anothers will but the loue of him alone who chused rather to dye thē not to accomplish the will of his heauenly Father Loue then saith your holy Father and doe vvhat thou vvilt THE II. POINTE. That vvithout charitie nothing is done to secure our happie eternitie Consider that if humilitie put the foundation of your spirituall Towre it was by charities guidance and order for as humilitie goes not without charitie so charitie neuer leaues humilitie If pouertie raysed the walls it was with the treasure wherwith charitie furnished her If chastitie adorned it within it was with the pure burning gold which she had of charitie Finally if obedience confirmed and secured the whole worke it was by the force she receiued of charitie vvhich is as stronge as death In a word all is from charitie and all is for charitie AFFECTION RESOLVT He S. Paule knewe this truth my soule as certainly as he affirmes it vndauntedly to wit that not onely the foresaid vertues profit vs nothinge without charitie but euen that tho vve should haue all faith so that vve could remoue mountaines though vve should distribute all our goods to be meate for the poore finally though vve should deliuer our bodies to burne and yet vvant charitie it profits vs nothing Charitie saith holy S. Augustine is that which discernes the sonns of God from the sonns of the Diuell Charitie is that one necessarie thinge which alone sufficeth Charitie in a word is that Euangelicall gemme for which if a man should giue all his substance he shall repute it as nothing Come thē ô come then ô thou holy spirit Deus Charitas and replenish the hartes of thy faithfull and inflame them vvith the fire of thy loue THE FIRST MEDITAT FOR THE 7. DAY That all the vertues are loue THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider that so true it is that nothing is done without charitie that your holy Father makes noe difficultie to teach you that vvithout charitie the rest of the vertues are not indeede reputed vertues nay further that the rest of the vertues are but indeede loue and charitie so or so qualified For what is humilitie but charitie stooping and reputing her selfe nothing What is pouertie but charitie contemning all and stripping herself of all What is chastitie but loue preseruing corruptible man from corruption of bodie and mynde What finally obedience but loue freely and reasonably sacrifycing vp the will of man and making it supple and inclinable to euerie creature AFFECTION and RESOL. Charitie then my soule is that transcendant heauenly vertue without which there is noe true vertue at all It is she which gouernes as Queene giues life vigour and worth to all the other vertues He who loueth not remaynes in death It is she who perfumes them all with the odour and sweeenesse of holy loue since we doe not meerely imbrace them because they are vertues but rather in qualitie of thinges that are desired imbraced and beloued by God To discouer à man truly vertuous we vse not to inquire what he beleeues or what he hopes for but what he loues If earth h'es earthly if Heauen he 's heauenly if God he 's Godlike for as such they become all desirable louing and louelie Let me loue thee then ô Lord let me loue thee and loue all other thinges which I loue and practise for thee and in thee that my beloued may be myne and I wholie his THE II. POINTE. That vve ought incessantly to desire and breath after charitie Consider that if as we haue seene Charitie be all in all our thoughtes ought to be sett vpon the continuall desire of it For what ought we or doe we indeede desire but what euery one proposeth to himselfe for his end and the end of the lavve is loue What ought any Christiā to desire but the accomplishment of the lawe of God and the fulnesse of the lavve is charitie Nor fares it in those heauenly desires as in vaine worldly wishes a million of them puts not one pennie into our purses Wheras by the verie desire of the loue of God we begin to loue God indeed and still the more we desire it the more we loue Yea when this desire waxes stronge and hartie the desire is turned into fire and inflames the couering harte He that desires God vvith his vvhole harte has alreadie him vvhom he loues saith S. Gregorie And S. Augustine a holy desire is the vvhole life of a good Christian AFFECTION and RESOL. But alas my poore soule tho we clearely discerne this desire to be most iust aduantagious and most worthy of a christiā harte yet we somtymes perceiue our selues not to be so happie as euen to haue this desire Let vs then at least say with the Prophete my soule hath desired earnestly to desire thy iustifications at all tymes Let vs not fayle to haue this desire of desiring continually in our harte saying with S. Au. Giue me thy selfe restore me thy selfe for vvhat is not thy verie selfe is verie nothing to me and it will happen with vs as it did with the holie Prophete that in these holy thoughtes and desirs fire will flashe out and so throughly inflame our soule that as the stagge thirsteth after the fountaines of fresh water so shall we vehementlie couet and thirst after our good God that drainlesse fountaine of liuing water which flowes into life euerlastnig THE II. MEDITATION Of vvhom vve are to learne Charitie tovvards one another THE FIRST POINTE. COnsider that we ought to learne this most important lesson this one necessarie thinge of him who doth as well teach it as giue it our Sauiour Iesus who brought downe this sacred fire into earth and his vvill vvas it should burne the hartes of men And indeede neuer did he seeme so peculiarly to make himselfe the Master of any thinge as of this vertue and humilitie This is my precept said that deare master of ours that you loue one another My litle children I giue you a new precept that you loue one another In this all men shall know that you are my Disciples if you haue loue one to another Holy Father I pray c. that they may be one as we also are one I in them and thou in me AFFECTION and RESOL. This is the great commandement indeede my soule this Christs speciall precept Loue one another this the badge by which he will haue all his seruants to be knowne If they loue one another If we come without this wedding garmēt we shall be repulsed If we knocke not hauing this oyle of charitie in our Lampes wherby we may be knowne to men to be Gods Disciples God vvill not knovve vs the dore vvill be shut What thinge more wishfull could we haue desired to haue heard thē by affording mutuall loue and assistance to one another which we haue all such neede of to secure our saluation And yet the most louing and beloued Apostle assures vs It is the precept of our soueraigne Lord and Master doe this faith he and it sufficeth Beare one anothers burden and so you shal accomplish the lavve of Christ THE SECONDE POINTE. Hovv vve ought to exercise Charitie to one another Consider that this ought to be done by his example who gaue the commande of it and afterwards came graciously downe to teach it by his owne practise Thus we are taught by the great Apostle Receiue helpe comfort support and loue one another as Christ receiued assisted supported and loued vs. But how did Christ loue vs c Marrie he loued vs first with a free and disinterested loue which looked vpon noe preceedant merites 2. With a right loue not to receiue any thinge from vs but to discharge the ouer-flowing riches of his mercifull breastes vpon our pouertie 3. With a perseuerant loue for louing his vvho vvere in the vvorld he loued them to the end 4. With a stronge loue euen as stronge as death it selfe he loued vs and deliuered himselfe for vs for vs men and for our saluation AFFECTION and RESOL. If then my soule we hope for any consolation in Christ if any solace of Charitie if any societie of spirit if any bowells of commiseration let vs endeuour to fulfill the B. Apostles ioy by being of one meaning having the same charitie of one mynd agreeing in one That nothing be done by contention nor by vaine glorie but in humilitie each counting others better then themselues In a word let vs receiue comfort support and loue our poore brethren and that too as Christ gaue vs the example with a pure and disinterrested loue because it is his blessed pleasure that so it should be With a right loue not seeking that vvhich is profitable in particular to our selues but that vvhich is profitable to many With a perseuerant loue which is not to end but with the end of our liues Finally with a stronge loue readie to wrastle with obuious difficulties and euen with death it selfe for the good of our brother as our deare Lord gaue vs an example