I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
I will kiss thee I will conjure thee to remain with me I wil rather lose my self than leave thy presence My beloved is mine his honour is mine his heart is mine his heaven is mine And I am his behold the key the keeper the soul the body the lord the whole ô my God is thine Behold my liberty my life my love all is thine ô my Jesu and thine alone Repose therefore as a sweet posie between my breasts sleep like a bridegroom in my heart and reign like a King in the most intim closet of my soul Come Lord Jesu come quickly take full possession of thy own Come and please thy self love thy self and serve thy self in me as thou desirest and deservest to be pleased loved served Let thy love O King of love be the life of my soul and the lease of my life that when I cease to love I may cease to live In thy love O Jesu I end this act of love though my desire actually to love thee be endless Oh! let me live and dy in thy love and for thy love that by love I may for ever reign and remain with thee in thy Kingdom of love Amen THE THIRD TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Ascent of the pious soul by Steps and Degrees of Vertues to the happy Mountain of Perfection Psal 83. v. 8. They shall go from vertu into vertu The God of Gods shall be seen in Syon AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions tending to Perfection THis Spirituall ladder O dear Souls will shew you how much you have profited in pure solid devotion how far you have proceeded in the way of the Spirit how forward you are in seeking God forsaking your selves what progress you have made in your journey towards heaven Contemplate therefore your selves often in this impartial mirrour bewail your backwardness shake off your sloathfulness increase your fervour and encourage your diligence to climb this sacred Mountain of Perfection and to pass on cheerfully from vertu to vertu Psal 83. 8. till you happily come to the beatifying sight of your Lord God in Sion The Seven Degrees of Perfection 1. VPon the first Step stand they who are Faithfull Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgements and Careful to avoid mortall sin These are Beginners who have little inward light stand upon slippery ground and though they may be saved yet so as by fire 2. On the second Step stand Proficients who strive to avoid venial sins and conquer their sensuality but are slow in tending to Perfection and subject to be self-conceited 3. On the third Step stand they who casting off sloath tame themselves with austerities but their intentions are not pure nor they well grounded in self-denial 4. On the fourth Degree stand they who have gotten into their interiour but yet seek for solaces and are discouraged with adversities 5. On the fifth Step stand they who are fully resigned and perfectly obedient but fail for want of experience and courage 6. On the sixth Step stand they who have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and constancy but desire comforts to enable their perseverance Here also stand they who are indifferent to comforts or desolations but yet they rest in Gods favours with some propriety Here furthermore stand they who are satisfied with God only but are not absolutely as willing to leave divine favours as to have them 7. On the seventh and highest Degree of Perfection stand the elevated and contemplative souls Gods faithfull friends and favourites who are perfectly indifferent resign'd and obedient in all things to his divine will and pleasure The first and lowest Degree of Perfection THe first Step and groundwork of all vertue and perfection is To be well setled in the Vpon the first step of this ladder stand Beginners who are Faithful Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgments Careful to avoid mortal sin Catholick faith Fearfull of Gods severe judgements and Careful to avoid all mortal sin This is the Church porch and entrance into Gods holy Temple but they who stand here remain cold in charity carelesse and undiligent in their lesser duties remiss in spiritual exercises negligent in thinking of their obligation by which they stand ingaged to tend towards perfection and finally they greedily gape after all conveniencies of their corrupted nature and give up themselves to glut and solace their depraved sensuality These Beginners have very little But they have little inward light or no inward light they know not what is the meaning of mortification what it is to get into their interiour or what Introversion signifies but they seemingly satisfie and secure themselves in that they have a will to avoid the known and capitall sins whereby they hope to escape hell and avoid Gods heavy judgements Surely such souls stand upon very unsafe and slippery ground and Stand upon slippery ground their salvation is in a doubtfull and dangerous condition for they are so blinded and bewitched with self-love and sensuality that they cannot well distinguish perfectly discern nor rightly judge what sins are of mortall danger and what not so that conversing dayly amidst such multitudes of perils and shaking hands with the world the flesh and the devil with so much freedom so little care and precaution what do they else but dance as it were upon the very brink of hell from whence if they once tread awry they infallibly tumble headlong into that bottomless dungeon of eternall perdition Yet in case they should indeed And though they may be saved foot it so warily all their life time that death takes them not tripping nor fall'n into mortall offence a thing most rare and not to be presumed on by any one who carries himself so carelesly they shall surely be saved but so as by fire They must expect a most sharp and severe Yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. punishment a long and piercing purgatory by reason of their unmortifi'd affections to venial sins their giving scope to their unbridled senses their neglect of Gods love their coldness in charity and their tepidity in tendance to perfection And as for their good works they are not likely to be there much available since their groundwork was servil fear their end self-love and their whole drift and intention altogether sinister and deficient from that purity and perfection wherewith they should have been performed The Second Degree of Perfection THey stand on this second Step who hearkning to Gods holy inspirations following his internall On the 2. step stand Proficients Who are careful to shun venial sins and conquer sensuality attractions and obeying the sweet invitations of his Spirit keep themselves disingaged from all vain affections to the world yield not to the enticements of flesh and blood resist the suggested temptations of the devil and carefully avoid all occasions of offending their Lord and maker so much as venially To help on this pious design they put
affection towards it So that these too cheif powers of man's soul miserably deceived and misled walk continually as in a circle from this darknesse into others and fall from one great errour into others more grievous 5. Take heed therefore of fastning thy affection upon any thing And the same caveat is necessary also in holy things whatsoever before it be wel weighed and examined by the Vnderstanding and recommended to God in prayer that so thou maist truly discerne whether it be good or evill And to this I exhort thee not only in all indifferent things but even in them also which are good and holy for though they are evidently good in themselves yet they may prove otherwise to thee by reason of some circumstance of time place measure or obedience Whence it often happens that many have endangered themselves in their most laudable and holiest exercises 6. Thou must also warily retain The Understanding is to be also weaned from Curiosity thy Vnderstanding from Curiosity lest it draw that into the soul which may retard it in the intended purchase of victory For a curious enquiry after earthly things which are impertinent to thy spiritual purpose though it may bee sometimes permitted yet t is generally the poyson of the spirit Restrain therefore thy Vnderstanding to thy utmost and strive to make it simple and foolish And made simple and foolish to worldly things As for the changes and chances in the world whether they be great or small if they concern thee not consider them not And when thou needs must heare or behold them let thy Will alwayes contradict them Yea even in the knowledge of heavenly things be sober and humble and content thy self in the onely desire to know thy crucified Saviour and his blessed life and death Abandon all other things for so thou shalt yield to thy Lord a most gratefull service who puts them into the list of his best freinds that desire no more knowledge than what is sufficient to inflame their hearts in the love of his goodnesse and hatred of their own wickednesse for in the search of all other knowledg nothing but self-love and a certain pernicious pride lyes secretly lurking 7. If thou thus weanest thy Vnderstanding How highly this conduceth to perfection from these curiosities thou shalt happily escape many ambushes of thy enemies For the wicked spirit marking the unchangeable will and resolution of those travellers tending to spirituall perfection not to yield their consent to sin layes his crafty plots first against their Vnderstanding that so he may by little and little get the mastery And how cunningly the devill plots against i◠over it and the Will together To this end hee suggests to the learned and sharpwitted sublime and subtile conceits that they may think themselves already united to the divinity so forget themselves and give over the correction of their own consciences the resignation of their wills and study of their own nothing And thus they are insnared By suggesting pride to our understanding with pride and make to themselves a certain Idoll of their own wisdome in their Vnderstandings and are so highly puffed up and perplexed in these vain thoughts that they now perswade themselves not to stand in any need of others counsell or direction 8. O the danger that these souls Which is far more dangerous and more difficulty cured than that of the Will are in and how hardly are they cured by reason that the pride of the Vnderstanding is far more perillous than that of the Will For hee that is proud onely in Will omits not all obedience but submits his judgement sometimes to others which he preferres before his own and beleeves it to be better But he that is puffed up with the pride of his Vnderstanding and assuredly believes his own opinion to be better than that of others ah what hope is there of his cure How shall he be brought to submit to anothers judgement when as he thinkes himself the wiser man For when the Vnderstanding which is the souls eye and should both see and correct its secret pride is it self blind and blowne up with presumption when light it self is become darknesse and the very Rule crooked thou easily conceivest what followes and what the end of those things is like to bee which depend upon such principles Wherefore take timely care to prevent this pride before it pierce thee to the marrow yeeld not up the reins to thy understanding but subject it to counsell and submit thine owne sense to others judgements become a foole in thy own conceit for the love of thy Lord and by this means thou shalt bee wiser than Salomon CHAP. V. Of the Will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions IF thou desirest ô dearly beloved 1. A will to do well sufficeth not to become one spirit with thy Lord God 't is not enough to have a pious and prompt will to doe good works but even that good thou doest must by his divine help and motion be totally referred to Gods honour and to please him onely In But our actions must be performed only to please God this thou must look to have a strong conflict with thine own nature which in all her actions and omissions seeks her own commodity and complacence especially in things spirituall Hence it is that when any good thing is proposed to be performed as from Gods will and pleasure shee readily undertakes to perform it but yet not as a thing pleasing to God or proposed by him but rather because she considers the commodities and content which man reaps by doing the will of God 2. Wherfore to the end thou Which that thou maist attain to maist wrest thy selfe out of this dangerous snare of the Devil and pernicious stumbling block cast in the way of perfection and by degrees get a custome to doe or not to doe because God will have it so and with an intention to please him only who should be the entrance and end of all our actions listen diligently to these following advices 3. When a thing is presented unto Apply thy understanding to Gods will thee to bee performed which is agreeable to the divine Will first lift up thy Vnderstanding unto God before thou appliest thy Will to execute it thus thou shalt clearly discern that it is his divine pleasure thou shouldest perform it and that thou shouldst doe it solely for his Honour and good liking And that thy will is drawn and moved by the divine will to effect this work for this onely end and intention because God will have it so for the honour and glory of his own most sacred Majesty 4. So likewise when thou wouldst omit or refuse the things not willed And take heed of being deceived by God resolve not rashly upon this omission untill thou hast directed the eye of thy Vnderstanding to the divine will as is even
them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as dross among metalls chaff among grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the children of God I acknowledge my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the world the devil and hell it self can inflict upon me 2. And to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee ô my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty and a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence ô my Lord and my maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthyest element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction be ashamed to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceived in concupiscence nourished with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am ashamed to own my own beginning which is so horrid and lothesome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the ground-work of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time what nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and wofull thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgement of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. I came into this world ô my Lord with groanes and tears I live in it with griefs and cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horror to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of veâ—min and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay and ashâ—s why shouldest thou look to be so highly priz'd so daintily pampered thou stinking puddle Dust thou art to dust thou must return Hast thou not alwayes before thy eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and maker What thou â—â—st hitherto been I wel know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace and love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtfull of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came ô my Lord into this world in originall sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace ô merciful Lord God to avoid sin since I cannot eschew death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly sin 4. What art thou then ô my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou ô N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor nothing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not received Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledge my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdraw from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own Nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledge and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body soul will judgement memory understanding affection senses meat drink company habit books prayer Sacraments all creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honor the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. What creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in heaven if it had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountifull Lord God and made so little and bad use of them as I have done If I deny all this my conscience witnesseth against me If I confess it oh why am I not more humble Finally If such great troubles temptations and tribulations had hapened to me as have done to others I should by consenting have ere now burned in hell fire but thou O meek and merciful Creator hast spared me because thou knowest my weakness and sent me small crosses because I cannot bear greater c. Wherefore Not unto me O Lord but to thee be all honour for time and eternity O that I could know thee and know my self O that I could truly see my own nothing and totall dependancy on thee my misery and malice and thy perfection and total goodness Ay me weak and wretched N What are my forces that I should rely on them I have nothing O my Lord but what is
perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness whereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Grant me also good Iesu by the merits of these thy wounds the vertue of perfect obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing self-judgement in submitting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiours injunctions but even to the commands of all thy creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholly mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Iesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me do so transforming my will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whole self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance of thee my crucified Lord. Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Iesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whole course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. From thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy al-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet fountain issuing from thy powerful right Paulm my manifold sins of malice and injustice with all my faults of hypocrisie and ingratitude falshood and infidelity rancor and revenge Renew O Lord God a right spirit within my bowels Let exact justice be the square of all my actions truth the touchstone of my words and sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratiâ—ude and obedience with my whole heart soul and strength next to my Superiors equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judge or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish enemies Lord Iesu give me grace to imitate thy vertues to be gratefull for thy gifts and to make use of thy goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divine Majesty 5. And in the Sacred wound of thy left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Neglâ—gence tepidity sluggishness cowardise and pusillanimity all my covetous desires all impurity and all intemperance Purge me O my powerfull Lord purifie me O my merciful Savior Give strength comfort and courage to my feeble and frail nature that I may pass undauntedly through all difficulties and dangers to come to thee my Iesu to lay hold on thee and to repose in thee the only Centre of my desires Grant me O my Lord chastity of body and cleaness of heart temperance in my appetites and sobriety in my senses gravity in my deportment and moderation in all my proceedings that nothing may dislike thee in my soul nor dissolve the sacred knot wherwith thou hast fasten'd me unto thee Give me also O Iesu my Lord perfect poverty of spirit O permit not my soul intended to enjoy thee the only solid and satiating riches to be intangled with the least affection to the poor and perishable trifles of this world Behold I cast my self uncloathed from all creatures into thy naked embraces O crucified Saviour I desire to clip nothing in my folded arms but a breast burning with desires to please thee my Creatour and a heart melting away in thy love I make choice of thy bare Cross O Christ for my best inheritance I stretch out my opened folds to meet thy holy and heavenly huggings O let me never more be unclasped from thy blessed bosom Be thou O my great-little-naked-Iesu my rest during the short time of my life and my refuge at the dreadful hour of my death 6. And now O mercifull Saviour I humbly convert my eyes and contemplation to thy sacred Head crowned with thorns and thy divine Face all besmeared with gore and spittle for my sake Here I implore strength O Jesu for the weaknesses of my head and pardon for the wickednesses of my five wits and senses O my Lord I desire to bury in these thy innumerous wounds the enormous number of my iniquities and I beseech thee for these thy sufferings sake to adorn my weak capacity with so much solid wisdom as may fitly suit with my condition O let me never think speak or act any thing which is not seasoned with the salt of discretion Let me seriously weigh each circumstance and patiently wait thy leave and leasure before I leap into any work Inlighten me to see clearly thy will and pleasure and impower me exactly to fulfil and follow it Open the eyes of my Understanding to behold my own baseness and wickedness and give me thy gracious assistance to reform it Help me to form a right judgement of the real vileness and vanity of all transitory things and indue my heart with courage to contemn them Inebriate my affection ô amiable Iesu with the sweetness of thy love and let all worldly solaces savour of bitterness to my soul Let me be deaf blind and dumb to all things which are not thy self ô my crucified Saviour Let me prudently discern and piously perform each parcel of my duty in it's due circumstance of time place order measure and manner Let that holy and innocent simplicity which is the vertue of thy Saints shine in all my actions Let me not be curious to know much but careful to practise much and cordial to love thee much O
thy self and more in God and with a new-enkindled zeale and greater courage than before wilt follow thy begun enterprize to get the victory in this spirituall warfare and pursue thy enemies even to death 6. And would to God these A necessary caveat for all spiritual people truthes were diligently div'd into by some who seeme to bee spirituall and yet they no sooner fall into defects but they presently become impatient and cannot be quieted till they have recourse to their ghostly Father rather for their own solace than for any true devotion when as the prime motive of their comming to him should be to purge their soules from sin by absolution and to obtaine new strength against their enemies by the sacred Communion EXPLICATION AS we can promise to our selves By God's assistance we can do all things nothing but faylings fallings because we are of our selves nothing so also we may certainly promise to our selves from our God an intire victory over all our enemies if we arm our hearts with a lively confidence in his divine Majesty But Wherein many are deceived many deceive themselves in supposing that the pusillanimity and disquiet following their fall is an effect of virtue because it is accompanied with a displeasure for their offence when as indeed it springs from pride and presumption and is founded in selfe-confidence and conceit of their own strength to which they too By reason of their pride and presumption in their owne strength much trusting find by the wofull experience of their fall that they are truly weak and really nothing and thereupon they become troubled astonished as at a new thing and so lose their courage seeing that prop which sustained their vain confidence fallen down to the ground But this befalls not them who are truly humble For they confiding in God alone nothing presuming of themselves when they chance to fall into any fault feele indeed a true grief in their souls but are neither disquieted nor astonished seeing clearly by the light of truth that this proceeds from their own misery frailty and presumption CHAP. IV. Of continuall exercise and first that the Vnderstanding is carefully to be kept from Ignorance and from Curiosity IT hath been hitherto declared The third spirituall weapon is continuall exercise how much this Distrust of our selves and trust in Gods goodnesse help us on in our spirituall conflict But they alone are yet insufficient to gain the victory and keep us from relapses and therefore besides these two a third weapon is necessary which we above tearmed Continuall Exercise and this chiefly consists in the rectified use of our Understanding Which consists in the right use of the understanding and Will 2. First therefore the Understanding is to be carefully kept from two great evils Ignorance and Curiosity From Ignorance that it may bee pure and cleare and so we may The understanding is to be kept from Ignorance see what is necessary for the taming of our passions and overcomming of our affections 3. And this light may be obtained two manner of wayes First and chiefly by earnest Prayer invoking First by prayer and imploring God's holy Spirit to infuse this light into thy soule Secondly Secondly by a diligent search into our owne actions by daily practice of a profound and accurate search into all thine own actions and affairs not only as they appeare outwardly but rather as they are truly in themselves Doe but make tryall of this exercise for a time and thou wilt come easily to understand what things and actions are good and what are evill as also what are truly good and what are onely in shew promising much by their outward splendour but performing indeed nothing nor any way conducing to the quiet of thy conscience EXPLICATION THis point which is to estimate This search into all things according to their true worth will open our eyes to see the meanesse of all worldly vanities all things according to their true and reall worth and goodnesse being well practised will open our eyes to see the poornesse of all such toys which worldlings most desire and delight in It will shew us that earthly honours and pleasures are meer vanities and afflictions of spirit That injuries infamies and affronts patiently suffered are the harbingers of true happinesse and glory That afflictions are indeed freindships and that seeming crosses are followed with certain contentments That to despise the world is better than to be master of it and that to be willingly obedient for the love of God to the meanest creature is a more magnanimous action and the signe of a more generous spirit than to command the greatest Kings That the humble ackowledgment of our own nothing is more acceptable to the divine Majesty than to dive into the height and depth of all sciences That to quel and conquer our owne appetites and imperfections though they be never so small merits more praise than to force the strongest holds than to triumph over the greatest armies than to worke the greatest miracles or raise the dead out of their graves All which things and others of like nature are not sincerely discerned by us because before we enter into our selves to weigh them well as we ought and as they truly are we permit our fancy to be prevented prepossessed and surprized with some sensuall affection towards them which so darkens and dimms our understandings that they are rendred uncapable to judge of those objects rightly and impartially as they should and they truly deserve 4. Wherefore give an attentive Text. A necessary caveat to keep the will from fixing it's love care ô dearly beloved to what I shall now tell thee for it will much further thee to fight successefully The means to know the true nature and properties of all things which occurre in thy daily transactions is by taking speciall care to keep thy Will pure and free from all motion of love and affection which looke not directly upon God himself or upon the means leading unto him For to the end thy Vnderstanding may rightly distinguish good from evill it must first consider it before thy Will hath made it's election or Untill the Understanding have first pondered the object reprobation of it because when the Will hath fastned once it's affection upon the object the Vnderstanding is hindred from comming to a true knowledg thereof by reason that the consent of the Will intervening leaves it so involved and obscured that it appeares farre fairer to the Vnderstanding than it is in it self And hence it happens that the object being thus falsly represented to the Will becomes too too passionately beloved and embraced without the due enquiry of its reall goodnesse And by how much the desire or love of the Will is more vehement by so much the Vnderstanding is more grosly clowded in its judgement and being so deceived invites the Will to a◠encrease of
of for your own satisfaction And look down with your other eye upon your bottomless nothing see there your own base indignity and brutish ingratitude your great impurity and gross impiety and be ashamed to desire any temporal esteem who so truly deserve eternal damnation 6. Other knots of the same To self-love appertain also all the passions of our inferiour nature love hatred c. snare are all those passions which have their residence in our inferiour nature love hatred joy grief hope and fear with their severall attendants these raise up broiles to disturb our inward tranquillity to discompose our Reason and interpose their earthy exhalations between our superiour will and the grace of God Peace of heart is the secure refuge To which we must oppose Peace of heart against all these peevish Passions do but cast your whole care upon your Creator and call away your inordinate affection from creatures and what then can punish or perplex you Remit and refer all accidents whether adverse or prosperous sweet or sowre good or bad to Gods high power and holy providence comfort your selves in his mercy content your selves in his all-sufficiency and quiet your selves in his love Ah! how poor how vain how vile how unregardable Read the 4. ch num 3. of the conflict are the best of worldly blessings how is it possible that things in themselves so contemptible can have the least entrance or admittance into a soul setled in Gods pure love and presence O let the children of this world who place their final felicity in such fading fooleries who have their souls buried in this earth and swallowed up in sensuality be solicitous to seek them glut and burst themselves in the enjoying of them and be dejected to be deprived of them but we O souls aspiring to perfection whose master is God whose aym is vertue whose reward is heaven what have we to do with these inferiour passions Away with these Mammons My heart is signed with the signet of Gods love my hatred is only bent against sin and my self my joy is in God my Saviour my grief is that I am not all his my fear is to offend him and my hope is to enjoy him 7. Lastly all adhering to our proper will and judgment appertains to this ambush of our enemy The adhering to our own wills and preferring of our own judgments are also points of self-love Read the 5. ch of the Conflict This draws us off by degrees from doing our duty diverts us from following divine motions and superiours commands daunts us from relying entirely on Gods providence and fulfilling perfectly his holy pleasure we dare not disobey this master nor will we venture to destroy this Idol of our hearts 't is death to be cross'd in our conceits or contradicted in our exercises which we have chosen according to our private fancy accustomed with self-complacency and keep with unpardonable propriety Perfect obedience breaks through Which must be cured by obedience submission and resignation this snare and a totall resignation to Gods good will pleasure is the secure refuge against this deceit How can a soul be disquieted to receive or refuse act or omit that which she truly conceives to proceed both in substance and circumstance from the divine providence and permission How can that person go astray who is perfectly obedient to God and his superiour gives up himself wholly to the guidance of Gods holy Spirit and the government of a discreet directour observes each beck of the divine call first examined and approved by them who are incharged with their souls and waits upon the divine will as the shadow on the body 8. Where you are to take notice Note a triple obediencâ— 1. Of vow of a triple obedience One is of vow another of conformity and a third of union The first concerns all religious people and imports an external exact and necessary performance of that which is commanded The Second concerns all spiritual 2. of Conformity souls and consists in their inward promptitude and readiness to execute Gods will manifested by faith and their ghostly guide purely for himself and precisely for his own sake without the least touch of proper interest or self-seeking The Third concerns all perfect 3. Of Vnion persons and consists in so entire a connexion of their wills to the will of their Lord God that they seem both one hence it is that they embrace all that happens to themselves or others good or bad life or death for time or eternity as immediatly proceeding from his divine goodness and as the very best that could happen Here the soul elevated above it self and all things into God and stedfastly fixed in divine contemplation patiently expects and obediently attends to what he speaks wills and acts within her remaining ever ready and really resigned to suffer outward pains or inward pressures to receive comforts or endure crosses as the supream providence best knows permits and pleases being fully content with all and faithfully constant in all The Second Ambush Immoderate affection to creatures 1. THis infects distracts disquiets and diverts our minds from their pure and perfect tendance to our Creator Ah! what have we whose inheritance is heaven to do This affection to creatures distracts us from our Creator with the poor and perishable commodities of this world yet our subtil enemy strives to make us serious in searching after them solicitous to keep them and impatient to part with them Against this we must provide true poverty of spirit which consists Again which must prâ—vide Poverty or spirit in a perfect denudation of our souls from all propriety of love to any corruptible creature whatsoever we must use them only and not rest in them we may enjoy them but take no joy in them if Superiours command them from us we must cheerfully part with them if any accident bereave us of them we must willingly let go our hold saying Our Lord gave them our Lord Read the 13. ch of the Conflict hath retaken them his name be ever praised his will always performed Farewel uncertain and unsatisfying profits wellcome sweet and secure poverty We must throw away couragiously all such cloggs as retard our soul's flight to perfection Away with superfluities Oh! that we could live with the only love of our naked and crucified Jesus That we could support our feeble Nature without the supplies of any creatures that so our souls disingaged from the depressing necessities of flesh and blood might soar aloft and sweetly repose in the bosom of divine love 2. Nor is the overmuch tenderness of affection to any person Affection to persons corrupts our judgements whomsoever under what pertext soever any other thing than a meer ambush of our enemy for it corrupts our purest actions and vitiates our most pious intentions it is the bane of Gods love the poyson of our hearts and the venome of
our souls For when humane favour and respect strive to oversway the love of God and strike in for a part of that which is due to God only we do or leave undone say or unsay what we neither should nor would but for their sakes Ouâ— kindred corrupt oâ—r judgments and courtesies blind our reasons so that we neither discern their follies nor correct their faults but rather comply with their imperfections and somtimes wink at their open wickednesses for the continuance of our own content 3. O how far is this from that The remedy is to love all impartially in and for God pure love which obligeth us to affect all without exception of persons only in and for God as bearing his image as being truly vertuous and as far forth as they are furtherers to our souls salvation and perfection Fy upon all friend ships and affections which are attended with such dangers accompanied with such distractions and followed with such disquiets which busie our fancies and bend our imaginations to things so unprofitable and impertinent and so much impeding us in our intended pâ—ogresse to the perfection of Gods love 4. So also all disordered delight Spiritual sweetnesses may be somtimes snares of our enemy pleasure and propriety in spiritual sweetnesses and inward solaces of devotion are meer traps of the enemy laid to catch and insnare our unwary souls and to make them rest with complacency in things which are not God himself the end of our desires but only his creatures guifts and graces You must not stay here O devout We must noâ— stay in them but transcend them souls but pass on your way and transcend all for his sake whom you only seek and not his solaces These are helps and encouragements in your course not the goal you must touch These are neither security Read the 28. ch of the Confflict nor sanctity but only baits of the divine piety to strengthen you in climbing the steep mountain to his perfect charity The Third Ambush Extroversion or an inordinate application of the soul to external things 1. THis choaks up the Spirit of Extroversion choaks up devotion Devotion quenches the souls ardor in her holy exercises hinders her hastning to perfection and buries the whole heart and mind the whole time and talents in mean and inferiour employments which should be totally taken up in divine contemplation Take heed of being drawn into this dangerous ambush O dear Therefore we must not intrude our selves into employments souls intrude not your selves into any business and when Necessity Obedience or Charity the only pretexts which can make extroversion lawfull and laudable urge you abroad keep your heart still at home converse there with your Lord and love and commune with him concerning the more important affairs of eternity abstract your selves from all outward multiplicity and there treat sweetly and secretly with him of your souls union to that one thing which is only and absolutly necessary 2. Abridge therefore your fancy But curb our fancies from fruitless roaming abroad upon all occurring objects which proceeds from instability of heart and argues a neglect of your interiour Curb and suppresse all extravagations Read ch 4 n. 6 of the Conflict of your mind not only from sinful but from superfluous and unprofitable conceptions which nothing advance your soul in it's tendance to perfection but contaminate it with the dust of vanity and contristate the holy Spirit of God within you 3. Perform such works as concern your calling without solicitude of mind or ingagement of affection Perform workâ— of obedience necâ—ssity and charity without engâ—gâ—ng your affections lest your senses become darkned your soul distracted your fervor diminished your prayers neglected and you sliding insensibly into negligence and a total discomposition in your inward man be hardly ever again reclaimed and recollected For how can a soul which is totally environed with worldly impertinencies have any vacant time left for the entertainments of piety how can a mind dull'd and astonish'd with the continual noyses of mundanity hearken attentively to Gods holy inspirations 4. Wherefore strive timely and And strive to get into your interiour diligently to get into your interiour prevent your soul which is ever active never idle with pious thoughts lest evil habits press in first and pre-possesse it apply your selves speedily and seriously to introversion spiritual silence and inward attendance to God alone adhere to him only and remain unremoveable from this maxim To desire nothing demand nothing think of nothing love nothing labour for nothing but him alone that One and All which is needfull for you Do this as if nothing else concern'd you and as if there were nothing but He and your self and You and himself considerable in the whole world 5. The surest way to compass this happy and heavenly design is to keep your eyes and heart fix'd By fixing our hearts upon Christ crucified constantly and continually upon Christ crucified This is the solid ground whence the highest contemplatives take their first rise hither into this sacred Ark of our Saviours humanity they must again return after their lofty soarings into the divinity and here they must settle when elswhere they can find no footing And surely a soul that seriously considers his sufferings contemplates his mercys and reflects upon his vertues will find her whole time too short to visit each room of his several perfections and none at all left to be lost upon extravagant and worldly fancies The Fourth Ambush Bitterness of Heart 1. WHich comprehends all kind Bitterness of heart comprehends all sadnes frowardnesse c. of Sadness Melancholy frowardness restlesness indignation despitefulness proness to impatience discontent tediousness of mind aversion distast of all things dislike of others suspicions sinister interpretations unpleasantness murmurations detractions rancor malice rash-judgments and the like 2. The source of these bitter All which proceed either from nature indiscretion â—n austerities thoughtfulness persumption or immortification streams is either perverse nature or indiscreet austerities or an over-serious application of the mind to study and thoughtfulness or a secret presumption of self-perfection and sufficiency or an immortification of passions or a reflexion upon past injuries or an envying at others vertue praise preferment and prosperity And all these anguishes of mind and harshnesses in conversation are great impediments in our progress to spirituality and must necessarily And must be sweetned with charity be sweetned and season'd with the Sugar of perfect Charity For if we truly love our Lord God how can we scorn his image stamp'd in the souls of our Brethren Do they cease to be Gods amiable creatures because they displease despise or Read c. 16 of the Conflict neglect me may they not be Gods friends though they are my foes are they not more likely to love God because they dislike me who am so truly unworthy to be loved