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
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
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
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
noe loue without greife I hope in God that as heere hee giues you greife and trouble soe hee hath prouided a place of rest and ioy for you in the other world Though indeede the very suffering for such a Lord is reward enough And soe that as there is nothing soe much to be desired in the other world as to enioy that kingdome with Christ our Lord soe neither is there any thing in this which may be compared to the excellency of suffering with him and for him Suffer therefore with a good will since you are to be crowned for the same For the afflictions which you endure come to you but as a fitt meanes whereby you may obtaine that crowne A Letter of the Authour to a Cauallero his freind He shewes how that person who feeles himselfe growne could in the way of vertue hath reason to apprehend it much and to greiue much for the present ill and for the daunger wherein he is of falling into greater mischeife and namely of a hardned hart which is the next doore to hell That vsually this decay of spirit growes either from ingratitude or negligence And lastly he speakes of the remedies HE who in some former tyme hath seene his soule a proficient in vertue and at the present findes it to be in decay hath much cause to be in paine and to procure remedy by all the meanes hee may For if a man be apt to feele the diminution which he may suffer in his temporall goods how much more ought wee to apprehend the decay of the goods of our soule which are goodes indeede Iob said with a deepe sigh Iob. 29 that he wished to be as he had beene in the tyme of his youth when our Lord protected him and when he made his candle shine ouer his head These and other things which he affirmed himselfe to haue possessed before and were wanting to him then at the present must rather be thought to haue beene certaine choice delightfull and deuout communications which formerly he had receiued from God and then were missing then that he was then in present want of his former vertues For since he gaue soe good account of himselfe in that tyme of tryall which is true tyme wherein indeede it may be seene what strength one hath he is found to haue had noe cause to coÌ„plaine as if our Lord did not then protect him or carry his light ouer him and therefore he saith vpon the former ground who will graunt that I may be as I was before c. Now if he complaine of this what will that man haue reason to doe who findes himselfe wasting in pointe of vertue it selfe and who perceiues that his soule goes estraunging it selfe by little and little not onely from those communications which he had enioyed and wherewith he comforted himselfe in former tyme but euen from the very custody of God's lawe and from conformity with his holy will And although this mischeife be great euen for the present yet is it greater by much for the future losse which may be feared For a little fall in relation to a great one lyes as close as the eeue doth to the holy day Apoc. 3. and as neere he is to be vomitted out who leades a life of tepidity God for his pretious passion keepe euery mortall man from this misery which is so great as to make Saint Peter say 2. Peter 2. that such men as they had beene better neuer to haue knowne our Lord then after they had knowne him and walked in his way to haue forsaken him and to haue betaken themselues to wicked courses And that was not without great mistery which our lord said to the man who had beene sick eight and thirty yeares Now thou art whole but take heede thou sinne noe more least a worse thing happen to thee These words are to be weighed feared withall for they containe a rigorous threat and are deliuered by the mouth of Truth it selfe and are wont many tymes to be executed vpon such as feare him not nor take a course to preuent their falling into them There happens a wors thing to them because the sinnes into which they fall afterward are more highly qualifyed and more deepely rooted then the sinnes committed in former tymes As there is a difference betweene a man when he falls with his eyes open and when with his eyes shutt or betweene a man whoe hath witt and yet doth the workes of a foole and another who either hath no witt at all or very little or betweene a man who ought his life to another in the way of gratitude and seruice for great fauours receiued and another who had receiued noe such fauours One thing it is to meete the king in the streete seeing and knowing who he is not onely to doe him noe reuerence but to proceede irreuerently towards him and another thing it is not to know him at all or not very well or at least not to consider who it was that passed A great fauour it is which God doth to them to whome he giues both the knowledge of their sinnes and of his diuine loue but yet withall he obliges them to much thereby sinâ—e according to the guift he saith tâ—aâ—â—he account must be made Luke 12. And if it be ill done not to pay good with good what will it be to render euill for good receiued and to answeare with offences insteede of seruices There happens a wors thing to them since they are wont to sinne more and with more faulty circumstances then before and they come by little and little towards a hardnes of hart and to dry themselues vp in such sort that they are not in disposition to doe the good which they did before I meane not when they were soe prosperous and happy in our Lord but euen before that when yet he had not called them to his seruice Then doe they sigh though it be with a hard vntoward hart to obtaine a little spirituall good againe and they finde it not But that which they finde is That heauen is to them made of brasse and the earth of iron for there is not a dropp of water to be found which may soften their soules or yeild them any fruite whereby they may be susteyned And they whoe in former tymes were visited watered with many good inspirations to which they vouchsafed not to answeare doe now desire some one and cannot compasse it Thus are negligent fastidious rich men punished by being killed with hungar as the rich couetous man was afflicted with thirst Luc. 16 And it is not many myles from this hardnes of hart to hell it selfe since the Scripture saith It shall goe ill with the hard harted at the latter day And the being cured of this euill costs deere and it is a thing which is of great priuiledge and grace when it is graunted by our lord as S. Bernard saith Noe man of a hard hart
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
frailties with great diligence for amongst those pouerties and miseries is this pretious Iewell wont to bee founde And through our sinnes we haue soe much matter to worke vpon by way of examining and bewayling the same that vnlesse it be some man who will absent his eyes from looking vpon himselfe there is none who may not be sure to finde cause and cause enough not onely to be humbled but euen confounded Woe be to vs if we be found to be of them of whome God saith Thou art become as the face of a strumpet nor wouldst thou blush For what thing is there more deformed then the impudent boldnes of such a person as hath so much reason to be full of shame And who is he that dares once cast vp his eyes to God or his creatures if he consider well how he hath offended him made himselfe vnworthy of them who is there amongst vs who failes not in the perfect loue which he owes to God since wee loue him not with our whole vnderstanding beleiuing his truth with that firme constancy which is fitt and enterteyning those considerations those thoughts and purposes by meanes whereof we might doe him more faithfull seruice who is he who loues him with his whole hart not giuing any parte thereof to others yea or to himselfe but onely in God and for God and who renouncing all proper interest hath proceeded to loue God for God himselfe And he who shall consider how little he hath mortified his passions and what a stiffe warre he makes against the kingdome of the loue of God will easily discerne that he loues not God with all his soule And our Lord commaunding vs alsoe to loue him with all our strength we are yet content to doe it with such a deale of tepidity as wee may well desire him to pardon For the strength which wee employ vpon complying with the loue of our selues and appetites being soe aliue in vs makes vs mightily faile in the diligence which we owe to the seruice of God and to the feruour of our loue of him S. Augustine saith that the encrease of Charitie in vs is the decrease of our owne appetites and desires and then will our charity be perfect when there shall be noe such desires in vs at all Now by the name of such desires he vnderstands that inordinate selfe loue which euery one beares to himselfe And because amongst all them who descēd of Adam there is noe one excepting onely Iesus Christ our Lord and his most sacred Mother who hath not found in himselfe some excesse of this selfe loue therefore is there none of them who hath not fay led somewhat of perfection in the loue of God For when the loue of my selfe is wholly aliue in mee the loue of God is dead and then is a man in state of Mortall sinne And when the loue of God liuēs and raignes in mee in vertue of which loue I fully purpose not to offend God mortally then am I in state of grace though I may faile somewhat of that perfect loue of God because still I comply in somewhat with the loue either of my selfe or of creatures And from this want of diuine loue doth grow our faultines in our other workes because that is the life of them From hence alsoe proceede the faultes we make in the loue of our neighbours by our not hauing compassion of their miseryes nor taking ioy in their blessings as concerning persons who are very straightly ioyned to God and adopted in the Sacrament of Baptisme for his children And we alsoe faile in our workes towards them because we faile in our loue to him who said That which you haue done to any of my little ones you haue done to mee Now from the defect of these two Loues of God and of our neighbour which are the rootes of our good workes many other imperfections grow into those very workes which we doe though sometymes such workes themselues are not sinnes nay being performed in the state of grace they are meritorious of eternall life But of such as these if we meane to liue in the way of humility and truth wee are to giue the glory to God and to yeild him humble thankes who holpe vs to embrace that which was good with our free will and ordeyned that it should be meritorious by that Grace which through his mercy he bestowed vpō vs. Now wee must not vpon this reason forbeare to sifte out those faultes with care which we comitt to these actions of ours but it is a much more secure practise to consider very particularly that which is faulty in vs then that which may goe for a point of vertue And be well assured that how much soeuer you shall consider and sifte yet still there will much lye hidden from you in regard whereof you shall haue reason enough to say with deepe sighing to our Lord O clense me from my hidden sinnes Hence comes it that wee loue not our neighbours in such sorte as God would haue vs or at least not so much as hee would haue vs. Hence comes it that wee tollerate not their imperfections nor fly from giuing them disgusts And in fine from hence grow all those other faultes which defile our soules like filth which is euer dropping as from a sore Our sinnes are greater then any thought of man is able to vnderstand and onely he who created our hart and cleerely penetrates to the bottome of it is able to comprehend what our frailty is And many tymes doth that discouer it selfe to be filthy before his iudgment which seemes in the sight of ours to be very perfect Therefore as Iob hath showed vs the way we must feare all our workes how good soeuer they may seeme to vs and we must not take pleasure in our selues by reason of them nor delight our selues therein euen in the most secret part of our hartes For he onely is pleasing to God who is displeasing to himselfe he onely is Iust in the sight of God whoe knowes that grace and Iustice proceedes from the mercy of God There is not a thing from which God is more auerted then a hart which carryes liking to it selfe For God in such a one findes noe vessell empty into which he may powre the riches of his mercy and soe such a hart remaines with the naturall pouerty wherewith and wherein it shall still cōtinue because it would not abase and empty it selfe that soe the waters of Grace might runne into it and soe it might liue contented in God and might bring forth fruite as a garden would doe wherein there were abundance of water All our good comes from God he whoe beleiues that of himself he is able euen to moue his tongue towards the saying soe much as Lord Iesus that person makes himselfe God since he attributes that to himselfe which onely belongs to God And God giues himselfe to vs vpon condition that we must acknowledge this truth That
had no taste of spirituall benedictions which last for euer And let him triumph like a sott in the prosperities of this world who hath not felt in his hart how delightfull a thing it is to shed teares for hauing offended God and how happy a man is in relying vpon Christ our Lord and in liuing to him And since our Lord hath called vs to his mercy and hath giuen vs the knowledge of his Sonne Christ Iesus let vs not liue according to the flesh nor allowe of any counsell against this counsell That in a thing so manifest as it is that we ought to seeke and esteeme the contentment of Christ our Lord despising the world and all that is therein there is no neede of taking any man's opinion and we must not be moued by any vanities of the world how many Iohn 2. and how vsuall and how well receaued soeuer they may be The world passes with the delight thereof as S. Iohn saith but he who will doe the will of our Lord shall remaine for euer Who relyes vpon that which is vnstable shall fall downe togeather with it and he who will adore an Idoll shall growe like that very Idoll but he who loues Christ our Lord and that man loues him who hates the world he indeede is wise and worthy and shall be exalted to sitt in that kingdome with the same Iesus Christ our Lord as he sittes at the right hand of his Father It is much more worth to be the least there then to be the greatest heere If therefore it delight vs to raigne let vs desire to doe so in that eternall kingdome I beseech Christ our Lord to bestowe it on you Amen A Letter of the Author to a deuoted religious Friend of his who animates him to seeke God by obedience humility and he teacheth that recollection of minde must not be tyed to any certaine place I Haue receiued your letter and that which I am to answeare is this You must know that there is not any one in this life who can think to liue without troubles that to complaine of them is to complaine of being a man since we were borne to beare them And if it seeme to you that when you were shutt vp you carried your soule more recollected you are to cōsider on the other side that Obediēce in doeing those things which displease ones self and the humility of performing meane offices is noe small fruite to the soule And beleiue you this truth that the man who is carefull to recollect himself and who puttes his confidēce in God doth many tymes finde himself more recollected in streetes and publique places then if he were in his Cell And they who tye their deuotion to any particular kind of place doe instātly loose it when they leaue the place yea and many times in that very place it failes them And this growes in regard they are resolued to haue it there and striue not to finde it in all places and in all those workes to which they attend by theyr Obedience vpon this Obedience you must greatly procure to ground your self without choosing this or that Since Obedience is a thing soe acceptable to God that it exceedes all that which a man may doe vnder the conduct of his owne will how good soeuer it may seeme Father Lewis of Granada will passe shortly by you and I would haue you doe that with great confidence which he shall aduise you The Holy Ghost be euer with you I am such an enemy of these changings of place I hould the very desires thereof soe fitt to be suspected as that I am made slow in giuing answeare to what you write concerning them till by your prayers we may get more light to guide vs. For otherwise we shall goe as bad as blindefould and perhaps you may fall vpon worse encounters then they are which you would auoyd I beseech you sollicite the matter with our Lord when I shall haue satisfied mine owne hart I will impart it vnto you In the meane tyme I recommend to you much that you keepe your soule in peace For it happens to some that they both loose they re tyme and the good opportunity which God giues them by thinking much vpon that other which they desire to obtaine soe they growe to loose both the one and the other Make you accōpt that there is but one day of life left for you and that that day is the morning when you awake And spend you that as if it were your last with all the care that possibly you cā And when the desire of doeing any other thing occurres make this answeare Doe not thinke of to morrow and exercise your self in breaking your will For when a man flyes from the opportunity which he hath to breake it it is like flying out of the feilde And because such a one flyes like a coward and carryes his weakenes in his company therefore when the occasion presents it self afterward he findes that he is as farre from strength as before the reason heereof is because he changed his place but not his minde giue you a good accompt of that house and of the opportunity which there you haue and soe you shall gett a tongue wherewith you may aske a better at the hands of our Lord For otherwise they may say vnto you that he who conducts ill that which he hath already in his care to what end should one trust a greater matter in his hands A Letter of the Author to a deuout Lady animating her to fight against the Deuill and to resist his temptations I Beseech our Lord that you may find your self as I desire for it was not said in vayne that loue is full of a carefull kind of feare But in fine I haue confidence that our Lord as he saith to vs by the Prophet Ieremy will regard that loue wherwith he espoused himself in those beginnings of his and will remember how the people followed him without any high way in the Desart which was full of affliction to them and carryed a kind of resemblance of death God is very thankefull to such as serue him with loue and in the tyme of our weakenesses and when our strength is euen vpon the point to faile then doth he looke backe vpon the time when formerly wee had beene in vigour and to that amorous intention which wee had in former time releiuing our misery with the aboundance of his mercy Continue therefore with a harte full of courage and as S. Paule saith doe not loose your confidence Heb. 10 for there belongs a great reward to it And this is that which the Deuill would faine either take away from vs or weaken in vs so to pull vs downe who pull him downe and much more you being a woeman by whose hand he would esteeme it Iudges 9. more dishonour to be ouercome As Abimelech sayd to his second doe thou kill mee that soe it may not
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
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
and loue wherewith this fauour is done vs it will enamour vs and oblige vs more to him then the fauour it self which he affordes what a thing is it that God doth soe much loue man as through the much loue he beares him and notwithstanding the great offences which man committes against him he yet doth not take this loue from him nor doth it euer make him say I will loue such a one noe more though he come to mee agayne I will not seeke him out nor will I send to entreate him that he may retourne to my house He saith noe such thing as this But that perseuering loue doth still burne with a liuely flame and this soe very clearely that as these great waters of his torments could not soe quench them as to make him forbeare to dye for vs soe neither can the much greater waters of our sinnes extinguish this enflamed charity of God towards vs. But it remaynes euer conquerour both in his paynes and in our offences sussering there and forgiuing heere Hee who shall wonder at this will haue reason For it would be a wonderfull thing if this kind of loue were shewed euen from an inferiour to a superiour or at the most from but an equall to an equall Butt now this loue from God to man is more then wonderfull And yet on the other side he who shall not beleiue it in respect that it is so straunge a thing putts a great affront vpon Almighty God since he beleiues it not because it is soe wonderfull a worke Whereas on the other side it is as cleare way whereby to knowe the workes of God if they be soe great as to make such wonder as know them For if he be wonderfull his workes are also to be soe And if the reste of his workes be wonderfull these of his loue are wonderfull in the highest degree forasmuch as they spring out of his goodnes in the manifestation whereof he takes more delight and glory and vses it more then in the manifestation of the other attributes As the Prophet Dauid saith Psal 144. Miserationes eius super omnia opera eius His mercyes are ouer all his workes How ill therefore are they aduised who refuse to beleiue that which God doth because it is much and who refuse to expecte and hope because that which he promises is much comparing and parallelling the great acts of God by the soe short measure of they re owne poore vnderstanding The woeman of Samaria cannot arriue to knowe how Christ our lord can come by any water and much lesse Iohn 4. how he can bestow any such water as that whosoeuer dranke thereof should thirst noe more But our lord saith that the woâ—man knowes not the guift of God nor who it is that aduises her to faith and penance and who is ready to infuse the holy Ghost into her hart And soe there are still men soe cowardly and weake in faith that they cannot beleiue any thing of God but onely in conformity with they re owne poorenes Placeing they re eyes vpon they re little strength and they re little desert and so like beasts of earth they creepe vpon the earth and rise noe higher But he that lookes vpon God who giues vs his sonne who is his loue and who sweetnes God to wards vs and in whome he is soe highly content and in whome his diuine eyes take delight how can he doubt of that hart but that it will bee fauourable to vs when wee call vpon it with pennance and pitifull in all those necessities which may occurre to vs. He therefore who knowes this and desires it as he ought may well hope that he shall haue it And with hauing that he hath all good and will haue nothing to feare as that slaue must doe who wantes loue Make therefore haste to loue this Lord who loues you soe much and hath conserued you so well And if euer you had a desire to reforme your self and to follow our Lord yet closer besure that you renew it and encrease it now For our Lord commaunded twice that his people should bee circumcised Gen. 17. Once when he enioyned Abraham to doe it and the second time â—osue 5 when he brought Iosue into the land of promise The first signifies the first coming of a man from a worldly and wicked life to follow the way of the will of God which is the streight way especially in the eyes of the world The second is when God will carry a soule to his kingdome and then he commaunds it to behould it self with new feruour and to amend it self and to cutt of all superfluity to the end that with purity and ioy it may expecte that crowne of a kingdome which the goodnes of God hath prepared for his seruants Your Lordship must vse to confesse and communicate often for it is a thing which giues most strength and comfort to heare the sentence of our absolution and to receiue our Lord Iesus Christ into our bosomes You must pray and read and giue almes and doe whatsoeuer other good worke our Lord shall inspire you to And let mee knowe how the world goes with you And if your Lordship recouer your health wee will yet remaine with hauing put our soule well in order and with hauing gotten strength against feare The Holy Ghost that great comforter which through Iesus Christ our Lord was giuen to such as are well disposed to receiue it dwell euer in your Lordship and teach you how you may best please him and guide you by the right way Amen A Letter of the Authour to a lady who was sick He comforts her in her afflictions and animates her to beare them for the loue of Christ our lord who was soe afflicted for her MAdam I haue vnderstood that you are sick and I am not sory for it For if it come to you through any excesse of pennance the punishment is well employed and if you be sick vpon noe other reason but onely because our lord seÌ„des it to you let vs bid it welcome in a good houre as being a part of his Crosse And though in some respect your paine puttes me to paine as our lord knowes yet on the other side I am glad of it because I cleary discerne the profits which will be made vpon this occasion by one whome I soe much desire to see improued They are not comforts which I wish to my children but they are corrections the time of comfort comes afterward For the present take not your eyes from of the Crosse nor your heart from him who placed you on it Giue not ouer till you finde that sufferance is of a sweet taste for that is the true touch of loue Take noe compassion vpon your selfe for there are both in heauen and earth who haue compassion on you from their very hearts and that which is laid on you was very well considered of before and it passed through the handes of one who
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
bones which here they gaue you to be gnawed vpon by your soule you shall there be employed in feeding vpon that most sauorie bread of life which is God himself and thereof there will neuer be an ende And therefore hope for this and comfort yourself with this for the businesse whereof wee are now in question is not fitt for them who are either of a delicate life or a weake faith You will see yourself many times in such a kinde of state by these afflictions as that if you consider them with the sense of flesh and bloud you will thinke them to be the very markes of hell and euen a beginning thereof but yet you must suffer it with patience though it be without comfort yea and though you do not so much as feele your owne confidence that so you may knowe what it is to suffer in good carnest For as long as a man's confidence is very strong there is nothing which can afflicte him very much but when God hides his face and shewes the soule no fauour but disfauour and when it is persecuted by enemies and yet feeles not the helpe of her good friend then indeede is it pure suffering and hath a taste euen of the very torments of hell You will not then discerne any hope which you may haue to escape but you must content yourself with this that you despaire not and let that discomfort be accepted by you in penance for your sinnes wherein once you tooke delight and let it at length serue to make you clearely see how litle that is which you are able to doe of yourself It is but reason that he who sinnes by louing and liking himself should pay for it by being inwardly and profoundly disgusted with himself and that he who had confidence in himself may see to his cost that he is good for nothing Through this fire must you passe if you desire to enioy the rest of heauen In this warre must you ouercome if you will deserue the Crowne of that kingdome Consider how the holy Scripture saith Blessed is the man Iacob 1. who suffers temptation for when he shall haue beene tryed he is to receiue the Crowne of life which God promised to them who loue him If the Crowne contente you let not the tryall displease you and there can be no triall without temptation and no temptation of troubles can be coming towards you which passes not from the hand of God who is your father and who measures out so much thereof as may be fitt and neither to fall short in respect of your profitt nor to ouerflowe in respect of your weakenesse Feare not to drinke with patience of that which God dranke with loue And God himselfe saith to vs My sonne doe not cast thyself into anguish Prou. 3. when thou art corrected by Almightie God For hee corrects him whome he loues as the father doth the sonne in whome hee delights And elsewhere he saith Heb. 12 Eccl. 38 Doe not despise thyselfe in thy weakenesse but pray to God and hee will cure thee And now since we are commaunded on the parte of God that whatsoeuer happen we must not be dismayed let vs make our recourse to him vpon the confidence which we haue in his word and let vs beg his fauour which hee cannot fayle to afforde O sister and if we could but see how deare and precious we are in the eyes of God! Oh that we could but see how deepely he holdes vs lodged in his hart and how neare we are to him when we may perhaps conceiue our selues to be cast furthest of Blessed be our lord Iesus Christ for hee it is whome with a full mouth we proclaime to be our hope Nothing can so fright me as hee can secure me Let me be changed from deuout to slacke and tepide from goeing towards the comforts of heauen to goe towards the darkenesse of the blacke pitt of hell Let mee be enuironed by my sinnes which are past and by feares which may bee to come let the deuills accuse me and lay snares for me let men persecute and fright me let them threaten me with hell and lay ten thousand dangers before me and yet after all this by sighing and sobbing for my sinnes and by casting mine eyes vp to Christ our lord desiring helpe at his hands that lord who is so meeke so benigne so full of mercie and that most firme and faithfull louer of mine euen to death and I cannot be perswaded to disconfide especially when I consider that I was valued at so high a rate that God himself was giuen for me O Christ thou hauen of securitie for all them who being brused and battered by the tempestuous waues of their owne harts and flye to thee for succour O thou fountaine of liuing waters to those stags who are embossed and pincht by those spirituall dogs which are the deuills and their owne sinnes Thou art that profound internall rest the hope which neuer fayled Psal 103. the protection of orphans and the defence of widowes Thou art that firme house of stone which giuest receipt to those porcupines which are so full of roughnesse and sharpenesse through their sinnes if with groanes and desire of pardon they fly towards thee Thou defendest vs from the wrath of God to which we are subiect And although sometimes thou commaundest thy Disciples to enter into the sea without thee that so they may be weaned by litle and litle frō thy sweete conuersatiō though when thou art absent such tempests of the sea may rise Mani 6. as to putt the soule into hazard of being lost yet still thou forgettest them not Thou biddest them departe from thee and yet euen very then thou goest to pray for them They thinke thou hast layed them aside and that thou sleepest and then art thou vpon thy knees for them And when three partes of the night were already past and when it seemed to thy infinite wisedome that then thou hadst kept them long enough in paine through thy absence and that then they had continued in that tempest long enough thou descendest from the mountaines and as the true Lord of those vnconstant waues thou walkedst vpon them for all is firme vnder thy feete and thou drewest neare thy seruants when they thought thee farthest of from them and thou vtteredst these words of confidence to them Matth. 14. It is I be not afrayed O Christ our lord thou diligent and carefull pastour of thy sheepe and how much is that soule in errour who will not confide in thee and through thee from the most profound internall parte of the hart if withall he can be content to amende his life and to serue thee O that thou wouldst but let men know how much reason they haue who come to giue themselues to thy seruice not to be dismayed vnder the conduct of such a Captaine and that there is noe accident which ought to putt anie seruant of thine
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
putt vpon you but rather you shall become hard in being able to suffer that so though you should fall you may not breake yourself And you shall be also purged from that disgracefull colour which before you had and finally you shall be made fitt and capable to be a vessell of honour and to be serued vp to the table of Almightie God Procure not to come broken out of the furnace least they cast you heere and there as a thing of nothing Those potts are onely broken which loose their patience in the furnace of tribulation but I confide in our Lord that you will be able to come forth without any hurt Suffer now a litle for quickly the whole businesse will be at an ende Be not you dismayde how busie soeuer the deuill be Let him persecute you as much as he will but confide you in God It is a signe that the deuill hath no parte in you since he followes you so hard For if he had you in his hand he would not follow you It is a signe that you are departed out of his kingdome since he hath dispatched so many squadrons of armed men after you You are passing out of the darkenesse of Egypt Exod. 12 14. that you may goe to the land which our Lord hath promised you and now beholde how Pharao followes you with his whole armie You finde all wayes shutt vp against you The redd sea is before you and your enemies are behinde you and you finde not anie meanes whereby to escape But feare not haue good hope and you shall see the wonders which our Lord will worke Exod. 14. Our Lord will fight for you and you shall but holde your peace Our Lord will open a way for you through the midst of the sea The waues thereof shall serue you for a wall both on the right hand and on the left and you shall passe without so much as wetting your foote through the midst of your tribulations and temptations whereas your enemies shall be drowned therein Doe but conceiue what ioy that will be when all the people of God being passed through the dangerous sea of this world the most Blessed Virgin Marie who was figured in the person of that other Marie the sister of Moyses shall beginne to sing that Canticle of so great triumph Exod. 5. and when you in companie of other Virgins shall answear her And to the ende that you may be yet more comforted know from me that you haue no cause of any scruple for your case is rather that you suffer torment then that you coÌ„mitt sinne For so that you consent not freely to those temptations nor delight yourself in those thoughts which the deuill offers and desire not for your parte so much as to thinke thereof what cause of scruple can you haue And you shall beleiue me as a man who knowes your conscience well that how soeuer you may thinke that you haue giuen consent it is but feare which makes you thinke so as it happens to them who are sicke of feauers or be subiect to any strong passion Let this serue to excuse you for that which is past but not to discharge you from being diligent in the future And though some litle thing should haue stucke to you and though you had suffered some light hurt yet so long as you render not nor yeilde yourself to be ouercome the very wounds which haue beene receiued by anie man at armes in the seruice of a king haue beautie and glorie in his sight The benefitt and meritt which you draw out of the victory is greater then the preiudice which you suffer in the conflict and therefore let nothing trouble you Be not deceiued in beleiuing that those imaginations or temptations are any things of yours or wrought by you Workes they are of Lucifer and â—ordes they are of his speaking and images of his representing Beholde you all that businesse as a thing belonging to others and wherewith you haue nothing to doe And carrie yourself iust so as you would doe when you should heare a man blaspheme or speake anie other fowle deformed wordes for which though you would be much in paine in regarde of the offence which thereby is done to Almightie God yet in fine it would be a kinde of comfort in some respect to you when you saw that it was not you who offended him Lett it grieue you that the deuill doth both say and doe so like himself and let it comfort you to consider that it is not you but he and that he will smart for it S. Paul saith that he gloried in his afflictions tribulations because the vertue and strength of Christ our Lord shined more therein My good Sister if indeede you loue Christ our Lord you will reioyce for that glorie which he gathers from your infirmity Doth it not seeme to you that God shewes his strength in you since by the weakenesse of a poore miserable woman who is indeede but a very childe and a sick creature and a kinde of nothing he ouercomes the strength and courage of those infernall powers Will not you be then content to be assaulted vpon condition that Christ our Lord may be glorified Yes certainly I know you will and that most willingly Nor can I beleiue lesse of that charitie which you pretende to haue nor of that desire which you carrie that our Lord may be pleased to serue himself of you whether it be in prosperitie or aduersity in sweete or bitter by way either of loue or greife either in peace or warre Our Lord is pleased now that you serue him in warre and vnder the incommodities of heate and colde with your weapons by your side both day and night being content with broken sleepes and being subiect to surprises as if you stand vpon the toppe of a pike yea and though it will afflict you most you must contente yourself to be farre absent from your king But after this season there will come another and our Lord will commaunde that you shall serue him in his banketting-house where you shall enioy as much as you can desire In the meane time you shall ioye in this that you are doeing him seruice And I beseech him to strengthen your soule that so it may be able to fight the battailles of our Lord and to make you a conquerour therein that so you may deserue that Crowne of glorie which he hath promised to such as ouercome Amen FINIS